And you may be seated, and I'm so thankful for that blood applied. Amen.
Amen. Children, we are ready for Children's Church at this time.
You may make your way back there to Miss Savannah.
And one of the things, before you go, Miss Savannah, I want to say this.
This is a really, a pretty remarkable achievement here.
Today, in Children's Church, the children are completing, going through the entire Bible.
They started in Genesis. Amen. Yes.
They started in Genesis and have made their way to Revelation.
And so they are ready to go up and challenge some of our adult Sunday school classes to Bible drill.
And we're going to try to make that happen.
And so I'm really excited for their heart.
They have been doing this for several, for probably a couple years now, going through the Bible.
They start in Genesis and have just worked their way through.
And what a tremendous blessing it is.
It's always encouraging to me to talk with my girls about some of the different characters in the Old Testament.
And I'm amazed at how they know so many of the different characters.
I say, where did you learn this?
And so we learned it in Children's Church.
We learned it from Miss Savannah.
We learned it going through the Bible.
And I am incredibly grateful for that.
And so be sure to encourage them and just thank them for their commitment to God's Word
and just the importance that it plays even in our children's ministry.
I think it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
All right.
This week, we're going to be in James chapter 4.
And James chapter 4 starts off like this.
What causes quarrels and what causes conflicts among you?
And it's one of those really questions that really touches into us because quarrels and fights is something that we all deal with.
This question is as relevant today as it was when it was written almost 2,000 years ago.
And so what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
You see, conflict, unfortunately, is a part of our everyday life and the church is not immune from it.
About 10 years ago, Tom Rainer, he did a survey on Twitter and he asked the question and he just posed the question,
what are some of the things that churches quarrel over?
What are some of the things that churches fight over?
And you can imagine that this went pretty viral pretty quickly because so many people had responses to what quarrels were,
what conflicts were.
And he ended up compiling a list of his favorite 25.
I don't know if it's his favorite 25 or his least favorite because of churches quarreling.
But he composed a list of 25 different things that churches were fighting over.
And as I was reading that this week, I found it very interesting.
And so I just wanted to share a few of my favorite ones with you this morning from that list.
He said there was an argument over the appropriate length of the worship pastor's beard.
I don't know if Clay's is the appropriate length or not, but I imagine if they had an issue with that,
they probably had an issue with the senior pastor having a beard as well.
But in another one, it said a deacon was accusing another deacon of sending an anonymous letter
and decided to settle the matter in the parking lot.
I think that would get interesting pretty quickly.
We could probably sell tickets and pay for face too.
But so this, and it said a church dispute over whether or not to install restroom stall dividers in the women's restroom.
Now, maybe I need a little context on this, but that seems like an easy yes to me.
Yes, install the dividers in the women's restroom.
Absolutely.
There's another dispute on whether the worship leader should have shoes on during the service.
Clay, it seems like a lot of these center around the worship leader.
So it seems like you, that, or not you, but that position may be the problem.
Listen to this, a disagreement over using the term pot luck instead of pot blessing.
Good luck with that one.
Yeah, exactly.
A dispute over whether the church should allow people to wear black t-shirts since black is the color of the devil.
I don't know if they had an issue with black suits or not, but definitely with black t-shirts.
And so we have all of these things and we laugh at these and we should to an extent, right?
Because they're silly, they're petty,
but they're also do a really good job of distracting us from what the church should actually be about.
You know, we laugh at some of these things and we really should in many ways because we're so grateful
that we may not be having to deal with these exact same issues that some people are dealing with.
But each of us, we find ourselves, each church can find itself focusing on things that are petty,
that get in the way of what God has called us to do.
In fact, this is what Tom Rainer, his focus, that's what the reason he was publishing this was.
He says, in that sense, they are really great distractions from the Great Commission.
These things really get in the way of us fulfilling what God has called us to do.
And much of our passage today deals with conflicts, the calls of them, what we do with them,
and the grace that God gives us in the midst of these conflicts.
And so if you have a copy of God's Word, I want you to follow along as we read the first six verses of James chapter 4.
James 4, verses 1 through 6, and this is what the Word of the Lord says.
It says this,
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
You desire and do not have, so you murder.
You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
You do not have because you do not ask.
And you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.
You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says he yearns jealously
over the Spirit that he has made to dwell in us?
But he gives more grace.
Therefore, it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
And so as we look at this passage this morning,
there are many truths that we see when it comes to conflicts
and how we should be dealing with them, what we should be doing with them.
But the first truth that I want us to see that is really the root of this is the cause of conflict.
So the first thing that I want us to look at this morning is this cause of conflict.
He says, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
You desire and do not have, so you murder.
You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
I love how James, he poses really good questions.
There's been several times throughout this book as we read through it
that James will pose a question, but then he goes right into giving us the answer to the question.
I think James and I, if we were leading Bible studies that were trying to be discussion-based,
we would struggle with some of the same things.
Because many times in those things, I like to pose a question,
and I'll wait two seconds, and I'll immediately go into the answer.
Or Catherine all the time gets on to me, she's like, look, give them a chance to answer.
I'm like, I know, but I'm just excited, I want to get this going and moving forward.
But this is what James is doing here.
He's posing this question, and then he immediately goes into the answer.
And so the question that he's asking is, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
And I want you to think about this question.
Think about the last time you had a quarrel or you had a fight.
And maybe if you're newlywed, you may call this a heated discussion,
because I know you don't quarrel or you don't fight if you're newly married.
But think about this, the last time that you had this discussion,
the last time you had this fight, the last time you had this disagreement,
what was going on?
Because in many ways, this is what James is asking us to do.
He says, I want you to think about this question.
Think back on your last argument.
And for some of you blessed, godly, holy saints, this may be difficult for you to remember,
thinking back because it's been a while back.
But for the rest of us, we probably don't have to think very hard, do we?
We probably don't have to think back very far when the last time we had a fight or a quarrel
in our life that we needed to answer this question.
And so I want you to think back on this.
What happened?
Why did it take place?
What led to the disagreement?
For most of us, if we were to be asked this question,
we would immediately go and say that the other person is the problem, right?
If they weren't so unreasonable, if this person wasn't so demanding or just plain annoying,
we wouldn't have a problem.
If they were just more thoughtful and considerate of me, I wouldn't have an issue.
I don't have an issue.
It's just that they have an issue with me, and so I have an issue with them.
And so all of a sudden, we start placing the blame,
and we start answering the question, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you like this?
They do.
They're the reason.
Other people are the problem.
But thankfully, James answers the question for us in this.
He says, is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
That your passions are at war within you?
And so as we answer this question through Scripture, we see that according to Scripture,
we are the problem.
Now, this may be hard to hear, but I want you to think back with me for just a moment.
What is the common denominator in every single argument that you have ever been in in your life?
I want you to think about that because I can tell you what the common denominator is.
The common denominator in every single argument that you have ever been in from the time you were born
until this moment right now, the common denominator in every single argument is you.
You are.
And it's the same for me.
The common denominator for every single argument that I've ever been in is you.
No, I'm joking.
I'm joking.
It's me.
Right?
We are the common denominator.
The issue is us within us.
This is something that is going on within us.
The issue is not everyone else, but it's us.
The problem is not out there.
It's in here, in us, in our heart.
Sam Alber, he notes it this way.
He says, conflict comes because our own selfish desires are not being met.
James uses strong language.
We might think he is being over the top.
After all, we don't literally kill anyone.
But James' older brother, which was Jesus, once pointed it out in the Sermon on the Mount
that we do not need to kill in order to commit a form of murder.
Ultimately, we see our lives, conflict in our lives as a result of sin.
As a result of our sin, when we stop taking our eyes off of Jesus and we start putting them on ourselves.
When we stop having the right perspective in our life that this world revolves around God
and is centered and we are created to worship Him,
and we stop doing that and we start placing the focus on ourselves,
that's where the conflict comes in.
It's because of sin.
And I love how John Piper, he describes sin this way.
He says, what is sin?
He says, it is the glory of God, not honored.
It is the holiness of God, not reverenced.
It is the greatness of God, not admired.
It is the power of God, not praised.
The truth of God, not salt.
The wisdom of God, not esteemed.
The beauty of God, not treasured.
The goodness of God, not savored.
The faithfulness of God, not trusted.
The commandments of God, not obeyed.
The justice of God, not respected.
The wrath of God, not feared.
The grace of God, not cherished.
The presence of God, not prized.
The person of God, not loved.
That is sin.
And I would add to this, the gospel of God, not believed.
That's what this sin is.
And what you see in every single one of these scenarios, in every single one of these cases,
is there's a focus that is taken off of God and put on ourselves.
Sin, among many things, takes our eyes off of God and puts the focus on ourselves.
Last week, we talked about the difference between worldly wisdom and godly wisdom.
And worldly wisdom, we saw, is marked with bitter jealousy and selfish ambition.
We saw that James is saying that worldly wisdom is centered around the fact that we are bitterly jealous
and that we have this selfish ambition that we're constantly thinking about ourselves.
And this week, as James is building off of that, we see the fruit of worldly wisdom.
We see the fruit of this bitter jealousy and this selfish ambition.
And the fruit of that is fighting and quarreling among ourselves.
When we start focusing on the things of the world, what happens is it starts to wreck our lives.
It starts to place conflict and fighting into our lives.
David Platt put it this way.
He says,
I can't help but think that the adversary has succeeded in getting these churches to fight with one another
to the extent that they lost sight of where the true battle was.
A world system that encouraged us to want more stuff, to prioritize our comforts,
and to ignore the poor while focusing on ourselves.
The adversary would like nothing more than to divide us so that we fight battles among ourselves
and have little energy for the real battle that is going on.
The adversary would love nothing more than for us to fight and quarrel amongst ourselves,
even over petty things like we talked about at the beginning.
Because when we do that, it takes our attention off of the things that truly matter.
The things that have eternal significance.
The things that have eternal value that God has called us to prioritize in our life.
It is interesting to me that this was written from the early, early church.
You see, we didn't emphasize this very much at the beginning of our study of James.
But James, most commentators believe that James was the first book of the New Testament to be written.
They think that it was one of the very earliest books of the New Testament to be written.
And they get this because of when James was martyred.
And they also get this from some of the events that take place in Acts that are not present in the book of James.
And so they realize that if some of these things that happen,
and since James is talking about faith and works,
many of those things would be present in this book in addition to his martyrdom and when he was killed.
And so most people believe that James was written between 44 and 49 AD.
That's 10 to 15 years after Pentecost.
That's 10 to 15 years after the church of Christ was born.
After when we began meeting as a church.
That is very early on in the life of the church.
Imagine that, a church where everyone is not getting along.
And so the next time you hear somebody say,
Oh, well, we just need to be like the New Testament church.
We just need to be like the early church.
And in many ways we do.
There are some things that they were focusing on,
the things that they were devoted on that we need to.
But the early church struggled in many ways.
In fact, we wouldn't have much of the New Testament if there wasn't struggle going on.
Many of the letters that Paul is writing to these churches,
he's addressing issues that they're having.
Then, early on, there's fighting, there's quarreling,
there's issues that are going on in the life of the church.
Then, like now, these problems were rooted in a deep desire to follow ourselves
and were caused by taking our eyes off of Jesus
and focusing on our own preferences.
You see, to understand conflict,
we need to understand the desires at work within us
that are causing us to be frustrated.
It might be the desire for sadness that leads us to be at odds with others.
It might be a desire to get even with someone who has hurt us.
So bitterness is nurtured and grows for months and years,
and it begins to consume us.
I've always heard it like this,
that holding a grudge is like drinking poison
and expecting the other person to die.
Holding a grudge, when you hold grudges,
when you have this going on in your life,
it's like drinking poison yourself
and expecting the other person to die.
What you end up doing is doing far more harm to yourself
than you ever do to anyone else.
And this is obviously true in our families,
but it's also true in our church family.
It can even be assumptions that we're making
about other people thinking that they're going to criticize us.
How many times have we played a scenario in our mind,
well, I bet they're saying this.
I bet they would respond this way.
I bet that it'll happen even if I try to do something about it.
But whatever they are, whatever these underlying things are,
what's going on is this bitter jealousy and selfish ambition
is a lack of perspective that keeps our eyes on God
and then puts them squarely on ourselves.
That's the heart of this.
And here's the thing.
Here's the easy application.
Here's the low-hanging fruit from this.
The easy application is from this time
is to change your perspective.
Learn to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and not yourself.
But here's the heart application.
Here's where it begins to be difficult.
And that's for us to take the first step in reconciliation.
To go to the person that you've been at odds with
for a very long time and say, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry that this has been going on.
I'm sorry that this conflict has been happening in our relationship.
I would like to move past this.
I'm tired of avoiding you.
I'm tired of assuming the worst.
And I would like to move past this.
And so many things get in the way of us doing this.
We think, well, how will it be responded?
How will it be received?
How will this person act?
Because they're probably just going to write me off
and think that I'm not even sincere.
And so what's the point in even doing this?
We can come up with so many excuses.
We can come up with so many reasons
and talk ourselves out of what God is calling us to do.
And some of those things may be accurate.
It may be accurate that they may not receive it
the way that you hope that they do.
It may be accurate that it's going to be difficult.
But that doesn't keep us from following God.
That doesn't keep us from following what he's called us to do
and doing our part in resolving these situations.
So after a difficult statement,
after showing us the root of the problem
when it comes to conflict in our lives,
James now shows us for something incredible.
And that's the need for prayer.
The need for prayer in our lives.
He says this,
You do not have because you do not ask.
And you ask and do not receive
because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.
You adulterous people,
do you not know that friendship with the world
is enmity with God?
Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world
makes himself an enemy of God.
Or do you suppose that it's to no purpose
that the scripture says,
He yearns jealously over the spirit
that He has made to dwell in us.
Prayer is one of the most overlooked
and abandoned gifts that we have as believers.
Tim Keller, a couple of years ago,
he passed away.
But just before he passed away,
he was giving an interview to someone.
And Tim Keller was probably
one of the most influential pastors in America
over the last 20 years.
His influence was very widespread.
And he was asked,
he was given an interview
just before he passed away.
And one of those questions that he was asked was,
they said this,
is there anything that you would have done
differently in your life?
If you could go back in your ministry,
is there anything that you would have done differently?
And he said,
he said,
absolutely.
He said,
I would have prayed more.
I would have prayed more
because prayer does so many things in our life.
In this section,
we see our need for prayer play out
in several different ways.
If you're taking notes,
they're not going to be on the screen,
but you may want to write some of these things down.
But the first thing that we see in this passage
is we need prayer
because it shows our dependence on God.
We need prayer
because it shows our dependence on God.
He says,
you do not have
because you do not ask.
When prayer is not part of our lives,
it kind of serves like a check engine light.
A check engine light on a car,
it tells you that something is going on in the car, right?
It shows you that,
hey, you may want to take this to a mechanic.
And when that thing starts flashing,
you better take it to a mechanic quickly, right?
And so prayer,
when there's not prayer in our lives,
it shows us very clearly
that there's something not right
in our relationship with God.
It shows us that there's something
that's not part of that relationship
that should be there.
Prayerlessness is a sign
that we are trying to do things on our own,
in our own strength,
for our own sake,
under our own authority.
Prayerlessness arises from a sense
of independence from God.
However, when we do pray,
one of the things that it does
is it speaks truth into our lives.
It is a constant reminder
that each and every one of us
are dependent on God
to work and to move in our lives.
A prayerless life is saying
that I've got this under control.
I can do this on my own.
A prayerless life is saying,
God, I don't need you
because I've got this on my own.
But none of us can do that.
We see over and over again
in Scripture our deep dependence on God,
not only for salvation,
but our dependence on God for everything.
In fact, just a few chapters before this,
in James chapter 1,
James reminds us that
every good and perfect gift
is from God.
And so we are dependent on God
not only for salvation,
but for everything in our lives.
We are dependent on Him.
So we are dependent on God
for every good and perfect gift
in our lives.
And prayer is a way
that reminds us
of our dependence on God.
But two, next,
we need prayer to refocus our passions.
We need prayer to refocus our passions.
He says,
you ask and do not receive
because you ask wrongly
to spend it on your passions.
You ask and do not receive
because you ask wrongly
to spend it on your own passions.
Prayer and reading God's Word
are our primary ways
of communicating with God.
God speaks to us primarily
through the reading of His words.
And then our primary way
of communicating with God
is prayer,
is talking to Him.
Yet so many times as we pray,
as we talk with God,
it's like we never even listen
to begin with.
It's like we never even listen
to what He said to us
as we were reading through His Word.
Think of it like this.
Imagine that I told you
that Catherine and I,
that our communication is stellar.
It's top-notch.
Nobody communicates better
in a relationship
than Catherine and I do.
And then imagine you got to witness
that communication happening one time.
Let's just say that she comes home
from school one day
and she had a horrible day.
It was just a terrible day.
She got a flat tire on the way to school.
She was late.
When she got there,
she realized that all of her co-workers
were talking about her
and talking about her behind her back.
And then she also realized
that another co-worker
failed to do something
then blamed it on her.
And then she had to do
five other things
that she wasn't planning
on doing that day.
And then on the way home,
she got rear-ended
and then that person decided to leave.
And before she left,
as she was going to the different schools
and meeting with students,
a student threw an apple at her
and hit her with an apple.
And all of these things
are going on in her life.
And then all of a sudden,
all of a sudden,
she says,
can you believe all of this happened?
And imagine my response is,
okay, well, what's for supper tonight?
How do you think that would go over?
Like a lead balloon is how that would go over.
It wouldn't go over well at all.
And so we can realize
the hypocrisy in that,
if I can say it,
the hypocrisy in that
because we realize that,
hey, you're not a good communicator
if you're not talking about
the same things
that she's talking to you about.
Now, imagine that we apply this
to our Christian life.
Imagine that just a few verses back,
we go to James chapter 2
and we're reading this
in our time with God.
What good is it, my brothers,
if someone says he has faith
but does not have works,
can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister
is poorly clothed
and lacking in daily food
and one of you says to them,
go in peace, be warmed and filled,
without giving them
the things needed for the body,
what good is that?
So also faith by itself,
if it does not have works,
is dead.
Imagine we read that.
And then we go to God in prayer
and we say,
Lord,
you know
that my truck
is getting kind of old now.
It's coming up on 12 months old
and it's almost got 10,000 miles on
and we both know
there's only 40,000 miles left
on this warranty here.
And so I'm going to go tomorrow
and let them check my credit
and I'm going to take it
as a sign from you.
If I get approved
to get a new truck,
then it's a sign from you
that I need to get a new truck.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Now, please don't misunderstand me.
I'm not saying God
doesn't want us to have
reliable transportation
and that there's times
when we can responsibly
get a new vehicle.
But I think you see
what I'm trying to communicate here.
How many times
do we talk to God
about different things?
You see, part of the purpose
of prayer
is to align our passions
with the desires of God.
But for many of James' readers,
prayer seems to have been
a means of trying
to make God
conform to their plans.
They weren't actually listening
to what God was saying to them.
They were listening,
putting it out,
and then talking to God
about something
completely different.
Using God in prayer
as a means of fulfilling
their own passions.
And it's no wonder
that their prayers
were going unanswered.
Part of the purpose of prayer
is to align our passions
with God's passions,
with His desires.
Their prayers were revealing
something about them
that James now addresses
for this final thing.
We need prayer
because of our hearts.
Because of our hearts.
He says,
You adulterous people,
do you not know
that friendship with the world
is enmity with God?
Therefore,
whoever wishes
to be a friend of the world
makes himself
an enemy of God.
James uses some
very strong language here.
And you can imagine
if I started my link article
this week
with you adulteresses,
right?
I would probably get
quite a few calls
and quite a few visits
from people saying,
Why are you calling us this?
Yet,
this is what James does.
When someone commits adultery,
what they're doing
is they're trying
to find fulfillment,
they're trying to find satisfaction,
they're trying to find
pleasure and desire
in someone
other than their spouse.
And what James
is very directly
telling the people
is this,
that they are looking
for purpose,
they're looking
for satisfaction,
and they're looking
for fulfillment
in places other than God.
He's telling them
in a very direct way
that you're cheating on God.
Can you imagine
going to a wedding
and during the vows,
the groom looks
at the bride and says,
I promise
to always put
my own interest
before yours.
To always and forever
put my needs
above your needs
as long as we both
shall live.
We all recognize
the disaster awaiting
for that marriage,
right?
We all realize
the disaster awaiting
going into a marriage
if that is the focus.
So why do we think
this type of relationship
will work with God?
Yet another clear reason
that we need prayer
in our lives.
To ask and plead with God
to continue to mold
and to make us
into His image.
This is not something
that we are called
to do our own.
In fact,
we couldn't do it
on our own.
We need God's grace
to do this in our life.
Jerry Bridges,
he rightly states
and puts it this way.
He says,
we're not to wage
this warfare
in the strength
of our own willpower.
Instead,
just as we look,
just as we by faith
look to Christ
for righteous standing
before God,
so by faith,
we are to look to Him
for the enabling power
to live the Christian life.
Up to this point,
James has done
a brilliant job
of showing us our need.
Up to this point,
James has done
a really great job
of showing us
that we need something
and now,
in this next section,
he shows us
this final part
that we're going
to look at today.
He shows us
what that need is
and that need
is the need for grace.
The need for grace.
Up to this point,
James has been pretty blunt
on some things
that are going on
that should not be going on.
They fight
and they quarrel
because their passions
are at war.
They claim to love God
while still loving
the things of this world
and James very bluntly
says their actions
are adulterous.
And then we get
to verse 6
and he says this,
but he gives
more grace.
But he gives
more grace.
Therefore,
it says God opposes
the proud
but gives grace
to the humble.
Just before this,
James told us
that we serve
a jealous God
who wants nothing less
than our total devotion.
Honestly,
it's a pretty helpless
place to be in
knowing what God requires
and knowing that
we can't meet
what God requires.
Knowing that God
has required
something of us
and knowing that
we can't meet
what it is
that he requires.
That's a pretty
helpless place to be.
But then,
but I want you to listen
how Douglas Moo
brings these two
verses together.
He says it like this.
He says,
if verse 5
depicts God's
jealousy for his people,
then James here
is reminding us
that God's grace
is completely
adequate to meet
the requirement
imposed on us
by that jealousy.
Our God
is a consuming fire
and his demand
for our exclusive
allegiance
may seem terrifying,
but our God
is also merciful,
gracious,
all loving,
and willingly
supplies all
that we need
to meet
his all-encompassing
demands.
Will we
and do we fail?
Absolutely.
All the time.
But he gives
more grace.
Even when we've
turned from him,
he gives more grace.
When we fail
to focus our
affections on the thing,
on God,
and place them
on the things
of this world,
he gives more grace.
When we,
as parents,
fail to show
our kids
that our true
and greatest treasure
is Jesus,
he gives more grace.
What we see here
is language
that recognizes
our need for God
to help us
in this process,
to continue
to mold us
and to make us
into who God
calls us to be.
Grace to the humble.
Submit yourself
to God.
Draw near to God.
Humble yourself
before the Lord.
God is not asking you
to live the Christian
life by yourself.
He wants you
to lean into him,
to rely on his strength
and not be dependent
on yours.
God,
more than anyone,
knows that we
have these passions
that are at war
within us.
God,
more than anyone,
knows that we
need his grace.
That's why he sent
Jesus.
Because there was
no other way.
And so if you're
here today,
maybe you need
to see his saving grace
in a clear
and powerful way.
You realize that
your sin has separated
you and maybe
you've been trying
to save yourself
by doing things
over and over again,
by trying to be
good enough.
And so maybe today
is the day that you
really realize
that I can't do this
and I need to stop
doing and rest
in what has been
done for me.
But for many of us
who have already
placed our faith
and our trust in him,
if you've already
done this,
then my hope
and my prayer
is that you can
humbly lay down
the passions
of this world.
That by God's grace
we'll continue
to lay down
the passions
of this world,
this worldly wisdom,
this selfish ambition,
this bitter jealousy
that consumes us
and that causes us
quarrels and causes
fights among us
and that we can
lay them down
at the cross
and faithfully
follow him
with everything
we have
and to see
how by doing this
so much of the fighting,
so much of the quarreling
in our lives
all of a sudden
pales in comparison
to the glory of God.
And that's my prayer
for us today.
That as we think
about what causes quarrels
and what causes fights
among us,
that it's taking our eyes
off of Jesus
and putting them
on ourselves.
And may we today
rightly put our eyes
back on him.
Father,
thank you so very much.
for the wisdom
that you teach us
through James,
through your brother here.
Lord,
it is a beautiful thing
to see
where wisdom lies,
where
true godly wisdom lies
and that's keeping
our eyes fixed on you.
And so Lord,
I pray that as we
live this life
where we constantly
have people
pulling at us
from different directions,
where people are
constantly saying
you need to put
you first,
Lord,
that you would
show us very clearly
that we don't need
ourselves first.
We need you first.
We need our eyes
clearly fixed on you.
And as we fix
our eyes on you,
it's amazing to see
how the fighting
and the quarreling,
they just seem
to fall away.
They seem to disappear
because we have
a right perspective
in our life.
We have a perspective
that says,
what you desire,
your passions,
are far greater
and far more important
than our own.
And so we freely
lay down our passions,
we freely lay down
our desires
at the foot of the cross
and we worship you
and say,
God,
here's my life.
Take it
and use it.
God,
thank you for that.
Thank you for the ways
that you bless us
each and every day,
the grace that you give
to us each and every day.
Lord,
we pray that mercy
is afresh every morning
in our lives
and it points us
to you.
We ask all this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I'm going to invite you
to stand.
We're going to sing
a song of invitation.
If God is speaking
to you this morning,
won't you respond
as we stand together
and sing?