How Fights Are Started & Stopped

1. James: Hands-On Christianity…. How Fights Are Started & Stopped James 4:1-10

2. INTRODUCTION Franklin Roosevelt.... “There is nothing I love as much as a good fight.” We are born with a “cannot loose kind of attitude.”

3. MAIN POINTS 1. Initial Facts

4. James 4:1a…. “What causes fights and quarrels among you?...” [TNIV] “Among you”… refers to Christians!

5. In Greek.... … “fights” (machesthe) is the general term for an entire war. …“quarrels” (polemeite) refers more to individual battles.

6. 2 Root Causes....

7. A. Inner Desires James 4:1b…. “…. Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?” [TNIV]

8. The Greek term for “desires” (hedonon) means “pleasure or passion.” It’s a neutral term that, depending on the context, can refer either to evil or good desires.

9. 3 Specific Effects of this unchecked, COMBATIVE DESIRE.

10. James 4:1a…. “You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.”[TNIV]

11. Effect #1…. Killing with our thoughts We allow ourselves to calculate ways to assassinate someone else’s character.

12. Effect #2…. Wounding with our words Fights and quarrels….

13. Effect #3…. Failure to pray We’re too busy fighting. We prefer to slog things out rather than surrender the situation to God.

14. James 4:3…. “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” [TNIV]

15. Commentator Curtis Vaughan.... “Their requests were legitimate, but the reason for making them was illegitimate. They want only to satisfy their own cravings, pamper their own passions. ….

16. …. God’s glory, God’s service, consideration for other people – none of these things entered into their thinking. Such prayers are an insult to God.” 

17. B. "Kosmos" Motivation James 4:4…. “You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God?” [TNIV]

18. In the NT, the Greek term for “world”(kosmos), is ordinarily used to mean “the world apart from God.” It signifies a self-centered, Satan-controlled philosophy that is hostile toward God.

19. "Kosmos Motivation" means handling conflicts by fighting, pushing, and demanding until you get exactly what you want, when you want it.

20. What does "kosmos motivation" results in? It creates hostility toward God – living according to the world’s standard … an act of rebellion.

21. It brings enmity against God.

22. Commentator Donald W. Burdick.... “To have a warm, familiar attitude toward this evil world is to be on good terms with God’s enemy. It is to adopt the world’s set of values and want what the world wants instead ….

23. …. of choosing according to divine standards. The person who deliberately “choose …. to be a friend of the world” by that choice “becomes an enemy of God.”

24. 2. Synopsis Of The Solution

25. A. The Power James 4:5…. “Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?” [TNIV]

26. The solution is the power of the Holy Spirit.

27. quoted…. J.B. Mayor “God claims us entirely for Himself. No alien relationship, such as friendship with the world, will be tolerated by Him. He wants the undivided devotion of every human heart.”

28. B. The Principle James 4:6…. “But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble and oppressed?’” [TNIV]

29. Greater grace is the principle.

30. It means .... When you find the going gets tough, God’s grace is available for you as you turn to Him!

31. 2 Corinthians 12:9…. “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.” [TNIV]

32. 3. Practical Advice

33. James 4:7-8…. “7Submityourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” [TNIV]

34. A. Submit To God We are to cease fighting and SURRENDER our wills to His control.

35. B. Resist The Devil We are to RESIST the prompting of the god of this world that tells us to assert ourselves, which often leads to conflict.

36. C. Draw Near To God We are to to STAY CLOSE to God by developing a loving companionship.

37. D. Clean Hands And Pure Hearts We are to CLEANSE OURSELVES from any moral defilement that may have created enmity between ourselves and others or God.

38. James 4:9…. “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.” [TNIV]

39. James sum up his advice on how “fights” are stopped. James 4:10…. “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” [TNIV]

40. “Humble yourselves” says yes to the Spirit’s prompting and surrender to God, letting Him do your fighting! Amen!