As we continue through Lent, James instructs us how to humble ourselves like Christ, that the Father might lift us up in due time. If we follow in Jesus' pattern of daily taking up our cross, we will avoid the pitfalls of fights and quarrels that disrupt God-ordained relationships. Instead, there will be a resurrection of the purposes of God in our lives as we remember that our final destiny is to stand before God having advanced His agenda and kingdom, not our own.
Fights and Quarrels
James 4:1-10
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. 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.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
In the NCAA tournament, it's not about individual accolades, it's about the success of the team.
Do you live this way in your workplace? In your family unit? In your city? In your church?
Family Ties
People often don't commit to deep, stable relationships in society. In the church, God calls us to do so because we are family.
James 4:11-12
Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
We should be filled with love to believe the best and speak the best about one another. Like God, we should be quick to forgive, slow to accuse or be suspicious. When we are not slow to do these things, it is the enemy producing insecurity and disunity in the camp. We must fight for a culture of honor amongst us.
Romans 12:9-13
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
We should be like the Amazon Echo - always listening and always searching for and responding with the voice of God over one another.
The greatest way to live with honour in this world is to be what we pretend to be.
- Socrates
The Final Bracket
James 4:13-17
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
We should be those who see from the whole to the part - meaning it's not just about me and my personal destiny. It's about what God wants to do in his kingdom as exemplified through His gospel. Lent reminds us to repent of sins of commission and omission - to do the good we need to do today since we will stand before God one day giving an account for it all.
Second City Church: Lent Sermon Series 2017