Selfish Desires

Years ago, a large statue of Christ was erected in the Andes between the borders of Argentina and Chile. You may have seen pictures. It's called Christ of the Andes. And the statue symbolized a pledge between the two countries that as long as the statue stood, there would be peace. Shortly after the statue was erected, the Chileans began to protest that they'd been slighted. Because the statue had its back turned to Chile. And the Chileans got very upset. And just as tempers were at their highest, a Chilean newspaperman finally saved the day by writing an editorial saying, The people of Argentina need more watching over than the Chileans. And everybody laughed, and it finally got peace over this whole situation. I sometimes wonder how the church that Jesus Christ started 2,000 years ago has survived all the fighting over 2,000 years. Sometimes we look at other churches and we think, you know, it must be nice that they don't fight one another. But you get close to any church, and soon you will discover that none are exempt from problems or human. The fights within churches can be all sorts of things. They can be theology, they can be money, they can be power, they can be politics, or even the type of chairs or the temperature setting that you have inside a church. And someone once said that the army of God is the only army in the world that shoots its own wounded. If you will turn to James 4, verses 1-3, let's focus on the key chapter for the sermon today. James 4, verses 1-3. Realize quarrels and fights among God's people go back well before Christ. You had Lot quarreling with Abraham, you have Absalom fighting with his father David, the disciples of Jesus argued over which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. We could go on and on, right? Why does this happen? Why does this happen? In the fourth chapter of James, we find the problem being analyzed, then a solution being presented. James 4, starting in verse 1. Where do wars and fights come from among you? The English Standard Version says, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? So, James asks what causes the fights and the quarrels that we see among us in the church or in the world in general. And then he suggests the fights that we have with others are caused by another fight, or another battle that occurs within every individual person. The outer conflict that we have with others comes from an inner conflict which we have inside of us. The battle within us is this battle waged by our desires. The battle of our desires. The Greek word for desires for pleasure is the word hedonon. And if that sounds familiar, it's the origin, the source of the English word hedonism. Hedonism means, it's a philosophy that views pleasure as the chief goal of life. And so, in each of us, we have this natural desire for pleasures, for lusts. And we long to indulge our pleasures as an attempt to self-medicate from the pains of life. And the root cause of these conflicts is selfishness. As a result, we face wars and fights. Now, you may say, okay, I'm not going to go and kill someone literally. Killing, in the literal sense, is not usually where this thing starts. But we may not physically hit a person, but we can get into verbal arguments to get our selfish desires. Guilty. We might kill others with slanderous words because we covet or we envy. Jealousy could lead to struggles to get that outcome that we want. And soon, it escalates, right? Personal rivalries become party rivalries become group rivalries become national rivalries. The greatest enemy of healthy relationships is our own selfish desires. The title of today's message is Selfish Desires.

James is teaching this important realization that can help us with this battle. And realize these desires, these lusts, are not a part of who we are. But they are a result of the fight to control it. There's a difference there. Each one of us struggles with lusts, and then you can fill in your own area of where it comes in. It could be power or sex or food or pleasure or health or control of what happens around us or to us or recognition or something else. We all fight against lust, but it's also important to remember that as Christians, our sinful nature has been defeated. So it no longer has to control us. And yet it's still in us, right? It's still fighting to get out. It's our inherent struggle. And when we give into these desires for pleasure within us, that leads to sin. Let's continue in verse 2. And I'm going to read this from the English Standard Version because I like the way it shows the progression. 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. So James says, we naturally move from wanting something to longing for it, then setting our hearts' desires obsessively to attain it. The progression. And James says, when we do not get what we want, then the outcomes are that we covet or we quarrel, we fight, we could even kill. Wars, fights, and conflicts all start from selfish desires within us and left unbridled, that just escalates. The real cause goes back to what's inside all of us. All humans have a problem inside us that plagues us. This plague follows us wherever we go, it threatens to cause us to stumble at any time, and the plague is called pride. We all fight pride. And pride, I found amusingly illustrated in the story, so I'll share this story with you. A car skidded on some wet pavement and struck a telephone pole, injuring the driver. So a woman rushed over to help, but then was pushed aside by this man who approached, and he barked, step aside, I've taken a course in first aid. After a moment, the woman politely tapped him on the shoulder and said, pardon me, but when you get to the part about calling the doctor, I'm right here. Even when reality stares us right in the face, when we're confronted with our mistakes, while struggling to control the circumstances in our lives, we still can be hesitant to admit our mistakes. And if you want to really make that practical, our pride can even cause us to push God aside, who is really the only one who can help us in situations. The greatest enemy to healthy relationships comes from our own selfish desires. Jesus said, it's not what's on the outside of a person that defiles them, but what comes out of their evil desires. Things like hate and envy and jealousy. Only Jesus had pure motives. So we all have a long way to go, and it's why we all need the Holy Spirit to help us along the way. One of the biggest obstacles for people who are deciding on becoming, or frankly, staying a Christian, is we desire to have the benefits of Jesus Christ in our lives, but we also want to maintain control. It's this inherent struggle we have. People naturally want Christ to come in, but they want Him to stay in a comfortable, quiet corner of their lives. They certainly do not desire for Him to take over everything, but that's what Christ says. And so that's the decision that I'd argue every person internally battles with when they think about baptism. But it doesn't stop there, because that inner battle continues for the rest of our lives after baptism.

We want God in our lives, but we want Him to come in without taking complete control. And we want God to be our friend so we can talk to Him and ask Him for things we need, but then we struggle to fully surrender our lives to God. It's that whole area we like to maintain control, or at least some areas, and tell God, yeah, but those areas, God, are off-limits. I'm going to keep my own version of that one, God.

But the rest of it you can take over. Turn to Galatians 5 and verse 17. Galatians 5 and verse 17. And this is exactly why we see a moral decline in Christian nations around the world. People believe they can become Christians without requiring any real differences in the way they live. And what that does is it creates conflicts in our lives.

Galatians 5 and verse 17. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. So within each of us, there's this war that rages, right? This war to be in control of our life. And probably some of you are struggling with that now, wanting to have control of your life.

Some days, frankly, it's God, and more days than we like, we struggle to be the one in control. And there's this pull back and forth that takes place. Conflict triggers our selfish desires, being frustrated and unhappiness, and that leaves us with no peace inside. So I'd like to reflect on desire. The first thing to realize, and I hope you understand this at a foundational level, desire is not wrong of itself.

Start there. Desire is not wrong of itself. Having desires is actually right. It is healthy. It is from God. Let me amp this up a little bit. Most desires are good. Most desires are good. Let's start with, we have a natural desire like food and water and shelter and safety. That's good. The Bible is full of thousands of good desires for us to have.

We should desire the kingdom of God. We should desire having deep relationships with other people, a happy marriage, respectful children, growing intellectually, being healthy, avoiding conflict, eating good food, enjoying blessings. I could keep going. Let's take on the fruit of the Spirit. Fruit of the Spirit, we would all agree we desire these feelings. Love to replace fear, joy to replace discouragement, peace to replace anxiety, gentleness to replace anger, and on and on. If you're fighting any of those, think about the fruit of the Spirit. Maybe that's what you're missing. Even the vast majority of people on earth would even agree about bad things we should not desire, right?

Like murder, infidelity, rape, lying, stealing, child abuse, and on and on. So where does this all go wrong? Unmet desires are the root of where our problems start. Unmet desires. Turn to Psalms 145 verses 17 through 20. Psalms 145, 17 through 20. What do we do when our desires are unmet? When that happens, it is this big decision point in our life. One path we can go down to is we can choose to take the desires to God.

We can trust Him to work out what's best and not try to control everything. Psalms 145 and verse 17. So put this into practice. When we call on God in faith. In trust, reflecting His love, wanting to do what is righteous in the best interest of others, and desiring His will to be done, we find inner peace, we find perspective. Whether we get our way or not, when we focus on that mindset, then most conflicts go away, right?

They aren't worth fighting about. But most of the time, what's more natural is that we dwell on and we focus on our unmet desires. And that becomes our tipping point. That becomes our tipping point to move our desires into selfishness. And realize we can do this even when we start with the desires for good and godly things.

Please understand that. What happens when our desire for good and godly things are unmet? How do we respond then? When we focus on unmet desires, we get frustrated, we get disappointed, and we start to justify anger and unhappiness and bitterness. And it consumes us. It starts to consume us if it's left unabated. And at a minimum, they result in us feeling self-pity and heightened sensitivity toward other people.

Turn back to James 1, verse 14-16. Remember, James said wars ultimately come from how we respond to our selfish, unmet desires. Wars don't come when we get our desires fulfilled, right? That's not where it's coming from. So it's selfish, unmet desires. And the important thing for us to recognize is that there's this process that happens when desires build up within us.

James 1, verse 14. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own unmet desires and enticed. Then when desires have conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Interesting words in here. Everybody in here is fished.

The word enticed at the end of verse 14 is a fishing term, literally means to bait in order to allure. Isn't that fascinating? And take it even further. Drawn away is another fishing term reflecting how bait can be used to lure in a fish. So Satan uses our unmet desires to lure us, like a fisherman trying to lure a fish to long for and then bite onto the hook of sin. Fascinating words buried in here. What I'd like us to do now is to walk through the steps of the desire process so we can understand and reflect on what happens. In the face of unmet desires, we naturally want to maintain control, right? To enable our desires. Our desires get stuck in our head. The first thing we do is demand getting what we want. Demand.

When we see the object of our desires as being essential to our fulfillment, to our well-being, it starts to consume us. We deserve it. That is where unmet desires can take us. And of course, no one owes us anything. Think of the Garden of Eden, right? So Satan told Eve that she should desire a delicious-looking fruit that would give her special wisdom. Yummy food?

Wisdom? Those are not bad things to desire, right? No. Unless those desires mean violating God's directions, then they are. God wants us to willingly choose obedience to Him. He wants that to be our desire. Adam and Eve satisfied their selfish desires, and at that moment is when their conflict with God and all of our conflict with God took off. Starting with that selfish desire, they suddenly realized they were naked, guilty. You know the whole story. Every day we all face desires and temptations. Every single day. Every single one of us. Turn to Romans 16, verses 17-18. Romans 16, 17-18. As Christians, we all fear God, but also struggle desiring what we want at the same time.

Push and pull. The question is whether we put our desires first. Paul describes the people who do this. Psalm 16, verse 17. Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause division and offenses. That's the sign of people doing it. Contrary to the doctrines which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such, do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but they're on belly.

And by smooth words and flattering speech, deceive the hearts of the simple. So he warned us, be aware of those people who are causing divisions and conflict. Because their glory is in themselves, and not in God. Their desire was for people to agree with them and their concepts, and as a result, they weren't willing to serve and obey God. So, play our way through. Again, mankind wants things our way. We want our time. According to our rules, the results of that is discord, it's disputes, it's disappointment, is what it is. What James was talking about in the first three verses of chapter four is pride, and the problems that come with it.

Pride ultimately places us at odds with God. James 4.6, which we will get to as we're working our way through, but I'll put it in your mind now. James 4.6 is a well-known verse that said, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. That word, proud, comes from a Greek word that's made up of two other words.

And it means above, and to show oneself. To show oneself above. This picture is a person with their head held high above others. So it's this sin of an uplifted heart against God and man. That's what it's talking about. And doing things our way is assuming this position we're not qualified for.

That's why God hates it so much. Our own stubborn pride keeps us from capitalizing on God's power in our lives. And so often, we take that for granted, and whatever we're doing, that if we yield to God and we do what He tells us to do, He can make amazing things happen. If we rely on our own strength, we're going to fail ourselves. There's so many opportunities there. The result is we go through this cycle of striving to have our desires fulfilled, feeling occasional self-satisfaction, then waves of disappointment and frustration.

And we dislike ourselves. When pride is the way we live, pleasure will ultimately elude us and conflicts will arise. Okay, let's continue the process of what happens with unfulfilled, unmet, selfish desires. We started by making demands. The natural thing we tend to do next is to judge others who prevent us from getting our desires. Judging. Turn to Matthew 7, verses 1-5. Matthew 7, 1-5. We criticize, we nitpick, we judge people. You know Matthew 7-1 very well. Judge not that you be not judged. If that verse meant what most people claim it means, ripped out of context, then we should never judge anything.

But similar to us examining desire, let's dig into what the real facts are about judging. Not all judging is bad. Not all judging is bad. That flies in the face of what our society is trying to tell us about judging. Jesus said in John 7, verse 24, you can write that in your notes, John 7, verse 24, do not judge according to appearances, but judge with righteous judgment. So on the surface, Jesus is saying that seems in contradiction to what he said in Matthew. But is it? No. In Matthew, Jesus is addressing this underlying attitude of hypocrites in the critical spirit.

In John, Jesus is discussing the shallowness of people judging based on faulty data, like appearances, rather than righteous judgment. We are to make judgments, and we are to make them using the right measurements. Part of our job in society is to judge between good and evil. That's what we're being trained to do. To abdicate that responsibility is to invite anarchy, ruin. And the Bible tells us repeatedly that we're to be people of good judgment based on the principles of the Scriptures, not the principles of society. Okay, here's the next key. People judge all the time. They really do. People judge all the time.

Ask anyone in the city of Capes Springs if they think rape is good or bad. But for the rare whack-whack-oh, they're all going to agree. But realize each of those people made a moral judgment in saying that it's bad. They have judged the act of rape as bad. Which means they also have some sense of what is good. But if we keep digging around in their beliefs, we'll likely find other areas where they feel it's okay to fulfill their own personal desires even when there's a selfish cost to others.

Humans. It's amazing how people are willing to say it's okay to judge in some areas, but not in others. And I love it when people tell me they're not judgmental. What that means is that they try not to openly condemn people's actions or opinions most often. Non-judgmental people are often extremely judgmental.

They're often intolerant of any viewpoint that disagrees with their own or disagrees with others they like. And that's hypocrisy. So we all judge. The question is what we use as the measure of right and wrong. Let's continue in Matthew. Matthew 7 and verse 2. For with what judgment you use you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye? And look, a plank is in your own eye. Hypocrites. First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

So Jesus is not saying, we should never judge. He's just saying that how you judge others will be the measure of how you're going to receive judgment, and you will be judged. So he was condemning the hypocritical judging and the blind criticism of the Pharisees. And when we base our opinions of right and wrong on what society wants, we're going to have that rude awakening, right? Because what's accepted one day may not be accepted tomorrow, it's going to fluctuate back and forth. You can't determine truth by majority opinion.

And social acceptance should never determine whether or not something is right. All right, let me share another critical but overlooked concept on judging. If you take nothing else from the sermon, I beg if you take this one. The biggest mistake we can ever make when judging another person is to assume what another person's motives are.

We've all done it. Never, ever, ever assume you know another person's motives. It doesn't matter if it's your child, your partner, your wife, your kids. Only God can know our motives. And so when we assume we hold the knowledge of any other person's motives or intentions, we're imitating Satan the Devil is what we're doing. So just don't assume you know that. Finally, realize even when your desires or judgments are right, they can still be wrong. All right, Dan, that's loopy thinking.

Whenever our desires or judgments come from or result in a feeling of superiority, of indignation, or looking down on others, they're selfish desires and judgments because they reflect an absence of love toward other people. So you can do right for the wrong reasons is what I was pointing out there. All right, the next step humans naturally take when chasing selfish desires is trying to enforce their desires to happen. The escalation, right? We're mad we didn't get our way, so we force our way to happen. And when we stoop to that low, we're absorbed in just chasing and ensuring that our unmet desires happen. You see people starting to shake and that's where wars and murders come from. So what's the lesson of James 4? As Christians, we're obligated to approach desire from the right framework. We can only change ourselves. It starts there. We can only change ourselves, and that requires God's help. Sure, selfish human desires are going to occur at times, but the key is we need to stop the cycle of escalation at that point when we initially feel the desire and it's unmet. That's when we have the opportunity to frame or reframe what's going on. We must get our heart right first, and we can only go and help a brother. Remember, we started this by talking about conflict. We can only go and help a brother after we get ourselves straight. So if we're in conflict with other people, then by extension we're in conflict with God. And we need to restore a relationship with God and others. You can't have it one way without the other. That's where we start looking at what the roots of what we do. So turn next to John 5 and verse 30. John 5 and verse 30. Who should be our standard? What should be our standard? Well, Jesus, of course, came to set the example for us. So Jesus is our example. Let's see how he approached his desires, his opinions, by keeping them all in perspective to submitting to God. John 5 and verse 30. I can myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. So Christ, the creator of the universe, did not judge of his own accord, though he had every right to. He judged based on his Father's will. What a humbling perspective when we feel angst that our will should rule the day. Are we judging others because we don't get what we want in the way we want, in the timing we want? Or are we judging like our God? Something to evaluate. Each time you're reacting to a selfish desire or making a judgment about someone else, ask yourself, would God react or judge in the same way you did? Turn now to John 4 and verse 4-6. Let's continue reading in our core chapter of the day. John 4, 4-6. The problem we're discussing about selfish desires roots from our tendency to love in two worlds. We love in two worlds. John 4 starting in verse 4.

So there's this war that's going on in our soul, and the battle lines are drawn. If we try to pursue our desires as well as God's, we are entertaining two lovers.

We're spiritual adulterers trying to love the world when we were meant to love God. And God describes himself as a jealous God because we were made by God and for him. He wants us in his family. He wants to marry us. James is saying that our rebellion is not just a battle to have our way over God's way. If you think of it that way, you totally have done the math wrong. There's not three options. There's not our way, Satan's way, God's way. No, there's only two, actually. To rebel against God is to choose the devil's way.

That's it. He's our other lover in this adulterous relationship because he tells us that we should know we will be provided the things we want. He's that viper within us who moves us to hiss and to spit God. And when we're trying to meet our needs our way, we're choosing to be a part of the world instead of being a part of God's kingdom. So the issue is about seeking to get what we want in the wrong way.

That's the issue. The sad thing is that even after all of our sinning, we still don't get what we want. Sin may give us momentary pleasures, but really we don't get fulfilled. In the long term, we still feel shortchanged. James 4 and verse 8 says, Purify your heart, you double-minded. Again, that's the verse we will get to and talk to a bit further. But we want God, but we want to indulge ourselves as well and not give up certain things. Control. Life is this big battle of control, isn't it?

That's kind of what we learn in...everywhere is...marriages, raising children, being a co-worker, working for a boss...everywhere. It's just this constant learning. We can't have it both ways. And the mindset leads us, when properly viewed, to very righteous prayers. But when we look at it in the wrong way, we can have selfish prayers with improper motives. Wanting God to give us our way on the things we want rather than being a tool for what God wants done through us in other people's lives. And that all comes back to which world we're living in.

When you read first adulterous people, you're like, what is he talking about? But hopefully that gives you some context. When Israel worshiped false idols, they still worshiped God. Right? So they tried to live in both worlds. And the church is the bride of Christ. He adores that concept. Are we living in the kingdom of God and in the ways of the world?

When we're friends of the world, we're adulterers and unfaithful to God. Let's read verse 5. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? I find that a little hard to follow. So let me read this to you from the New Living Translation. What do you think the Scripture means when they say that the Spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy? It means that God's real desire, His jealous longing, is for the Holy Spirit to live in us.

God longs for us to be the new creation that He's made us to be. You all know each other. You know the verse Ezekiel 36, 26. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. So as believers, God has given us a new heart and a new spirit. He is a jealous husband and will not tolerate our adultery with the world. He longs for us to be true to Him. And that can only happen through the new spirit in us.

That's our end goal that we're supposed to rely on. Verse 6 gives us this note of hope. The hope we have is that God is a God of grace. We are to show grace to each other and reflect our God. And He wants to help us in our struggles. And so we need to come humbly before Him. I'm going to read again this next verse in the New Living Translation. But He gives us even more grace to stand against evil desires.

As the Scripture says, God opposes or resists the proud. Remember the definition? Those who display themselves as a head above others. Meaning of the word. But favor gives grace to the humble. Before we decided to become Christians, it was all about us. We wanted God, but we also wanted things our ways. And God is asking us to do something, but our pride stands in the way.

Humility has to come before we can submit to God. Humility has to come before we can submit to anyone, really. God is wanting control of our hearts. And when we want to continue to do as we please, then we're double-minded. Once we give up our pride, God will give us the grace and the strength to be a new person. The phrase more or even more grace gives us this implication that God has abundance.

We don't have to worry about that. There's enough grace for all we do for the rest of our lives for infinity. The practical translation of verse 6 is, God sets up the battle lines against those who choose to do their way. Let me say that again. God sets up the battle lines against those who choose to do things their way, but gives grace to those who choose to do things his way.

Our nature as humans leans toward worldliness, toward pride, toward being in control. If we can't control, we're getting scared. But God makes his grace available to us, which is what enables us to be victorious over sin and over Satan. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem with the crowd from Galilee following him, he was giving them an opportunity to acknowledge that he was the king of Israel. He was giving the opportunity to submit to him as the Lord of their lives. But, of course, you know what happened. We all know what happens.

They wouldn't submit. Some of those who hailed him as Messiah on that day killed him shortly after. When push came to shove, they would not acknowledge any authority over their lives other than themselves. And they remained firmly seated as ruler of their own lives. Do we do that? Time to time, sure. That's the same scene which has acted out in every human's life.

Jesus comes humbly riding in our direction. And let's be real. We're all in favor of his favor, right? We want to be blessed with his blessings. We're excited about how he might benefit us. We see how we might be able to use God. But when we learn that God does not come into our lives unless we surrender to his lordship, we think again about whether we want God at all. Now, connect that to your prayer life.

God answers prayers when it's according to his perfect will, which is why Jesus started the sample prayer by saying, Let your will be done. Prayer is not this magic formula by which we control God to grant us our wishes. It's not this genie thing we do. When our motives are wrong, it shows we're not in tune with God.

Because if we were truly in alignment with God, then his will would be the same as our will. It's a learning process we all have to go with, which is why we have unmet desires. But if we were to do that, then we would be able to do that. Turn to 1 John 2, verses 15-17. 1 John 2, 15-17. We need to be careful not to think God is against us having pleasures and blessings. Please, let's frame this whole thing. Remember, most desire is good. Along with that key concept, realize God wants us to have pleasure.

And we need to think about what God wants us to do. Along with that key concept, realize God wants us to have pleasure and blessings in our lives. That is okay to desire. That is okay to have without feeling guilt or remorse. God does not just give us bread and water. He gives us steak and dessert, if you want to go to silly analogies. And many, many good things that give us pleasure. The point is, if we only ask God for good things to satisfy our selfish desires and our gratifications, He won't fulfill our requests. 1 John 2, verse 15.

The will of God abides forever. God created the universe. He created you. He created me. God has the right to set the rules and the standards of what's right and what's wrong. We don't have the right to tell God He's wrong.

The Bible is the standard God will use to judge us. So if we disregard what the Bible says about how to be in the kingdom, then we're lost. Let's turn back again to James 4. We'll continue from verse 7 through 10. James 4. James says that there is this spiritual war that's going on inside of us. And the next thing he explains is the solution from conflict is submission. The solution from conflict is submission. James 4, verse 7. Big key word. Therefore, so all the things we've read are leading up to this is therefore. Therefore, submit 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. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. But don't stop there in just agony and kicking yourselves. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Let him lift us up. To receive God's grace, we're expected to submit to him. Then, through God's grace, we can be victorious over sin, over Satan, over our fears. The Greek word translated submit in verse 7 means to place or arrange under, to subordinate, to put in subjection, to submit one's control. The word resist is this military word which means to set himself in an array against. Think of a line of battle. So God wants us to depend on his grace while the devil wants us to depend on ourselves. Satan enjoys inflating the ego to encourage us to pursue, to do things we desire in our way, on our timing, and then get frustrated if we don't have that. Choosing to do things God's way is much more beneficial in the long run. And then James says the solution is twofold. He says you have to resist the devil and then you have to submit to God. Two parts. Notice that when you resist the devil, he will flee from you. And when you submit to God, he will draw near to you. Contrast being shown here. And one is running away. One is running toward you. Realize when we're submitting, God is running toward us. God wants to be there more than anything he wants to be there. It's us pushing back what all he can do within us. But we have to put forth some effort. We have to resist. We have to surrender.

And that's deliberate actions, right? Those are deliberate actions that we have to take. And it's not going to be easy at first because God will give us the power to overcome the things which have control of us. But they will not happen if we just allow our lives to drift with unmet desires or tell God, I'll submit to you as long as you follow my conditions. It's not the way it works. John Killinger in the Atlanta Monthly told about how wild horses were tamed in the days of the great western cattle ranchers. I love this. A little burrow sometimes would be harnessed to a wild steed. Bucking and raging, convulsing like drunken sailors, the true would be turned loose like Laurel and Hardy to proceed out onto the desert range. They could be seen disappearing over the horizon, the great steed dragging the little burrow along and throwing them about like a bag of cream puffs. They might be gone for days, but eventually they would come back. The little burrow would be seen first. Trotting back across the horizon, leading the submissive steed in tow. Somewhere out there on the rim of the world, that steed would become exhausted from trying to get rid of the burrow. Did we do that to God? And in that moment, the burrow would take mastery and become the leader. That's the way it is with us. We give ourselves to Christ, but then that wild passion, the traumas in our lives continue to throw us about. They rage and convulse in an effort to dominate us. And the fight is so much that it seems they'll never come under control. But when we're fully surrendered to God, with this quiet determination to be His, the things that once tossed us around come under the control of this humble heart that's given into God and is trying to do things the way God says. And it takes so much of the stress away.

Our surrendered heart becomes the leader of all our wild desires. It brings us home where our lives can be fulfilled in ways which we could never have imagined. So what must we do when we find ourselves full of selfish, unmet desires and about to be in rebellion against God? It's the key to every part of life. We must make a choice. Every moment, every day, it's what we're doing, and we make bad ones and make good ones. But that's what God's teaching us to choose better and better. We must make a choice. A war is ended in one of two ways. Either there is total surrender or there's total destruction. And the same is true in life. When we come to do battle with God, be sure of one thing, you're not going to win.

We have two choices, surrender or destruction. And the smart thing to do is consider the terms of peace, which God says are total surrender. To submit to God does not mean we give Him certain parts of our lives. We have to give Him everything. And if we cannot give up everything, then we can't be Christ's disciples. But when we give in to God, we win. When we don't, we lose. Okay, let me try to summarize with a couple bullet thoughts some of these things. A relationship with God is an all-or-nothing affair. We have been resisting God, now we must resist the devil. Alright? We've been giving in to sin, now we must submit to God. We've been full of passions for the things of this world. We're often consumed thinking of unmet, selfish desires, desires for control when we don't get them. Now we must be full of passion for God and the things of the Spirit and trust and rely on Him. We have been proud. Now we must be humble ourselves before God and grieve over our sins and truly repent. Turn back to James 3, verses 13-18. James 3, 13-18. Alright, so again, let's be candid, things that go through our head. As we face this surrender, what are things we ask ourselves? We may say, I'm so used to being like I am, who will I be if I do this? You have to make one of those terrifying changes in your life, and you're terrified because you can't control what's going to happen. Can I really give up this or that? Will it be worth it? What will I be like if I make this kind of surrender to God? The answer? You will be a better version of you. You will be exactly who God wants you to be. You will be at peace. Because the war is going to be over. You will be more yourself than you have ever been. James 3, verse 13. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your heart, do not boast and lie against the truth. Don't lie against the truth. We're all subject to that because we all face self-seeking for our desires. So, well, that's all a choice we might make. Verse 15.

So, this is the concept of look before you leap. Look at yourself before leaping into quick actions related to unmet desires or judgments. When you hurt another person with offensive words, seek reconciliation with a forgiving attitude. You can think of different examples, right? Jesus said, first be reconciled to your brother before presenting your offering at the altar. John said, if you say that we love God without loving our brother or sister, we are a liar and the truth does not abide in us. Again, please remember, all desire and all judging are not. It is not bad. But how we act, think, and communicate makes all the difference. We are commanded by Scripture to make righteous judgments based on the timeless truth of the Bible, not based on the changing whims of society. And we're cautioned to examine ourselves as we look at the unmet desires and their impacts on the lives of others. Maxwell Perkins, this famous book editor, once wrote, One of my deepest convictions is that the terrible harms that are done in the world are not done by deliberately evil people. So much stereotyping in the media that says that's what it is. I agree with him entirely. Terrible harms that are done in this world are not done by deliberately evil people who are not numerous and are soon found out. They are done by the good, but those who are so sure that God is with them, nothing can stop them, for they are certain that they are right. Interesting. Be very cautious that you are not demanding your selfish desires be met, even if the desires may seem right. Verse 17. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. Now the fruits, the results of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. So the truly wise will be peacemakers and righteous. God allows for unity. Now we start talking about conflict. God allows for unity in a world of great diversity of opinions and cultures and personalities. When we see or are involved in conflicts, they start with unmet selfish desires. What we do after we feel that desire is the key to the kind of fruits that we produce. So through wisely surrendering to God, we'll be able to live in harmony and unity and be a reflection of God's light.