“Diverting Devilish Desires”

James 3:13-4:10 Nov.15, 2009   Play AUDIO (mp3)  Play VIDEO (wmv)

●    WHAT CAUSES QUARRELS?

    ○    foolish foray wreaks havoc for warship
    ○    envy / desires at root of many conflicts (3:14; 4:1f)

●    COZYING UP TO A COUNTERFEIT LOVER

    ○    friendship with the world spiritual adultery (4:4; Eph 5:25ff)
    ○    God’s yearning for Israelites who’d prostituted themselves to Baal (Ezek 16:15; Hosea 1:2, 2:5, 3:1, 6:4)
    ○    God desires mercy, acknowledgment: relationship not religiosity (Hos 6:6)
    ○    all too easy for North American Christians to be worldly ‘adulteresses’
    ○    Donald Miller’s ‘alien’ analysis: comparing ourselves inevitable when separated from God at Fall

●    THE SOURCE AND DOOM OF SELFISHNESS

    ○    selfish ambition harboured in heart, but ultimately demonic in origin (3:14ff; Ezek 28:17; Php 2:6)
    ○    outcome disorder, rejection, national breakdown (3:16)

●    HUMBLY HOUSECLEANING TO RECEIVE GOD’S WISDOM

    ○    God’s wisdom pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, impartial, sincere, mercy, good fruit (3:17)
    ○    humbling accompanied by grief and gloom over sin (4:8ff; Lk 14:11)
    ○    submitted to God, drawn to Him as compass needle to pole (4:7f)

●    THE ENEMY’S PUNISHMENT TURNED TO PURE COMMUNION

    ○    threat of solitary confinement powerless against prisoner practised in spiritual disciplines