Faith that
Gets Its Hands Dirty part 9
Being
a Friend of God
by
Greg Hanson
Sunrise Wesleyan Church
March 2, 2008
Main
Passage: James 4:4-9
Over
the past couple months we’ve been focusing in on the New Testament book
of James. And we’ve been seeing just how practical this book really is.
It speaks to real life and real life issues today in 2008 every bit as
much as it did when the words were first written down nearly 2000 years
ago.
We’ve talked about how we can survive and even thrive when
we experience those bad days when everything seems to be conspiring
against us. We’ve talked about how to deal with temptation. We’ve
talked about how we can learn to control our tongues instead of having
our tongues controlling us. We’ve talked about how to build strong and
healthy relationships with others. And we’ve talked the things that
cause arguments and divisions in our relationships and how to resolve
them.
A lot of practical stuff. And today, we’re going to be
talking about another relationship problem. Except this problem isn’t
between us and other people; it’s between us and God.
Sandra just read about this problem…
James 4:4 (NLT)
Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of
God?
The Problem: Friendship with the World
Now,
some people would read what James wrote and automatically conclude that
anything that’s from this world is evil. You can’t enjoy anything in
this physical world because that makes you an enemy of God. Some people
would conclude that. But is that true?
James 4:4 (NLT)
Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of
God?
Well,
do you remember back when we looked at the DaVinci Code phenomenon? We
saw that this very entertaining book revives some very old beliefs
called Gnosticism. According to the Gnostics, who first emerged in the
decades and centuries following the death and resurrection of Jesus,
anything that is spiritual is good, and anything that is physical is
evil. We’re not going to take the time to rehash all of that this
morning, but basically, it was a counter-Christian belief system that
was seriously flawed and took verses like this to the extreme. The
Gnostics would have looked at what James wrote about “friendship with
the world” and talked about how God has nothing to do with this
physical realm. It’s completely corrupted. In fact, they would say that
God could not have even created the world; it must have been created by
a lesser god.
And this whole idea of God entering into Creation
when Jesus was born was ludicrous to them. Jesus couldn’t have been God
because Jesus had a physical body. And according to them, it would be
unthinkable for God to become physical.
So some rather strange
beliefs. But isn’t that what James is talking about? “Friendship with
the world makes you an enemy of God.”
Well, I think we need to
remember that God did create this world and everything in it. And He
delights in His Creation. He made a beautiful universe and a beautiful
earth, and then He placed us here to enjoy it.
Psalm 24:1 (NLT)
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its
people belong to him.
God
created the world. In fact, the Bible talks about how all Creation
points toward God. He assigned humanity with the responsibility of
caring for His Creation. God does pretty good work, so this world is a
pretty good place. So what is James talking about? What does he mean
when he says to be a friend of this world is to be an enemy of God?
Does he mean that we can’t enjoy a beautiful sunrise or watch a good
movie or strive for scientific achievement? Does he mean that we
shouldn’t recycle and do our best to care for the environment?
No,
of course not. There’s a difference between enjoying this world and
being a friend to it. There’s a difference between exploring this world
and exalting it. There’s a difference between being good stewards of
the world and declaring our allegiance to it.
You see, here’s the problem. This is what “friendship with the world
is.” Friendship with the world is…
Friendship
with the world – when you choose the ways of this world over the ways
of God
Now, often there’s no conflict between the two. There’s no problem.
But
James is talking about when the two are in conflict. With the values of
this world oppose the values of God. When we have to choose between
satisfying our worldly temptations and appetites and satisfying God’s
standards for living. When we choose between pleasure and character.
Friendship
with this world that James is talking about is when you’re always
looking out for number 1. You’re always demanding your own way. You
want to possess whatever you think it is that will make you happy.
So what’s wrong with this?
What’s
Wrong With Being a Friend of this World?
A.
It’s being unfaithful to God
James 4:4 (NLT)
You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes
you an enemy of God?
“You
adulterers!” If you are a follower of Jesus and then decide to turn
your back on Him to pursue your own worldly pleasures, that’s adultery.
That’s being unfaithful to God.
It’s like having an affair.
Those of you who are married expect complete faithfulness on the part
of your spouse, right? And the truth is, you would be more than a
little miffed if you were to discover that your spouse was having an
affair, wouldn’t you? And rightly so. That’s one of the worse things
one person can do to another.
Well, in the Bible, our
relationship with God is often compared to a marriage. In fact, God
created the whole concept of marriage to give us a glimpse of the
intimacy that we can have with Him. And when we allow a love for the
world to surpass our love for Him, then we are committing adultery on
God.
Remember, God is a jealous God. Normally we think of
jealousy as a negative thing. But there is a proper form of jealousy.
It’s the jealousy that demands faithfulness. And that’s the kind of
jealousy that God has. He expects complete devotion to Him and Him
alone. As Jesus said…
Matthew 5:24 (NLT)
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the
other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other.”
Jesus
was talking specifically about serving God or serving money. But I
think it’s true with all the other things that vie for that place of
priority in our lives, too. That place rightfully belongs to God, and
when we place anything else there, we are being unfaithful to God.
B.
It’s based on misplaced values
James 4:4 (NLT)
If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of
God.
“If
you want…” It doesn’t just happen; it’s a desire you have for the ways
of this world over the ways of God. That’s in the New Living
Translation. In the New International Version, it talks about if you
“choose” to be a friend of this world. And it is a choice. We choose
whether we are going to be a friend of the world or a friend of God. We
can’t have it both ways, so we make a choice. And like every choice we
make, it’s based on our priorities, the things that we value and see as
important. When we choose on the side of friendship with the world,
we’re telling God that He really isn’t that important to us and that we
can find more of what we want in the world than in Him.
That’s
placing value in the temporal rather than the eternal. It’s placing
value in the physical rather than the spiritual. It’s placing value in
riches rather than a relationship with God. It’s placing value in the
created rather than the Creator. And it’s a sure sign that your values
are all out of whack.
C.
It removes God from our lives
We’ve
talked before about the dangers or pushing God to the sidelines of our
lives. It can be very easy for us to become so consumed with all the
busyness and the pressures and the distractions of life that we just
push God to the margins. And that’s exactly what friendship with the
world does. Check out this quote from Dr. John Henry Jowett…
“Worldliness
is a spirit, a temperament, an attitude of soul… It is a gaze
horizontal, never vertical. It’s motto is ‘Forward’, never ‘Upward’.
Its goal is success, not holiness… It never bows in rapt and silent
wonder in the secret place. It experiences no awe-inspiring perceptions
of a mysterious Presence. It has lusts, but no supplications. It has
ambition but no aspiration. God is not denied. He is forgotten and
ignored.”
~ Dr. John Henry Jowett
It’s not that we stop
believing that God exists. It’s not even that we’ve knowingly or
purposefully turned against Him. It’s just that He’s lost meaning for
us. We don’t desire Him the way we used to. We no longer see having a
relationship with Him as being important. We’ve lost our first love.
We’ve removed Him from the throne of our lives.
This kind of
thing happens all the time in everyday relationships. People just move
apart. I was trying to think this week, what is the best theme song for
this kind of drifting? Would it be…
You’ve Lost the Loving Feeling
You Don’t Bring Me Flowers Anymore
The Way We Were
Those
are all classics, and they’re all songs about people who have drifted
apart. They’re songs about heartache and heartbreak. Have you ever felt
heart-broken? Perhaps you felt head-over-heels in love with someone and
they rejected you? Do you remember how you couldn’t stop thinking about
it? Can you remember how it affected your eating habits… your sleeping
habits? Do you remember that feeling of rejection?
Well, would
it surprise you to know that God himself experiences that same kind of
pain when we reject Him and push Him out of our lives? When we choose
this world over Him?
Being a friend of this world makes us
an enemy of God. And that’s a problem. So how do we avoid it? How do we
overcome it? How do we protect our friendship with God?
How
Do I Protect my Friendship with God?
Well,
before we can do anything, we need to realize that ultimately it all
depends on the grace of God. So that’s the first thing…
1.
Rely on the Grace of God
We
are all prone to sinfulness. We are all born as enemies of God. And
it’s only through the grace that He extends to you and to me that He
enables us to be reconciled to Him. This is the primary reason that we
can become a friend of God in the first place… His grace.
James 4:5-6 (NLT)
What
do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the spirit God has
placed within us is filled with envy? [desiring the things of this
world] But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil
desires.
What is it that enables us to overcome our lusts and
desires that are contrary to God’s ways? It’s the grace of God. It’s
Him making the first move to step in and help us become overcomers.
Listen to what the apostle Paul told the people in the city of Antioch…
Acts 13:38-39, 43 (NLT)
“Brothers,
listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is
forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who believes in him is declared
right with God”… Many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul
and Barnabas, and the two men urged them to continue to rely on the
grace of God.
It’s the grace of God that makes us right with God
and keeps us right with God. It’s Him that offers us forgiveness. It’s
Him that justifies us. It’s Him that strengthens and enables us to live
a pure and holy life. We can’t take credit for it ourselves; it’s all
the grace of God.
So what’s our response to His grace? Our response to His grace must be
to humble ourselves before Him.
2.
Humble yourself before God
How
well do you get along with people who are always boasting and bragging,
full of pride, and elevating themselves over you? You don’t like to
spend much time with them, do you? In fact, you probably have a bit of
a personality conflict with them. So why would you expect it to be any
different with God?
James 4:6-7 (NLT)
As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but favors the humble.”
So humble yourselves before God.
What
does it mean to be humble before God? I think it means to realize your
own sinfulness and weaknesses, and to recognize your need of God.
Let
me give show you an example from the Old Testament. David is one of the
heroes of the Bible, but he was far from perfect. In fact, because of
his lust for a woman, he conspired to have her husband killed. And when
he came face to face with what he has done, he responded with deep
repentance and humility before God. And he expressed this in a song…
Psalm 51:1-4, 7-8, 10-12 (NLT)
Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love.
Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.
Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.
For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.
Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in
your sight…
Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be
whiter than snow.
Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me—now let me rejoice…
Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.
Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit
from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey
you.
A
person of pride would cover over their sins. They would justify them.
But David was humble. He acknowledged his sin. He submitted Himself to
the authority of God. He sought forgiveness with a contrite heart. Even
though David was a king, he bowed before the King of kings.
If
you want to be right with God… and if you want to remain right with
God… then you need that same spirit of humility. God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.
3.
Refuse to give in to sinful desires
I
know I’ve talked a lot about squirrels lately, since they invaded my
house last Fall. But I do have a happier memory of squirrels. When I
was a kid, I used to watch my grandfather feed squirrels in his
backyard. I remember he would take a peanut out to the backyard, sit
down in a chair, hold the peanut in the palm of his hand, and just
wait. Eventually, a squirrel would stick it’s head out from behind a
tree… watch for a few seconds, then duck behind the tree again. Then
the squirrel would appear again, run out a few feet, then dash back
behind the tree again. Then it’d pop out again and run a little bit
further, then back behind the tree… each time coming a little bit
closer to that peanut… until it’d be close enough to jump up on the arm
of the chair, reach over, and grab the peanut out of my grandfather’s
hand.
Now that story has a happy ending, especially for the
squirrel. It was kind of fun to bait the squirrel and draw it in until
it was close enough that it was actually vulnerable to us.
But
the problem is, Satan plays with us the same way. He baits us and lures
us in. He finds our area of weakness and tempts us with something that
we want. We don’t see any immediate danger, so we edge our way closer
and closer. Until finally he has us right where he wants us… within his
grasp. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…
“Temptation
will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you
want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”
Several weeks ago, we saw how James described this process…
James 1:14-15 (NLT)
Temptation
comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These
desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow,
it gives birth to death.
And now here in chapter four, he tells us how to avoid all that…
James 4:7 (NLT)
So humble yourselves before God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee
from you.
Remember,
you become a friend of this world when you give in to your desires and
choose the ways of this world instead of the ways of God. So refuse to
give into those desires. Resist them. Resist temptation. Resist the
Devil.
C. S. Lewis, who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, said…
“A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not
know what it would have been like an hour later.”
~ C. S. Lewis
So
resist it and find out. Remember, there will be no temptation that you
can’t overcome with God on your side. And if you want to maintain your
relationship with Him, then you need to resist it.
The next thing James tells us to do is…
4.
Get close to God
James 4:8 (NLT)
Come close to God, and God will come close to you.
How
do you do this? Well, you pray to Him. You listen to Him. You read His
Word. You follow His ways. You think about Him. You welcome Him into
your life. You let Him change your life.
It means you carve time
out of your schedule where you can get alone with Him and meditate on
His word. Those who are close to God seem to always walk in fellowship
with Him, and they also set aside quiet times to be with Him.
Enoch did this. Noah did this. Moses did this. David did this. Daniel
did this. And Jesus did this with His Father.
5.
Seek God’s cleansing work in your life
This
may not seem to be a very pleasant story, but I think it illustrates
this point quite well. A number of years ago at Beulah Camp, our
district campgrounds in New Brunswick, they installed a new sewer
system. And this system was the state of the art. It was designed to
take all of the sewage that that ran through it and completely purify
it. Then it would drain it through a long pipe out into the river
nearby. The problem was, our beach was also nearby. The processed
sewage was being emptied right beside the swimming area. People, of
course, weren’t very fond of that idea. But we were assured that what
was being emptied into the river was pure enough to drink. I never
actually took them up on that offer, but apparently the purification
process was that good. It completely decontaminated the sewage.
I
mentioned that it may not be a very pleasant story. It may have even
seemed repulsive. But when God looks at the sinfulness of our lives,
that’s what He sees. He sees garbage and sewage. And He’s repulsed by
it. But at the same time, as we commit ourselves to Him, He will take
us through a process of purification that will completely decontaminate
the sin from our lives.
And what you need to do is seek for
Him to do this. Ask Him to forgive you and to cleanse you. Change your
ways. Repent with sincerity, and He will respond. Don’t just give lip
service to God; be authentic. This is how James says it…
James 4:8-9 (NLT)
Wash
your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is
divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have
done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead
of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.
Let me ask you, how
is your relationship with God? Are you more a friend of His or a friend
of this world? If you’ve found that you’ve drifted away, then I want
you to know, it’s not too late.
Revelation 2:4-5 (NLT)
You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you
have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.
Would
you close your eyes? Maybe you’re here this morning and you’re
thinking, “Yeah, that’s me. I’ve drifted away. I’ve forsaken my first
love.” If that’s you and you’d like to begin to make amends starting
this morning, then would you just slip up your hand so I can see it and
I can pray for you? I’m not going to mention anyone by name, but I do
want to be able to pray for you. And I think it’s important for you to
acknowledge it yourself.
Or maybe you’re here and you’ve never
become a friend of God in the first place. Maybe you’ve never made the
decision to place your faith and trust in Him. If you’d like to do that
this morning, then just slip up your hand.
[Note: This
message
series uses a variety of source materials, primarily "A Faith that
Worls" by Rick Warren, "Faith for Pedestrians" by Laurence Croswell,
and "James: Hands-On Christianity" by Charles Swindoll.]
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