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Truus Wierda 6 July 2014

 James 4: 1- 10

Key-verse: James 4:4Don’t you know that friendship with the world is

hatred toward God?

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James 4: 1- 10 1  What causes fights and quarrels among you?

Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

2  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.

3  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

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James 4: 1- 104  You adulterous people, don’t you know that

friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

5  Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?

6  But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

‘God opposes the proud    but shows favour to the humble.’

7  Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

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James 4: 1- 108  Come near to God and he will come near to you.

Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9  Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

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World: Cosmos

Three meanings in New Testament.

1. The natural world, the earth.

Example: Acts 17: 24

The God, who made the world and everything in it, does not live in temples built by hands.

 

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World: Cosmos

Three meanings in New Testament.

1. The natural world, the earth.

2. The people of the world.

Example: John 3: 16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

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World: Cosmos

Three meanings in New Testament.

1. The natural world, the earth.

2. The people of the world.

3. Worldly things, goods, riches, pleasures, values, everything which forms an obstacle against the things of Christ, and which can lure us away from God. Example: 1 John 2: 16-17.

For every thing in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

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The World belongs to satan,

 

the Kingdom belongs to God.

Revelation 11:15

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.

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James 4:4

You adulterous people, unfaithful in marriage relationship

James 4:5

The Spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely.

or God jealously longs for the spirit that he made to live in us.

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Jealousy.

Exodus 20: 3-5

You shall have no other gods before me; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.

 

This passage is warning against idol-worship.

 

Ezekiel 14:3

These men have set up idols in their hearts.

 

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Quote from Counterfeit Gods, by Timothy Keller.

“What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God,

anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God,

anything you seek to give you what only God can give.

A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.”

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Examples of counterfeit gods:

 

*Work, Career, Success.

 

*Love, marriage

 

*Children

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James 4: 1-3, a description of our lives, when God is not at the centre.

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

You want something but you don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.

When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, to spend what you get on your pleasures.

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The problem: idolatry

 

The cure:

1. Identify your idol(s)

2. Repentance.

James 4: 8-10

Wash your hands, purify your hearts, grieve, mourn and wail.

Humble your self.

 

If you uproot the idol and do not plant the love of Christ in its place, the idol will quickly grow back.

 

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The problem: idolatry

 

The cure:

1. Identify your idol(s)

2. Repentance.

3. Plant the love of Christ in its place.

  James 4: 6

But He gives us more grace.

His undeserved and unconditional love is so much bigger than all our short-comings and double-mindedness.

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He wants to give us life-sustaining stability, security and acceptance.

 

 

James 4: 8

Come near to God and He will come near to you.

The loving embrace of the Father will keep you secure from idols.

This is the wonderful news of the Gospel.