Boiling Your Desires (Preached in Ghinda, Eritrea, East Africa) James 4:1-10 Many of you work here in the clinic. You are constantly looking for the causes and cures of diseases. Well, sin is a fatal disease which has spread throughout the human race. James 1:15 says that when sin is full grown it gives birth to death. Yes Christ has set us free from bondage to sin-- in other words, sin is no longer fatal for Christians because Christ has died in our place. But sin still infects us--it's like drinking unboiled water. Unboiled water probably won't kill you-- it's just that the giardia, amoeba, and other problems it causes won't go away as long as you refuse to boil your water. As long as you refuse to boil your desires, sin will continue to plague your life. The only way to deal with the disease of sin, is to boil your desires in God's purifying grace. So let us look at the cause and cure of sin. I. James says that at the root there is only one cause: your desires. He talks about desires, the world, and the devil --what is commonly called the flesh, the world and the devil-- but he points out that the world and the devil are not the cause of sin in your life. Rather it is the flesh--your desires--that causes fights and quarrels among you. Verse one says-- What kind of desires is James talking about? verse 2---- These are ordinary desires You want something--a house, a wife, a child, a husband, a job, anything. Wait-- aren't these good desires? aren't these good things to want? Yes. But this shows us how deeply sin has infected us. Even our normal everyday desires are infected by sin. We often want good things, but for the wrong reasons. We ought to seek to glorify God in all that we think, say or do, but too often all we want is to glorify ourselves. This works its way out in at least two ways: 1) we want to be accepted by others. We will do virtually anything to make other people like us. I knew a man once who was brilliant. He knew everything about the bible and theology, but he used his knowledge for himself. He became known as the "answer man" because he always had an answer for everything. He was always trying to impress people with how much he knew. But it didn't work. He tried to use his knowledge to be accepted by others-- rather than use his knowledge to glorify God. 2) The second way we seek to glorify ourselves is by controlling others. How often have you said something mean about someone else, so that you will look better to others How often have you done something nice for someone else so that they feel obligated to something for you in return. We want to be accepted by others; and we want to have power over others. [Abraham and the nuts and bolts of Eritrean marriage/society] convert from Islam married to Terhas, who is Coptic Orthodox wants to have baby baptized at Mehrete Yesus but wants his wife to be wholeheartedly with him (cute but dangerous) This happens to us all. It happens to me sometimes when I preach. There are moments when I am more interested in whether you like my sermon than whether likes my sermon. It can happen easily to someone who is in charge of others-- where they use their power for their own benefit. You who are in positions of leadership-- whether as elders in the church, managers in business, or husbands and parents in the home-- beware of your desires for power and acceptance! beware of seeking to please men rather than God, but also beware of seeking to control others, rather than lead them in X But you who have a lower position also face these things. You know that those who are in authority over you actually depend upon you. The master depends upon the servant for many things-- which means that the servant has control over what the master needs. Whether you sweep the floor or draw water for others-- you can very easily do your work with the goal of winning their praise, or trying to gain control over them. Both of these are wrong. It is simply our selfish desires seeking our own pleasure. Then James goes on to say in verses 2-3: "you do not..." We can even pray with the wrong motives! This is how diseased we are. Our selfish desires have infected us so much that we even ask God for things so that we can satisfy our own craving for pleasure and power. But James goes on to show us how our desire for acceptance leads us to friendship with the world (verse 4) The Church is the bride of Christ, and so anytime believers become friends with the world it is called spiritual adultery. It is as though your wife spent all her time with another man. Is not the acceptance of Christ enough for you? Why must you also seek the acceptance of the world? What is "friendship with the world"? The "world" refers to the sinful practices and the general trends and forces around us. You and I live in "the world"--it is all around us-- but we are not to be friends with the world. we are not to seek acceptance from the world. Why? Because we are in Christ. We no longer belong to the powers and practices of this world, but we belong to Christ. Therefore, for us to go back to seeking the sinful acceptance and friendship of the world is to betray Christ and to become an enemy of God. James also shows us how our desire for power and control leads us to friendship with the devil (verse 7) When we refuse to submit to God, and seek to rule our own lives, we are merely submitting to the devil! When you seek to fulfill your selfish desires, you are saying that you prefer Satan to Christ. [do something with Adam and Eve and the temptation--the choice was God's will or Satan's--no middle ground] So we see that the cause of sin is our desires-- which lead us to seek acceptance from man rather than God-- which results in friendship with the world, and to seek control over our lives and others rather than submitting to God-- which results in our submitting to the devil. The world is not the cause of sin in our lives; The devil cannot force you to sin; It is rather your own desires which lead you to friendship with the world and the devil. To put it briefly-- you only sin because you want to sin. Your desires have been so infected by sin that they are warped and perverted, and seek your own pleasure and power rather than the things of God. II. But there is hope! God has no intention of letting this infection spread any further. verse 5 The Spirit of God gets jealous when you start making friends with the world-- when you start seeking acceptance from others, rather than Christ. God wants you for himself! Isn't that amazing? The God of all the universe wants YOU, and so he has gone into his laboratory and he has developed a cure for our disease of sinfulness. What is this cure? verse 6 As a doctor gives the medicine to a sick patient, so God gives his grace to the humble. He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place, taking upon himself the penalty for our sins. And then he has given us Christ's righteousness that we should no longer be slaves to sin, but should live lives pleasing to God. Never forget that it is by grace that you are saved-- the cure for sin was developed and implemented by God alone. I will never forget the passion of the Eritreans for the Word of God 3 bible classes 5 devotions 2 sermons a week (And two fellows came to me and said, "we're not getting enough, can you teach me more!") But more importantly I will never forget their eagerness and excitement as they caught ahold of the truth that they are saved by grace: ["how are you saved?" story] ....never was a teacher so happy!--and so relieved!!! But just as we saw that there are two directions which desire leads us, so also God's grace has two sides. Notice in verse 8 that God has accepted you. ----- Come to Christ. He has made you clean, so wash yourselves in his blood. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin-- It is God's grace that makes you acceptable to him-- there is nothing that you can do on your own merit. But if God has accepted you-- why do you still seek acceptance from others? If Jesus Christ has said, "no longer do I call you servants, but friends"-- why do you still seek friendship with the world? You have been accepted in Christ together with all your brothers and sisters around you; STOP CRAVING THE ACCEPTANCE AND FRIENDSHIP OF THE WORLD. You don't need it. And what is more, it will only lead to enmity with God. Who do want as your friend: God or the world? But God's grace has another side as well. (vv9-10) God's grace gives you power. Not power over others. But self-control--power over yourself-- along with sharing in the glory of Jesus Christ. But you don't get this power by seeking power. This power and glory is found in humility, in submission to Christ. Seeking power over others is actually submitting to the devil. You will either serve Satan or Christ. If you serve Satan, your reward will be death; if you seek to control others, you will find yourself in bondage to the devil. But if you humble yourself before the Lord, he will lift you up and exalt you. Jesus said that whoever wants to be great in the kingdom of God must be the servant of all. In The Great Divorce C.S. Lewis tells the story of a man who visited heaven. His guide showed him a woman with many angels serving her, and many glorified saints following her and caring for her. He said, "surely this must be a great woman--who is it? Some great saint? His guide replied: "this was a woman no one ever heard of on earth. "She lived in a little village with a nasty, brutal husband. "She cared for the poor, gave food to the orphans, "and shared the love of Christ with the women in the village. "During her life she was alone and forgotten-- "yet she was faithful with the little that God gave her. "Now she is called great in the kingdom of heaven." Until you and I are content to be faithful with the little that God has given us, we will always be grasping for pleasure and power. Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will lift you up! Let me give you a real life example: [Yonathan--humility (average day) in spite of his tremendous intellectual gifts] III. So now our diagnosis is complete! The cause of our infection with sin is our desires which lead us to seek acceptance and power from the world and the devil. The cure is God's grace which gives us acceptance in Christ and power in Christ to live holy and humble lives before him. So when your desires start to lead you toward sin, what should you do? First, cling to Christ--draw near to him. But second, say no to your sinful desires, turn away from the world, and resist the devil It's sort of like boiling your water. There are all sorts of diseases you can get from unboiled water. But if you boil your water, you won't get sick as often. It doesn't mean that you'll never get sick, but at least you won't get sick as much. Submitting to Christ and drawing near to him does not mean that you will never sin. But the closer that you come to Christ, the less your desires will lead you to sin. Your desires will be purified. That is why you must boil your desires: boiling your desires means submitting them to the heat of Christ's love for you. Do you want to be loved and accepted by your family? your spouse? your friends? Boil that desire in Christ! Recognize that you are accepted in him. And humble yourself before him-- being more concerned with what he thinks of you, than with what others think of you. Do you want control over others? over your family? over your friends? Boil that desire in Christ! Recognize that he has given you the power to walk humbly before him. And humble yourself before him-- trusting that your Lord Jesus Christ is in control of all things-- for his glory, and your good.