
Romans 7:15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
The battle inside you is the process of discovering A PATHWAY THAT LEADS TO HAPPINESS.
- Is it the pathway the world uses?
- Is it the pathway God commands?
James 4:1A What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
James 4:1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? IS IT NOT THIS, THAT YOUR PASSIONS ARE AT WAR WITHIN YOU
James 4:2 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.
James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
James 4:4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
James 4:5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?
James 4:6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
You have a choice for what you can receive from God:
- Opposition
- Grace
James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Submit to God
- His Word
- His Spirit
- His delegated authority
Resist the devil
- Submit to God
- Resistance means changes
James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Draw near to God
- Church attendance
- Worship
- Giving
- Serving
- Bible study
- Godly fellowship
Cleanse your hands (you sinners)
- Confess
- Repent
- Get rid of sinful things
- Change your lifestyle
Purify your hearts (double-minded)
- Protect what you let in your heart
- Two desires will equal two minds
James 4:9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Love God = Love People
Love God = Die to Self
Die to Self = Love People
Submit to God = Resist the devil
Draw Near to God = God Draws Near to You
Humble Yourself = God Exalts
Love the World = Hate God
- There’s no such thing as a loving form of adultery
Love the World = Unloving Relationships
Love the World = Internal Tension
James 4:11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?