We live in a culture today that encourages us to satisfy any and all of our desires as we pursue our “true selves.” The only caveat the world gives us is that our desires shouldn’t hurt other people. Otherwise, those desires are good. But what if the people we really hurt in satisfying our desires is ourselves?
In James 4, we learn that not all desires are good, fulfilling, or even authentic to who we’re made to be. When the church buys into the lie that giving in to all our pleasures will bring us joy, James reminds us that this actually results in more conflict and sin. Instead, James invites us to deny our desires, stop the waging war of passions within us, and humble ourselves in confession before God. Doing this feels like self-denial, but it’s the God-designed way for us to experience true grace, healing, and satisfaction. —Overview of Today’s Message
James 4:1-10 CSB
Our wars & fights stem from 3 enemies: the
, the
, and the
.
“Working theory of the devil’s strategy: deceitful ideas that play to disordered desires that are normalized in a sinful society.” —John Mark Comer
James 4:1 CSB
The wise recognize that pleasure is not the same thing as happiness. Pleasure is about dopamine; happiness is about serotonin. Pleasure is about the next hit to feel good in the moment; happiness is about contentment over the long haul, a sense that my life is rich and satisfying as it is. Pleasure is about want; happiness is about freedom from want. —John Mark Comer
If you want to experience peace, your
desires must be killed so that your
desires may be fulfilled.
Desires for things God has forbidden are a reflection of how sin has distorted me, not how God has made me. —Sam Alberry
We don’t restrain our desires to make ourselves more
to God; We restrain our desires to make God more
to us.
James 4:2 CSB
If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world. —C.S. Lewis
James 4:2-3 CSB
James 4:6 CSB
Jonathan Edwards on Pride:
1. Pride makes you more aware of others’ faults than you are of your own.
2. Pride leads you to have a disposition of disdain when speaking of other’s faults and shortcomings.
3. Pride makes you unhappy and sorry for yourself.
A Prayer of Humility:
“O God, we are so fragile: Our dreams get broken, our relationships get broken, our heart gets broken, our body gets broken.
What can we believe, except that you will not despise a broken heart, that old and broken people shall yet dream dreams, and that the lame shall leap for joy, the blind see, the deaf hear.
What can we believe, except what Jesus taught: that only what is first broken, like bread, can be shared; that only what is broken is open to your entry; that old wineskins must be ripped open and replaced if the wine of new life is to expand.”