When James says it is your selfish pleasures and envy, he means it is your selfish pleasures and envy.

Am I Really Recognizing the Source And Consequences of My Quarrels and Conflicts?

James 4:1-3

Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church

Please turn to James 4:1-3. As you are turning there, I want to say a few words about something that is very important. Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are two violent offenders that James wants us to recognize are traits that could be there residing in your heart, (James 3:13). We are warned that where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. So we see that within us there can be an earthly, natural, and even demonic based kind of wisdom. It is the fool's wisdom. It brings turmoil and every evil thing. It is not that you have a demon as a Christian, but rather James is talking about what happens when the wisdom of demons is employed by us. It is the wisdom that breeds the war of sin and chaos. On the other hand, for the child of God, there is a beautiful wisdom that God wants us to acquire, keep, and use. It is the consistent, cohesive, clear, clean, and kind, Christian wisdom from above. It is not the chaotic battle ground of worldly sinful violent wisdom. It is, as James says, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, and good fruits, (James 3:17). These are all attributes of the loving peace maker who manifests the fruits of the Spirit. God wants us to be wise, loving, peace makers--not strife makers. James goes on to say something about the people who are in the godly alliance of peace keepers. He describes the Spirit led diplomats of the kingdom of God as those who have, and nurture, this godly peaceful kind of wisdom. They are mature Christians. And as such, instead of sowing seeds of strife, they sow the wisdom seed that is from above. James says,

"18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." James 3:18

The spiritual man sows the seed of righteousness. You reap what you sow, and so the fruit is righteousness. You find a gossipy, complaining, fault finding Christian, then you find the fool's seed that produces sour sinful fruit of discord, dissension, and divisiveness. But the point that is so very important to recognize as we come into the rest of James flow this morning starting in 4:1, is that this righteous seed is sown in a particular place. It is sown in peace, in, and among, the body of Christ. It's how you talk to Christians. It's how you talk about Christians. It's how you treat Christians. It is sown in and among the body by those who make peace by building one another up. It is not sown by tearing down. It is not sown by the ungodly alliance of warring, fighting, contentious Christians who are jealous and selfishly ambitious. They are judgmental, prideful, and graceless. They are gossips who are critical. The fruit of those kinds of people is disorder and every evil thing. This is the flow of thought that needs to be in our flow of thought as we read James continuing in chapter 4. Please read with me starting in verse 1,

"1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures." James 4:1-3

Let us all prepare our hearts for the preaching of God's word in this sermon;

Am I Really Recognizing the Source And Consequences of My Quarrels and Conflicts? [prayer]

Surveying our great ministry that all of us are supposed to have as farmers in God's kingdom, (where each of us are planters) we know that the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. And though this is true, sometimes there is a devastating plague that is infecting the crops. The foolish farmer who ignores the wisdom from above, also ignores the plague. In other words, the foolish farmer ignores the problem. He is either hoping it will go away, or he just doesn't seem to care. But, then along comes James. James is a cleansing winnowing fork in God's hand, and he makes a special visit to the farm. It's inspection day, and the inspector has a penetrating question to ask God's laborers who have been entrusted with the great field of the kingdom. James asks us in such a way as to force us not to ignore the problem. In fact he asks in such a way as to stimulate a lot of thinking about what is really going on around us; about what is really going on in how we live, about what is really going on in what we do; and about what is really being produced in all of it. James asks,

"1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? ..."

If James were to ask us this question while standing in front of us this morning, we might say,

Well, what do you mean?

We might say,

I don't know.

We might say

Nothing.

These are the same answers that an early Israelite Christian among the synagogues might give. But then again, the Holy Spirit may convict us through His word, and immediately we understand what James means. Of course James goes on, but let us break down this soul searching question that he levels at his Christian brothers. One thing I want us to notice is that James is using military terminology here, and he uses it all throughout this point. It is the language of battle. We notice that the question isn't one that asks whether there really are quarrels and conflicts among the Christian synagogues of the dispersed Israelite believers. The question assumes that warring and fighting is there among you. It also assumes that this was a chronic problem since James addresses these skirmishes in the plural as quarrels, and conflicts. So, knowing this, the real meat of the question is;

What is your source of these tumultuous problems?

The focus is you. In learning from this I think it is so important that we Christians realize that we have a new nature in Christ, but I think it is also important to realize that we still sin. One of the manifestations of this sin is the strife, division, and fighting that is found among Christians all the time. It is nothing new. Though it should not be this way, this has been a common problem throughout the history of God's people. It happens here among us. Conflicts arise, and conflicts arise as fruits of the flesh. They are enemy fruits that are opposed to the fruit of righteousness that is sown in peace by those who make peace. So, God knows about the skirmishes going on within His very own army. It is the sad fact that there is in-house fighting in God's camp, or more appropriately, it is in the house of God, or in the body of Christ, fighting. And so instead of all of us being united together to fight the enemy of all that is natural, earthly, and demonic, the skirmishes distract us and bring destruction to us according to our own sinful fleshliness. So, what happens is that there are Christians who are causing division in the church. Translated:

They are not being allies with God and His work, but rather, in sin, thet are damaging God's army, and are damaging God's work.

The real shame is that in pride, in selfishness, and in sin, the sinful saints are so consumed with their own agendas that they do not see how wrong and hypocritical they are. Folks, we don't want to be this kind of soldier that is fighting the wrong enemy. We do not want to be those who do damage to what God is building, using, and loving according to His grace.

There are three areas that can be quickly identified as being damaged in some way by these kinds of sinful enemy actions:

1) A certain aspect of glorifying God is damaged, which is supposed to be glory that is made manifest in His church.

2) The righteous laborer who sows righteousness in peace as one who makes peace according to wisdom from above is damaged.

and

3) The very person who sows the seeds of dissent, damage, and darkness, damages their own self.

This very person is the person that James is talking to, and this very person may very well be you.

So, James asks another question, while assuming the first one is based upon fact, and knowing what the answer is already, saying,

"Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?"

What James is doing as the Holy Spirit led master identifier, is he is spotlighting the inner source that the quarrels and conflicts come from. For a lot of us, we don't readily recognize the source, and this is the point. Again, notice that James uses more military language for fighting. He talks about waging war. This is the enterprise part. But also notice what the motivational source is for the enterprise. This is what we want to analyze. It is your self oriented, sinful pleasures, where you think more highly of your own self, and your own opinion, and your own preferences, and your own judgment, and your own will, and your own intelligence, and your own feel good pursuits, cravings, and lusts, than you do about other members of the body of Christ.

This Greek word for pleasures here, is hedonon. It is the source of the English word hedonism. Hedonism, is the name of the philosophy that believes personal selfish pleasure is the chief goal of life. The exact definition of hedonon is simply:

The things that are pleasing to you.

In other words, your pleasures are whatever makes you happy. But here, James is identifying our pleasures in a negative sense--in the sin sense. He is not talking about the pleasure of reading the Bible. He is not talking about pleasure in loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, and might, or pleasure in loving your church, and your neighbor as Christ loves you. James is talking about selfish, earthly, natural pleasures that come from wrong ambitions and desires. In Luke 8:14, Jesus uses this Greek word in respect to a negative sense when He says that there are certain people who hear the gospel,

"... and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity." Luke 8:14

Paul uses this same word in a negative sense when he describes how Christians used to be back when they were lost,

"For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another." Titus 3:3

This is important for us to understand because all of us recognize that there are things that are pleasing to us. Further, there are certain things that are pleasing to us that we desire strongly to have. In fact, we can desire them so strongly that we lust after them. These pleasures that James is talking about are strong, but they are wrong and these are the things that wage war. James is not saying that our pleasures themselves are waging war against each other within us. What James means is that our pleasures are the source. James is not saying that the war is going on against us. Rather, our pleasures, meaning what pleases us in our selfishness, are what is waging the war that causes the quarrels and conflicts, lack of peace, and every evil thing among us. James pictures these pleasures like military strategists within us that conspire together to cause problems. He characterize them, where he uses language to refer to them as if they are actually residing within his readers among the churches. There within, the pleasures are personified, and so they strategize, and they carry on a bitter campaign of dog eat dog. The ambition is to get what you can while you can, and if anyone gets in your way then cut them down at the battle line where they are treated like an enemy. The point is that we need to look into our self in hard examination, and see if this describes ourselves.

Some of us want to be pleased in our selfishness by becoming rich and full of material things. Our pleasure is that we want the biggest house. How many of you know what I really mean when I say, the biggest house? The biggest house isn't necessarily the largest house in existence. What I am talking about is what we are pleased with. Some of us want the biggest house, which means a house that is bigger and more expensive than the one that God has blessed us with right now. I am not talking about need. I am talking about want. God will supply all of our needs. I'm talking about a lack of being satisfied with the full sufficiency that God has already supplied. Instead, we want more, more, more. Maybe it's another car. You know what I mean. It's the same thing that I just said about the house. Another car means a car that is not the one God has blessed me with right now. I'm not talking about needing another car because the one you have is a piece of junk. I'm talking about wanting another car, because after all, you deserve one. It's your pleasure. We are going to get to why James says we don't get these things when we pray in just a moment--it is the consequence of our selfishness. But, some of us want to be pleased in our selfishness by always getting our way. It is either my way, or hit the highway. My way is what pleases me. So what happens is that in mercenary action we become our own soldiers of fortune where our pleasures in our members that wage the war are waging war against the other members of the body of Christ, which are people that God says that Christ died for in perfect love according to His own good pleasure. They are people that you are not supposed to fight, or malign, and envy, but rather fight alongside against the real enemies of the faith as you love your neighbor as Christ loves you. But what happens is that our pleasures manifest our pride, and selfishness, and so we need to ask the question:

Am I, me, this person sitting here right now, really truly recognizing the source of my quarrels and conflicts?

It is so easy to say that it is the other person's fault. It is so easy to say that the strife is justifiable. But one of the hardest things for the prideful, selfish, self assured Christian who raises their own self importance up in their own eyes, is that "the strife seeds that I am sowing are really from me because of me." James says that we need to get the recognition and do something about it, because he then points out what our selfish sinful pleasures do when they are not the pleasures that God wants us to have. When you are not pleased with the things of Christ according to wisdom from above,

"2 You lust [you desire] and do not have; so you commit murder."

So, the ultimate end of selfish lust for satisfying our carnal pleasures, is that we don't wage war against the enemy which is Satan and the fools-wisdom of the world which is earthly natural and demonic, but rather, we fight our own fellow soldiers, and when we do this, it is paramount to murder. James is using exaggerated language to relate the seriousness of the damage to the body of Christ, to one's self, and to God's glory that occurs whenever we try to satisfy our pleasures in lusting for fulfillment yet we don't get it. This sinful ambition produces damage that is so bad that it is equated to one of the greatest examples of transgressing the law of love that there is. Instead of laying your life down for others to please God by pleasing them, you murder them, in a sense, to please yourself. It is a sick attribute of immature Christians who can't get past their own sinful selfish desires and move on to spiritual growth, humbleness, and self diminishment, where God's desires in Christ are our marching orders in this short stay that we have on this planet. Jesus preached principles of the higher law of love of His kingdom and used the example of murder too. He said,

"21 You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court ..." Matthew 5:21-22

The standard is high. It is supernomianism. You say,

I would never murder anyone.

Jesus says,

Really?, sin is sin when you transgress the royal law. Are you sinfully, selfishly angry with your brother?

Here is the point: when you don't forgive, then you wage war. When you wage war against the saints, you commit murder. In 1 John 3, we read,

"15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer ..." 1 John 3:15

Transgression of the royal law, which is the law of liberty, which is the law of love, which is the law of Christ, which is the law of the kingdom, is very high. And so we must continuously ask ourselves; Am I really recognizing the source and consequences of my quarrels and conflicts? James goes on to help us really make sure that we understand. He says,

"You are envious [covetous] and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel."

There it is. First James says that there are quarrels and conflicts, and there are many. Then he speaks of waging war, which is the enterprise. Now he identifies what you actually do as the soldier in the war you have waged. He uses the military term for quarreling again, and now he uses another Greek combat term where he says,

"... so you fight."

Lusting after that which pleases you, leads to what is metaphorically paramount to homicide. Envying what others have, or who others are, or what others do, and not being able to get it to satiate your selfish desire, leads to the same kind of bloody mess. We understand instantly that this is not love for the person, but rather this is lust for something else. It is sinful lust for what they have. But think about the fact that whenever we envy and covet what others have, or do, or who they are, we are loving ourselves over them. So here is what happens:

Our love for our self over our love for others damages both us and them.

Think about this as a principle as we put our imaginations back in the ancient desert land of the middle east for a moment. Think about the city fortress of Jericho surrounded by walls. Think about Joshua and his little army. Let's consider an Israelite warrior in God's Old Covenant kingdom. His name was Achan. Achan was in Joshua's army. Achan was an Israelite. Achan was in God's army. Achan demonstrates this deadly trap of self absorption, where Achan coveted riches that he saw, yet the riches were not his own. The riches were so close that Achan could reach out and grab them and call them his own but they were not his own. God's army waged war, but another war waged inside of Achan. We read the historic account in Joshua. God tells Joshua that he will defeat Jericho. God says to march around the city of Jericho for six days carrying the ark of the covenant, and then on the seventh day the priests of God are to blow trumpets. Everyone in the army is to shout, and the walls will come down, and then Joshua and his men are to rush upon the city and defeat the people within. Only Rahab the harlot, and all who are in her household shall live because she hid the Israelite messengers from the enemy. Everything happened as God prescribed. The wall came down at the trumpet blast, and Joshua and his men defeated those within the city. Many of us are familiar with this history. But we need to be familiar with something else. There were riches within the walls of Jericho. God knew they were there. God had already claimed them for Himself. So directly before blowing the trumpets, Joshua announced a ban that God had placed upon the riches of the city. We read in Joshua 6:18,

"17 The city shall be under the ban, it and all that is in it belongs to Yahweh. ... keep yourselves from the things under the ban, so that you do not covet them and take some of the things under the ban, and make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it. But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to Yahweh; they shall go into the treasury of Yahweh." Joshua 6:17-19

The warning is not to covet. To covet, leads to taking what is not yours. It is to want it so badly that you will do whatever you want to do to fulfill your pleasures. You will even bring a curse upon God's people, and you will bring trouble to them. This is the problem that James is talking about. He's talking about when Christ's body curses itself by damaging a certain aspect of bringing glory to God, and where Christ's body curses itself by damaging God's righteous laborers, and where Christ's body curses itself where the very person who sows the seeds of dissent, damage, and darkness damages their own self. Folks, this is the insidiously destructive power in the magnetism of coveting what is not ours. Even in the midst of the war where God's people are fighting the spiritual battles of life as servants of God, the danger is there of that other war--the war that is waged in our members to get what we do not have at the sake of true blessing. So Joshua and his men defeated the army of Jericho and killed everyone except Rahab and her family. Then,

"24 They burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of Yahweh." Joshua 6:24

This was a great spiritual victory, right?--a true miracle. But let's ask another question. Why do we think that James warns the Christians about coveting and its consequences? After all, they are Christians. They are saved by grace through faith. Someone might say; What do you mean, there are consequences to sin? Hasn't victory over sin and death been won for all the elect everywhere? But, let me ask again; Why do we think that James warns Christians about coveting and its consequences? Why do we think that the Lord continues to warn us by His Spirit through His word? There is a very real danger of failure within each of us, even in the midst of spiritual victories, and the failure leads to consequences. Knowing this, we recognize that it is because of grace and love that God warns us. I think a lot of Christians get confused on this subject of consequences that we reap for our actions. Why do we think Joshua warned the Old Covenant Israelites? Because, though victory is real, and glorious, and blessed, there resides a danger within that must be dealt with. If it is not dealt with, it wages the war of sin, and then there are consequences. And so we read,

"1 But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban, for Achan, ... took some of the things under the ban, therefore the  anger of Yahweh burned against the sons of Israel." Joshua 7:1

It is amazing how much damage is done through the covetousness of just one man. Just one member of the body can hurt all the other members of the body. They can hurt their own self, and they can hurt the testimony of Christ that brings God the glory through His body that God deserves. But, selfish lustful foolishness that is earthly natural and demonic only wants to satisfy our own pleasures.

Immediately after the battle, Joshua sent some Israelite people to the land of Ai. But the Amorites of that land killed 36 Israelites; they chased down, and spread fear among God's people. In one week there is an amazing miracle where a whole city is supernaturally overthrown and all the enemy is killed, and the city is taken for God. Shortly thereafter, there is defeat among God's people. What is this? It doesn't make sense. Joshua tears his clothes and he prays; Why Lord? Why? Then God answers Joshua,

"11 Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things. 12 Therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies; ... for they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst." Joshua 7:11-12

Wow, this is a serious consequence of covetousness. It is the stark Old Covenant reality of the metaphor that James uses. James is describing how bad sinful covetous lust is. In the transgression of loving God and loving your neighbor, it is like manslaughter. Joshua calls up the sons of Israel to find out who had done this;

"19 Then Joshua said to Achan, 'My son, I implore you, give glory to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him; and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me." Joshua 7:19

Achan knows he must die because God told Joshua that the man who has coveted and stolen must die. But, even though this be the case, to confess and die was to give glory to God, and praise to God's name. And so, in a somber sense of spiritual duty, Achan demonstrated that he loved God, and he loved Israel, even though a sinner.

"20 So Achan answered Joshua and said, "Truly, I have sinned against Yahweh, the God of Israel, and this is what I did: 21 when I saw ..." Joshua 7:20

Achan had conspired in the lust of the eyes, and so in his confession he says, "when I saw..."

"... when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them ..." Joshua 7:21

There it is. It's the war--not the war that had been won with Jericho. But the war within that is waged in our members. It is that foul attribute that will destroy God's people as quick as anything. Achan coveted according to his pleasures. And then in his covetousness, we read of the fateful act, where Achan

"... took them;" 7:21

And that is the moment that Achan sealed both his own fate, and the fate of many in the body of Israel. In the sin of Achan, we think of the life cycle of sin that James described earlier in James 1:9-12. The cycle is what Achan experienced. It is what all who are controlled by their pleasures in covetousness experience. It is where you are lured away by your own self generated lusts. Then the lusts that you have, which are like harlots in your own heart, conceive in an immoral union. The result is the birth of sin. It is birthed as evil fruit. It matures, and then ultimately the life cycle of sin has the fateful ending of death. You reap what you sow. The life cycle is the cursed gift that we give to ourselves from our own wicked desires to satisfy our sinful pleasures. But God wants his warriors in His kingdom to repent. To confess and die to ourselves is what gives glory to God, and praise to God's name. It brings contentment, satisfaction, unity, healing, true like minded fellowship to Gods' church, and it all equates to blessing. And so, in the true sense of spiritual duty, instead of waging war in our members, God wants us to demonstrate, by the indweling power of the Spirit within, that we love Him over our own lusts, and we love one another in self sacrificing love. It means you are going to have to die, which simply means you must die to yourself. So what happened to Achan? Yes he sinned. Yes he loved God. Yes he confessed his sin, but there is a life cycle of sin. There are consequences that we plant because of our ungodly actions. In the Old Covenant, the consequences often seemed harsh as God meted out justice. In the New Covenant, we reap what we sow, and even though we are under grace in our eternal spiritual salvation, we do experience temporal consequences. We read of Achan's physical fate,

"24 Then Joshua and all Israel with him, took Achan, ... the silver, the mantle, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent and all that belonged to him; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor. 25 Joshua said, 'Why have you troubled us? Yahweh will trouble you this day.' And all Israel stoned them with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. 26 They raised over him a great heap of stones that stands to this day, and Yahweh turned from the fierceness of His anger."

Oh how horrible and damaging our actions spread to others like a fire out of control. They consume us, but they also consume others. It's war. First it was 36 innocent Israelites. Now it is Achan's own life, but it is also the lives of all of his sons, all his daughters, all of his oxen, all of his donkeys, and all of his sheep, and it was all Achan's fault, where his pleasures waged war in his members and by his own hands he created quarrels and conflicts and troubles. He lusted for what he did not have. He coveted, and then he sinned. Yes, we in the New Covenant are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, through the finished work of Christ alone, but our salvation does not eliminate the seriousness of the source of the quarrels and conflicts among us, where we are the guilty party who wages the war in our own lust and covetousness. We are the ones who are the envious ones, who stir up strife among the brethren. We are the ones who cause dissension, and who cause jealousy to spread, and corrupt and destroy, and malign and tear down. We are the covetous ones who commit the murder. The damage is real. We are the ones that the question is asked of;

Why have you troubled the body of Christ? You have brought trouble upon yourself this day,

which is a consequence principle that is demonstrated in a certain way, and in a certain manner in the New Covenant in what James says next,

"You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures." James 4:2-3

Think about this in respect to what James said earlier. When James says that a man who looks deeply and in such a way that his mind is intensely fixed into the perfect law of liberty which is the law of love,

".... and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does." James 1:25,

James also means that to not do so, means that a man will be cursed in what he does, and that even means, in what he prays. What this means in our context is that when you pray and ask God for something, and you are asking with wrong motives, which are motives out of satisfying your pleasures, lusts, and covetousness, at the sake of others, then you will not receive, and when you do not receive, then you do not have, and so you may wish to deceive yourself; you may wish to argue with God about what His grace means; but not receiving from Him when you ask is a direct consequence that you have created for yourself by not abiding by the perfect law of liberty--which is love.

On a lighter note, I think that we do well to recognize that this is also one of the most profound verses on prayer in the Bible. When James says that you do not have because you do not ask, James is declaring that God gives to Christians in conjunction with their prayer requests. It is not that we control God, or that we manipulate God, or that we inform God of something He doesn't already know. It is not that God has not determined all that is by speaking it into existence in His predetermination, because He has. In fact, God has already determined what will happen in the future, where the Scriptures proclaim that God has already decreed the beginning from the end in Isaiah 46:10 and other passages. These kinds of concepts, and statements, like the one attributed to CS Lewis,

Prayer doesn't change God, it changes me,--Lewis

are statements that need to be considered in respect to the fact that prayer is a relationship that God also created in His exhaustive predetermination. Prayer is an action that demonstrates the immense creativity of God in making a cosmos that He transcends, and that He is completely in control of, and in His comprehensive control, His creatures are even urged to communicate with Him and make requests, and in concurrence with the preordained prayer, God will answer. In this design, God always answers the prayer of His people. It is either a yes answer, or it is a no answer, or some other kind of answer, but it is still an answer. And what is beautiful about being part of God's creation and plan in salvation, is that we can pray knowing that He will answer us according to the words of our prayers in a real answer in a real relationship in a real world that He designed to really operate this way. Meaning, as James reveals, we get the answer if we ask, and so that is a first principle we all need to understand. You've got to ask, and anytime you ask God for something, you ask believing that He hears you, that He answers you, and that He will answer you. And further, you ask with right motives. Doing this is a starting point in getting a yes answer from God. On the other hand, when you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures, you should not expect to receive from God. There are other reasons why God answers with a no answer, but this is the huge one that James is talking about. God also answers with the no kind of answers because sometimes we ask for things in ignorance of God's ultimate will. In other words, God had something else in mind. So, someone says,

Then why ask?

We ask because of God's revelation, which is called the Bible. It is God's word to us to keep us from getting philosophical, and so when we get philosophical, we want to say,

Q. Then, why ask?

The answer is not philosophical. Rather it is supernatural.

A. We ask because God tells us to ask.

That, by the way is some of the deepest theology you'll ever learn. We ask because God tells us to ask. But, there is more deep theology; God also tells us to ask with right motives, so that we may spend it on God's pleasures, which is all the things in line with godliness revealed to us supernaturally in the very same Bible. We also need to ask for things expecting God to be wiser than we are, and so we should ask expecting the best answer to come, whether yes, or no, or whatever. The main point is this: God tells us that there are things we can have from God according to His own good pleasure that we will not have unless we ask Him for them. Again, There are things we can have from God that we will not have unless we ask Him for them according His pleasure. In other words, answered prayer is logically answered prayer. If you don't pray, then you won't get any answers to prayer because the prayer isn't there to answer. By the way, this is some of the easiest theology you can learn. So, we need to ask God.

Now folks, the problem that James is addressing is twofold. Evidently the Christian synagogues had people among them that, in sin, were lusting and coveting to satisfy their fleshly pleasures, and so prayer for those things was the last thing that came to mind. So, God is already on the back shelf. They want, but they aren't asking. Others were asking with wrong motives. Since James says that they want to spend it on their pleasures, we deduce that the main thing that James is talking about that they are praying for is probably money, or at least, getting and spending money is at least an element of what James means. The idea is that once God gives me the money, then I can spend it any way I want to according to my own personal pleasures. Since the time of James, nothing has changed much has it? Money has got to be the number one thing that people pray for. I imagine that most of us here, when we pray and we come to the Lord with the desires of our heart, it often times has to do with financial provision to buy something, or pay something off.

When Jesus used this same Greek word for "spend" He was telling a parable of a man who loved God, though the man was not born among the people of the Old Covenant promise. The man was a Samaritan. The Samaritan came across a man who was robbed and beaten because of the pleasures that waged war in some thieves. They stole his money to spend it on their own lustful covetous pleasures. They lusted and did not have, so they almost committed a real murder. Jesus says that they left the man half dead. A Selfish hypocritical Priest and a selfish hypocritical Levite of the priestly tribe of Israel, both passed by the man according to their own pleasures. Don't you think that the priest and the Levite thought they were God's children? How grievous it is for God's children to break the great law of love. But the Samaritan felt compassion for the man. His own pleasure was a godly pleasure. That's what we want--God's pleasure to be ours. The Samaritan's good pleasure was to help, to build up; it was to heal the man's body, even though it would cost the Samaritan his time, effort, and money--and it did cost him these things, and he did spend these things. We read,

"32 ...a Samaritan ... came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.'" Luke 10:32-35

Jesus says of this man in His story that he is the one who truly loved his neighbor. He spent, and he spent on someone else for someone else's pleasure. But, many Christians are so wrapped up in themselves that all they want to do is spend on themselves. Their overriding pleasure is not to help, not to build up, and not to heal the body of Christ, which is God's church. It would cost them their time, effort, and money, and that ain't gonna happen. So, this is no real mystery. This is simply the big problem.

So, whenever we ask, "Am I really recognizing the source and consequences of my quarrels and conflicts?," are we recognizing that our own personal pleasures, in lust, and in covetousness may be the big source that God wants us to see? Next time there are quarrels, and conflicts among you, ask this:

Right now, what am I wanting? What do I want to satisfy my pleasures concerning what I am not getting?

Then be faithfully, honest with yourself as you are sensitive to God's Spirit through His word. Think of all James has been teaching in his flow of exhortation. Remember the two violent offenders that James wants us to be aware of from 3:13. They are jealousy and selfish ambition and James says that they could be there residing "in your heart" James 3:13. Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.

As we wrap up this morning, I urge us to consider all of these things very carefully. Maybe God is telling you to make an attitude adjustment. Ask; What am I really wanting out of life? What am I really wanting out of this church? What am I really wanting out of my friendships? What am I really wanting in terms of money, and things to spend on my own pleasures? What do I want that I am not getting? Do I have jealousy and selfish ambition in my heart? God uses those answers to identify the specific things that we are desiring, and even coveting, that are rallying our carnal impulses to go to war. Those are very real things, my dear Christians, which are the source of quarrels and conflicts among us that we should make every effort before our God to repent of. Let us take a step in that direction through prayer, and then let's experience the worship time of communion together, in the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.