INVINCIBLE CHURCH 4-7-24

Invincible Church Sermon Notes
4/7/2024
How to be a True Follower of Jesus pt 8
James 4:1-10
Beginning to End – “ASK”
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about Biblical decisions, instruction and principles for how to be a true follower of Jesus. The goal is to bring glory to God! His plan for all this includes us. He expects us to live and speak the truth about Jesus to the world! Jesus Himself gave us the instruction and a process to get it done!
He tells us to LOVE God and others unconditionally and sacrificially, PRAY continually and be THANKFUL to God for everything! Then to GO, MAKE and TEACH others, while we ASK, SEEK and KNOCK on the doors of opportunity that God gives us to get His work done!
We started this journey by covering God’s plan and strategy in more detail… and God’s given us specific messages every Sunday on the first 6 critical action items in the instructions and process from Jesus. It’s to LOVE, PRAY and BE THANKFUL to God for everything…
… Then “GO into” the world, MAKE disciples for Jesus and TEACH them how to be obedient to the commands and instructions He’s given us! Today we’re going to talk about the action item “ASK” … and we’ll be in James 4:1-10!
God wants to be involved in everything we do! And He’s not nosy! He asks us to ask Him. He’s given us an open invitation to come to Him! The wise thing for us to do would be to ASK Him for the words, wisdom and ways to handle every situation. Let’s look at…
James 4:1-10 NIV - 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. 4 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 favor to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 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.
We’ve got battles to fight… side by side with Jesus and the Holy Spirit! We’re supposed to be fighting to defend the honors of Jesus and advance God’s Kingdom, which brings Him the glory He deserves! We shouldn’t be wasting time contemplating the philosophies of man and practicing the rituals of false religion!
And professing Christians certainly shouldn’t be wasting time fighting with each other for no good reason! We’re supposed to be focused on taking a stand for Jesus in spiritual battles against the likes of this pagan political administration who dared to try and replace the ONE day that the world recognizes as the resurrection of Jesus Christ...
… the one and only son of the living God, creator of the universe and everything in it. Whether people choose to believe in Jesus of not… and make the decision to receive Him, recognize Him or reject Him… at least up to this year, the entire world has been respectfully tolerant of the followers of Jesus who do choose to celebrate His resurrection on this day!
But now, this pagan administration dares to try and replace Resurrection Sunday with the recognition and celebration of every kind of sin known to man! The types of sins that are all an abomination to God! And we know all these sinful pagan practices are an abomination to God because He tells us they are in His Word… the Holy Bible!
To top it off, when their pagan representatives are mildly confronted by a passive media member with the question, “Why would the leader of a Christian nation agree to this brazen defamation of God?” They lie and say it was never intended to compete or replace anything about Holy Week!
Satan is the deceiver and it’s all part of his evil attempt to counterfeit and destroy everything associated with Jesus and God’s Kingdom! Satan doesn’t just hate followers of Jesus, he wants to destroy us because Jesus allows us the honor of fighting evil as His ambassadors, warriors, servants and saints!
So, when followers of Jesus argue, squabble and fight with each other… or complain about how they’re being treated… all while failing to ask for God’s guidance in taking action to a solution and fail to follow His instructions when they have disagreements… it dishonors God and breaks His heart! We know it because it’s all covered in the Bible!
Back to James… he gives us some very clear reasons that cause major problems for followers of Jesus. Instead of fighting evil, authorities, principalities and powers of darkness, a lot of professing Christians are fighting each other and it’s shameful because…
… when professing Christians are fighting each other, it means they’re not spiritually mature enough to fight the enemy! Sometimes they’re fighting the enemy and don’t even know it because they can’t recognize his strategy. They’ve been negligent in their spiritual training!
The reality about all training is we can either be proactive and self-disciplined… and take on the training regimen ourselves, so we’re ready for battle when necessary… or we can be reactive and lazy… and have spiritual training forced on us by the situations we get in!
And like physical workouts, it’s not enough to just have the knowledge of the technique. Spiritual and relational workouts require the same regimen. The work has to be put in. In other words, no pain, no gain! We have to put the word and work together with good decisions. Then we get spiritually stronger!
The stronger we are spiritually, the easier it is to handle the heavy spiritual challenges we all face in this life on earth! Spiritual workouts can be painful, but they’re always beneficial. So, we ought to thank God for all of them!
It’s the same thing with people who’re physically ill all the time! They usually haven’t made good decisions in taking care of themselves. It’s the same thing with relationships. Failing to follow God’s instructions for relationships (which starts with loving God and others unconditionally and sacrificially) opens the door for the enemy to manipulate and influence people into bad behavior and decisions!
Then, when things get bad enough, people ask God to fix it for them but it’s for the wrong motive! So, the answer is no… not until the motive is right … and the motive will only be “right” when it’s from the heart and in alignment with God’s will!
James gives us a lot of instruction for how followers of Jesus ought to operate. He wrote to believers who had a lot of problems because of bad decisions! In (vs 1-3) he points out their selfish desire to get things while also warning them to guard against these…
4 Dishonorable Actions and Attitudes
1) Being Selfish and Self-Centered!
God’s people wanted more power, pleasure and resources. It causes them to argue and fight amongst themselves all the time. People are naturally selfish and self-centered. We want what we want, when we want it and how we want it!
When we fail to pray and ask God to help us guard against having this attitude, we can get frustrated if we don’t get it! Then a lot of people want God to bless the solution they come up with… instead of asking God for His solution and working to abide in His answer.
2) Thinking and Doing Hateful Things!
Some of God’s people got so angry when things didn’t go their way, they’d just flat-out murder somebody that they thought was in their way, which is still going on today! If people weren’t doing hateful things to each other, they were thinking it, which Jesus said was the same thing as doing it because love didn’t stop them, the fear of the law did!
Matthew 5:22 NIV - 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ [Meaning “empty-headed” … Implying a person is stupid or inferior] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell!
1 John 3:15 NIV - 15 Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has Eternal Life residing in him! … [That’s strong!]
3) Arguing and Fighting!
Our feelings are continually telling us that we want certain things… and we want things to be done the way we want them to be… and if somebody opposes us, we start building up hatred toward them, which dishonors God.
God is relational and made us in His image so we’re to be relational. We need to communicate. We need to be able to ask each other questions and dialogue accordingly! We’re to submit to authority unless the authority requires that we do things in direct conflict with God’s Word.
It’s a challenge because God made men and women different! We communicate differently! But in God’s infinite wisdom, He allows us to know that, so we should always be asking Him for guidance, wisdom and patience in talking to the opposite sex.
A big part of communicating is listening. James also tells us in chapter 1 that we’re supposed to be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. People who fail to ask God to be involved in their conversations when they communicate are always going to struggle more in their relationships.
4) Failing to Pray! … A lot of times, God’s people… of all people…
… either forgot or refuse to pray! And if they do pray, they pray with selfish motives! The Bible says the human heart is very deceitful. So again, our feelings will lie to us. That’s why it’s easy for people to fool themselves about their own motives!
We can pretend like we’re taking the actions we take for God or for the benefit of other people, but the reality is our reasons can be selfish… and God’s not fooled by our selfishness because the Bible says selfishness is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
People operate from a lot of different motivations. The negative ones are pride, anger, revenge, entitlement or the desire for approval. Any motivation that comes from our sinful flesh dishonors God and leads to endless arguments in our relationships.
So, if we really want to honor God in our relationship with Him and each other, then we ought to be praying together and seeking solutions to problems together in God’s Word instead of trying to out debate each other! But we have to remember…
… selfish motives can hinder our prayers! Our feelings are so deceitful. We ought to constantly evaluate our own motives and be honest with ourselves about why we’re choosing to do things the way we’re doing them! So here are…
8 Ways to Evaluate Our Motives
1. Would we still :> - Give – Serve – and Sacrifice if nobody noticed?
2. If There were no tangible benefit to us … Would we still do it!?
3. Would we joyfully take a lesser position if God called us to?
4. Do we :> - Give – Serve – Share - and Sacrifice to feel good about ourselves?
5. If we have to endure prolonged suffering for what God has called us to do … Would we keep doing It?
6. If people :> - Criticize – Mock – or Misunderstand our actions for Jesus … Will we stop doing it?
7. If we never receive gratitude or reimbursement in any way … Will we keep doing it?
8. Do we evaluate our outcomes on how we compare to others … Or on our faithfulness to Jesus?
Now, personal satisfaction like taking a vacation, winning a competition, having nice things or even being wealthy aren’t wrong or bad… it’s the motivation behind it that can become an issue, especially when we’re not honest with ourselves about why we’re doing things!
The goal is always to glorify God! So, when we act like we’re obeying God on the outside, but our hearts are hard on the inside, God knows, which means we’re deceiving ourselves and others too! The only way we can operate with pure motives is through the power of the Holy Spirit!
Galatians 5:16, 25 NIV - 16 So I say … Walk by The Spirit … And you will Not Gratify The Desires of The Flesh! ~And~ 25 Since we Live by The Spirit … Let us Keep in Step with The Spirit!
When we let God control every part of our life, then we’ll want to please Him more than we want to please ourselves! But our worldly flesh isn’t going to give up trying to tempt us! So, the only way to stop the urge to gratify the desires of the flesh is to walk in the spirit!
The people James is writing to here are just like a lot of people today! He’s talking to professing Christians who’re trying to promote their own agenda instead of following God’s plan. They’re hoping to get what they want, no matter what it takes or who it hurts!
But it isn’t always from malicious intent. Sometimes people don’t even realize what they’re doing. They’re just following their feelings and their feelings are lying to them. So, when they don’t get what they want, they get frustrated and take it out on each other.
James tells us there’s a better way. Instead of arguing, fussing, fighting, coveting or worst-case scenario murdering, true followers of Jesus should always ask God for the wisdom to discern and know what glorifies Him in any given situation.
Then ask Him to teach us the best way to glorify Him. When we do things “His way” it will bring us true joy in Jesus! We ought to want what we ask for to glorify God first. It’s what it means to ask God for things with the right motive.
We shouldn’t be relying on worldly ways first, then if that doesn’t work, cry out for God to come in and fix it… like He’s some kind of “backup” or something! And we need to expect that we aren’t going to get some of the things we ask for because God always knows and does what’s best!
We ought to know, understand and believe that God has the authority and wisdom to do what’s best for us. Just like a wise Father’s not going to hand a loaded chain saw to his 8-year-old
son and tell him to go cut down a tree! But we should always ask because at the end of (vs 2) …
…it tells us, “You do not have because you do not ask God!” Now, God’s always going to deny requests that come from selfish intentions at the expense of somebody else or from a negative attitude that we may have toward somebody!
But it’s always better to ask God for things than to scheme and fight! Sometimes His answer is No and sometimes he says Yes because it pleases Him to give us the things we ask for. Now, it doesn’t always mean that His Yes is going to show up from heaven on a silver platter.
How God answers our prayers is still up to Him. His answers might involve a secondary agent or person… or it could just be that receiving what we asked means God gives us the ability to save money to buy what we asked for!
But it all starts with our prayer, which shows God that we’re not going to try to get things the worldly way. Instead, we’re going to defer to God’s judgment about what we ask for and how He sends it!
Discerning what God wants to give us is way more valuable and beneficial for us than what we can dream up on our own. So, we pray with confidence and faith in Him! It’s the strategy and process Jesus gives us for getting things we want from God!
We need to ask Him for it! There’s no guarantee that we’ll get it, but that’s always the best way to approach it because God always knows what’s best for us and prayer keeps us in the center of God’s will!
When we submit our will to His will and to His glory, we’ll be happy with whatever answers He gives us, whether it’s Yes, No or Wait!
God is working through the faithful followers of Jesus at Invincible Academy! I can 100% guarantee and prove it by the amazing spiritual victories we’ve experienced, but also by the vicious, relentless spiritual attacks from the enemy we’ve seen in the last few months!
But God is always faithful, wise and true! That’s why we need to be continually praying and asking for discernment and wisdom from God because we need to know how to quickly and efficiently recognize attacks from the enemy.
And we need God’s wisdom to fight the good fight “His way” so we can quickly and efficiently win every battle… all for the glory of God! And if it’s for God’s glory, it will be for our benefit!
Then we prayerfully, respectfully, faithfully and quickly ask for another opportunity to do God’s work… whether it’s spiritual battle, advice, counsel, ministry, mission or evangelism… all for the truth of the Gospel of Jesus… and the glory of God!