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Oct 28, 2018

Love & War Inside

Passage: James 4:1-12

Speaker: Hunter Dockery

Series: James

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: beauty, change, grace, kingdoms, passions, quarrels

We live with conflicting passions and kingdoms. A continual war inside. The gospel calls us to daily look to the beauty of Jesus and to yearn for the beauty we are being transformed into through the work of the Spirit.

Order of Worship

Prelude: Jars of Clay - Something Beautiful

Call To Worship: Romans 12:1-2 & Psalm 95:1-2 ESV

LEADER: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

ALL: 1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

Reading: Romans 7:21-25 ESV

LEADER: 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?

ALL: 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  

Music:

Gratitude Reading: Matthew 6:19-21,24,33 ESV

LEADER: 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

ALL: 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

LEADER: 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

ALL: 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Illustration: 

Sermon Title: Love & War Inside

Central Text: James 4:1-12 ESV

1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 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. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 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. 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”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. 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?

Response: Puritan Prayer - The Convicting Spirit

ALL: O blessed Spirit of Christ, conveyor of all grace and truth. Come work repentance in us; Melt our hearts with the majesty and mercy of God. Show us our ruined selves and the grace there is in Him.

May we confide in His great love through faith. Bear His image. Observe His laws. Pursue His service. Captured by Jesus alone. 

Help us to receive Him. Walk in Him. Commune with Him. Conform to Him. Find in Him wisdom, righteousness, redemption, and renewal.

Benediction: 2 Corinthians 3:18 & Galatians 5:24-25 ESV

LEADER: 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

ALL: 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Additional Scriptures:

  •  Jonah 2:8-9
  • 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
  • 1 Peter 1:13-15
  • Proverbs 14:12
  • John 1:4-5
  • Romans 8:12-14
  • Galatians 5:16-18 
  • Ephesians 2:1-10
  • Revelation 21:1-7

Media:

10.28.18 Album

Discussion Questions:

  1. James speaks of different passions at work in us which cause strife as we seek to be a "friend of the world."
    1. List passions found within our earthly kingdoms.
    2. List passions found within the heavenly kingdom.
    3. List some of the commonalities found in both.
    4. List some of the clear differences.
  2. What role does pride and self glory play in destructive passions?
  3. What sort of wholeness does corruption attack?
  4. What would a spiritually sound person be like?
  5. Give some examples from media & culture where we are drawn to certain types of beauty (healthy and destructive) and look to emulate those traits in our own lives?
  6. In what practical ways, does trusting a new identity in Christ lead to extending humility and love to others?  
    1. In what ways does pride & self glory destroy community?
    2. How might the gospel free us towards better community and more collaboration?
  7. List various ways that James (and Proverbs) is calling us to believe the gospel and in response yearn to be continually transformed into more beautiful humans (in the image of Christ)?
    1. How might that beauty be contagious and naturally lead to equipping others?

Quotes:

  • “If our minds are not being daily renewed by the truths of the gospel, we will not be able to discern and walk in the will of God” - Jeff Vanderstelt
  • “Everyday I drew steadily nearer to that truth. That man is not truly one but truly two. I saw the primitive duality of man. I saw the two natures contending in the field of my consciousness, if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both.” - Robert Louis Steveson (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
  • “Coveting is wanting anything more than God. Coveting is saying there is something besides God and His love and His salvation that I’ve got to have as a requirement to be happy. That’s coveting and that’s the essence of sin.” - Timothy J. Keller 
  • "Though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him." - C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

Books:

Sermons:

The Remedy for Pride by John Piper

James 4:13-16

Free Living by Ben Seneker

Galatians 5:16-25

The War Between Your Selves by Timothy J. Keller

Romans 7:1-25

Wisdom for Living in the World by Jeff Vanderstelt

James 4:1-12