Welcome to Waymaker Church! We are so excited to have you join us today! We exist to Encounter, Live for, and Advance the Kingdom of God!

Last week I shared with you about heavenly vs. demonic wisdom, and how the primary issue of life is the source of wisdom that we draw from.

• Earthly carnal wisdom is rooted in a prideful spirit of competition, and it is polluted, disorderly, unyielding, without mercy or good fruit, full of partiality and hypocrisy.

• While wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, merciful, full of good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

Today, in James 4 we are going to continue to look at the contrasting effects of the two sources of wisdom. James presses deeper into the result of carnal wisdom. He addresses pride, the need for humility, refraining from judgement of one another, the presumption of boasting, and in the beginning of James 5 oppression through dishonest employment practices.

Before we jump into this, I want to take a moment and revisit kingdom perspective. In Matthew 4:17 Jesus said, “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Everything we have studied so far in the book of James is about alignment of our lives, actions, and speech with the kingdom of God. Remember that the kingdom is about the King’s domain. A kingdom has four things. Person, place, power, and culture.

Every kingdom has a king. They have place in which there is a territory of their rule and reign, within their kingdom there is power and authority, and they have a specific culture of what is acceptable and unacceptable in life and conduct.

When we say yes to Jesus we are stepping into the kingdom of God. We are intended to die to ourselves and live according to His ways. Not only are we brought into the family of God, but Paul presents us a bride to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:2. “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”

This union between Christ and the Church is cause for us to align ourselves with Him because a house divided against itself cannot stand.

As James continues to challenge and display the conflicting nature of earthly vs. heavenly wisdom, we need to remember to view what he is saying through the lens of the kingdom of God. I think it’s easy to look at these things as list of dos and don’ts when in reality he is attempting to help us understand the nature of the culture of the kingdom of God.

The initial question of James 4 I believe is a direct outflow of the earthly carnal wisdom in James 3:16 which says, “For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.”

Quarreling and in fighting had arisen between themselves because of Unbridled lust- which is an intensity of desire to have something, murder- which is premeditated and thought through in advance, covetousness- which is a jealous desire for what someone else has, and the pursuit of pleasure.

With what James describes in the early church, doesn’t it sound familiar for our culture today? Absolutely, it does, and why is that?

Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 1:9 “That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.”

What both James and Solomon are revealing is that the nature of fallen man does not change with time. The only thing that has an effect on man is being born again by the spirit into the kingdom of God.

The nature of the born-again man or woman should be evidenced in our lives through righteous patterns of living, renewed speech, and faith demonstrated through actions in serving God and others.

This is one of the things that I love most about the word of God. It speaks to the fallen heart of man in every generation. It spans cultural boundaries, languages, and it’s not limited in its potency to specific times in history.

The word of God is universal to every tribe, nation, and tongue because it deals with the heart of man and not merely his cultural or national identity.

What James is addressing in the early church applies equally to our lives today.

Fights and quarrels still originate in selfishness and self-seeking. The attempt to provide for and justify self before God stands in direct conflict with the nature of the kingdom of God. For those who have confessed Jesus as Lord it is unrealistic to believe that we can live in right relationship with the Lord, and simultaneously live selfish and self-seeking.

Paul in his letter to the Corinthian church expressed that he had espoused the church to one husband and that is Christ. With this in mind James actually calls those who are self-seeking adulterers and adulteresses. What does he mean by that?

Living in friendship type relationship with the ways of the world puts us in opposition with God. If we want to be a friend of the world, we make ourselves an enemy of God. The use of the word friendship speaks of someone who is in regular communion with someone. There is a heart that is joined to the friend.

We simply can’t have it both ways. The Spirit of God within us yearns jealousy for us. Think of it in the sense that a husband is jealous for his bride. He desires her and doesn’t want to share her with another. This is the same passionate desire the Lord has for us. He doesn’t want to let pride or selfish ambition stand in the way of our relationship with Him.

In order to have an unadulterated relationship with the Lord, James addresses a few issues.

1. Pride. In the scripture is defined as an excessive love of one’s own excellence.

Pride is what caused Lucifer to fall away from God and rebel. That same root is what pushes us away from the Lord also.

2. The remedy of pride is humility.

The key to humility is submission to God. Pride and arrogance are rooted in self-exaltation, self-righteousness, and vanity.

Submission to God means that we don’t give place to the devil.
· We cut off the friendship. Ephesians 4:27 “nor give place to the devil.”
· We put on the whole armor of God. Ephesians 6:11. “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of devil.”
· We pay attention to the course and conduct of our life. 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

3. Do not judge a brother.
Pride and arrogance cause us to speak evil of others. In doing so, we become a judge over their life. In the kingdom, we must remember that there is one judge.

We can certainly inspect the fruit, but we will never stand in the place of judgment over people's lives.

4. Do not Boast about tomorrow.

We do not know what tomorrow holds. If we are to boast let it be in the goodness of God in our lives. The reality is that even if we accomplish great things in our lives, one day, our lives will end, and the boasting will cease. The world will continue and most will become nameless. We are to live ultimately for God’s glory and not our own. Boasting originates with self-glorification.

5. If you are wealthy, do not use it to oppress others.

When we surrender to the wisdom of the Lord and walk in humility everything changes. We are justified by His grace, and that grace empowers us to lay down our lives for one another. Where we are no longer self seeking, but empowered by the Love of God to give of ourselves freely. The result is that God gets the glory.