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Good morning dear friends, it’s SUNDAY! Don’t you love Sundays?
Where-ever you are today, all across North America, I hope you gather with some of God’s people whom you love, and I really hope you have a great sense of the powerful presence of God with you as you worship Him today.
What if you and I went to church every Sunday as excited and with such anticipation as people approach the Super Bowl, or the NCAA Final Four, or at this season the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
We’re in James 4 today. You’ve noticed I’m sure that James doesn’t powder puff things. Chapter 4 verse 1 says “what causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” He’s right isn’t he? We all struggle with it… a battle is raging inside each of us all the time. Our agenda or God’s; our way or God’s way; our fame or God’s fame etc.
Have you learned yet to starve those selfish ambitions and always look for the path that will bring God the greatest glory?
A big part of that is in vs. 4 “friendship with the world is hatred toward God.” Link that with 1 John 2:15-17 where John writes “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves he world, the love of the Father is not in them. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires will pass away, but the person who does the will of God lives forever.”
I wonder what secrets you have learned for living immune to the pull of the world that compels us Christians to prioritize the accumulation of more ‘stuff’, or the applause of the world?
James gives us a powerful word in vs. 5 “…the Spirit God caused to live in us envies intensely.” Do you remember as God spoke the 10 Commandments to His people for the first time at Mount Sinai He said “I the LORD your God am a jealous God.” (Ex. 20:5) What do you think that means?
Or how about Isaiah 42:8 “I am the LORD; that is My name! I will not give My glory to another or My praise to idols.”
So my friends…what has captured your heart? Where is Jesus in the priorities of your life…how is it evident?
I notice in James 4:7,8 he joins Peter (1 Peter 5:8) and Paul (Ephesians 6:10-18) in calling us to understand we live in a spiritual battle with the devil. It’s real isn’t it? So what are your primary defenses, your weapons when defending your heart and mind against the prowling enemy seeking to devour you?
Finally notice James’ cautions about assumption in vs. 13-16. Our lives are entirely and always in God’s hands aren’t they. While we make plans and we assume a great many things in just living life every day… James calls us to live well aware our every heart beat, every breath, every day is a gift from God. And therefore the very last verse of chapter 4 takes on great significance… “Anyone, then, who knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”
I hope you have a great, God glorifying Sunday
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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