James 4 audio
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Luke: [00:00:00] Good morning, or afternoon, or evening even, you know, to whoever's watching this at this moment. thank you once again for coming back, or if you're not, and if it's your first time here, thanks for tuning in. It's been great, it's great having you with us. we are back into our fourth week, well, again, back into our, YouTube and podcast, whichever you're watching on right now.
we are just beginning James chapter four, as I said at the beginning of this week, as we get back into things, we're doing a quick series, five part series on James, considering there's only five chapters and James, as we, swing back in the podcast, and I have enjoyed the last four weeks as we've done this again.
It's been great. It's been awesome. It's been interesting fixing it in with my current college schedule, but man, do I enjoy sitting here and talking to you guys and preaching the word. if you have any questions or concerns about what I have to say about what I am saying, I'd love to have a chat with you about it, you know, maybe.
Maybe you're right. Maybe, you [00:01:00] know, I can fix some things and clear it and clear it, kissing things up, maybe you could see what I'm getting at and, or maybe we disagree, whatever it is, whatever the result of the conversation is, I would love to have that conversation with you. I think that's a great conversation.
I think that's a great way to build fellowship. It's a great way to connect with each other and grow in the faith. I think having conversations like those is an amazing way to grow. It's way better than me just sitting here, preaching to you over a screen or, over a podcast. That's for sure. Well, enough of the pleasantries, let's get back into James 4.
First thing that comes up in James 4 is verse 3. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask for wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. It's like... Let's say, Hey mom, I want a computer. Okay, well, why do you want a computer? Do you wanna do it for schoolwork or do you wanna just, you know, play games or whatever it may be.
You know, whatever you, there's a multiple different purposes. There's multiple different purposes for a computer. Just like there's [00:02:00] multiple, there's multiple different purposes for gifts. Okay, well, I wanna speak well. Well, there. Okay, speaking. Well, that's a great gift to have. I'm a great speaker myself. I stutter a little bit as, as I'm sure some of you have, have noticed.
I, I have a little bit of a stutter, but overall I'm a great speaker. I can get up in front of a, in front of a group of people. I can make a great speech, You know, I have my sermons on here. I'm a great speaker. I'm perfectly comfortable with speaking in front of people, making great speeches and speaking eloquently, but.
Such a great tool can be used for good. Jesus was a great speaker. He spoke truth. He, in fact, he was the truth. He was a great speaker and it's changed the world. However, not naming names, but you know, there are also certain people that have used speaking for bad, for evil. I'm sure you can name the names.
I don't have to, but this way it's like we can use it for the good and the bad. And so when we ask for stuff, when we ask for gifts, especially things that did not come naturally. [00:03:00] It's not something that God just gives freely and willingly. It's something that's like, okay, well, what are you going to use this for?
Are you going to use this to hurt people or to help people? Are you going to use this to fulfill the rest of my laws and my commandments? Are you just going to use it to goof off and spend it on your own pleasures? As we see in, as you see in verse three, when we ask and we do not receive, I think it's important to double check our motives.
And we double check our motives and we find them wrong. It's like, oh, yeah, that's why I'm not getting this. And so if I really do want this, then let's find out a way that we can make this better, that we, that we can use this for the glory of God, so we can use this for the right motives. And that takes a lot of, that takes change on a spiritual level, change that we can't just do on our own, that takes the Holy Spirit.
That's a discussion for another day. In fact, I had that topic lined up after we're done with James. So, tune in for that one. I think this is going to be a really good one. But, moving on, ooh, James 4th 6th. I [00:04:00] remember, it was the second semester of my junior year in high school. So, it was about a year and a half ago.
It was almost two years ago. I had started an internship with a great mentor of mine back home. His name is Jimmy Carter. No, not the president. and he said, Lucas, or Luke, he knows Ms. Luke. He said, Luke, this is your life verse from now on, or at least this is the verse for you for our year. God, James 4, 6, God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble, or exalts the humble.
That's some, some, some translations say. Now, I am not the most humble man on the face of the earth. I'm not. I have, I have some, I have some pride. I have some, you know, I have some, overwhelming confidence, we could say. you know, nothing of ill intent, but sometimes I get a little, I get a little too up there.
And so, what Jimmy wanted me to do, well, he didn't, obviously he didn't want God to oppose me. He wanted, he wanted God to show me [00:05:00] favor, he wanted God to exalt me. So, of course, he's like, Luke, Be humble, and I've been working on that. I'm not perfect, you know, sometimes I have my moments, you know, sometimes I just think I'm all that, so I need to be, I need to do a better job of being more humble, being less proud.
I'm working on it, it's a work in progress, but we're getting there, we're getting there. So I would encourage you, hey, I don't want God to oppose you, I want God to show favor to you, so let's, if pride is your issue, let's work on humble. And, we can talk, we can, we can talk some more about what humility means and what that really, what that really means.
I think I actually already have a video on it that I record in the spring, so go check that out. And if not, I will get to work on making one. We see, going, moving on to verse 7, Submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. I think that we focus on fighting the devil too much.
We focus on the fight. You know, we focus on beating this guy and fighting him and like, oh, you know, whatever. It's not, you don't have to fight. Some, sometimes there are things you just can't fight. [00:06:00] There's a, there are fights you just can't win. Just like we can't beat, you know, just like there are guys out there in the world that we just can't beat physically.
There are attacks by the devil, by the opposer, by Satan, by the devil. There are attacks by Him. There are fights by Him that we just can't beat. There are some things that He tries with us that we can beat. But some things we just can't beat. And so, instead of fighting, we resist. In fact, I think He wants us to fight Him because it builds conflict.
And He loves conflict. However, we as Christians, we should love peace. We do love peace. God encouraged us to love peace. We even see that in heavenly wisdom in chapter 3. We see that. In fact, that's the first thing listed, you know, right after it says... But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure.
It says, then peace loving. We, wisdom from heaven, wisdom that we want, the way that we should live, it's peace loving. It's not conflict. The fighting, it makes, fight, [00:07:00] Satan, the devil loves fighting. It stirs up conflict. He, he loves conflict. Instead of just fighting, I think it's important to resist him. Just say, hey, I'm not doing that.
And resisting him can, it can be more than just, you know, not doing it. It's, it's going to be walking away from situations where you're tempted. Sometimes you're in a situation you're tempted to do something in that situation just makes you more likely to do it or you just succumb to it. However, if you put yourself if you feel that temptation and move away from the situation that made you tempted in the first place, well, how are you going to get tempted again?
But if you put yourself back in the same situation that you succumb to the temptation, chances are you will succumb to that temptation again. So whenever you feel tempted, knowing that you have failed in resisting this temptation in the first place, remove yourself from that and that itself is resisting.
It sounds like running. In fact, you know what, straight up, it might be running. But, it's a great way to not fall into sin, it's a great way to [00:08:00] not fall into that temptation and that sin, right? It's a great way to do it. So hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to stay sinless. Or at least stay away from sin.
And hey, if we resist the devil, even if we don't run away, even if we just sit there and resist and choose not to, maybe we can, maybe we can't, maybe we can't get away from a situation. I don't know, maybe, maybe, I don't know, us guys, let's say we're sitting there in a class or a meeting, you know, we see this pretty girl and we can't stop thinking about her and things, one thing to another, right, as guys just do.
Well, okay, well we can't walk out of that class, we can't just walk out of that meeting, so we just resist. We say, I'm not going to think about that. I'm going to focus on, I'm going to focus on what's going on, I'm going to focus on learning, and that way we resist the devil and he will flee from us. And that way, that temptation will just vanish simply because that we refuse to indulge it, we refuse to indulge it.
To feed it and we just simply [00:09:00] resisted. Now, it kind of goes on there for a second. I skipped, I skipped multiple verses about another, nothing, another seven. So we're getting down here to verse 15. we, we go from, the segment of submitting yourself to God to now boasting about tomorrow. It goes some background on 14.
Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes mood killer. Am I right? and then we go and then we go to 15 instead you ought to say if as the lord's will we will live And do this or that I think we get so caught up in our own plans And we get so upset when things don't go our way when things don't go the way that we think that they should we get So upset and i'm like Why?
I mean, I get it. Like, I, I, I, like, trust me, I get it. Like, I got plans. I got stuff I want to do by this, this, and this. Like, you know, I got stuff I want to do. I got stuff I want to be a part of. But the thing is... If we just, if we [00:10:00] just sit here and like, just think about our own plans and get ups and like, it's just not going to work out all the time.
Now, I think if we just sit there on our own plans, it's going to contradict the Lord's plans. And let me tell you, the Lord will choose to carry out His plans more than yours because His plans are perfect. His plans mean something. His plans. I mean, there's so many different verses about how good the Lord's plans are, and they are, so if it comes between his plans versus your plans, it's going to be his, and it should be his plans, because we are flawed, we are imperfect, we are not perfect, so therefore, our plans are also not perfect, our plans are also not totally good.
And so if I got a plan that's not good, well, I don't want it to happen. It's bad. It's gonna be a bad thing. So we should trust God's plans. If it is the Lord's will, we will live, we will live that way. We will do this or that. I think that's how we should live. Hey, God, I want this. It's important to have that communication.
I do believe that at some point God's like, hey, if you keep praying and asking for this, [00:11:00] I'm willing to give it to you. Especially if it, if it's, if it's according to my purposes and values, if you really want this, and you work for this, and you keep praying for this, I'm, I believe that God is a giver, that God does give us things, even if it's not, you know, directly like, can the vents, this, this, and this.
I believe that there are some aspects in the Bible where God just writ, Where God, there are just some places in history, in your future, where God, because, simply because you prayed, simply because you planned with God, God just wrote in your plan, as you wish. Now there are some things that it's like, hey, this is what I want to happen, this is what I need to happen, but other things, it's just kind of, as you wish.
I believe that, but if something is the Lord's will, I believe and I know that we should just choose to do that. And be content with that, no matter what that may look like, even if we don't really like it.
And then again, [00:12:00] as we finish off this chapter in verse 17, if anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them. It's not so much as, oh, I messed up and I didn't know better. It's like, you know better. Like that's, that's sinning. Which is an interesting concept, because it's like, well, if you didn't know it was a sin, like, is it really a sin?
And we know, we have this verse of, you know, the law is written on our heart. So, that's a, that's a different debate for a different day. It's an interesting concept to think about. I'd encourage talking to your pastor about it. You can email me if you want to talk to, if you want to ask me about it. I'll, maybe I'll make a video soon about, talking about it.
be a very interesting thing to do and get into and it really would, but let's think about this, but in a way where it's just like, okay, let's take a child. Let's take a toddler. Okay, let's let's take a toddler. And this is how I believe that [00:13:00] on a simple way. The, especially like if we go back to the basics of the Ten Commandments, we kind of know what's right and what's wrong.
Look at a toddler. Okay, obviously, there are some things about the world that they don't know. Obviously, they're going to mess up, and they're not going to know any better. I can't come up with an example off the top of my head, but I'm sure if you're a parent listening, you can, you can think about the time your kids were toddlers, and it's just like, they messed up, and you know, that's not something that they should be doing, but they didn't know that.
But, in terms of these basic things about how we ought to live, Okay, if a toddler, let's say you got marshmallows in the pantry or something. Toddler comes in the pantry, finds the marshmallows, wants the marshmallows, but on some level... They know they shouldn't have it, even if it wasn't expressly said, because what will happen is the toddler will be able to look around, or reach out, they'll take the marshmallows, and then they'll go back around the couch, and they'll, and they'll hide and eat them.
Like, I remember I would take I would [00:14:00] take food in my room, which I know, I already knew I wasn't supposed to take food in my room right from the beginning, you know, that's basically how it was growing up one on one, but like when it came to eating food like marshmallows out of the pantry, like I knew on a level, I somehow had to have known on a level I shouldn't have been eating them.
That's why I took them up my room to hide the fact that I ate them. If that makes sense. So I was like, yeah, I kind of knew like, yeah, don't touch the marshmallows, you know, don't, don't eat the marshmallows, but I wanted them. So I went out and I hid and I, and I hid and I hid and did it instead of just eating them like in the kitchen, because I knew it was wrong.
Cause I knew I, I, I, I messed up and, you know, I'm not just, you know, moving with the marshmallow analogy, it could be anything, but I think it's like that with us, with us and sin, certain sins, like these basic sins, it's like, yeah, we know not to do it. Right, so it's just this crazy little dance here. So if you know what good, if you know what is good, but you want to do something bad, [00:15:00] stick to what's good.
Stick, stick to being pure and blameless. Now, if you mess up, but you didn't know any better, that's a whole different story altogether. I'm sure we can get into that another time. But as for right now, stick to what is good. Stick to what is, you know, is good. I highly encourage you to do that because, well, we, we, we should act in good godly manners.
That's just. And the way that's just the way that we we gotta live well That is all I have for you guys for for chapter four. Thank you so much for tuning in once again It's awesome having you with me It's awesome being back here next week is our last week of james Make sure to tune into that make sure to finish things off there And thank you once again for being back with me.
I really enjoy it. Thank you for your patience over the seven month break that we had very glad to be really back into things as we finish five next week. And we will now have, we have some guests lined up. I have some people that I [00:16:00] would love that, you know, that have agreed to be on the show at some point.
I don't know when I don't, I don't know when that'll get out, but I know it's going to happen at some point. I know we have good, we have good discussions and good things to talk about. We don't know how long it could take. It could take a while because again, some really great conversations. So. Make sure you tune in to those.
Make sure you tune in to future episodes and podcasts about different random things that we may or may not do. As I'm sure most of you know watching me right now, I also have a podcast, it's called Living, the Living for His Glory Podcast. It is on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. If that's an easier listen to you, that's an easier way for you to, for you to listen to my videos and, and learn about Christ.
I highly encourage you to go listen to those. It'll have the same topics, the same conversations. It'll just be in the podcast and, you know, non visual form. Well again, I encourage you to go check that out. I encourage you to come [00:17:00] back with me next week for our last week and chapter of James as we dive into James 5.
And thank you so much for being with me. Once again, I am Lucas Barrett, your host, and I'm signing off until next week. Have a great week.
