Opening Illustration: If you could have a face-to-face conversation with God, what would you say?  If He sat down right in front of you, what would you ask Him? Maybe some Bible questions? “How tall was Goliath?” “Where is the Ark of the Covenant? Did Indiana Jones really find it?” Maybe some theological questions? “How does the Trinity work?” “What exactly happened for those three days after you died on the cross?” What if Jesus walked down to our Kids ministry? What kind of questions would they ask? I read this week about some letters that a few children wrote Jesus: Hank, age 7: “Dear Lord, Thank you for the nice day today. You even fooled the TV weatherman.” David, age 8: “Dear Lord, do you ever get mad? My mother gets mad all the time but she is only human.” David, age 7: “Dear Lord, I need a raise in my allowance. Can you have one of your angels tell my father?”

How would you react if Jesus was right in front of you? I have a feeling that most of would have some kind of reaction like Peter had when he saw the transfiguration of Jesus: “⁴ Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (Matt 17:4) “Lord, it is good for us to be here” “Lord, it’s good to be with you.” “God, it’s so good to be close to you.” Today: James tells us that our hearts should have that posture. That we should walk with Jesus daily and say, “Lord this is good.” That’s what I want you to see today: It’s so good to be close to God.  

Because here’s the reality: We all have something or someone in our lives we are all holding on to tightly. But often, it’s not Jesus. We have something or someone in our lives that we say, “It’s good to be close.” But often, it’s not Jesus. It may be something you physically hold onto: a phone, a computer. It may be something you mentally hold onto: a dream, an org chart, a fantasy. For me, I love holding onto my perceived control of life. I love to hold onto it with all that I have and say, “This is good. I want this close to me.” If we are striving to make our faith visible, then we must look at Jesus and say, “I want to be near You.” Let’s look at what James has to say about that. We are in a current Sermon Series: The book of James: Faith and Works.  As you turn your Bibles to James 4, I want to remind you our goal during the time we spent studying this letter is make our faith more visible. James is going to give us another test today to see if that’s happening. Read James 4:1-10. Pray. If we want to sit down with Jesus and say, “This is good,” here’s where we start: What you cultivate will win your heart’s affection.  

1) What you cultivate will win your heart’s affection. (vs. 1-3) Last week, we saw the end result of godly wisdom. Do you remember what it was? Peace and righteousness. “¹⁸ And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.” We ended last week with planting seeds of peace that will result in a harvest of righteousness. The goal of applying godly wisdom is to produce more godliness in your life. That’s the righteousness and in that also comes peace. Now James jumps right into chapter 4 with two pointed, rhetorical questions. ¹What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?  “Why are you fighting?” “What’s is causing you to have all of this conflict in your life?” James is saying, “If you are taking godly wisdom and applying godly wisdom, you will become more godly, more righteous, more at peace.” “Stop it! Don’t you know life is too short for this kind of behavior. Why are you wasting your time on fighting with each other?”

Now, James asks a second rhetorical question. And he actually answers the first question with the second question. James says the reason you are fighting with other people is because there is a battle going on inside of you. “Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?”  This hit me between the eyes this week: “My external conflict shows me how well I’m doing with my internal conflict.” Your external conflict shows you how well you’re doing with your internal conflict. So what’s “The war within you?” Pre-Christ, sin rules your life. Every person starts life with this condition – that we are slaves to sin. And that sin condition is what keeps us from having a relationship with God and spending eternity in heaven. But Jesus came and changed all of that on the cross. When we begin a relationship with Jesus, Jesus takes away the penalty of our sin. And with Christ, He rules your life. The ruler, the Lord, of your life is replaced. But sin does not disappear in this life. That will happen in heaven. While on earth, sin will create war within you. Sin wants to take back its place as ruler. It can’t, but Satan will do what he can to attempt the coup. Sin comes from us losing that battle inside of our hearts. Quote: “Every sin is an inside job.” – Alistair Begg.

If you’re thinking, “Jess, this isn’t very encouraging…” Just wait, it gets worse! But then it gets better…Look at what happens when the battle isn’t going very well. ² You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. ³ And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. What did it say in verse 3? “your motives are all wrong”. In other words, the soil of your heart isn’t being cultivated with godly things. Illustration: The raised garden bed now has things growing!  Do you all remember earlier this year when I hand tilled a raised garden bed? What would have happened if I left it like that? If there was zero cultivation, then it would be full of weeds. It’s the same with our hearts. If we don’t cultivate our hearts with godliness (peace and righteousness, then sin takes over. But when godliness is cultivated in our hearts, then the harvest is so good.

If you want to be close to God, if you want to be in that place where you are face-to-face with Jesus saying, “it’s so good to be close You,” then you must cultivate the godliness in your heart. What you cultivate will win your heart’s affection. Our hearts are designed to be close to God. God wants to be close to us. That’s what we see next: God is passionate about what belongs to Him.

2) God is passionate about what belongs to Him. (vs. 4-5) In verse 4, James starts pouring it on pretty thick. ⁴ You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. What’s happening in this verse? We see in Scripture that those who truly belong to Jesus can’t be an enemy of Jesus. What James is addressing in this passage (and really all of chapter 4) is the “fence sitter”. Those who are trying to take what Jesus has to offer and what the world offers. And what is abundantly clear is that a person can’t do that. If you seek the world as a friend and desire to fulfill yourself with the world’s pleasures, then you are in direct opposition to God’s design and to God Himself. Verse 4 serves as a warning to those who have Jesus. Stop peeking over the fence. Verse 5 tells us why.

Look at verse 5: ⁵ Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. God is passionate about what belongs to Him. The Father gives us the Holy Spirit when we begin a relationship with Him. We become a child of God. God is passionate about both of those: His Spirit in us and us. God is jealous for us and His Spirit. The idea of God being jealous may seem off at first thought. When we think of jealously, it often comes from a place of insecurity. But’s that not God. Let me try to illustrate it this way (this has some holes). Secure jealously versus insecure jealously. I know I’m the best husband for my wife. I know that’s sounds arrogant. The reason I am the best husband is because I am her husband and I am her only husband. As her husband, I want to be in her presence and I want her to be in my presence. I long for her – the totality of her. I am jealous for her and for her affections. Not because I’m insecure about myself as a husband. I am jealous for her because I am secure about myself as a husband. As a husband, when I lead in this posture of security, it shows her how valuable she is to me. God has called me to be Rachel’s husband and it’s out of that calling that I am jealous for her. That also means I oppose anything that threatens to steal her love from me. Illustration: Ready to fight in PCB parking lot. At that moment, there was no alternative in my mind. My heart for Rachel caused me to automatically oppose anything that threatened Rachel’s good.

That’s just a sliver of how God feels about us. Quote: “God is infinitely jealous for His people, and He will oppose with divine force anything or anybody who threatens their good.” – David Platt. Do you see why we can’t be friends of the world and friends of God? God is too passionate about you to let the world take away what is good for you. If we want to sit with Jesus and say, “This is so good,” then we cultivate our hearts. And then we look across and see a God that is passionate about us. That is jealous for what belongs to Him. When we reach this place, our only respond is take hold of Jesus in humility. Run to friendship with God.

3) Run to friendship with God. (vs. 6-10)  In these final five verses, we see humility mentioned three times. Why is that? What causes us to not cultivate our hearts – what causes us not to see how passionate God is about us – comes from pride. What causes us not to run to friendship with God is pride. It’s the idea that we know what’s best for ourselves. Quote: “Only when a man realizes his own ignorance will he ask God's guidance. Only when a man realizes his own poverty in the things that matter will he pray for the riches of God's grace. Only when a man realizes his weakness in necessary things will he come to draw upon God's strength. Only when a man realizes his own sin will he realize his need of a Savior and of God's forgiveness. In life there's one sin which can be said to be the basis of all others; and that is forgetting that we are creatures and that God is creator. When a man realizes his essential creatureliness, he realizes his essential helplessness and goes to the source from which that helplessness can alone be supplied.” – William Barclay.  The only obstacle to friendship with God is ourselves. 

Starting in verse 6, James describes a God that wants a relationship with you. ⁶ And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” ⁷ So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. ⁹ Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor. 

In those same verses, James describes what it means for us to run to God. ⁶ And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” ⁷ So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. ⁹ Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

When I read these verses and see what it means to run to God, we see the picture of a person who has completely surrendered. They’ve walked away from the world and Satan’s offerings. They’ve seen their sin and they hate it. They are broken over the damage it has caused. They’ve walk to Jesus and they throw themselves down at His feet. And there’s Jesus, ready to pick them up. The person we don’t see in these verses is the person who has gone to God and said, “I don’t want to give you everything. Can we just agree that I will give you my kids, my job, and my finances? But I’m going to hold on to my health and my marriage. I will continue to grow in my relationship with you in regards to those things I’ve given you.” And this person comes to God and continues to give more and more of those things he’s already given. But that’s not the person who is running to friendship with God. Don’t give God more of what you’ve already given Him, if you haven’t given all of yourself to Him. What are you holding back from God? It could be the very thing that’s causing you to look at Jesus and say, “It is so good to be with you.” What are you holding onto? What do you need forgiveness from? What chains are wrapped around you that are holding you back? Jesus came to break through for you. GOSPEL PRESENTATION.

Do you know what I would ask Jesus if I was sitting down with Him? Can you show me more of your plan? How’s my son? How much longer until eternity begins? But then as Jesus would stand up, I know exactly what I would say. “Don’t leave.” “This is so good.” “It’s so good to be close to you.” “I want this, everyday, all day.” Let’s be a people that wants Jesus everyday. Run to Jesus. Be close to Him. And the world know about it. Let’s pray. 

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