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PROPER PRAYING. James 4:1-5. 10/13/2024. #14.
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
1. Conflict without from conflict within
a. James continues his thought from chapter 3 that the wisdom of this world is earthly, sensual, and demonic
b. There were conflicts among believers
a1. Lit., wars and battles, using military terms
a2. These battles are like those of the unsaved, which ruins our testimony (like with the Corinthians, Galatians, and the 2 women in Philippians)
c. The conflicts are enumerated by James as being
carried away by own lusts (James 1:15), showing favoritism (James 2), not helping brothers in need (James 2), and corrupt speech (James 3)
d. James states that these conflicts come from selfish desires in each believer
a1. To fulfill own pleasures (hedonon; English word, hedonism) = lusts, longings
a2. Proclaiming Christ while seeking own lusts
2. Petty petitions
a. James illustrates his point by demonstrating that
their prayers are selfish and carnal
a1. Prayer is to worship God, express gratitude, pray for needs, and intercede for others
a2. To ask for selfish and even carnal things is evil
b. James lists 2 errors in their praying:
a1. They do not ask God to meet their needs (often believers try to figure out things on their own 1st and go to God as a last resort)
a2. They asked amiss to fulfill their own pleasures (self-centered and carnal)
c. Covetousness is a violation of the 10th command.
a1. Matthew 6 the Lord instructed us to be content
a2. To be carnally focused in prayer is to pray counter to the will of God (you do not have)
a3. Psalm 106:15 if God gives you your desires, he will send leanness to your soul (Solomon)
d. Seeking one’s fleshly desires causes conflict in church, especially when others seek the same
3. Adulterers
a. To seek anything other than God’s will makes us friends of the world and enemies to God
a1. Ephesians 5 as the bride of Christ, we are to be faithful to God alone (image in Hosea)
a2. Romans 7:13-20 – we must be aware of our own desires and combat them by yielding to the Spirit and the Word
b. It is a serious offense to be unfaithful to the Lord
a1. I Kings 18 can’t be faithful and God and flesh
a2. Need to reject all things that hinder a holy walk with God
c. Believers do not realize that being carnal makes us God’s enemies and he will oppose us
d. James mentions a 5 step process:
a1. We have uncontrolled carnal desires
a2. We beseech God to give us our desires
a3. Our desires cause conflict within the body of Christ as we seek to get our own way
a4. We become enemies to God
a5. God refuses to answer our prayers and he opposes us with discipline and emptiness
e. Exodus 20:15 God is a jealous God, seeking exclusive\covenant fellowship with us (no idols)
f. The Spirit in us yearns for control (Ephesians 5:18)
g. Ephesians 4:30 we grieve the Spirit and suffer when carnal
Key passage: Romans 7:13-2013 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.