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Call to worship: Exodus 32:16-26

Text: James 4:1-6

Summary:

Wisdom befits God's purpose. As it is peaceable, it produces the church-wide righteousness that proves the new creation power of the risen Christ. But at new birth, the war has just begun. Our passions are alive to God and, yet, still imperfectly pulled toward self-exaltation. Our passions are at war within us and, when we slum with sin, self will forego sacrifice. Losing the war within, a church will experience civil wars, so that we'll lose sight of the battles we ought to be fighting together. We need to win the war within. So, how so? Simply through the power of friendship with God. In the new birth, a side was taken. God adopted and befriended us, that we might know His fatherly friendship and, with it, our passions knit to His own. And for that, He never runs out of grace for those who, acknowledging our need, run to Him.

Sermon Outline:

1. There is now a war within us---and we've got to win it. (4:1-3)
2. We'll win it by cultivating the power of friendship with God. (4:4-6)

Prepare

Discussion Questions:

1. Read James 4:1-6.
2. From 1:17-18, what's the major theme that James has been developing? How does 4:1-6 fit into the broader theme of a new creation family? What's the connection between 3:18 and what follows from 4:1?
3. What is the issue James is confronting in these verses (fix on 4:1)? What does our personal godliness have to do with our corporate peace? How does our corporate peace afford us the ability to fight the battles that faith calls us to fight? Where does James focus the fight (or war) that ripples out, for better or worse? What has James already taught us about the condition of our desires, past and present (1:13-18)?
4. What is the war within? And why is there a war at all? Untethered from the power of the new birth, what do our desires desire? (Notice the train of thought from 'your passions' in 4:1 to 'to spend it . . . on your passions' in 4:3). It's a question we've asked before, but how are we equipped now to fight self-centered passions, or how do we live above nature?
5. How can we win the war within and keep from being an adulterous people (like Israel of old)? What do we need to know (4:4)? What do we need to heed (4:5)? To what do we need to bow (4:6)? What's the broader idea that James is pushing in these verses (see the title of the sermon)? As you can trace it in the text, how does friendship with God preserve the family of God (4:1)?