The War Within | Living Your Best Life Week 4 | Pastor Chad Fagundes
July 16, 2023 / Pastor Chad Fagundes / Koinonia ChurchThe War Within | Living Your Best Life Week 4 | Pastor Chad Fagundes
James 4:1 : What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?
James Chapter 4:1-10
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Three Wars:
- The War : James 4:1-3, Gen.4
- The problem: We want blessing but refuse obedience. Then, when we experience consequences, we get angry and take it out on others.
- The War : James 4:1-3, 11-12
- When the war within me is uncontrolled it leaks to the rest of us.
- The War : James 4:4-6, 13-17
- The adoption of the world’s philosophies rather than trust in God’s truth.
How to overcome these wars:
- Submit to God:
- Submission releases the of God.
- His authority will either deliver you from or empower you to walk through.
- Submission releases the of God.
- Resist the Devil:
- This is the ground of your submission.
- 3 Temptations: 1 John 2:15-17, Luke 4
- The lust of the flesh
- The lust of the eyes
- The pride of life
- 3 Temptations: 1 John 2:15-17, Luke 4
- This is the ground of your submission.
- Come Near:
- Don’t be so easily with the outer courts of God.
- Daily Practices that keep you close:
- Wash your Hands-
- : “I’m going to stop killing”.
- Purify your Hearts-
- – “I’m not only going to stop killing but I want to stop thinking and desiring to kill.”
- Grieve & change your laughter to mourning-
- – “I’m not only going to stop killing and get my thinking right but now, I’m going to live sacrificially.
- Humble yourselves-
- “Not my will but yours”.
- Wash your Hands-