The White Flag of Grace - Pastor Eric Skelton

The struggles inside us often start when we try to live life on our own terms. This message explores how humility, surrender, and drawing near to God leads us from inner conflict to real peace. True victory begins when we stop fighting for control and trust the One who already won.

At The Neighborhood Church, we believe faith is lived out in everyday rhythms of love, grace, and purpose. Learn more and connect with us at https://theneighborhoodchurch.com/

Transcript

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If you have your Bibles or your phones or tablets or whatever you would like to use, I want to encourage you this morning to turn to the book of James, chapter four. James chapter four. This morning we wrap up our series from Law to Life. We spent ten weeks, this is week eleven, of examining how the law reveals the heart of God, how Jesus came to fulfill that law, and then how James is instructing the church how to live it out with the help of the Holy Spirit. And so today we wrap up our series with really kind of a warning. And remember the context of this: James is talking to the church in Jerusalem. This is a church made up of mostly converted Jews, but there are also some Gentiles in there. So they know all of the 613 laws, the Mosaic law. They know, they've seen, they've probably been eyewitnesses of Jesus, what took place in Jerusalem. They know of his ministry firsthand. They know of the things that he has said. Some of them maybe even witnessed his crucifixion and then resurrection later on. They've seen it. They've walked through it. They get it. When James begins in this chapter four by saying this phrase, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this? That your passions are at war within you. You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people. Super encouraging, right? Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose? The scripture says he yearns jealousy over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us. But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. That's a fun, encouraging Sunday morning scripture, isn't it? Isn't that a good passage? You adulterous people. Evil, murders, vile. You know, for most of history, um, this little site right here, waving a white flag, is probably one of the most humbling sites you will see on a battlefield. Think about it. What does it represent? Surrendering and giving up. See, when the white flag goes up, it means the fighting's over. I'm done. Means one side has realized they can no longer win under their own strength. In our world, we've actually been taught that that white flag, that white flag of surrender, when we wave that, it's a sign of weakness. You lost. You're out. You've been conquered. In fact, our world has taught us, you don't back down. Never back down. You you keep grinding, you keep going, you win at all costs, even if it means cheating. And even, I think, in our faith, we often treat the law, the law of God, like a scoreboard. We treat it like a scoreboard. Let me let me explain that. Because we have to win, right? We have to win at the law. If we can just try harder, if we can just do more, if we can just be a little bit better, if we can just gossip a little bit less, or drink a little bit less, or or or or not do this, or not do that, or or not go to those places. If we can just do that, we might finally achieve this life that God has promised. Does that make sense? But see, for 10 weeks we've been learning a very difficult truth. A very difficult truth. And and trying to wrap up this difficult truth into one Sunday is a bit daunting as well. But here's the difficult truth. I think if we're going to wrap up the whole series into one phrase, it's this. The law cannot give you life. The law cannot give you life. It can only show you that you're losing the war. That's kind of painful, isn't it? It can only show you that you're losing the war. And so today as we wrap up this series, we're going to look at James 4. We just read the first 10 verses of chapter 4. And James is telling us through this passage, really through all of it, that if we just if we think we can just try harder, if we can just do more, if we can just fight longer, it's not going to work. It won't happen. By doing that, by exerting all that energy, by doing all that stuff, we're not getting anywhere. You ever seen a car stuck in mud just spinning its wheels? It's exerting a lot of energy. It's using a lot of gas. The engine is heating up, but it's not going anywhere. See, if we just try to do more, if we just try to be better, if we just try to fill in the blank, you're not going to achieve the life that God has promised. The only way to truly live once and for all is to wave that white flag of surrender. In this passage, James starts by asking a really kind of a piercing question. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Now remember, remember the context of who he's talking to. He's talking to the church, right? He's talking to believers. He's talking to eyewitness believers who actually saw Jesus, who know all this stuff. Now, he's not just talking about like church business meetings, like not those fights and quarrels, like not board meetings. He's not talking about the arguments that we have about politics or whatever around the tables in the cafe. Or who's gonna win the NCAA tournament, which today's selection Sunday, and it's so we're actually entering the most special time of the year. Holy week. That's that's that's it. Plus March Madness. Um He's not talking about these those types of fights and quarrels and arguments. He's talking about the war inside you. Inside. He mentions things like you don't have, so you murder. Most biblical scholars and theologians agree he's not talking about you going out and actually killing somebody, knocking somebody off. He's not talking about that. He's referring back to even the fact that you might hate someone else because they have that you don't have, that's murder in your heart. He's using phrases like, you covet, you're jealous. Why are you so jealous? You have everything you need through Jesus' death and resurrection. Why are you jealous? He's talking about this war going on inside. And remember, he's talking to the church. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Why are you so tired? Why is there this constant friction, this constant battle between who you are and really who you want to be? It wears you out, it tears you down. James tells us it's because of our passions, it's because of those things, because really, in all reality, we want control. Am I right in saying that? If I'm wrong, correct me, and then I'll tell you that you're wrong. I'll do it in private. I'll be nice about it. We want it our way. Yes. That's why we go to Burger King because we can get it our way when we want it. We try to use God like a vending machine. We just put in our part, give me what I want. I'll do my part again. Push the button, give me what I want. We ask for things to spend them on our own pleasure, our own desires. Under this law mindset, we're the kings of our own little empire. And honestly, we're exhausted from trying to defend the borders of that throne. James 4, he uses, or uh uh verse four, he uses a little bit stronger language. You adulterous people, you're all adulterers. Boy, Pastor Eric, you are making me feel really good today. Why does James call us adulterers? Well, it's pretty simple because we can't be married to the world's way of self-reliance and married to God's way of grace at the same time. It doesn't make sense, it doesn't work, it doesn't mesh together. It's one or the other. But then he gives this most beautiful, beautiful phrase. But he gives more grace. He gives more grace. James wasn't the only one to say that. Paul mentioned it as well. I think if a couple of different folks from different areas were to say the same thing, it's probably pretty accurate. He gives more grace. The law shows us where we fail. The world shows us where we're weak. But folks, God does not use your weakness to crush you. Remember, grace is receiving what you do not deserve. That's the God that we worship. But there is a catch. There is a catch. Grace has a gatekeeper. There's a gatekeeper to grace. And it's this. It has a name, and its name is humility. Anybody love that word, humility? Didn't think so. That's why James goes on to say God opposes the proud. But he shows favor to the humble. See, if we're gonna stand tall in our own strength, God is actually saying, All right, that's where you want to be. Okay, go do your own thing. I'm gonna give you freedom to do that, but you're gonna mess up. It's not gonna work for you. Not because God hates you, not at all. But actually because he loves you so much that he doesn't want you to succeed in a way that's actually gonna kill you. He's he's not gonna let you succeed. It's not good because it's not good for you. So, how do we move from the law, the struggle, to life or peace? How do we move that? James gives us really three easy movements. And and I like, I've got some helpers kind of scattered around here, and they've all got one of these for you. And I want them to go ahead and pass that out if they would. Go ahead and get up and start walking around. I'm gonna keep talking while you're walking around, if that's okay. But James gives us three steps. First, he says, submit to God. Submit to God. This is the white flag. We submit to God. Essentially, you're kind of saying, hey, God, I I resign as general of my own life. I want you to take the lead. I want you to take control. Then he says a second thing. He says, resist the devil. Resist the devil. Here's the cool part. When we submit to God, when we submit, when we surrender to him, that second part, resisting, means we no longer have to do that because now God is general of our life, and when God is general, he doesn't lose battles. Right? He doesn't lose battles. So when you submit, when you surrender, you're not even fighting the devil with your own strength. It's not you, it's him because you are under authority of the one who will not lose the battle. Does that make sense? That's a pretty cool promise. Submit, resist, and then this one is my favorite. Draw near. Draw near. And I really think this is the promise of it all. And I've heard this explained a couple of different ways, and so I want to do my best to try to help you unpack this. There is absolutely no way that we can move nearer to God on our own. Think about this. There is absolutely no way. It kind of clicked, this picture kind of clicked yesterday after uh Nathan and I took the college kids back to the airport, such a lovely place during spring break week on a Saturday. And uh we got back onto uh the lovely, easy to travel I-95 headed north from Fort Lauderdale. Such a wonderful, pleasant experience. Um at one point, I think it's maybe five lanes wide, and then at one point it drops down to one and a half lanes, and then back to three, and then seven. I don't remember. I don't even know. I don't even know. But what I can tell you is that all the lanes going northbound were open. They were open. There was no blockage, there was no construction, there were no accidents, all the lanes were open, but at one point we slowed down to where we had to stop, even though all the lanes were open. And as we stopped, and Nathan heard his dad probably say things he shouldn't have said, and we started to creep along and go again and watch others drive along the shoulder, only wishing there was a policeman a little ways up. You will get yours when you get up there. Thought about keeping tacks in the car and just throwing them out the window is no. Jesus is still working on me, folks, just so you know. We finally get to the point where, oh, I see why we're slowing down and stopping now. Because there was an accident in the express lane over here, but still at the same time, all regular lanes were open. There was no blockage, there was no emergency vehicle, there was no nothing. But because we slow down those rubberneckers. We have to stop and see what the commotion is. Here's a reason why I think this whole idea of drawing near, it doesn't work. We can't do it because in our journey, we're constantly being distracted by the things around us. I told Nathan, if folks would just keep their eyes on the road, stay in their lane, and keep going, we would be just fine. I would be home four minutes sooner than I was. You all get it. But in the reality of life, we can't draw ourselves any nearer to God because we're too focused on the distractions around us. We don't stay focused. We have attention problems. You can't just take ad or all and fix it. We can't just read our Bible more and fix it. We can't just pray more and fix it. We are a fallen, broken human race, and the only way to fix it is to submit and resist and listen to the following of Jesus. Three things submit to God, finally surrender, resist. Remember, it's not under your own strength because we're under new command, we have a new general that doesn't lose battles, and this idea of drawing nearer, we don't do it. But that act of submission, of surrendering, of keeping our eyes fixed and focused on him, he's the one that begins to draw. You ever tailgated a semi while driving? And got in the draft of a semi, and you watched your miles per gallon creep a little bit higher? You get in that draft because you're following the one who is in charge. And you begin to follow the one who is in charge, they begin to draw you along under their power and not your own. Submit, resist, and really I think the better phrase is. Is be drawn nearer to him. Folks, this is so practical. And even though this was a letter written to the church in Jerusalem way back, it's still perfect for us today. Because he's the one moving towards us. He's not hiding behind this curtain of six hundred and thirteen laws or rules. That curtain's been split and torn in two. He's available to all through his son Jesus Christ. All we have to do is surrender. That's all we have to do. Paul tells us. Just confess with your mouth that he is Lord. Believe and confess. It's an act of submission. It's an act of surrender. I'd like y'all if you just take out that handkerchief, unfold it. No, I'm not going to make a get up, and we're not going to march around like we would in the days of old. I still remember Pastor Romine getting blessed and taking off the platform. He was kind of a big guy, but he could move. And it would sound like a steam engine running around that church. Woo! He'd be getting filled with spirit. I was young and little and scared. Don't come my direction. Don't come my direction. But take that out and just look at it. It's it's a simple white handkerchief. Very simple. Not much to it. It's a simple white handkerchief. I want you to understand that this is not a sign of defeat. It's not. See, in the kingdom of God, submission is the only path to victory. Surrender is the only way to make it work. And so when we wave the flag, we're not saying I'm the loser. We're not saying that. We're saying I am a child of God. And I don't have to fight for my worth anymore. Because my worth, my value is in him, is in the creator, is in the one who sent his son and ripped the veil and tore down the rules, and now we just seek after him. Because Jesus already won the war. The fight's over. And so as we as we move forward today from this series and get ready to launch into something brand new, as we prepare for Holy Week and just a few short weeks, as we prepare for this coming weekend, as we look at covenant culture and what that means. We're going to do a responsive reading. Nathan, could you put that responsive reading up there for me? There we go. Oh. Does it go line by line by line? We'll do that line by line. I'm going to call this the litany of surrender. I didn't put it up there, but LOS, the loss. Because it's not a loss, it's actually a gain. I'm going to say a phrase. And I'm going to ask you where it'll say, I believe it'll say leader and then all, leader and then all. Where it says all, that's. Yeah, that's you. Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah. But as you read that, as you say that, would you mind waving the flag of surrender? Can we do that? Just as a physical motion. Are you ready? Here's how we're gonna start. To the lie that I am not enough. Nathan, help us here. To the lie that I am not enough. Next one. To the weight of my own performance. Submit to his finished work. And to the God who calls me his own, I draw near and find life. I believe when we come together under one voice, under one movement, when we submit, when we resist, and when we are drawn near, we become this immovable force. We're told that the very gates of hell cannot hold back the power of the church. Folks, the law has been fulfilled through Jesus. You are no longer under that condemnation and under that weight. Because we are now seeking and following the one who perfectly fulfilled the law and who has given his spirit to live in all. So that we might be that church that is not surrendering. We've already surrendered to the leader, so now we're part of this great movement that the very gates of hell cannot stop. So, folks, as we worship in just a moment, remember, remember that surrender. It is not defeat, it is victory. It is victory. He has already won, which means now we can go in his grace and be the church where the world needs to see the church. Yes. And listen, in your own life, if you have not done this yet, if you have not surrendered your life to the one who has already won the battle, don't miss your moment. Maybe this morning you need to recommit. That's okay too. I remember hitting that altar 17 times during camp meeting. If you need to resubmit again, that is okay. He's not gonna make you go back to the starting line. He's gonna pick you up, dust you off, fix whatever needs to be fixed, and say, let's keep going on this journey together. Because he's already won the battle. Yes, it's as easy as Paul said. We believe and we confess. I surrender. You are Lord of my life. That's it. And folks, he will take you on a wild and amazing journey that is life changing, that is transformative, and it's not under your own power, it's under his. Because of his grace. Yes, amen.