SPEAKER_00: So we're going to continue our study this evening in James, and we've made it to chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be looking at the first few verses this evening, and as we turn there, I'd um I'd like to tell you a little bit, a little bit about my uh my upbringing.
SPEAKER_00: I I loved as a young guy, young boy, I loved action.
SPEAKER_00: Some might say, I'm all about that action.
SPEAKER_00: Some might some might say, oh, he's just he's just a guy that likes to crash into things.
SPEAKER_00: He's just a he's just a guy that likes to see who's best, to see who's better at whatever it was.
SPEAKER_00: And uh at times we can get into these situations uh as youngsters, and we we we don't really understand, we don't understand the the scope and the gravity of the things that we're playing with.
SPEAKER_00: And for me, I loved to play uh with little army figures.
SPEAKER_00: I'd set them up, little green guys, I'd set them up around the house, and they'd be like the tan squad versus the green squad, and they'd be like up in the cabinets, they'd be on the counter, they'd be in my room, and they'd be everywhere, and I was so obsessed with with battle, with fighting, with with army troops.
SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
SPEAKER_00: I would draw, I would draw jets all the time on my homework.
SPEAKER_00: On the backside of the pages that were blank, I'd be drawing all kinds of jets.
SPEAKER_00: There was a an air uh air base near my house when I was growing up, March Air Force Base, and I would go there and just walk around and stand in front of the jets and just draw them.
SPEAKER_00: I loved watching how they flew in the sky.
SPEAKER_00: We'd go to shows where these military aircraft would just be put on full display.
SPEAKER_00: And I I just like the idea of just destruction, just blowing stuff up.
SPEAKER_00: I'd play war in the backyard with my friends.
SPEAKER_00: We'd get dirt clods and try to like throw them at each other and you know, play war.
SPEAKER_00: But really, what I what I didn't really understand was how serious, how gruesome, how how devastating war actually is.
SPEAKER_00: Growing up in America, war looked like big aircraft carriers and jets and tanks that, you know, as a little boy, I'd play with them.
SPEAKER_00: I'd play with little figurines, I'd play with jets, I'd I'd cruise around the house with my with my toy planes, but I didn't really understand, I didn't understand the gravity, I didn't understand the scope and actually the destruction of war.
SPEAKER_00: I had I had no clue.
SPEAKER_00: I had no clue.
SPEAKER_00: All I knew was what my what my uh my dad would tell me about grandpa and the stories uh of his time in the military.
SPEAKER_00: And I I'd I'd hear about stories from my uncle about what he uh what he saw in the Middle East, and I didn't really have an understanding other than just this romanticized this this idea that it was just cool.
SPEAKER_00: It was cool to blow stuff up, it was cool to to fight with people in a playing sense.
SPEAKER_00: And what I want us to look for in our text today is just how how destructive war can be, how destructive battles can be, striving, fighting.
SPEAKER_00: And what I what I want you to think about is is life and death, physical life, physical death, spiritual life and and spiritual death.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's important for us to take a look.
SPEAKER_00: And James wants us to see that inside our passions, the immaterial things that are going on inside of us, the things that we want, the things that we long for, they're gonna cause war within.
SPEAKER_00: And we really need to be paying attention to where our hearts are being pulled to, where where our hearts go when we don't get what we want.
SPEAKER_00: When we see other people having things and we don't have them.
SPEAKER_00: When we're asking for things in a way that would be help helping someone else, but really they're for ourselves or for selfish gain.
SPEAKER_00: It's important for us to see what James is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: There's a real battle, there's a real struggle going on, and though there are wars going on even now in our world today, there's a war for your soul going on inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to really pay attention to that.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to think about these things this evening.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a look at our text today.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look to the text.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see what James is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 4, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
SPEAKER_00: Is it not that this, you that your passions are at war within you?
SPEAKER_00: You desire and you do not have, so you murder.
SPEAKER_00: You covet and can't obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
SPEAKER_00: You do not have because you do not ask.
SPEAKER_00: You ask and you don't receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your own passions.
SPEAKER_00: To spend it on your own passions.
SPEAKER_00: I I once heard it said, maybe, maybe you've heard it too, if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You'll never work, it's too easy.
SPEAKER_00: It'll just be fun and bliss, and and it's not gonna be stressful, it's not gonna be hard.
SPEAKER_00: You're just gonna enjoy life to the fullest if you're working at what you truly love.
SPEAKER_00: And um of you probably weren't thinking about that when when you're thinking, okay, well, working in a maybe in an auto park store, or maybe driving around a vehicle all day, or maybe cutting blocks and putting them in a certain way on the ground, or maybe maybe you grew up and you're thinking, like, yeah, I just want to type at a keyboard all day.
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna make me so happy.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: We go after them.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I I speak about work because sometimes for the for the adults in the room, people that have been working for a long time, um, work is just part of life.
SPEAKER_00: But for for you students, the these things that we get to do, going to jobs, typing on a keyboard, reading books, working with people to help them feel better, help restore and repair their bodies, um, build big things, help market things, deliver things, all these things that we get to do are just a part of life.
SPEAKER_00: But but verse one is drawing our attention to something interesting.
SPEAKER_00: What happens when we don't get what we want?
SPEAKER_00: I'm imagining two siblings playing with a toy that they both enjoy playing with.
SPEAKER_00: What happens?
SPEAKER_00: One sibly grabs one part of it, the other grabs the other, and they just pull in opposite directions.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why is this quarreling going on?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you guys fighting over this?
SPEAKER_00: And James is speaking to a congregation, James is speaking to a church body in Jerusalem, and he's he's writing this letter, and he's he's very much aware, even at church, there are people that believe and people that don't believe.
SPEAKER_00: There's a mixed group of individuals that are attending church, that are attending this local meeting of believers.
SPEAKER_00: And he's asking them, why?
SPEAKER_00: What causes this?
SPEAKER_00: And what really, he's aware of it.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, we know what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a look inside.
SPEAKER_00: Why is it?
SPEAKER_00: It's this.
SPEAKER_00: Your passions are at war within you.
SPEAKER_00: Passions.
SPEAKER_00: I've I've been interacting with with a variety of people since since I graduated high school, and I love I love passionate people.
SPEAKER_00: I love people that are really into something.
SPEAKER_00: They're sold out, they're all in.
SPEAKER_00: Everything, every bit of energy that they have, they're going after it.
SPEAKER_00: They they think about it, they dream about it, they they draw on the back of their on their homework about it.
SPEAKER_00: Every spare moment is spent thinking, dreaming, imagining what what it is that they want to do.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this passion that is speaking, that we're speaking about in this text uh is is something is something different.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read on.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read on and see that these passions aren't the things that are actually good.
SPEAKER_00: These these passions are are fleshly, are worldly.
SPEAKER_00: And and this is this can be uh a problem.
SPEAKER_00: Now, quarreling is is a word that we don't always use.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you are at home and mom, mom, or dad are like, hey, stop, stop your quarreling.
SPEAKER_00: Stop your quarreling.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: Biblical, okay?
SPEAKER_00: What's going on with siblings?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, stop your quarreling.
SPEAKER_00: Go read James chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: Stop your quarreling, stop fighting.
SPEAKER_00: You're going at going after this person in a way because you're not getting something that you want.
SPEAKER_00: It could be it against one person, it could be against multiple people, but you're not getting what you want.
SPEAKER_00: And why?
SPEAKER_00: Why is it that you're not getting what you want?
SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe that's just part of life.
SPEAKER_00: You just don't get everything that you want.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get every video game that you asked for for Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking over here because it's just easier to look this way than that way.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe these guys don't play as much video games on this right side.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they do.
SPEAKER_00: Steam Decks, no?
SPEAKER_00: Sean?
SPEAKER_00: Hmm?
SPEAKER_00: Disputes, arguing, tiffs.
SPEAKER_00: They could be physical, they could be verbal.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes, for for this room, for the students here, I'm leaning to believe that it's most of the time it's verbal.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's verbal back and forth, it's verbal sparring, it's verbal debating, it's pushing back against what your parents say.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's debating with your siblings in a way that's not honoring to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's lashing out with harsh and sharp and bitter words when we don't get what we want.
SPEAKER_00: These desires that are that are inside.
SPEAKER_00: Another translation would just exchange the word desire with lust, a strong desire for pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: We're thinking about the senses, we're thinking about a strong hunger for something, um, an experience, uh, a thing, uh, a taste.
SPEAKER_00: We we need to be careful.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be careful because the more that we give into these quarrels and these fightings, the more the root of our um of our desires will be made known.
SPEAKER_00: Let's write this down for point number one.
SPEAKER_00: We need to identify the source of your quarrels.
SPEAKER_00: We need to figure out where these are coming from.
SPEAKER_00: Where are these quarrels coming from?
SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes I think it's it's coming from from a perceived lack.
SPEAKER_00: We're looking around, we're comparing ourselves to other people.
SPEAKER_00: We're looking to a sibling, we're looking to maybe privileges that older older individuals have, and you're thinking, well, I'm mature enough.
SPEAKER_00: I know, I know I can handle that.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe your parents are like, not yet, wait.
SPEAKER_00: Nope, not yet.
SPEAKER_00: No, not yet.
SPEAKER_00: But but so and so are going.
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying no.
SPEAKER_00: That's not fair.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I life's not fair.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you how many of you have you heard that life's not fair?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we got some hands and faces.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, in the back row.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, I've heard it.
SPEAKER_00: Just you got a clicker, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're like in the thousands by now.
SPEAKER_00: Life's not fair.
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah.
SPEAKER_00: We we have this, I like to call it a a gimme gimme mentality.
SPEAKER_00: And I like to say it in a certain voice too.
SPEAKER_00: Gimme gimme.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, where's mine?
SPEAKER_00: Why can't I have it?
SPEAKER_00: Gimme gimme, where's mine?
SPEAKER_00: It sounds funny, but it's true.
SPEAKER_00: We all have this attitude in us at some point in our lives, and we're like, I why is it that I don't have that?
SPEAKER_00: I want that.
SPEAKER_00: Why can I have that?
SPEAKER_00: That's not fair.
SPEAKER_00: I work harder than him, I'm more respectful than him.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm and you we play the comparison game.
SPEAKER_00: And then when we look left and we look right and we start comparing ourselves to others, we start comparing ourselves what we don't have and what other people have, these sharper feelings start to bubble up inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: They start to bubble up, they start to build, the pressure starts to intensify.
SPEAKER_00: And what you're thinking about in these moments is like, but but those are good for me.
SPEAKER_00: This is gonna be good for me to have this experience.
SPEAKER_00: This is gonna be good for me to have this phone or this toy or or this trip to this place or or spending time at this person's house or spending night over there, whatever the case may be.
SPEAKER_00: Your idea of like what's good for you and what's gonna please you, what's gonna benefit you, oftentimes from an earthly perspective, is going to is going to help you, but I'd like to ask you to consider a more eternal long game, end game view.
SPEAKER_00: My my kids love dessert.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure about you students.
SPEAKER_00: I I have uh I have a handful of kiddos and they love they love dessert.
SPEAKER_00: And we have it sparingly, and when we have it, it's it's great.
SPEAKER_00: We give them things that they like to eat.
SPEAKER_00: And one one time my middle daughter uh was having such a great time enjoying dessert, and we weren't really paying attention.
SPEAKER_00: She went back for another scoop, uh, and then we weren't paying attention, she went back for another scoop.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we were distracted parents, so that's on us.
SPEAKER_00: That's my fault.
SPEAKER_00: But the end result of getting what she really, really, really wanted and having more of what she wanted, and having more of what she wanted, and having more of what she wanted, you know where the story's going, and having more of what she wanted.
SPEAKER_00: Little little Carrie went to bed, and we all woke up, and guess what, guess what was all over her, and everywhere in the bed, and every you know, I'm not gonna even say it.
SPEAKER_00: It was a mess.
SPEAKER_00: It was not good for her, it was not good for us as parents.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to clean all that up in the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_00: It's like 2 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: But I tell you what, she has not she has not over-indulged in this way since she she learned her lesson.
SPEAKER_00: And I think I'd like to bring this to our attention just to create an illustration.
SPEAKER_00: The things that you really, really want in life, the things that are gonna satisfy, that are gonna bring you pleasure in this life, in this temporary life, there's a parallel there.
SPEAKER_00: It may, it may be, um, it may be entertainment.
SPEAKER_00: It may be a certain friend that you think you need.
SPEAKER_00: It might be a certain lifestyle that you think you want that is gonna bring you pleasure, or a certain vehicle that's gonna satisfy you, a certain vacation that's gonna just just help you relax and just be okay.
SPEAKER_00: Uh a certain a certain phone, maybe some of you are thinking, my friend has that, and there's nothing in my pocket.
SPEAKER_00: What's going on here?
SPEAKER_00: Injustice.
SPEAKER_00: No, you have a gimme gimme mentality.
SPEAKER_00: You think you know what's best for you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I would like to challenge you on that and to think about what what is the end result of you getting all the things that you think you need, the things that you want in your own mind.
SPEAKER_00: What's the end goal for you?
SPEAKER_00: Is it is it pleasure, is it to help you feel uh confident or better about yourself compared to your friends?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, whatever it may be, let's just be let's be cautious about what we think we need and and what other people have.
SPEAKER_00: I'd I'd like to draw our attention to Titus chapter 3, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it says this, for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led us stray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others, and hating one another.
SPEAKER_00: This this is the world that we live in.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about wisdom not too long ago, worldly wisdom, heavenly, godly wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: If we have God's word, we have we have a wisdom that is going to lead to life.
SPEAKER_00: But those who have earthly wisdom are foolish, they're they're astray, they're slaves to their passions.
SPEAKER_00: They think they're wise in their own eyes, but they're not.
SPEAKER_00: They are they're sprinting towards a cliff that leads to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I I think I think uh all of us would do well to have less than we have.
SPEAKER_00: Less than we have.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been somewhere or have you ever driven through a certain part of town?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been out of state, maybe you've been to a different country, and and you look around and you see what's going on, you're like all of a sudden it hits you.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've seen a video, maybe you see some history clips from around the world, a news clip from around the world, and you realize I am filthy rich.
SPEAKER_00: I have I have way too much.
SPEAKER_00: I have way too much, and all of a sudden you're realizing all the things that I think I need are like, well, they're they're fading for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: They're fading.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like us to think about just the material and earthly things and our attitudes towards them, what we have and what we think we need.
SPEAKER_00: We really need to assess that.
SPEAKER_00: Really need to assess the next time you have money to spend, what is what is that money going to do?
SPEAKER_00: What is that purchase going to do for you?
SPEAKER_00: Are you thinking it's gonna think it's gonna satisfy the things on your birthday list, on your wish list for Christmas, maybe, the things that you're saving up for?
SPEAKER_00: What are they gonna do for you?
SPEAKER_00: Are they going to bring the pleasure?
SPEAKER_00: Are they gonna bring the value that you think they they bring?
SPEAKER_00: Now when I was when I was younger, another story here, I I thought that I thought that having a cool RC car like the kid down the street was gonna bring me happiness.
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was just gonna be the best thing ever.
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was gonna be what makes me the kid that people want to come and hang out with because I have an RC car.
SPEAKER_00: Um God quickly, quickly helped me understand that material things, toys, fun things that I get to play with out in the street or with my friends don't bring pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: It was two weeks after I got it that my sister uh drove it into a body of water and killed all the electronics, and it was never, never the same ever again.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a temporary thing.
SPEAKER_00: All the things that we reach after that we think we want, that think we think we need, they're all so temporary.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so just keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_00: Keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as we continue in in our passage here, we're talking about desires, and verse two is gonna speak to these strong desires.
SPEAKER_00: Read with me.
SPEAKER_00: You're you desire and you do not have, so you murder.
SPEAKER_00: You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
SPEAKER_00: You do not have because you do not ask.
SPEAKER_00: You do not ask.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you are constantly asking your parents for things?
SPEAKER_00: To be taken places, to be given something, to go and have a certain food to eat.
SPEAKER_00: We ask questions all the time.
SPEAKER_00: We I mean I ask my parents all the time, like, hey dad, can you help me with the truck?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I can't get this break off.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have the right tools, I don't, I don't have the right experience.
SPEAKER_00: There's there's good, there's good to be found in asking for help.
SPEAKER_00: There's good to be having things, material things.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a really nice vehicle, you can have a really nice home and and use it in a way that brings much glory to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You're not in it for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You're using it to take people places, you're using it to have people over, to be hospitable, to lend your vehicle out to someone that needs it.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's not necessarily about the things that you have or or don't have, but James is talking to his listeners and saying, You're murdering.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's speaking about the heart.
SPEAKER_00: If he's he's speaking about a group that's just going on uh killing sprees, I don't think that's what James is talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: He's speaking about what Jesus alludes to about hating your brother and it being the same as murder.
SPEAKER_00: That's what James is speaking about here.
SPEAKER_00: When you're when you're looking at your desires and how you're looking at other people, and the attitude of your heart is is covetous, is hating towards someone.
SPEAKER_00: This this is what James is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: You're murdering in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You're wanting something so so badly, and you can't obtain it.
SPEAKER_00: Still verse 2, so you fight and quarrel.
SPEAKER_00: You fight and quarrel.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have because you don't ask.
SPEAKER_00: Let's write this down for point number two.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be suspicious of what brings you pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: Be suspicious, be skeptical.
SPEAKER_00: You need to ask yourself, why do I want that?
SPEAKER_00: Why why am I so interested in this, in this person, in this activity, in this item?
SPEAKER_00: We need to be suspicious of our own hearts because they're so easily led astray.
SPEAKER_00: They're so easily led to want things that you re that you don't need.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe that you that you want and just are claiming they're for for a good reason, but really they're for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Luke in chapter 8, verse 14, there's a parable that's being explained, and it's the parable of the soils.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is speaking to the people and giving them an idea of what's going on with the different seed in the soil.
SPEAKER_00: And the seed is the word of God, it's the gospel that goes out, and it lands on a variety of different soils.
SPEAKER_00: And he's speaking about how how the seed responds to its environment.
SPEAKER_00: How does a seed respond to its environment?
SPEAKER_00: In verse 14, it says this and as for as for what fell among the thorns, the seeds that are being cast out into the thorny soil, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they're choked out by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
SPEAKER_00: There's great distraction.
SPEAKER_00: There's great things that are put up on hills, put up uh in display cases, on billboards, on advertisements.
SPEAKER_00: Everywhere you look, you're trying to be someone's trying to convince you to buy something.
SPEAKER_00: You might even get a knock on your door.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, uh, your Wi-Fi might not be good enough.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, your security system is so old, you need to upgrade.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, have you considered solar?
SPEAKER_00: This is gonna save you so much money.
SPEAKER_00: People are trying to get you to buy into the temporary, into the here and now.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's uh hobbies, whether it's sports, whether it's collecting things, whatever it may be.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it may be.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard of uh this this term called a grail?
SPEAKER_00: It's my grail, it's the grail card, it's the grail car.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know where that term comes from?
SPEAKER_00: Grail, holy grail?
SPEAKER_00: Some Indiana Jones?
unknown: No.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I need to watch Harrison Ford one more time to fact check you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But this this idea of chasing after grail is chasing after something that is of great value, with great intensity.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're going after a thing with with eagerness.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that's highly sought after.
SPEAKER_00: And I did some some homework on where does this word word grail come from?
SPEAKER_00: And it comes from, some people think it's it's a a cup or a vessel that Jesus used in the Last Supper.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's the Holy Grail.
SPEAKER_00: And there there is some history and some and some documentation of knights going on quests to find this grail.
SPEAKER_00: For what purpose?
SPEAKER_00: I didn't get that far.
SPEAKER_00: But my assumption is that there is some kind of value, some kind of power, some kind of status to be had if you had this cup, if you had this one thing that Jesus touched on the night before he was betrayed at the Last Supper.
SPEAKER_00: And people go after their own personal grails.
SPEAKER_00: These knights over the course of history may have found it.
SPEAKER_00: It's irrelevant to me now, but there are over 200 so-called grails that are actually claiming to be the one that Jesus used on the night before he betrayed, was betrayed.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no confirmation, there's no fact-checking on it, but there's a handful of people that are saying, We got it.
SPEAKER_00: We got it, we got the one thing.
SPEAKER_00: Now, kings sent out knights with great treasure, with great resources and great pursuits to go after a fancy cup.
SPEAKER_00: A fancy cup.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of fancy things are you chasing after?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a job?
SPEAKER_00: Is it is it a good thing, face value?
SPEAKER_00: It could be a really good thing for you.
SPEAKER_00: But do you have it in its proper place?
SPEAKER_00: Are you going after something in a way that's that's not with a covetous heart?
SPEAKER_00: You're not trying to get it because someone else have it and you don't.
SPEAKER_00: You're not trying to go at it because you need it to be satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: It might even be a good thing that you're asking for.
SPEAKER_00: This this fancy thing, this grail of yours might be something that uh is a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: It might be a useful thing.
SPEAKER_00: It might be something as simple as like a pair of boots or a hat or maybe a horse or a car, something that's actually useful.
SPEAKER_00: But if you have it in its wrong place and you're desiring it with ill intent and you're and you're coveting it, you're you're envying those that have it, we're we're getting off the tracks.
SPEAKER_00: It's you're you're we we need to be suspicious of of these thoughts because if we don't, it's so easy to put these these shiny, glittery things up in places where they don't belong, up in places where they don't belong.
SPEAKER_00: And um, I'm thinking of the Old Testament, God instructed his people not not to worship in in high places.
SPEAKER_00: That that's that's where pagan worship happened.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be careful about what we put up into these high places, these statuses for things that we see in this world that don't belong there.
SPEAKER_00: Because only one person, only one being deserves the praise and the worship.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're we're going after these things that are causing quarrels, that are causing arguments among you and your siblings, you and your parents, we need to be so careful because it's so easy to worship things and not have our minds fixed on eternity.
SPEAKER_00: We're thinking so firmly about the here and now and what can bring us happiness here and now.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be thinking about what lies beyond this life.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what does the scripture have to say?
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 16, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Where should we go?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11 says this, you make known to me the path of life.
SPEAKER_00: In your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: There is a good place to find pleasure, and that's with an eternal and perfect God.
SPEAKER_00: Are you pursuing a relationship to know this God?
SPEAKER_00: Are you pursuing a relationship to have the right kind of pleasure that you can experience by knowing your Maker, by knowing the Savior?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of questions are you asking about knowing this God, the God of the Bible, the God of the scriptures?
SPEAKER_00: And you need to be thinking about the way that you're asking, asking God.
SPEAKER_00: You could be asking God for things that are that are wholesome, that are good, that would honor Him, but might be a little bit backwards, might be some alternative motives involved.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be thinking about this in John chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: John gives us a framework.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is is re is speaking, and he's he says this in verse 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
SPEAKER_00: If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.
SPEAKER_00: I will do it.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be thinking about what will be glorifying and honoring to God.
SPEAKER_00: The things that you're asking God for, we say in Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: We're we're talking to the Father in the name of the Son so that God would be glorified, so that Jesus would be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: So often our prayers are really selfish.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes our prayers are like all about me, me, myself, and I.
SPEAKER_00: This is going to benefit me if God answers this prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like us to be thinking about even the way we ask God, the way we talk to God and request things that are good of him.
SPEAKER_00: We need to ask God for a heart that has the right motives, the right intentions.
SPEAKER_00: That's not about me, but it's about his glory and not our own.
SPEAKER_00: His nod of approval and not our own.
SPEAKER_00: Let's write this down for point number three.
SPEAKER_00: We need to ask God to purify our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Because if we don't have a pure heart, we're going to be asking for all the wrong things.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be going about this life in a way that's all about me, myself, and I.
SPEAKER_00: When we're asking, verse three, you ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be suspicious and we need to be careful about the posture and position of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: We need to ask God to align our hearts with what would please Him.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be in line with what the scriptures say.
SPEAKER_00: We need to have a pure heart.
SPEAKER_00: If we're calling out to God with a pure heart that is seeking to have his name be glorified, and we're asking, God, do this for your benefit, for your glory, for your honor.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.
SPEAKER_00: God, help me have a better attitude toward my sibling.
SPEAKER_00: God, please help me to submit to my parents.
SPEAKER_00: It's so hard.
SPEAKER_00: God, help me to be kind to my little brother.
SPEAKER_00: God, help me to be kind to my little sisters.
SPEAKER_00: God, help me to be help me to be more respectful to my teachers, to my parents.
SPEAKER_00: I need, I need, I need help.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to say I need help.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to ask God to correct you.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever asked God to show you where you're messing up?
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: God, I want to honor you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to please you with my life.
SPEAKER_00: Show me my sin.
SPEAKER_00: Mom, dad, do you see the ways that I'm off the tracks?
SPEAKER_00: God, help me to see where I'm failing.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to please you.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to honor you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make your name known.
SPEAKER_00: I want to glorify you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to obey you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be faithful.
SPEAKER_00: I want to know you more.
SPEAKER_00: God, help me understand these scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: God, help me to be wise.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to understand what's going on in your word.
SPEAKER_00: He'll be faithful to answer that prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We need a pure heart.
SPEAKER_00: We need God to purify our hearts day after day after day because temptation is never going to stop.
SPEAKER_00: There's always, even in the pursuit of good things, there's always a temper, a temptation between where you are and the good work that God would have for you.
SPEAKER_00: There's temptation in between point A and point B.
SPEAKER_00: We need God, even in the things that we're trying to do good that are pleasing to Him.
SPEAKER_00: God, help me not get distracted.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to do this with a pure heart.
SPEAKER_00: Help me not to be proud in this.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to have a good attitude on the inside and the outside.
SPEAKER_00: God, I want to please you.
SPEAKER_00: Second Timothy chapter 3 says this.
SPEAKER_00: But understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty, for people will be lovers of.
SPEAKER_00: Well, now let's take a close look here.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Timothy chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Speaking about the people in the last days, that's us.
SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be people that are lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
SPEAKER_00: Having the appearance, the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.
SPEAKER_00: Avoid such people.
SPEAKER_00: There's a great caution here.
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to mess up.
SPEAKER_00: These people are all around.
SPEAKER_00: We struggle with these things too.
SPEAKER_00: We struggle with this list.
SPEAKER_00: We need God's help.
SPEAKER_00: God, help me not to be arrogant.
SPEAKER_00: Help me not to be proud.
SPEAKER_00: Help me not to care so much about money.
SPEAKER_00: God, help me to work hard.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to be thankful.
SPEAKER_00: You can take this list here in 2 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 5, and just look at the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: God, help me be the opposite of this.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to be the other side of this coin.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to struggle with these sins.
SPEAKER_00: God, I want to obey you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to obey you.
SPEAKER_00: We need to cry out to God with the words of David in Psalm 51, God, create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.
SPEAKER_00: We all fall short.
SPEAKER_00: This list here that we just we looked at in 2 Timothy 3, I mean it's like a bingo.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a bingo checklist.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, man, like at some point in my life, I'm like, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, man.
SPEAKER_00: This is like blackout bingo.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I win.
SPEAKER_00: I win.
SPEAKER_00: That's me.
SPEAKER_00: We all fall short.
SPEAKER_00: We all sin.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 John, John says this.
SPEAKER_00: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: If we're saying I'm good, I'm I don't, I'm not checking any of those boxes.
SPEAKER_00: It says we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
SPEAKER_00: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: We we need to live this verse out.
SPEAKER_00: We need to, we need to admit we do have sin.
SPEAKER_00: We need to admit, God, that your truth is not in me and I need it.
SPEAKER_00: I need your truth in me.
SPEAKER_00: I need your spirit in me.
SPEAKER_00: We need to confess our sins.
SPEAKER_00: We need to say, I'm wrong, God, you're right.
SPEAKER_00: My way is is opposite of your way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not faithful, but God, you are faithful.
SPEAKER_00: He's faithful to forgive you.
SPEAKER_00: He's faithful to cleanse you of all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope that you really wrestle with the war within.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're trying to understand as you're looking at your passions, you're looking at the way that you're interacting with the people around you, the things that are going on on the inside, that the outside might be like, but the inside's like, it's messed up.
SPEAKER_00: Really evaluate the inside.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to put on a face.
SPEAKER_00: Especially you growing up in homes where your parents are believers, they they love the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy, it's easy to put on this face.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to take a look on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: Really evaluate.
SPEAKER_00: Evaluate what's going on on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: Assess these passions that are going on inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: It's good for you.
SPEAKER_00: It's good for us to assess the war that's going on inside.
SPEAKER_00: God is faithful to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: We need to confess our sins.
SPEAKER_00: We need to turn from them and place our faith in Him for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: It's available.
SPEAKER_00: It's available tonight.
SPEAKER_00: It's available to you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: God, we we confess that we missed the mark.
SPEAKER_00: God, we we we might not be the headline sinner that's that's in the news that is failing on a on a state or global or national scale, but God, we we fall short of your standard, we fall short of your glory.
SPEAKER_00: And God, we need your help to to be made right.
SPEAKER_00: We we can't stand before you without without a clean slate, without a spotless sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And God, you've provided our sacrifice through Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We have forgiveness of sins through the Lamb who was slain.
SPEAKER_00: God help us to evaluate what's going on in our hearts, what we really care most about, what's what's waging war within us, the passions that we have.
SPEAKER_00: God help us to have a strong desire to to turn from them, to assess them rightly, and to to see our need for you, God.
SPEAKER_00: You are eternal.
SPEAKER_00: God, you you can you can forgive and you do.
SPEAKER_00: God, help us to have the faith that you can and help us to have the faith to pursue and turn from the things that so easily distract that are so temporary.
SPEAKER_00: And God help us to put our mind uh on eternal things.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.