Conflict: Who's On The Throne?

Well good morning Summit Church. My name is Chris.

I am your campus pastor. I'll be in the book of James today, so if you have your Bible, turn to James chapter 4 today. If you're new here, we have been in a series called From the Beginning. We will return and finish that series up next week, but this is kind of like that hidden bonus track that you find on the album out of the book of James.

So, you know, we're gonna get to that little hidden bonus track right here that is definitely dealing with relationships in this message as well. I love the book of James. Some people call James the Proverbs of the New Testament, but I'm even more intrigued about James himself because James actually was Jesus's little brother.

Now you think about that for a minute. I'm sure that James and his siblings, because Jesus had many brothers and sisters, they probably struggled with the fact that their big brother was God, and they probably wrestled with this more than anybody else because of their just close proximity to Jesus. But nevertheless, they, just like many of us, had to get to know Jesus as Savior and worship their big brother as Lord.

So just as a quick little warning right here before we go any further into the message, you know, some of us are just like James and his siblings. You grew up with godly parents. You experienced God's grace. You attended the church events. You said the prayer over your meals.

You even sang the songs. But it's my prayer today that you go away worshiping Jesus as Savior, that you get to know Him, and you not just think just because you were around Jesus that you knew Jesus. Even if you study God's Word, I pray that you not just be a person that studies God's Word, but you get to know the God of His Word. Amen? I mean, but think about it for a minute. What would it take to convince you that your sibling is the Savior? Think about that for a minute. Some of y'all are like, Pastor Chris, what would it take to convince you that my sibling was not the devil?

Alright? Because I know some of y'all here, some of y'all that are sitting here right now, and y'all are some of those big brothers and big sisters right in here, and I know some of that cruel stuff that you did to your younger siblings. If you're a big brother or a big sister, then raise your hand for a minute. Uh-huh.

I see all y'all right now. I was the youngest, so I never knew what that was like, but I know how I was treated. I think about my big brother, one of the things that he did was centered around Kool-Aid, okay? Now, some of y'all don't even know what Kool-Aid is, do you? I'm talking about Kool-Aid. Oh, yeah.

That. I don't know if that's like a, you know, was that a drink that was, if you were African-Americans, that was something that y'all, we just grew up drinking, or this is just a southern thing? But Kool-Aid was a big deal in my house. My mama made the best Kool-Aid in the world, all right? And it was so sweet, oh my god. It was so sweet that if you sniffed it, you got diabetes.

I mean, listen, let me tell you something. It was, she did not put sugar in her Kool-Aid, she put Kool-Aid in her sugar. We didn't even eat dessert. We just drank Kool-Aid for dessert. I mean, it was super sweet, and as a kid, we loved it.

We loved it. My big brother was always trying to hog the Kool-Aid, so he would do a little slick stuff to try to make me not want to drink the Kool-Aid. He walked past Kool-Aid and went, huh. He said, look, there's boogers in the Kool-Aid. You can't, you can't have any in the Kool-Aid, man. You don't want to drink that. And I'm looking at, I'm a little kid, I've seen stuff floating around in there, and it's like the dye and whatever else is in the Kool-Aid, and I'm thinking, oh man, those are boogers. And my mom was like, Chris, no, it's not. You can drink the Kool-Aid.

And I mean, even to this day, I'm still a little paranoid when I look at my drink and I see stuff. So thank you, big brothers and big sisters. That's the kind of damage y'all caused on us now. But listen, for the most part, me and my brothers, I got along pretty well in my family, but let's just be real. In our families, we've never seen a family that's absent of conflict.

Why? Because we live in a fallen world. Conflict is unavoidable, but the question is, so how do we deal with conflict in our lives? But like any good counselor, you know, it's one thing to deal with the conflict, but in order to deal with the conflict, you must find out what is at the root of the conflict, right? So I got some good news, some bad news for you.

Here's the bad news. Conflict always arises when the wrong person is on the throne. And you say, well, what is the throne, Chris? Well, the throne represents what rules your life.

It represents who is at the center of your life. As long as the wrong person is on the throne, there's gonna be conflict. But the good news is that if the right person is on the throne, it will always cure any conflict that you face. So let's jump into James chapter 4, and let's look at how James, Pastor James, how he addresses the problem of conflict, and he later gives us a solution. So I think there's two questions that just arise from this text.

One is actually in the text, and the first one is this. What causes conflicts in our lives? What causes conflicts in our lives? And later on, we're gonna talk about how do we deal with it, but right now, what causes conflicts in our lives? Verse 1, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

Immediately, James answers our first question. The fights among us are a result of what's within us. See that Greek word for passions right here? This is where we get the word hedonism. Now what is hedonism? It's the philosophy that views our pleasures as the chief goal in life. You ever heard the phrase YOLO before?

YOLO means you only live once. That kind of thinking is birthed out of this philosophy, hedonism. The chief goal in my life is for me to please myself. I live my life to please myself.

We say, I'm gonna do me, and you do you, is what some people say. That is what this is, and so James is saying the fights and the things that are going on in your life, the conflict, it's behind your selfish ambitions because you're trying to place yourself on the throne. And listen, we're always gonna be the wrong person on the throne.

I, as a pastor, will be the absolute worst person to place on the throne in my life. You think about this for a minute. How selfish would it be for you to be on any team anywhere if you walked up to people and you said, hey I need you to know something. I just want you to know that I will never ever put your needs before my own. Imagine being in a marriage. You look at your wife and say, look, I just need you to know something.

I know we just got married, but I gotta be number one. I'll never put your needs above mine. You can't do that with your family.

You better not do that with your co-workers, your roommates, your classmates. I mean, what if you looked at your church family and you look to the person next to you right now in this church and you say, listen, I need you to know something. There's some in church, it's a really cool church and I really like it, but I will never put your needs above my own. Now listen, most of us would never say that to anybody, but sometimes our lives preach it because of the way we treat those around us. See that the best relationships that I've seen, the best marriages that I've seen, are marriages where the husband says, how can I out serve you, dear? And the wife looks at her husband says, how can I out serve you?

The best families I've seen are families where people are trying to out serve one another. The best churches that we'll ever be in are churches where people look at one another and they say, how can I out serve you? So James continues to break down and there's something behind this sin in our life. There's something behind these selfish ambitions, so let's keep reading. In verse two, you desire and you 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. It's talking about prayer here.

You ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. Now listen, James, as I told y'all is to consider the proverbs of the New Testament. He's one of the most insanely practical people that you're gonna kind of read in the New Testament. So he's actually, in these just, in these two little verses, he's explaining to us how selfishness impacts just three little everyday areas in our life. It impacts our anger, it impacts the community of people around us, and it impacts our prayer life, and we see it right here.

How does it impact our anger? It's amazing how angry we get when we don't get our way. That's childish, right?

Doesn't that seem childish? But if you really want to see what's number one, if you want to see what's on the throne in somebody's life, look at what easily angers them, right? I mean, you know, some of us don't put some bumper stickers on the back of our car because we know some of us are really good Christians till we get out on the highway, and I know that those signs that you're throwing up with your hands are not sign language, and some of y'all need deliverance. But road raids, one of those things that pops up is one of the ways that we're easily angered. But listen, anger actually is not the problem. Anger actually is a natural emotion that God allows, but it becomes an issue when it leads us to sin. That's why the Bible says, be angry, but sin not. Now, while most of us here probably haven't murdered anyone, you surely have murdered people with your lips, and it further manifests itself in how you treat people. So point blank, what we see here, you desire you do not have, so you murder, it lets us know that our selfish desires cause us to have murderous hearts.

And Jesus spent a lot of time in Matthew chapter 5 breaking this down to us. So it impacts our anger, but it also impacts our community, those around us. See, when we covet and when we crave, and we don't get our ways, our hearts become filled with jealousy and discontentment and strife, and pride destroys our community. Meat issues always become we issues. There's no such thing as a meat issue, just staying a meat issue.

It always becomes a we issue. Listen, listen, what's in you will come out of you, and what comes out of you impacts everyone around you. Now, if you don't believe it, it happens all the time in my family, all right? Listen, it's six people in my family, all right? So we're in my truck, beautiful day, but it's North Carolina, so y'all know how hot it gets in North Carolina. It's very humid in North Carolina, so we're in the car, we got the windows all rolled up, we got the AC on blast, you know, I got the kids, all the kids are eating ice cream, I got my lemonade, we're listening to some good music, I'm sipping it on it, I'm looking over at my wife, I'm like, girl, you're fine, and she's looking back at me, and she's like, boy, stop, you know, so we're enjoying ourself, all right?

Everything is going good, and then it happens. Like, what is it? What are you talking about, Pastor Chris? That smell from not heaven, all right? It grabs you by the nose, and it smells like sour socks and old rotten eggs, and everybody starts rolling their windows down real frantically, and then the humidity comes in with the funk, and then it makes it even worse, and then everybody gets mad, and everybody asks this question, who farted? Who farted? And oh my lord, I'm like, Pastor James, what causes quarrels and fights among us? Somebody that farted, that's what causes the pain, you know, I'm like, what in the world are you doing? Why? Because what goes in you comes out of you, and it impacts everybody around you.

Me issues are we issues, all right? That's the reason why at this church, we keep pounding the gospel. That's why you're going to always hear the gospel being preached, because we want the gospel to get in you, so it will come out of you, and it will impact everyone around you, and everybody said, amen, all right. It also impacts another area in our life, our anger, our community, but it impacts your prayer life. It amazes me how selfishness and being self-centered impacts our prayer. Prayer might be one of the most underutilized tools that we have in our armor as Christians, and even that is being polluted by our selfless desires.

You think about that for a minute. Prayer is the one thing that we have as believers. We can communicate with the God of the universe, the person that created this heavens and this earth that is forevermore. We can communicate with him, but what does our selfishness do?

It turns us inward. It puts us on the throne, and he says, we have not because we ask not, and when we ask, we ask with the wrong desires. If you want to know how selfish your prayers are, let me ask you a question. If God answered all your prayers today, who would be impacted other than yourself? Would anybody be saved? Would anybody be healed?

If you really forgave that person, whoever it may be, let me hear you pray God's will over their life. God specializes in the impossible, y'all. Are we praying the impossible? Are we believing the God of the universe, or is our selfish desires messing up our prayers? That's why we believe in praying the scripture. You want to meet an unselfish person when they pray? When you hear them pray, hear how much scripture you hear when they pray. Because listen, the goal of prayer is that God's will be done, not our will to be done.

I hope, it's our prayer as a staff and as a church here, that we're known as a people of prayer here at some of the church. So we have to take the focus off of us and pray for what God can do for those around us in our world. So listen to how James explains that there's actually a greater issue. See, when we talk about conflict, we always think about people and the people around us, but they're actually something that's a little bit deeper than just the people around us. Look at verse 4.

It gets very personal. And Pastor James says something very intense. You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is imminently with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Wow.

Wow. James goes for the shock factor right here. He compares his church, the church folk, he calls them adulterous. He basically compares them to a cheating spouse. I don't know if you've ever seen Cheaters, Maury Povich, Jerry Springer, any of those shows. All those shows are basically centered around unfaithfulness, how we're unfaithful to one another.

That's what they harp on. I mean, the worst thing that could happen is for you to get home or for you to check your voicemail a little bit and you get a message from any of those shows. Because if you just get a message from any of those shows, you already know that it's about to go down, all right?

It's not going to be good for you. And Pastor James, he's on the other line right now and he's saying, listen, there's something that's going on in your life that is absolutely horrible. See, our greatest issue as adulterous people, as cheaters on God, it's not that we have conflicts with others, that's a smokescreen. See, you being easily angered about that thing, that's a smokescreen. The fact that your community is fighting and quarreling all those around you, no, that's a smokescreen. The fact that when you pray it's really all about you, that's a smokescreen.

It's a bigger issue. It's a deeper issue because your conflict is not just with others, it's with the living God. See, he makes it very clear right here that our camaraderie with the world, that's the world, the system, not the world, the people, but this system, this way of thinking that is controlled by Satan, it puts you in direct odds with our creator. Now, I have to be honest.

I remember when I wasn't a believer, when I thought I was a believer, I remember reading this verse and I was like, I don't believe that. I mean, I'm a good person. I behave. I'm not God's enemy.

Are you serious? I'm not God's enemy. That's a little strong. I went to church every week. I sang the songs. I was around God, but I didn't know Him. And the reason why is because God began to reveal that in my heart because I did never trust Him with my all because when I started to hear that God wanted my eyes, I was like, but do I have to give you my eyes? Do I have to stop looking at her? In that way, I got to stop looking at this and lusting in this manner. You want me to devote a portion of my day to you and read and stuff?

I don't have time to do that. You want my money? Share my faith? Be baptized?

What are you doing? Listen, what part of your life does God not have? Brothers, does He have the throne of your eyes?

Does He have it? Sisters, is He the Lord of your lips? Graduates, has your education put you on the throne or are you honoring God with your education? If you surrender to the Savior, then let Him rule as Lord in every area of your life. Young people like to say, you need to keep it 100. If you're going to be real with Him, keep it 100.

Not 90%, keep it 100. And the old saints would say, either He's Lord of all or He ain't the Lord at all. Here's why.

Here's why. Look at verse 5. Verse 5 says, well, do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says He yearns jealously over the spirit that He has made to dwell in us?

Church, God has a jealous desire to protect us from destroying ourselves and those around us. See, this type of jealousy is very healthy. It reminds me of the jealousy that I have for my children.

You know, as I told you all, I have four children, I got three daughters, and I got one begotten son, okay? But when I think about my daughters as a father, I yearn jealously to protect my daughters. And see, I'm jealous for my daughters. I'm not jealous of my daughters, I'm jealous for them.

Why? Because I want to protect them from any external harm that I can as a human father, and I also want to protect them from any internal harm that they can bring among themselves. But let me tell you this, if I love my daughters that way, that pales in comparison to God's love for all of us. See, parents, often we spend so much time trying to protect our kids from the external harm. We want them to be in the best schools. We want to kind of keep them away from this and keep them away from that and that.

I understand, that's fine. But don't you forsake equipping your child with the gospel to protect them from something that's much worse, their selfish desires and their pride, because that will well up and it will make them be an enemy of God, even if they're protected from everything on the outside. See, God is jealous over the spirit that he gave us. He'll never tolerate any competition for his affection. But why should he?

Why should he have to compete? Who compares? We come here every week and we lift our hands because nobody compares to him. As a man, I'm not embarrassed to raise my hands before the God because I know what he's done. I know he's the only one. There's no other man, there's nobody else in this world that can do what my Savior has done for me.

Who else can reconcile me? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but through me. The reason why is because there is no other way. If there was some other way, somebody else would have did it but who else died for our sins? Who else took our place on Calvary? It's like we cheated on a perfect mate with a filthy, shameless, worthless mistress and her name is the world.

And she'll leave you high and dry on your throne and let you die in your pride. See, the cure to our conflict is letting Jesus be on the throne. So we've learned that our selfish desires, that's what causes conflict in our lives.

It corrupts us personally, spiritually, it destroys our communities. But most importantly, the biggest issue that we need to understand is that our conflict actually isn't just with others, it's with God. So now that we know why we have so many conflicts, Pastor James is now going to break down to us how do we deal with it now? Now that we know that Jesus is the cure, how do we deal with it? Look at the second question.

How should we deal with our conflicts? Let's read verse 6, but he gives more grace. Thank you, Jesus. Therefore it says God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. See, James points his readers back to the foundation of their faith.

What is the foundation of our faith? It's grace. You know, some people give an acronym for grace. They call grace God's riches at Christ's expense. I like to call it unmerited favor. If you want me to break it down in lameness terms, I'll tell you that grace is you getting something that you don't deserve.

And what is that? That Jesus took our place. So instead of crushing his enemies, he let God crush him because he loved his enemies. He embraced the conflict. We were the conflict.

We were the enemies. We were objects of his wrath. But because he loved us more than himself, the Bible says God so loved the world, now this is the world the people, not the world the system, that he gave, he graciously gave his only son and whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. See, we're saved by grace, y'all, through faith.

See, James is not teaching anything new right here. He's just reminding you this, the same grace that saves you is the same grace that will help you encounter any conflict that you face in your life. See, that grace saves us, it sanctifies us, which we're gonna get to that in a little bit, but it also sustains you when Jesus is on the throne and Jesus is on the throne. Let me remind you that we don't serve a Savior that is dead.

He resurrected from the grave and he is now seated in high places and he is interceding and praying for us right now as we sit here and hear his word. He gives more grace. He continues to believe for us if we humble ourselves. So what is humility? He gives grace to the humble so we need to know what humility is. Here's a layman's term definition of humility.

Hope you think about it differently. Humility is not you thinking lowly of yourself, it's you thinking accurately about yourself. That's what humility is.

So what's accurate? What's accurate thinking of myself? I'm first a sinner, then I'm sinned against. See, when you have humility, you always are able to look introspectively first before you go to the outer.

See, most of our conflicts, whenever you talk to somebody about a conflict, they always start telling you what the other person did. But actually, humility allows you to recognize that you're first a sinner, then you're sinned against. Not only that, humility produces some awesome things in our lives. I want to remind y'all that it was humility, as we heard in Philippians 2 earlier, that's what drew Jesus to us while we were yet sinners.

It empowered him to face any conflict in his life. So let's finish reading the passage as we get a few commands from Pastor James. Look at verse 7. It says, 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 wretch and mourn and weep and let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. So what is James doing? James is commanding to his church to submit to God, to resist the devil, to worship him with your entire life, and to repent.

Hey, Chris, that seems like a whole lot. You mean to sum it up in a nutshell for you? He's saying, be like Jesus. Because Jesus did this. Jesus submitted himself to God, he resisted the devil, he worshiped him with his entire life, and he repented. Listen, when we do this, he'll give us more grace.

It's like Jesus did that so that we could do this. Now listen, if I was a motivational speaker, I stood up here, I would stand up here and give you a bunch of points about how you can just overcome, you know, conflict, but getting rid of all the conflict in your life. But that's not the goal. I'm a preacher. And as a preacher, my goal is to get you not to just go away doing something, it's to help you worship God. And what James is saying right here is, listen, you're gonna have conflict, but God is gonna give you more grace so that no matter what kind of conflict you face, you'll be able to overcome it. So let's look at four ways that humility cures conflicts. Four ways the humility cures conflicts. First, it cures conflicts because it allows you to submit to God. By submitting to God, conflicts will be cured in your life.

Listen, let me tell you something. As a pastor, as our pastoral staff, as we sit down and we talk to many people and we counsel and we try to pray through and we want to see God's will in our people's lives, let me just tell you this. 99.9% of the issues that people deal with will be resolved if they would just simply submit to the lordship of Jesus. If Jesus can just have the final say, can he be the one that can have the final say of everything in your life? Can he really be Lord? Can he rule? That way, when people come up to me and they say, hey, you know, Pastor Chris, you know, we're really in love with one another and we really want to be, we want to live together and, you know, this is my boyfriend, we're gonna get married, you know, why can't we live together?

I'm like, is Jesus on the throne? Do I have to forgive them? They did some things that was just really harsh and I don't know who's on the throne. Do I have to apologize? Do I have to serve them?

Do I have to love them? I mean, share my faith with them, please. Is the right person on the throne? I am so glad that Jesus submitted to God. Christians, we should never forget that the night before Jesus was crucified, he had all of us in mind. He was on the ground crying. Blood was filling his tears. He faced a serious trial. He was taking on blame for something that he didn't do and he asked God, if it's possible, could you lift this trial from me? And in that moment, he humbled himself. God gave him more grace and we hear these words, nevertheless, not my will, Lord, but your will be done. Jesus had the power to persevere through that conflict that I am, I would not, we would not be here today if it wasn't for him submitting to God's will. We even see Paul, Paul who wrote most of our New Testament, he had a tormentor from Satan and it says he pleaded with God, he begged God, God, please take this away, please take this tormentor away from me, three times.

And guess what God's answer to him was? He said, son, my grace is sufficient, not sufficient as in just enough, but more than enough for what you need. See, God gives more grace to those that humble themselves, even in our most unbearable moments.

He will never give you more than you can bear. He gives us grace through humility. The second area that we see impacted is that God gives us the power to resist Satan. Now, some of y'all might say, that seems like a no-brainer, resist the devil and he will flee, but you know what the real issue is? What are you resisting the devil with? See, some of us think we've resisted the devil and the devil is still sitting there chilling with his arm on our shoulder and he's like, look man, I'm good if you're good, I ain't going nowhere because I mean, I haven't heard you say anything that would cause me to go anywhere, I'm good to go.

And he's like right there beside us. What are you resisting Satan with? I'm so glad that Jesus resisted Satan. In Matthew chapter four, we see how he was tempted several times by Satan.

But what did he do? He used the gospel. He used God's Word. And I don't think Jesus in that moment had a chance to pull out his backpack of scrolls and say, okay, let me see which verse do I need to use to resist Satan?

Let me see, you know. No, his Word was hidden in his heart. It was in him, so it came out of him and it impacted his environment and Satan had to flee. The third thing that we see, how humility cures our conflicts, it cures us through worship. Now, several things comes to mind when you hear the word worship.

The average person, when we hear worship, we just think about singing a worship song or singing in that manner. But the Bible actually says, this is you being able to draw near to God. You know, when we sing, sometimes that allows us to draw near to God, but that's definitely not the only way that you draw near to God. If you draw near to God, he'll draw near to you. When you humble yourselves, it allows you to go deeper into God's presence. Then you will be able to feel his joy. See, listen, Jesus, his entire life was worshiped to God.

Listen, let me tell you something. There's nothing more joyous than being able to have access to the presence of God in the midst of your conflicts. This is why Jesus had so much joy, because he knew there was nothing that he would ever face, because he always, that he couldn't conquer, because he knew he always had the presence of God. Worship is not a segment of our life, it's our entire life.

It's our entire life. See, some of you, if you would let that soak in just a little bit, you do inventory right here on your life, it's in that moment that God could save some of you. You were created to worship. We were all made in God's image, in his likeness. You were created to worship. You say, no, I'm a blank slate. I don't really worship anything.

Yes, you do. You're worshiping something. There is something that is definitely taking up a lot of your time. There is definitely something that you spend a lot of your money on, that you invest a lot of time into. There's something that if you lost that thing, you would be completely rocked and devastated.

Let me tell you something. That's why Jesus is the only person that you can worship that's permanent. Everything in this fallen world is going to spoil.

It is going to pass away. So I plead with you, worship him now as Savior, or you're gonna have to honor him later as judge. The fourth thing that we see, conflict is cured through our repentance. Humility allows you to repent. In verses 8 and 9, we see the words cleanse, you see purify, you see be rest and mourn, and we let your laughter turn to gloom. What does that all point you to? It points you to repentance.

It points you to turning away from your sins. Now James actually calls his church right here. He's called us adulterous in one part. Now he's calling us sinners. I'm like, Chris, I thought I was a saint. Yes, you are a saint, but he's saying, listen, you're a saint, but your current activity right now is sin. And it's the only repentance that's gonna cure your conflict.

Why is that? Because, listen, our sins, that's what separates us from God in his presence. So one of the greatest things you can have is the Holy Spirit begin to work in you and begin to point out that sin in your life as you humble yourself. In that way, as you repent and turn away from your sins, you can feel the presence of God.

It allows you to be in right standing. And just like the other three areas that we just talked about, we see Jesus even repent on our behalf. He did it to fulfill all righteousness. He repented for people that couldn't really repent because they didn't have anything that they could use towards God to even equate towards their sins. But Jesus, in his perfectness, repented for us and fulfilled all righteousness for us, and he died and was resurrected on our behalf.

And you're saying, Chris, that's a lot of stuff, man. Yes, it is not natural, okay? I understand. It is not natural for you to submit to God. It is not natural for you to resist the devil. No, it is not natural for you to worship God with your entire life. It is not natural for you to repent. That is not something that we see people just wanting to do is repent. That's why God will give you more grace through a person, and his name is the Holy Spirit. He's not natural.

He's supernatural. If you humble yourself, if you accurately think of who you are, first to sin and then sin against, then he will empower you with your new identity in Christ. The Bible says, any man that is in Christ, he is a new creation. That word new means, that word in the Greek means kainos. That word new is not an innovation.

Most of the stuff that we have now are all innovations. It's something that we've made from something else. That word new right there means original.

It's never been seen before. Any man that is in Christ is a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come. Thank you, Jesus, for making us new. The final verse in this passage reads like this.

We're gonna bring it home right here. Verse 10 says this. It takes us back to what we've been hearing. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. He will exalt you. See, listen, exaltation, that's kind of what this entire message has kind of been about. It's about being lifted up. It's about recognition. My conflict with my spouses, I need my spouse to recognize who I am. My conflict with my co-workers, I need them to recognize who I am, how I'm lifted up. I need my teammates to recognize that.

I need my professors to recognize. I need people to recognize who I am. I need to lift myself up. I want to be on on the throne.

It's always a problem when you do this by your own volition. Allow the Lord to exalt you. When we humble ourselves, as Jesus did, God will exalt you in due time. As we close, I want to take you back to why Pastor James wrote this letter. See, this church that he's writing to, it's a church in Jerusalem, a very influential church in a very influential city.

I think we're a very influential church in a very influential city as well. But this church was being persecuted because of their faith. There was some external conflict that was going on. That's why when you read in James chapter 1, you see he starts the book off by saying, Count it all joy, my brothers and my sisters, when these trials and this persecution comes upon you.

But he quickly moves from the external persecution to the next three or four chapters in that book, talking about something that was much more harmful. The oppression that came from within the church. Listen, church is a family and the family has an enemy. Yes, Satan is our enemy, but don't you ever forget the enemy that destroyed Satan. It's the same enemy that we're fighting, our pride. God opposes the proud always, but gives grace to the humble. If we forget that, we'll always choose to partner with the world and walk in a way that's worldly and not godly. And trust me, no one has won that battle against God yet. Not only did Pastor James begin to worship Jesus as Savior, we know that he believed this because he was murdered, because he wouldn't stop worshiping Jesus as Savior.

And I believe that if he was alive today, he would ask that same rhetorical question that we see throughout this entire book. If Jesus is worth believing in, is he worth living for? Does my life reflect how much I love God, how much we love each other, how much we love our world? If we believe the good news, then our world should experience our good deeds. And in the presence of good deeds, it should point people to the presence of an even greater Savior.

Amen. If you don't mind, bow your heads right now. Sometimes we just need to hear God's Word. So I want you to just, as with your head bowed and your eyes closed, just listen right here in this moment. Listen to what God says in his Word. Let this be our prayer right here. He says this, he says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you not only look to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Help us Jesus. Have this mind among yourselves that which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.

Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Thank you Jesus. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Lord, right now we humbly submit ourselves, our all to you. You are indeed Lord, you are indeed worthy to be on the throne in our lives. Let our entire life be worshiped towards you. Amen.