Steve Webb 0:00 Where is my focus? Steve Webb 0:03 Coming to you from Riverside, California. This is the Lifespring! One Year Bible and podcasting since 2004. I'm your OG Godcaster. Steve Webb. It's abyssal Sunday, we'll complete the book of James with chapters four and five. The website is Lifespringmedia.com. and I'll have contact information at the end of the show. Before we read, let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we ask You to bless our time of reading today. We thank you for it. I thank you for each one that's here today. Bless them Lord, I pray in Jesus name. Amen. Are you ready? Let's begin. Steve Webb 0:39 James, chapter four, what causes quarrels and 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 in quarrel? You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions, you adulterous people? Do you not know that friendship with a 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 that the scripture says He yearns jealously over the Spirit that He is 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 morning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you do not speak evil against one another brother's the one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one law giver and judge he who was able to save and to destroy, but who are you to judge your neighbor? Come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring? What is your life for you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say if the Lord wills we will live and do this or that as it is you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it. For him, it is sin. Steve Webb 2:45 James chapter five. Come now you rich weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten, your gold and silver have corroded and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields which you kept back by fraud are crying out against you. and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the LORD of hosts. You have lived on the earth and luxury and in self indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter, you have condemned and murdered the righteous person he does not resist you. Be patient, therefore brothers until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and late rains. You also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another brothers so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed to remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of job and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brothers do not swear either by Heaven or by Earth, or by any other oath. But let your yes be yes and your no be no so that you may not fall under condemnation. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray? Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick in the Lord will raise him up. and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed fervently that it might not rain. and for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and they haven't gave rain in the earth bore its fruit, my brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth in someone brings him back. Let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins. Steve Webb 5:25 Let's talk a bit about James four. Some have said that James is a bit like the book of Proverbs because of the way nuggets of truth are presented. Let's take a look at just a few of them. In verse to be it says, You do not have because you do not ask. Beloved, prayer is a necessary part of the Christian life. If we want God to bless us, we have to ask, listen to what Charles Spurgeon said, remember this text, Jehovah says to his own son, ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Spurgeon continues, if the Royal and divine Son of God cannot be exempted from the rule of asking that he may have you and I cannot expect the rule to be relaxed in our favor. Why should it be? Good question. He also said, If you may have everything by asking and nothing without asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is, and I beseech you to abandon it. Do you know brothers? What great things are to be had for the asking? Have you ever thought of it? Does it not stimulate you to pray fervently? All Heaven lies before the grasp of the asking man, all the promises of God are rich and inexhaustible. and their fulfillment is to be had by prayer. Is prayer important? I'd say it is. and then in verse three, we read, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. Well, let's contrast this with First John 514, which says, and this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything, according to His will, He hears us. So if we ask for the wrong motivation, our prayers are not answered. But if we ask according to His will, He does hear us. and verse four, B, 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. Beloved, we can't have one foot in the world and one foot in God's kingdom. Jesus said in Matthew 624, No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. Beloved, we have to ask ourself, where is my focus is my focus on the things of God are on the things of the world. and verses six B and seven a God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, Submit yourselves therefore, to God. God opposes the proud. Pride is the center of sin, pride, God's the fall of Lucifer pride caused the fall of Adam and Eve, and thus our sinful nature. Is it any wonder that God opposes the proud but when we humble ourselves before God, when we confess our sin, God pours out His grace. It isn't as though our humility earns God's grace. But when we are humble, we're acknowledging that we're in need of the grace that He so freely gives. Charles Spurgeon said this, Do you suffer from spiritual poverty? It is your own fault, for he giveth more grace, if you have not got it, it is not because it is not to be had but because you have not gone for it. Verse seven, be Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Beloved, notice that the text does not say and he may flee from you or sometimes he will flee from you. When we actively resist the enemy's lies and temptations we are promised that he will flee, though he will return to test our resolve, we can and we must resist him in the name of Jesus as the already defeated foe that he is. The Greek word translated as resist is a combination of two words stand against. Beloved, we are never conquered, as long as we do not consent. In Verse eight says, draw nearer to God and He will draw near to you. This is both an invitation and a promise drawn nearer to God as the invitation and He will draw near to you is the promise. and this promise comes directly after the resist and he will flee promise. When we resist the devil. We can and we should draw near to God. We have to understand it is not a sin to be tempted. Jesus was tempted after all in the desert, but he did not sin. When we have had an encounter with temptation the best Last thing that we can do is draw nearer to God for shelter and for strength. Well, how do we draw near to God? We do it in prayer, in worship and in praise. We learn to walk with God in our daily lives. We respond to His invitation to have an ongoing daily, hour by hour and minute by minute relationship with Him. We asked him to guide our decisions and help us with our struggles. We thank him for his blessings. In short, we live our lives with the awareness that he is always with us, and He delights in us, and we should delight in him. What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear your comments or questions. As you know, the lovely lady Liana and I are out of town this week in part of next week. So this show is pre recorded, but don't let that keep you from sending in comments, questions, praise reports, or prayer requests. When I get back, I'd love to see a bunch of email, voicemails and boostagram is waiting for me. I'll share them on the show. If you do have a comment or question a prayer request or a praise report, here's how to do it. You can send to boostagram number one or you can leave a voice message. Call the Lifespring family Hotline at plus 195173 to 8511 or four prayer requests and praise reports go to prayer dot Lifespring media.com and for comments or questions go to comment dot Lifespring media.com and my email address is Steve at Lifespring media.com. Tomorrow will be the law Monday and our reading will be Deuteronomy seven through nine Steve Webb 11:41 Thanks to Sister Denise Michael Haner Scott Snider, Jason Paschall and sister Brittaney for their donations of time and talent. God bless you guys. Jason Paschall. Did today's show art. Thank you, Jason. and thank you for hanging out with me today. I can't wait to see you when I get back. But there will be a brand new show for you tomorrow. Until then, may God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb. Bye. James Cooper 12:09 All the programs in the Lifespringmedia.com family are made possible by the generous gifts of people like you Transcribed by https://otter.ai