We're back in the book of James tonight working our way. This is less than twenty one. We've been here quite a while and still have a ways to go but we're nearing the end we're in chapter four tonight and I was going to do verses four one one through six and then got to looking at verses five and six and said no not going to happen. We're going to have to take those two verses by themselves I think there is a awful lot of different opinion about what uh... those of specially verse five is saying well very difficult verse and so we'll leave that or willing to next wednesday night next wednesday night separate night it is in its first night so to insulate uh... james forward verses one through four from which come wars and fightings among you." When he says, among you, he has in mind the audience is the Christian church. So this is squabbles and so forth that take place within the body of Christ, within Christ's Christian community. From whence come wars and fighting among you? Can they not hear even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war yet you have not because you ask not. You asked and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts. You adulterers and adulteresses know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God at first glance it appears that we're starting again as we have so often in this study we go from one subject just to another one in there doesn't seem to be much of a connection between them pointed out several times where we see that happen in James however I think tonight is an exception let me get my thing running up here we have just finished a section dealing with a wisdom that James calls, well he gives it three labels. It's earthly in chapter 3 verse 15. Earthly, it's sensual and devilish. It is the wisdom that is earthly in origin. It rises up as it were from the earth. We've seen there in that same section a contrast with another kind of wisdom. A wisdom that he says descends from above notice in Chapter three verse fifteen where he's talking about the first type of wisdom he says this wisdom. Descends not from above then in verse seventeen but the wisdom that is from above so we have these two contrasting ideas of what is wisdom. Notice that by wisdom if you were to tell me what what do you think he's what how would we. paraphrase what James is calling wisdom. I've given you a hint here that it's a system of thought, a way of thinking. What do we call that? Philosophy. It's a system of knowledge. We might call it one's worldview. You hear that a lot today. How we look at the world. That certainly could be thought that way. So notice that wisdom for James is more than just individual little wise sayings, but we're talking with a system of things. And here he has just given us this contrast that there is a system of thinking that is earthly, sensual, and devilish. It is the thinking of the natural man, of lost man. Opposed to that, there is another way of thinking that comes down from above the decent soon as we have been doing on sunday morning till i got sick anyway dealing with this dichotomy of that which is from above as opposed to that which from beneath and so you see exactly the same thing going here in the book of book of james we have a way of thinking that is fleshly that is the white lost men think we have a way of thinking that we ought to be thinking Paul will use similar language, set your mind on what? Things above, rather than on things on the earth. In other words, get your focus, your thinking correctly oriented. Alright, he asks the question in the beginning in chapter 4 verse 1, where do these things we call here wars and fighting, and this is among the people of Christ now, conflict. We could say, paraphrase them, by quarrels and conflict. Where does that come from? Now, the worldly answer is that it comes from your environment. We have that all the time dribbled at us, that if everybody had equal opportunity and equal, if there was an equality of possessions and so forth, then nobody would be trying to take anything from anybody else. Well, hogwash. That's not the way it works. Others would say, well, it's just lack of opportunity or lack of education. There's all kinds of answers that the world gives for where do quarrels and conflict come from. But James has another way of looking at it. They come from within you. They arise from within your heart. There's where your problem is. So let's go on. Worldly wisdom, in essence, says put yourself at the center of your universe. I call it the Ptolemaic model. Ptolemy was an ancient astronomer who had as his model the earth was stationary and the sun, moon, and the planets and the stars all revolved around the earth. Well, if we just remove the earth and put you there, that is the model of worldly wisdom. That is how lost men think. That the universe is really all about me. Everything The first question is how is this going to affect me? What is this going to do for me? I recall one of my old buddies back in Houston years ago. I was still in college. He was teaching a married class and He announced they were going to be studying the love of God the next week And this one lady popped up and said, oh, I'm so glad you're going to cover that because everybody needs to love me You know, it's all about them loving me not about me loving them That's how a lost person typically thinks and it's how saved people think from time to time and there's where the quarrels and the fights come from is when a saved person in the church begins to think like a pagan person then you're going to have fights quarrels conflict break out in the church it's inevitable Because if you think about putting yourself at the center of your universe, then you really don't have room for anybody else. And if everybody else is doing the same thing, you're in trouble. You begin to see the problem. So notice, and I've said this so often, I'm almost embarrassed to say it again, almost. I keep repeating myself because I realize how many of you either were asleep when I said it the first time or you've slept since then. I Amiral Bob Benson Y'all probably don't know who that was Benson recording studios over Nashville Bob Benson He was a sort of a lay preacher started that studio and he gave a talk one time very humorous guy, but he was saying he gave this message and and He was shaking hands with everybody as they were leaving and this one lady came up and said oh brother Benson said I'm sorry I probably I just got about half what you said this morning And he said, well, I tell you what, if you'll tell me the half you got, I'll tell you the other half. He said she didn't even get half. You know, that's how that's my fear. You don't even get half of it. So I'll say it once again. The worldly way of thinking is that life is found in self gratification, self glorification, self exaltation. It's about me. Self gratification is what makes me feel good. satisfies my desires, my appetites. Self-glorification is what makes me look good in the eyes of others. And then self-exaltation is the idea of pride, that I'm better than you are. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. When John, in 1 John, tells us not to love the world nor the things that are in the world, He's not talking about the fish or the trees or the clouds and the blue sky. He's talking about these things. He says this is what he means by the world. It's not even the people in the world. It's the principles that make the world run. And don't kid yourself. The world runs by these three principles. That's what makes, you know, we say love makes the world go around. No, it doesn't. This is what makes the world go around. It's what drives your politics. What drives your economics? To a large degree, your education? It's these things. And so, the world is not the stuff of the world, even the people in the world. When God says, don't love the world, He's not talking about, well, don't love people. But He's talking about, don't love these principles that undergird this system called the world. You do realize the word world in Greek is the word cosmos, which doesn't mean the physical earth it means the system of things it's very similar to when we say i'm going to disney world what what do you mean disney world well i'm talking about the world that is disney that that system that we're talking mickey mouse right donald duck that's the world that's disney i've told you before that the greeks use the word world often as a uh... a bird not just as in now we think of the world as purely a noun but uh... we what would we mean if we say don't world that they often use the word war cause may always the verb for for instance jesus talked about trimming away in the lab and he uses the word to world in other words cosmos means a system of things cause mail the verb for means to regulate according to a system. So to trim the wick in a lamp meant to world the lamp in the like like fashion a group of soldiers milling around in the streets was just a group of soldiers milling around in the streets but if they're marching by in rank they've called them a world of soldiers you know what what makes the difference they're ordered they've got an order to them. So the world in Greek thought speaks of an order of things of systemization of certain things as opposed to just randomly being pulled out there what we need to realize is that this thing the Bible calls the world in just random events happening there is a system of thought behind it there's a philosophy of wisdom that undergirds it and that philosophy is based on these three elements now notice that we've got a problem because the by the problem is coming from within us And notice it says, come they not from here, even your loss, that war in your members. The word war, war here is straight to my which you look at that word and do you see the root? We get a word strategy, stratagem from it. In other words, what he's saying is the loss. that are in your flesh and by the way the word loss here is hey to my head and a. Anybody familiar with what it means to be a hedonist what is hedonism that's a philosophy love a pleasure in other words the highest good in life is to seek your own pleasure hedonism well this is he denied that's the word for lost here so it's that which gives you pleasure in fact some of your modern translations will use the word pleasure instead of loss These are the things that give you pleasure. These are the things that float your boat. And James is saying, that's your problem. It's what's happening within you. And these things are warring and they war against you. In other words, again, these are not random attacks, but they are. This this is a military term. Strat to a night is used in the New Testament. I'm thinking. Do you remember when the soldiers came to John the Baptist? they said what do we do and and it identifies them very with this worst right to a mark in other words they're soldiers on active duty that's that's the idea behind it uh... first corinthians nine seven i believe that's where paul is talking about again these lost that war against you this warfare going on within you my point is that these are not random attacks sporadic spasmodic uh... my son was here this weekend and first time I've seen him since he got back from Syria and we enjoyed some of his stories and sharing at the dinner table well turning the stomach some of the guys at dinner table tonight but anyway Kevin told a story they were in this bombed out building and set up their hospital they're embedded with the Kurds there in Syria fighting ISIS and usually they would be there about three days and ISIS would figure out who they were and attack them And they had a squad of six Army Rangers that was to protect them. There's six guys on the surgical team and they were in this building and they had a burn pit out back that they burn like the clothing they cut off the soldiers and limbs and things. You know what else you're going to do with this stuff. They just have a big burn pit back there. But he said this particular place had an outhouse and they were just a static because usually they didn't have an outhouse and they had an outhouse. So one day he's headed over to the bathroom to the outhouse he gets about halfway across there and a bullet goes whizzing by him so he takes off running and ducks down behind a concrete wall and these bullets start whizzing by him and there's an army ranger up on the top of this third floor up on top of this building he starts hollering at this guy where's that coming from about that time one of those bullets went by the ranger and he's ducking down and they said where's the sniper you know where is the guy well it took him a little while to figure it out But in the clothing that they had cut off some of these soldiers, they had bullets in the pockets. And they had thrown those clothes in the burn pit. And these things were going off as they caught fire. They thought it was some snipers shooting at them. Well, they're going off haphazardly, randomly, right? And we like to think that these things that we are dealing with are just random attacks on us. We never see them coming. But this word is very interesting in that there's a strategy behind it. The lust of your flesh have a stratagem to overcome you. It's not disorder. It's a very orderly attack, so to speak. And that's sort of scary, isn't it? That your own flesh is your worst enemy because your lusts are directly opposed to what you need to be doing, and they have a strategy. They have a plan. uh... to get their way to get what they want because you see most of our problems come from the fact that's we want something that we can help or we don't have or somebody else's got and there's where our conflicts come i'd i'd think that is an excellent way for us to analyze conflicts especially in the church is what's the agenda here what is it that you want That question needs to be asked. You know, this person hurt my feelings. They said something bad. What do you want? What are you desirous of? Well, I should be treated better than that. Well, at least let's cut to the chase. You want something you're not getting, right? You see, your lusts want this self-gratification, self-exaltation, self-glorification. You know, I'm being put down, I'm made to do this lowly service and I shouldn't be treated that way. Well, what you're saying is my flesh wants to be exalted and here I am being humiliated. Right? I mean, let's face it, that's the problem. Our lusts want things and we can't get it. So whenever you have a problem with somebody, ask yourself this question, what am I wanting? I ought to stop right here and have confession time, but let's go on. Would you let that thought sink deeply in your ears. When I am not getting along with somebody, what is it that you're wanting that you're not getting? All right? Let's go a little further. Again, the root is strategy, stratagem, same work. And they assault you, as I say here, with a coordinated attack. The other problem is that this word is in the present tense. To war against you, that we see here, that war in your members, and that means that it is not something that ceased in the past, it is something going on right now. Anybody here not having a problem with those things anymore? Well, you lie about other things, too, if you tell me you don't. Yeah, we all do. And notice this is telling us that when we become a Christian, that these types of things, that give rise to fighting and conflict, don't automatically cease. They don't automatically go away. You're going to have to work at it. You've got to embrace this new wisdom from above. Okay? It just doesn't happen overnight. Yes, now we have a new desire that wasn't there before, but the old desires are still there. These old lusts are still warring in our flesh, and to put it mildly, now they They're probably in flame because there is those new desires to please God, to please Christ. This constant, ongoing war within us is not just mentioned here, but in Romans 7, y'all familiar with that passage? You know, the good that I want to do, I don't do, and the things I don't want to do, I wind up doing. And there's a whole school of thought out there that this really isn't talking about Christians. It's talking about lost people, but I strongly disagree. Number one, Paul has switched to the present tense. So he's using the present tense just as this is using the present tense. This is still going on. And just listen to these words. Romans 7 verse 22. He says, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. That's the new principle. But listen to this. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind bringing me into the captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. That's what James is talking about. There's still this other thing within me warring against this new principle, delighting in the law of God. Notice Galatians 5, 16 and 17. Most of you all know that, I think. The spirit lusts against the flesh, the flesh against the spirit, so that you cannot do the things that you would. You see, the lost man doesn't have that battle. He doesn't have a spirit. The saved man has that new principle, the spirit, but he still has the old flesh that wars against it. And they're at war with one another. So that we're constantly being hamstrung and doing the things we don't want to do. Now the problem with the lost man is he doesn't even have the want to. The Christian has the want to, but he doesn't have the power apart from the Spirit of God to overcome those old desires. Let's go a little further. Read 1 Peter 2, verse 11, and you will see that Peter is addressing the same issue. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Isn't it strange how many of these passages speak of war going on within us between these two principles? Or what we could say, those two types of wisdom, the wisdom that comes up that's devilish, sensual, and the wisdom that comes down, that we have this constant warfare going on. That's one of the things that makes us hope for heaven, is then that war will be over. As McShane put it, then I'll love Christ with an unsinning heart. For the first time in my life, I will love Christ with an unsinning heart. And then, we go to the next verse, We haven't made it a long ways here, have we? In verse 3, we talk about the fact that these desires of the flesh are frustrated. He says, you ask, I'm sorry, we're still in verse 2, that you lust and you have not, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, you fight and you war, yet you have not. Notice the fact that the desires of the flesh or never realize. It's like an itch. Scratch it all you will. It never quits itching. The Proverbs put it, the eyes are never full. If you want stuff, you'll say, well, I can finally get enough stuff and I'll be happy. No. The more you get, the more you want. Still as miserable as you were. Lloyd-Jones put it that we spend our life chasing mirages. We think this is going to do it for us over here. It's like a man in the desert sees the mirage off here in the distance. There it is. That's going to quench my thirst, and he makes a beeline for it, and he gets there, and it's gone. And now it's another mirage over here. Well, I'll get to that one, and it may be a new job, it may be a new house, a new wife, whatever it involves. This is going to do it for me. You get there, and you find yourself just as empty as you were before. And that's sort of what James is illustrating here. that these things, this drive of the lust of the flesh, will never truly satisfy the soul. I'm going to hurry through this one. He says you'll kill to get it. Now he's talking to Christians, and I doubt seriously he means us to take that in the most literal fashion, that I'll kill you. But remember, hate is the root of murder. And yes, will spring up in the heart of God's people towards one another if it's not rooted out and then notice at the very end of verse two he says you don't have it because you don't ask for it in other words the stuff you want you want to seize it you want to kill somebody to get it when God is saying all you have to do is ask for it because we have a God who is more than willing to give us what we need right I mean he and he made that clear he knows on that sort of amount. He knows what you need. He takes care of the birds. He takes care of flowers. He'll take care of you. Except when he doesn't, except notice there are times. And it's interesting here that when he says you don't have these things because you ask not he means you're not asking God for them. I think the NIV, in fact, inserts the word God there, which is why I don't like the NIV. It's probably the right understanding but the word God is not in the text so I'd rather make that association myself and have the translators make it for me. That's my pet peeve about the NIV. Anyway, nevertheless, yes it is talking about asking of God. He says you don't have it because you won't ask God for it. Rather than asking and receiving it as a gift, you want to fight for it. You want to kill somebody to get it. You want to go to war and take it. So you should just simply ask. But then he says in verse 3, you ask and receive not, because you ask amiss. Now, it should never be that we don't have something because we didn't ask for it. I mean, how stupid is that? Sometimes what God desires us to have, all He waits for is for us to ask for it. I'd certainly hate to go through life, and there were things that God would have given, but I didn't ask. So we ought to be very busy asking. But at the same time, not all prayer is answered affirmatively. And one of the reasons is because we ask amiss. You say, what do you mean to ask amiss? We ask in order to consume, and it's the word for waste, to squander what we've asked for on our lusts. There in verse 3, the last word, it's that same word, hedonai, hedonai. Heaven nay is a better translation. Hedonism, you want it for your own pleasure rather than for the glory of God. And so there are times that we want something because we're self-oriented. We want it. The word waste there, consume, is interesting. It's the word when the prodigal son went to the far country and he wasted All his substance, same word. We would waste it. We would squander it upon our loss. And so God refuses to give it. I gave you an illustration here. It's like a wife asking her husband for money so she can go meet an illicit lover. Same principle. And this begs the question then, do we want the things of God or do we want the God of the things? Are we really interested in God or are we interested in the stuff? that God has for us. In other words, this is the subtle thing. Here we see this self-driven agenda. We will even use religion to get it. And the health and wealthers have made a living teaching you exactly that. That you can manipulate God to give you the stuff that your old sinful lusts want. Is God simply a cosmic sugar daddy? Anybody here know what a sugar daddy is? You get the picture? Is that all God is? Do we love God for God Himself? There's a very interesting thing Job says. When we were studying Job, I pointed it out. Let me read this to you again. Eli who was the young guy you remember that was set in their list and all this stuff and getting mad as a hornet because these three older fellows work answering the problem and why who in my opinion hits the nail on the head. I think that's true for many reasons but he has some very interesting things to say. Job thirty five verse nine and we're breaking into the middle here by reason of the multitude of oppressions, they make the oppressed to cry. They cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty. In other words, here are men being oppressed by other men, so they cry out to God. They want relief. They want help. They want deliverance. Then he says in verse 10, But none saith, Where is God, my Maker, who giveth songs in the night? Let that sink in. They're in trouble. they're being oppressed and so they cry to God for help for relief and there's nothing really wrong with doing that but Joe Eli who points out where's the guy who simply says where is God my maker who give us songs in the night I just want God I want to commune with God my soul thirst for God for the living God David says you know I'm not after his stuff I'm after him I want to know him And so he's not a cosmic sugar daddy, to use my terminology. So that's the question that we need to be asking ourselves. Then notice that this is clearly what James then refers to in verse 4 as spiritual adultery. He says, ye adulterers and adulteresses. Now I'd probably get your attention if I said that on a Sunday morning. You bunch of adulterers and adulteresses. At least wake you up. But notice what is he actually talking about again just as he's used kill in a sort of metaphoric way. I think clearly he's using adulterers and adulterers is in the same sense he's using it in the sense that Israel was an adulteress in the Old Testament. Remember Israel had a covenant relationship with God peculiar relationship but they went a whoring to use the good old King James word a whoring after other They had sworn faithfulness to their God, and yet they are seeking after other gods. So this is equivalent of adultery, spiritual adultery. Well, you say, you know, we're 21st century Americans, we're too sophisticated for that. We don't go and worship Baal anymore. We don't worship Moloch, all these pagan gods. We don't go bow down to some statue anymore. No. But notice what James is saying. It's this principle of the world is that which stands directly opposed to the kingdom of God. And when you go after the world, you're pursuing an illicit lover. You've turned your back upon your true husband, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're pursuing that which is his rival. It's not just another like him, it's the rival to him when you pursue the world. Paul let me read you this verse 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 in verse 2 where he uses this language with the Corinthians. 2nd Corinthians 11 in verse 2 Paul says I am jealous over you with godly jealousy for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Paul is the one who has introduced them to Christ. He's the matchmaker, the evangelist that has brought them to the Lord. So he says, bear with me a little bit in the first verse. Bear with me in my folly just a little bit because I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy because I've espoused you to your husband. In other words, I can't bear to watch you go after other lovers when you are now espoused to Christ. That's the same idea that James is using here. And so, to be a friend of the world, James says, is enmity with God. Enmity is that conflict between, the feeling between enemies. Not necessarily hate, in that if you're in war, you shoot the other guy because he's your enemy, not because you hate him. You don't even know him. How do you hate him? But he's your enemy. In the same sense, enmity is that feeling between enemies. And so to be a friend of the world is to be at enmity with God. Then he says, whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Now that's a pretty serious thing. If God be for you, who can be against you? But if God be against you, who can be for you? And so we begin to understand that the idea of worldliness is not a minor insignificant thing. To think like a worldly, like an earthly, that's where we were. We've been called to higher things. Now I realize I haven't spent much time tonight on the other side. What is it to think according to this heavenly wisdom, this heavenly philosophy? Well it's the opposite of the worldly one, so that'll give you a clue. We'll go further into here and I think you'll see it fleshed out. But tonight, it's simply the first four verses deals with this warning against loving the world. Thinking like a worldling. All right, let me have your comments. Everybody's squirming. Afraid I'm going to call on them. I'm going to say, anybody here think like a worldling every now and then? Yeah, we all do, don't we? Yes, Craig. Well, notice that When you say interaction with the world, we're not really talking about, I have no contact with the world. That's to think of the world in the sense of a place or the people in it. In fact, other places Paul talks about, you can't withdraw from, you'd have to leave the world as a place to have no contact. It is buying into the system, buying into how a worldling thinks. And I say worldly, earthly, whatever you want to call it. In other words, and it's difficult for us to quit thinking like men do on earth. It really is. I mean, we spend our lifetime practicing it. We got good at it. We've learned how to think in a self-centered way. We put all kinds of clothes on it. We dress it up. We try to make it where it's not inappropriate you know it's civil it's so forth but at the end of the day we're out for ourselves for what we can get for what floats our bird boat what tickles our fancy and what we're being called to is a higher way of thinking aren't you glad Jesus didn't think like there's a place in Matthew back in chapter sixteen where there it's Sarea Philippi and I've described this smorgasbord of idolatry that went on there, and it's there that Jesus tells his disciples for the first time, we're going up to Jerusalem, I'm going to be handed over to the scribes and Pharisees, I'm going to be crucified and I'll rise again the third day. And Peter says, King James Version, be it far from thee. There is in the margin of how that was translated by the King James translators, and others say it ought to be translated like this. Pity thyself. In other words, Peter is saying, Lord, think of yourself. And I think that's how it needs to be translated. In other words, Jesus is saying, I'm going to be taken up there. I'm going to be crucified and slain and rise again the third day. And Peter says, Lord, no, be it far from me. Pity yourself. Think of yourself. For once in your life, think of yourself. And what does Jesus say? Get thee behind me, Satan. That's that devilish form of thinking that Christ does not entertain for a split second. He says, Peter, you need a bath, Peter. You stink. You savor not of the things which are of God, but the things which are of man. You don't smell like God, you smell like man, Peter. Let that sink in, what Jesus is saying there. I'm not, I don't think he's saying to Peter, if you're demon possessed, you know, Satan speaking through your mouth, what he's saying is, Peter, unwittingly, unknowingly, you're talking like an earthling. That's how an earthling would talk. Do everything you can to avoid the cross. That's the way an earthling thinks. Think of yourself. He didn't come here to think of himself. And I sure am glad. And we're to walk in his step. I hope Craig that answers the question that it's not so much of am I round earth you know lost people and around the world where you were right in the middle of where he met immersed in it and yet we are not to think like a lost person think Charles very similar you begin to see that James is just putting into his words what we see Peter saying over there in first Peter two and then like you say a number of times Paul deals with the same concept there's this war going on now notice that what Charles just read that if this is the dominant thing in your life you're probably lost to think like a lost person if that's the tenor of your life I don't know how to sugarcoat it but that's what he's saying what read some of that again if you do this you're not going to enter the kingdom of heaven you're just the way it is Did you catch that? They have no inheritance. So in other words, this is a war that's going on within you, but it is a war that you must win. Now again, the problem is the lost person can't possibly win it. Doesn't have the power of the Spirit to resist, to overcome it. Therefore, this sort of weeds out the boys from the men, so to speak. This shows us who truly is of Christ. because they overcome in this battle now not a hundred percent of the time you understand but in the tenor of their ways they are overcoming they are not characterized by the sense the sins of the flag so I I want to try to get across to you the seriousness of what James is talking about this isn't just good advice if you want to be a spiritual marine we're talking about the essence of what But yeah, you find the same concepts running through Paul and again Peter. The same thing we see here. Anything else? Any other observation or thoughts? Barry? Athletic competition. Well, is it possible to be a Christian athlete? Absolutely. But I guess one of the things that has developed in my lifetime is all the showboating and all of this trash talking and all of that that is where I would see and why because most of the folks doing it are lost I mean that's what's making them dick that's what's floating their boat. So I'm not surprised by it but is it possible and I think this gets back to Craig's question a moment ago is it possible to be say a Christian athlete or a Christian or not Christian just a football team and play as a Christian. I think there's no problem. That's yeah. There's no incompatibility here. It's do I buy into that system. You think about it. Most athletes today have the idea that their success is self made self generated. I think you think about all the the devices that coaches use to get their guys they visualize themselves succeeding. It's about you can do this. I don't know what the Atlanta coach said to his team at halftime, but it has to go down in history as the worst halftime speech ever given to a football team. But most of the time, what is the coach's message? Believe in yourself. Right? In other words, it's self-confidence. And you say, well, are you telling me I shouldn't have confidence? No, I'm telling you a Christian athlete shouldn't have self-confidence. He ought to have Christ-confidence. His confidence is in the Lord, it's not in himself. But most sports are pumping you up to believe in yourself. And that's not just athletics, but it's music, it's performance, arts. In other words, yes, by and large, most people involved in those things are lost and they exhibit their lostness. by how they think, of where they got their talent. You know, I'm able to do this and you're not, so I'm better than you. The Christian thinks soberly. I may can do what you can't do, but you know why? It's because God has given me a gift that I didn't have. He could have given it to you. It's acknowledging the fact that if I'm different, if I'm able to do something you can't do, if I'm smarter than you or wiser or richer than you, it's all because of the grace of God. And that's the different mindset. I'm giving away my hand here. by talking about the other side a little bit. It's hard to do. It's hard to describe one side without describing the other. Yeah, Al? Yes, that's a good example. Yeah, of how you respond to adulation, praise. Sherry? I'm not getting something. You almost have to be having a fight to be able to put your finger. So I don't want true confessions here, but But you're you know what I'm saying. You almost have to be in the conflict for that question to make sense. It's hard to stand off and answer it. But when you're in the middle of it then I think that's an excellent question to ask myself. What is it that I'm wanting here. Obviously I want something I'm not getting. It may be stuff. It may be glorification you know adulation praise. It may be rank. money you know but there's something I'm looking for that I'm not getting and that's a good question when one child titles on the other what's the agenda what's driving this most of the time I want to be seen as better than them it's right I'm better than they are I don't do that now when we get between you and your husband that's another story but anyway but you think about it where do these findings in conflict come from. It's when the lust that I have with him, he doesn't get what he wants. And then we see from James, it'll go to all kinds of lengths to get it. It'll kill, steal, hate, to get its way. Joe? Well, in that case, it's the other guy. Are there times that you're absolutely innocent? Yeah. There's times you don't have a clue what's going on. You walk in and you get unloaded on. Then you have to ask, OK, what's the source of this guy's anger? Why is he taking this out on me? What's really going on here? And the question is, what does he want? There's a lust of the flesh that's driving him. What is he? And sometimes knowing that can help you defuse the fight. All right, we've done enough. The doctor is now out. We have enough psychoanalysts today. Sort of like the peanuts where you have, yeah. We're a mess. Well, actually, we're a mystery. The fact that I laid it on you pretty hard that if these things rule your life, then you're probably not a Christian. But at the same time, if you're a Christian and don't have these fights go on within you, you're probably not being a very honest Christian. You're not realistic because James is addressing Christians here. He's expecting them to know what he's talking about. They've been down this road. They know this battle, and they know it well. I know it well. The fact that you're having the battle is not itself an evidence that you're not a Christian. That's what Christians do. In fact, Christians are the only ones that truly have this battle. Now, I mean, the lost man may not want to do something because he knows he's going to get himself in trouble. but only you would not want to do it because it dishonors christ that's the only you're the only one that's ever gone so let that be an encouragement to you if you fight this kind of war that that is the war that every christian box automatically disqualified because you have this fine okay well let us uh...