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While you are turning there, here are the verses we looked at last week:
James 4:1-6 – “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
SONG: O LORD IT’S HARD TO BE HUMBLE
Thanks Josh. By the way, Josh did not write that song about himself, in case you were worried. That was written by Mac Davis in 1980 and was his first Top Ten Song. I asked Josh to sing part of it this morning, because it illustrates this world’s philosophy. This world is all about loving self and promoting self and thinking highly of self. It is all about getting what we want and when we want it; and fighting and doing whatever we need to do to get it. But, as we found out last week, that only thing that philosophy really accomplishes is to make us enemies of God! And to be a friend of God and to receive the grace of God, we need to have the opposite attitude of this song:
James 4:6- “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
This was the verse we ended with last week and we begin with this week; because it is the key transition to our passage this morning. Yes, it is hard to be humble, because we are, by nature, creatures of pride and selfish ambition. But, we see in verse 6 that being humble is how we receive the incredible grace of God. No, we don’t deserve it. That’s the point. But, God asks us to humble ourselves before Him, admitting we don’t deserve it; and then, He pours out His grace. This is how we come to salvation, and this is how we grow in our spiritual journey. So, now, in verses 7-12, James is going to explain some steps we need to take, so that we can be can have the attitude God requires to be a recipient of His grace:
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