This World Has Nothing For Me
James 4

Ending Worldliness & Conflict

What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious 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 with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James 4:1-4 (NASB Update)

• Fear is the root of all jealousy.

• Jealousy is the root of all your sinful conflicts. 

• When our desire matches God’s, he gives us our desires.  (Psalm 37:4)

• When we are worldly, we are enemies of God, adulterers and adulteresses.

Drawing Close To God 

Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: " He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"?  But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." Submit 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 miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

James 4:5-10 (NASB Update)

• God delights in exalting the humble in His grace.

God’s Will…

Come now, you who say, " Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, " If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

James 4:13-17 (NASB Update)

• Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. 

• To know the right thing to do and not do it is the sin of omission. 

Discussion Questions

James 4:1-10

Beth Moore says that “Fear is what creates jealousy.”  Explain how that applies to your own life.

How has your jealousy lead to a sticky situation?

Have you ever caused pain by your gossip?  Has gossip ever caused you pain? 

Do you think gossip is a problem in the WSBC Collegiate Group? 

What are some “wrong motives” in prayer?

How can our desires be made more like God’s desires.

Vs. 4 states that we can be “enemies of God”… How?  Explain.

Why do we so often ignore the promise found in, “Draw close to God, and He’ll draw near to you”? 

James 4:13-17

Try to define “the will of God.” 

What are some various ways people go looking for God’s will.

How do you go about trying to find God’s will for your life? 

Name a few examples of sin of omission. 

How do you think the sin of omission applies to the passage about God’s will for your life?  How can you sin in disobeying God’s will?