3 Friendship Breakers
Friendship Breaker 1 – Unchecked Hedonism.
James 4:1-3 – “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?”
** James says this Unchecked Hedonism is the root of our Friendship Breakers...the result being:
2 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. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
Proverbs 10:3 - “The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the
craving of the wicked.”
Question: “Why do we Christians continue to crave things to the point that it only divides us and sets us against one another?”
Friendship Breaker 2 - Unfaithful Philandering.
James 4:4a – “You adulterous people!”
Isaiah 54:5 - “Your Creator will be your husband. The Lord Almighty is his name! He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth.” (NLT)
Jeremiah 3:20 – “‘But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me, O house of Israel,’ declares the Lord.”
Point: Flirting with the world results in spiritual infidelity.
Friendship Breaker 3 - Enmity with God.
James 4:4b - “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.”
** Imagine that... the one who was the object of God’s affection “makes himself” an enemy of God.
Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (Matthew 6:24)
Point: There are no other categories: you are either “Beloved of God” or “Enemy of God”
5 Friendship Makers
Friendship Maker #1 – Follow God’s prescriptions.
James 4:6-7a – “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God.”
** Listen carefully – “God opposes the proud” because Pride:
1. Cannot admit it is deficient.
2. Believes it is self-sufficient.
3. Will not confess its own sin.
Friendship Maker #2 – Push back against Satan.
James 4:7b - “Resist the devil...”
Point: It’s as simple as this...We resist the devil when we refuse to surrender to the impulse of sin.
1 John 4:4 – “...the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world..”
A word of PROMISE... “Resist the devil and he will FLEE from you.” (v. 7b)
Friendship Maker #3 – Seek God while the door is still open.
James 4:8a - “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”
Point: Drawing Near happens when we release the “ballasts” that holds us down.
Friendship Maker #4 – Change when you’ve been wrong.
Unknown – “Laughter and joy are not evil. However, the particular moments when we meet God as sinners demand a serious repentance rather than hilarious celebration.”
James 4:8b-9 – “Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.”
Point: Repentance is the reset button that activates grace.
William Barclay – “The terrible sorrow of the realization of sin moves on to the thrilling joy of sins forgiven.”
Friendship Maker #5 – Know your place.
James 4:10 - “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
“Humility” = thinking of yourself as God thinks of you.
Point: When we think of ourselves as God does... “humility” frees us to:
1. ...keep a right perspective about the highs and lows of life...not warped by the world’s philosophies/priorities.
2. ...not beat up yourself for sin...but to not EXCUSE yourself, either.
3. ...approach God with confidence... knowing we WILL be accepted by him through Jesus.
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