Blue Jean Theology Part 11
Tom Shrader examines James 4:1-6, explaining that quarrels and conflicts in Christian communities stem from the internal war between flesh and spirit, not external circumstances. He emphasizes that friendship with the world makes one an enemy of God, and calls believers to recognize their basic selfishness and submit to God's agenda rather than promoting their own. The teaching challenges Christians to live as ambassadors of Christ rather than comfortable citizens of this world.
“If you are a Christian, all of the points of that illustration apply to you - you are here in the name of God presenting a ministry of reconciliation, but most importantly, we are never to become a citizen of this world.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Blue Jean Theology (2011)
Recorded: 1996
Duration: 40 min
Themes: conflict, selfishness, submission, worldliness, quarrels, flesh, pride, ambassador, struggling with conflict, church disputes, dealing with selfishness, new believer, pastor, church leader, navigating relationships, young adult
Scripture: James 4:1-6, 1 John 3:15, Matthew 7:7, Matthew 18, Exodus 20, 2 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 1
Theological Themes: sanctification, flesh versus spirit, worldly wisdom, spiritual warfare, biblical holiness, submission to god, christian living, spiritual maturity
Full Transcript
We are actually, I think, in our 11th week as we're navigating our way through the book of James. And that in and of itself warrants a comment. The book, we call it a book, was actually a letter, and was probably not written with the idea that one day there'd be a bunch of people in a bar spending 15 weeks going through it, figuring out every word. It was a letter and designed to be read like that. To be read in one sitting, to stop and to read it. And therefore there's a continuity, there's a building process on there. And that's why, perhaps boring to some of you, but absolutely essential for us to keep going back and reminding you of certain things. Because all of this connects together. And the part we're going to look at today from James, beginning in the fourth chapter, really is built upon all that's gone on before this.
James Is Not Giving Us a Prescription for Salvation
James is writing, and this is essential, I think we've said it every week, and you cannot afford to miss this point. If you miss this point, you are really going to end up in a mess. James is writing to a group of people that have a problem. And that's really important to remember. He says to them, I want you to not merely be a hearer of the word, but a doer as well. James is not writing a prescription telling you how you become a Christian. What he's saying is, if you're a Christian, this is what this ought to look like.
And if you misinterpret that, if you think he's giving you a system for salvation, you're going to be tied up in your theological shorts. And you're going to be all messed up. And you're never going to get it undone until you go through a lot of agony and a lot of work. Really important to understand that. The people he's writing to are having some problems in their life. There is a hearing and not a doing. There are all sorts of secondary and tertiary problems that flow out of this. And that's the issue.
Building on Previous Lessons About the Tongue and Wisdom
Now, two weeks ago, and these are the two tapes that are up there, two weeks ago, we looked at the issue of the tongue. James is saying the tongue is really important because it is a revealer of what's inside of you. That's like when people say golf is a great character builder. Golf is not really a character builder. Golf is a character revealer. It simply shows you what is in there. That's the distinction. The tongue is not a character builder. The tongue gives you a beautiful view of what's inside in your heart. And for a lot of us, it's ugly to watch.
From that, we looked at what we looked at last week: What is wisdom and true wisdom? And James does a contrast between earthly wisdom and heavenly wisdom, between natural wisdom and supernatural wisdom, between demonic wisdom and godly wisdom. And when He uses the word wisdom here, we're talking about how should we live type of stuff. That's what we're looking at in that process. He's not talking about knowledge. He's talking about, okay, now how do we live?
And when He ends up with, in that little section, verse, I think it's 13 through 18, what He's talking about is righteousness or, in this case, right living. That's what wisdom does. Now He comes back and He presents yet an observation of another problem they have. And He tries to pinpoint the source here. So what I want to do is go through and read some of these verses and then come back and make some observations.
The Source of Quarrels and Conflicts
Here's what He says: "What is the source of the quarrels and conflicts among you?" In other words, what's causing all of this? "Is not the source your pleasures that are waging war in your members?" Here's the problem. And we go back again to tie in last week. He said earthly wisdom produces all sorts of strife and jealousy and selfish ambition and every evil thing.
So here's what we said: In the Christian's life, you cannot stop the flow of circumstances. If you're a Christian, your parents will die, your kids will have problems, you'll have problems, there'll be economic problems, you don't know what they are. In your life, there's going to be just a flow of problems because that is life. That's the way it is. You can't stop that. Your faith doesn't stop the flow of circumstantial problems. So they may vary and they may not swing much and then all of a sudden you've got big things and then small, and there's this.
James is not saying that goes away circumstantially. What He's saying is in the middle of these fluctuating circumstances, there is a peace and harmony in the midst of it. In the midst of it. That's the way it's supposed to be. And in your relationships, there should be a sense of that.
When You're at War with Everyone, Look in the Mirror
I had a fellow, I've got a bunch of little silly illustrations today and things you guys have said to me, but I had a fellow who came to me and he wanted to talk about life. And he was a really opinionated guy, which, you know, I'm okay with that. I have my own opinions. And basically here's what he said: He's at war with his wife. He's at war with his kids. He's at war with his boss. He's at war with the church. He's at war with the club. He's at war with everything.
And then when he's all done, he said to me, "What do you think?" And all I said to him was, "I only see one common thread in all of these problems, and that's you." And at some point, you've got to come face to face with the possibility that the whole world can't be wrong and you may be a jerk because I have to come face to face with that.
So if you can't get along here and you can't get along here and you can't get along here, one of the hallmarks as a Christian is, as far as it depends upon you, you're at peace with one another. That doesn't mean you roll over. That doesn't mean it's Neville Chamberlain peace at all costs. It says here's the truth, but even as you deal with the truth, you deal with it in a way that when the other person walks away, they say, "I disagree, but I do like that person." There should be peace and there should be harmony.
And there should be peace and harmony in your relationships. Now, why aren't there? Well, James tells you right there. The problem is this, and it goes back to last week's lesson: selfishness and jealousy. You're concerned about one thing, and what you're truly concerned about is you.
He said, "You lust and you don't have, so you commit murder. You're envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and you quarrel and you bicker, and you do not have because you do not ask. On the other hand, you do ask and you don't receive because you ask for the wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your own pleasure." We'll come back and make comments on that.
Then he rounds out this section. What he's talking about here is worldliness. He's going to paint that picture for you. Here's what it looks like. Here's what begins to happen. And then he's going to give you a cure. That's what I love about so much of Scripture.
The War Between World and God
He said, "You adulterous, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Conversely, if you wish to be a friend of the world, you will be an enemy of God. Or do you think that Scripture speaks of no purpose when the Scripture says, He jealously desires the spirit which He's made to dwell in us. But God gives a greater grace. Therefore, it says, God is opposed to the proud and gives grace to the humble."
So James begins to lay all this stuff out. Here's what he says: There is a war and there's a conflict going on. It's not international in scope. It's not the Democrat Party and the Republican Party. It's got nothing to do with ASU and the U of A. It's got everything to do with the war, in this case, among Christians. They're quarreling and they're bickering and they're backbiting. But the source of it is the war within your own life.
Remember now, he's talking to people who say they're Christians. We cannot say this to you enough: If you say you're a Christian, there must be a distinctive in the way you live. There has to be something that sets you apart.
The Ongoing Nature of Spiritual Struggle
And there is war. Many people, myself included, although I have given up, but many people are frustrated by the struggle in their life and are trying to do things to eliminate the struggle. You can't eliminate the struggle. It's going to be there all your life. And here's why.
As a Christian, something has happened to you. So now, you still have the same flesh, but you have a new heart. Now your spirit is alive. You have been, in fact, these are Jesus' words, born again spiritually. And here's the problem: The flesh wants to feed only on stuff and has an insatiable appetite for stuff and ego-gratifying things. So even as you feed it, you will never satisfy it. The spirit will never be nourished except by spiritual things. And there's the war.
The Marketplace Example
That's why I'm invited to speak at the Christian businessmen, CBWA, the East Valley. So I called, because I don't want to just go in there and talk about what's important to me. So I said, "What do you think I ought to talk about?" And they came back and they said, "We want to talk about integrity in the marketplace."
And I'm saying, "How much do you guys need to hear about this?" Every time it's integrity in the marketplace, integrity in the marketplace, integrity in the marketplace, integrity in the marketplace. That's all you ever talk about. What's integrity in the marketplace? Ethics. How do I make it work at work? All that kind of stuff.
Then I realized I didn't say that to them. I've now said it to them because they'll get the tape. But I found myself a little frustrated. Then I just got comfortable with the fact that this is a struggle and it's always going to be a struggle, and that is a frontline manifestation of that struggle.
How do I stand up for Christ in the workplace and at the same time not compromise my testimony and yet at the same time give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay and yet at the same time have the pressure of making it a deal and yet at the same time maintain the integrity and honesty? Well, the answer is it's just always going to be a struggle. I mean, it's just always going to be hard because there's no one singular situation that when you make that decision, now they all go away because the struggle, flesh and spirit, manifests itself in different ways.
See, that's what's going on in that process. Well, that's really helpful to know. I mean, that helps me to understand that. That is what James is saying in your life. You're in the midst of a struggle and it manifests itself in all these other struggles going along.
The Root Cause of Conflict
Now, the cause of this is what James wants to address. He says, "Listen, here's the problem. You lust and you don't have, so you commit murder." It's not that they were going out and stabbing or beating or stoning one another. He makes reference to the point that John makes in 1 John 3:15 where John says, "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer." Here's what's happening: These people are cutting each other up and slicing each other to ribbons verbally. They're robbing each other of their character and their reputation.
You see things around. Now, remember, he's talking to spiritual people in a spiritual context. You see each other around and you lust them and you can't get them, so you fight and you quarrel. And you don't even bother going to God and asking about these. These are things you're going to fix on your own.
The Problem of Asking
Now, there's a tension in there because he's saying "you don't have because you don't ask." We put that together with what Jesus says in Matthew 7:7, "Ask and it'll be given, seek and you'll find, knock and it'll be open." Very important because there's a lot of really lousy teaching going around that takes a verse like that and couples another verse with it. Like, in fact, because of what I do, I'm in a lot of church settings or Christian settings where I don't know them, they don't know me, they don't know how I feel about anything.
I don't know how they feel. So we'll be getting ready to do something and they'll say, "Why don't we pray? Fred, you pray." And Fred will oftentimes start this way: "Father, you tell us wherever two or more are gathered together, there you are. So we come to you today as a group of people."
I want to go, "Hey, Fred, do you think if I'm by myself, God's not there? You mean all my prayers where I'm alone?" See, that's a classic example. I'll tell you what's happened. Fred heard somebody else pray that way, who heard somebody else pray that way, who heard somebody else pray that way, and no one in the chain ever stopped and said, "I don't think that's what He's talking about." That has to do with Matthew 18 and discipline. It's got nothing to do with you and I praying.
But we've said it. It's like anything else. You just say it over, and Christians are terrific at this. You just say it over and over and over and over again, and pretty soon all these people you know have said it and you think, "Gosh, it must be right." Then nobody would ever say, "Hey, Fred, are you goofy or what's the story here?" Fred's never been challenged to think of it. That's got nothing to do with that.
Misunderstanding Agreement in Prayer
Conversely, here's what happens. We go from "two or more gathered" and "Father, you tell us if we agree on it, it'll be done, and Father, we agree right now." Well, that's not right. Let's agree. All of us agree right now that when I go out—I'm having a problem with my motor vehicle, it will not start. That's a problem. But rather than just make the simple prayer that it starts, let's pray that when I go out there's a new one there and let's all agree. Let's all agree.
"Oh, well, Tom, that's selfish." All right, let's agree on a good thing. Let's all agree that God saves every person in the world, not for our own benefit but for His. Let's go ahead and agree. And that's noble, isn't it?
The Prerequisites for Prayer
See, when He says "ask and find and knock," there are some restrictions there. Number one, He's speaking to believers. That's really important. That's why I get kind of at odds with some of my Christian friends because I tend to be a conservative, orthodox, fundamental, evangelical Neanderthal.
In the midst of all this, many of my other Neanderthal friends are spending a lot of time, energy, effort, and money on putting prayer in school. I don't think it's that big a deal. I think it makes a bit of mockery when you take a teacher who's an atheist and say, "Now I want you to pray." See, the first thing that this prayer implies is you're a believer.
If you're not a believer, your prayers are just popping off the ceiling. You're talking to yourself. You're flapping your jaws. You're wasting your time. That's why to me—and I admit I'm a little cynical here—that's why Easter just kind of gets to me a little. Here are all these people who are no more Christians than that ceiling fan flopping into church on Sunday on Easter and walking out thinking they're okay. They're worse off for going because now, I believe, they think they're okay. They would have been better off staying at home and watching David Brinkley because then we could all identify them as pagan and we'd be happy that way.
The Requirement of Obedience
So the first thing about prayer is you've got to be a believer. Here's the second thing: you've got to be living in obedience. There has to be this characteristic of obedience in your life. You're wasting your time if you're praying and you're directly disobedient to God.
I had a guy not terribly long ago who wanted to meet with me, and what he wanted to talk about was God's will for his life. "Tom, I just want to know what the Lord wants me to do." Well, what's interesting is he had several girlfriends, and they would call or see me at the study and say, "You know so-and-so," and I'd say, "Well, I just kind of know him vaguely." And they'd say, "Well, do you understand that he's sleeping with me and he's sleeping with her and he's sleeping with half of Phoenix."
So then I would meet with the guy and he'd say, "Do you mind if I pray?" And I'm thinking, "Go ahead, but it isn't going to make any difference." So he prays and says, "I just want to know what God wants me to do." And I said, "Well, I can give you a tip. It has to do with a zipper and a belt buckle. Keep it up."
But there is no way. We laugh at that—those are easy to pick up. But if you're sitting there sinning, sinning, sinning, sinning, sinning, sinning, sinning, and saying, "God, I want you to show me what you want me to do. What do you want me to do?" Stop sinning! Why is He going to tell you which job to take or what house to buy or whether to hit a seven iron or a six iron? He isn't going to tell you that if you're just thumbing your nose at Him everywhere. Why would He give you any more to do?
Praying According to God's Will
As He says "ask and knock," there's another thing. The implication here is that I'm praying in accordance with God's will. If I'm asking God to make sin right, my prayers have no value.
Now, here's the fourth kind of restriction in that area, and it ties into this. He says you ask and you don't receive because you have the wrong motive. In other words, we're asking these things, but our motives are all messed up as we're asking this.
He says, "Listen," and this is a parenthesis in this discussion. He said, "I want you to ask. I want you to seek. I want you to knock." Those are in the present imperative in the Greek. It's a continual, intense progression. It's "Father, I'm coming to you because you're God and I'm not." That's what He's saying.
Back to the Church's Problem
Now, He's back to this problem in this church. It's the problem that's in this church, and it's the problem that you have in your life and I in mine because we're continually fighting this idea.
of selfishness and jealousy because we're human beings. And the bottom line is most of us are incredibly selfish. If push comes to shove, all you care about ultimately is you. I keep going back to golf, but I have not yet met a person who doesn't think that they're a better golfer than they really are. I mean, I know in my heart, I know I can be a two or a three or a four or a scratch. Now, there's no empirical data to support that, but I know it's there. And that's the way that we tend to be, and that battle surfaces.
So here's what happens. He says, now you've got a fundamental problem, and the problem is this. You are flashing your spirit that are warring and are in conflict. Your flesh is drawn almost overpoweringly to worldliness.
God's Jealousy and Mutual Exclusivity
He says, you adulterous. Really, listen to the living paraphrase. Here's what he said: You're like a wife who loves her husband's enemies. This is your husband, but you're jacking up with one of his friends. Don't you realize that making friends with God's enemies, the evil pleasures of this world, makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy the evil pleasure of the unsaved world, you cannot also be a friend of God.
Now, I want you to come face to face with this. God, in His Word, tells us that His value system and the world's value system are mutually exclusive. They're at opposite ends. Jesus said it this way: You cannot serve God and mammon or stuff. And I believe it all ties together as you watch James begin to unpack this.
He says, let me tell you something. God's a jealous God. That idea is first interjected in the Scripture in Exodus 20, where God is giving the Ten Commandments, and at the beginning, He says, I am your Lord, your God. I want no God before you. I want no God before you. Don't you know God is a jealous God?
See, when we think of jealousy, we think of something bad. We think of one person, and even that is selfish. See, even our jealousy is selfishness. I'm jealous of this person because that person's getting what I want. So now we tend to look at jealousy and go, oh, God couldn't be jealous. Well, sure He is, in the most pure form.
The Problem of Idolatry in Our Hearts
And here's what He's saying. He said, I'm God, and I am the sovereign Creator and Lord and Master. And I want you to have nothing that replaces me, no idols. Well, we don't carve statues, and we don't pray to rocks. Some of you don't pray to rocks. He's saying, wait a minute. Anything that replaces where I'm to be in your life is an idol.
See how He begins to unfold this, and then He comes back, and He says, God is opposed to the proud. All of this flows out of a basic selfishness in your own life. See, last week when He talked about wisdom, He put two words together: selfish ambition.
There is nothing wrong with being ambitious. In fact, I would say to you as men and women of God, you should be enormously ambitious. I think Paul was an ambitious little guy. Paul said, I got only one thing I do. That's pretty ambitious. He writes to the Church of Rome. He says, I'm coming to see you, but only on my way to Spain. And I think this guy had a strategic plan. He was an ambitious person. The problem is this: It's selfish ambition.
Worldly Value Systems vs. God's Value System
See how it all starts to tie together? The problem here is, even when you get to these spiritual issues, you approach them in a worldly way. When he says worldly now, what he's saying is in a worldly value system. He's not saying you and I are supposed to... He's not talking about language and cars you drive and all those kinds of things. Those are issues, I think, by the way. But those are side issues. What he's talking about, fundamentally, is the condition of your heart. That you have the world's value system, and you have God's value system.
If in 1950 the world was here, and the Church was here, I don't think any of us would agree that since 1950 the world's moved this way. If it's done anything, it's moved this way. So the chasm between the Church and the world should be greater than ever before, and yet most people I talk to say it's never been closer than it's ever been before. What's going on there?
Griffin Thomas has an answer. Here's what he says: Don't think that the world is becoming Christian. Nope, that's not true. I think the world is becoming a little churchy, but I think the Church is becoming enormously worldly. That's what's happened. See, all the things in the world have infiltrated the Church.
God's Call to Be Distinct
When you read through the... Some of you do this every January. January 1st you're going to read through the Bible in a year. So you start and you bang out Genesis, which is pretty good because it's pretty interesting. And if you don't get it all, you can watch Turner and he's got a movie about everything on it. So you can get through that part. Then you get to Exodus. Now we're hurting. We get to Leviticus numbers. That's enough of this. This was a stupid idea.
Well, the problem is we bog down in there because it doesn't mean anything. Why is He telling him how to fix the food and cut the fields and leave the corners and dress like this? The reason is this. God says to the nation of Israel, you're my people. And everybody's going to know it because they're going to look at you and go, that's one of God's people. Look at the way he's dressed. Look at the way he plows this field. Who would leave all that excess on the corner but some goof that God talked to?
You translate this to the New Testament and He says to you and I, there's
There is supposed to be a distinct difference in your life and mine. It is not about the way we dress. It's not about where we live or how we plow the field. All those are issues, I think. The difference is we are at war with this world rather than comfortable in the world. Big difference.
You are an ambassador to this world. You have a tremendous passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Paul writes these words: "If any person is in Christ, he's a new creature and the old things are gone."
Now what He's talking about here is spiritually. You're a new creature spiritually. You were dead. Now you're alive. Still in the same earth suit. In the midst of that, even though I've got some of those things, as hideous as they were and they've been forgiven and they're gone, there's still some residual from that. There's still some pain. There's still all those things. But I'm a new creature.
God's Ministry of Reconciliation
Now all these things are from God. God did all this. Who's in the process, and here becomes the key word, of reconciling us to Himself through Christ, and He gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them. He's committed to us the word of reconciliation.
So as Christians, our job is to be God's, verse 20, ambassador. Now what's an ambassador do? He sent an ambassador to France. The United States sends an ambassador to France. There's some things we expect of him.
Number one, he represents or he travels in the name of the United States of America. As that ambassador is there, he is there to protect our interests there. He becomes a liaison between this country, and in our example, France. To the best of his ability, he's reconciling those. He becomes a protector of the citizens.
The Ambassador's Role
That's what's going on in Libya now, protecting all those citizens that are there, trying to get them, trying to move them, because that's an ambassador's job. He is there to in no way discredit his own nation, but there's an interesting thing to me about an ambassador. While he lives in France, he is never at home in France, because his home is here.
If you are a Christian, all of the points of that illustration apply to you. You are here in the name of God presenting a ministry of reconciliation. You're saying to a lost, hopeless, dying world, there's hope and there's a chance. Here it is, it's Christ, there's no other way. That's the big thing.
To me, the big thing at Easter is exactly that. Everybody gets all excited about Christmas, and that's terrific and all that, and I like Christmas, but the biggie is Easter for two reasons. An empty tomb, which in and of itself isn't that exciting, but a risen Lord. That's the message.
The Foundation of Our Faith
Think about what you heard, most of you, almost all of you were in church. This whole thing is about this empty tomb and a risen Lord. Empty tomb, risen Lord, empty tomb, risen Lord, empty tomb, risen Lord. That's the foundation. That's the cornerstone, that's the guts of Christianity.
Disprove that, cut that out, and the whole house of cards would come tumbling down. But it's not a house of cards. It's a solid building built on the foundation of an empty tomb, risen Lord. If He is Lord, and He is, that separates Him from everything else, and that says He's God.
Your job as a Christian is to take that message to the world, to take that message of hope to the world. And your job is to represent Him here, to protect His citizens here. That's why we're to love one another and care for one another, encourage one another, protect one another, all of those one another's. We are here in no way to discredit the person and the power that we represent.
Citizens of Heaven, Not This World
But most importantly, and I think this is what James is saying, and I believe this is the reason most of us live ineffective lives: we are never to become a citizen of this world. Our citizenship is always in heaven, and the understanding is we aren't home until we get there. But most of us have become very comfortable here, because this is not a bad deal.
So that old phrase, "most Christians are so heavenly minded they're no earthly good," really needs to be written in our day to say, most Christians are so earthly minded they're no heavenly good. And that's what James is saying, I think, in the midst of all of this, back to the issue that He's dealing with.
The fundamental problem that you and I have to overcome is our basic selfishness. And as we begin to come to grips with the fact that there is this problem, we get our grace from God. Our solution doesn't even lie in ourselves.
The Challenge of Success
That's why, and I don't want to sound like Johnny OneNote, but the point I've been trying to make, I think, in the last few weeks, and I will just tell you, I think God's doing something in my life in terms of coming to grips with this for myself and for my friends and for others. I believe, and I know the first time I said it, several of you weren't happy. That's not true. It wasn't several of you. Those have since left.
I don't think you can be successful in man's economy and equally successful in God's. Now, I will back off and say there may be a rare exception, but I think it's rare because the time, energy, and effort it takes to be successful in man's economy, once it's invested, you don't have enough capital left to invest that time, same time, energy, effort in God's economy to be successful.
What we're talking about here is investment capital, primarily your life, not your cash. Some of you get all excited about how many checks you write, and we need checks. No checks, no study. No checks, no study. That's not the point. We're not saying that. I got into a huge discussion with a guy the other day, he said, "You need to understand, these people are serving when they write a check." I said, "No, they aren't. That's an understanding."
I write a check, all I'm doing is giving, and everybody's to give. See, once I write a check, while you got some of my cash, I still don't have your heart. That's why He doesn't say, Present your money, a living sacrifice. That's why He doesn't say, Present your resources or your capital or your time or your energy. Don't present your time. He says, Present your bodies, because when I got your body, I got the whole stinking thing.
The Solution Centers on Our Relationship with God
Now, I want to give you a sense of encouragement. As He begins to give you the solution, we have six minutes here to wrap it up. All of this solution focuses on this relationship with God. Submit to God. Resist the devil. Draw near to God. Cleanse your hands. Purify your hearts.
Now, here's a verse you'll never see. Like if you go to a Christian bookstore, and you want to buy a plaque to put in the kitchen. Verse 9, probably not the one you're going to get. "Be miserable, mourn and weep. Let your laughter turn to mourning and your joy to gloom." Don't even see that. "Humble yourselves in the present." All of the solution to this selfish, worldly view lies in humbling myself and embracing who God is. And if you'll do that, I believe He'll use you in ways you never dreamt possible.
God Uses Those the World Would Overlook
Let me put two pieces of Scripture to you, give you an illustration from my mind, and then you can blow out of here. 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says, God doesn't use the rich in stuff. God doesn't use the wise of the world. God doesn't use the powerful. For in God's economy, God's wisdom is foolishness to man. Can't even compete. And I think this is why. If you get a guy who's really smart, or really powerful, or has a lot of bucks, and anything begins to happen around this guy for God, the tendency is to give credit to the guy. Because after all, he built this giant earthly organization, and now he's brought those talents, and he's got them, using them for God.
I'm talking to this guy one day, and we're having this discussion, and he said, "Can I say something to you?" And I said, "Sure. I mean, don't hurt me, but whatever you want." He said, "It's interesting to me, because I think you are one of the top 20 Christian leaders in the city." And I said, "Oh, well, thanks. I don't know how you rank those things, and I don't think so, but that's okay." He said, "No, no, no. I think you are. But here's what's interesting to me. You have none of the characteristics that a leader should have."
I said, "Oh, really? Like, what would that be?" And he said, "No, I'm serious. You have no physical presence. I mean, if you walk into a room, you're not tall. You're not handsome. You're not fat. You're not thin. You're just kind of there." I said, "Okay."
And he said, "I listen to a lot of your tapes, and you are not very eloquent. You communicate okay, but it's not an eloquent presentation. There's stutters and stammers and flaws and stuff all over it, and your mind drifts." And I said, "Okay."
And he said, "And I don't believe you're particularly intelligent in terms of IQ level. I think you're mentally agile, but I don't think you're any rocket scientist." And I said, "You know, I really agree with you. I mean, that makes sense to me."
A Giant Vacuum of Leadership
He said, "Here's what I think happened. I think there is this giant vacuum of leadership in the body of Christ, and you had enough guts to walk into it." And I think he's right. I mean, I know that sounds really harsh, but I got enough ego, but I've been beaten down enough that I know that all three points he made, I think, are absolutely true. I have no physical presence. I don't think I communicate particularly well, and I know what my IQ is, and it's not extraordinarily high.
But see, I come back to the basic point I made to you before. If I was some tall, dark, handsome stud guy with an IQ equal to my weight, and I never stuttered or stammered, when I was done, I guarantee you, you'd go, "Boy, that guy's really something." I know that's how that works. But when I'm done, people go, "God is good. God is gracious." And I think that's the distinction here.
And as long as you want to promote you, you're wasting your time. I continually, knowing that I have no reason to be proud or arrogant, continually fight that issue of selfishness and pride.
Getting Rid of Your Agenda
Here's what He says. I think it's what He says. If you want to be used by God in a magnificent and mighty way, then take your agenda and get rid of it.
I think what He's saying is, and I know you've got to go, He's saying even when you pray, here's what you do. You come to God and you say, "Father in heaven, wherever two or more are gathered, we're here. The other guy's not here yet, but listen to me now." And then you say, "God, here's what I want. Bam-ba-bam-ba-bam-ba-bam-ba-bam." In your name, God, let that be done. And all you do is take your agenda and say, "God, if you got any, and here's what you're saying, if you got any brains at all, I don't know why you wouldn't okay this and just sign off on it and get it done." And He takes that agenda and just rips that dog up and throws it away.
I'm to come to Him and say, "God, here's my agenda. Here's what I want. Here's what I think. But let me tell you something. You're God and I'm not. I can't see beyond now. You can see forever. I got a puny little—" I'm saying to you, "God, let's do A or B," and you're saying, "Tom, let's do Z to the 28th power, because you're sovereign and I'm not." That's the way to pray.
Our Selfish Prayers
And He's saying, even in our prayers, our tendency is to be selfish and how selfish are we? In one case, we don't ask Him at all. And in the next case, we ask Him, but we only ask Him so He'll rubber stamp our agenda.
And God is going to say to you, listen, look at verse 6. It's not that God is neutral. God resists the proud and He gives His grace to the humble. So how is it I have a life where God is active and alive and doing things in my life? What can I do to see that happen? Four things. And we'll give them to you next.
Father, thank you for Your word. We pray that You would break our hearts, that You would humble us, that You would cause us to be poor in spirit, that we would understand that we are spiritually bankrupt apart from You, that without You we are nothing and with You we have everything we need for life.
God, we pray that You would do whatever You need to do to break us to the point where we say Your will, not ours. God, I pray that You would touch every heart in here and You would soften us, make us sensitive to You and who You are and what You'd have us do and that You would give us a love for You and Your word and Your people and You would take our own infatuation with ourselves and You would kill it.
God, we ask it in Christ's name. Amen.