Ep 53: Peace Maker, Not a Trouble Maker – Pt. 1

Hi there, this is Thomas Mahairas with. It’s all Greek to me. And we’ve been studying James and now we’re in James Chapter four. We’re going to continue discussing this chapter on being a peacemaker, not a troublemaker. And we’re gonna pick up the discussion with Vicki today and look at the various things in this chapter. What I want, what I think, what I say, what I plan and also what I do. You know how I resolve problems in my life to be a peacemaker and not a troublemaker. Let’s jump into this discussion with Vicki and I. We’re going to be discussing today, peace maker, not a troublemaker. And we’re starting a new chapter and it’s just amazing. As I look back at my youth that when I would come into a room, people would say dot so capitan Masseria, Captain Trouble, I mean, my nickname was Captain Trouble. Now I know you know this because I got a t shirt, I got a sweatshirt. Last christmas. And what did it say, Captain. Crazy, But I was Captain Trouble. It shouldn’t be crazy. Anyway, what nickname would you like to have on you? Are you a peacemaker? Or are you a troublemaker? That you were gonna say that I’m a peacemaker. All right, tell me a little more about that. That’s our goal. When the Holy Spirit comes into our life, all those personal uh, weaknesses in our character. All the personality bad traits. You know, if we’re very domineering or were apathetic. All those things. The Holy spirit comes into our life to transform us and we are to be a representative of jesus christ. Therefore, if any man is in christ, he becomes a new creation. The old things, they pass away new things come and that second Corinthians 5: verse 17. Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he becomes a new creation and the old things pass away. If you’re troublemaker, let it pass away now you’re a peacemaker. So let’s look and see the chapter divisions that we gave this particular chapter. Uh, there are four very clear um, distinct parts what you want Or our Desires vs one through 5. What you think versus six through 10. Pride versus humility, what you speak verse 11 and 12. Just those two verses. And then what you plan verse 13 through 17. And of course the key verse, uh, what is that? Beautiful verse Vicki, you go ahead and give it to us verse six, but he gives a greater grace. Therefore, it says God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. That’s our key principle for the study about being a peacemaker rather than a troublemaker, is that he gives a greater grace. Therefore, it says God is opposed, literally stands against is opposed to the proud. But he gives grace to the humble. He actually leans forward with uh anointing and blessing and and with favor towards the people that are willing to humble themselves. So let’s let’s go on in and start this particular uh, study this morning, We’re looking at the source of war. The source of war. Where where does this come from? And there are several things that it says there in the scriptures. Well in the first verse he has three different sources right there. The source. What is the source of quarrels, limos and conflicts Mahi among you? Is it not the source of your pleasures? Hegemony from here? Those pleasurable to the senses and properly sensual uh physical pleasure that wage war started fighting as a soldier. This is spiritual war for warfare within our very members. Yeah, there’s a war going on. We we we often time a conscious of it. I mean, you know whether it’s the thoughts or whether it’s our feelings or emotions, maybe it’s something physical. We sense the spiritual warfare all about this. It could be through a news broadcast. There could be something we’re reading. Somebody says something to us immediately or something happens. And you sense spiritual warfare going on. And that’s the word strategy evo fighting as a soldier in war. Spiritual warfare in your members. The actual in our actual flesh that that is going on. Anything else you want to say about this. Alright, let’s keep going. You lost, empathy Mayo from epi focus or intensifying theme most a passionate desire and you do not have. So you commit murder. You are envious Zillow and cannot obtain. So you fight again. That’s the word that was used mocking in the first word Marco May and quarrel again, Hola mi Oh you do not have because you do not ask. So this work is going on. He says not necessary from the outside. It’s going on from the inside correct. But he tells us right at this last part we have the ability to ask. So who are we asking, where to go to God now and ask. So you’re coming out of Chapter three where he talks about the different kinds of wisdom, the wisdom from above. The wisdom that is earthly and sensual and demonic. He’s he introduces us to the spirit world, the demon world. And now immediately says, hey, you know what you need to understand what these fights and these wars come from the actual Maki is the battle and Paula moses the war and this is going on inside of every man woman, a child. This happens. And a lot of the times you think it’s just conditioned reflex it’s there is a spiritual war going on. I agree. So you ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend it on your pleasures. So this word hegemony is always negative in the bible. So it was used in the first verse and now it’s used again in the third verse. It was the word was pleasures in my bible. Yeah. So you know this word is where we get hedonism from and it’s the worship and the passion towards pleasure and so uh, this is what we’re looking at what you want. Sometimes people are driven by what they want I want, that I have to have that. Whether it’s a, you know, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a woman, uh, you know, maybe it’s a habit that, that they can’t stop. You know, you’ve, you’ve seen this overpowering desire, overpowering desire in people’s lives that really lead them to destruction, lead them down to uh, you know, absolutely forsake everything because that particular pleasure is so important to them. And that’s the word used here. It’s always given to us in a, in a bad connotation. So let’s go on to the next thought here. He says, you adulterous is miccoli’s. Do you not know that friendship philia with the world? Cosmos is hostility extra is extra. Ocean greek is an enemy is an extra, this hostility towards God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. So, you you have to pick and choose who you’re fighting and and you know whose side you’re on, I don’t want to be, you know, against God. That’s for sure, and I don’t want to be fighting against God. And I don’t want God to be against me. Uh, you know, so this is very important that he says, if we make ourselves a friend of the world. So you now you’ve been introduced to the flesh in verse one and two. Now we’re being introduced to the world, which is the enemy of God. Therefore whether wishes to be a friend of the world, makes himself an enemy of God dextrose. And then it says, or do you think that the scriptures, graffiti, the scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously, huh, Jonas, he jealously desires that people several uh the spirit which he has made to dwell in us Katic iso from the cause to dwell in us. So God jealously wants our best are good and he’s made his spirit to dwell in us. And uh and this is what it’s talking about, is talking about, that the scripture makes this clear that we should not be against God, that we should not give ourselves to the world. And we go on to explain a little more of this word here, johnny from he, those pleasurable to the senses probably sensual pleasure. Why don’t you pick it up and read it from there on here? What is enjoyable to the natural physical senses? A heathen satisfaction of a physical appetite and generally refers to pleasure made to be an end in itself. So it has a strong negative connotation here. A person enjoys satiating bodily desires or lust at the expense of other things. And the root word in english is hedonism or hedonistic. This is the kind of thing that makes breaks up marriages. This is the kind of thing that is so overwhelming, People don’t know how to control this. And yet God gives us insight in this chapter on how to be victorious over the flesh Over the world. And next you’re gonna see over the devil. So uh there are some verses that the Bible uses this word and just it’s rare. But here are some verses where it is used Luke 814, the seed which fell among the thorns. These are the ones who have heard. And as they go on their way, they are choked with the worries. Notice the three things that choke the word of God, The spiritual production in our lives, the worries of this world. How am I gonna do I have a job? How am I gonna eat? How am I gonna pay the bills? The worries of this world, the deceitfulness of riches. I got to get more money and the pleasures, the heath thorny of of this world. These are the things that will choke the spiritual word of God and it says bring no fruit to maturity. There’s there’s another where you pick up the next one, Vicki titus 33. For we also, once we’re foolish ourselves, disobedient deceived, enslaved to various less and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy hateful hating one another. Now again, these passages are dealing with the goddamn IQ nature, the sinful nature, you know, And it never uses it in a positive way. Notice, for we once were foolish ourselves disobedient deceived, enslaved to various lesson pleasures. We would deceive. We were enslaved by these things. It says spending our life in malice and envy. Hateful and hating one another. It produces nothing but fighting and hating other people. Uh James 41. What is the source of quarrels which we’re looking at right now and conflicts among you is not the source. The source of the fighting is these head don’t need these hedonism. The pleasures that I have that I want self centered rather than God sent it right. They’re selfish. I mean, there is healthy. Uh, the word in the beginning which was uh in verse two epic female. Uh, it could be good or bad desire. Yeah, passionate desire, passionate desire. It comes uh it’s even translated lust right sometimes. Right? So even in this scripture here, so we have to look at that, you know, it all the context and how it’s used in the context. It could also mean that you crave something. It overtook you or you coveted something. Um, and so it says that, you know, in in Matthew, uh it talks about in Galatians 5 17, the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, correct? So, well, that desire is both right? We’re in a spiritual battle. So, you know, and when we just read this, uh, we needed to realize that God tells us now that we’re in a battle. We have to come to him and says ask asked me, but don’t come with wrong motives that you can satisfy your own lustful wrong desires, your own selfishness. So epitome a the desire, you know that a person may or may not have. It can be used for positive things as well as for negative things according to its context. But the word hegemony, which is hedonism is only evil and bad and will create these fights in us. And then in James chapter four verse three, pick it up Vicky and you ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend it on your pleasures. Again, it’s self centered. Yes, it’s flesh driven. It’s it removes christ out of the picture and is really gonna fall under the judgment of God and of course the war and the battles and the the stuff that goes along with it. And then in second Peter 2 13, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong, they counted a pleasure. He’s a phony to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes reveling in their deceptions as they corrals with you. There are people that are in our myths that they they are they have their own agenda. They’re doing their own thing and yet they’re with us. According to second Peter Chapter two verse 13. And again, this is given to us in the negative, let’s move on. And that that would be it. So we go back and realize that this this uh the source of of this war, the source of this battle is this Tony, this this pleasure that is uncontrollable, self, self centered and not christ centered, you want to say something else. And so back on this word, empathy mail because I was confused as I was, I wrote all over my bible as I looked up all these words in the greek and verse two, it says um you lust, that’s empathy may the meo and so but it’s really also talking about a good passionate desire because it’s used of christ himself. Let me hear it. So in Matthew 13 17, jesus says for truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired passionately desired to see what you see. Yeah, and did not see it and to hear what you hear. And then in in uh Luke 22, Jesus speaks at the passover night and he said to them, I have earnestly desired, epitome, oh, to eat this passover with you before I suffer. And one other one in first timothy, it talks about when someone wants to be a leader in the church. It is a trustworthy statement in first timothy 31, if any man aspires to the office of his overseer, it is a fine word that he desires to do. So here’s good desires and it’s the same exact word God wants us to be passionate about things. I think in a marriage, we are coming across so many people getting divorced who are of faith based backgrounds and they’re saying that’s it. I’m washing my hands of this, I’m walking away and they’re letting the wrong desires control them. And so what the teaching on these two different uh, two different greek words for the same uh, kind of explanation in english the desire, the want. And so we started, you know what we want is so important and but the word of the female is can be used for good things that we want, desires that are passionate for the good. Like Vicki just mentioned butthead oni is only for evil, which are, which is the word translated Hedonism. So that was a great discussion. Thank you Eddie what I want. I mean, we could look at all the various stories in the bible. You know, you have the three stories that are so paramount. The smartest man, The most spiritual man, the strongest man Samson. Because he wanted a woman, he says get a former, he told his mom and dad, uh, I want to and yet he was a Nazaret could not be, he was totally consecrated from the, from the womb to the grave and could not touch a dead body, could not drink wine or any dried grapes. No razor was supposed to come on his hair. He was flirting constantly with what he couldn’t have. And uh, we see, get her for me, I want her uh, to his mom and dad, you see David while kings were out in um war, he was staying behind and he wanted bet Sheba think about this and he he had all these things and yet he had to have that he had to have that one woman. And uh as a result of that, all the war and all the trouble and all the killing that took place in his own family and his own in his own kingdom. Yet Solomon, who was the wisest man, the smartest man. So the strongest, the most spiritual, the smartest all went down because they had to have something that God put a prohibition on. We could talk a lot, a lot about different stories. I want to go to the first story that really brings this out the most. And it is in genesis. Chapter three. The Fall of Man. Notice what it says in chapter two, verse 15 25 that the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed, total transparency, no guilt. There was just this beautiful atmosphere of innocence. Now you come into Chapter three where the fall of man takes place. The Serpent was more crafty than the any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman indeed has God said to you shall eat from the Tree of the garden. You shall rather not eat from any tree of the garden. And the woman said to the serpent from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God had said, You shall not eat from it or touch it lest you die. The serpent said to the woman, Surely you shall not die. And God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise. She took from it its fruit and ate and she gave also to her husband with her and he ate the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. It is an incredible story. First, it starts out in verse 25 where they were naked. There there was no, there was no problem there. They were not ashamed all of a sudden, now they’re ashamed. Sin has come into the picture first you saw that satan cast doubt on what God has said. This is always the pattern, indeed has God said, you shall not eat from any of the trees. This is found in verse one and then not only that, but he actually lies. Now God has said in in verse four, satan and the serpent said to the woman, you surely shall not die. Listen, he begins to cast out, but then immediately goes right to the juggler and goes contrary to the word of God. And of course the bible tells us that they went ahead and ate and they knew and they knew that they were naked. Now through experience, they knew this is the greek word gnosis. This is the hebrew word yada. And it means to experiential knowledge. And so the bible says. Now they made loin coverings. There were three things they did to cover up. This is a big cover up. I call it. They covered up themselves with the with the fig leaves. Then they hid themselves. It says Now in verse uh verse eight. It continues it says, And they heard the sound of the Lord God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees in the garden. They hid themselves first they covered themselves now they hid themselves. And third, they excuse themselves for what they did wrong. Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? He was hiding? And he said, I heard the sound of the in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid myself and he said, who told you that you were naked, have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? And the man said, the woman whom thou gave this to me? She gave to me from the tree and I ate. Now here’s the shifting the blame. This is what I’m talking about. The first a man excused himself. Then the woman excused herself the serpent that uh made me do it. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? And the woman said the serpent deceived me and I ate. And the Lord God said to the serpent and now you’ve got the judgments that God prophesies salvation, that God is gonna send the redeemer through the seed of the woman and that God would crush and destroy the serpent’s head. I’ll just summarize this now and and then and then. The Lord says in verse 21 the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. So you know, we could try to clothe ourselves, we could try to hide ourselves. We could try to excuse ourselves is only when jesus christ the lamb of God that dies on the cross for our sins so that he might take away our sins that we really find forgiveness when we repent when we confess, oh malabo, when we actually admit to God the same thing that God says about us that we have violated his laws And we begin to repent The the enemies that we have is the flesh, the world and the devil. What’s going on in the world right now is that when you’re reading in James chapter four and you see what God is saying there that because of our desire to want something that we don’t have and we fight and we quarrel and we we we just are all over the place. This is one country fighting another country, one family fighting another family, one husband fighting a wife. Children fighting one another. Because the core problem is our bethany, our desires, our wants that that make us do things that we shouldn’t do. And this this is a this is the number one reason the story like uh from the very beginning of what happened to Adam and Eve God just gave one prohibition don’t need from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which is in the middle of the garden and here the devil begins the cast doubt upon the word of God. Then he didn’t then actually uh deceives them and lies about the word of God and the judgment of God comes upon them. And it’s interesting that the bible says that so God drove he sent them out of the garden of Eden And Brian also verse 22 it says then the Lord God said behold the man has become like one of us knowing good and evil. Now listen man learned good and evil through experience. When it talks about jesus christ did not know good and evil through experience himself. It’s interesting in the new testament, it says second Corinthians chapter five verse 21. He who knew no sin diagnosis, but he became sin for us. That we might have the the mercy of God on us, that we could have salvation. He who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we could that he would experience the wrath of God for us on him, so we could be saved. He he was in the world, reconciling the world to himself, not counting our trespasses against us. And he has now committed to us. This this word of reconciliation, tying it all together with what James is talking about This war that’s going on began in heaven with Lucifer against God Almighty, who wanted to be like God. And it gives us this insight in the book of Isaiah 14 and and Lucifer, who wanted to rise up above The other angels, the five I wills that you see in that passage in Isaiah, and God makes it so clear that when you come up with pride, you will be cast down and here, jesus christ, he came, he was God. It tells us in Philippians chapter two, He he thought or not robert, we evil God, he became a man and as a man he went to the cross and bled and died on that cross was buried in a rose again and he who knew no sin became sin for us. That we could have the righteousness of God in him. The only way our wants, our thoughts, our words, our plants could really be reconciled and and changed and that we could have a new nature is through jesus christ who became sin for us. Although he was in the world as a man, he was a perfect man. He went to the cross. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we could have the righteousness of God in him. Listen today you might not be able to control your wants. Maybe it’s drugs, maybe it’s money, maybe it’s sex I don’t know. But jesus christ can deliver you from those wants that will destroy you and the war between you and God you and the flesh you and the world you and the devil will cease. That you will have a victory inside to be able to combat the enemy from the outside. Yeah. God bless you