JESUS’CONFLICTS,

YOUR CONFLICTS

1 What causes fights and quarrelsamong you? Don't they come fromyour desires that battle within you?

2 You want something but don't get it.You kill and covet, but you cannothave what you want. You quarrel andfight. You do not have, because youdo not ask God.

JAMES 4 : 1 - 12

JAMES 4 : 1 - 123 When you ask, you do not receive,because you ask with wrong motives,that you may spend what you get onyour pleasures.

4 You adulterous people, don't youknow that friendship with the world ishatred toward God? Anyone whochooses to be a friend of the worldbecomes an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think Scripture sayswithout reason that the spirit hecaused to live in us envies intensely?favoritism and is always sincere.

6 But he gives us more grace. That iswhy Scripture says: "God opposes theproud but gives grace to the humble."

JAMES 4 : 1 - 12

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God.Resist the devil, and he will flee fromyou.

8 Come near to God and he will comenear to you. Wash your hands, yousinners, and purify your hearts, youdouble-minded.

JAMES 4 : 1 - 12

9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Changeyour laughter to mourning and yourjoy to gloom.

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord,and he will lift you up.

JAMES 4 : 1 - 12

11 Brothers, do not slander oneanother. Anyone who speaks againsthis brother or judges him speaksagainst the law and judges it. Whenyou judge the law, you are notkeeping it, but sitting in judgment onit .

JAMES 4 : 1 - 12

12 There is only one Lawgiver andJudge, the one who is able to saveand destroy. But you--who are you tojudge your neighbor?

JAMES 4 : 1 - 12

THERE MIGHT BE A FIGHT

You’re going to have conflict. Somebody’s going to get hurt,

somebody’s going to fail, somebody’s going to

misunderstand, somebody’s going to get bitter, somebody’s going to get angry. It’s going to happen.

And what Pastor James is going to lay out for us is really that there

are two options.

WORLDLY CONFLICT

When he’s talking about the world here and worldly conflict, he gives a simple definition of what it means to be “worldly.”

“Worldly” means that things are put together in a way that Satan likes. This is our natural desires,

our natural proclivities.

THREE ASPECTS OF WORLDLY CONFLICT

IT BEGINS WITH PASSIONS1

It begins with passions. Your emotions become untethered.

You’re hurt, you’re angry, you’re upset, you’re frustrated,

you’re scared.

IT EXPLODES INTO FIGHTING2

There are some ways that we contribute to fighting,

quarreling, and warring. One is questioning the motives of

another. We can see people’s actions, but sometimes their

motives are only seen by God.

Sometimes the fighting and the quarreling contributed to by speculation. We know part of the story, and we feel free to

write the rest of the story. Sometimes the warring is

contributed to through exaggeration.

IT INVOLVES HALF-TRUTHS AND GOSSIP3

Half truth is one whole nonsense.

WORLDLY CONFLICT always focuses on

your self

Sometimes we contribute to the warring through half-truths. We tell half the story, not the whole story. In addition, what contributes to fighting and quarreling is gossip.

This is where we talk about someone rather than to someone. What we’re looking for are people to join our side of the fight, not trying to reconcile but to have

victory.

SPEARING

Jesus would show up and say, “You don’t kill them, “and you don’t kill

them. “I’ll die for both of you. Stick the spear in me.”

The Lord Jesus goes to the cross, and he dies for our sin, and what did they do to his side? They spear him so that there can be peace and reconciliation instead

of worldly conflict. Worldly conflict is where people spear one another and don’t rejoice in the fact that Jesus was speared for them both. So, they keep spearing one another, and the result is

they forget that Jesus said, “It’s finished.” That’s worldly conflict.

CONFLICT CAN’T BE AVOIDED

Anybody else guilty of it in your life? Is there an option? Well, there’s worldly conflict and there’s godly

conflict. We’re all sinners. Everybody we meet is a sinner. We’re in a

fallen, sinful world. There’s going to be conflict. Some of you, in an effort to not have conflict, what you will do

is you’ll retreat and you’ll isolate.

Friendship equals conflict, equals pain. The result is, we withdraw

emotionally, we withdraw relationally. This is where someone was hurt in a church, and all of a

sudden, they leave and they never go to church again—no church. The only way to avoid conflict is to avoid

relationship.

That’s why we created Faith Groups

so that we are not alone.

GODLY CONFLICT

Let me submit to you that the goal is not to avoid all conflict, but to have

godly conflict, if and when that opportunity is set before you.

Worldly conflict is natural; godly conflict is supernatural. Worldly

conflict is easy; supernatural conflict is hard.

5 Or do you think Scripture sayswithout reason that the spirit hecaused to live in us envies intensely?favoritism and is always sincere.

6 But he gives us more grace. That iswhy Scripture says: "God opposes theproud but gives grace to the humble."

JAMES 4 : 1 - 12

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God.Resist the devil, and he will flee fromyou.

8 Come near to God and he will comenear to you. Wash your hands, yousinners, and purify your hearts, youdouble-minded.

JAMES 4 : 1 - 12

9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Changeyour laughter to mourning and yourjoy to gloom.

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord,and he will lift you up.

JAMES 4 : 1 - 12

HOW DID JESUS DEAL WITH CONFLICT?

How did he do that?

By the power of the Holy Spirit. God became a man. In addition to his

divinity, he added humanity, and he walked humbly on the earth. He

walked as we must walk. He didn’t cheat, leaning into his divinity.

Instead, he lived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The only ingredient to avoid conflict is

HUMILITY.

GOD GIVES MORE GRACE TO

THE HUMBLE

The second thing that he says is that God is gracious. When people are having a conflict, they want grace, but they’re prone not to give grace,

and God’s not like that.

4 Then you will win favor and a goodname in the sight of God andman.(NIV)

PROVERBS 3:4

Worldly conflict is marked by pride, and godly conflict is marked by

humility.

9 THINGS

HUMILITY

ALLOWS US TO DO

WE SEE OUR SIN 1

Here’s what humility allows us to do: humility in the middle of a conflict

allows us not just to see your sin but to see mine, too. Because when our

emotions and our passions get enflamed, we’re so aware of how

they’re wrong that we tend to overlook that we might be wrong,

too.

WE GET QUIETER, NOT LOUDER2

Humility turns the volume down.

WE LISTEN MORE, SPEAK LESS3

Humility allows us to listen more and speak less. God needs to get a bit in our mouth to keep us under control, particularly our speech, our tongue,

our language, and our communication.

WE SUBMIT TO GODLY AUTHORITY4

You shouldn’t submit to all authority, but you should submit to godly authority. Humility allows us to

submit to godly authority because in certain moments, we want to be our own authority, or what we want is

victory, so we ignore other authority.

Conflict is never about winning; it’s about worshiping. Worldly conflict is

about winning. Godly conflict is about worshiping.

WE RESIST THE DEVIL5

You’re not fighting the person. You’re fighting the devil. Our war is not against flesh and blood. It’s not against people but against powers,

principalities, and spirits.

23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Getbehind me, Satan! You are astumbling block to me; you do nothave in mind the things of God, butthe things of men."(NIV)

MATTHEW 16:23

WE DRAW NEAR TO GOD6

Stick with the Lord. Stay close to the Lord.

What he’s saying here is, “In the middle of the conflict, look up, find the Lord, and get to him.” The only way out of the conflict is to get to

the Lord.

WE GET CLEANED UP7

What this means is that even saints have moments where they act like sinners. Saint may be our identity, but sometimes sin is our activity.

What this means is, if we’re wrong, we own it. If we think we’re wrong,

we own it. If the godly mediator says we’re wrong, we own it.

WE ARE PATIENT8

What he says is, “And he will lift you up when it’s time,” meaning the Lord loves you, and he says, “You know

what, just stay down right now. The bullets are flying. And when it’s safe, I’ll come, pick you up, help you out,

and move you forward.”

WE REFRAIN FROM JUDGING9

Do not speak evil against one another.” We must check, is it negative, is it

critical, is it hurtful? “Do not speak evil against” one another, fellow Christians,

brothers, family.

Families are going to have conflict, but nobody should die, be kicked out of the family, quit the family, or set the house

on fire.

That’s the verdict of the judge. That’s godly conflict. You say,

“Where’s the justice?” At the cross. “Well, who’s going to pay?” Jesus

already did.

FAMILY, NOT ENEMY

James here is speaking, and here’s what he’s saying: “Church is a family, and the family has an enemy. And if you forget that, you’ll act in a way that is worldly

and not godly.”

The times that we have not believed that or not walked in that, we have

acted in a way that is worldly and not godly.

FAITHWORKS CHRISTIAN CHURCH GLOBAL

Presented By:

Ptr. Vetty GutierrezFCC Main, San Mateo Rizal, PH

10AM Morning ServiceMay 22, 2016

Website: faithworkschristianchurch.comFacebook: Faithworks Christian Church GlobalTwitter: @fccphilippinesInstagram: fccphilippines