James: Authentic Faith - Week 9: Silence the Fighting Spirit | James 4:1-12

Hi, it's Pastor Jonathan, and thanks for downloading the FBC El Dorado Sermon Podcast.

In today's sermon, we continue our study in the book of James by looking at James chapter four.

In James chapter four, verses one through twelve, James teaches us how to silence the fighting spirit that's within all of us.

The fighting spirit, that's the person who uh finds it easy to get angry or is quick to lob an accusation and always ready to attack.

We must silence that fighting spirit because we want to bear witness to the gospel that we follow the Prince of Peace and proclaim the gospel of peace.

Our story begins not too far from the front door of First Baptist Church.

On September 17th, 1902, William Puckett arrived in El Dorado.

William had traveled from his home in Texarkana because he had arranged to marry a girl named Jessie, who just so happened to call El Dorado home.

When William arrives in town, he shows up unannounced at the photography studio where Jesse worked.

She isn't there, but the person who is there is the studio owner, the photographer Bob Mullins.

And so William, he does, he walks into the studio and he's like, Where is Jesse?

I'm looking for Jesse.

She's my bride to be.

Seems like a pretty simple question, pretty straightforward question.

But little did uh William Puckett know that that question would uh strike a match that lit a fire that led to this enormous fight.

Bob, as it turns out, also had plans on marrying Jesse.

Yeah.

And so the moment he hears that question, you know the first thing he does?

He attacks, he fights, he lunges at William Puckett.

Somehow William's able to get away and he flees and he goes and he finds the City Marshal of El Dorado and he requests an order of protection.

City Marshal's, okay, I'll keep this guy off your back.

And then he's able to go throughout the city and go on his search for his bride to be Jesse, Jesse, wherefore out there, Jesse.

And then he finds her.

They get married.

It's like happily ever after fairy tale wedding.

Except it's not.

There's more fighting to come.

So the newlyweds, Mr.

and Mrs.

Puckett, they go to the train station.

They're gonna head back to Texarcana.

But they haven't yet boarded their train when Bob shows up again.

He's fit to be tied, he's raging mad, and he rushes at the newlyweds, ready to attack.

Lucky for them, they are still under the protection of the constable.

And the constable arrests Bob.

Bob spends the night in jail, and the next morning he gets himself out on bail.

He goes and he finds the constable and he has an argument with him.

How dare you put me in jail?

How dare you put handcuffs on me and embarrass me?

How dare you?

She was the love of my life.

They have this confrontation that then escalates.

The constable pulls out his gun and he shoots and he kills Bob.

And you would think like that has to be the end of the fight, right?

Like it was just Star-Cross lovers, like uh Shakespearean drama that unfolded on our city streets.

But the fighting has just begun.

Listen to what happens next.

That family with the last name Parnell, they were close friends with Bob.

And they also were at odds with those city leaders, with the city marshal and the city constable.

And so they vigorously defended their fallen friend.

And they even claimed that the marshal and the constable had a vendetta against them.

And on October 9th, it all came to a head.

The marshal, the constable, and the local grocer.

That sounds like some random preacher joke, doesn't it?

A Baptist, a Catholic, and a Methodist walk into a bar.

No, this was the constable, the marshal, and the local grocer are walking by the downtown square when they run into three of those Parnell boys.

First, they fight with their words, and then they fight with their guns.

It was El Doredo's version of the okay corral.

A frenzy of gunfire swept through those city streets.

In the end, two of the three Parnell boys were killed.

And the constable, he too, lay dead in the streets.

And you think, surely the fight's gonna be over now.

Senseless violence in the streets, people know that's not how you solve problems.

That's not how you address conflict.

But the fighting had only just begun.

El Doredo, for the next several weeks and months, was absolutely on edge.

These rival factions emerged.

Some supported the Parnells and others supported the city marshal.

There was more fighting and more violence and more death, and it's estimated that over the next three years, upwards of 40 people died in the aftershocks of that first fight.

So in recent decades, you know this, during the summer months, there's a reenactment of that shootout and the events leading up to it.

It's called the Showdown at Sunset.

You can check it out later this month, I think, on a Saturday night.

And then if you miss this month, you can go in August on a Saturday night and see those events reenacted.

Now listen, I tell you the story of the showdown at sunset for this reason.

It's the history of our community.

And here's what we all know about history.

History has this way of repeating itself.

Or Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verse 9 puts it this way.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

It says, What was will be again.

What happened will happen again.

There's nothing new on this earth.

Year after year, it's the same old thing.

If you apply the wisdom of Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verse 9 to the story of William Puckett and Bob Mullins of the Parnells and the city officials, listen, those events in that story is not only reenacted year after year, it's relived year after year.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

It's relived in our homes, it's relived in our schools, it's relived in our city streets.

It's relived, yes, even in our churches.

The names and places may change, but it's still that same old thing.

People are always looking for a fight.

Maybe here's the reason why.

All of us possess what you might call the fighting spirit.

You know, some people use the phrase fighting spirit to name a person who fights through and who overcomes enormous obstacles in order to achieve their goal.

That's the fighting spirit of Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, the one who throws off everything that hinders them and is able to run the race that is set before them.

Hebrews 12:1

The fighting spirit that we hope to then nurture within our children.

It's the fighting spirit that says, never give up, always move forward.

But there's another fighting spirit.

A fighting spirit that we must not nurture because it is so natural.

I'm talking about that fighting spirit that is easily angered, quick to accuse, and ready to attack.

Hear that again.

Easily angered, quick to accuse, ready to attack.

That's the fighting spirit of the showdown at sunset.

And all of us, to a greater or lesser degree, we possess that fighting spirit.

Like so many things in life, it's easier to identify the fighting spirit in other people than it is to see it in ourselves.

And so as I was preparing the sermon this Sunday, I was reminded, thinking over the fighting spirit, I was reminded of a night at the youth baseball fields from a few years back.

It was between innings, and a parent of a child on Spencer's team got up and began to yell at the umpire between innings.

They approached the fence behind home plate, they uh stuck their finger through the fence, they began to shout and hurl insults and to accuse the umpire of um not calling the game fairly.

I just want you to think about that accusation.

It was a seven-year-old youth baseball game.

Like, literally, you were accusing that umpire of favoring one team of seven-year-olds over another team of seven-year-olds.

Or maybe you're accusing one team of seven-year-olds of giving that umpire a$100 handshake before the game to favor them.

Like, when you put it in that perspective, like that accusation is absolutely like he's doing the best that he can.

But that didn't matter to that parent.

The parent was fired up and then he got thrown out.

And so he's be being led away from uh the baseball field.

He's being led through the parking lot, but he's not quite done.

He he wants to see the league director, he wants to see him mono emano and to settle it with a fist fight in the parking lot.

That's the fighting spirit of the showdown at sunset.

A spirit that's easily angered, quick to accuse, and ready to attack, and it is still alive and well in our city streets.

But what I so easily can see in other people, it's also present in my own life.

So the story I'm about to tell you, I received permission from my son to tell it to you this morning.

In his words, he said, Well, at least something good can come out of it.

And so here we go.

On Thursday morning, I was getting ready to come to the office and I was uh getting dressed, and Lauren looked at me and she said, Well, Spencer just told me he owes me$100.

I was like, What?

I was totally confused.

Like, had he bought something that we were unaware of and it was gonna be delivered and he owed us money?

I was like, What are you talking about?

And she goes, uh Spencer told me that he just um put his foot through a window pane this morning.

It wasn't even eight o'clock.

Like, literally, how did we put a foot through a window before 8 a.m.

in the morning?

And so I went and I found him.

Like, I was like, what's going on?

And he goes, so I guess you heard.

That's how he goes, so I guess you heard.

I broke the window.

I said, Yeah, I did.

He goes, and this is what every parent wants to hear their child say.

I'm being serious here.

He goes, I told mom I'd pay for it, whatever it cost.

I take full responsibility for breaking the window.

And I was like, well, good, you should, you know, like because even though he took responsibility, there was still anger within me.

Like, why do we have to start the day this way?

It's not eight.

Or I wanted to accuse him of being irresponsible and not taking care of our things.

Or I wanted to start not a fist fight, but a verbal fight with him.

That's the fighting spirit that's still alive and well in me, and I bet it's still alive and well in you.

To a greater or lesser degree, we all know what it's like to be easily angered and quick to accuse and ready to attack.

And if we all possess it, what are we gonna do about it?

So this morning we're gonna move forward in our series called Authentic Faith, and we're gonna let James, the half-brother of Jesus, how to address the fighting spirit, how to silence the fighting spirit that is within all of us.

And I think this is James's message to each of us this morning.

He would say this the fighting spirit is in you, but don't let it control you.

The fighting spirit is in you, but don't let it control you.

And listen, guys, you and I, we need to hear and to apply James' message this morning.

For the sake of our marriages, we need to hear and to apply this message.

Husband, does your wife walk around, walk around on eggshells around you when you come home from the office every day?

For the sake of our families, we need to hear and we need to apply this message.

Mom or dad, have you ever heard your child ask you, why do you yell so much?

I've heard that question before.

It's quite humbling.

For the sake of our souls, we need to hear that message.

Because every time you turn on the TV or read the paper or get on social media, your blood pressure spikes and you're ready to fight somebody.

You're ready to go at them and to attack them.

For the sake of our friendships.

Finally, your sarcasm and cynicism, that's how you attack.

That's how you accuse?

That's how you get angry.

They've worn down even your closest friend, and they don't want to spend time with you anymore, and they can't tell you the truth about it because they are worried they will be the one at the end of the attack the next time around.

And listen, for the sake of our church and for the sake of our witness in the world, we have to hear and we have to apply this message.

We have to silence the fighting spirit because we are people who follow the Prince of Peace and people who proclaim the gospel of peace in our world.

And here's the thing: the message that James wants to share with us this morning is so important because if both parties in a relationship are willing to live according to this wisdom, that the fighting spirit is in you, but it doesn't have to control you.

If we're willing to live according to that wisdom, it has the potential to transform relationships, to heal relationships, and to realign relationships according to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, who brought the gospel of peace into the world.

Listen, the fighting spirit, recognize it, it's in you, but for the sake of the people in your life, for the sake of the witness of the gospel in the world, don't let it control you.

Let's begin by focusing on the first half of that statement.

The fighting spirit is in you.

Listen to what James says in chapter 4, verses 1 and 2.

He says, What causes fights and quarrels among you?

Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?

You desire but do not have, so you kill.

You covet, but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.

At the beginning of chapter four, James poses a question.

What causes fights?

He's trying to identify the source of the problem, the seed that started the conflict.

But does anyone in the room think that James is asking the wrong sort of question?

James, the question isn't what, the question's who.

I still have the opportunity to take road trips with my kids a couple times a year, a 12-year-old and a nine-year-old.

And inevitably, if the car ride is anything over three and a half hours, there's a fight in the back seat.

So Lauren and I are driving down the road, having like an adult conversation, and all of a sudden we hear, stop it! Don't touch me, move your feet.

And so, what do parents do?

What do grandparents do in that moment?

You're trying to referee from the front seat of the car.

You're refereeing, but you can't turn around.

And so the first thing you ask is like, what's going on?

What exactly is happening in this moment?

And inevitably the answer is something like this.

He started it.

Or she started it.

Our kids believe, and even as adults, we believe that our fighting spirit is provoked by the other people in the room.

They are the cause of the fight.

They're the reason we are angry.

They're the reason we accuse.

They're the reason we attack.

We blame them for what's going on.

And here's the thing: we prefer to ask the question who caused the fight?

Because then we can pass the buck.

We can be the innocent victim in the room, right?

I was just here and it started.

If they would just act like I needed them to act and be the person I've asked them to be and see the world the way I see the world, and talk about the world the way I talk about the world, and have my perspective on politics that I have, and have my perspective on family that I have, we would just all get along.

It's not a what, it's a who.

But guys, listen carefully.

That fighting spirit is also a deceptive spirit.

The fighting spirit wants you to ask the question, who?

Because then you're never going to get to the root cause of the problem.

The what?

What caused the fight is in you.

Notice how James answers that first question with a second question.

Don't they come from the desires that battle within you?

That's what I'm talking about.

Fighting spirits in you.

You can't blame anybody else for the anger, for the accusation, for the attack.

Here's how the fighting spirit works.

The fighting spirit leverages an imperfection of your character, your insatiable desire for respect, your hunger for recognition, your need to be in control, your need to be in charge, and at just the right moment.

Maybe in the moment like when your kid puts a foot through a windowpane.

The fighting spirit leverages it and pushes your buttons and whispers in your ear.

You earned it.

You deserve it.

You gotta fight for it.

See, the root cause of that fight is within you.

It really is.

So true that you and I are often our own worst enemies.

When it comes to interpersonal conflict, we have blood on our hands.

So now can we all recognize it's something in me, it's something I lack, it's something I want, it's something I need.

The fighting spirit is in me.

But we also have to what?

We need to silence it.

We gotta take that next step and say, You're not gonna control me.

I'm not gonna answer to you anymore.

Listen to what James then says later on in chapter four, verses seven through ten.

He says, Submit yourselves then to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Come near to God, and he will come near to you.

Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Grieve, mourn and wail.

Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

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

According to James chapter four, verse seven, we loosen the grip of the fighting spirit when we submit to God.

This means we place our lives under the Lordship of God, and we agree with God, I will obey all that you have commanded me to do.

James, he goes on to kind of further explain what submission looks like.

A part of submission, he says, is resisting the devil.

A simple way to think of resisting the devil would be to give the devil a forceful no.

Or think of it this way: this will hit home for some of you.

Resist the devil in the same spirit, in the same way that your two-year-old doesn't want to go to bed at night.

That is resistance of the highest order.

Right?

And if the Lord has blessed you with a two-year-old who happily goes to bed at night, give him a hallelujah when you go to bed.

Say, no, no, no, I'm not, not, not gonna listen to you.

Resist him.

But then we also what?

We draw near, we come near to God.

If if our resistance is a forceful no, then our resist our coming near to God is this joyful yes.

A joyful yes that silences the fighting spirit, a joyful yes that fulfills in our lives the words of Romans 12, 18, to live at peace with everyone.

Everyone to live at peace with my coworkers, to live at peace with my neighbors, to live at peace with my children, to live at peace with my spouse, to live at peace with my friends, to live at peace with everyone that God has brought into my life.

And if both parties commit to living at peace with one another, to working out differences and even conflict without anger and accusation and fighting, what happens?

Relationships are transformed, relationships are healed, relationships are realigned in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But here's a tip.

If you want to silence the fighting spirit within you, you're gonna need some moments every day when you reflect.

Reflection is deliberate time set aside to slow down in the busyness of your life to look back on the day.

I'm gonna say this.

One of the reasons I think like we are living this moment of life that everyone is on edge, everyone is so easily angered, everyone likes to accuse, everyone's ready to attack, is because of the busyness, the frenetic pace of life.

And we see people who um disagree with us and don't see the world the way we see it, we see them as hurdles and inconveniences that get in the way, and so we run them over and back over them to make sure they can't get up again.

Refleys we can't go at that pace all day long, every single day, if we want to expect to have relationships that are healthy.

So I've got to I've got to take a minute at the end of the day or at the beginning of the day, and I have to reflect on conversations and interactions.

I have to reflect upon did I get angry in that moment?

Did I level an accusation in that moment?

Did I attack in that moment?

And maybe really the relationships you need to focus on are certain ones, right?

It needs to be the relationship you have with your teenager at home, the relationship you have with your spouse, the relationship you have with your mom, the relationship you have with your neighbor, your co-worker.

Like, there just may be one relationship that is kind of on the brink in your life, and you know, God wants to transform it and he wants to heal it and he wants to realign it according to the gospel.

And so when you reflect, you're just like, God, I want to think about my interactions with fill in the blank today.

Let me let me think about everything I said, everything I did, every attitude I expressed towards them.

And my guess is that the Holy Spirit can bring to mind for each of us at least one moment during the day with that person or with all people.

And when you see that moment when you're easily angered, you're quick to accuse, you were ready to attack.

Ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, help me know what desire led to my reaction.

Why did I act the way that I did in that moment?

Right?

It wasn't about them, it's about me.

And once the Holy Spirit helps you identify that desire, God gave us an imagination, so I want you to use it.

God, the Holy Spirit identifies that desire, and then I just want you to imagine, I'm gonna place that desire for respect, that desire to be right, that desire to be in control, that desire uh to be recognized.

I'm gonna put that desire in the furnace that is God's love, because God's love can purify my desires.

Right?

God's love can satisfy my desires in a way that I cannot satisfy them in and of myself.

That's what it means to submit to God.

We we eventually have to have these moments when we just look back on life.

And we take responsibility, right?

For our actions, for what's within us.

We submit it to God, we give it to God, and we say, God, make it new, heal it, redeem it.

I don't want to live this way anymore.

My family, my work, that friendship can't operate in this way.

I'm tired of fighting with people.

And then when we submit to God, it's not only about reflection, there's also this moment when we have to repent.

Those verses and words in verses eight and nine, wash, purify, grieve, mourn, wail.

The first two uh words, wash and purify.

Part of repentance is the forgiveness of sin.

That God is faithful and just through the blood of Jesus Christ to forgive the sins we confess to Him.

So part of repentance is just simply the forgiveness of sin, that through Jesus I can be forgiven.

Through Jesus, I don't have to live angry anymore.

Through Jesus, God will forgive me when I've hurt him and hurt other people.

But there's not just uh forgiveness of sin, there's sorrow over sin.

There's grief, there's mourning, there's wailing.

There has to be this moment when we realize that the sin I committed against someone else, the anger I expressed, the accusation I lobbed, the attack I orchestrated, it hurt God and it hurt other people.

And I am broken by it.

I'm expressing sorrow over it.

And together, listen, the forgiveness of sin and our sorrow over sin, that's godly repentance.

Where we turn from the old way of life and we embrace a new way of life.

That's godly repentance that silences the voice of the fighting spirit so we can listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

And one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is peace.

Or we silence the voice of the fighting spirit and we listen to the voice of the one who is the prince of peace, the one who brought the gospel of peace.

Listen to the good news found in Romans chapter 5, verse 10.

Romans 5:10

It says, While we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son.

How much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life?

Here's my paraphrase of this verse.

A simple paraphrase.

We were fighting with God, but God didn't fight back.

God suffered for us and saved us.

You see the fighting spirit that's within all of us, it's been within everyone since sin entered the world.

The spirit that's easily angered and quick to accuse and ready to attack.

That's the fighting spirit that sent Jesus to the cross.

Go back and reread the final chapters of the gospels of each of them, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Reread those final chapters.

And you see the fighting spirit at work in the lives of those religious leaders, don't you?

You see men who are filled with anger, who level accusations against the Son of God and who attack and kill him.

But the voice of the fighting spirit that was in those men, guess what?

It was silenced the moment Jesus came out of the tomb.

When Jesus comes out of the tomb, hope and peace and joy and love come into the world.

All those things that the fighting spirit says, what?

I'm working against, I want to destroy, I want to tear apart.

And God says, Not under my watch, not in my creation, not because my son is alive.

Yes, the fighting spirit is in you, but don't let it control you.

The power of the resurrection can silence the fighting spirit.

It did it once already and it can do it again.

Don't let it control.

Don't let the fighting spirit control your marriage, your relationship with your kids, your relationship with your coworkers, your relationship with your best friend or with your parents as they age.

Don't let it control that.

And don't let it infiltrate a church.

See, for the sake of the church and for the sake of our witness in the world, we've got to silence that fighting spirit.

We can't listen to it anymore.

Because hear it again.

We are people who follow the prince of peace.

We are people who proclaim the gospel of peace.

Amen.

And how we treat one another and how we treat other people God's brought into our life, there's not room for fighting.

There's not room for attacking.

There's not room for this anger that overwhelms and tears people down.

There's room for peace.

Because that's who we follow.

That's the Jesus who saved us.

Let's bow our heads together.

And during our time of prayer, we're gonna have just a few moments to reflect and to repent.

Where you're seated right now, I just want you to pray this.

Say, Holy Spirit, show me in the last 24, 48 hours, when was the moment I last listened to the fighting spirit?

When was the moment I was easily angered, quick to accuse, ready to attack.

Get all the facts firsthand.

I'm an open book to you.

And once the Holy Spirit points to the page or points to the paragraph on the page of your life, just say, help me know the desire that led to that reaction.

Why did I act that way?

And once you see that desire, put it in the furnace of God's love.

Let it be purified.

Let your desire be satisfied in him.

Ask God to forgive you.

Do you need to confess to the person you wrong and ask their forgiveness?

And just mourn over that sin.

Mourn over the fact that your sin, your anger, your attack, your accusation cause pain.

Almighty God.

We need you to silence the fighting spirit that is within each of us.

We submit our desires to you.

Put them in the furnace of your love.

Purify desires that are impure.

Satisfy those desires that are good.

Let us be people who not only say we proclaim a gospel of peace, but we live according to it.

That we're not divisive.

We're not hate-filled.

We're not angry all the time.

We're not looking for a fight.

Because we've been found by Jesus.

Forgive us, God.

Strengthen us for tomorrow.

That the next time the fighting spirit speaks, we tell him to be quiet.

And we choose to live at peace with everyone in our life.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.