How Jesus Changes The Way You Fight

We gotta jump in, jump into the Word, to the Word part four. This is a series we've been in now for a handful of weeks and we're studying through one book of the Bible. We're studying through the book of James. We talk about it on Sunday. You read it all throughout the week and I hope you've been challenged by it. I hope you've been inspired by it. I wanna just say to you, as we near the end now of this series, I wanna just say good job, good job. Good job for not quitting, all right? Good job for showing up. Because James is not a lighthearted book. James is not a book of the Bible that we read and everybody feels good about. James is a book of the Bible that we read and it feels like he's coming at your life, everybody. Like it's almost as if James has been talking to your wife this week and he knows your problems. That's what it feels like when you read through the book of James. James is a challenging, bold, a little bit controversial, slightly offensive book in your Bible and he's been challenging us now for three weeks. We're on chapter four this week and James wants you to know the whole premise, the whole premise of the book of James

is that following Jesus changes everything. That's what James wants you to know. That following Jesus changes everything. That Jesus isn't a free pass to heaven. That Jesus isn't a check mark on your Christianity checklist. He's not a necklace you wear around your neck or a tattoo you put on your shoulder. Jesus isn't somebody you sing about on Sunday and forget about on Monday. That Jesus is Lord, which means following him, it changes everything. This is the message in the book of James and that's why James starts out writing about our identity because James wants you to know that the right identity leads to the right behaviors, that the identity you have as a follower of Jesus leads to living a certain way as a follower of Jesus, that it changes you. It literally changes everything. So around 44 to 49 AD, he's under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, pins these words that now we hold in our hands and we read and these words are written, apparently to some Christians, to followers of Jesus who, well, they haven't let Jesus change everything. They're men and women who say, I love Jesus. Yes, I do. I love Jesus.

How about you? But this is their mantra. But at the end of the day, their love of Jesus hasn't translated to their life for Jesus. It hasn't changed. It hasn't changed the way they live. And so James is like, no, no, no. Jesus should change everything because when you know him, it has to change you. It has to change you. It's a little bit like this. I was thinking about this. A few years ago, I got a Jeep Wrangler. Yeah, three of you. That's awesome. You're big Jeep fans. We don't have a big Jeep church apparently, but I grew up with a friend and on his 16th birthday, he got a Jeep. And I remember thinking how cool that was. And so for 30 years, I wanted a Jeep. And a few years ago, I got one. And I thought, man, now that I have a Jeep, I'm gonna become a Jeep guy. Do y'all know about Jeep guys? Jeep guys are cool. I'm gonna tell you that straight up. Jeep guys, they're fun. Jeep guys are adventuresome.

They go off-roading. Jeep guys, Jeep guys take the doors off the Jeep and drive around town. Jeep guys are carefree. I thought, I'm gonna get a Jeep and now I'm gonna be a Jeep guy. And so for the last three years, I've had a Jeep. And guess what? I've never gone off-roading. I've never driven around town with the doors off. I wouldn't even know how to take them off, y'all. In fact, when I got the Jeep, the guy sold me the Jeep. A friend in our church sold me the Jeep. And he said, okay, let me show you how to take the doors off. I was like, don't waste your time. I don't even need to know. I've never taken the doors off. Jeep guys do the Jeep wave. Y'all know about the Jeep wave? That's the Jeep wave. That's that, that right there. When I pass a Jeep, here's what I wave like. Hey! I've owned a Jeep for all these years and it hasn't changed anything. In fact, a few months ago, Tabitha and I were on vacation and we rented a car and the rental company gave me a Volvo to drive, a Volvo. And we're cruising around in this Volvo.

One day Tabitha looks at me and she says, hey babe, I know you really want to become a Jeep guy, but I actually believe you're more of a Volvo guy. That's what she said to me. So now. Guess what, y'all? I'm shopping for a Volvo, all right? I'm telling you. Because owning the Jeep didn't change me. I had the Jeep, but it didn't change, didn't change anything about me. When you say yes to Jesus, when you receive His love and His grace and His forgiveness, and when you receive His righteousness according to James, it should change everything about you because now you're a Jesus guy. That's who you are, that's your identity. And so you might remember in chapter one, James says that knowing Jesus changes the way you view trouble and trials. And in chapter two, James says that knowing Jesus changes the way you treat people. And in chapter three, last week, that was a good one, y'all. Last week, knowing Jesus changes the way you talk and the words you use. How many of you were a little more dialed in on your language this last week? Anybody? Because I tell you what, if you weren't,

you should read James three again because it'll light you up. And then James chapter four begins with a question and I want you to see how he starts. James says this. He says, what causes, and then he asks this question, what causes, he says, fights, fights and quarrels among you? What causes fights and quarrels among you? Let's just stop and think about that question for a moment. Think about the last fight or quarrel you had. For some of you, you won't have to think very far back because it happened on the way to church today. So just think about that one. The last fight or quarrel you had, and to answer James's question, in your mind, just answer James's question, what caused it? What causes fights and quarrels among you? Most of us would answer like this. They did, James. That's the answer most of us would give, right? They did. Like, they caused it. I was having a good day. I was minding my own business. I was just being awesome like I am. And out of nowhere, they caused it. He said this, she did that. My kids acted crazy.

That driver on route 17, if he'd have just gone with the flow of traffic, we wouldn't have any problems. But he was driving too, my boss is so demanding. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Think about your last fight. Most of us would answer the same way. Oh, James, you wanna know what caused it? It was them. It was them. That was, they were, they were my problem. That's what caused the fight to which James would say, well, not if you're a Christ follower. That's the wrong answer, James would say. Not if you're a follower of Jesus. And what causes fights and quarrels among you, it is never them out there. According to James, for a follower of Jesus, he gives us a different answer. What causes fights and quarrels? Look at his answer. He says, don't they, and this they is referring to the fights and the quarrels. So don't they, don't the fights and the quarrels come from, and here's the answer, come from your desires that battle within you. That's what James says. That the fights and quarrels that you're having, they don't come from out there somewhere.

Somebody else's problem. No, no, no. No, they come from in here within you because you have some desires. James says some desires. Another word would be some passions. Another word would be, listen, some lusts. That within you are some desires, some passions and some lusts. And this is gonna be a big idea that you see repeated again later in James chapter four. It's a Greek word that James uses that gives us our word for hedonism. Do you know about hedonism? It's a philosophy of life that's like purely self-seeking. That's what hedonism is. I'm out to get what I want, when I want, the way I want. It's the Burger King philosophy of life, all right? I want what I want, and I want it my way right away. Hedonism is this, it's you do life, however you, it's this, it's you do you, boo. That's hedonism. That's what hedonism is. And James is writing to these Christians so long ago, almost 2,000 years ago, but it's almost like he's, it's almost like he's looking at your Instagram page. It's almost like he's here in our conversations. It's almost like he's living in. Our house, because hedonism is alive and well today. Hey, you wanna be in charge of your own life.

You wanna be the boss of you. Nobody in here wants to be told what to do. Nobody, nobody does, nobody does. James says, it's your desire, it's your will to get your own way that causes all the fights and quarrels. That's what it is. In fact, look, he goes on to say this. He says you, and here's our word again. He says, you desire, but you do not have. You lust, but you do not have. That's what he's saying. He says, so you kill, you covet. You want what somebody else has that you don't have. You want what somebody else has, but you cannot get what you want. And so you quarrel and you fight. And James is, James is right. I want my way. I wanna be in charge. I wanna be the center, which is why I quarrel and fight. Now, this doesn't mean that the other person that you're quarreling and fighting with always gets the pass. Maybe your boss really is a jerk. Maybe your spouse really is hard to live with. Maybe your kids really are bad. I've met a few of them. I think they really are bad. But, but, but, but James says that isn't the problem

because the common denominator in every quarrel or fight that you have, the common denominator in all of them is, guess what? It's you. You're there for all of them. Doesn't matter who else you're interacting with. You're there for every single one of them. And there's actually something within all of us that says, well, I deserve, or I have rights, or I demand, or I know I'm right, or I gotta have the last word, or I gotta feel a certain way, or I gotta get a certain something. And so while they may not be right or they may not act right, James wants you to know that you've got some lusts, some passions, and some desires on the inside of you. They're within you. And when they push your button, those things come out of you. That fighting and quarreling comes out. Anger comes out. Jealousy comes out. Insecurity comes out. Negativity comes out. Pride comes out when they push your button. That's what they get. It's a little bit like this. It's a little bit like you're a walking vending machine, everybody.

That's kind of what it's like. Now, if I walked up to a vending machine and I pushed B8, and out of the vending machine, there it is. That's a gigantic vending machine. Or I'm a very tiny person, one of the two right now. Look at the size of that Fanta. Oh my gosh. I'm sorry, this is the first time I've seen this and it kind of got me tickled. Oh my gosh. Look at the, I want those M&M's. Okay, okay, y'all got a drawback. Y'all got a drawback. Oh my gosh, that's so funny. I should have looked at that earlier. Okay, can you take that away, because that's so distracting. It's so funny, and I can't stop looking at it. If I walk up to a vending machine, I push B8 and out comes Cool Ranch Doritos. I get those Doritos, because that's what was in the vending machine already. I just pushed the button. What I pushed came out, because it was already in. I push the button and I get a Diet Coke out. Oh, how awesome would that, Cool Ranch Doritos and a Diet Coke, sign me up. But I get out what I pushed the button for, because it was already in there.

You see how it works? And what's happening in a lot of our lives is that people are pushing your button. Sure they are, they're pushing your buttons. Circumstances and events, they push your buttons. That leads to quarreling and fighting, but it leads to quarreling and fighting because of what's already in you. There's some stuff in you. James would say, there's some passions, there's some desires, there's some lusts in you that are in you already. And when those come out of you, people might have pushed your button, but the problem is they're in there already. There are things in you that you haven't let Jesus handle yet. There are things in you. And if you're truly a follower of Jesus, He wants to do more work in you. Do you realize that when somebody pushes your buttons, somebody frustrates you, aggravates you, makes you mad, says something to you that makes you wanna... come back at them with something. When somebody drives bad on the road and you get that feeling of frustration, do you realize that what Jesus wants to come out of you is more of Him? That's what He wants out of you.

More of Jesus. That when somebody pushes your button, they don't get your pride, they don't get your anger, they don't get your negativity, they don't get all those lusts and desires that are laying dormant on the inside of you. They just get more Jesus. That when you get shaken up, Jesus comes out, y'all. That's what James is trying to say. That you gotta let Jesus do more work in you today. Let's keep reading, because James says this. He says, you do not have, you do not have, because you do not ask God. So James is saying, hey, you don't even talk to God about these fights and quarrels. You don't even talk to God about these desires and passions and lusts that are down deep within you. You don't even talk to God about your pride problem or your anger problem. You do not have because you do not ask God. And there's another problem there, your prayers, because when you do ask, James says, you, what, you do not receive. So he says, you do not have because you do not ask. And when you do ask, you do not receive, why? Because you ask with the wrong motives that you may spend it on your own. And here's the idea again, y'all. That you may spend it on your own pleasures.

That you may spend it on your own desires. That you may spend it on what you want, because it all comes back to this. You're all about you. And so am I. And so the reason you fight and quarrel, that's because you're all about you. And the reason you don't pray, or the reason you don't get answers to your prayers is because you're all about you. And so here's the bottom line of the first three verses. We've only gotten through three verses. You're already looking very convicted, y'all. The first three verses of James chapter four, here's the bottom line. You haven't let Jesus change everything. That's what James would say. You haven't let him change everything. You've still got some of you in your heart. Let's take a 15 second ad break, because we're gonna work on that a little bit more even this coming weekend. This is our second prayer and worship weekend of 2026. I think it's gonna be one of the most important weekends of the entire year. I'm coming Friday night, Saturday morning, and next Sunday expectant of God to do powerful, mighty things. And if you're like, hey, I don't really know how I would pray with the right motives.

I don't even know how I would pray to get answers to the prayers like James is talking about, then show up this Friday night, Saturday morning. And again, next Sunday, I'm gonna teach you not only how to pray, we're gonna practice how to pray together. We'll be praying for you next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And it's gonna be an incredible time. And I need it, I need it, I need it. You might not, hey, you might have a lockdown. You might have control over all of your life. You might have control over all these passions, desires, and lusts that lay deep within your soul. But reading James chapter four reminds me I need it. And I need to be together with you to pray and worship this weekend. So I invite you Friday night, Saturday morning, and back next Sunday. It's gonna be a really awesome time this weekend. Many years ago, there was a little booklet written. I don't even think it's in print anymore. It was called, My Heart, Christ Home. And it's a little storybook. And it began with this little statement. It said, one evening, I invited Jesus Christ into my heart. I said, I want this heart of mine to be yours. I want you to settle down here and be perfectly at home. Everything I have belongs to you. Now, let me show you around. And the little storybook went from page to page,

walking through the rooms of your heart as if they were rooms of your home. You know how you've got different rooms in your house with a little storybook associated those rooms with the areas of your heart. And page after page, it would consistently ask this question, would Jesus be at home here? Would he be at home in my thoughts? Would he be at home with the way I spend my time? Would he be at home with my relationships? Would he be at home with my actions? Would Jesus be at home in my heart? Is Jesus at home, comfortable and settled in your heart? And that's really the question that James is getting at in this letter. You've said yes to Jesus. Remember, he's writing to Christians. These are people who've placed their faith in Jesus Christ. And now Jesus wants to change every part of your life. And he wants to work on every part of your heart. Every desire, every passion, every lust, every room of your heart, James says, wants to be worked on. So that when you get pushed by people and when you push toward heaven in prayer, it's just Jesus and more of Jesus. That's it. It's just Jesus and more of Jesus. And James isn't done. I think actually what James does next in chapter four is, I think it's brilliant because he's presented us a problem. Our problem is these fights and quarrels. That's the problem. And the reason we have these fights and quarrels is because there's some stuff in us that we haven't let Jesus deal with yet.

So he presents to us the problem. And now he's going to really tell us why it is the way it is in your heart and in your life. He's going to tell you why you are the way you are. Some of you are like, thank the Lord. This is free therapy right here, everybody. We're about to tell you why you are the way you are. And I should just warn you, if you are easily offended, if you like indirect talk, if you're a little bit more on the soft, passive communication side, you probably should just brace yourself. All right. This is the rest of chapter four is what I would kind of call a punch you in the throat kind of scripture. All right. It's like, it's going to take your breath away a little bit. I'm just, I'm just warning you. I'm just warning you. It's going to get a little, it's going to get a little tense up in here. You ready? You should loosen up a little bit first because it's coming. It's coming. It's coming now. And I just want you to be prepared that it's going to come. It's going to come your way. James says this. James says, verse four. You adulterous people. I warned you. I warned you. In fact, let me do this.

Let me read it again. And, and I just love it. If all of you together, we just take a little gasp. Cause it is, it is, it is gasp worthy. If anybody, I'm, I'm hoping that none of you have ever been called an adulterer, but if somebody you love calls you an adulterer, you're not going to just sit there and take it. Like you just took it. You're going to at least give some reaction. So I need you to have a little reaction. Would you, would you play along everybody? You ready? James says, you adulterous people. Yeah, there it is. There it is. Startling. Startling. James doesn't call him to name calling. You cheater. So he called, he called you a cheater. He called you unfaithful. You adulterous people. James says, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity with God. Friendship, by the way, and, and, and enmity are opposing sides. Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world, James says, becomes an enemy of God. How about that? This is the way you are, the way you are, according to James. Because we're all adulterers. We all say we love God, but we also love the world.

So that's, that's adultery. We say yes to Jesus and we think we can still say yes to the world. But James wants you to know that God's ways and the world's ways are in opposition. That God's ways and the world's ways are enemies. Which just means this. If you're going to be comfortable with the world, Jesus can't be comfortable in your heart. That's either an amen or an oh my, I don't know which one it is for you. And it's not just James who says these things. I'll show you, I'll show you some more scriptures. This is what the apostle Paul writes. Romans 12, verse one, he says, therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Then he says this, he says, do not conform to the pattern of what, of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, perfect, and pleasing will. So you can't be conformed to the world and know God's good and perfect and pleasing will. It doesn't work, it doesn't work that way, because those are in opposition. They're enemies of each other. Jesus prayed this for his disciples. Let me show you this, John chapter 17. Jesus prays, Jesus prays this, I've given them, your disciples, your word,

and the world has what? The world has hated them, why? For they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. Can that be said of your life? That you are not of the world, because if you are of Jesus, you can't be of the world because the world and Jesus are in opposition to each other. I'll show you one more. This is 1 John chapter two. I'll show you verse 15, where John says this, do not love the world or anything in the world. Don't love it, don't love it, anything in the world. And when it speaks of the world, it's not talking about, hey, don't love the people in the world. It's talking about the systems and the ways of the world. I'll show you that. Because if anyone loves the world, the world's ways, the world's systems, love for the father is not in them. So you can't love the ways and the systems of the world and love Jesus, it just doesn't work that way. And now John's about to show us what the ways of the world are. He says, for everything in the world, and he's gonna show you three things. I want you to pay close attention. Everything in the world, the lust of the flesh. By the way, here's the idea of desires and passions again, showing back up, James and John saying the same thing.

The lust, the passions of the flesh, the desires of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the desires of the eyes, the passions of the eyes. And number three, the pride of life. That comes not from the father, but from the world. And it's desires, there's our idea of passions and desires again, it will pass away. But whoever does the will of God will live forever. James and John are talking really about the same problems. That we have a lust problem, we have a desire problem. We have a self problem that stays down deep within all of us. And it's the ways of the world that are in us. And Jesus wants to work those ways out of us. You see it? This is the problem. We gotta spend a few minutes here just to really dig into it. I wanna just dig into these three things for a moment. From 1 John, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Those are the ways of the world. Now, one way for you to know if you're a friend of God or a friend of the world, is to really look at your own life and try to discern, am I more aligned with the ways of God or the ways of the world? Does that make sense, right? How do I know if I'm a friend of God or a friend of the world? How do I know if I am an adulterer?

Because I love the world, while I say I love Jesus. How does that work? Well, you just look at your life and say, hey, am I more aligned in my life with the ways of God or am I more aligned with the ways of the world? And John just told us the ways of the world, three of them. These are the three ways of the world. The first one he talks about is the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh, the desires of the flesh. This would refer to anything that you leave uncontrolled, that your flesh craves and goes after. It could be your diet. It could be your food. It could be what you drink. It could be the pill you pop or the drug you rely on. This is the lust of the flesh. It is left uncontrolled. It's in all of us. It's in all of us because it's a way of the world. We all have lust of the flesh, but Jesus wants to control the flesh and let the spirit override the flesh. And the problem is way too many of us give too much power to the flesh and it overrides the spirit. Does that make sense? And this is living within all of us. Hey, do what you want, when you want, whatever feels good, just do it. That's the way of the world, right?

Sleep with whoever you want to. That's the way of the world. That's not God's way. God's way is, hey, I created the intimacy of sex to be enjoyed between a man and a woman within a covenant of marriage. That's God's way. That's God's way. And if you live outside of God's way, guess what? Guess what, now you're giving in to the lust of the flesh. James would say, and that makes you an enemy of God. Don't get mad at me, get mad at James. The lust of the flesh. James says, or excuse me, John says there's also this lust of the eyes. That's the second one, the lust of the eyes, the desires of the eyes. That's the desire to see something and have to have it. Something shiny, something new, something bright, I gotta get it. And suddenly now I'm not content with the something old, something dull, something old and new and not new that I own, I'm not content with that. I gotta go get something. I gotta get what you have. It's really, can I just boil it down? It's about how we chase things and stuff and handle money. I'll just ask you, do you handle money God's way? Or do you handle money the world's way? If this is too much, listen, if this is too much,

come back in two weeks, we'll be done with James. We'll talk about Jesus walks on water or something. It'd be awesome. I get it, it's a lot. But James wants you to know, if you're a follower of Jesus, guess what? He changes everything. He changes even the way you handle money because there's a world's way of handling money. That's called the lust of the eyes. You handle it your way, you go after whatever you want, spend it on however you want. Listen, I'll just put it on the bottom shelf so everybody can pick it up. If you aren't bringing back to God the first 10%, it's called the tithe, we teach on it all the time around here. If you aren't bringing back to God the first 10% of what God's given you and bringing it back to the storehouse, that's the local church, not some kind of way or some random charity, but to the storehouse, the local church, which is the hope of the world because it brings Jesus to the world. If you aren't doing that, James would say you're an enemy of God because you're a friend of the world, you're handling money world's way. Listen, I'm just trying to show you the practicality

of what James is trying to show us, that Jesus changes everything, everything, everything about us. The third one John pointed out was the pride of life. This is what the world's way is. It's the pride of life. It's wanting to be the center of the story. It's wanting to be the headline in the news. It's wanting to have more followers and more likes and wanting people to know me, talk about me and think I'm the best thing ever. That's the pride of life. It's wanting to insert myself into every situation so that I'm the savior and Jesus is not. That's the pride of life. That's in all of us. That's in all of us. And if that comes to the surface today, you got to realize that the pride of life makes you a friend of the world and an enemy of God. You adulterous people, James would say. That's all of us who haven't let Jesus change everything. Everything. James is trying to help those of us who said yes to Jesus. He's not talking. If you don't know Jesus today, that's okay. Chase after the ways of the world. Go after them, eat them up. They'll eat you up, but go after them.

James isn't writing to you. This sermon isn't about you. James is writing to followers of Jesus. Christians who say, Jesus is my Lord and savior. And James would say, well, if Jesus is your Lord and savior, you can't be a friend of the world, which means you can't live in the ways of the world. You got to let Jesus change you. You got to let him change you. Which brings us to the end of chapter four. And I wish I had a lot more time to preach the end of chapter four, because chapter four has more, okay? That's why you got to go home and read it on your own. Study it this week, dig into it, and get every morsel of goodness out of it that you possibly can, because chapter four has more. But I want to show you how James tells us to deal with this problem. So he presented the problem. He told us why we have the problem, because this is in us. We haven't let Jesus change everything. And now he tells us what to do about the problem, the problem that we all have. What do we do about it when you realize there's some stuff in me that I haven't let Jesus work on yet? And there's some stuff in this world that I've gotten into,

and I haven't let Jesus deal with that yet. So what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? I wanna show you. What happens when you realize I'm a friend of the world, which means I'm an enemy of God. James chapter four, let me show you verse seven. We ended with this verse last Sunday as a little taste of what was to come this week. James says, when you realize you've made yourself an enemy of God and a friend of the world, here's what you do. You submit yourselves then to God. You submit to him, you bend your knee to him. You resist the devil and he's gonna flee from you. When you take an active stand against the devil, submitting to God, taking an active stand against the ways of the world, then the devil's gonna flee from you. Verse eight, you come near to God and he's gonna come near to you. This is our response when we realize, oh my goodness, there's still too much of me in me and there's still too much of the world in me. I submit to God, I resist the devil and I come near to God and I can't get over the promise. Cause James says, when you come near to him, he comes near to you. That's an awesome promise.

That's an incredible promise. When you come near to God, I can't read that without thinking about the story that Jesus tells of the prodigal son. Do you remember this story? In the gospels where Jesus tells a parable of a father who has a son and the son looks at the dad and says, basically, I wish you were dead. He demands from his father, his share of the inheritance before his dad even dies. And the father graciously gives to the son his portion of the inheritance. And the son takes the money and runs off to a foreign land where he squanders it. The Bible says in wild living, where he gives in to all of these desires, all of these passions that we've talked about, all of these ways of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And he lives it up until he finally hits rock bottom. And the Bible says that when he hits rock bottom, that the son finally comes to his senses and he thinks to himself, he thinks my father's hired servants are living better than I am. So I'm gonna go back to my dad's house and I'm gonna convince him to let me at least become like one of his hired servants. And so the son writes a whole speech and he rehearses it

and he starts off this long journey back to his father's house, dreading every step, the look that he expects to see on his dad's face. Because he expects to meet an angry, frustrated, distant, far off father. He expects to meet a father who's so disappointed in him that he'll have to beg his way back into his father's good graces. But Jesus says, that's not at all what happens because the father has been sitting on the front porch. The father, since the day the boy left has been standing at the front door, looking out into the horizon, hoping for just one sight of his son passing by so that he could bring his son back into the fold. And sure enough, when the son reaches the end of the driveway, his dad who's sitting there waiting catches a glimpse of his silhouette and begins, Jesus said, to run in his direction that the father starts running after the son. And the son tries to straighten out and the son pulls out his speech and gets ready to read it. But before he even gets a word out of his mouth, the father says, welcome home, son. He says, here's a robe to wrap around you. Here's a ring to put on your finger and get ready for a feast like you've never had because we're gonna have a celebration

because this son of mine who was lost has now been found. This son who was gone has now come home. And this is the heart of the father. That before the son even reached home, all he took is a step toward home and the father was running toward him. And I want you to know today, James would tell you, all it takes, the moment you realize there's too much of me and too much of the world in me, all it takes is a step toward the father. And what you'll find is that the father is already running towards you today. Arms outstretched. He loves you that much that he's running after you. But pastor. But pastor, I feel kind of bad today. I kind of feel bad because there's some stuff in me. I know when it comes out of me, it comes out. And it's not what Jesus would want. Jesus hasn't changed everything. Come on, there are a bunch of us today who would say, Jesus hasn't changed everything. I feel a little bad about that. Feel convicted about today. I feel like these are some strong words. I'm an enemy of God. If Jesus hasn't changed everything, I'm an adulterer. If Jesus hasn't changed everything, I'm a friend of the world. Feel bad about it.

I wanna leave you then with one final verse from James four. And this is for every one of us. Every one of us who would say today, yeah, I feel like there's too much of me and too much of the world in me. James says this, James four, verse six. But he gives us more grace. Grace upon grace, more grace. And I gotta tell you today, God's grace is greater than all our sin. Can we thank God for his grace today, everybody? Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Now, right where you are, would you bow your heads and close your eyes? For some of you today, the spirit is speaking. Submit to God, draw near to him, resist the devil. Father, today we take this word to our hearts. We don't take it lightly. We receive it in the spirit in which the Holy Spirit gave it to James. It's heavy. But we bend our knee today. We come near to you and we receive your grace. And we ask you, Jesus, change everything. Everything. For some of us today, we need to confess a specific sin. For some of us today, we need to ask the Holy Spirit for help in a specific area.

We ask you, Jesus, change everything. And heads bowed, eyes closed. Some of us today need a relationship with Jesus. You didn't know the love of the Father like I've described today. You didn't know that he would come running towards you when you take one step toward him. And so today I invite you to step toward him. By praying a simple prayer and giving your heart and life to him today. If you've never made Jesus your Lord and Savior, but you want to today, he'll change everything. If you wanna give him your heart and life and receive forgiveness of your sin, I'm gonna lead you in a simple prayer. And I invite you to pray this prayer with me silently, wherever you are today. Say, Jesus, I wanna know you. I want my sin forgiven by you. And I wanna live my life for you. So come into my life, change everything. Be my Lord and Savior. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Come on, church. Can you thank God for his word today? Amen.