A Faith that Works in Curing the Cause of Relational Conflict

REFLECTION QUOTES

“It’s not religions that contain hatred, but human hearts.”

~Valley News lead editorial borrowed from the Los Angeles Times (4-30-2019)

“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”

~Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), lawyer, Indian nationalist leader

“…the only way there could ever be reconciliation is going to be a personal revival. A personal revival, where God cleanses the heart and the attitudes and the soul of a person, and in many ways that’s why I could learn to forgive.”

~Robert Soto, pastor and Apache tribal leader

“We’re not defined by that history, but we have to acknowledge it and that people of faith have a leadership role in causing the rest of the nation to believe that we can get to someplace better…. Redemption is still available, but we have to repent, we have to give voice to our failings. Repentance breeds redemption. Collectively, as a Church, we need to do that.”

~Bryan Stevenson on racial relations in the U.S.

“Our communion with God lies in his giving himself to us and our giving ourselves and all that he requires to him. This communion with God flows from that union which is in Christ Jesus.”

~John Owen (1616-1683), pastor, theologian and Oxford academic

“A humble soul is a Christ-magnifier (Phil. 1:20). He gives the glory of all his actions to Christ and free grace. King Canute took the crown off his own head and set it upon a crucifix. So, a humble saint takes the crown of honour from his own head and sets it upon Christ’s.”

~Thomas Watson (c. 1620-1686), English pastor and author

“It would be a good contest amongst Christians, one to labor to give no offense and the other to labour to take none.”

~Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), Church of England pastor and theologian

“People will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

~Maya Angelou (1828-2014), American poet and civil rights activist

“The thing at bottom is this, that men have low thoughts of God, and high thoughts of themselves; and therefore it is that they look upon God as having so little right, and they so much.”

~Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) New England pastor and theologian

“God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.”

~Vance Havner (1901-1986), pastor and evangelist

SERMON PASSAGE

James 4:1-12 (NIV)

James 3 (ESV)

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

James 4 (NIV)

1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?