Causes of Quarrels — Friedel Stegen

Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee once again for the opportunity to be here. And as the choir has sung, that's my goal, my aim, to stay in the House of the Lord forevermore. And that is to be in the midst and in the company of Thy people.

That I may stay there and have fellowship with my brothers and sisters that we might grow spiritually. Bless the reading of Thy word. For Thy name's sake we ask it. Amen. I'd like to read out of James chapter 4 this morning.

The Root Cause of Wars and Quarrels

I'll read from verse 1. James chapter 1. From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members? In another translation it says it's because there is a whole army of evil in you.

That's what causes wars and fightings. If we look at the whole world, if we look at politics, we will always find that there are wars amongst nations. Because everyone thinks he's doing the right thing.

Everyone is fighting for his own cause. Everyone thinks that what he's fighting for, he's convinced that he's doing the right thing. And the Bible teaches us they do that because of the lusts which are within them.

The desires which are in their heart and they want to fight for it, they will go to war about it that they might attain the upper hand. And that causes wars and quarrels. That's why people fight. And if you go, if you make the ring a bit closer, you will find that it's like that in your church as well.

And everyone believes he's doing the right thing. And everyone is prepared to fight for it. And everyone wants to prove his point. And if we take the ring a bit smaller, in our marriages it's exactly the same.

In our families it's the same. Everyone fights for his cause. Everyone is prepared to argue. Thinking yourself better than the other. You will always try and vindicate yourself. And very often it's jealousy that causes that.

You are envious of your brother or your sister who you think in your eyes is better than what you are. And that drowses jealousy in your heart. And even amongst the school children, if there's a pupil who does better than the others, you will find that there's jealousy amongst them.

And this eventually causes fighting. Because you start distantiating yourself from that person. Because that person is better than what I am. And he's in good favour with the teachers. And then something grows up in your heart and is cultivated in your heart that you eventually start arguing, despising, and you don't want to have anything to do with that person.

And this causes fighting and war in your heart. And you are prepared to go to war with it. Because you despise that which is in that person. Maybe he's been gifted by God. And because you are jealous, you are envious, you create a grudge, you start arguing, and eventually you despise him.

And you think that is gratifying to your soul if you show that person right or wrong. And you constantly seek your own gain. Eventually there's something that's driving you to attain that which you haven't got.

And you get such a craving to do the next person evil, to do wrong to a person. And you'll even be prepared to make cliques in a school, in a church, in a family, where everyone is influenced by you to create something against the next person.

And you'll even arouse suspicion in people. And James said, why is that amongst you? What is causing these quarrels and fights amongst you? It's because you've got an army of evil desires in your heart.

In you, you are filled with lusts which war against your brother and sister. And eventually you start hating that person. And you can go to your own personal life. You know the truth. You know what's right.

You know what's wrong. And then you start arguing with yourself. You start fighting with yourself. That's why you're unhappy. That's why you're depressed. That's why God can't attain His purpose with you.

Self-Justification Against the Word of God

Because you are questioning everything all the time. And you are at war with yourself. You're fighting within you. But somehow you're justifying yourself. You don't want to admit that you are wrong. You'll always find an excuse.

You'll always justify yourself. You are trying to prove with the Word of God which is right and which is wrong. Eventually you say the Word of God contradicts itself. It contradicts itself. So the Word of God isn't true.

And you only do that to justify your actions and your ways. I can't surrender my life to the Lord because of this and that. You justify yourself all along. In verse 2 we read, You lust and have not. You kill and desire to have and connect.

You can't attain it. You cannot attain it. In verse 2 we read, You lust and have not. You kill and desire to have and connect. You see what it does? With these things in your heart and which you culture in your life, you eventually will start hating a person.

You are filled with jealousy. You want that what your brother has. And you say, why is he privileged? Why can he do this? Why can he do that? And I can't. And you constantly busy with fighting and warring against your brother or sister.

And you cannot obtain to fight and war. Yet you have not because you ask not. We are busy fighting. We are busy having things in our heart which will deprive us from that what God has got for us. We are busy with the wrong of the next person.

We are busy with that, the privileges that one has. And you realize, I haven't got. And you start fighting and you start warring against the next person. And we start killing people. We create something in our lives which will kill the next person.

Asking God Rather Than Coveting Others' Gifts

Because we haven't got what the next person has. Why has he got ten talents? And the other one has five talents. And I only have one talent. And we start fighting. And we say, why has he got ten talents?

Why has he got five talents? Why has he got two talents? Why is it that I only have one talent? And we keep ourselves busy with fighting in our hearts. Why? And instead of asking the Lord for more, we are busy warring against our brother and sister.

Let me read verse two again. Ye lust and have not. You see, our desires and our hearts, they lust and that's why we haven't got. Because we are warring and fighting with our brother, with our sister. And that's why the Bible says, you cannot obtain it.

Because you fight and you lust after that which your brother has. And you are kept busy with the things which are wrong in the next person. And it need not necessarily be wrong, it might be right. But because your heart is filled with lustful desires which have got nothing to do with God, and you can't even pray and say, God, you give me that which belongs to me.

And the Lord says, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Because my relationship to the Lord has been grieved, has been spoiled by my lustful desires concerning the next person. And that's your only concern.

Prayer for God's Glory Rather Than Personal Gain

And in verse three we read, ye have not, because you ask for your own gain. If I pray for something, I want that which the next person has. And I want to have that for my own gain. Not that the Lord's name is glorified by it.

Not that his name will be uplifted high. I want to have a gain out of that. I want God to heal me, I want God to bless me, because I want to have the blessing. And that is the problem with many, many Christians.

That we constantly want something for ourselves. We want it for our glory. We don't want it for the glory of the Lord. We don't want it that the work of the Lord is glorified by it. That the Lord's kingdom may come into this world.

That we have only one desire, Lord, that what you want to give me is to your glory. I want you to be honored by it. Because I draw everything to myself. I want to be the beneficiary of all the blessings.

I want to be the person who is being blessed. I want to receive the best which God can give. And we become self-centered. And our whole aim is to draw the attraction unto me. I want to be seen. I want to be used.

I want the Lord to glorify himself. It is all as we pull it to ourselves. We want all the gain and the honor for ourselves. Instead of having the Lord's kingdom, we want to draw Jesus first in our lives.

That everything we do is to his glory. That my work, no matter what it is, I do to the honor and glory of God, that his name may be uplifted high. That is so important. And I pray to God that we'll understand that we as a human being, I as Friedel Stegen, has got to become nothing, and that only Christ will be seen in my life.

That I have only one aim in my life, that I do it for the Lord, that the name of my Lord may be glorified. That my Lord Jesus Christ may be uplifted high. That's why James says in verse 4, He who will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Friendship with the World and Spiritual Adultery

He isn't addressing sexual sinners here. But he's addressing a people who seek their own. He speaks to those that are self-centered. Those that think they are important. And those that war against their brothers and sisters.

Because of the lusts, the desires which are in their heart. And to him, and to them he calls us adulterers. And he says, we have friendship with the world. We are carnal Christians. We seek our own advantage.

We seek our own gain. We want people to love us. We always draw the whole thing to ourselves. We become self-centered. We aren't united with God anymore. We are breaking the marriage which we vowed to keep with the Lord Jesus.

We are breaking the marriage with God. That is a vow we made. We said, Lord Jesus, I give myself to Thee. I surrender to Thee. I give my life to Thee. I want to be married to Thee. I want to live in the closest relationship with Thee.

I only want to submit to Thee. I want to be the person that is absolutely faithful to Thee. I want to be a submissive wife to Thee. I want to be fully submitted to Thee. That I have no wish of my own anymore.

I have only one wish, and that is to please God. To please my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That I have only one desire, and that is to seek your benefit. That my whole being, that my whole nature, that my judging will be according to your thinking, my Lord and Savior.

That is my aim, that is my goal, then I'll stop warring and fighting in my heart, and in my marriage, in my family life, in my church life, and towards the whole world. And that I only have one desire and one goal, is Lord Jesus, oh that I may fulfill the desire of your heart.

Because if I don't do that, in verse 4 we read, then I will become an enemy of God. And that is so important, that we allow God the Holy Spirit, as we read in verse 5, who is in us, to have free sway in our lives.

The Holy Spirit's Rule and Full Submission

That is what the scripture teaches us, that the Holy Spirit who is in us will be able to have free sway in our lives. That he will be able to lead and guide us, that we will glorify the one who died for us on Calvary.

And most probably, that is why so many Christians are unhappy. Because if you aren't in full, full submission to the Lord, and allow him to have his way in your life, allow him to keep us from sin, allow us to glorify Jesus.

We will be unhappy people. That there is still room in our lives where we say, I have been wronged. I have been pushed aside. People haven't kept their promises. Then we become unhappy. Then we lose out.

We become depressed. We won't have any peace in our hearts. Because God is a jealous God. He wants us for himself. And that is why it is so important to see to it that we are submissive and that we are truly a people where it doesn't go according to my gain, to my feeling anymore.

But that Jesus becomes so important to us that we have only one desire. Oh Lord Jesus, may I be available to thee and allow thee God, Holy Spirit to lead and guide me that the name of the Father will be glorified.

And that is important. Dear friends, never forget that. Never think you can have your own gain and have your own way in this life in which we live. If that is the case, then know that you become an enemy of God.

Humility, Grace, and Resistance to the Devil

So it is of utmost importance that we submit, that we bow under God's hand. And that is why he says in verse 6, that he gives grace to those that humble themselves. If he resists the proud, it is what God's word says.

But if we submit to God and his will and resist the devil, he will have to flee from us. He gives grace, he gives everything to us if we humble ourselves. He knows to whom he can give what is on his heart.

He knows whom to bless. He knows whom he can trust. He knows whom he can entrust with the things of heaven. So if you want God to use you, if you want God to bless you, then humble yourself. Be the least.

Become the servant of all. Where everybody is right and you are wrong. And that you see yourself as the servant of everybody. And then God will bless you. And if we resist the devil, that when he comes with these thoughts, these thoughts of war and fighting, where we find mistakes with everybody, and all we do is fault finding, where we will even kill people with our mouth.

And the Bible says if we call our brother a fool, we have killed him. Oh that we may become a people that will be able to bless. That we will become a people that are humble. And that we will become a people who will respect the next person higher than, and think higher of him than we ourselves do.

That I will become the least. That I will become the servant of all. That God may have his way in my life. And that God in heaven will say, I can entrust this person with talents. And I said, I and the Lord said, I know Abraham.

Abraham as a Model of Obedient Authority

And if he says something, the people will do it. I will give him authority. I will give him power. I will give him everything heaven can give. And I will be able to glorify myself because he is a humble man.

Seeking Christ's Glory Instead of Self-Interest

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Isn't it because there is a whole army of evil desires within you? May God help that there won't be any evil desires in our hearts. That I will only have one desire.

That my Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified. That he will be seen in my life. That my life is like the life of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That everyone will see that Christ is Lord in my life. That I don't desire anything which concerns me.

Oh for my gain. That my life will be this, that Jesus will be glorified. Let us pray. Lord, we don't want to war and fight anymore. Because if we do that, we become an enemy of thee. And we don't want that.

We don't want to be carnal people. We want to be a people that are governed by God the Holy Spirit. That the Holy Spirit will be able to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father in our lives. Amen.