August 22, 2021
THE BOOK OF JAMES
Part 7: How to Stop Fighting
What Causes Fights?
(James 4:1-2 NLT) What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them.
_____________________
You want things ___________________,
or you want what _________________.
- ______________.
(Philippians 2:3-4 NLT) Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
- ___________________.
(James 4:2 NLT) You want what you don’t have…
- __________________.
(James 4:3) …you only want what gives you pleasure.
- ________________.
(John 12:43 NLT) For they loved human praise more than the praise of God.
- _____________________.
(Galatians 5:26 NIV) Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
How to Stop Fighting
- Realize ______________________________.
(Ephesians 4:31 LB) Quarreling, harsh words, and dislike of others should have no place in your lives.
(1 Corinthians 3:3 LB) You are still only baby Christians, controlled by your own desires, not God’s. When you are jealous and divide into quarreling groups, doesn’t that prove you are still babies, wanting your own way? In fact, you are acting like people who don’t belong to the Lord at all!
2. Stop _______________________ what only God can give.
(James 4:2-3 NIV) You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives…
(James 4:4-5 CEB) You unfaithful people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy. Or do you suppose that scripture is meaningless? Doesn’t God long for our faithfulness in[a] the life he has given to us?
3. Choose ______________________________.
(Proverbs 13:10 NLT) Pride leads to conflict.
(James 4:6-7 NCV) As the Scripture says, “God is against the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” So give yourselves completely to God.
(James 4:10 NIV) Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
4. Recognize ______________________________.
(Ephesians 4:27 NLT) Anger gives a mighty foothold to the devil.
(James 4:7 NLT) Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
(2 Corinthians 2:11 NIV) Anyone you forgive, I also forgive…in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
5. Get God’s _____________________________.
(James 4:8 NLT) Come close to God, and God will come close to you.
6. Decide I want to __________________________.
(James 4:7-10 MSG) So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him make himself scarce. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life…Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.