Nevertheless

All to Jesus I surrender. All to him I freely give. Many of us have sung this hymn while we’re still holding on to something. We sang all. We meant most. This is the natural human condition. Surrender runs against our oldest instinct. James deals with it head-on. Where does the fight really start? What does pride look like in good people who have been faithful to the Lord? What does God do about it? How can surrender become an everyday practice?

1. James 4:1-3: The Source of the Problem

   1. James 4:1: Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?

      1. “Passions” (hedonism). Cravings. Appetites. “The things I want.”

      2. “Wage war,” a military word; the appetites are campaigning inside you.

   2. James 4:2b …You do not have because you do not ask. We never brought it to God at all.

   3. James 4:3: You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. Some pray — and pray for ammunition.

2. James 4:4-5: What’s At the Root

   1. James 4:4: You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? …

   2. Galatians 5:20: hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, …

3. James 4:6: But He Gives Greater Grace

   1. James 4:6b: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

      1. God moves toward the man with open hands.

      2. The proud man is turned away because his hands are full.

4. James 4:7-10: What Surrender Actually Looks Like

   1. James 4:7: Submit to God. Resist the devil

   2. James 4:8: Draw near to God. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

   3. James 4:9: Be miserable and mourn and weep.

   4. James 4:10: Humble yourselves before the Lord.

5. So, Where Am I Resisting?

   1. Where is there a room in your life you haven’t given him a key to?

   2. Where’s the private scoreboard? Who’s on it?

   3. Is there a person you’ve stopped praying for because you’d rather be right about them?

   4. When you were corrected last — what came up in your mind first? Self-Defense?.

   5. Where have you been praying for ammunition instead of praying for a changed heart?

   6. Is there a place where you’re technically obedient and internally furious?

   7. What have you told yourself is conviction that’s actually just not wanting to lose?

   8. Where have you been double-minded … Wanting God and wanting your way, hoping you never have to pick?

6. Look at Him

   1. Luke 22:42: Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me—nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done. He didn’t stroll into surrender. He came looking for an exit first.

      1. Surrender isn’t the absence of wanting something else. It’s the nevertheless.

   2. Hebrews 12:2: keeping our eyes on Jesus, …We keep our eyes on the one who can see us to the end.

   3. Hebrews 12:3: For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up. He walked down to where you are and then walked further. He went first.

7. As We Close…

   1. James 4:10 is a promise: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

   2. Open your hands.