During the first years of Lyndon Johnson, before he became entangled in the Vietnam controversy, he was one of the most powerful presidents in U.S. History. Robert Caro outlines in his masterful 5 volume biography just how LBJ (as he became known) got things done, especially in the U.S. Senate and : he was master deal-maker, he was a manipulator, he could use flattery when he had to; he was an arm twister — and he would threaten. He used what became known as “The Johnson treatment”: he would lean his massive 6 foot 4 frame over you and intimidate you into voting his way. Here’s a picture someone took of him using “The Johnson  Treatment” in a real-life situation: 

Last year, Cheryl & I visited the LBJ museum in Austin, and she got this picture of me getting “The Johnson Treatment”! 

LBJ was perhaps the greatest ever at “getting things done” in Washington. Robert Caro called him “The Master of the Senate.”  So should we all study men like Lyndon Johnson to learn how to get things done? Not if you’re a follower of Jesus. Because Jesus said, I have a different way I want My followers to get things done. And we see what that way is, in our passage today in James 4:1-3

I. The World’s Way To Get Things Done

:1-2a  “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel.”

James had just concluded Chapter 3 by talking about how “bitter jealousy and selfish ambition” were bad fruits that show that either you are not a Christian, or at the least you are not being controlled by the Spirit of God. So now he begins Chapter 4 asking “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?” He says, why are these kinds of things going on among people who are supposed to be people of God? He basically says it is because you want the wrong things, and you are going about the wrong way to get them!  He says in :1 you are being ruled by your “pleasures” — pleasing yourself is the most important thing to you, not serving God. Then he says in :2 that you about trying to get what you in worldly ways: “you commit murder … you fight and quarrel.” James says here that the cause of most quarrels and conflicts is somebody wanting something, and trying to get it the wrong way. This is the way of the world; this is how the world goes about getting things: fighting other people for what you want.

I’m reading a biography of Genghis Khan, the Mongol warrior who ruled the largest kingdom in the history of the world: all of what is now Russia, and China, and even into Europe. How did he do this? When he wanted something, he just got up a massive raiding party and swooped down over the horizon to the next village of gers (portable tents that their homes were made of) and took whatever he wanted from them. These Mongol hordes just overwhelmed all the other nations around them. This is a perfect example of what worldly people do, and have done for thousands of years: if they want something, they go to war and murder and steal and do whatever they need to do, in order to take it. Genghis Khan was not a Christian; and he was just living out the way of the world. This is basically the human story for thousands of years: if you want something, you go kill, steal, intimidate and take it.

We see an example of this in I Kings 21 the Old Testament, when King Ahab wanted a vineyard that a man in Israel named Naboth had, right next to his palace. He asked him to sell it to him, but the man said, this is my family’s inheritance from the Lord; I can’t sell it. So his wife Jezebel had two false witnesses lined up, and falsely accused Naboth, and they put him to death, and Naboth had his vineyard. That’s a perfect example of the way the world gets things done: do whatever you have to do, to get your way.

So James says, too many of us even in the church, are doing things just like the world. He says to get what you want, you “commit murder” and “fight and quarrel.” Now, I don’t think James is saying that the church members there were literally killing people and taking their stuff. But remember in Matthew 5 Jesus said that when you hate someone, you’re guilty of murder. I think that is what James is talking about here. You’re murdering them in your heart. You’re murdering their reputation by gossiping about them. And he says “you fight and quarrel” to get what you want done. 

Why would this be? This is the old “fleshly human story” being played out again. When this happens, then Christians are acting just like the world. This is what the world does: when they want something, they kill, lie, steal, undermine, slander — do whatever they have to do, in order to get it.

So James emphasizes to God’s people here: this is NOT the way the Christian person is to operate. We are not to imitate the ways of the world. 

— Jesus said in Matthew 20 that the rulers of the world seek to dominate others, and lord it over them, but He said “it is not so among you” — that’s not how we as God’s people are to do things.

— In II Corinthians 10:3 Paul wrote: “Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh” — in other words, we don’t “get things done” the way the world gets things done.  As God’s people, we are to be different.

We need to understand this as God’s people today. We are not the world. We are not to operate like the world or get things done like the world.

THE CHURCH IS NOT A BUSINESS. THE CHURCH IS NOT JUST A CORPORATION. THE CHURCH IS NOT THE WORLD. Jesus says we are not to do things the way the world does things. In fact, one of the biggest problems in American churches today, is that we have tried to imitate corporations and business and do everything the way the world does, instead of how God commanded us to do things in His word. We are not to be like the world. In fact, often, God calls us to things exactly the opposite of the way the world would do them. Churches today need to get OUT of this worldly mindset. The church is not the world, and we are not to operate like the world. 

— In a business, it’s about their “bottom line.” But in the Church of Acts sold their possessions and gave them away, so that there would be no needs among them. 

— Many churches today act as if the building is the most important thing. Honestly, many Christians think of the church AS the building — and it’s not. The church is the people of God. The early church didn’t even HAVE buildings; they met in homes: In I Corinthians 16 Paul talked about Aquila and Priscilla and “the church in their house.” 

— When churches today want to get things done, what do they do? They exert political pressure; they go to the bank; they organize themselves like businesses, etc.  When the church of the first century wanted to get things done, what did THEY do? Acts = they gathered together in one mind to PRAY! As we’ll see in a minute, THAT’s how God’s church “gets things done.” 

The bottom line is that tragically, Most churches today operate more like 21st century businesses than the Biblical church of Acts 2! 

But it’s not only true for the church as a whole; the same thing is true for many of us as individual believers: Most Christians today operate more like the world, than the followers of Jesus we see in the Bible!

— When people slap us on the right cheek, do we turn the other cheek? Or do we slap them right back? Do we act more like Stephen, who prayed “Father, do not hold this sin agains them” when people were persecuting him, or do we act more like the world, and do all we can to persecute them back, pressure them out, run them down?

— When we want to get things done, how do we go about it? Raise publicity, make allies, exert political pressure — all the same things any worldly person would do, or do we use GOD’S methods?

We should all ask ourselves today: When I try to get things done, do I act more like the people in the world, or the people in the Bible? 

Last week we talked about how over and over James teaches us that our FRUIT shows if we really belong to God or not. Here in Chapter 4 this is another example: do you belong to God? What fruit are you showing: are you doing things God’s way, or the world’s way. We’ve seen what the world’s way is. What then is God’s way of getting things done?

II. God’s Way To Get Things Done

So if we are not to be like the world and achieve and accomplish and get things the world’s way, then HOW ARE WE to get things done? We see it here at the end of :2b, in one of the most famous verses in the Bible: 

“You do not have, because you do not ask.”

How are we to accomplish God’s work? How are we to get done what we want? The implication here is clear: “you do not have, because you do not ask.” In other words, if you as a Christian want to get something done, the way you are to get it, is through prayer. “You do not have, because you do not ask.” So he’s saying: if you want to get something done, ASK!  PRAY. PRAYER is the Christian’s means of getting things done. 

This shouldn’t surprise us. How many times do we see this in scripture?

— II Corinthians 10:3-5 “though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh; our weapons are not of the flesh but are divinely powerful” — in other words, we don’t “war” or get things done the way the world does. We use GOD’S weapons. What are those weapons? PRAYER!

— In Matthew 7:7 Jesus commanded repeatedly: “ASK and it shall be given to you; SEEK and you shall find; KNOCK and it shall be opened to you.” He teaches us, if you want something, then PRAY! Prayer is our weapon!

— Matthew 26 tells us that the night before Jesus went to the cross, what did He do to get ready? He didn’t spend all night arming His followers; no, He PRAYED ALL NIGHT! PRAYER was Jesus’ weapon.

— In Matthew 9:37-38 Jesus said the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. So what should we do? Manipulate; intimidate; make people feel guilty? No, those are the world’s weapons. He said “PRAY for workers for the harvest”! Prayer is our weapon as Christians. Prayer is how we are to get things done.

Hudson Taylor was one of the great Christians of history; he led the movement in the 1800s to evangelize China and called out hundreds of missionaries there.  But one young man who was interested in the met him, he thought he was very unimpressive. He was almost turned off by his lackluster appearance and personality. Until he prayed. And he said when Hudson Taylor prayed, it was powerful. He said it was “clear that God had admitted him to the inner circle of His friendship.God’s power worked through his prayers. in fact, Hudson Taylor said this was the way he operated: “It is possible to move men, through God, by prayer alone.”

In other words, as a Christian, he did not get things done by manipulation, by coercion, by violence, by pressure, but through prayer. Prayer was the way he got volunteers. Prayer was the way he got resources. Prayer is the way that God’s people get things done.

We shouldn’t be surprised at this: because this is true even for salvation right? The world says, if you want to know that you’re going to heaven, then work, work, work, and maybe you can be good enough to earn a spot in heaven. But God says NO: if you want to know that you’re going to heaven, just ASK:  “Whoever will CALL upon the name of the Lord will be saved”! “ASK and it will be given to you …”. The way we get things done for salvation is to PRAY; just humble yourself and ASK for it.

That way we get into the kingdom should teach us something as Christians about we are to operate in God’s kingdom: prayer is how we are get things done. 

Remember in Mark 9, when the disciples had tried to drive a demon out of a boy, but they couldn’t? (It was this boy’s father who told Jesus “I believe; help my unbelief.”) Then Jesus commanded the demon, and it went out. Afterwards the disciples were like, Why couldn’t WE cast it out? And Jesus said in :29, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.” Jesus just re-emphasized to them, that PRAYER is how we get things done in His Kingdom.

Listen: some of us right here today have some things we want to see happen, in our life, or in our kids or grandkids, or in people around us, or in our business, or in our church, or our country … and the Lord is telling you today through this message: “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer”! This thing you want to see happen, will only happen by prayer. You can’t “talk it out,” 

You can’t “drive it out”

You can’t “buy it out”

You can’t “manipulate” it out

You can’t charm it out

You can’t force it out

The only way this thing will happen is if you PRAY IT OUT!

If you really want something done, and you want to get it done God’s way, then PRAY! PRAY IT OUT! And that doesn’t just mean “say a little prayer.” It means PRAY like you never have before:

— Get up early and pray. Martin Luther once said, I have so much to do today, that I have to spend the first three hours in prayer! See, this is the opposite of the world’s way of thinking. The world says: I have so much to do today, I don’t have time to pray. But God’s person says, I have so much to do today, I must spend MORE time in prayer! THAT is how God’s people get things done!

— Spend more time praying than you ever have before

— Set aside some special time to FAST and pray 

— Purify your life from sin so that nothing is hindering your prayers (remember Peter said watch how you treat your wife, so your prayers will not be hindered — we’ll talk about this some more in a minute …)

PRAY IT OUT! This is the word of the Lord for somebody right here this morning — maybe for several of us on some different things. God’s saying, This is how you are to get things done MY WAY — and you need to realize that you aren’t going to get it done any other way: PRAY IT OUT! That’s God’s way to get things done.

III. When God’s Way Doesn’t Get Things Done (Checking our Motives)

So, James says, God’s people pray to achieve what we want. But, someone may say, well I HAVE prayed, and I am still not getting what I want! Why is that? James tells us here:  :3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

We all know that God makes great promises in the Bible about hearing our prayers. But He also gives us some conditions about the way that we pray that will affect whether our prayer is answered. (George Muller had a list of 14 conditions for prayer; you can look those up. I’m going to mention just a few of the conditions the Bible gives us:)

— We have to pray in Jesus’ name (John 14:13 “whatever you ask in My name I will do …”)

— We have to pray according to His will. I John 5:14 says: “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” So we aren’t promised that just ANYTHING we ask, we will get; what we ask has to be in accordance with God’s will, purpose, and plan. 

— We also need to make sure that our lives are clean from sin. Psalm 66:18 says “If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” You can’t live and do anything you want and think your prayer will be answered.

— That includes not harboring unforgiveness against others: remember Jesus said in Matthew 6:14 in the Sermon on the Mount “if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” Many, many unanswered prayers are due to bitterness and unforgiveness which someone has towards another person or persons. You are not hurting that other person by not forgiving them: you are hurting yourself, and you are keeping God’s power from working in your life, and yes, in many cases, yo are keeping Him from answering your prayers. 

— And then as James says here: we also we need to check our motives:

“you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

MOTIVES are so important to God: It’s not just what we ask; it’s WHY are we asking what we are asking. It’s not just what we do that matters to God; it’s WHY does a person do what they are doing? It makes all the difference to God. Back to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said in Matthew 6 if you’re praying, giving, or fasting, in order to be seen by men, you have no reward with God. WHY? Isn’t praying good? Isn’t giving good? Isn’t fasting good? YES! But the key thing to God is not just WHAT you are doing, but WHY you are doing it! Are you doing it for the love and glory of God? That’s wonderful. But if you’re doing it for your own personal reasons, for personal gain or glory, then that “good” thing is bad. Because it’s all about the motive to God. You can do the “right” thing, but if you aren’t doing it for the right reason, it’s of no benefit to you.

In Walter Isaacson’s biography of Benjamin Franklin, he tells how Franklin enjoyed his stint as a frontier commander. Among his clever accomplishments was devising a reliable method for getting the five hundred soldiers under his command to attend worship services: he assigned to the militia’s chaplain the task of doling out the daily allotments of rum right after his services. He wrote: “Never were prayers more generally and punctually attended.” (Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, p. 170) 

Franklin got his men to do the supposedly “right” thing — going to services — but did they do it for the right reason? See, this is why real Christianity is so hard. It’s not just “do this list of things” like in some religions. It matters to God WHY you do it. And James says here this applies to our prayers too. It’s not just WHAT we ask God, but WHY we are asking it.

— We may pray: God, I want this car, because then I’ll be able to take somebody to church. Is that really why you want it, or you just really want that car? God knows!

— We may pray: God, I want Your church to grow. WHY do you want it to grow? Because you really care about people’s souls who would be saved, or you just want to be known for being in a “going/growing” church? 

See, there’s a big difference in motivation for our prayers. WHY are we praying these things? Is it for His glory? Is it to help someone else? Or is it really just for our own pride, or for our own personal greed and desires like James says here? God knows what our inner motivation is. And He will not hear and answer a selfish prayer — no matter how much we try to sugar coat it with our supposed “good reasons.”

CONCLUSION:

So, are you praying, trying to “get things done” God’s way — but it doesn’t seem like God’s “getting it done”?  Check yourself, and your prayers, by some of the conditions that the Bible gives us:

— make sure you’re praying in Jesus’ name

— make sure the best you can that you’re praying according to God’s will, not your own. (Praying a scripture for your situation is the best way to do this; if you’re praying according to scripture you can be confident that you are praying according to His will. 

Cheryl has mentioned this to me several times since she had her stroke. So many people say they are praying for her. She said, “I want people to pray scripture for me” because we KNOW God will hear and answer when we pray according to His word! Ask things that God says in His word, and you can be confident He will hear that prayer.

— make sure you’re confessed up, and repented up. No, we do not “earn” our answers to prayer by our good behavior. They are by God’s grace in Jesus’ name. But at the same time, don’t think God’s going to hear your prayer while you just keep sinning away! 

— and especially make sure you don’t harbor bitterness and unforgiveness towards anyone. That is one sure way to shut down your prayers.

— And as James says here: be sure to check your motives. WHY are you really asking this? Is it really for the best for others and for the Kingdom of God? Or it is really just something selfish for yourself, cloaked in the guise of a religious “prayer.” You may fool other people with your answer: you can give them all the “right” reasons you are asking it. You may even be able to fool yourself with your reasons! But you can’t fool God. He knows what’s in your heart of hearts. And if our prayer is selfish, He is NOT going to get that thing done! 

INVITATION:

This is one of those scriptures that should cause us all to search our own souls:

— How have I been trying to “get things done”: the world’s way — or GOD’s way? Have I tried to manipulate, or coerce, or threaten, or bribe, or charm — or have I really brought my situation to GOD? Many of us need to ask God to help us be like Hudson Taylor, and “move men through God, by prayer”?.

— Many of us need to confess to God that we’ve fallen short in our prayers, by not praying like we should, or by having selfish, worldly motives when we DO pray. Some of us need to confess unforgiveness against someone— and know that if we don’t forgive, that special prayer request may never be answered! 

— And maybe today you need to ask God for the most important thing there is to ask for: for His forgiveness and salvation through Jesus …