Grab your bible, turn to James, chapter four. James, chapter four. We're going to be in verses four and five this morning. All right, James, chapter four. I'm thinking two verses. We'll try to keep it to 2 hours. Okay. Just kidding, just kidding. Some of you are like, please get me out of here right now. I read a poem this past week. It said this, roses are red, violets are blue, there is no one in this world should love more than you. Isn't that such an accurate description of the way our world operates these days, though? Self care, self love, self indulgence, self satisfaction, look out for yourself. What can you do to please yourself? Ran across an article the other day and this was the title. Self love should be a top priority regardless of your relationship status. So even if you're dating somebody, your top priority should be your own self love. If you are married, your only priority should be your self love. Now, if you are married in this room and have a high view of marriage and a deep love for your spouse, you go, that's crazy, that's crazy. That's not how love operates, right? Prioritize ourself. We lay down our lives for the sake of others. That's how Jesus lived his life. But if I came home to my wife on a Friday night, and she has been serving our family super faithfully all throughout the week, and we've got four kids and they're doing all the things and she's tired, if I walked up to her and said, hey, erica, just wanted you to know, I know it's been a really hard week, but I just need to prioritize myself this weekend. And so I'm going to leave you with the kids for two more days. By yourself. She's going to look at me and say, you've lost your mind, Michael. And she's a godly person, but she should say that to me, right? You've lost your mind. That's not how we operate as followers of Jesus, but that's how the world operates. And we can look at that and go like, that's absolutely ridiculous, but why is it that we often treat God that way? I love you, God, but I also love myself and what I want and what I want to worship and what I desire. Like when we consider that, how do you think God views those people? Oftentimes maybe us who are obsessed with our own self satisfaction. How does God regard those who live for their own self centered pleasure? That's what we're going to look at this morning. So let's start James Four, the beginning of verse four. This is his rebuke to them. You adulterous people. You adulterous people. Now, this is a very different address than he's addressed this audience all throughout this letter. Up until this point, he's addressed them eight times as brothers. Hey, brothers, do this. Brothers, consider this. Brothers, think about this. But now he is changing his greeting from hey, brothers to you adulterous people. Probably the strongest rebuke in all of James, one of the stronger rebukes in all of the New Testament. And it feels like James is probably, he's addressing the church believers, but he's recognizing there are people inside the church that are gathered together, that some of them aren't believers and some of them think they're believers. So he's addressing all these people at this point. And so he says, you adulterous people. You adulterous people. Now, we're going to spend a crazy amount of time on this because Jake had three verses last week and he still jumped into mine for this week. All right, so not bitter or anything. You gave me two verses and then you took half of one. All right, but we've already talked about it. So the better translation here is not just simply you adulterous people. And in the Greek, there's a feminine participle that makes it should be like, better translation would be you adulteresses. Now, not because there were females engaging in adulterous sexual activity in James. In fact, this is not talking about adulterous sexual activity at all. What the audience here, many of them jewish background believers, would have come to realize as soon as he says, you adulteresses is the metaphor that God often used for his relationship with his people, the relationship between God and his people, where God is the husband and the people are considered the wife of God. Okay, so again, just the metaphor that he's using. Some of you might know the New Testament metaphor that Paul often uses for this, that says the church is the bride of Christ. Right? Now, James was written before Paul's letters, most likely. So they're probably not thinking about the church being the bride of Christ, but their minds are going to go back to their spiritual forefathers, the Israelites. And I'll give you one example. In Isaiah, chapter 54, says this, for your maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and the holy one of Israel is your redeemer, the God of the whole earth. He is called for. The Lord has called you like a wife, deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth. When she is cast off, says, your God. So for your maker is your husband, and you are like a wife. So again, they're thinking their spiritual forefathers. And when they think of their spiritual forefathers, they remember how Israel often acted. They knew that this was the relationship that they had with their God. But they would often run to other idols. They would run to other things, run to things that they thought would satisfy them when only God alone could satisfy them. And so what James is trying to address in this passage is not physical adultery. He is addressing spiritual adultery, where they're now cheating on their God with something else. And this is not a new concept to James, even though it's the strongest rebuke. But in James chapter one, we even read this again last week. This is in the context of people James saying, you can ask for wisdom, but let him ask in faith with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways. So this group of people, they were wanting wisdom, and they said, we want the wisdom of God, but we also want to live how we want to live. And he goes, it's not going to work that way. God's going to give you generous wisdom, but not when you're double minded, not when your loyalties are divided. Now, that doesn't sound like terrible. Like, oh, I got divided loyalties. It doesn't sound terrible until you put it in the context of a marriage relationship. Like, how many of you would be okay? As like, okay, my spouse has divided loyalties between me and another person. Nobody's going to be for that, right? You shouldn't be for that at all. Like, oh, I really love my husband, but I really want to pursue another man. That doesn't fit. It doesn't work. So you get this kind of powerful imagery of a husband and wife, but this horrific imagery of really somebody cheating on their spouse and getting caught in the act. You're adulteresses, he says, so why is it such a harsh accusation? Let's read the rest of verse four. You adulterous people. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. So why were they accused as adulteresses? Because they had become friends with the world. Some of you, maybe you're not familiar with a lot of the new Testament. There are a lot of different ways the word world is used in the New Testament. Okay, we got to understand, what was James talking about here? So what he's not talking about is the created world, as in, like, the planet, the universe. So he's not saying like, oh, you're adulteresses because you've become friends with the planet, all right? That's not the type of world he's talking about here. He's also not talking about, hey, you've become friends with the people of the world. Because we know if we look at the rest of the New Testament, we are to be Christ ambassadors. We are to represent Christ everywhere, especially those places that he's not represented. So we should have relationships with non Christians, that's okay for us to be in a Friendship relationship, for us to be neighbors with non christians. There's no call here to just go live in a commune with just christians. Right? So he's not saying, oh, you're adulteresses because you've become friends with people in the world. So he's saying you're not adulteresses because you've become friends with the universe or become friends with the people of the world. When he talks about the world here, he's talking about the world's evil system, worldly things, the world's evil system that centers upon sin and is ruled by Satan. That's what he says. You've become friends with that system, with those values, those things in this world, and all the pleasures in this world that increase your desire for them and seduce you away from God in his ways. That's why they're being accused as adulteresses. Now, there's several times this word is used this way in the New Testament. I'm going to give you a couple in one. John two, chapter 15 and through 17, it says this, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him, for all that is in the world. So this was part of what the world is. The desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. And what he's saying is, don't love the things of this world. Don't love the things of the world. So what made up the world? The things that you desire in your flesh, the things that you desire with your eyes, that seduce you away from God, the pride of life, the things that make you think about yourself and your obsession with self. Don't go to those things, because those things aren't from the father, those things aren't from God, and, in fact, they're just temporary things that are just going to pass away. And then in Luke, Jesus is talking about following him, his disciples following him, and he says this, for what does it profit? What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? Some of your translations might say forfeits his soul. What good is it if you gain the whole world all its advantages, all its pleasures, yet you forfeit your soul? What good is that? There's no profit to your soul. There's no return on investment for your soul if you are simply going to pursue the desires of the flesh, the desires of your eyes and the pride of life, where you become friends with the world. So what does this friendship with the world look like? In the New Testament times, friendship was a little stronger than it is in 2024. And we can just say, oh, I'm a friend. Let me just click a button. That makes me your friend. Right? Like friendship in the New Testament, this is this lifelong pact where people shared the same values and they shared the same loyalties. Oh, we're friends because we get each other and we share the same values and same priorities. Friendship with the world means you are loyal to the world. You share the world's values. You identify with its standards and its priorities. And so James is telling his audience, you have the wrong object as your lover. You have the wrong object as your lover. Instead of God, you have fallen in love with the world and the ways of the world. And because of that, he said, you're adulteresses. You're adulteresses. They were befriending the world by pursuing their own satisfaction, their own destructive pleasures, rather than pursuing just. I'm not going to recap the whole book of James at this point, but we see this showing up over and over, even in James, like James chapter one, you befriended comfort. So instead of in trials allowing them to develop you and mature, you, you tried to escape from the trials. Because you befriended comfort, you befriended man's approval. And because of that, when you didn't get man's approval, you started discriminating and showing partiality to others who didn't give you what you wanted. You befriended man's approval, you befriended your religious knowledge, and you say, oh, I believe in God. But your faith does not show itself through your works. So we're befriending certain things. And again, those are just a couple from earlier in James, you're befriending selfish ambition and bitter jealousy. And because of that, your speech is terrible and your conduct is terrible. That was chapter three. So you see this coming up over and over, but just when you even think about those things, you go, well, those aren't outrageous things. Yeah, I like comfort sometimes. I like control sometimes. I like significance and success sometimes. But I'm not like an enemy of God, am I? Because I like those things. Why such a harsh rebuke? Because sometimes friendship with the world doesn't seem like a big idea. Like, oh, it's not a big deal. Oh, I'm just hanging out with worry today. I'm just spending some time with fear today. I'm just going on a little date with some sinful pleasure. We start thinking about it in those terms, like, oh, I don't know. We don't just back ourselves into this kind of way of life, James. One would say we give, like, our own evil desires, give birth to this kind of sin. It's not somebody else's fault. It's our own evil desires. And then there in verse four again, it says, therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. This idea of wishes is not just like blowing out your birthday candles and wishing for something. There's a purpose to it with an intent. You intended to live your life this way. You didn't just subtly stumble into an affair. Like, that doesn't happen with anybody. Whoops, I just had an affair. No, there were evil desires in you that made you run to be satisfied somewhere else. And the same thing is true for spiritual adultery. Like, we didn't just stumble into this, like, whoops, I really like control, and I'm going to idolize that you wished for. It says, what do you wish you had that the world offers? You wish you had the attention that the world offers, the pleasure, the happiness, the immediate satisfaction, the success. It reminds me of when, as a child, you went on a field trip and you got partnered up with a buddy, right? The buddy wasn't always your friend, all right? You were part of the buddy system. Some of you are thinking about the movie heavyweights right now. Some of you, like, I don't know what that movie is, but. Right, so in the buddy system, you had your friends, but on that field trip, you're like, hey, I need you to partner up with one other person. And when you partner up with this person, you can't leave this person. So the whole field trip. If this buddy isn't a friend of yours, you're watching your friends over here and going, man, I wish I could be over here with them, but I'm stuck with this person, right? I don't want to be with this person. I want to be with those people. How often do we treat our relationship with God like that? Well, I've got to be with God on Sundays. I got to talk to him before I go to bed, and I just treat him like he's my buddy. But I really want to be over here with my friend, the world. God is not your buddy. He is lord. He is creator. He is sovereign. He's not just somebody we buddy up to one day a week, one morning a week, but then befriend the world the rest of the week. He deserves far more than that. That's what we're talking about. When it comes to the seriousness of the sin that James is addressing, are you intimately involved with the world? Are you intimately in fellowship with the world? Are you an intimate friend with the world? This morning, again. But why is this so bad? Go back to verse four. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Enmity being hostility, tension, hatred, hostility and enmity exist when God finds his people unfaithful. Now, again, this might be a little hard to grasp spiritually, but we get this in a marriage. Like if your spouse came to you and go, hey, just letting you know, I've been thinking a lot about this other person lately. Hey, just so you know, I've been texting this other lady a lot lately. I've just been making a few phone calls to this other person lately. We just kissed. We just went on a date. It's not that big of a deal. Like, nobody in this room would say, that's not a big deal. You would go, no, that's not okay. It's not okay. It is right. It is absolutely right for a spouse to get upset and bothered by that. Nobody would say, oh, yeah, that's okay. Now, people in our world would. They might say, oh, yes, fine, you don't have to be in a monogamous relationship. Find somebody else. Don't be bored. That's not how the people of God operate. So we understand it from an earthly perspective, from an earthly marriage perspective. And God's just trying to say how much more spiritual adultery. So there's enmity with God, but it actually is worse than just hostility with God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. When we befriend the world, we're not just in tension with God, but we have become his enemy. God is the opposition. God is the adversary. And I don't know about you, but that's a horrific place to be with God almighty as your enemy. He's not going to tolerate competing rivalries. You can't be both friends with the world and friends with God at the same time. If your most satisfying relationships are outside of God, he's an enemy. And it is horrifying to cheat on God. It's like those people that are. You have a dangerous, exotic animal as a pet, right? This is so cool, right? You get everybody else's attention because this is great. It's exhilarating. And then one day, your pet lion mauls you to death. You're like, oh, maybe it wasn't cool anymore. You can't even think that because you're dead, right? But you're just like, oh, this is great. This is wonderful. And it's extremely dangerous. And you can't be friends with an apex predator, right? Like, that doesn't work. And God's saying, you can't be friends with the world and be friends with me at the same time. You can't do it. Now, let's dig deeper into why we can't do that. Let's look at verse five. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us? So first it says, or do you suppose it is not to no purpose that it is empty and has no value that the scripture would say something? You're saying when you become friends with the world, what you're saying is that God, you and your word have no value. They're empty, but no value for what, specifically? Now, I will tell you, verse five is probably the toughest in all of James to interpret. All commentators would pretty much agree with that. And some of you like it makes sense to me. Others of you read that. I don't get it. And it's tough to interpret, number one, because it says, and scripture says this. Now, when you're studying your Bible and it says scripture says something, you should figure out where that other scripture is and then go figure out that context, and it's going to help bring things alive. So when you look at this and it says, scripture says this, the problem is there is no explicit scripture that says this. You're like, wait, what is this scripture they're talking about? And then it becomes, well, who's the he is the he. God is the he, like people is the he the spirit? And then other people would say, well, who's the spirit? Is it the Holy Spirit? Is it the human spirit that God's put in people? We don't have time. You don't want to sit in an academic class this morning for me to go into all those, right? Some of you are looking into even your translations that aren't the ESV this morning that we're reading. And you go, oh, yeah, it says something a little different here. All right, I want you to go study this on your own. All right? Don't just take my word for it now. I think the ESV interprets it really well. And in my humble opinion, all right, I'm not going to die on this hill. But in my humble opinion, I think it's pointing to the fact that God is jealously yearning for the spirit. Not the Holy Spirit, but the human spirit. He is made to dwell in us. Now, there is room for multiple interpretations here because I think they're all going to point to the same thing, though, all right? That I think it's not an explicit scripture that James is addressing here. He's talking about a general theme in scripture of God's jealousy, that God is jealously longing for the human spirit that he breathed into all of, graciously breathed into all of mankind. And he's saying, hey, I jealously yearn or long or desire in the context of adultery here, that they would be single minded, wholeheartedly devoted to me and not to other things. So he's saying, you're adulteresses because you've given no value to the jealousy of God. So whether God is the one that created this spirit or he's put the Holy Spirit in us, the same thing is true. God jealously desires for us to leave friendship with the world and return to him. And because he's created us or given us the Holy Spirit, he absolutely has the authority to demand that. Absolutely has the authority to demand that because it's by his work and his work alone that he created us or gave us the Holy Spirit. And understanding the jealousy of God is the key to avoiding friendship with the world. Understanding the jealousy of God is the key to avoiding friendship with the world. But we don't talk about the jealousy of God often, do we? Right? We talk about the love of God and the grace of God and the mercy of God, the justice of God, the wrath of God. There's so many attributes of God that we talk about and those are wonderful. And those things show up multiple times throughout scripture. But I want us to see how we can avoid friendship with the world this morning by focusing on the justice of God. Now, this is an attribute of God that's actually turned many people off from Christianity. One of the most popular ones, and she said it herself, is Oprah Winfrey. She used to go to church often, but she heard a sermon at one point about the jealousy of God. And she's like, I don't want to be a part of a God like that. Now, before you run out of here this morning, hang on for just a second. Okay. Let's talk about what this really means. It makes us kind of uncomfortable, though, because they're like, wait a second. If God's our husband, is he just a jealous husband? An insecure, petty, worried, fearful husband? Is that who he is? And he's so insecure that if we start to dabble in other things, he's just going to get really angry at us. Makes sense why you might be uncomfortable with that. It also makes sense if you look back to chapter three, because what was the conduct and the behavior behind demonic wisdom? Selfish ambition and bitter jealousy. Wait a second, James. You just said jealousy's demonic. Then you get to verse four. Well, what causes fights and quarrels among you? You covet because you don't have. So you're wanting something that somebody else has. So hold on. How can this be true? That God is jealous but is sinful to be jealous? Anybody confused by that? I was when I started looking into it. All right, now let me just help you understand this. Jealousy is wrong. God can still be jealous. This is why. Think about pride. Okay? Some of you are confused. Think about pride. Can you say, I take pride in my child? Sure, you can. Can you live your life arrogantly and selfish? You could, but it would be sinful. So pride can exist in both those senses, right? In two corinthians seven, we're not going to look at it, but Paul actually writes to the corinthian church. I take great pride in you. So he's taking great pride in the church, but he also writes in plenty of other places about humility and not being prideful so they both can exist. This would be the same thing. He jealously yearns. There's this intense longing for the spirit that he's created in people. It's not necessarily evil. Strong desire, but there's a strong desire. Let's think about it this way. Jealousy for what someone else has is coveting. Oh, I want what you have. That's coveting, and that's wrong. Jealousy for what is yours. That's okay. That's right. That's just in a covenant relationship with your spouse. For you to be, like, jealous and have a strong desire for your spouse not to cheat and have an affair, that is a good, just right desire. And so this spirit that he's put in all mankind, what God is saying is, that's mine. Nobody else put it there. So can he jealously yearn for the spirit that he put in you? Absolutely he can, because it's his. It's absolutely his. Let's see this. Throughout the Old testament, Exodus 20 says this, you shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness or anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. So he's talking to the ISraelites, these people that he's created. They've been enslaved in Egypt for centuries. He sustained his people. Then he brings them out of Egypt. He gets to the Red Sea. Who splits the Red Sea? Them. No, he does. So he's going, look at my work. All throughout this process, I have been working, working among you, and I'm jealous for you because I've been working in you. He says, don't run to other idols. Don't start making a bunch of other idols like they're not going to satisfy you like I am, because I'm a jealous God, and I know what's going to satisfy you. And then later on in Exodus 34, take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it becomes a snare in your midst. So don't make a covenant with these other people and become trapped in it. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their ashram, for you shall worship no other God. For the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. God's not simply behaving as a jealous God says, that's his name. That's his identity. That's who he is. And then deuteronomy, this will be the last one. Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you. And make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. If God is willing to consume people, it says, I care about my relationship with you. He's saying, I care deeply about you. I don't want you to run to other things because I care so much about you guys. Don't you want to be loved that way? Don't you want the one that you've covenanted with to say, hey, I'm bothered that you're running after somebody else. You want that from a spouse that loves you that way. We want that from our God because it's not okay to be satisfied in something else. So why is this so hard to grasp? Because we're obsessed with ourselves and we believe that we want to be autonomous, and we believe that we get to determine where our affections go because we deserve it. And this is not just an issue. In 2024, this has been an issue all the way back to the garden of Eden, that when God says, hey, Adam and Eve, you can eat of any tree in this garden, just don't eat the fruit of this one tree. And Satan, in his subtle, sneaky ways comes up and says, hey, just eat the fruit. Because if you do, you'll become like God. And then you get to determine whatever you want. You'll have all the knowledge. You'll gain everything. It's not so bad. Now, I'm going to paraphrase this tremendously here. Then what Satan is ultimately saying is, yeah, he's trying to hide stuff from you. God's petty, God's insecure. God's just worried and fearful about what you might become if you eat of this fruit. All the way back from the beginning, we've been wanting to be like God, and we've been wanting everything to make us like God where we deserve it. Guys, this is where the jealousy of God comes in. Because we have lowered our view of God, and because we've lowered our view of God, what we have done is we've given minimal devotion to him. God. I don't see you as a jealous God, as a worthy God. So I'm going to just give you a Sunday. I'm just going to give you a prayer before bed. I'm going to commit everything to you. Why would I do that? And then we start just going, how can I just get by? How can I get by before God consumes me? Right? It's like the age old question for teenagers when they're dating, right? How far is too far in a dating relationship? What a terrible question to ask. It's not like, how close can I get to sin? The better question is, how far can I go this way to honor my God? Why am I running this way to sin? When I can honor the Lord going this way, it's the same thing. Like why do I want to get, how close do I get? Can I be to be friends with the world? Before God doesn't like me anymore, he's going, what are you doing? I love you deeply. Come drink from this well, because you're not going to thirst anymore. That's a jealous, God again earthly relationship. Well, I love my husband a lot, but I don't really wear my wedding ring. Especially when I go on a work trip to a hotel by myself. I'm not going to wear my ring there. She's not around. We would look at that and go, that's crazy. That's absolutely crazy. Guys, to avoid friendship with the world, we got to have a big view of God. Guys, God is jealous and he will not share his glory. He doesn't deserve to share his glory. He is utterly different and he is self sufficient and he does not need us or anything else to satisfy him. We've got to have a greater view of God. He has no rival, he has no equal. Yet oftentimes we think, oh, I just want to be friends with comfort and control. They don't come close to God, they will never satisfy you. Like God. This is what I want you to know. He's worthy and God is worthy of exclusive commitment. God is worthy of exclusive commitment. The key to taking our sin seriously is to take God seriously. He deserves undivided devotion, complete loyalty. Guys, God loves you too much to let him cheat on him with the world. That's a jealous God. And a jealous God that doesn't make us uncomfortable. But a jealous God that gives us great comfort. Great comfort and great hope that he would love us like that. When he knows he's the only one that can satisfy us. He has a fervent passion to be your greatest treasure because he knows any treasure that you find in this world is going to fall short. He doesn't want you to find your satisfaction elsewhere because he knows what's best. The jealousy of God, guys, is not like the holiness of God. It's different because the holiness of God. When we experience the set apartness of God, the holiness of God, what do we do? We fall on our faces and go, woe is me. I'm a wicked, sinful person and I deserve punishment because of that. It's not what the jealousy of God does. I think the jealousy of God shows us how serious God takes his people. The jealousy of God shows us how serious God takes a relationship with his people. How serious God takes sin. How serious God takes allegiance to him, and it demonstrates a deep, deep love that nothing and no one else can give you. Nothing. This is how we can be comforted by the jealousy of God and avoid friendship with the world, because it shows us how much he loves us. And what was the extent that God would show his jealousy for us? Ephesians five says this. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might the church, be holy and without blemish. Now, many of you have heard that read at many weddings, right? And it's talking about how should wives and husbands operate. But at the end of that passage, what it says is, hey, this is speaking about a mystery, the mystery between Christ and his church, how God relates to his people. And what did Christ do for his church? He laid down his life and died and gave himself up for her. That's the extent a jealous God would go to show you how much he loves you, that he would willingly say, I don't want you to be friends with the world. I love you that much. And I love you so much that I would send my son to die for you. That's a jealous God that we can be comforted in, that we can take hope in. So, guys, let's not run after lesser things. Let's not treasure the world and all it has to offer. I would encourage you to do two things, and it's in a specific order. Number one, take God seriously. Number two, take sin seriously. Don't change the order, though, because when we start just taking sin seriously, that's when we get things messed up, because we're like, oh, I got to fix this, and I got to do the right thing. But let's take God seriously, and let's think about his jealousy and his character and his attributes. And when we do that, we go, oh, I don't want to live for the world any longer. I want to live for him. So take God seriously. Take your sin seriously, and imagine what would happen if even every person in this service alone would do this. Imagine what kind of church we would be if we all prized God above everything else, if we were all people, quick to worship and quick to repent, if we weren't just tiptoeing near sin. But we had other brothers and sisters saying, no, don't run there. Come here. He's more satisfying. God is more loving. Why would you run to that? That's the kind of church that we want to be that says, yes, our God is jealous and he deserves to be jealous. And he's right in his jealousy. And he loves us in his jealousy. That's the kind of church we want to be. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the harder passages. Thank you for the rebukes to other churches. May we take them seriously today. Father, help us to see your jealousy and be comforted in it, to find hope in it. Lord, I pray for any person in this room who is pursuing friendship with the world. I pray that they would turn away from their sin, but not just turn away from it, but they would turn to you a better option, a greater option, a more satisfying option, and that's you and you alone. Pray this in Jesus name. Amen.