09 What Causes Fights Among You? (James 3:13-4:6)

Speaker 1: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word with Krisan Marotta. This is the ninth lesson in a series on the book of James. Fights and quarrels among believers are symptoms of the deeper problem of depending on earthly rather than godly wisdom. Rasan's text for today is from James 3, 14 through 4.6. Krisan Marotta: We're going to continue talking about leadership today. And you've probably heard the lion's the king of the jungle, so I have a story for you. The lion was proud of his mastery over the animal kingdom. And one day he decided to make sure that all the other animals knew that he was the king of the jungle. So he very confidently bypassed all the smaller animals and went straight to the larger animals. So he approached the bear and he said, Who's the king of the jungle? And the bear said, Why, you are, of course. And the lion gave a mighty roar of approval, and then he went to the tiger. And he says, Who is the king of the jungle? And the tiger said, Well, of course, everyone knows you are a mighty lion. So next on his list was the elephant. And he went to the elephant and he said, Who's the king of the jungle? And the elephant immediately grabbed the lion with his trunk and whirled him around in the air about five or six times and threw him into a tree. And then he went over and picked him up and pounded him on the ground, took him over and dumped him in the water a few times and then dumped him on the shore. And the lion kind of beaten and bruised, struggled to his feet, and he looked at the elephant and he said, Well, look, just because you don't know the answer doesn't mean you have to get mean about it. So we're going to continue talking about leadership today, hopefully a little better than that. And let me just set the stage for us. Remember the James introduced his theme in chapter one: consider it joy when you face trials, that trials test your faith, and that testing brings you to wisdom and maturity and makes us into the kind of people we should be. And then in chapter two, he began giving us examples of what faith looked like and what it didn't look like, and he's focused it on the way we speak and the way we view wealth and how faith makes a difference in our lives. And then chapter three, the section we looked at last week, begins what I think is uh the beginning of this section. So from 3-1 to 4-6, I really like to look at all in one piece, where he's focusing on strife in the community. You'll notice this section begins and ends with warning about speech. And the first area he looks at is the leadership, specifically the teachers. And as we looked at last week, he warned not, let not many of you become teachers. Teaching carries a responsibility. It's not something we ought to want for the limelight, it's something we ought to take seriously, it's to teach the Word of God. And before you take that or seek that kind of position or limelight, you ought to consider your motives. So he says we should be want to be teachers for God-centered and other-centered motives, not self-centered. And he's continuing that discussion today. So we're going to look at James 3.13 through 4.6, which I think concludes the passage we summed up last, or we looked at last week. And I divide this in two paragraphs just to give you a little, this is how I outline it. You'll notice each paragraph begins with a question. So the first paragraph or the first section would be 3.13 through 18, where he starts, Who is wise and understanding among you? And he contrasts the wisdom from above with earthly wisdom. And then the second paragraph begins in 4.1 and goes through 6. Who is wise and understanding what's the cause of quarrels and fights among you? So each one he kind of marks with a paragraph. So let's just dive right in. He says, Who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct? Let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. So we remember he's just warned, let not many of you become teachers. You don't want to be teachers for the wrong motives. And he's implied it's only those who are wise who should be teachers. Well, that raises the question, how do we know who's wise? Who is it that's wise and understanding among you? Those are the people you want to be teachers, but how do we know who they are? And his answer is basically the one who's learned the lesson of the gospel. So who do you want to be up front in leadership? The one who's learned this lesson or the one who hasn't? The one who has this fundamental change of heart or the one who hasn't? And he says the teacher ought to be a reasonably wise, mature person who's demonstrated faith and that faith has changed their conduct. So that faith is making a difference in the way they live. Now, this is not necessarily the smartest person in the room. It's not necessarily the most educated person in the room, the person with the most letters after his or her name. It's not necessarily the person who lived a stellar life before becoming a believer or never failed after becoming a believer. He's talking about wisdom and maturity, which is not the same thing as book learning. So wisdom is an understanding of life that's different than the world around us. So it's having a godly perspective on life, seeing life the way God sees it, such that what you value, what you strive after, the choices you make are all reflected by what God thinks is true and right. So to lack wisdom is not to be unsure about which job to take or which person to marry, and to lack wisdom is not to be illiterate, it doesn't mean you never graduated from high school. To lack wisdom is to be a fool. It's to look at things differently than the way God thinks, to look at reality and think it's this way when God says it's that way. So if I lack wisdom, I am immature and foolish, I do not understand life the way God does. And he says, Who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. So the person who's wise will have their conduct changed. They will express their wisdom in this kind of gentleness and humility, and it will be because of they've had this fundamental change of perspective. They now see themselves differently, they see the world differently, they value things differently, and they are in touch with what God thinks is true. So ultimately, the one who you want up front in leadership is the one whose life reflects basically that they get it, that they understand the biblical worldview, and that uh they fully understand the gospel, and that understanding is changing their lives. Now he's going to talk more about wisdom in a minute, but first he he looks at the opposite and he says, let's look at the flip side who ought not to be in leadership or teaching. Look at 13 through 16. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice. So I think in some sense, these verses are the key to the section. This is the attitude he sees rampant in the churches, and he's saying, This is the kind of thing I don't want. This is the kind of lifestyle you should be running from. And I think he picks on teaching in particular and leadership because there's something really attractive about being up front. You know, it's flattering to think, wow, all these people are listening to me, you know, and I want to be the one people come and ask questions of, and I want to be the one people seek advice from. And there that we can want that for all the wrong kinds of motives. Any kind of power corrupts, and even leadership in the church can be corrupting. You've probably seen this in both the church and the world, how this desire for positions of power or the limelight leads us to do all kinds of selfish and thoughtless things. Especially if we think our power is threatened, then watch all the things that come out, all the links people go to when they think they might get voted out of office or lose their position. You get all kinds of double dealings and promises and threats and lies. And I think James is saying, we are all susceptible to that. We are all susceptible to this allure of power and glory and honor. And if if you minimize that temptation or ignore it or think you're above it, you're acting foolishly. So any teacher or leader, for any of us, I think it's easy to be motivated by jealousy and ambition. I think he first mentions them in these verses, but I think that's been behind his discussion last week, too. He's saying, look, I see this kind of strife and jealousy in their churches. I see this kind of ambition at work, and it concerns me. These are the red flags of what he's been writing about about you claim to be a believer and yet you're pursuing this other kind of lifestyle. So I think he picks jealousy because you can be jealous wanting the authority someone else has. Or you can be selfish and wanting to be the one up front, wanting to be the one everyone looks to, you know, the one I want me to be, the one that has all the answers. And that kind of motivation is the same natural motivation we all find apart from the grace of God. We all think it ought to be me calling the shots. It's it ought to be my opinion that carries the weight. And everyone ought to listen to me because, of course, I've got the market cornered on being right. And James is saying, look, I see this at work in your churches, and he's saying, This, you want to flee from this. Notice what causes the quarrels and fights among you. He's looking out at the churches he's writing to, and he sees they're afflicted with strife, they're afflicted with quarrels, they're facing power structure struggles, and part of it comes from these attitudes of their leaders. They are arrogant and wanting to be in the front, in the hot stuff, the one the place of position. So they think they're hot stuff and they ought to be leaders, and yet it's their jealousy for the power and their ambition for the power that's giving them away. So, in reality, of course, none of us have anything to be arrogant about because our only boast is in the cross. And those who have understood that our boast is in the cross are the ones that you want to be leaders and teachers. The ones who are jealous and selfishly ambition are not the ones you want to put up front. Now, again, he's not saying that leadership or teaching isn't like this is some kind of elite spot for the heroic marines of Christianity. I don't think that's at all what he's saying. The picture he's painting is I see too many immature, selfish, jealous people in your midst. So let not many of you become teachers. Consider the responsibility before you seek that kind of gift. Consider your motives. And I think he's saying, I, you know, I, James, see too much bitter jealousy and selfish ambition motivating those who want to be your leaders. So, by contrast, here's what ought to motivate you. Look at 17 and 18. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere, and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. So, as he's been saying throughout this letter, God works in the lives of genuine believers to mature their faith. That maturity results in wisdom, that wisdom gives us a new perspective on life, and it changes what I think it's important and what I want. So a faith that has grown and matured under trials brings believers to this place of wisdom, and it will have these results that he describes in 17: peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, impartial and sincere. And again, that's not a unique wisdom for the you know the few ultra smart among us, but that's the wisdom of the average believer who has been tested and learned through that test to trust their Lord. They've gained a perspective on life from that test. They understand what it's all about. And I think we saw a great example of this kind of leadership in the Nehemiah study last fall. So just to take you back, I know some of you are going, like, Nehemiah? What was the what book was that? But think about how Nehemiah reacted when strife came both internally and externally. So when they were faced with external threats, so the ridicule and the threats from their neighbors, and they were tempted to give up, what's the first thing Nehemiah did? He prayed. He went to God in prayer. He didn't start by giving them a lecture or organizing a raiding party against the enemies or creating some kind of propaganda campaign to put a different spin on their words. He said, we've have to go to God. And wise leaders know that's the first place to turn. They talk to God about the people. They talk to God about the flock. So they've learned to speak to God about the problems facing the flock, and then they speak to the flock about the people. And notice that's what Nehemiah did next. You'll probably remember. So after he went to God in prayer, he came back to the people and he encouraged them with here's what I see God doing. Remember what he's promised us. Remember where we've been. So he spoke to God about the people, and he spoke to the people about God. And I think he probably learned that kind of wisdom as a gradual process over all the years. He was in the Babylonian court going through who knows what kind of political intrigue and politics, and he had to learn to trust God. So then when it came to this crisis point, he was prepared because he had learned wisdom. And I think that it's the same for us. The gospel confronts us with these issues of mercy and grace and sin, and when we understand them from God's perspective, it changes our lives, it changes our thoughts, it changes what we value. And as our undergrad understanding grows, then it leads to the attitudes he describes in 17. So it's merciful, humble, and reasonable. We recognize how much we need to be forgiven, how lost we are apart from the grace of God, so we learn to view others with the same kind of mercy and humility. If God's given me so much mercy, how can I fail to be merciful to my neighbor, who is of course in the same boat? And it leads to that humility that says, I'm not such a big deal. God's in control, not me. I don't have to be the one up front. I don't have to call the shots because I know who's in control. So, yes, we still sin and we fail, but we know that the gospel is true. We repent and strive to live it's if true. So not living one way on Sunday and another way the rest of the week when no one's looking. And I think you could sum up 17, all the attitudes in 17 and 18 with two basic ideas: a growing single-minded pursuit of the gospel and a humble, merciful attitude toward others. And you may recognize that as loving the Lord your God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself. It's that single-minded pursuit of what you know to be true, loving the Lord your God with all your heart, loving the gospel, loving the word of God, and then loving your neighbor as yourself, that humble, merciful response. And those, and then James is saying, the people you want to put in leadership are those in whom you see this kind of wisdom growing. And he says, The harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. So he's using this metaphor of a teacher or a leader as a sower who is sowing seeds of truth and promoting righteousness as his crop. So he sows seeds of truth, it will be sown in peace, and it will result in peace, and that's peace as opposed to war. So peace as opposed to discord or strife or quarrels. And you can contrast that with the teachers who are jealous and ambitious because what are they promoting? They're promoting themselves, they're promoting their point of view, they're promoting the way they think they they should, it, everything should be done, and that is going to result in strife. That's gonna result in quarrels and discard. By contrast, the wise mature teacher who's actually motivated by a focus on the gospel is seeking to promote the gospel, which will result in peace and unity, because they're not promoting themselves or their own agenda. So for the wise teacher, the issue is not power and who's got it, the issue is not who's right and who's wrong, who gets published in the most journals, or who makes a name for himself, or writes the most book, or making sure everyone's doing things my way. The issue is promoting the word of God. We're pursuing the gospel together, we're pursuing truth, we're pursuing understanding. And that's gonna be less contentious because our goal is gonna be a deep understanding of and love for the word of God, not ourselves. So the bottom line, I think, for a wise teacher is that the word of God be taught, and that is more important than who is the one teaching it. So you can step back and let go because it's more important that the word of God be taught. And that results in unity because we're all striving after the same thing, then we're all striving after understanding the word of God. Now, just to be clear, all teachers are sinful, we are all gonna fail fail. Jealousy and ambition is gonna enter in every leader's life at some point, everyone's gonna face those attitudes. And but he's saying there's a difference, there's a fundamental change in perspective between those who have really fully embraced the gospel and those who haven't. Now, I don't think he's saying that everyone who hears is gonna respond peacefully. He's not that's not a guaranteeing. He's not saying that if you find strife and dissension in any group of believers, it necessarily means you've got leaders motivated by jealousy and ambition. Maybe, or maybe not. But he is saying that a mature Christian teacher in a position of leadership is gonna teach from a position of humility and peace, striving after the word of God, and that's gonna promote peace. So he's not gonna make himself king, he's not gonna put his agenda above everyone else at the expense of others or try to call the shots in an autocratic way or make dictates on from on high. Instead, he's promoting an understanding of the word of God and a humble commitment to the gospel and all its implications. Okay. I don't so I don't think he's promising the world. He's not saying if you have a mature teacher, you're gonna have a perfect flock. And he's not saying if you have an imperfect flock, that must mean you have an imperfect teacher. I don't I don't even think he's really speaking to the business of a church and how to keep fighting down. So I don't think his point is okay, you know, we did this focus group and and we found that churches do better if you minimize the fighting. So here's a few pieces of advice on how you can keep fighting in check. That's not been the concern of this letter. What concerns him is what is motivating you and what isn't. Is it an attitude of belief or unbelief? And are you making a claim to faith that is true and genuine such that it is changing your life, or are you claiming, is it an empty claim and there is no change? So there's a great attractive temptation to be in charge, to be the one up front, to be in leadership, to run after all the positions that are in the limelight because they make us look good. And I think ultimately he's saying, those of you who want those positions, what's the bottom line for you? What are you hoping to gain? What makes you pursue this job? Is it selfish ambition and jealousy, or is it a love of God's word and the gospel? Okay, that brings us into chapter four, then where he really starts, he his language starts heating up. You probably noticed. We get some of the strongest language in the book here. So let's start with one through three. What causes quarrels and fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? You desire and you do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. So I think this is the kind of lifestyle he's been warning about throughout the letter. He sees these ambitious leaders who want to teach for the wrong reasons, and he's saying, What's the cause of all this strife among you? Is it not your own desires? You're desiring the things you shouldn't. It's your passions, it's your your selfishness that you're pursuing. This is the kind of thing you see you should be fleeing from. So he sees this lack of peace, the quarreling, the fighting in the churches, and he connects that with selfish desires. So he says, we are wanting what we want for ourselves and not trusting God. Now, desires are not a bad thing in and of themselves. God made us creatures with desires and longings. We all look for fulfillment, we all have needs, we want to be loved, we want to find some measure of significance, we want to do something important. That's he's not saying all those kinds of longings are wrong. The desires are not necessarily a product of sin, they're a product of being human. We are made in such a way that we are not complete in and of ourselves. We need companionship and fellowship. We need to matter to people. So desire alone isn't a bad thing. We don't have to be guilty if we want to do something significant. The problem is, of course, we're sinful, so we have sinful desires, and our desires are corrupted. They're spoiled by sin. But the question is, how do you handle them? Do you listen to what God says about them or not? So I have this desire. Is it a good thing or is it a bad thing? Is it biblical or is it selfish? I'm not supposed to just follow it willy-nilly, I'm supposed to evaluate it in light of what I know to be true. So I may want whatever leadership, position, limelight, fame, glory, whatever. But I know I'm called to love God with all my heart and my neighbor as myself, and that puts my desire in perspective. Because love of God and loving my neighbor gives me a way to rank. My desire and say, you know, robbing and stealing is probably not going to fit with that because the person I'm stealing from is just as much in the image of God. So I I put my desires in their place, if you will. I evaluate them in light of what God says is true. So God's given us this moral compass, and we are to use it to evaluate our desires. And if we take our place under God and next to our neighbor, then it influences how we act on our desires. It makes me evaluate them in light of what God says is true. And I think that's why James is bringing up desires at this point, because they play a key role in the life of faith. That's we all struggle to master our sinful desires and to do what is right. We all struggle with Paul, you know, the Romans 7 dilemma of the things that I want to do, I'm not doing, and the things I don't want to do are the things I'm doing. And how do I get free from that? He says, who will save me from this body of death? Well, of course, thanks be to God, because he's given us Jesus. So to the extent that God has given us wisdom and maturity, we're going to have greater success in that struggle. But this side of heaven, the struggle is going to continue. But our desires and the gospel force us to ask those really big questions of what do I really want? What do I really think is true? What do I think is ultimately valuable? Where's my fulfillment going to be found? Do I need to fulfill this desire myself in this way or that way? Or what's important to me? Do I want to seek power and fame in this world or forgiveness and eternal life in the next? So we have to evaluate them. And God's not against our desires, he's ultimately going to fulfill them. I think that's behind what he says here. You do not have because you do not ask. I think he's echoing the words of Jesus here, ask and it shall be given, knock it, and the door will open. And he's talking about wisdom and faith. You do not have wisdom and faith because you do not ask. I don't think it's a promise of ask for anything you want and you'll get it if you just ask the right way. God hasn't promised to give us anything he wants, but he has promised to fulfill our greatest need. He has promised to solve the problem of our sin. He has promised to take us from being fools to being wise, mature believers. And you can ask for that with confidence and know you will get it. And if you don't have that kind of wisdom in maturity, he's saying you don't have it because you haven't asked for it. You're looking for other things. You're looking for the fulfillment of your desires elsewhere. So that's the promise that he's offering to solve. So the question then is have we truly recognized that, what our greatest need is? The gospel promises to solve the problem of our sin and to bring us the fulfillment we long for: freedom from sin, eternal life, righteousness, forgiveness, and Jesus died on the cross so that God would forgive us those things. And he's not saying you don't have everything you think you want because you haven't asked properly. He's saying if you don't have the fulfillment of that, of your sin, of the wisdom, of being a fool, it's because you have not asked. So God is in the business of giving life, but to only to those who want it, who ask for it. So it is right to turn to God with our desires, to tell him we're needy, to tell him we're unfulfilled, to tell him we long for something that we don't know how to find or fix. And God, and James is saying, God will answer that prayer, but he will answer what we truly need. So in addition to believing that Jesus died for my sins, I need to believe that the life he is offering is really the life I want. That the life he is offering us is where life is to be found. So the world says, I'll fulfill you one way, I'll fulfill all your desires another way. There's power to be had now, there's authority, there's leadership, there's limelight, there's control or wealth or fame. And the world says, seek those things, and that's how you'll be filled. And the gospel says, No, that stuff's not going to fulfill you. The promises of the world are just a shabby imitation of what's going to fulfill you. True life is to be found by trusting in the blood of Jesus, and that's the life I have to want. So saying I believe the gospel means I have to make those choices. I must choose how to respond to my desires. Do I submit them to the Lordship of Christ and the and in prayer to God, or do I seek to promote myself, find my own fulfillment, or do things my way? So, and that's the fundamental conflict, I think, of this letter that James is writing about. He's saying, What is ultimately motivating you? And he's not happy with what he sees. Look at 4 through 6. This is where he really calls all the now, doesn't pull any uh punches here. He says, 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, 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, but He gives more grace? Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. So he starts out really, you know, buttering them up. You adulterous people. Okay. So the idea of spiritual adultery is one is from the Old Testament. God frequently portrays, say I can't seem to get the words out today. God frequently portrays himself as a husband and his people as his unfaithful bride who are seeking other gods and therefore committing spiritual adultery. And spiritual adultery is the opposite of faith. So it's not just sin, it is unbelief. It is an act of rebellion. In chasing other gods, Israel is not just showing themselves to be sinners, they are showing themselves to be rebels, rebels against God. And that's why it's such strong language. And that's what he's warning about. He's saying, yes, we're going to find sin in every group of Christians, no matter how mature or immature, but there is a kind of strife and discord and power struggles that is a result of spiritual language. And he gives some of the strongest language in the book. He says it's black or white. You want God to be your friend, or you want the world to be friend? You want to be follow what God says is true, or you follow what the word uh says is or the world says is true. You can't have it both ways. You can't play both sides of the fence. You can't follow God half the week and follow the world the other half. You've got to choose. He is a jealous God. He says, You've you've humble yourself before me and trust me or not. So he presents this inevitable choice. You either want God to be your friend or the world. And so why does he use the term world? I think it comes from the idea that we have a worldview. We have a basic understanding of how things work and what's going on in life. So the world says, here's what's true, here's what's right, here's what's valuable, it's fame, fortune, money, whatever else the world likes to say, and God says, no, that's not what's truly valuable. That's not what's truly right. And he has a different worldview. And so James is saying, you pick one or the other, but you can't straddle the straddle the choice or straddle the fence. So if there are two people in a lifeboat and you only have enough food for one, you have some choices to make. You can chair, you can throw yourself overboard, or you can throw the other guy overboard. Depends on your worldview. And if you think that all I've got is the lifeboat, this is it. What's in the boat, what I've got in the boat, this is all I've got, then you're gonna choose one thing or another. But if you think there's something bigger than the lifeboat, there's a shore out there and it's five minutes away, then you're gonna act differently. And then it becomes foolish to throw the other guy overboard. It becomes foolish not to share. And I think to be worldly is to say, this is all there is. All I've got's the lifeboat. All I've got is here and now, this world, there's no other hope. And James is saying, that's your choice. You can trust this world, you can trust the things in it, you can count on that, or you can take the other perspective that says there is more to life than this lifeboat. There is more than the here and now. There really is a shore, and it is really five minutes away, and I can trust in that, and I can rest assured in that. So I look at all the good gifts of the world, and I can value them, but I value them differently because I see that they I can hold them loosely. I don't have to worship them, I don't have to lust after them, I can hold them lightly because I know something else is bigger is going on. My hope, my destiny lies outside this world. The shore is really five minutes away, and I don't have to depend on what's in the lifeboat. So I can be grateful for whatever God has given me in this life and enjoy it as a good gift from Him. That's not being worldly. I don't think He means, you know, worldly is liking movies or the things of this world. Being worldly is counting on them, trusting in them, thinking this is all there is. And ultimately the gospel makes me choose who's my friend, who is looking out for me? Is God looking out for me, or is it how much money I have, how much power, toys, influence? What am I counting on? Who do I want to be my friend? Because God is a jealous God and He can't you can't have it both ways. So he's again, I think it throughout this letter he's been raising the question: what do you believe? What are you counting on? What do you think is truly valuable? Do you really understand what your real problem is? Because the gospel has an answer. The gospel says there is a real problem. It's not a question of being a sinner, that's a settled question. We've already, that would the juries come back on that when we're all sinful. The question is, what are you going to do about it now? How are you going to live? And James is not saying if you find sin in your life, then you better worry. He's saying, what governs you? When all is said and done, who are you counting on to save you? Where is your hope? What are you seeking for to find? Where are you seeking to find fulfillment? So if I believe the gospel, I live like the person in the lifeboat who says land is five minutes away. There is an answer. I can rest easy. I can live with starvation. I can give up my rights. I can be humble and gracious and put others first because I know where my hope lies. And James ultimately says, why is there so much strife and discord among you? Because you're you're trusting in the lifeboat. You're looking at the things of this world and saying, This is all I've got. And so you're fighting over them because you're not looking beyond to see where hope is to be found. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you do save us. And that left to ourselves, we would be lost. But you didn't leave us there. You did for us what we could not even imagine doing. Uh you sent your son to die in our place to solve the problem of our sin and to make us people who are no longer fools, but learn to in wisdom and faith and humility to trust you. And I know we all struggle with this every day of what do we value truly and where are we counting on. And I just pray that you would take this truth and write it deep in our hearts so that it changes us from the inside out and take anything that was confusing or untrue and blow it away in the wind. In Jesus' name, amen. Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us at Wednesday in the Word with Krisan Marotta. We hope you have enjoyed our study together and grown closer to the Lord. Please let us know if you have any questions about this study. We are on the internet at wednesdayintheword.com where you will find this and other Bible studies. We hope you'll join us again soon.