James 4:4–10 4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Ships do not sink because of the water around them; ships sink because of the water that gets in them. 

I. Where You’re Meant to Be In the Water 


What is “the World”?

John 17:15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 

II. Are We Taking On Water?

Same water that carries a ship will sink it — only difference is which side of hull it’s on.

James 1:27 — Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

2 Peter 1:4–5 — the “corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire,” 

The Three Leaks — Where the Water Comes In

1 John 2:15 — Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.  

Key: What we LOVE.

  1. Adultery –  James 4:4 “You adulterous people.”
  2. Enmity – James 4.4b don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? 
  3. Enemy of God - James 4.4b “anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”  
  4. Sin - James 4:8 “Wash your hands, you sinners.”
  5. Double-minded - James 4:8 “Purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
  6. A Choice – James 4:4 “Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world…”

“Put your finger on any prosperous page in the church’s history and I will find a little marginal note reading: In this age men could readily see where the church began and the world ended. Never were there good times when the church and the world were joined in marriage with one another. The more the church is distinct from the world in her acts and in her maxims, the more true is her testimony for Christ, and the more potent is her witness against sin. Worldliness is growing over the church; she is mossed over by it.”


III. Seal the Leaks 

James 4:5–6 — Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace.

Titus 2:11 — For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. 

James 4:6-7 — “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

James 4:8-10 — Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.  v.10 — Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.   

Ships do not sink because of the water around them; ships sink because of the water that gets in them.