November 17: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: James 4:13-5:6
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
The Crown of Life: Meditations on the Book of James
God Will Set Things Right
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
What areas of your life is it easy for you to be a control freak?
James is New Testament Wisdom literature.
It is direct. At times, it feels abrupt. It is meant to lead to practical action.
This is our 8th week moving through this relatively short letter. And we have been saying that James is like New Testament wisdom literature.
This letter is a cousin to the Proverbs or parts of the Psalms, and Ecclesiastes.
It is trying to grapple with how people who have trusted in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection should live.
In this text James is pressing in on something that he has been addressing at several points in the letter and here as well.
Watch out, you are in very perilous place when you start trying to play God. When you see all the gifts of your life as something you have just gotten for yourself, or you imagine that because your ability and resources you can steer you life wherever you want it to go.
He says “Now, Listen” and here is some of what I think he is saying to us.
Fire yourself from the role of God
Take on fully the role of image-bearing human being
There are inescapable time limits for injustice
We have to fire ourselves from trying to do God’s job in the world - this is humility that needs to show up in how we pray and how we plan
But there are still certain things we absolutely can do. We shouldn’t imagine that because we aren’t God, there aren’t meaningful choices we need to make and actions we need to take. - this is humility of doing what we can with what we have
And then look where we are going to give an account for our lives. James keeps reminding us of this. Even the moist ingrained and established injustice has a time limit. God will set thing right. This is the humility to acknowledge that and look towards that day with our lives.
Fire yourself from the role of God
“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.”
– James 4: 13-17
Is God against you making plans? Is God against your vision board? Is God against a sound strategy?
Of course not. There are plenty of other places in the Proverbs and in Jesus’ teaching that show the wisdom and fruitfulness of planning ahead.
The trouble here is that God is an afterthought if anything
James is not against praying and planning. He is saying the essence of friendship with the system of this world, the essence of sin, the essence of us living with the illusion of control like we are God
“Don’t you realize what your life is like? Think of the mist you see out of the window on an autumn morning. It hangs there in the valley, above the little stream. It is beautiful, evocative, mysterious; yes, just like a human being can be. Then the sun comes up a bit further, and … the mist simply disappears. That’s what your life is like. You have no idea what today will bring, let alone tomorrow... Learn to take each day as a gift from God, and to do such planning as is necessary in the light of that.”
– N.T. Wright
Take on fully the role of image-bearing human beings
At the end of this paragraph James almost seems to change directions. He says …
“If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. “
– James 4: 17
A prayer:
God, I don’t want to make plans without you, but I also don’t want to skip this wonderful adventure of life you have called me to.I want to walk in the humility of Jesus and the authority of Jesus. The Lion and the Lamb.
Amen.
There are inescapable time limits for injustice (or money sometimes tells a great lie)
“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. u 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.”
– James 5: 1-6
Parents:
Ask your kids where they recognize current injustice.
Help them understand that God has a limit on the timeline of injustice.
Pray together for the people they recognize as victims of injustice.
November 17: God Will Set Things Right
November 10: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: James 4: 1-12
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive,because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
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. 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. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.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. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
The Crown of Life: Meditations on the Book of James
Humble Yourself Before God
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
How do you think pride is defined in our culture?
What does it look like in the world you engage with?
James is New Testament Wisdom literature.
It is direct. At times, it feels abrupt. It is meant to lead to practical action.
James knows it's hard to be a person.
And maybe for you this week, in particular, it has felt hard to be a person.
If you were thrilled with the election results, I want you to know that you are fully welcome at this church. We celebrate your presence.
If you were devastated by the election results I want you to know you are fully welcomed at this church. We celebrate your presence.
If you’re somewhere in between those two: apathetic, numb, resigned, relieved, looking for explanations, whatever. You are fully welcome here. We celebrate your presence.
We really believe you are made in God's image no matter what.
If you are a follower of Jesus, you have been given the Holy Spirit. Each one of you carries the potential to show us more of God than what we have known before.
James knows it’s hard to be a peacemaker who walks in God's wisdom and controls their speech, puts action to their trust and love and endures challenging times with a vision for what patience and perseverance offers a vision of wholeness
He shows us that he knows being a person is hard. That’s what verse 4 starts with….
When desires that are false advertisers get rooted in our hearts, they then get expressed in our lives, choices, and relationships. They tear at the fabric of our love and connections.
James is saying Pride will kill you and keep you alone and make you think it had to be that way.
James is saying – you're tearing each other apart because some desires that are totally disconnected from God are running rampant in your souls. They cannot actually bring you real satisfaction, but for the sake of them you are breaking apart your lives and loves.
James is saying We have to be so careful because we can want to play the role of God in our lives, sometimes in the world, so much. But it always does damage. There is only one who is loving, wise, and sacrificial enough to be God.
Recognize the source of your conflict and its damage to our soul
Your desires are like road signs and even if they are lying to you, they show a type of journey you are on.
They show your allegiance, your friendship, your love.
As James K. A. Smith restated for us across the ages.. “You are what you love”
A desire points to an allegiance, and friendship.
And what is that allegiance? What is that ethos of life in opposition to or disregarding God?
It’s pride.
You see one of the big western myths is that of autonomous self determination. You are who you decide you be.
As if it’s that simple and your self-expression as you see it is the paramount thing to you being fully alive and joyful.
But most older cultures and even most of our social scientists know that your immediate community shares who you are and what you want tremendously.
Your childhood attachments, your friendships, your community now. Shape you deeply.
You are way more than just what you decide to be.
And James says God opposes the proud.
It’s another way of saying God cannot cooperate with you trying to take His job.
6 Markers of Spiritual Pride - Keller summarizing a Christian Author from the middle of 1800s
Pride makes you more aware of others’ faults than you are aware of your own. But humility causes you to be far more aware of your own faults. - "if you spot it you go it"
Pride leads you when you speak of others’ faults to have an air of contempt and disdain, but humility leads you to speak of others faults with some understanding, grief, and mercy
Pride leads you to quickly separate from those you have criticized or have criticized you, but humility means you stick with people even through difficult relationships
Pride makes you dogmatic and sure about every point of belief. Proud people cannot distinguish between minor and major points of belief because everything is major.
A Proud person either loves to confront to be proven right or they refuse to confront out of apathy or fear, but a humble person will gently confront when necessary
A Proud person is often unhappy and sorry for themselves. They are filled with self-pity.
When can we start to get a picture of the life of Biblical humility.
C.S. Lewis - “Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less.”
Entering the bliss of self-forgetfulness out of our worrying self-obsession
Humble yourself
“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you.
– James 4: 6-8
One of the scariest and most difficult parts of being a person is realizing that your character formation up to this point in your life has not left you with enough maturity to make it through this season of life.
Trust God will be near and God will lift you up.
Corrie Ten Boom said “When a train goes through a dark tunnel, you don’t tear up your ticket and jump off; you sit still and trust the driver.”
More like Corrie Eleven Boom there.
Parents:
How can you talk to your children about what pride is?
What does it mean to be a peacemaker?
November 10: Humble Yourself Before God
November 3: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: James 3: 1-18
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving,considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
The Crown of Life: Meditations on the Book of James
Speaking Peace
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
Think of words that someone spoke over you that have stuck with you for years. (positive or negative)
Share this with your group.
James is New Testament wisdom literature.
It is direct. At times, it feels abrupt. It is meant to lead to practical action.
James is giving us something of a litmus test for living the Jesus way
He provides this like a thesis early on and then expands on each one. Living in the way of Jesus must impact…
How you speak
How you treat the poor and the vulnerable
How you adopt or resist the systems of this world.
In this text, he is showing us ….
Words have tremendous power
Words reveal our hearts and shape our lives
What to do when words have torn us apart
Words have tremendous power
Our words have the power to create reality.
There’s a quote from Mark Twain in one of the english classes here in this school that says “the difference between the right word and the wrong word is difference between Lightening and Lightening Bug.”
Our words have the power to describe reality
Words reveal our hearts and shape our lives
Jesus said out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
James says if we could somehow control our speech, we could control our entire lives.
So, we need self-control or do we need a change of heart?
The answer is Yes.
Our words reveal what is going on in our hearts.
When you use words to harm it almost always lives past that moment.
Many of us have deep wounds from how words have been used in our lives. Our use and others.
What to do when words have torn us apart
Listen to how serious this is…
“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”
– James 3: 13-18
James has already told us that if we lack wisdom, we should ask God and God will give it freely to us.
So that is where we begin. If we find ourselves participating in damaging speech, we ask God for help and we expect God’s help!!!
Ask God for a change of heart
Pay attention to what shows up in your words
Consistent negativity or do you see encouragement?
Do you catch cynicism or is hope spring out?
Do those around expect words of anger or words of peace?
Do you use sarcasm to protect you from vulnerability?
Do you vilify and run down those who you disagree with?
Do you work to recognize where someone else may be coming from?
Pay attention to what shows up in your words
And then…with God’s help….
Use your words to sow seeds of Peace (Shalom)
Consider how GOD MAY HAVE EQUIPPED YOU TO BE A PEACEMAKER.
Pay attention to what shows up in your words.
Ask God for help and a change of heart
Sow seeds of peace.
Parents:
How do you talk to your kids about the power of their words?
Consider the affirmation your children need and make some plans to speak life and peace over them.
Ask your children how they can use their words at school to be peacemakers rather than bring harm.
November 3: Speaking Peace
October 27: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: James 2: 14-26
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
The Crown of Life: Meditations on the Book of James
Faith Without Deeds is Dead
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
Think of a person you might know who is clearly living very practically what they believe
Is it possible that you can see what everyone believes by their actions?
James is trying to write in a way that gets our attention.
He says faith without works is dead.
Paul said:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
– Ephesians 2: 8-9
Is James saying something utterly different here?
James stayed in Jerusalem. He was talking to a specific group of believers who were at risk of their faith becoming only tradition, only a belief system.
James is writing to combat any assumption that may have grown up that faith in Jesus was just about arranging thoughts about God in your head.
He is writing to make sure that his readers knew there was no place in Judaism or Christianity that simply involved an inner state with no outward expression.
James knew what Paul wrote to the Galatians…
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5: 6
Phillip Maliagnon, the apprentice of the monk Martin Luther, said centuries later
“We are saved by faith alone but not by faith that remains alone”
NT Wright commenting on this passage said…
“It won’t do simply to tick the box saying ‘I believe in one God’ and hope that will do. It won’t. Without a radical change of life, that ‘faith’ is worthless, and will not rescue someone from sin and death.”
– NT Wright
The Gospel invites us to active friendship with God
Active friendship with God matures through obedience
Friendship with God means God’s concerns become our concerns
James gives three examples in this short section to make his point…
How we treat the poor
How we are when God asks us something that seems impossible
How we are in God asks us to act on our faith when its dangerous
When the Gospel unites us to Jesus, we cannot ignore the poor or escape with just sentimentality.
Abraham’s faith led to a life of action that built a friendship with God.
Rahab took action that was a huge risk.
You cannot do enough to make yourself Holy like God is Holy, that would be a serious diminishment of God’s Holiness, but you can be brought in. Adopted in God’s family on the accomplishments of Jesus, His life, death, and resurrection.
But then you learn to live out your adoption. You learn to live the Way of Jesus.
Jesus promised His power - all authority in heaven and earth
And His presence - surely I am with you to the end of the age
If you say you trust Jesus but you don’t take the actions Jesus calls you to, it shows that you don’t really trust Jesus.
If you say I trust Jesus with my eternal soul, but not my Tuesday, something has gone wrong.
“ The Gospel is utterly free and it will cost you everything.”
Actions give definition to our faith, but we aren't defined by our worst moments or worst mistakes. Thank God.
What shape does unbelief take in your life? What does it look like on a monday morning?
What areas of your life does your belief and behavior divert from one another?
Parents:
Belief is something that needs a practice to become visible
Ask your kids about some of the things they believe.
Ask them what it means to live that belief every day.
October 20: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: James 2: 1-13
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
The Crown of Life: Meditations on the Book of James
Doers of the Word
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
Describe every day situations where favoritism exists in our society.
“Christianity revitalized life in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent urban problems. To cities filled with the homeless and the impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemics, fires, and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing services.”
– Rodney Stark
The growth of the early church is arguably the most remarkable sociological movement in history.
The prayer meeting before Pentecost 120 or so Christians
In AD 40: Approximately 1000 - 4000 Christians in the Roman Empire
By AD 350: 53% of the population had converted to the Christians faith
Believe in God or not, this is a staggering sweep of momentum…
How on earth could a Jewish political rebel, crucified on a Roman cross, become the Savior of the Empire that killed him
Something changed about the way they did life. This wasn’t a mass media movement, this was a grass roots community emergence.
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
– 2 Corinthians 5: 14-21
Our old way of evaluating each other is gone, has been replaced with a new way of love.
We are agents of God’s welcome, ministers of reconciliation, God became nothing to make us everything, so we are ending our small parades of self-righteous pride, to join the march of God’s healing love offered to anyone who wants it.
James knows we cannot sink back in to the old world’s way of just looking out for people who are like us or only having energy and time for those who can obviously improve our status.
James knows whatever ideas we have about God in our head, the people we text back, and the people we invite over, and culture of our welcome says what we actually believe.
In fact, this ethic of compassion finds its origins as we know it in the Christian movement. We take for granted in some sense what the early church spent their lives for.
Our culture’s view on equality has largely been shaped by the Christian view. It was not always this way.
If God has made you family, extend the welcome to all.
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
– James 2: 1-4
The Kingdom of God is often upside down - especially regarding human appearances and status
Often being aware of our need is easier for the poor
At times the wealthy have many more levels of self-sufficiency to work through and let go
We all need mercy and we all pass on what we have received
Our actions (how we treat other people) should communicate the Gospel, not just our words.
“Mercy triumphs over judgement”
Do we have a culture of the Kingdom of God?
The kingdom He promised those who love him?
an outpost of the Kingdom of God
Extending the rich welcome - do you practice this personally?
The first are last - where in your life is this really difficult to live by?
Mercy is our lifeblood - Where do you lack mercy?
What does this do in your heart?
Where has your heart been bribed by status?
Where do you need mercy?
Where do you need to give mercy?
Parents:
How does favoritism take shape in your childrens lives? Where are they faced with temptation to show favoritism?
How can you talk about it with them around the dinner table?
October 27: Faith Without Deeds is Dead
October 13: Doers of the Word
October 13: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: James 1: 19-27
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 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.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
The Crown of Life: Meditations on the Book of James
Doers of the Word
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
Describe someone in your life who has been a source of wisdom to you.
“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.”
– James 1: 19-21
The dangers of overconfidence
We can hear and hear and hear and remain unmoved, locked in to what we already think and do what we have always done.
Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry for the anger or people does not produce the righteousness of God.
God’s word is like this slow seed that is planted and grows up into fullness and life and nourishment and blessing.
The most direct equivalent picture is from Psalm 1 about the person who meditates on God’s word day and night….
“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.”
– Psalm 1: 3
Watch out for
Closed Ears, Quick Words, and Anger
Thinking Agreement is the Same Thing As Action
Beware of thinking hearing is the same thing as obedience
For the temptation of Ignoring the Fruit of Our Heart
Malcom Gladwell was warning us in 2009 that a person who talks a lot, doesn’t really listen, and uses anger to get things done may be celebrated as a great leader.
But that will not produce the realities of God’s Kingdom and character and love.
Watch out when you are so full of belief but you cannot really listen to anyone except a select few you are already sure you are in complete agreement with
Watch out when you are a zealous for the bread and the cup but you forget Jesus and drag someone out of line
Watch out when you are prepping a sermon on James and swearing in texts to your wife or blowing up on your kids cause they left the sink full of dishes
Be careful if you know the Scriptures but dont live them. If you can quote chapter and verse but dont look anything like the one who is called THE WORD OF GOD.
Watch out when you’ve got a million words to explain yourself but no compassion for anyone else.
Watch out when you try to bend the word back to you being in control which was never the same anyway.
JAMES HAS SOME PROVERBS LEVEL WISDOM FOR US.
James is saying you will be tempted to move that wrench back control and refuse to wait.
Unwillingness to listen - watch out if you are slow to listen
Words disconnected from soul - watch out if you just vomit words to shape your world or protect yourself or control other
Using anger to control - watch out for what your anger actually produces. It feels so right in the moment, but look at what grows
An unavoidable reality of God’s Kingdom is we mature by obedience.
We really struggle with this as Americans.
But obedience to God is trust that God made life and knows how to make life work.
It’s trust that God wants what is best for us.
That God loves us more than we could possibly fully grasp.
When we hear so much that we dont put into action we deceive ourselves.
WE MISTAKE AGREEMENT FOR ACTION
We look in the mirror and then forget what we look like
James says pay attention to what is growing out our you heart….
“Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 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.”
– James 1: 25-27
What do I do when this is my struggle?
James gives us a clue…
“humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.”
– James 1 v 21
James is pulling from Israel’s prophetic tradition, specifically here drawing from Isaiah 55…
“As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
– Isaiah 55: 10-11
Jesus is the Word of God.
Jesus will accomplish the purpose He was sent for.
Parents:
How do you teach your children the value of wisdom in the sea of information access, which is our current reality?
How can you connect obedience of God to the love God has for you?
Pick one thing from the commands of God that you can DO together as a family(prayer, confession, service, affirmation, etc.)
October 6: The Truth About Temptation and Desire
October 6: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: James 1: 13-18
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all He created.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
The Crown of Life: Meditations on the Book of James
The Truth about Temptation and Desire
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
Do you still notice temptation in your life?
Where did you get tempted this week?
What is your go to response when you are faced with temptation?
Give in
Avoid/Escape
Justify
Other…?
James, from his endurance in the fire of trials and with the help of the Holy Spirit, writes this letter.
“Consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters when you face trials of many kinds…”
He says “hey watch out if you find yourself blaming God” for the difficulty you are going through, that does something to us. Namely, it turns us away from the person who is our comfort and help.”
Now he writes about temptation.
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
– James 1: 13-15
God can always be turned to in a time of temptation because God is not the cause of temptation.
It’s worth mentioning just briefly, this dynamic though, that there is a difference in our life with God between TESTING and TEMPTATION.
TEMPTATION very often works on a desire that really does need to be met in our life and a suggestion of how to meet that desire without God or in conflict with God and God’s way.
Appetites, Approval, Ambition
Consumption, Security, Status
These are archetype temptation areas of the human life.
God will allow us to be tested, sometimes even lead us into testing. But God does not tempt us to sin.
There are times when testing is essential
Before we are given more power and responsibility
When it needs to be determined if you are ready
If God brings you into a time of testing, it almost always because God wants to trust you with more.
One of the more difficult aspects of maturity is learning to deal with the reality that not everything your mind and heart produces is worth trusting and worth acting on
There can be powerful impulses in our life that are deeply deceptive.
Cultures says:
We need to learn to trust what we want.
Now this takes some nuance to parse because of course there can be good instincts, and wisdom, and true longings that grows up within us
BUT ALSO the long testimony of the Scriptures says that desires can come into our consciousness, into our field of consideration, that if we follow them will not lead where they initially seem they will.
We seek the satiation of our appetites, or the satisfaction of our souls, without considering God and God's way.
The image James uses is graphic; there are certain desires that get you pregnant with death.
There are desires that when followed diminish your genuine human life
The desire for revenge, gives birth to violence, which leads to physical loss of life.
The desires to seek comfort over and over again in a harmful numbing or mind altering substance, leads to addiction, which leads to many deaths before then actual physical death.
workaholism, envy, distraction, lust
How these idols work:
In the beginning there is a great promise and small request
Over time the requests get more and more and the shine comes off the promise
The job, the relationship, the alcohol, the grudge, the envy.
Laziness asks more and more of you gives less and less
“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.”
– James 1: 16-18
If it's good in this world, it originated with God
Have you been in a place where you have been following desires that lead away from God?
Parents:
How do you talk to your kids about desires?
Do you help them recognise desires and help them think through how to be patient and find healthy satisfaction?
Can you help your children be aware of temptation?
How can you help them see the prize of delayed gratification?
September 29: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: James 1: 1-12
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:
Greetings.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position.But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
The Crown of Life: Meditations on the Book of James
Joy in Trials
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
If you could change one thing about your instantly, what would you change?
What defines your well-being?
What does our world say about what well-being looks like?
There has to be more than just the circumstances you are currently in to determine your well-being.
One of the other most powerful arguments for the resurrection of Jesus, 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul makes note of this sibling phenomenon…
“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all He appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”
– 1 Corinthians 15: 3-8
There is no gospel without the resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus could not have been just a good moral teacher with some historical influence because his ideas were compelling.
He claimed to be God, to be Israel’s Messiah, and the world’s Redeemer.
If He wasn’t those things, then He was either crazy and delusional, or He knew He was lying, or He was those things.
He is life and He gives life.
And this brings us to the heart of the book of James.
JAMES is New Testament wisdom literature. Like what you might find in Proverbs or Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Whatever your view of the world or your belief system or your philosophy, you need some answers to the questions …
Why is life so challenging? AND
How do we deal with its difficulty and pain?
Is there is a way to live through pain other than just being blown and tossed by it and then despair?
Our world is good at some things. It’s not very good at all in our currently culture for preparing people to go through hardships and pain
James gets right into it. And he shows us that patience doesn’t give all its treasure away on the first day, but that if we can learn to endure in faith
We might
shatter the illusion of sufficiency
deepen our understanding and awareness of God
expands our compassion
we might even know and understand ourselves more
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
– James 1: 2-4
James seems to know that suffering exposes reality and because of that can deepen our understanding of and ability to live in the real world.
Our world had a brokenness and violence in it that runs through to the core. The more you live well doesn’t mean you will live easily with a smooth journey.
At the heart of our faith is a perfect Person suffering deeply, all the way to death for crimes He didn’t commit.
A man dying for his enemies.
James is saying that we need to pay attention to our perspective when life gets hard.
But along the way you may have to realize all the other things you are practically relying in for your well-being,
You may need to see that despite what you say about God you have many other functional Saviors.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”
– James 1: 5-8
“Doubt” is translated more accurately as divided loyalty.
Ask for wisdom
God doesn’t just give wisdom to the best people who have earned it.
They ask for help
“Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
– James 1: 9-12
Sometimes suffering exposes things for how they reality are.
Connects us to reality
Suffering shows the character of God beyond my mood and circumstances.
Capacity for endurance
An important word about the why and the where of suffering
Be very gentle and humble with the WHY
Be courageous with the WHERE
The Crown of Life
Suffering and hanging on to God and knowing God is hanging on to you can prepare you to LIVE
And the reward is you get LIFE.
This is a Friendship
We are to run to Christ. Who has suffered. And we are not alone.
We trust in His resurrection!!!
“From the standpoint of Heaven, the most miserable life on earth will just look like one night in a bad hotel”
– Theresa of Avila
“My question – that which at the age of fifty brought me to the verge of suicide – was the simplest of questions, lying in the soul of every man…a question, without an answer to which, one cannot live. It was: “What will come of what I am doing today or tomorrow? What will come of my whole life? Why should I live, why wish for anything, or do anything?” It can also be expressed thus: Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy.”
– Leo Tolstoy
Shatter the illusion of sufficiency
Deepen our understanding and awareness of God
Expand our compassion
We might even know and understand ourselves more
Where do you go to ask for help?
Which circumstances make you question God?
Parents:
What is your first instinct when you see suffering in the lives of your children?
What do your responses teach your kids?
Do your children see some of your suffering?
How do you model suffering and faith response to your children?
