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Oct 28, 2018

God Gives Grace to the Humble

God Gives Grace to the Humble

Passage: James 4:1-12

Speaker: Josiah Bancroft

Series: Everyday Faith: A study in the book of James

We live with conflicting passions and kingdoms. A continual war inside. The gospel calls us to daily look to the beauty of Jesus and to yearn for the beauty we are being transformed into through the work of the Spirit.

Order of Worship

Pre-Service Text: 1 Peter 2:9-10
Call To Worship: Psalm 99:1-5
Old Testament Reading: Deuteronomy 6:4-15
New Testament Reading: Matthew 18:15-20
Sermon Title: God Gives Grace to the Humble
Central Text: James 4:1-12
Benediction: Numbers 6:24-26
Post-Service Text: James 4:10

Send us your questions for this week's Live Q&A with Patrick and guest speaker, Josiah Bancroft, Senior Director of Mission at Serge! Then join us on Wednesday at Noon on YouTube for the Live session!

Readings & Scripture

Pre-Service Text: 1 Peter 2:9-10
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Call To Worship: Psalm 99:1-5
LEADER: The LORD reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake! The LORD is great in Zion; He is exalted over all the peoples.
ALL: Let them praise Your great and awesome name! Holy is He!
LEADER: The King in His might loves justice. You have established equity; You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
ALL: Exalt the LORD our God; worship at His footstool! Holy is He!

Old Testament Reading: Deuteronomy 6:4-15
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

New Testament Reading: Matthew 18:15-20
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Central Text: James 4:1-12
James 4:1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and 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. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 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. 5 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”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

James 4:11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? 

Benediction: Numbers 6:24-26
24 The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Post-Service Text: James 4:10
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Related Scripture

 

  • Jonah 2:8-9
  • 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
  • Proverbs 14:12
  • John 1:4-5
  • 1 Peter 1:13-15

Discussion Questions & Applications:

  1. James speaks of different passions at work in us which cause strife as we seek to be a "friend of the world."
    • List passions found within our earthly kingdoms.
    • List passions found within the heavenly kingdom.
    • List some of the commonalities found in both.
    • List some of the clear differences.
  2. What role does pride and self glory play in destructive passions?
  3. What sort of wholeness does corruption attack?
  4. What would a spiritually sound person be like?
  5. Give some examples from media & culture where we are drawn to certain types of beauty (healthy and destructive) and look to emulate those traits in our own lives?
  6. In what practical ways, does trusting a new identity in Christ lead to extending humility and love to others?  
    1. In what ways does pride & self glory destroy community?
    2. How might the gospel free us better community and collaboration?
  7. List various ways that James (and Proverbs) is calling us to believe the gospel and in response yearn to be continually transformed into more beautiful humans (in the image of Christ)?
    1. How might that beauty be contagious and naturally lead to equipping others?

Quotes:

  • "Unless you believe the gospel, everything you do will be driven by either pride or fear." – Timothy J. Keller
  • “If our minds are not being daily renewed by the truths of the gospel, we will not be able to discern and walk in the will of God” - Jeff Vanderstelt
  • "Though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him." - C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

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