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Introduction Games - lots of fun - can be competitive. Some of my favorite games from childhood: Chutes & Ladders, Careers. Some of my least favorite: Trouble, Dodge ball What's great about them is: o Low risk o Not serious - just a game o Start - End o Feel good o Potentially be on top o Not real life The trouble is - sometimes we play games with life - especially church life. We treat Christianity like a game - we don't put ourselves at risk, we come to church and play Christian, but then go home when the "game" is over and we return to whoever we were before. We can put people down with our "spirituality", and we don't treat it as if it is real life - just "church life". James comes at us to toss our game board off the table and throw the game pieces to the four winds. He hits us square in the eyes that Christianity is no game - and we better start treating it with far more seriousness than we do -not just on Sunday, but every day. The richness of humility (verses 9 - 12) One overriding theme in the book of James is: pride=bad, humbleness=good. We start out in VERSE 9 - 11 with a dichotomy. We would not consider the person in humble circumstances to be in a "high" position. Nor would we consider that a person who is rich is in a "low" position. But God has this habit of turning our perceptions and values on their ear - because, bottom line, its not about the external circumstances that surround us that concerns God, but the internal attitudes of our hearts. The reason for this is that all of us - rich and poor alike - will have to undergo trials. And trials are God's ways of burning away the externals to get at what really makes us tick - to the place where the true nature of our hearts is revealed. And He does this not to punish or put us down - but so that we will know our need for Him - and that we will rely on him more than ever before. You see - VERSE 12 we see that true riches - the crown - comes not from earning money but from undergoing trials. We need a focus shift - and James is set to provide plenty of that focus shifting for us. Another focus shift comes in the next VERSES 13 - 15. The True Source of Temptation (verses 13 - 18) When something bad happens what is our first inclination? Blame someone or something else. (Adam, Eve, Serpent) But God here is saying - don't look to me or anywhere else - temptation and sin come from within you. You see Satan can't hold a gun to your head - the inclination to sin is already there - Satan just provides an easy avenue for its fulfillment. Here we aren't talking "temptation" in the sense of a trial or testing - here it's a word that means: lust, selfish ambition, or evil desire. When trouble or temptation strikes, what matters is how you respond to it. If we nurture that evil desire that exists in all of us - it will lead us to sin, which leads to death - not necessarily physical death - but spiritual putrification. "full grown" means complete - and is the opposite of the believer who becomes "mature" by faith in trials. Verses 16 - 18 Heavenly Light, shifting shadows, and first fruits The point of these three verses is this: 1. God doesn't bring temptation - He only brings gifts that are: good and perfect. You can trust Him! 2. God doesn't change - you can always count on what you get from God - only good. 3. God is creating us in His image - we too should be becoming good and perfect - not one minute spiritual and the next carnal. So to sum up the chapter so far: In this life you have two options when trouble strikes: option one is to go with the natural evil impulse in us all and let trials drive you farther from God. The other option is to let God discipline and mold you, bringing good gifts into your life through trials - relying on Him, not yourself, to bring you through in His time. Take in God - Give Up the World (verses 19-27) James continues his theme of God first, me second in the next section. 19 - 21 o Don't take the first impulse - listen twice as much as you speak o Our anger doesn't accomplish God's will, or bring about this transformation from death to life that He is busy accomplishing in our lives - so watch out for anger - make sure it's a righteous anger about sin, not a selfish anger about pride. o Verse 21 sums up the entire life of a Christian - recognize and brush off the filth of the world - and at the same time focus on and take in the Word that God has planted in our lives - and do it humbly - there is a God and you aren't Him. James goes on to explain just how it is that we should open ourselves up to the Word in verses 22 - 25 Listening to the Word I listen to the radio when I'm driving - when I used to drive to Portland a lot I would pay attention to the traffic reports - but so many times I realize that the report has ended and I haven't caught one word of what they said. That's because you really have to listen carefully to what they are saying to get anything out of it. For Christians the Word can be just the same - we are so used to hearing it - on the Christian radio station, in church, on our nightstand, on tape, on little posters we put up in our homes - that we become numb to it - its just so much background noise like the radio playing in the car. There is a big danger in that - James here says we are not just to be "hearers" - and that Greek word is an intense form of "to hear" - so you can't just really listen hard to it - you must act on what you hear. James uses the interesting picture of the mirror: you can just stand in front of a mirror, look at yourself, walk away, and not really remember what you saw. In fact, some people see a reflection of themselves that is not accurate because they just glance in the mirror. It's the same with the Word - if we just glance over it, look to the surface, take verses out of context - we can actually see what we want to see, rather than what's really there. But in contrast if you "bend or peer over" you can really see the blemishes and imperfections in the reflection. That's the idea of "looking intently" Practically Speaking How does that work practically? o Look expectantly o Look for yourself and your life reflected in what you read o Look for God pointing things out in your life o Look for some specific that you can do in response to what you see o You must act on the traffic report - or it does you no good. 2 Other points here: "freedom" and "blessed" You might argue that "doing" the Word is restrictive, legal - What James is talking about is freedom from our flesh and evil desires - and freedom to act as God's agents. Blessed - the more you let God's character take you over, the more you will do what God wants and He will give you what you ask and do for you what you desire. Moving to the Practical How do we apply this "peering" into the mirror? James goes right into the practical - if you want to stop playing the Christian game but want to be truly "religious" then here are three things to consider: 1 - SELF - Self Control 2 - OTHERS - Outward Focus 3 - THE WORLD - Worldly Avoidance |
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