24 January 2010

James 5:7-20

7Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. 8You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. 9Don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

10Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

12Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned.

13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

17Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. 19My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, 20remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

A Fellowship of Concern - Rev. David Bisgrove

8th Sermon in Series - The Gospel in Community - The Book of James

• Essence of Christianity is not what you've done, but on what Jesus has done, yet its still based on how you live your life.
• Patience and prayer are important.
• Impatience happens when we don't get our way
• Patience flow from self-centerness and self absorption run amok
• Keep in mind how patient God is with you and be patient because eventually Jesus will make everything right
• Illness could be a method God uses to make you more spiritual by messing you up physically
• Prayer fosters love---its difficult to hold ill feelings for someone when you are praying for them
• You have to take your own prayers as seriously as God does

17 January 2010

James 4:13-17; 5:1-6

¹³Come now, you who say,"Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— ¹⁴yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ¹⁵Instead you ought to say,"If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." ¹⁶As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

¹Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. ²Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. ³Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. ⁴Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. ⁵You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. ⁶You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

A Community of Justice II - Dr. Keller

7th Sermon in Series : The Gospel in Community - The Book of James

• What is our problem? We boast about our plans and our lives.
• Life Control Illusion - We need to recognize that success or failures in our lives are beyond our control
• Jeremiah 9
• Why is this a problem? Assumes that we know enough about the future to control it which can lead to anxiety and overconfidence
• Acts 2 - Everything is set, but its still our fault for killing Jesus
• Americans have a hard time dealing with tragedies in general because we think we know how things should be
• Life is like a transient puff of air in the cold; receiving the holy spirit means receiving God's breath.
• 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
• Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice of control when he died on the cross because he could have stopped it but took one for the team (us).
• Romans 8:28

10 January 2010

James 3:18, 4:1-12

18Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud

but gives grace to the humble.”

7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

11Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

A Counter Culture of Grace - Dr. Keller - East Side Morning Service

6th Sermon in Series : The Gospel in Community - The Book of James

• We are all products of culture and our surroundings
• Romans 12:9 - stop being fake

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good

• John 17:20-26 - complete oneness

²⁰"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: ²³I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. ²⁴"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.²⁵"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

• Verse 2 - self pleasing---hedonism; cause of selfishness is pride
• Pride makes us more aware of others faults as opposed as to our own
• This leads to contempt
• Pride leads to separation from others
• Pride is overly dogmatic and not nuanced
• A humble person confronts necesarily
• Proud people are full of self pit
• Humility is focusing on yourself less because we are already confident of our worth.
• Humble people don't often care what is said about them because God has taken care of it and given them a sort of confidence
• Romans 15:1

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.