Book of James Chapter 5 - Bible Study | Encounter 2020 Men's Retreat

[Music] all right guys here we are chapter five so chapter five is made up of 20 verses and it's broken down into four sections these are james's final four convictions so as you guys have heard james is just talking to us about the do's and don'ts and we're just hearing that hard so the overall theme throughout this entire book of james is faith in action he's challenging us to show him the evidence if we have evidence of our faith in action so it's about really truly living out what it is that we believe so if we say we profess that jesus is lord and savior in our lives we should be able to walk the talk and and that's what james keeps calling out so he wraps up this letter with just four more things to tell us just four last things is how he wants to finish this out evidence of our faith in action number one how do we treat other people number two how do i behave in tough times number three how do i live by faith and then finally how do i live in community so we're going to go through these four final convictions and he's talking to each one of us in this room so feel him pressing right into your chest now each of these four topics they may seem a little bit disjointed to you but there's a common thread that winds throughout all of them and what is that that's tough times it's times just like right now times of uncertainty when things are just not going as we had planned maybe you had some trips planned this year maybe you had some family get-togethers that you had planned and you're not doing them you're not well things just aren't what we expected they're falling short of our expectations and our expectations were not selfish they weren't wrong just that things are just not working out because these are tough times now this is james's final check as he closes out his letter i invite you to really hear what he has for us he's calling us out he is calling us out individually as men in this last section so before we get into the word let me pray for us guys father god in heaven we just come to you and and we just recognize that you're amazing your word is true the timing of your message is timeless this message that james is speaking has been spoken for a couple thousand years and help us to have fresh ears to hear it we know the message is for us right now we are experiencing tough times god and we just know that you have something for us in this message right now and we ask that you soften our hearts help us have humble hearts and ears to hear and we ask this in your son's holy name jesus amen so we're going to read james's word and i'm going to read it the way i think he should the way he wants us to hear it so here we go this first section how i treat other people look here you rich people weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you your wealth is rotting away and your fine clothes are moth eaten rags your gold and silver are corroded the very wealth that you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire this corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify against you on the day of judgment for listen hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay the cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the lord of heaven's armies you've spent your years on earth and luxury satisfying your every desire you've fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter you have condemned and killed innocent people who do not resist you who's james talking to is he talking to us so i was kind of curious in the united states where we live are we considered rich some people have told us we are but but are we so i took at the took a look at the global wealth data book this is published every year i looked at the public publication of 2019 it's published by credit suisse it's available on the internet they rank all the country's wealth in the world based on the median adult net worth so median not average median and net worth meaning assets minus liabilities so for an individual person within each country what is the median net wealth so people living in developed countries it's pretty obvious people living in developed countries have the greatest wealth in the entire world the swiss are actually the richest in the world the average median wealth in switzerland is 228 thousand dollars per adult in the united states it's 66 000. now if you take the entire population of 7 billion people on the planet and you were to cut it in half and say well what would be the halfway line it's five thousand dollars per person so that's half of the population is above the five thousand and half of the population of the world is below 5000. so what's the poorest country in the world might not surprise you it's haiti haiti is the poorest country in the world with 214 dollars per adult based on the median average wealth so who's james calling out here he's finding he's finding this this message is appropriate for pretty much the whole world it's appropriate for anybody in the whole world and he's calling out people in particular that are finding their worth their security in their wealth so it's about it's a security question where do i find my security so james emphasizes right there in verse 3 the very wealth that you were counting on i was putting all my faith and hope in my wealth now i've been there and it's easy to do you know we all earn money we save some money we give away some money we invest some money for the future we keep some money for a rainy day some of these are good stewardship responsible things to be doing but what james is calling out is when our focus on our wealth is just taken too far when our wealth is just consuming us when the focus begins to consume us to the point that we feel superior to other people when we have more money than they have we've all been there it's how we treat other people when we see that maybe we have nicer clothes nicer car a nicer house it when we compare and that whole comparison trap begins and and we go down that path that becomes a problem that's what james is calling us out on look at verse five he says you have spent your years on earth in luxury satisfying who what oh your every desire so this is where he's pointing that finger right in our chest this is where we're convicted when we start thinking about our money it's only for ourselves so a lot of wealth can have that effect it can bring us that false sense of security and it brings us not just a false sense of security but also can elevate us in a false way to where we feel more powerful we feel more in control of a situation so in all of our actions with other people wealth has a tendency to make us feel superior and judgmental so he's cautioning us now james may have been in jesus audience when jesus said this he said don't judge others and you won't be judged for you will be treated as you treat other people the standard that you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged now now we can slip into these behaviors especially when things start to seem out of control last night ron was talking to us about the slingshot when we're at the very end of being pulled and stretched and we're getting really stretched in it only takes a couple things to go wrong and then when the third thing goes wrong maybe it's just something small it's it's usually the the straw that breaks the camel's back it's that one person that just gets in front of you in line and you're trying to check out and what they just cut in front of me and then that's the thing that causes you to snap you've been there you know what that's like and and so we don't necessarily feel good about the situation and sometimes when you're in a situation like that when you're super stretched it's the littlest things that are going to break you and and if you don't feel good about yourself and when you can't seem to get things back on the right path and you can't elevate yourself out of the muck and the mire the easiest thing to do sometimes is to put someone else down so that i can at least feel a little bit better than them and that's the tendency that james is telling us about we tend to judge other people when we're stretched to our very thinnest i like the way that c.s lewis really sums this up c.s lewis says this he says a proud man is always looking down on things and people and of course as long as you're looking down you can't see something that's above you so pride does come before the fall just like jesus said it's we have to be especially careful to not fall into the traps of this world's rat race let's take a look at the next section that james is talking to us about how do i behave in tough times he says dear brothers and sisters be patient as you wait for the lord's return consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring they eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen now you too must be patient take courage for the coming of the lord is near don't grumble about each other brothers and sisters or you will be judged for look the judge he's standing at the door for examples of patience and suffering dear brothers and sisters look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the lord and we give great honor to those who endure under suffering for instance you know about job a great man of endurance and you can see how the lord was kind to him at the end for the lord is full of tenderness and mercy but most of all my brothers and sisters never take an oath by heaven or earth or anything else just say a simple yes or no so that you will not sin and be condemned so this common thread continues through james's message things just seem out of control and hassan painted that picture for us that this audience has not got things going right things are out of control it's not a perfect world after all so we look forward to when the lord comes or when we see him again when we leave the planet in our death but what are we to do in the meantime while everything is in chaotic mess what are we supposed to be doing in the meantime so in this section james helps us see our present situation he helps us see it from multiple perspectives so what are we going to do when something goes wrong well we understand cause and effect right and we understand we're looking for the root cause how did i get into this jam how did i get into this situation we want to trace it back to either i did something wrong or maybe someone else did something wrong but we definitely want to understand it so it doesn't happen again and maybe we can put some controls in place the next time but there's a process james is pointing to a process when it comes time to times of when it comes to times of suffering james is trying to shift our perspective now we don't live in an agrarian culture we don't you may grow a few things in your garden but we're not relying on that as a really means of our living so but he points to something here with the farmers look at verse seven and eight it's so it's just like growing crops it takes time it takes time that's where patience and endurance will come into play so crops just don't go from seeds to fruit on my plate in a day that just doesn't happen there's a process so when we're talking about a harvest we're we're not actually talking about a harvest we're actually talking about my problems so what about my problems so james brings us back and he says your problems well we want to get through them as quickly as possible when you have a problem you try to unpack how you got there and then you try to solve it as quickly as possible i've got choice a b or c which is my path to get this problem solved so if you're a business owner or you work at a business that's your primary title that's on your business card right problem solver it's just one problem after another you're lying in bed waiting getting ready to go to work and you're shaving or you're showering and you're getting ready to go to work you're thinking about the day's problems because that's what you do you solve problems all day long but god is not interested in problems he's interested more in our character he's not so interested in making our problems just go away he's talking about a process james understood this really well so he wants us to make sure we grasp this that the problems are not necessarily meant to just vanish as quickly as possible but for us to stay in the problem like we're waiting for a harvest what harvest i just want the problem to go away but god's more interested in growing our character than removing our circumstances and we have to see that from god's perspective listen to what paul tells the church in rome about suffering in romans 5 he says more than that we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope so god's more interested in our character becoming more christ-like than our circumstances going away just never forget that endurance character hope that's what our eyes should be on when we're in the trouble sometimes paul continues in romans chapter 8 he says for i consider that the sufferings of this present time they're not even worth comparing with the glory which shall be revealed in us what's he talking about he's talking about that character development that character development of patience endurance trust hope that's going to be amazing and when you compare that outcome to your troublesome times it's not even worth comparing so don't miss that perspective we need to keep our eyes on the long game not in the short game it's a process look at look at verse 10 this is where james reminds us that we're not the first ones to ever suffer and a lot of times when we're suffering when we're in trouble sometimes it's a woe is me situation i'm the only one who's ever been through this and yeah you could tell me about your situation like this but it's not like what i'm going through right now it might be similar but no one has ever dealt with what i'm dealing with but james shifts our perspective again he says hold on there's a few of other people and that have lived before you and it reminds us of job these are heroes in the faith that have suffered and prevailed he points to job and remember the story of job you know satan was his persecutor and he wanted to prove that pain and suffering would certainly cause job to abandon god but you know the story job remained faithful to god he remained faithful to god and he was restored in the end i really like the way that pastor tim keller he summarizes this idea of suffering he says so don't miss this contrast he says this he says in the secular view of suffering is never seen as a meaningful part of life but just an interruption but suffering is unbearable you are not certain that god is for you and with you suffering can be unbearable if you do not believe that god is for you and with you we're in the secular view as hassan was talking about this carnal view this worldly view yeah i see these these interruptions in my life my life is a roller coaster and i don't like the downs i like the highs but but these downs yeah i don't like those and i want to minimize those and those are bad interruptions but from a spiritual perspective james is inviting us to look at it from a fresh perspective these are opportunities these are opportunities for us to continue to grow our spiritual nature and become more and more christ-like all right the third section how do i live by faith are any of you suffering hardships why does he even ask the question we already know you should pray are any of you happy well you should sing praises are any of you sick you should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you anointing you with oil in the name of the lord now such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick and the lord will make you well and if you have committed any sins you will be forgiven confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed now the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results elijah was a human as we are and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall none fell for three and a half years then when he prayed again the skies sent down rain and the earth began to yield crops look at how james starts out this conviction again he's in our face and he says are any of you suffering hardships well fortunately not every single one of us is suffering hardships to the same degree at the same time i think that's by design so so fortunately that's not the situation but everybody in the body of christ has a role to play at any given time look at verse 13 some people should be praying some people should be praising verse 16. some some people should be coming clean and seeking some reconciliation and some people should be lifting other believers up in prayer there's a role to play for every single person what's common with all that there's some talking to god everyone's talking to god the vertical thing is going on the bottom line is that we're talking to god we're either praising him or we're asking him in petition for something but everyone is talking to god all the time in fact if you don't even have a personal prayer request you should be lifting up another believer's prayer request all the time so so every once in a while you might check yourself and that's what james is doing he's inviting us to check ourselves and when was the last time that i was actually talking to god well you know it happened just recently because we were all here but if you go back a few days did i go a couple of days without even talking to god at all what should i have been doing there wasn't something that i needed to ask god for but should i have been lifting up the prayers of another believer that i know of yeah should i have been maybe praising god for something yeah yeah paul writes this to the church in galatia he instructs them he says bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of christ so bear one another's burdens what does that mean let me share a story with you my friend randy uh recently lost a very close friend of his name lee to brain cancer and over the last several months randy and his wife they prayed for lee they prayed for lee that god would do some miraculous healing that his body would be healed and randy shared this story with me and i could hear it in his voice that he was pained the pain in his in his heart for his longtime friend lee just discovered and just was taking him taking its toll on him so tamara and i we joined alongside them i've never even met lee or his wife amy but we joined the body of believers who were praying for lee and god would you relieve him of this pain and heal his body and there were times that i would talk to randy because i worked with him and he'd say yeah lee is showing signs of recovery he's actually talking and he was using the stairway and went down and had a meal with his family and showing signs of recovery he's like that's awesome and then there was times that things went back again and it wasn't showing any signs of recovery and after a few more months continue to fight the battle lee's body finally gave out now after lee's celebration of life i was catching up with randy over the phone and and i was saying man randy what's going on your voice is just still i can see that you're dealing with something he says that now the new burden is just that he feels that his lee's wife amy and their two young daughters he's carrying that burden he's just like i i don't know i just want them to i want them to be able to move on and have peace and rest and all this that they've been through has been so so hard and i could tell that he just wanted that to that relief to come sooner than later and randy was indeed he was bearing the burden of his friend and then the family and and he shared with me that you know randy he's an accountant he's a trained accountant and he says you know i found that there was a need for me he says amy now had to file taxes and do all this stuff that randy that that lee used to be able to do and he was able to help amy with that and be able to get her more money back uh in her tax refund than what she was expecting and and so i said randy that that is so awesome that you were able to play a role in a very practical way to help especially when there's such a huge financial need with all the medical bills and everything and so i just reminded randy that you you are truly bearing the burden of a fellow believer here you jumped in in a way that god had trained your mind financially to help and you you took and did that tax return those you're like just like it was your own and and i said that's exactly what we're called to do we're called to bear one another's burdens if you're truly a follower of christ you're praising god you're talking to them about your own things or you're talking to them about other people's things and you're actually doing life together with other believers that's what james is challenging us here look at verses 16 and 17 he reminds us of how elijah prayed another hero in the bible so in fact he mentions two characters he mentions a characteristic of how elijah prayed and he mentions it twice he said it was an earnest prayer and he also says he prayed earnestly so what does that mean he prayed with great intentionality and sincerity from the deepest part in his heart that i own this i i am all in there's no plan b i am all in and you can't pray like that unless you've got a personal relationship with god elijah had a personal relationship with god and he was one of israel's most famous and dramatic prophets and and if you look at this this recorded in 1st kings chapter 18 listen to what he what happened here so at the usual time for offering the evening sacrifice elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and he prayed is what he said oh lord god of abraham isaac and jacob prove today that you are god in israel and that i am your servant prove that i have done all this at your command oh lord answer me answer me so that these people will know that you o lord are the god and that you have brought them back to yourself it's all about god's glory listen to his prayer are we praying like that with great expectation with absolute confidence absolute intentionality that's why james reminds us of these heroes in the bible like job and elijah he reminds us that we're not alone we're not in this turmoil and this uncertainty by ourselves but we've got great heroes to look to and be reminded of and he prayed that god would be glorified it anywhere did you hear in there that elijah was praying about himself know that his position to god would be correct and that people would understand that martin luther the great reformer he summed up his thoughts on prayer this way he said to be a christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing pretty simple no more possible than to be alive without breathing all right the fourth conviction that james finally leaves us with how do i lead how do i live in community only two verses my dear brothers and sisters if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back you can be sure that whoever brings that sinner that sinner back from wandering will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins now james is he's talking about a believer who's got a casual perspective about their faith they're lukewarm someone who's just not being intentional about prioritizing their faith journey they're allowing other priorities to take over first place in their life they're allowing that to happen they're allowing just careless habits to develop they're not in the regular presence and accountability with the body of believers and just those four things right there is what's going to lead to a lukewarm faith you've got to be plugged in and and now we're doing that in creative ways you might be plugged into a church that's meeting online you're here because you want to be with a band of brothers that are going to hold you accountable and you might need to tell the guys at your table or at least one other man i give you permission to put your finger in my chest anytime because we have to be given permission otherwise it's going to be awkward so give somebody permission before you leave today maybe they're here maybe there's someone on the phone but you don't allow you just don't allow a brother to wander so left to ourselves apart from any community of believers the default is going to happen you're going to move around life without a fixed course that's just the default that's going to happen and you're going to lack purpose you're only going to have the world's filter to run all your decisions through and and you're going to say well is that right is that wrong who gets hurt does someone benefit and you're going to be running all of your decisions through the world's filter not through god's filter not through his word and not through the accountability of a body of believers so now if you're already on the right path and that's not you that's fantastic but you're not off the hook you might say hey i'm good i'm good with all that check the box i'm in the men's group i go to church every sunday i'm doing all these things but you're not off the hook look what james is telling us he's saying there's an action item for you maybe you you're maybe you're on the right path but you still have an action item you do not allow another brother to wander you just don't allow it this is very closely linked to the last conviction you own it i own my path and i own yours too you don't allow satan to distract a brother and you go after him just like jesus taught going after the sheep the one lost sheep he goes after the one and he leaves the other 99 secure he goes after the one that's in danger look at what james says here he says that when you save that person you will save them from death you'll save that person from death and you'll be involved with their reconciliation to god and their forgiveness of many sins you get to have a front row seat into a miracle that's pretty cool what's the best seat on a roller coaster front seat right you want the front seat get involved own your brother's path as well as your own it's recorded in matthew chapter 24 jesus warned us that there's nothing more that satan wants other than to divide and conquer the body of believers there's nothing more that he wants than that so he says right here and many this is jesus's words and many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other and many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people sin will be rampant everywhere and love of many gods will grow cold but the one who endures to the end will be saved it sounds like it's just not going to be easy it's not this life's not easy but you have a role to play pastor david platt he says it this way he says being a member in a church means realizing that we are responsible for helping the brothers and sisters around us to grow as disciples of jesus that we are responsible and in the same way they are responsible for helping us and we desperately need each other in the daily fight to follow christ in a world that is full of sin it's pretty clear right now i'm in a in a community group with uh my wife and four other couples and we're reading one of dietrich bonhoeffer's uh new york times bestsellers um and this this book is called life together and it's a fantastic book about living in community that's what the whole book's about so if you've never read it make sure you read it um you don't have to learn you don't have to learn german to read it it was translated to english so so pick it up it's on amazon but you know the story of dietrich bonhoeffer imprisoned in a nazi death camp eventually martyred but he wrote this book before he got into that prison when he was in a hideout serving in a monastery as a as a leader and and this is what he writes about this christian community this is so good he says but god has put this word into the mouth of men in order that it may be communicated to other men when one person is struck by the word he speaks it to others god has willed that we should seek and find his living word in the witness of a brother in the mouth of a man therefore the christian needs another christian who speaks god's word to him he needs him again and again when he becomes discouraged for by himself he cannot help himself you've been there for by himself he cannot help himself without belaying the truth he needs his brother man as a bearer and a proclaimer of the divine word of salvation he needs his brother solely because of jesus christ the christ in his heart the talking of the guy who's discouraged the christ in his heart is weaker than the christ in the word of his brother his own heart is uncertain but his brothers is true have you been there before oh yeah you have you can't get yourself out of the muck and the mire so we need each other this is what james is landing on he lands right here verse 20 chapter five end of letter we need each other so so did you catch this what dietrich bonhoeffer is speaking here is that we have to speak the gospel to each other i need to hear you speak it to me over and over and over again yeah i got it when i when i gave my life to christ i got it oh yeah but i need to hear it from a brother over and over and over again for the rest of my days on the planet and you do too so make sure that you are living in that community all right so evidence of our faith in action how do i treat other people how do i behave in tough times how do i live by faith and how do i live in community we need to check ourselves these questions are james pointing right here at you and me we need to check ourselves and how have i been behaving lately so we're gonna break to the tables now we have four questions that i really want you guys to dive into question one if you look at your bi-fold think back over this last week did your position of wealth cause you to treat someone else poorly perhaps a cashier wait waiter waitress maybe a driver in traffic what are some ways that you can begin to break this habit because habits can be good habits can be bad this is a bad habit how do you break this bad habit number two james is calling us to build patience and endurance especially in tough times so what fresh perspective did you pick up on as we read through the scripture together then how are you gonna apply that question three in the prayer section of this passage james calls out a conversation with god which includes confession requests praises as well as how we should pray with faith and earnesty so which one of these areas strikes you as an area of improvement today and then finally james describes one of our key responsibilities as believers is to never let a brother leave a brother behind if he's wandered from the faith so share a time where you have held a brother accountable think about that where have you held a brother accountable and share a little story about that so we're going to break to the table for about 20 minutes and then we're going to come back together again and i'm going to wrap this up [Applause] [Music] go [Music] so [Music] all right well i hope you guys were able to share some very practical next steps with one another as we close out james chapter 5 and we look back at these five sections and our five speakers unpacking what james's message was for us there's one thing that really resonates i mean it's it's the do's and don'ts right so we definitely feel convicted we feel called out and that can be a little bit negative right so and and we're just talking about this at our table that if you want to replace something negative or you want to stop doing something negative if you take it out it leaves a void and somehow that negative just creeps back in so you have to replace the negative with something so i'm going to invite you to actually not run from these negative behaviors that we're hearing about with james convicting us so we're not going to run from those but we're going to have better success and a better outcome if we run to something if we run to something so i invite you to run towards something very positive we're going to run to the light right we're going to run to the lights so there's a classic song in the light by dc talk and these are the words of this song i keep trying to find a life on my own apart from you i am the king of excuses and i've got one for every selfish thing that i do what's going on inside of me i despise my own behavior and this only serves to confirm my suspicions that i'm still a man in need of a savior and the chorus goes on i want to be in the light as you are in the light i want to shine like the stars in the heavens and oh lord be my light and be my salvation because all i want is to be in the light all i want is to be in the light let's take a listen to that with the band [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: One Thing for Men

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Keywords: Men's Bible Study Topics, Men's Group Bible Study, Online Bible Study, Spiritual Growth, Video Bible Study, bible study, dc talk in the light, faith in action, james chapter 5, jesus christ, men's small group ideas, small group studies, spiritual maturity, book of james 5 bible study, book of james sermon series, small group bible study ideas, men's retreat, men's ministry, bible study fellowship, men's bible study, live bible study, practical wisdom, bible study for men

Id: 8XhJ0pAYPdk

Length: 41min 52sec (2512 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 24 2020