Resources
- James Study Guide (PDF)
- James overview (video)
- James 4 Reading Guide
- James 4 Teaching Notes (PDF)
- James 4 Video
James Chapter 4
- TBD
Discussion:
- God doesn’t want our sacrifice, He wants our heart.
- Focusing on the sin is missing the mark.
- The tragedy of habitual sin is not the issue – it’s the mindset that enables us to commit this sin.
- This is what is meant by “our behaviors follow our desires”. If we make our desire to be aligned with God’s will then we will be less likely to commit sin (avoiding the mindset that enables us to commit sin).
- This is the key behind Matthew 7
- Matthew 7 is about Christ saying “I didn’t know you” to people who were performing good works in Christ’s name.
- We need to focus on building a relationship with Christ, not just avoiding sin.
- We avoid sin because it would damage our relationship with Christ.
- Example: how do you show your wife that you love her?
- Not spending any time with her yet telling her you didn’t cheat on her. Is this really showing her how much you love her?
- This is the same as building a relationship with Jesus.
Notes from Vince Miller’s video on James 4:
- Why don’t men change?
- if pain or incentives are high enough men WILL change
- There are plenty of Christian men who want a change – this chapter shows how we can change through2 essential actions:
1. Pursue new desires (our desires determine our direction)
2. Bring our desires under the will of God - People want to stop something (cursing, smoking) or start something (reading the Bible and praying daily, working out daily)
- permanently redirect your desires and the behavior will follow
- Submit yourselves to God and the devil will flee from you.
- sin is fought with the supernatural activity of submission to God
- submission is resistance, leading to the changes you want
- Bring our desires under the will of God
- we don’t know what tomorrow will bring
- our short term desires don’t align with God’s will for us
- We ought to say “if the Lord wills….we will do this or that”
- We should preach to our desires frequently – proclaim God’s will to our desires
- Focus on God’s will, not mine
- Changing this to your focus can transform you
- Behaviors follow desires
- Our will should be aligned with His will for us
- Say this phrase to yourself everyday this week: God’s will, not mine
- This will impact your behavior and help align you with God’s will
Notes from the Revival School video on James 4:
- TBD.