Stop using Google to search the web. I’ve been using Brave Search and it’s just as good as Google. I prefer Brave Search it doesn’t censor search results (or if it does I haven’t noticed). I used to use Duck Duck Go until their CEO bragged about censoring search results.
The final chapter of the book of James contains three sections:
Verses 1-6: Do Not Trust Wealth – we should not put our hope in our worldly possessions.
Verses 7-12: Trust in God, Not Man – compares the impatience and frustration associated with trusting in our wealth with the patience and strength associated with trusting in the Lord.
Verses 13-20: Trusting Prayer – if we trust in God then we will trust in the power of prayer, finding peace, fulfillment, and giving everything over to God.
Notes from Vince Miller’s video on James 5:
Edmond Burke quote: good men to do nothing
Evil will triumph if we do nothing
This is a call for men to not be apathetic towards evil
We might not like what we’re seeing or becoming but we can do something about it.
3 Actions of Great Men
They have an eye for true prosperity
James suggests pursuing riches leads to indulging in luxury and ignores the potential for reaching an eternity of riches.
Suffering is this life is nothing compared to the riches in eternity. We need to forgo temporary happiness for the riches in eternity.
Be alert to the pull of temporary prosperity.
Live patiently
Be patient until the coming of the Lord – similar to farmers waiting for rains to enrich his crops.
We do not need more control – we need more patience.
Things outside of our control should drive us to greater dependence on God.
Patience doesn’t mean doing nothing – but we must ensure what we do is aligned with scripture.
James talks about steadfastness and refers to Job. Job lost his health, his riches and more. Despite losing all these things Job never gives up on God. God eventually blesses Job by encountering God Himself.
Confess prayerfully
James concludes Chapter 5 by calling on us to confess and pray for one another.
Confession can be difficult for men since we don’t like to admit to our weaknesses.
Confession is agreeing with God about what He already knows.
Confession and prayer results in righteous power.
Practice confession and prayer among trusted men.
James urges grate men to take action in these three ways.
James urges us to stand fast as a man of God. We need to be encouraged by his words to move past our trials.
The Perfect Law is through Christ – this means all of the tests discussed in James 4 lead to freedom.
The first 11 verses of James 5 is a test: patient endurance.
v2 talks about storing up treasure that will be useless in the last days.
The world tells us money establishes your net worth.
The truth is money doesn’t bring you security or freedom – only Christ can supply these.
God gives us options, not money.
v4 talks about how we’re amassing material goods and putting stock in pleasure and luxury – an overindulgence that fattens us up for final judgment.
v6 talks about how the rich are using their money to control politics and the courts.
v7 calls us to b patient until Jesus returns (the second coming). James compares this patience to a farmer waiting for his crops to grow so he can receive his reward.
The early rain softens the ground for planting.
The latter rain comes immediately before the spring harvest.
Just as farmers wait for crops to ripen we must wait for the great harvest.
While you wait do not put your hope in your money and resources.
Galatians 6:9 (NLT): “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.“
v9: don’t complain about others, take care of yourself until Jesus returns.
v10-11: urges us to consider the prophets in the Old Testament who were speaking about Jesus and were patient until He came
v12: urges us to keep our word so we don’t fall under judgment
v13: reminds us to always pray whether we are going through good times or bad times
v14-15: Verse 15 must be read in context with verse 14 to be fully understood.
In verse 14, James instructs those who are “weak” (spiritually or physically) to call for the leaders of their church to pray for them.
In verse 15, James says the Lord will raise the person up and any sins he has committed will be forgiven.
If these two verses are describing a person who is physically ill, the promise is of a physical healing. If they are describing a person struggling with a weak faith, the promise is for a restored trust in God. In either case, if the cause of the problem is because of sin in that person’s life, that sin will be forgiven.
v16: says maybe you will be healed but it doesn’t say when. You might be healed in this lifetime or the next.
v19-20: states that if we can bring back someone who wandered away from the Lord we will have ensured that person will have their sins forgiven and they have been saved from death.
The Book of James reminds us the Lord is always with us and we should never stop praying.
James Chapter 4 discusses why we should live by the wisdom of God rather than the ways of the world.
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 through 2 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
There’s no such thing as a backdoor that only works when ‘good guys’ use it.
Brief: A cyberattack tied to the Chinese government penetrated the networks of a swath of U.S. broadband providers, potentially accessing information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized network wiretapping requests.
The tongue is unbelievably powerful, and it cannot be fully controlled.
A person who could perfectly control his or her speech 100 percent of the time would have already arrived at full control of every aspect of the entire body, and their entire life.
The tongue is small nut has a lot of control – much like a bit in a horse’s mouth, the rudder on a ship, or a spark that ignites a forest fire.
James calls the tongue a fire that sets the whole course of our lives on fire and is itself set on fire by hell. James says the tongue is a restless, unstable evil, full of fatal poison.
Speaking both blessings and curses with the same tongue is normal behavior for sinful humans.
James also discusses wisdom.
Wisdom is as wisdom does.
In chapter 2 James explained that what a person does is a strong indication of what they actually believe.
In this chapter, James says wise people lead lives full of good works done in the humility of wisdom.
Wisdom always requires humility (see Proverbs 11:2).
Worldly wisdom is a mindset that tells us to look at what other people have, decide what we want (bitter envy) and then make a plan to get it for yourself (selfish ambition). Success, according to the world, is getting what you want in life.
Believing in such a worldview leads to disorder, chaos, and evil.
Because we trust God to provide what we need, we can let go of envy and selfish ambition. We can lead lives of peace, gentleness, reasonableness, kindness, and more. We can help plant peace and help bring in the harvest of righteousness.
Group Discussion:
The group was a bit distracted by current events before we watched the video. We spent some time discussing economic issues and Trump/Harris’ plans to improve the economy.
“What comes out of you is what’s in you” – this is a very sobering thought if I consider the number of times I’ve used bad language due to road rage or some other issue.
James 1 is on patience and perseverance, James 2 is on practicing the truth, James 3 is on controlling your speech.
Verse 1 discusses how not many should be teachers because teachers will be judged more harshly if they cannot live out what they are teaching (see Hebrews 5:12).
Verse 2 admits we all stumble in many ways.
James says if we do not stumble we are considered a mature man able to control our entire body. This is, unfortunately, impossible. There was only one perfect man: Jesus Christ.
Verses 3-5 use analogies to explain the impact something small like the tongue can direct or destroy our lives:
a bit in a horse’s mouth
a rudder on a boat
a spark in a forest fire
Example: On October 8, 1871: a small barn fire grew large enough to destroy most of the city of Chicago.
In Verse 6 James writes that the tongue is a fire which pollutes the whole body, set on fire by hell.
It can spread destruction rapidly, much like a fire, ruining everything.
James writes that no man can tame the tongue – it is a restless evil filled with deadly poison. We can only control this through God.
In Verse 9 James writes that the tongue also has the power to delight (speak life)
Verse 10 is a favorite of mine: praising and cursing comes out of the same mouth – surely this isn’t right!
Verse 11 provides an analogy: a springs does not pour out both sweet and bitter water from the same opening.
If we are believers in Jesus we should sound like it. We should not be cursing.
This ties into what James was writing about in Chapter 2: if we truly love Jesus we should demonstrate it through our actions.
We ask for wisdom to help us get through the trials and tribulations of life.
As James wrote, if we are believers in Jesus we should sound like it. Speak life to others.
