This year in our Sunday School lessons we are going through the books of James and Proverbs to look at the Practical Living from God’s Word. What is located below are the high level points we discussed this week. Please use this tool to follow up with your teens and see how they plan to apply this to their life.
James 1:13-27
Last week we talked about how good trials are. We talked about how trials cause us to seek wisdom, which provides the endurance for us to be able to mature into having the perspective on life that allows us to view trials as good things.
James called himself a slave of God. Are you a slave of God?
Today we want to look more into the mind of a slave of God. You see we have to get tot the place where we are not just hearing what we are to do, but we are carrying it out in our lives.
I. The Process of Sin. (13-15)
A. Let no one say when He is tempted , “I am tempted by God.”
i. It is not possible for God to tempt people.
ii. God is perfect and He cannot be associated with evil at all.
iii. What is the difference between temptation and testing?
James just said at the beginning of this chapter that testing is good and that it comes into our life to help us have wisdom. So what is the difference between that testing and this temptation?
http://www.iamsecond.com/seconds/josh-canales/ (This video shows the result of a trial in someones life.)
iv. “God sends trials to bring out the best in us (see Abraham, Gen. 22:1), but Satan sends temptations to bring out the worst in us. Believers should not say that God tempts them, because temptations to sin arise from our very nature.” – Warren W. Wiersbe,
B. The Process of Sin
i. Temptation comes from being carried away from your own lust
a. What is lust?
Lust – expresses any strong desire, the context or a qualifying adjective determining its nature, whether good or evil.
ii. Lust leads to sin
b. Sin is anytime we step out of God’s standard of holiness and allow our desires to be elevated above God’s desires.
iii. Ultimately sin brings about death
a. What if you are a believer and you sin? Does that bring about death?
b. If my security is sure then why do I care whether or not I sin?
II. God gives us good things so we need to respond like they are good. (16-20)
A. Every good thing in life comes from above (16-18)
i. Every situation that GOd brings into your life is to produce good in your life.
ii. Even bad situations? (Romans 8:28-29)
a. We get to be more conformed to the image of God’s Son.
B. Therefore it is important that we respond well to trials
i. How do we tend to respond to trials?
a. complaining
b. anger
ii. How should we respond?
a. slow to speak
b. slow to anger
III. Be a Doer not Just a Hearer (22-27)
A. What is the difference between just hearing something and actually doing it?
i. What are some ways we tend to just hear what the Bible says and never actually do it?
ii. Is this being a hypocrite?\
a. Yes I believe that Christ came to die for my sin.
b. Yes I believe that the Bible is completely true.
c. Yes I believe that the promises and warnings in God’s Word will be carried out in my life.
d. No I don’t live by them.
B. Like a man looking in a mirror and forgetting what you saw.
i. “When Christians look into the Word, they see themselves as God sees them and thus are able to examine their hearts and confess their sins. But it is not enough merely to look into the Word and read it; we must obey what we read. A person who merely hears the Word but does not obey it is like a man who glances casually into the mirror, sees that his face is dirty, and goes on his way without doing anything about it. Such a man thinks he has bettered himself spiritually when he has actually harmed himself.” – Warren W. Wiersbe,
C. Prove You are a Follower of Christ (26-27)
i. If you think you are religious and cannot control your tongue your religion is useless.
a. Why is there an emphasis to make sure you are controlling your tongue?
b. The tongue is the outpouring of the thoughts of the mind which come from the heart. In other words the things you say reflect so much more about what you think about and desire.
i. There is no such thing as a little dirty joke being okay.
ii. There is no possible way to be mean with your tongue without it coming from your wicked heart.
ii. If you think you are religious take care of orphans and widows.
a. What is the heart behind this?
b. How can you as a teen take care of those who are hurting?
iii. If you think you are religious keep yourself unspotted from the world.
a. What does it mean to be unspotted from the world?
b. How are you doing at this?
