• Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
with
James 4:1-10
www.FirstChurchBville.com
FirstChurchBville@gmail.com @FirstUMCBville @kerrfunk
This sermon viewable on youtube at https://youtu.be/HZxUUJjyIdg
•
In my first year of ministry I took a youth group on a ski trip. On the way
home, driving the van in the dark, I knew I knew a better way home than the
printed ski resort directions. My own inner pride lead to trouble as I turned a
40-minute drive into two hours, inconveniencing awaiting parents as well as a
group that needed to be picked up from the airport in the van I was still
using.
•
On “friendship with the world” (from James 4:4)
Ross King wrote a song called Clear the Stage.
(click here for lyrics) (click here for youtube)
“Anything I want with all my heart is an idol.”
Ross King wrote a song called Clear the Stage.
(click here for lyrics) (click here for youtube)
“Anything I want with all my heart is an idol.”
•
James 4:7 “Submit yourself to God.”
How
shall we submit ourselves to God?
For
one, refer to the instructions. Frequently.
And
don’t try to go it alone!
The
fourth and fifth step of AA include making a list of personal failings AND THEN admitting them to another person.
Why?
Because of the power in saying something out loud to another.
•
John and Charles Wesley, young in ministry, 1720s, holiness clubs
Imagine
living these questions:
1.
What known sins have you committed since our last meeting?
2. What temptations have you met with?
3. How were you delivered?
4. What have you thought, said, or done, of which you doubt whether it be sin or not?
5. Have you nothing you desire to keep secret?
2. What temptations have you met with?
3. How were you delivered?
4. What have you thought, said, or done, of which you doubt whether it be sin or not?
5. Have you nothing you desire to keep secret?
(click
here for more: Five small group questions and 21 smallergroup questions)
•
Hymn 399 Take My Life and Let It Be
James 4:1-10
(CEB) (formatting
by KWB)
4 What is the source of conflict among you?
What is the source of your disputes? Don’t they come from your own cravings
that are at war in your own lives?
2 You long for
something you don’t have, so you commit
murder. You are jealous for something you can’t get, so you struggle and fight. You don’t have
because you don’t ask. 3 And
then you ask and don’t have because you ask with evil intentions,
to waste on your own cravings. 4 You adulterous, unfaithful
people!
Don’t
you know that “friendship with the world” means hostility toward God? It means
that whoever puts the world before God becomes God's enemy. 5 Or
do you suppose that scripture is meaningless? Doesn’t God eagerly long for our
faithfulness in the fullness of life he has given to us? 6 But
still, God gives us even more grace. This is why it says, God stands against the proud, but favors the
humble. [Prov. 3:34]
7 Therefore, submit
yourself humbly to God.
Resist the devil, and he will run away from you.
8 Come near to God, and he will come near to you.
Wash your hands, you sinners.
Purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Cry out in sorrow -- mourn, and weep!
Let your laughter become mourning
and your joy become sadness.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. ò
Resist the devil, and he will run away from you.
8 Come near to God, and he will come near to you.
Wash your hands, you sinners.
Purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Cry out in sorrow -- mourn, and weep!
Let your laughter become mourning
and your joy become sadness.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. ò
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