James 4 - Get Smart By Putting Faith In Action! Series

Series: James – Let’s do it!

Thesis of Book: The message of the book is “Let’s do it – live the faith – put it into action! The half-brother of Jesus is speaking to the scattered Jewish Christians across the nations – they were scattered right after Stephen was killed. James tells these Christians and us today “You have to do more than just talk about your faith - you have to put your faith to work for the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven.” In other words, what you do with your faith matters in the here and now and in eternity so put it into action! Faith with no deeds is dead!

Key verse of book: James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

Summary of lessons from Chapter 1- We put faith into action when:

…We persevere through the trials and grief of life and in the midst of it get His inner joy and peace.

…We control the pressure moments of life with faith and not anger and in the process find freedom in the Spirit.

…We listen and do to be what God has called us to be and do.

Summary of lessons from Chapter 2 – We put faith into action when:

…We put our faith into motion when we choose to fight against favoritism, prejudice mindsets and discrimination.

…We put faith into action when we love, accept and forgive others. Cook states, “When love, acceptance and forgiveness prevail, the church of Jesus Christ becomes what Jesus was in the world: a center of love designed for the healing of broken people and a force for God” When faith is released to action it impacts people’s lives, transformation happens and people are set free! It releases revival!

Summary of lesson from Chapter 3:1-12 – We put faith into action when:

…James wants us to understand that our tongues wield supernatural power and if we do not keep them tamed-bridled and under control they will lead our lives right into a firestorm.

…Therefore, we need the Holy Spirit to help lead us into the Wisdom from above that will help us bring it under control!

Summary of James 3:13-18 – We put faith into action when:

…We listen to God on how to deal with things in life correctly

…We receive God’s wisdom from above and then put it into action by not being polluted by the world.

…We need to discern today which wisdom has taken root in our lives. The truth is we are adhering to one or the other.

…We need to determine today if we are going to allow wisdom from above to direct our life or if we are going to let wisdom from below direct our life.

…One brings satisfaction and blessing and a life in order the other brings disarray to our life and chaos.

Warning - Today’s topic from the book of James will stir your soul and emotions. For some of you it will bring up old hurts and wounds. For others it will stir emotions of shame and sorrow. For others it will unleash again a sting into your heart and soul. For others it will make you cry and mourn. For others it will stir the emotions of regret or anger. For some of you it will cause you to want to leave. So I warn you today our topic will stir all kinds of emotions within your soul, it will bring back painful memories, it will cause grief but in the end it will remind us of how important it is to put our faith into action in our lives.

Sermon: James 4:1-12 – Get smart and put faith into action!

Thesis: We need to put our faith into action by controlling our anger, our emotions, we do this step of faith by losing our self-centered mindsets. If we do this God promises to draw nearer to us, to lift us up, to answer our prayers and to enable us to resist the enemy of our soul, the Devil.

Scripture text for today James 4:1-12:

Submit Yourselves to God

1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

2You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.

3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?