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JAMES' REFERENCES TO THE SOTM

Below is a helpful chart that shows how the New Testament epistle of James makes reference to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

James       Sermon on the Mount (Matthew)
1:2 ........ 5:10-12
1:4 ........ 5:48
1:5 ........ 7:7-12
1:9 ........ 5:3
1:12 ....... 7:14
1:20 ....... 5:22
1:22 ....... 7:21-27
2:5 ........ 5:3
2:13 ....... 5:7
2:13 ....... 6:14-15
2:14-16 .... 7:21-23
3:6 ........ 5:22
3:10-12 .... 7:15-20
3:17-18 .... 5:9
4:4 ........ 6:24
4:10 ....... 5:3-5
4:11-12 .... 7:1-5
5:2-3 ...... 6:19-20
5:10 ....... 5:12
5:11 ....... 5:10
5:12 ....... 5:33-37

from John MacArthur's NT Commentary on James
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RELATING TO TRIALS [JAMES #01]

Date: taught to our Awana Varsity class 9/30/09
Resources: John MacArthurs Commentary on James, & a sermon series from Denton Bible Church
Audio: http://eek-71.xanga.com/audio/ed0963701696/

INTRO:
• James is described as the NT's "Wisdom Literature"
• James is the earliest NT book (approximately 45 AD)
• James is Jesus' little brother and became Pastor of the Jerusalem church. James knew his bible... he references 22 OT books and makes 21 references to the Sermon on the Mount
• James is intensely practical, answers the question "what is a godly person?", James gets straight to the point and gives a treatise on what the life of a godly person "looks like".
• James is "Practical Christianity 101".... how a believer relates to trials, his bible, to the poor, how faith relates to works. How a follower of Jesus relates to his speech, to other people, to quarrels and anger, to money and covetousness...
• James is about how to take Christianity from the "lecture hall" to the "real world". Today's message is how the Christian relates to TRIALS
• write in the margin of your bible...
        > vs 2 "perspective"
        > vs 5 "response"
        > vs 9 "result"
        > vs 13 "danger!"

1. HOW DO YOU PERCEIVE TRIALS? vs 2-4
• not "IF" but "WHEN"... trials are not an "elective", they are required in "Jesus Following 101"
• "various" = of all kinds. Jesus is not an escape from trials, rather we still experience trials of all sorts.
• "in ALL things" = from flat tires... to life taking diseases... God is sovereign over ALL, therefore consider it JOY, why?...
• "consider it" = I KNOW God is testing me, don't laugh it off or ignore it, CONSIDER it!... think it over and respond in faith b/c I KNOW what God is doing
• Trials help you strip/chip away everything that doesn't look like Jesus!
• KEY POINT = a trial is not an accident, it is an act of God to force me out of my wisdom power and strength, to rest in the truth of my Bible, to the point where I will not trust what I think, feel or am, but I will trust GOD. So whatever you are going through, thank Him because He is working on me!
• PERSPECTIVE = God is Sovereign, He is testing me, and helping me grow in intimacy with Him.

2. HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO TRIALS vs 5-8
• "wisdom" = Gods mysterious ways. Gods ways seem upside down to us because we are upside down people living in an upside down world. God tells us to be great we must be humble, that to be strong we must become weak, that beauty is on the inside of a person, etc., etc.
• read Rom 11:33-36... "God, your wisdom is so great I don't understand!... God I am so dumb, so broken, so fleshly that I don't have any sense. God would you take me and show me and open my eyes to your Word and help me to understand."... THAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A TRIAL, to drive us to our KNEES & TRUST Him.
• RESPONSE = Turn to Him, Trust Him

3. WHAT SHOULD THE RESULT OF TRIALS BE? vs 9-12
• a trial is a wonderful thing, b/c it proves that I am Gods child!
• read Heb 12:8... all Gods children grow through trials
• vs 12 How do I know I am saved? I've experienced trials. Often, our scars are greater signs of our Christian life than our baptism or church membership... the scars of a proven life (lookup Gal. 6:1)
• RESULT = God is proving & purifying our faith. He is drawing me closer today, and someday will draw me to heaven and give me a crown of life.

CONCLUSION
• vs 13 the danger of a wrong response to trials... bitterness
• trials are the proving ground of the elect
• trials increase the distance, harden the hearts, and produce bitterness and blame in the hearts of the unbeliever... BUT for the believer, His Word becomes deeper and more precious, we are humbled and time in prayer becomes sweeter and the presence of Christ is nearer, richer, and inspires our heart to praise Him. Thanks God for your trials because He is using them to make you more like Jesus and to draw you closer to Himself.
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MORE LINKS FOR THE WEEK 9/20/09

A friend of mine, a young man, is spending some time overseas and asked me for some good web sites that he could use to study his bible while he is away. Below are some of the links I shared with him and I thought maybe some others might find them helpful too!

I would recommend downloading a series of sermons on one of the short NT epistles and then in your free time listen to a message, follow along in your bible, and try and take good notes in your journal. In addition to sermons I also linked to some online books, booklets, & study materials.

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByTopic/
http://www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/books_dwyl/dwyl_full.pdf

http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermon+Series

http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/sermons
http://relit.org/porn_again_christian/downloads/relit_ebook_pac.pdf

http://www.rbc.org/bible-study/ten-reasons-to-believe/home.aspx
http://www.rbc.org/bible-study/answers-to-tough-questions/home.aspx
http://www.rbc.org/bible-study/discovery-series/browse-all-booklets.aspx

http://www.bible.org/index.php?scid=6

http://www.blueletterbible.org/study/

http://eek-71.xanga.com/

I hope that helps!
LINK OF THE WEEK 9/27/09

I came across a few good articles and messages in my studies this week that I thought I would share...

A Refresher on the Doctrines of Grace by John Piper

An Overview of the Entire Bible in One Sermon

(And notes for that Sermon)

And Finally, the Wikipedia Entry for "Progressive Dispensationalism" isn't half bad!

Enjoy!
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FOUNDATIONS [#11]

Taught at Awana Varsity 1/7/2009
based on the series www.marshillchurch.org/sermonseries/doctrine/
reference the book "Bible Doctrine" by Wayne Grudem

There is NO Audio of this message.

God Gives... Stewardship

1. What does the New Testament teach about wealth?
a. it warns again the desire to be RICH
      o 1 Tim 6:9-10, 18, 19; Heb 13:5-6
b. it gives some general GUIDELINES for what the rich should do
      o 1 Tim 6:17-19; Matt 6:19-21; Luke 12:32-34; 14:13-14
c. it explains WHY God has given us so much (Eph 4:28)
      o God blesses not to increase our standard of LIVING, but to increase our standard of GIVING
d. Who owns EVERYTHING?
      o Deut 8:17-18; Psalm 50:10; Haggai 2:8; James 1:16-18

2. What is stewardship?
a. A steward is… a person, who by God's grace, belongs to God. And, because they belong to God they recognize that ultimately everything they are and have BELONGS to God and has been given to them as a GIFT. Therefore, they then seek to both ENJOY the gifts God has given them as well as INVEST those gifts in others and the future by distributing them WISELY.
b. 3 categories that we must steward... our TIME, our TALENTS, our TREASURE

3. How MUCH should I give?
a. Should I tithe?
c.    In the New Testament financial giving among God's people focuses on GRACE,
        GENEROSITY, & the HEART.
c. Read 2 Corinthians 8-9... principles for giving...
      o Giving is a JOY and an honor.
      o Giving is a HEART issue, there is no standard.
      o Giving should come from your FIRST FRUITS
      o Giving should be done REGULARLY, CHEERFULLY ,& SACRIFICIALLY
      o Giving is tied to your proportion of FAITH
      o The amount is between you and GOD
      o Giving is a SPIRITUAL GIFT (Romans 12)
d. Since God is ultimately the owner of all of our wealth the question is NEVER how much should I give to God, but rather how much of God's money should I KEEP?

4. Is Money Related To WORSHIP?
a. Jesus said that we cannot worship both God AND money, but we can and should worship God WITH our money (Mat 6:24).
b. KEY PRINCIPLES...
      o More stuff won't make you more happy (Eccl 5:8-12)
      o Jesus is a generous giver (2 Cor 8:9)
      o It is more blessed to give than receive (Acts 20:35)
      o We should grow in our giving (2 Cor 8:7)
      o When we give, we are storing up treasures in heaven (Mat 6:19-21; 19:29; Phil 4:7).
      o Our life follows our wealth (Mat 6:21)

Stewardship does include all of our life, but the FIRST PRIORITY is to get our financial stewardship and church giving in order.
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THE GIFT OF A BIBLE

My friend and Pastor gave me this link to this video. It is from an atheist who was given a Bible and he discusses, from an atheists viewpoint, how he thought it was a respectful and thoughtful gift and how he respected the Christian for giving it to him. It was moving that he appreciated the concept that if you REALLY believe in a real heaven and a real hell that you MUST tell people about the Gospel!

Check it out here...

Just in case you can see the video, here is the link -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHS8adO3hM
STUDYING FOR A BIBLE LESSON

An old friend of mine asked me what all he should do to prepare a lesson from the Bible. Below are the 8 things I "try" and do when studying to prepare a Bible lesson.

1. There is no substitute for time in the text. Read it, then reread it, then read it 5 more times... preferably in multiple translations.

2. Pray about it. I made special care to mention prayer because it is my own personal weakness to get so caught up in the study of Scripture and end up ignoring to pray about the lesson until I am done. Not something I'm proud of but too often true.

3. Pick out the key words and look them up in a Bible dictionary or some of your Hebrew and Greek references and cross references. Strongs is the obvious choice here, Vines is also handy, and "The Treasure of Scripture Knowledge" is also a good one. I use my copy of PC Study Bible for a lot of this, but...
3.a. The Online NET Bible has great footnotes - http://net.bible.org/bible.php#n4
    3.b. Bible.org also has some decent online study tools - http://www.bible.org/index.php?scid=6
    3.c. BlueLetterBible.org also offers some good free study stuff - http://www.blueletterbible.org/study/

4. Look over your Background information... manners & customs, histories, etc. Its good to have a good Bible atlas and I also tend to use IVP's Bible Background Commentary NT & OT. Also, John MacArthurs Commentaries typically include helpful background info.

5. I can't stress enough the value of determining the "big idea" of a passage and lesson early on. Once you understand the key point a text is making, and then what God is saying about that key point then the easier it is to make all your sub-points, cross references, and illustrations support that key point instead of distract from it. Don't ever finish your lesson then try and figure out what the main idea is last!

6. Now Dig into your commentaries and outlining books. A good study bible is always helpful at this stage. I have a weakness for MacArthurs Commentaries, they are probably some of the most used books in my library. Warren Wiersbe's "Be" commentary set is also very handy and they are also good because they are more brief. The Bible Knowledge Commentary is also a great 2 volume commentary on the whole Bible, I use it regularly. I lean pretty heavy on MacArthur and John Piper because they make so much of their stuff free online...
    6.a. www.gty.org has a ton of MacArthurs messages FREE to download as MP3's and they also have alot of his messages transcribed.
    6.b. www.biblebb.org has a lot of MacArthur messages transcribed which is nice so that you can cut and paste bits and pieces into your lesson notes.
    6.c. www.desiringgod.org is crazy! They have all of Pipers messages FREE to download, many are transcribed, many are available as videos, they often have study questions you can download, and ALL of his books are also free to download as PDF files. Thats a lot of free stuff!
    6.d. www.marshillchurch.org/media/sermons I have a love/hate relationship with Driscoll. I love his passion. I like his ability to keep Jesus and the Gospel front and center in every message and I appreciate how he delivers sermons in a fresh and contemporary way. I dislike some of his crude humor and sometimes he seems to "shoot from the hip", he is not an exegete of the caliber of MacArthur or Piper.
    6. www.walkintheword.org is James MacDonalds site. I use him as a resource often but his website doesn't offer much for free like the ones listed above.

7. I try and write out all my stuff into a 4-6 page manuscript that includes all my points, illustrations, bible references, etc. I use these pages to study the couple of days before the lesson and tweak and re-tweak what I will say and what gets left in and left out. Then the day before the lesson I make my "cheat sheet"... this is a half sheet of paper (front and back) that includes all the main stuff I don't want to forget and that is what I preach/teach from. I print that onto a page of card stock and fold it in half and that is what I carry into the pulpit.

8. Then it doesn't hurt to try and round out your lesson by Googling an article or two on your topic. Searching for a couple of good illustrations that will support your big idea can be very powerful. In PC Study Bible I have some "illustration" books but to be honest I usually just Google the topic with the term "sermon illustration" included in the search.

I don't know how much that helps anyone but that is how I do it... or at least how I "try" to do it when things are going well... now, when you get the call at 9am Sunday morning to fill in for a sick Sunday School teacher at 9:30am... then all the above is out the window and replaced by frantic prayer and page turning!
FOUNDATIONS [#10]

taught at Awana Varsity 12/10/2008
based on the series www.marshillchurch.org/sermonseries/doctrine/
reference the book "Bible Doctrine" by Wayne Grudem

Audio of this message can be found here -> http://audio.xanga.com/Eek_71/969783031795/audio.html

God Transforms… Worship

INTRO
• Worship is "job 1" for the follower of Jesus...
• "worship" is NOT merely a style of music or an event such as a Sunday church service. Worship "includes" these things but is not "limited" to them.
• In many ways, to speak of worship is to speak of all of life in its fullness lived to God's glory and our joy.

1. WHERE DOES WORSHIP BEGIN?
• Trinity... God is a community of ceaseless outpouring. Although there is one God, the three persons of the Trinity continually exist with a ceaseless outpouring of love, communication, and joy... as beings made in the image and likeness of God, we too are ceaseless worshippers pouring ourselves out for someone or something.
• through sin our worship is bent toward people and things other than God who is our Creator in favor of created things. Therefore, we need God to seek us out to save us from sin and free us to worship Him.
• at this very moment, everyone everywhere it is bowing down and serving something or someone --- an object, a person, an institution, an idea, a spirit,... or God through Christ. We are, every one of us, unceasing worshipers and will remain so forever.

2. WHAT IS WORSHIP?
• Worship is... living our life as continuous living sacrifices to the glory of a person or thing (individually and corporately). In short... glory + sacrifices.
• Read Romans 11:36 - 12:1 (the connection between glory and worship)
• Worship works like this... we hold a person or thing in a place of glory... we then worship that person or thing by means of making sacrifices for it.
• Glory means... weightiness, importance, preeminence, priority, or that which is our greatest treasure, and deepest longing. Functionally, what we hold in the place of glory is in effect our real god... Practically, worship is making sacrifices for what we are living to glorify.
• The biblical word for worship is also sometimes translated "sacrifice". This insight is helpful because what we make the greatest sacrifices for reveals what we truly live to glorify and worship.
      > eat and drink in excess... worshipping our stomach... sacrificing our health.
      > pursue a hobby to excess... worship the hobby... sacrifice relationships w/ God & people
      > sexual sin... worshipping sex or another person... sacrificing holiness & intimacy w/ God.
      > we give our time, energy, body, money, focus, devotion, & passion to that which we glorify most and make sacrifices to worship that person or thing.
• Because we were made for the express purpose of worshipping God, everyone is a worshipper. The only difference is who/what we worship!

3. THE OPPOSITE OF WORSHIP IS IDOLATRY?
• Idolatry is... corrupted worship in contrast with true worship (read Romans 1:25)... bring prone to worship created things rather than our creator God (ex: the human body, pleasures, human ideas about God & life contrary to Scripture, etc.)
• idolatry is the root that nourishes every fruit of sin... meaning that at the crux of most problems is a worship problem
• How can i find my idols?... As a general rule, it is easier to see the idols in someone else's life than our own because we view our own idols as simply "comforts, pleasures, habits, aids, etc."
      > what are your external idols? (whose approval do you crave, what gets my wealth, time?)
      > what are your internal idols? (false beliefs you have, what you love, cherish, happy, sad?)
      > what is your mediator between you and God? (what do you use to get closer to God?)
      > where is your functional heaven? (where do you run for safety / comfort, daydream about?)
      > what is your functional savior? (what do you use to save you from your fears... money, shopping, sex, relationships)
      > What "good thing" has become a "god thing"? (work, family, friends, etc.)

4. HOW CAN I NURTURE MY WORSHIP?
• The pattern for our worship is the redemption that occurred in the book of Exodus... God's people were enslaved for all of their lives and then redeemed and liberated to be free to worship God. The picture of the Exodus is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus who is greater than Moses and conquered our Pharaoh Satan and redeemed us from slavery to sin and death.
• BUT, like God's people in the Exodus we who have been liberated must walk with God all the days of our lives trusting him by faith as a lifestyle of ceaseless worship if we hope to have our lives be lived for his glory and our joy. Sadly, we often like the Israelites build golden calves of idolatry, grumble against God, and long to return to our sin and slavery while walking around in a circle.
• Consider the 10 Commandments... #1 God alone is God, #2 no one is to be worshipped in place of or alongside him. The remaining Commandments illustrate the first two, transforming the rest of our life into opportunities to worship God with our desires, relationships, possessions, etc.
• if we worship God alone we will not worship sex and commit adultery, not worship possessions and commit thievery or coveting, not worship people's perceptions of us and lie, not worship unrighteous anger and murder, not worship our job and never Sabbath etc.
• the key to nurturing our worship of God is ongoing renewal.
      > Renew your love for God... a passion for Jesus
      > Renew your love for the Scriptures... a passion for the inspiration & authority of the Bible
      > Renew your love for others... hope for people, pursue them in love
      > Renew your love for the mission... proclaiming the Gospel
      > Renew your love for the Church... love for the brethren
      > Willingness to Repent & change anything necessary to put God in the place of glory & sacrifice

CONCLUSION
• The key to a life of worship is ongoing personal renewal with Jesus. Without this, you will be prone to accept mediocrity and even idolatry while blaming your state on the people in your life and church you attend rather than repenting of your own failure to connect with God as he has made possible through Jesus Christ.
• Authentic worship is a continuous outpouring of all that we are and can ever hope to become in light of the saving work of Christ. It reaches into every quarter of our living, shaping all of our thoughts and actions by the Spirit of God & the Word of God, producing a life joyfully sacrificed for the Glory of God.
• How is your "ceaseless worship" and what needs to change for you to begin with personal renewal???
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