JAMES, PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY-CHAPTER 1

JAMES: PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY

CHAPTER 1

VERSE 1: SCATTERED CHRISTIANS:  At the time of James’ writing there was an excess of 4 million Jews “scattered” throughout the Roman Empire.  Trials, troubles, problems, threats and persecutions had scattered God’s people to locations far away from the “promised land”. 

If you think about it there was hardly a city that Paul visited on his missionary journey that did not have some sort of synagogue already established in the city because of the Jews who had moved there.

Did this sort of thing happen by accident?  Was this a mistake on God’s part?  Of course not.  These people were put through trials and hard times to “scatter” the seed. 

QUESTION:  WHY WOULD GOD WANT TO SCATTER HIS PEOPLE?

God sowed His salt and light out into a dark rotten world in order to provide illumination and healing. 

Now let’s look at the 2011 church.  How do we compare to our brother’s and sister’s of the early church?  We have built large churches, fellowship halls, family life centers, gyms, Christian school and Bible colleges.  All of these are constructed for good reasons but they tend to provide a “strong-hold”, a fort and a protected space for the Christians.  They tend to hold us together in a neat little package that someone called a “Holy huddle” when our call is to “scatter”.  (Go ye therefore and teach ALL nations.)

QUESTION:  Are we missing the point by trying to build larger facilities?  What do you think?

Seed that is not scattered, seed that is not planted is wasted seed. 

Let me share a little story that my wife’s grandfather “Boots” told about himself.  He told about a season when he and his father were planting corn.  His father had plowed the field and prepared it for planting.  The rows were laid off and the fertilizer was placed in the rows.  Boots’ job was to drop the corn, two or three seed at a time into the row and cover them. 

It was hot.  The rows were long.  Boots wanted to get to the barn dance.  So instead of dropping the corn in the rows like his father had instructed, he simply went to the end of the row, dug a hold and poured all the corn into the hole.  He raked the rows over so that it looked like he had planted the corn and left for the dance.  No one would ever know.  But there came a time when the corn came up.

The things that Boots had neglected to do, the things that he had tried to hide, came to light and there at the end of the row came up a large mass of corn.  And in the rows, where the corn was supposed to be, there was none. 

PRACTICAL SOWING: 

·         Corn in the bucket is POTENTIAL

·         Corn in the ground is PROMISING

·         Corn on the stalk is PRODUCTIVE

·         Corn in the belly is POWER

Last week, I asked you to study chapter one and list 5 practical areas for today’s Christians that God showed you.  I want you to share what you found with the class and let’s discuss it.

GROUP DISCUSSION

LASTLY, let me share the practical points that I found.

A PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN WILL KEEP:

1.  His faith strong (Verse 2-8)

In all practicality, you, whoever you are, will face hard times.  I heard an old cowboy saying once that went like this, “There is a lot they didn’t tell me when I signed on with this outfit”.  But with the Christian life that is just not the case.  Jesus Himself told us, right out of the chute, that things were not going to be easy. 

Did you actually expect a bed of roses when you accepted Jesus as your Savior?  Do you think that because you gave your heart to God that now everything is supposed to be smooth?  If so, just look what they did to you Leader.  He said, “In this world you will have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”. Jesus says, expect it, it’s for a purpose. 

Another old saying goes like this, “When you can’t trail Him, trust Him”.  In order to be a PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN your faith must be strong. 

2. His sight clear (Verse 12-16)

In these verses James holds up the trophy.  He says, “Look at this.  This is what you are playing for.” 

Sure you will go through hard times but if you endure, if you remain, if you allow God to keep you and hold you fast, “you will receive the Crown of Life”.

In order to be successful and productive, in order to survive, we must keep our eyes on Christ.  If we look at our troubles we will fail. Peter, one of James’ associates could testify to that.

Remember how the disciples were in a boat, in a storm, in the night and seemingly out of luck.  Then just in time, Jesus came to them walking on the water.  Peter had faith.  He exercised that faith by climbing down out of the boat and walking on the water to go to Jesus.  WHAT FAITH.  You think you are such a good Christian.  How many miles of water walking have you logged recently? 

But in spite of the strong faith that Peter had, he took his eyes off Jesus.  When Peter took his eyes off the Savior, he sank.  He looked at the waves and not the Wave-walker. 

He saw the storm and not the Savior.  Have you ever been guilty of that?  I have.  I’ve looked at the problems and the people and the predicament and failed to see the Provider.  I can tell you, that will hinder your journey. 

The story is told of a climbing party that was trying to climb a very high mountain.  One of the climbers kept a journal.  He wrote “when the days were clear, we could see the summit.  We walked with our heads up.  Our steps were sure; we talked among ourselves and helped each other along the way.  We made excellent time. 

But on the days when clouds would hide the peak, when we couldn’t see our goal, we would drag around, our faces were turned down-ward, our thoughts would turn in-ward.  We kept silent.  We climbed alone.  We made hardly any progress”.

Does that sound familiar?  When we look at the problem, when we take our eyes off Jesus, we drag, we complain, we fight, we blame.  We must learn to:

·         Look at the Solution

·         Look at the Summit

·         Look at the Savior

Keep your eyes on that Crown of Life the Lord has promised.  (That is another good verse to put in your promise book)  A good PRACTICAL  CHRISTIAN will keep his sight clear.

3.  His hands busy.  (VERSE 22) This is probably the best known verse in the book of James.  “Be ye do-ers and not hear-ers only”

Let’s say we did a “man on the street” survey.  Let’s say we took a large flip chart and a magic marker out there and asked people to draw a picture of the church.  What would they draw?

·         A building

·         A congregation listening to the preacher

·         A great choir

According to James the painting should be a lot different to that.  James would paint a PRACTICAL CHURCH.  The church James would paint would be:

·         A man on the job talking about Jesus in his daily conversation

·         The lady cooking a cake and taking it to the neighbor so she can share God’s love

·         The Pastor and congregation visiting the sick on Sunday afternoon instead of lying on the coach watching football

·         Someone who spends their money on some good gospel tracts and leaves them in places where they can speak to others

James’ church would be a working church.  James church would be full of PRACTICAL CHRISTIANS and their hands would be busy.

4.  His tongue tied. (Verse 26):

 It is not practical at all for a Christian to praise God from his pew on Sunday morning; and shame Him from his place of work on Monday by talking about his neighbor.

In another place in this letter, James said it this way; “Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing…these things ought not to be”  (3:10)

Nothing displays to the world, our hypocritical nature more than the way we talk about others. 

Let me ask this, how do people who have never even attended our church know about the problems in our church?  The only answer is that the people in our church run their mouths!  They talk about each other and James says “brother (and sisters) these things ought not to be”

A PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN should keep his tongue tied.

5.  His calendar full.  (Verse 27):  You should know by now that I hate laziness.  I dislike those who sit around and try to get a free ride. 

“Well, I just don’t have anything to do.” 

James gave a few examples to help you:

·         Visit the orphans

·         Visit the widows

·         Visit those in trouble

And when you run out of all of these things you can work on “KEEPING YOURSELF PURE AND UNSPOTTED FROM THE WORLD”.  That should keep you pretty busy.

“Idle hands are the devils workshop” and empty calendars are an invitation for Satan to insert his own agenda into our lives”. 

So to review:

A PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN WILL KEEP:

1. His Faith strong

2. His sight clear

3. His hands busy

4. His tongue tied

5. His calendar full