James – Faith That Works – Part 5

Open with prayer

Get To Know You (10 Minutes)

• How did you spend your time in the snow?

Observation & Discussion (30 Minutes)

Read these passages together.

James 3:14 & 16 – But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

James 4:1-10 – What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

1. How would you describe bitter envy and selfish ambition? What does this look like in the world around you?

2. From James 4:1-10, what does James say our quarrels and fights are rooted in?

3. In what ways do you fall into comparison, conflict, or other behaviors James mentioned?

4. Verse 6 reminds us that we continue to have God’s grace, how does this coincide with humility?

5. What specific advice does James give us in verses 7-10?

6. In what ways do you experience comparison and conflict, is there anything you need to get serious about? In what ways are you expecting people to fulfill the needs that only God can?

7. “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” What would it look like for God to lift you up?

Next Step (10 Minutes)

• What actions can you put in place to be settled, secure and satisfied?

Prayer Requests (5 Minutes)

Pray with your group to close.

Challenge

Read the book of James (weekly). It’ll take 15 minutes to read the entire letter.