Grace South Bay

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. 4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

1. How easy or hard is it for you to believe in a God of judgment?  Why?

2. Do you find comfort that God is a judge and bringing justice to the world?

3. What do you when you feel wronged?  How would James' counsel of patience interact with you in those moments?

4. Do you think of patience and waiting as passivity?  

5. Do think of yourself as exploited, exploiter or neither?  How does that influence your hearing of this and relationship with God?

6. Discuss the four points of patience: pay up, fess up, listen up and speak up.  Which seems hardest to do?  Which do you need God's grace to work on?

Q&A from the February 28 sermon, "Friendly Fire" with Matt Cabot and Steven Chitty

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

What are the one or two primary stories that you are telling yourself and the world? 
 
Is there a ‘boastful arrogance’ in these stories?  Is God’s sovereignty and your finitude accounted for in these stories?
 
What good might you be failing to do because of these stories?
 
Is it meaningful that God wills that you live today?  Does that change at all how you look at your responsibilities and relationships?
 
Does the gift of limitations make sense to you?  Do you see limitations in how you tell your story and look at your life?  How does that make a difference in your stories?
 
How much is your own death incorporated in how you think about your future and the story of your life?  Is it useful to remember your coming death?  
 
Do you see your days as filled with abundant opportunities to do good?  What happens when you do? 

Q&A from the February 21 sermon, "A Working Faith" with Matt Cabot and Steven Chitty

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

1.     Where do you see a connection between internal conflict and external conflict in your life? 
2.     James says judging others is like trying to fill God’s shoes - seems ridiculous - but many of us still struggle in this way. Why do you think it is so easy and almost natural for you to judge others?
3.     Being God’s enemy because of our sin should be quite a scary position - what are some ways you tend to cope/dismiss/diminish that reality?
4.     Do you believe that God is jealous over you? How does that make you feel? 
5.     Do James’ imperatives - submit, resist, draw near, cleanse, purify, mourn, weep - sound like grace to you? What kind of life picture do they paint for you? 

Q&A from the February 7 sermon, "A Working Faith" with Matt Cabot and Steven Chitty

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

1.     What role would you say you play in your own life story? Hero? Villain? Innocent bystander? - How does that impact the way you think and feel and act?
2.     Where do you see selfish ambition or jealousy creating disorder in your life?
3.     In what area do you feel most isolated in your life? Is there a connection to your own 'natural wisdom'? 
4.     When have you felt united to someone through selflessness? Yours or theirs. 
5.     How can you begin to ‘make peace’ in your relationships? How will it require you to believe and live out of the wisdom from above?

Q&A from the February 7 sermon, "A Working Faith" with Matt Cabot and Steven Chitty

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

1. What would you say drives your communication (speaking, messaging, disagreeing, typing) most often? Fear, guilt, idolatry, foolishness?
2. When you think about the absurd analogies James uses at the end of the passage - does your own ability to ‘praise God and curse others’ strike you as absurd? Why not?
3. What is your go to technique to excuse careless or hurtful speech? e.g. I tell it like it is, I didn’t mean it, you shouldn’t be so sensitive… How would James say faith changes that cover-up? 
4. What is one way you’ve experienced Jesus seasoned words coming from someone else?
Own and extinguish your firebrands - say less/listen more - say more encouragement and grace - how would you like to see God work one of these applications into your life this week? 

Q&A from the January 31 sermon, "Partiality" with Matt Cabot and Bob Crossland