Listening & Doing!
JAMES
“Listening & Doing!”
Lesson #3 – October 20-21, 2013
Scripture: James 1:19-27
Memory Verse: James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
Lesson Focus: To obey God’s Word!
Activates and Crafts: Coloring Picture; Cross Word Puzzle
1st & 2nd Grade Craft: Listening Ears Picture
Illustration: Skit, “The Face in the Mirror”
Þ (Setting) Have a full size body mirror set up in the room.
Þ Have someone come in the room. (This person needs to be clearly a mess.) (It might be fun to ask one of the small group leaders to do this; I think that the kids would get a kick out of it....any volunteers????)
Þ They walk up to the mirror and go on and on about how disgusting they look. But then they walk away and walk up to someone in the class and act like nothing is wrong. (They don’t do anything to change the way they look!)
Bible Lesson:
James 1:19-20
1. The “Right” Way to Listen! 1:19-20
James tells us in verse 1:19 to be quick at one thing and slow at two things, what are they?
· quick to listen
· slow to speak
· slow to get angry
· Do you think that this is how we usually operate?
· Answer the following questions out loud yes or no...
1. Are you a good listener? (yes or no)
2. Has anyone ever told you, “you aren’t listening to me!”? (yes or no)
3. Have you ever felt like someone you were talking to was not listening to you? (yes or no)
4. Do you usually say the first thing that comes to your mind? (yes or no)
5. Do you try to think before you say something? (yes or no)
6. Do you get angry easily? (yes or no)
7. Does everyone around you usually know when you are angry? (yes or no)
√ How many ears do you have?
√ How many mouths do you have?
√ Do you think that there might be a reason that God gave us two ears and one mouth?
Proverbs 10:19 says, “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.”
God is telling us to be quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to get mad. Which one of these do you think that you are not slow at? Anger and speaking words of anger usually happen quickly. God is telling us in His Word to slow down. Take time to think before you react. Usually when we react with anger or sinful words we are mad because we are selfish. Something was not done the way we like…someone didn’t do something they way we like. In other words we did not get our way.
James 1:20 says that the wrath of man does not produce the “righteousness” of God. Wrath means anger and righteousness is the right way of living. Our anger does not produce God’s way of living in our lives.
When we are angry we are usually not listening.
2. The “Right” Way to Live! 1:21-
A. Get rid of the “bad stuff”! 1:21a
· What two adjectives does the author of the book of James use to describe the “bad stuff” we are to get rid of? (filthiness & wickedness)
· What does it mean to get rid of something? Does it mean that you just put it in a corner? Hide it under your bed, or in the back of your closet? Does it mean that you just forget about it for a while?
· No, the paraphrase could be “throw it in the trash”! Get it out of your lives....don’t play around with anything that resembles filth or evil? Now do you think that this just might eliminate some things in our lives?
B. Accept the “good stuff.” 1:21b
· What word do you think that they are talking about here?
· Do you believe that God has planted a message in your heart?
· Do you believe that that message has the power to save your soul? (Ephesians 1:13)
· Have you believed in that message?
· Does God’s Word help us to see the “bad stuff” in our lives?
C. Obey the “Real” stuff! 1:22-25
· How many of you like the word “obey”? (Why or why not?)
· James was just talking about being a good listener. So why is he saying in verse 22 that we shouldn’t just listen? What do you think he means by doing? To do means to obey.
· What examples does he give in verse 23-24 of not obeying or doing?
· We started out today with a skit that was illustrating this lesson! Let’s say that you are sitting in Church and you hear the Word of God. Instantly you know you should change in one area of your life. But you get up from Church and walk away never applying that truth to your life and changing. You are like that person that looks at himself in a mirror and sees how horrible he looks, but walks away and does nothing about it. In James the “mirror” is the Word of God. When we look into God’s Word we see ourselves as we really are. It reveals the things inside of us that need to change and the things that we need to deal with.
· We need to keep looking into the “mirror” of God’s Word and doing what it says. Looking and doing….looking and doing…looking and doing!
· But verse 25b says if you do what the Word says, and
don’t________? (Forget) what you heard, then God will_______. (Bless you)
· God has never wanted people who believed in Him to believe in Him in name only. You are absolutely saved by believing that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that through Him we can come to know God.
· But God does not want us to go around SAYING that we are Christians, but not LIVING like we are!
D. Live what you “Believe!” 1:26-27
James gives us 3 concrete ways to live out our faith...What are they?
1. control your tongue (we will talk about this more in Lesson #6
2. Care for those in need (orphans and widows.)
3. Don’t let the world corrupt us. We need to pay attention to what we are watching on TV and our Computers and what we are listening to. Everything that we hear and see goes into our brains and changes us.
We want you during Small Group time to talk about concrete ways that you could “live out your faith” in these three areas.
Conclusion: Here’s what these verses are telling us to do....
Þ Just as you look in mirror to see how you look before you leave the house.
Þ Keep looking in God’s Word and “do” what it says. Don’t be a Christian in name only.
Þ Live your life in such a way that NO ONE would be SURPRISED that you are a Christian. They would believe it because they have seen how you live!
Small Group Questions
1. Why do you think that it is so hard to be a good listener?
2. Who do you know that listens well?
3. What kind of things makes you angry? What could you do the next time you begin to get angry?
4. Do you think that we let any filth and evil things into our lives? Why is it so important to get “rid of them”?
5. Do you know people that say they believe in God but don’t act like it? How about yourself?
6. You have all heard of the WWJD bracelets, do you think that thinking “what would Jesus do” would help us to live the way we should? Why don’t we do this more?
7. Can you think of examples in the Bible of people that were “religious” but were not living out their life for God? (Pharisees) Tell us about them.
8. What tangible ways could elementary kids help orphans and widows? (Tell the kids about all of our Compassion Kids from Mexico. Every room has a jar that when they bring in money goes straight to Compassion to help these 4 kids.)
This Week I will:_____________________________________________
Name:____________________________________________________
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