INTERACTIVE TEACHING/LEARNING GUIDE
Push the Limits-Live What You Believe – Week 4
A Study of the Book of James
Session Title: Anticipating the Reversal
Focal Passage:James 1:9-11
Central Teaching/Learning Aim: Learners will discover James’ convictions concerning wealth and will examine their priorities relating to the positions of God and money in their own lives.
- Hook
- Share the following corny riddles with your class:
- When is a bonnet not a bonnet? (When it becomes a young woman.)
- When is a door not a door? (When it is ajar.)
State – Today’s lesson contains a riddle for us to solve. James asks, “When is a poor believer not poor?” Let’s see if we can discover the answer.
- Optional Method – The Treasure Principle
From The Treasure Principle Workshop, DVD One, Chapter 3. If this DVD is not available, the same story is located in Randy Alcorn’s book, The Treasure Principle, pages 34-36.
Start: 1:23
Stop: 4:13
Synopsis: Most people can significantly give to the Kingdom of God, but they don’t know or haven’t been taught the awesome eternal benefits of sowing into God’s work on earth. Author Randy Alcorn calls it a hidden treasure, and we all must learn this life-changing principle to find that hidden treasure.
Ask – How did Borden’s view of wealth differ from Tutankhamen’s? Do most Americans embrace Borden’s view or Tutankhamen’s?
State – In our lesson today James will tell us that many of us need to adjust our understanding of the value of material possessions.
- Optional Method – The Ultimate Gift
Start: 3:45
Stop: 7:23
Synopsis: When his wealthy grandfather, Red Stevens, dies, Jason received a most unusual inheritance: twelve tasks, which Red calls “gifts,” to challenge Jason to grow as a man. If he succeeds, the experience will not only change Jason forever, but he will discover the real meaning of wealth.
In this scene the family has gathered for the reading of Red’s will and the top priority of each of their lives becomes very evident.
The Ultimate Gift, 20th Century Fox Productions, Directed by Michael O. Sajbel, Produced by Rick Eldridge, John Shepherd and Cleve Landsberg, 2007.
Ask – What is the top priority of the family of Red Stevens? How do the priorities of this family compare to the priorities of Americans today? What are your top priorities?
State – In our lesson today James will tell us that many of us need to adjust our understanding of the value of material possessions.
- Optional Method – “Greek Burglars Cash In As Savers Flee Banks”
Share the following newspaper article:
Greek Burglars Cash In As Savers Flee Banks
Andreas and Emilia Karabalis, who are both 80, feared their bank in Greece would collapse, so they withdrew their 80,000 euros ($100,000) savings and stashed it at home for safety.
Days later, the thieves came in the night.
"We were sleeping. The two masked burglars came to our bed and tied us up. They hit us. They robbed us - they didn't leave anything, it was torture," said Emilia, who still trembles when she recalls the attack this month on the island of Lefkada.
Husband Andreas added: "Our life is black now. They took our life's savings. We lost everything."
No one knows just how much cash lies stashed in Greek homes, secreted in cupboards, at the back of the ice-box, beneath the floor or under the mattress. But by any guess it is well in the billions, and burglars are after their share of loot which is both highly portable and virtually impossible to recover.
Renee Maltizou and Peter Graff, “Greek Burglars Cash In As Savers Flee Banks,” Reuters, May 24, 2012.
Ask – Do you ever worry about losing your life’s savings?
State – Yoursavings might not be in the mattress or under the floor – it may not be vulnerable to burglars – but it could just as easily be lost in the stock market. Today James reminds us of this very fact. He says that just as the sun withers a wildflower with its scorching heat, so a person’s wealth can disappear in an instant.
- Book
- Write the following outline on the marker board:
Anticipating the Reversal
The poor believer says, “But how rich I am!” (James 1:9)
The rich believer says, “But what a wretch I am!” (James 1:10)
Earthly riches do not provide security (James 1:11)
- Utilize the discussion guide to examine the Scripture passages.
- Look
- Locatethe Anticipating the Reversal group projects handout. Divide your class into three groups and allow time for groups to complete their work. Debrief.
- Took
- Sharethe story of Lottie Moon with your class. In advance enlist three people (2 women and a narrator) to read the last part of the play, It Cannot End at Kobe, by Carol Tomlinson and Doris Standridge. Give these people copies of the reading well in advance so that they can be thoroughly familiar with it.
Charlotte Diggs Moon, called “Lottie” by her family and friends, was born on December 12, 1840. The family lived in a small town in Virginia where Lottie’s father was a wealthy planter.
When she was a young woman she attended a revival service where she heard about God’s great love for us and Jesus’ sacrifice so that we might have eternal life. That evening she gave her life to Christ.
Lottie attended college where she was trained to teach children. Upon graduation she taught first at a school in Danville, Kentucky and, later, in Cartersville, Georgia. During this time she thought and prayed much about her feeling that God was calling her to become a missionary. In February 1873 she made application to the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention to become a missionary. Six months later she was appointed as a missionary to China.
Her life in China was very hard at first. She was an outsider and was therefore looked on with suspicion. She was called names – “devil woman” and much worse. Lottie struggled with the language and was also very lonely.
Lottie worked tirelessly as a teacher, nurse, cook, and friend. She gave everything she had – she gave her last bit of energy, creativity and money to God’s work. She pled with the Foreign Mission Board for funds, but the Board was deeply in debt already.
In 1912 China was hit be a great famine. Lottie’s friends and neighbors were literally starving to death. Lottie spent all that she had to buy food, but it was not enough.
During her last days in China Lottie’s friends sent her to the doctor. He recognized the symptoms of malnutrition and starvation and suggested that they send Lottie back home to Virginia to recover. Lottie Moon made it only as far as Kobe, Japan, where she died.
Please listen to these words that sum up the life of Lottie Moon:
WOMAN TWO: Lottie Moon would not have wanted us to remember her death and make it a heroic thing. She would not have wanted us even to remember her life and what she accomplished.
WOMAN ONE: She would have wanted us to understand a few truths which she understood from God.
WOMAN TWO: She would have wanted us to know that you can’t claim to be God’s without letting Him claim you.
WOMAN ONE: She would have wanted us to know that God carves out places for His people to serve and expects service and devotion at all costs.
WOMAN TWO: She would have wanted us to know that if we expect service to God to be easy and popular we have misunderstood Him.
WOMAN ONE: She would have reminded us that we would have to cultivate every talent in us to the fullest and that God would find places for their use.
WOMAN TWO: She would have pointed out that needs are everywhere, and, unless we’re in the middle of them, we’re short on God’s love.
WOMAN ONE: She would have risked job, home and future for the cause of taking God to anyone who was without Him …
WOMAN TWO: In China—in the ghetto—in the country club—in professional organizations. Anywhere God was not, she would have gone to take Him at any cost.
WOMAN ONE: And if we had not been there to aid her in whatever way we could, she would have written back again: “I don’t know how it looks in heaven that you have not helped in this place, but it sure looks mighty strange here.”
NARRATOR:
She died at Kobe, Lord,
But that took just a moment.
She died at Kobe, Father,
And rested in that harbor.
She died at Kobe, Lord,
But that’s not so important,
For she did not stay there long.
She lived in China, Lord,
And that living took a lifetime.
She lived in love, O Lord,
And that love gave life in dead spots.
She lived with rigid purpose
And that fruit outlives a heartbeat.
It cannot end at Kobe, Father,
There’s death that needs revival.
It cannot end at Kobe,
Or death becomes the winner.
It cannot end at Kobe, Lord,
Or love was borne in vain.
It cannot end at Kobe, Father
But it will, Lord, if I let it.
It Cannot End at Kobe, by Carol Tomlinson and Doris Standridge, (Birmingham, AL: Woman’s Missionary Union, 100 Missionary Ridge, 35242).
Ask – I believe that Lottie Moon is like the brother who is wealthy described by James. Instead of depending on her wealth she depended on God and gave it all to Him. How does what we have done look in Heaven?
Close in prayer, asking that God remind daily of the proper place of money in our lives.
- Optional Method – The Treasure Principle
Remind your class of the story of William Borden from the beginning of the session.
Ask – How is William Borden like the wealthy man described in James 1:9-11? What steps do you need to take so that you might have the same attitude as William Borden?
State – In The Treasure Principle Randy Alcorn offers the following example:
Suppose you buy shares of General Motors. What happens? You suddenly develop interest in GM. You check the financial pages. You see a magazine article about GM and read every word, even though a month ago you would have passed right over it.
Ask – If you became a person who was truly interested in the kingdom of God what would happen to you? What would attract your attention? What would you begin to read? How would it change your life?
Close in prayer, asking God to plant in us a sincere desire to conform our priorities to his.
- Optional Method – Dave Ramsey
State – Many of you know about Dave Ramsey. He wrote The Total Money Makeover and hosts a syndicated program on local radio stations across the country called The Dave Ramsey Show. Dave gives no-nonsense advice to folks experiencing financial difficulties.
Share Dave’s personal story taken from Dave Ramsey’s website:
I have an unusual way of looking at the world. My wife, Sharon, says I'm weird and truthfully—I am weird. But there's a reason. Starting from nothing, by the time I was 26 I had a net worth of a little over a million dollars. I was making $250,000 a year—that's more than $20,000 a month net taxable income. I was really having fun. But 98% truth is a lie, and that 2% can cause big problems, especially with $4 million in real estate. I had a lot of debt—a lot of short-term debt—and I'm the idiot who signed up for the trip.
The short version of the story is that debt caused us, over the course of two and a half years of fighting it, to lose everything.
State – On the jacket of his book, The Total Money Makeover, Dave writes:
The Total Money Makeover is all about “renewing your mind,” using God’s ways of handling money (over 800 scriptures deal with money) to be “transformed” (made over). It’s a plan to stop being “conformed” to the ways of the world and as ridiculously broke as the rest of our culture.
State – Dave discovered firsthand the lesson taught by James – money is like wildflowers; it is here today and gone tomorrow. He has also embraced Paul’s admonition in Romans 12 to present our bodies as living sacrifices.
Ask – If you became that person who was truly transformed how would it affect the way you use money? How would it change how you live?
Close in prayer, asking God to plant in us a sincere desire to conform our priorities to his.
DISCUSSION GUIDE
Teacher Copy
- In what can the brother in humble circumstances boast? (James 1:9)
[The brother of humble circumstances can take pride in his high position.]
- In what can the rich brother boast? (James 1:10)
[The rich brother can take pride in his low position.]
- What are some ways in which one can be wealthy other than in the financial sense?
- What do rich and poor have in common? (James 1:9-10)
[Both rich and poor have reason to boast.]
- What will eventually happen to the riches of the wealthy person? (James 1:10)
[The riches of the wealthy will fade away like a wildflower.]
- In what ways can a person who pursues riches be disappointed?
- According to James, what will happen to the rich man even as he goes about his business? (James 1:11)
[James says that the rich man will fade away even as he goes about his business.]
- What could James mean by these verses?
DISCUSSION GUIDE
Student Copy
- In what can the brother in humble circumstances boast? (James 1:9)
- In what can the rich brother boast? (James 1:10)
- What are some ways in which one can be wealthy other than in the financial sense?
- What do rich and poor have in common? (James 1:9-10)
- What will eventually happen to the riches of the wealthy person? (James 1:10)
- In what ways can a person who pursues riches be disappointed?
- According to James, what will happen to the rich man even as he goes about his business? (James 1:11)
- What could James mean by these verses?
Anticipate the Reversal
Group 1 – The poor believer says, “But how rich I am!”
Read Luke 21:1-4.
- How did Luke describe the woman that Jesus saw?
- How were the motives of the rich different from the woman?
- What might have motivated the woman to give everything that she had?
- Is your attitude more like the rich or more like the widow?
- How is this poor widow like the poor believer described in James 1:9?
Group 2 – The rich believer says, “But what a wretch I am!”
Read Luke 5:1-11.
- Do you think of Simon as a rich man? In what ways was he better off than many?
- After his message, what was Jesus’ request of Simon? How did Simon respond?
- How did Simon react when he saw that Jesus had performed a miracle?
- What 3 things did Simon and his friends do in response to Jesus’ invitation to “catch men?”
- How is Simon’s attitude like the attitude of the rich believer in James 1:10?
Group 3 – Earthly riches do not provide security
Read Luke 12:16-21.
- In this parable what was the rich man’s dilemma? What did the man decide to do?
- How did the man view his possessions?
- What happened to the rich man?
- How can one be “rich toward God?”
- Compare and contrast Jesus’ teaching on earthly security with James 1:11.
THEE WORD FOR THE WEEK
Handling Conflict
James 1:19-20
Monday – Read James 1:16, 1:19, James 2:1, 2:5 and James 5:19
- James often drives home the main points of what he is teaching by adding the phrase “my dear brothers and sisters.”
- What does this phrase show you about the relationship he had with the recipients of his letter?
- How does understanding James’ approach impact the approach we should take to teach or admonish someone spiritually?
Tuesday – Read James 1:19
- James exhorts his readers to be quick to listen.
- Being quick to listen is a principle found also in Proverbs 17:27. The quick tempered person in James 1 and Proverbs 17 is the one who is likely to speak without careful consideration.
- What damage can be caused by not being quick to listen?
- How have you been hurt by someone not being quick to listen?
Wednesday – Read James 1:19
- James exhorts his readers to be slow to speak. Apparently the people to whom James was writing to had issues with their tongue. Notice all the references to “the tongue” in the following verses: James 1:26, 3:1-12; 4:1-3; 4:11-12; 5:12.
- Why do we struggle to control our tongue?
- What common themes do you see emerging from the passages listed above?
Thursday – Read James 1:19