James: Week 4

Devotional

If I am honest, pride gets me in trouble all the time. I say things I shouldn’t. I act like I know what I am talking about when I don’t. I look down on people who in reality are just like me. Because of pride I have hurt people and I have hurt myself.

Pride can and will make a really big mess of your life. We all know that it is true, but we are too proud to admit even that! It is so easy for us to point out the pride in someone else but we ignore it in ourselves. Meanwhile I would bet that a majority of the problems in your life are caused by your own pride. Maybe not for everyone, but for a lot of us that’s the case. So, why is that? Why does pride have so much power to make such a big mess of our lives?

There’s a few reasons and we talked about some of them this weekend. The first thing we learned looking at James 4 is that pride destroys relationships. Look at verses 1 and 2,

The word desire there comes from the idea of hedonism. It’s this idea that everything is about me. It’s not just talking about wanting something you don’t have but it is bigger than that. It’s this feeling of entitlement. “I deserve this.” “I should have that before they do” “I worked harder for it” “Why do they get that but not me?” It’s all about me, me, me.

We think like that all the time. We are constantly thinking “What about me?” When will it be my turn? All of it comes from pride. And when we let pride affect the way we view and interact with the people in our lives. It causes a whole lot of pain. It’s really hard to be good friends with someone when you are constantly in a mental competition with them over who is better and who deserves better.

That’s not how Jesus modeled friendships for us. Jesus didn’t assert his authority and position over his disciples, he served them. He was humble and cared for them, even though He actually did deserve better. He didn’t compare himself or throw their mistakes in their faces. He loved and taught them.

Ask yourself, or even ask your small group. Is pride getting in the way of my healthy relationships? Do I need to humble myself?

The second thing we discussed is that pride damages our relationship with God.

Look at what James says next.

That does not sound good to me. God knows the damage pride causes and He wants nothing to do with it. Again when we look at the life of Jesus we don’t see an arrogant leader, we see a humble servant. That is what God’s kingdom is all about. Humbling ourselves, and putting others first. Trusting that God knows best and letting our pride go.

James gives us the step by step instructions on how to do that in verses 7-10.

We need to first submit ourselves to God.

The first step in humbling ourselves is admitting that we don’t know everything. We have to trust that the God of the Universe might actually be smarter than us and we need to start listening to Him.

Then we need to resist the Devil.

There is this idea that the devil would love for you to believe, it sounds like this. “I have my life under control, I make my own choices and my own plans, I don’t need God and I don’t need people.” That my friend is pride and it is a recipe for disaster. So when pride rears its head. When the enemy is trying to convince you to elevate yourself and make yourself bigger and badder than everyone else. Remember that God opposes the proud and ask Him to help you remain humble.

Finally we must draw near to God and get honest about our sin.

Verse 10 says if we humble ourselves God will lift us up. Meaning when we stay humble. We go to God and confess our sin of pride and we focus on serving other before ourselves, God will put us where we need to be. We will be honored in the eyes of other people, because noone likes a prideful person, and most importantly God will honor us. He will raise us up to where He wants us and He will do exactly what He wants with our lives. But remember if you choose not to humble yourself. If you continue to let pride run rampant. God will not look to raise you up. Like James said, He will oppose you.

GAME

POISON DART FROG

NEEDS:

SETUP: Have all students sit with their small groups.

Directions:

1. Have the students sit in a circle. Choose one student to sit in the middle. Have everyone close their eyes. Then have a leader anonymously tap 1 or 2 students (depending on how big your group is) on the head. They will be the poison dart frog(s), and their job is to secretly kill other people sitting in the circle. The person in the middle will be spending the game trying to figure out who they are. The poison dart frogs "kill" people by doing two things:
2. Making eye contact with the person and quickly sticking their tongue out at them
3. If you happen to see the poison dart frog stick out their tongue and kill someone else, do not shout out who they are and identify them.
4. Only the person sitting in the middle can make a guess.
5. Their will be a person in the middle who has 3 guesses to correctly identify the poison dart frog(s). (You can decrease the number of guesses if you have a small group playing). If they fail to find them, the game is over and the poison dart frogs win.

*Before you get started ask your students how they did with the new testament reading challenge. If students are struggling consider starting a group chat to help each other*

Small group questions

1. Are there times where it is ok to be proud of yourself? Can you give an example?
2. What’s the difference between that kind of pride and the pride James is talking about?
3. In your own life, how have you seen pride cause damage? Specifically your own pride.
4. What does it mean to humble ourselves?
5. How can we as a group work together to humble ourselves and not let pride damage our lives?

Bible study

*NOTE* For younger groups, if you feel they aren’t ready for a full soap journal, encourage them to read through the passage and write down 1. Anything that sticks out to them. 2. Any questions they have from the passage. 3. What they think God wants them to learn from that passage. Then talk over it as a group

1. Last week we learned the SOAP method for studying the Bible. Let’s apply that today as a group to James chapter 4.

Open up your journal and write out

S:

O:

A:

P:

1. First let’s pray and ask God to show us what we need to learn about Him or His Word today.
2. We’ll start by taking 10 minutes to read James chapter 1. Don’t rush through it but take your time to understand and look for one verse that sticks out to you. *read for 10 minutes*
3. Now that we have read, let’s take 10 minutes to journal. You will start by writing down the verse or verses that stuck out to you in the scripture section. Then write your observation, application and prayer. Remember don’t rush, really take the time to see what God has for you.

Questions for observation:

• What is happening in this verse?
• What is God doing or saying in this verse?
• What can I learn from this verse?

Question for application:

• What should I do based on what I just read?

5. Now let’s take a few minutes to share with the group what we learned. *be prepared to dive into any questions and gently correct any confusion or misunderstandings. If you come to a question you don’t know the answer to, remember it is ok to say “I don’t know, let’s find out together!”

Moving forward

James gives us a recipe for fighting pride in verses 7-10. Let’s pray and ask God to help us submit ourselves to him, resist the devil, confess our sins and draw close to God.