QBC Internship Sermon 1 / James 1:1-11 / The Way of the Servant

Intro

“If you want to compete against me, you better be willing to give up your life because I’m giving up mine.” - Tom Brady

Define the servant: The servant is the mature man / joyful, wise, hopeful

The call for servanthood / the need for servanthood

Example of servanthood (Tom Carson?) / 1. Counts it All Joy 2. Pleads for wisdom 3. Surrenders His Will

James 1:1 (ESV)

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

Counts it All Joy

James 1:2–4 (ESV)

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Joy is “a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the word and the world.”

& The “longing for” experience (Lewis + Edwards)

Trials are inevitable and necessary

Faith produces steadfastness as steadfastness molds you into the image of Christ, the perfect and complete, lacking in nothing Savior of the World…

Which is impossible…

Joy is not the ultimate pursuit of the Christian life. If we have our eyes set on joy alone then we will have missed the mark. The servant is not limited to an experience of joy through trials but is also determined to purse a life of wisdom, because without wisdom, joy is unattainable.

Pleads for Wisdom

James 1:5–8 (ESV)

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Wisdom - The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom

Our generous, without reproach God (God needs to be put in awe in this part of the sermon, to the point in which we must not doubt anything)

Asking in FAITH (not doubting) / This part of the sermon brings us back to reality… The reality of failure and trials.

The doubting double minded man vs. the faithful stable man (the servant) / Define double minded here and what James says later in James 4:8 / Use John Calvin reference and what he says.

Might also be good to use Kirko here too to dumb it down?

Wise man built his house upon the rock could be useful for describing the wise.

Wisdom is not a thing of ourselves. It takes faith in God to turn to Him knowing that He will provide. But of all else, it takes a surrendering will which is third and final trait of the servant. To be a servant, our lives must be given to the master we serve.

Surrenders His Will

James 1:9–11 (ESV)

Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

We do not live for temporal glory but eternal glory

Die to self / Die today so that you would live tomorrow

Solomon in all his glory example?

Every example of the apostles (this is is the life of servanthood) / We should wake-up every morning with an urgency for eternal sonship instead of temporal luxury

This takes great wisdom and an experience of joy to continually surrender your will to God. But it also takes a surrender of will to know wisdom and joy as well

Put the fear of God back into the hearts of people here in this part of the sermon. To surrender your will as a servant, the servant must be in awe of the master

Conclusion

The example of Christ

“If you want to live the way of a servant, you better be willing to give up your life because He already gave up His.”