For Preachers / For Leaders: ”James: Resolving Conflicts” by Glen Hitchcock

April 22, 2023 - Equipped Workshop Day 3

2:30PM MPR 2 Speaker 

 

Glenn Hitchcock looks at conflict and how the book of James directs us to resolve it. 

 

Slides:

• The Book of James: Resolving Conflict
• Conflict Defined

  • Jas. 4:1 Conflict means→ maintain war with; keep up a feud.

     The Lexham Analytical Lexicon of the Septuagint (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

• Source of Conflict - (James 4:1-3)

  • Christians Possessing Selfish Desires & Uncontrolled Lust:

    • Uncontrolled in Storms, Chapter One - Forgetful Hearer
    • Uncontrolled in Society, Chapter Two – Favoritism
    • Uncontrolled in Speech, Chapter Three – Factious
    • Uncontrolled Self, Chapter Four - Feuding
• Conflict in Every Chapter
  • To Christians scattered or dispersed in unfriendly regions of the Roman Empire the inspired writer comforts, challenges and rebukes his brethren who are conflicted mighty.
  • There is Christian conflict in every chapter of the Book of James that is manifested in the form of the sin of hypocrisy.
• Conflict in Chapter One
  • 1-4 To claim to serve God except when trials and troubles come.
  • 5-11 To claim to depend on God, refuses wisdom.
  • 12-16 To claim to depend on God while denying Him because of pleasures!
  • 17-25 To be gifted with INSTRUCTION BOOK and neglect to follow it!
  • 26 To claim to be Christ controlled while your tongue is out of control!
  • 27 To claim pure Christianity without ACTION.
• Conflict in Chapter Two
  • 1-13 To claim to be a Christian but does not show proper respect of persons
  • 14-26 To claim to be a Christian but does not present a proper concept of faith.
• Conflict in Chapter Three
  • 2-3 Failure to control your desire to say what you shouldn’t.
  • 8-9 To use the tongue to glorify God, and to curse man.
  • 13-18 To claim to be wise but acts foolishly.
• Conflict in Chapter Four
  • 1-3 Embracing our sinful desires rather than submitting to God.
  • 4 Attempting to be a friend of God and a friend of the world.
  • 11-12 Speaking evil of your brother while attempting to be a doer of the law.
  • 13-16 To boastfully goal plan without including the Lord.
  • 17 To know to do good and refuses to perform it.
• Conflict in Chapter Five
  • 1-12 Claiming spirituality while envying riches.
  • 13-18 Claiming spirituality with an ineffectual insincere prayer life.
  • 19-20 Claiming spirituality but failing to restore your erring brother.
• Resolve Conflict Now!
  • 1:1-4, Possess faithful dependence
  • 1: 5-11, Maintain your declaration of dependence to God with:
    • Perils (without & within)
    • Pleasures of Sin
    • Prosperity - Power
    • People - Partiality
    • Pain
    • Politics
  • 1: 17-25 Trust God’s Authority, its in the Book!
  • 1: 19-20 Be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.
  • 1:21 Always be ready to learn from God’s Word.
  • 1:27; 2: 24-26 Once received, one must Act on God’s Word.
  • 2: 1-13 Honor ALL men.

  • 3:1-9 Always glorify God in speech.

  • 3:13-18 Always seek the peaceable wisdom that is from Above.

  • 4:13-16 Always include God in your plans.

  • 5:13-18 Speak to God often and practice patience.

  • 5:19-20 Give priority to reaching out to your erring brother.

• The Need

  • Go To Work!

  • 2:24, 26 -You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

• You can't live like a goat and die like a sheep!
  • James 1:12 - Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
  • James 1: 27 - Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
  • James 4:17 - “Therefore to him who knows to do good and doesn’t not to him it is sin.”
• An Elder's Plea

  • 1.Before You Assume, Learn The Facts.

  • 2.Before You Judge, Understand Why.

  • 3.Before You Hurt Someone, Learn To Feel.

  • 4.Before You Speak, Think.

 

Duration 40:20