Dalby Christian Family Church Podcast

DCFC Online February 28th 2021 - Growing Up Through Trials. Ps Murray Tomlinson

DCFC Sunday Service PM 14th Feb - Carl Butler - Irrestible Saviour

Friday 19th Feb 2021 Shane Willard - Avoiding the Evil Tongue

Thursday 18th Feb 2021 Shane Willard - Walls not Fences

DCFC Sunday Service 7th Feb 2021 Ps Murray Tomlinson - The God Connections in your Life

DCFC Online - 21st of February - How To Grow Up - Ps Murray Tomlinson

 JAMES No 1.

HOW TO GROW UP

JAMES 1:1-2, (NLT)
¹ This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am writing to the “twelve tribes”—Jewish believers scattered abroad. Greetings!
² Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.                                                                                                                             When you receive a letter, do you check the back of the envelope to see WHO it is from?

James the son of Joseph and Mary, and half-brother of Jesus (See Mark 6:3) [also known as James the Just] was The Author of this Letter.                                                                                                                                                     What would it have been like to have Jesus as your Big half-brother living in your family?                                                                                                                                                                                                                               We can only speculate about what it would have been like to have Jesus as an elder brother.   But such was the experience of James, the author of this Book that bears his name.   [I grew up with Jesus and I survived]                                                                                                                                                                                     Mary and Joseph certainly knew Who Jesus was.  They had heard the angels predict his miraculous conception (Matt 1:18-25; Luke 1:38-56).  Surely Mary and Joseph would have explained Jesus’ true identity to the rest of the Family. (But We Don’t Know That)                                                                                                             But James and the others (including Jude the author of the book of Jude) remained unconvinced, of His Divinity.

MARK 6:2-3  NLT says regarding Jesus,
² The next Sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. They asked, “Where did he get all this wisdom and the power to perform such miracles?”
³ Then they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.                                                                                                                                                                                   JOHN 7:5, Tells Us, For even HIS Brothers did NOT believe in HIM.

Living with Jesus for almost 30 years must have left an impact upon James; seeing the  Character and the Unselfishness of Jesus.                                                                                                                                                                                    BUT What changed James from being a sceptical younger brother, to a committed follower of Jesus, and an outspoken Leader of the Church?  WAS ………THAT ……….                                                                                                                                                 He Saw his brother Alive Again After the Resurrection---- He saw THE RISEN CHRIST.                                                                                                1Corinth 15:7, indicates that Jesus appeared to James after His resurrection.                                                                                                         1Corinth 15:3-8,  Paul Tells Us, For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 
4, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 
5, and that He was seen by Cephas, (PETER) then by the twelve. 
6, After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 
7, After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 
8,Then last of all He was seen by Me (PAUL)also, as by one born out of due time. (Paul had an Open Vision) on the Damascus Road, in  ACTS 9]                                                                                                                                                   This appearance of Jesus to James, convinced James; that Jesus truly was the Saviour, and He in turn shared this knowledge about Jesus with the other brothers.                                                                                                                           

James later became the leader of the Church in Jerusalem.   Acts 12:17, Acts 21:18-19                                                                                                                                                                      Paul called him a pillar in the Jerusalem Church in Galatians 2:9.                                                                                                                 It was James who moderated the Church Conference that is described in Acts 15:13-21 about the NON Circumcision of the New Gentile Converts.                                                                                                                           

What kind of man was James?  He must have been a deeply spiritual man to gain the Leadership of the Church in Jerusalem in such a short time. His stature (Or Maturity) is seen in Acts 15, where he was able to permit all the factions to express themselves, and then Bring Peace by drawing a conclusion based on the Word of God.                                                                                            Paul in 1 Corinth 9:5, suggested that he was a married man, when He said……..                                                           1Corinth 9:5, Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? (Peter)
Tradition tells us that James was a man of prayer, and because he loved to intercede on his knees he became known as the “Man with Camels Knees”.  

James wrote His letter to the Jewish and Gentile Christians of the First Century, who had Been Scattered because of The Persecution in [Acts 8:1] at Jerusalem, and They Fled out across Asia. Many had Come to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost Celebration, [In ACTS 2] and had been Converted under Peters Preaching, then Water Baptised, and Filled with the Spirit, and then returned to their homes, and villages across Asia, where they were Now NEW CHRISTIANS in a hostile World under  a Hostile Roman Government.

Life was incredibly TOUGH for these new Christians and James was burdened by the Holy Spirit to write to these New Believers and help encourage them to practically LIVE OUT their New Faith, and not to succumb to the pressure  from the Ungodly World all around them.

James wrote His letter to the Scattered Christians, in approx A.D. 49-50.                                                                                                                            JAMES, is in fact the FIRST BOOK of the New Testament to be written; and is the first of the GENERAL EPISTLES,  which means it was Not written to a specific Church or City such as Romans, Ephesians or Corinthians, etc; (Which addressed specific issues in individual Churches)                                                                                                                                               JAMES was actually written to all Christians everywhere, telling them HOW to Live for God. And this ALSO means YOU and ME, NOW living in 2021.                                                                                                                       Josephus the Jewish Historian tells us that James was condemned to death by the Jewish Sanhedrin in A.D.62, just after the death of the Roman Governor Festus. [Acts 26:32]   The Scribes and Pharisees Threw Him from the Southern Pinnacle of the Temple, but the 100ft fall did not kill him. So a MOB then stoned him, finally putting him out of his misery with a Fullers Club to the Head. He IS buried in the Tomb called “The Tomb of St James”

James as the Leader of the Jerusalem Christian Community, had a Large and Scattered flock who were living Far Beyond the Walls of Jerusalem. He addressed them as the Twelve Tribes which are scattered abroad, [NIV, scattered among the nations]. It was Like a RELIGIOUS CLEANSING.                                     

They became a DISPLACED People, driven out of their own land by Religious Persecution, [almost refugee status]. Now they were mostly Without LAND, and incredibly POOR.                                                                      These First Century Christians, were generally NOT Wealthy, and Life was Very Very TOUGH.

 

James (when He wrote) did NOT call Himself “The brother of Our LORD”, but a bond servant of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. JESUS….. his older half Brother had become LORD of his life.

These YOUNG NEW Believers needed Guidance and Advice on HOW TO Grow Up [or HOW to attain Maturity] in God. James is a very Practical book to help us Understand HOW TO....Attain Spiritual Maturity.                                                                                                                                                                                         Not everybody who Grows OLD, Grows UP.                                                                                                                 There is a vast difference between AGE and MATURITY. Ideally, the Older we are, the more Mature we should be; BUT too often the Ideal does NOT become the Real. [The Reality]

The result is Usually Problems.  ..... Problems in Our personal lives; ..... Problems in Our homes;  and  Problems in Churches.   IMMATURITY causes more problems in these areas than anything else.

J.B. Philips, Began his version of the New Testament in Modern English in 1941; for the benefit of his Youth Club in a much Bombed Parish in South East London in World War 2. As Vicar of his Parish, Philips discovered his Youth Club Members could Not Make Sense of the King James Translation of the Bible.                                                                                                                                                                       He wanted to give the Youth of His Parish a MAP FOR LIFE.                                                                                   He wanted to show them in their Bombed Out Lives, the Courage, Vitality and Radiant Faith of the Early Church. Living in S. E. London in 1941 was NO Joy. Life was Hell. You didn’t know if you would wake up in the morning.                                                                                                                                    So This is what He wrote in His Translation of                                                                                                            James 1:2-4, When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends.                                                                                          3, Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance.                                  

4, But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character, men of integrity with no weak spots.                                                                                    

How can a person consider trials a reason for joy? Because this is a Remarkable Command...... we are to Choose to be Joyful in situations where joy would naturally be our Last Response. When circumstances make us Angry and we want to Blame GOD, James directs us to the Healthier Alternative ...... which is JOY.  [See J.B. Philips above]                                                                         

In other words...It’s not what Happens TO ME that Counts, but What Happens, IN ME that makes all the difference of HOW I will journey in Life.                                                                                                                                            LIFE Will serve up its’ Share of Sorrows, but those who Trust in God CAN exhibit a dramatically different Positive Response to the difficult events of life. 

Paul Billheimer’s Book......  Don’t Waste your Sorrows.  He wrote, Without Suffering Character is Not Built...because Character is built from RIGHT CHOICES made in difficult Circumstances.

There are NO VICTIMS Here, Only CHOICE MAKERS

BITTER or BETTER we All Get That CHOICE.

James is NOT telling us to Pretend to be Happy, Most of us are Happy when we escape trials.                                                                                                                                                                                   James tells us to CHOOSE Rejoicing & JOY.  It will do more for building Resilience, Character and Maturity in us than any other Response. This JOY is NOT joyful anticipation for trials ahead. (We’re not Masochists, where we derive pleasure from our own suffering)  BUT IN THE Trial We Choose the Attitude, and the Attitude we choose is One of Not Resenting Trials, OR Blaming GOD, but Seeing Them as something that WILL NOT STEAL our JOY.

 

JOY is God-oriented CHOICE, rather than Event-oriented RESPONSE, because it CENTERS on God and His Presence in our experience. (Like the 3 Hebrew boys in fire)

STORY, Laurie and Martha PESU house fire in Dec 1976 at Moria Village. They Worshipped GOD as there House and Earthly Belongings were Burning to the Ground. [Pictures Attached]

Romans 8:28-39, And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.                                                                   

And James tells us to Consider it PURE JOY when we face TRIALS of many kinds COME.                                Our Attitude is to be one of PURE Joy or Genuine Rejoicing.                                                                                   WE ARE NOT Pretending  to be Happy, BUT like James tells us,  WE CHOOSE Rejoicing and JOY.  It will do more for building Resilience, Character and Maturity in us than any other response. JOY is God-oriented rather than Event-oriented, because it CENTERS on God and His Presence in our experience.  LET ME PRAY FOR YOU.

DCFC Online 14th of February - Ps Carl Butler. the Light of God

Guest Speaker Ps Carl Butler talks about the Light of God in our Lives. 

Enjoy the message.

DCFC Sunday Service31st January - Ps Murray Tomlinson - Courage

DCFC Sunday Service 24th Jan 2021 Ps Murray - Are you all In?

DCFC Sunday Services 17th Jan 2021 Ps Lynda H - What is the Church?