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Home , Carpe diem

“CAN YOU GUESS THE BIBLE’S MOST DANGEROUS WORD?” James 4:13-17 Compass of Salinas/Marina Life Group Discussions October #1

1. Read James 4:3-17 carefully several . • Summarize in a sentence what James warns us not to do.

• From this passage, what would you guess is the Bible’s most dangerous word and say why.

2. Consider this quote from the message: is the most dangerous word because “tomorrow” may not come. James wrote in chapter 4, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’ — yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little and then vanishes.” (James 4:13-14) These people are under the illusion that they are in control of their life, that if they eat right, are careful in what they do, tomorrow will come. They cannot imagine tomorrow not coming for them. Today in America tomorrow will not come for on average 67,750 people. They will die for various reasons. They thought that they were in control of their life. They could not imagine tomorrow not coming…but it did not come. You are only 30, and a careful driver and you expect many tomorrows to come…but a car runs a red light and 3 days later there is a funeral for you. Tomorrow did not come. Like James says “You do not know what will happen tomorrow.” I read this last week that the leading cause of in our homes is falling off a ladder. More than 1,000 people a year die from falling off a ladder. Tomorrow did not come. James says: “You are a mist that appears a little while and then vanishes.” (James 4:14) The Psalms describe our life as morning dew on the grass that soon is gone, or a flower that is beautiful but it soon withers and dies. Don’t put off till tomorrow what you need to do today. Maybe you need to confront someone and say “Stop it,” but you are afraid of their reaction, so you delay. Or maybe you need to apologize to someone but that’s hard for you to do and so you procrastinate. If there is a hill to climb, it will not be smaller tomorrow. Procrastination keeps us stuck - - stuck in a relationship we know is a mistake but we keep putting off ending it and we waste more days of our life or even years in a relationship that is not good. Or we stay stuck in a job we don’t like because we keep delaying hunting for another one. Procrastination keeps us stuck and our days pass by. On the screen you see an with grains of sand slipping through it. That is our life. Our days are slipping by. Life slips by. It was just we were in high school and now we are 50. James says: Your life has no rewind button. • Underline the most important sentence in your opinion and say why.

• The Bible says our life is like a mist: We soon disappear from the earth. What might be one implication of that? Well, consider this quote: Mozart, Beethoven and Bach were highly critical of musicians in their day for playing music too fast. They were hurrying the tempo. They needed to slow down so that the music could blossom. The answer to the brevity of life is NOT TO SPEED UP BUT TO SLOW DOWN AND Carpe Diem. Horace, the poet, coined that phrase. You often hear it translated as “seize the day”……but that is a wrong translation and I’m so glad that it is wrong. Let me explain. Last summer on my sabbatical at Oxford University in England the prof of the seminar I was taking put me on to a book about the life of Horace and the Latin roots of his famous saying. It’s important to know that Horace was a lover of wine. That factors in to the meaning of his phrase. In fact most of his poetry was about the pleasures of wine, poems like A Song to Wine. So it is no surprise that the word CARPE is a word describing how to harvest grapes. You do not SEIZE THE GRAPES on the vine. You don’t GRAB AND YANK. That would bruise them. No. You curl your fingers around the grapes gently, you encircle the grapes with your hand. CARPE is actually a sensuous word describing feeling the grapes, not grapping them. DIEM means “day” in Latin, so Horace, as a wine lover meant by Carpe Diem - - Taste the Day. Sip the day like wine. Not gulp the day in a hurry. “Taste” your children today. Be fully to them. Enjoy them like sipping top shelf wine. Take time to listen. At night don’t hurry up their prayers or hurry up reading to them so you can do other things. Slow down and sip your children. Sip your marriage. Sip your friends. “Taste the day”. Tomorrow is a dangerous word because your life has no rewind button. Sip today……. Taste it...... Carpe Diem. This last week as I thought about our Scripture and the hourglass, I remembered when my family use to be a 4 potato family. We needed 4 baked potatoes for dinner. Then our son Jon died and we became a 3 potato family. Then Jenny left for college and then eventually married and is now raising her family in Colorado. Now Susie and I are a 2 potato family. And the sand continues to fall through the hourglass for us and there will come the day we both dread - - the day one of us will need only 1 potato for dinner because there has been a funeral. Your life has no rewind button, so Carpe Diem. • What sentence stands out to you and say why. What is the implication for living?

• I said that Susie and I are a 2 potato family right now but one day we will be a 1 potato family, and there is no rewind button. Name at least 2 implications of that. For example, how about apologizing sometimes or cherishing each other rather than taking our marriage for granted? Tomorrow is a dangerous word because there is no guarantee it will come. So name at least 2 ways this should affect how we live TODAY.

• (PERSONAL AND PRIVATE SO BE HONEST). If tomorrow is a dangerous word, and there is no rewind button on today, what one thing does the Holy Spirit bring to mind that you need to do and change today? Don’t rush this. Take some time to be quiet and let the Lord speak to you. He will….if you are still and wait.

3. What does Romans 14:12 say never put off till tomorrow? Why?

• How about 2 Corinthians 5:9-10? What does it imply is a very big mistake?

4. Consider this quote: Jesus was famous for asking probing questions like “Why do you call Me Lord but do not do as I say?” To another person He asked “Do you want to be healed?” Jesus never assumed that a person wanted to be healed or helped. Legions of people do not really want to change. They have sick attitudes or behaviors and really don’t want Jesus to heal them because there are payoffs for those attitudes. A person has a temper and they use it to intimate and control others. A person is self- centered - - it’s me me me. Well they may not want Jesus to heal that. They like having their way. But behavior we repeat is the kind of person we eventually become. Over and over in different ways Jesus called us to repentance before it is too late. People don’t much use that word anymore but it’s a beautiful word in the Bible because repentance means imagining yourself getting better as a person. Improving. Because what we do not fix we repeat. When Jesus called us to repentance He was asking - - Can you imagine yourself becoming better? Better attitudes. Better behavior. Repentance is a beautiful word because old ways of behaving will not open new doors. Old ways produce the same old problems. • What does it say is the definition of repentance?

• Do you agree or not, and say why?

• Do you have much imagination about how you could be a better person? Stop and spend some time imagining just one area you could become a better person. Describe what that would mean and the benefit to you and those you love if you started imagining you a better person.

5. Consider carefully this quote: Last week I referred to Jim Collin’s book Good To Great. It is about why some companies in America are good but never become great. He says it is because they decide being a good company is good enough. And marriages and people don’t improve, they don’t go to the next level, because they decided good is good enough. They settle for being good. Collins writes “Good is the enemy of great.” Do you think your marriage is good enough? If you do, you will never have a great marriage. Do you think you are a good enough person? Then you’ll never conquer behaviors and attitudes that are still sin in God’s eyes. Stagnation. Plateauing. People and companies get stuck when they think they are good enough. If you can’t imagine becoming better, then it won’t happen. There is only one problem with lack of imagination - - Nothing improves. That’s why so many marriages repeat the same pain over and over. It is why relationships don’t improve. Someone is unwilling to imagine that they can change. They are unwilling to repent. It is why many Christians do not experience the joy of the Holy Spirit - - un-Jesus like attitudes they refuse to repent of are blocking the Holy Spirit’s joy. Tomorrow may be too late. I know what some of you are thinking. You are thinking that you always apologize. Isn’t that enough? No. The answer is no. You may be married to what I call a professional apologizer. They think an apology is enough. No change is required. Just keep apologizing for the same bad behavior or attitude. I was thinking as I wrote this message that……the best apology is changed behavior! • What do you think it means “Good is the enemy of great”? Explain that in your own words and maybe an example.

• What do you think about what I said that more is needed than an apology. The best behavior is changed behavior! Is that true? Some people are professional apologizers; they apologize but do not change and then do the same thing again thinking “you have to forgive me and accept my apology.” Ever known a professional apologizer? What’s the problem with it?

6. What is the takeaway point of this quote? There is something else in this Scripture that a preacher may be tempted to ignore because it challenges spiritually lazy Christians. James is writing to Christians whose life is all about them and their families. It’s people who have lots of plans for me me me. But when James says our life is short and uncertain, the next he implies of course is standing before Jesus in and our life being judged. Many Christians think that because they have been saved by grace it means that how they live and what they do no longer matters, that there is no judgment of their behavior in eternity, they’ve been saved by grace so how they behave on earth does not matter. It is a convenient belief, isn’t it? But it is a lie straight from the devil. Jesus says the Christian life is following in His footsteps. It is becoming more and more like Him. And that is not just becoming more forgiving. It is serving the agendas of God the Father like He did. Jesus said “I have come not to be served but to serve.” So He healed people and ultimately died on the cross. The cross is Jesus serving us. And above all, it is serving God the Father’s biggest agenda which is to save us. And so following in Jesus’ footsteps includes serving God. Serving is the normal Christian life. Jesus in the parable of talents said clearly we will be judged by the use of the talents God has given to us. And remember His story about the successful person who built bigger and bigger barns and retired. That successful person said “Take life easy. Eat drink and be merry.” But the Lord said “You fool” and that night he died. (Luke 12:20) He retired. But it was all about his pleasures. Me me me. But that night he died and he faced judgment of his life. What was stored up for him in heaven from his life on earth? Zero. Nothing. That’s why Jesus talked about hearing in heaven Him saying to us “Well done good and faithful servant.” Servant…there it is again. We are meant to serve Christ. So James in this passage is asking……are you serving Him? Or are you like the Barn Man living for himself? Repentance. At the Lord’s Supper that includes moral repentance from moral sin and un- Jesus like attitudes, but it also may include for some of us repentance of not serving Jesus, of only serving ourself and our family. • The takeaway point in your own words?

• Volunteering has become rarer in churches. Jesus defines following Him as serving His ministries, ministries in the name of Jesus. But the stats across America say that 20% of us do 80% of the work of the church. Most Christians are consumers. What can you do for me when Jesus is asking what will you do for ME. Give 2 really common excuses people have for not serving.

Now for each of those what would you imagine Jesus would say?

Pray for each other

Memory: “You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (James 4:14)