Always Working Even When You Don't Feel It
May 3, 2022 · Carl · James
Scripture referenced 2 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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John 15 (partial verse) quoted to show that Jesus is always at work even when we do not see or feel it
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.
2 Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3 You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.
5 I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
6 If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.
8 “In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.
9 Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love.
10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love.
11 I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.
15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.
16 You didn’t choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
17 “I command these things to you, that you may love one another.
18 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
21 But all these things will they do to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 He who hates me, hates my Father also.
24 If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now have they seen and also hated both me and my Father.
25 But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’
26 “When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.
27 You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Keep this verse
James 4:1-12
the passage the Monday night group has been studying together in conversation style
1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?
2 You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.
3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11 Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.
12 Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This Monday night gathering at First B Jackson continued the series through the book of James, working through chapter four, verses one through twelve. Carl led the group in a conversational style, with space at the end for anyone to share something from the passage that stood out to them. The evening opened with a meal prepared by Felix and Guadalupe, followed by worship and teaching.
What was said
Carl opened by noting a verse that had been catching his attention, where Jesus says in John 15 that His Father is always at work to that very day, and that He too is working. The point was simple but grounding: Jesus is always at work, even when we do not see it or feel it.
That theme carried into the worship time. The song Waymaker gave the room language for it, declaring that God is working even in the moments when His presence is not felt. Carl let the song do that work before moving into the text.
Turning to James chapter four, Carl framed the passage around the question of God's will. He described James as pressing into what God actually wants, rather than what we want for ourselves.
The image he returned to was one of emptying and filling. He put it as a question James seems to be asking: as we empty ourselves, what does God want to fill us up with?
Carl closed the teaching portion with a prayer that drew together the different situations people in the room were carrying. He acknowledged that even in the same room, people are in very different places, and that some are praying for something entirely beyond their own control. He prayed that whatever was being asked for would be in line with God's will, and asked God to help the room see and recognize where He is already moving.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Carl mentioned that Jesus said 'My Father is always at work to this very day, and I too am working.' When has it been hardest for you to believe that God is working, even when you couldn't see or feel it?
- The song repeats the idea that God is working even when we don't see it and even when we don't feel it. What is the difference between those two things for you, and which is harder to hold onto?
and 3 more questions in the guide
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