(dis)Placed: Trials, Exile, Transformation
James 1:1-18
Richard Dahlstrom, Senior Pastor, www.spiritsoulbody.org
James offer three foundational truths about trials that bring us hope:
- Trials Produce Endurance, which will fuel our faith for the long haul
- Trials require Wisdom, so they create in us a posture of dependency
- Trials recalibrate Our Lives, so that we find joy where others can’t
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Discussion Questions
Before questions, attempt to give the group a bit of a summary of the main points of the sermon and then choose a few questions that fit your group’s needs and style. We don’t intend for you to use all of these. Three to five questions may be a good number.
- Begin by reading James 1:1-18 aloud, taking turns reading the passages.
- Pray over the group before beginning discussion.
- Pastor Richard describes the book of James as “an entire book devoted to living well in the midst of circumstances we would never have chosen on our own.” We recognize that not every displacement is equal but that everyone has been dealing with a sense of exile.
- How can we live well when life is going a way we do not desire? What defines “living well”?
- What circumstances, or forms of displacement have you been experiencing? (ex. displaced by racism, sexism, by your age, by Covid, by your political affiliation…?)
- Knowing that this will not be the last trial, or season of trials, what have you learned in this season of displacement?
- What do we know of the context of James’ audience and how does that shape our understanding of living as displaced people? (ie. poverty, oppression, Jews dispersed).
- We were reminded in the text that endurance is not something we produce, but rather a bi-product created through perseverance.
- How is perseverance practiced?
- What does it look like live as if you believe that something good is happening in spite of the pain, or the rejection, or the misunderstanding, or the loss?
- How is perseverance different than “just showing up” or pushing through a situation? (ex. Seeing/owning our own participation and asking God to reveal our frailty vs. moving through our own strength).
- Read Proverbs 8:30-31. Consider a personal practice of reading 1 chapter of Proverbs daily for the next month as you seek to know God in asking for wisdom.
- How do trials recalibrate our view of God and his character?
- Where have you seen examples of people coming out transformed for the better through the trials they experience in a way that continues to point others towards God and his goodness?