What’s an adventure you’ve experienced?

Leader Note: Remember this is an all play! You want to create as much energy and interplay in the group as possible here. Some “adventure” examples may include getting lost in a town you’ve never been in or a “thrill seeking” activity. There really is no wrong answer here, encourage and even model broad answers from your own life to get the conversation going.

Transition out of this question by saying something like… “some adventures are unwelcome… we all face them in one form or another. Let’s see what our passage has to say about that.”

Look Down // 15 minutes

Read James 1:2-8 (NLT)

2a. What’s the truth about trials?

Sample answers may include…

• They will come your way
• They come in many shapes and sizes
• They often take us by suprise
• They provide us with an opportunity to grow
• They test or measure faith (Faith = What we can’t see but believe to be true anyway)
• They can produces perseverance, endurance and maturity 

2b. How do you show faith in trials?

Sample answers may include…

• You consider (look/think again) at the trial and see it as an growing opportunity
• Recall past situations where you made it threw the other side
• You stick with it, allow the trial to run it’s course, to test you
• You ask God for wisdom (note that asking for wisdom is different than asking to be rescued for the trial)
• Believe in God’s generosity even when you can’t see it
• Place your complete trust in God alone, anchor yourself in Him

Leader Note: Follow up this question by asking the group to identify what it looks like to not show faith in trials. Key in on the following word pictures from the passage; waver, unsettled like a wave, blown and tossed by the wind, divided loyality and unstable in all they do.

Commentary: James explains how believers will face unwelcome and unanticipated trials but it can be considered joy because it is producing something in the believer’s life.  As believers embrace or allow the testing of their faith, it produces perseverance or endurance.  And, as they let perseverance finish its work or let it have its full effect, then it leads them to maturity.  The Greek word is telios, which means the completed life, whole, not lacking anything, and mature.

Leader note: Take time to observe all that the passage has to offer or in other words let the text speak.  As you read and study this text, listen for what the group is observing and how it is impacting them.  Remember, sit in the text before jumping to the next question.

 

Look Out // 10 minutes

3a. Imagine a person who wins a 50 million dollar lottery. What does their life look like in 10 years?

Leader Note:Recall or listen back in the message to way Kenton asked these questions by setting it up as a story. If your group heard the message get their thoughts and make room for a fun and honest conversation. Have fun here while aiming the group back to the value of perseverance. 

Your group will likely respond in some of the following ways; “they don’t have to work or they can do whatever they want.” When they answer be ready to ask follow up question, i.e. “what does it look like when a person doesn’t work for 10 years, what does it look like when a person isn’t required to be somewhere?”

Draw out some of the following statistics at this point if they are not already made by the group

• 90% of the time the new family wealth is gone by the third generation
• 44% of winners spend their entire winnings within five years
• 99% of people quit their jobs
• 90% of marriages end in divorce

Or consider these cautionary tales…

Jack Whittaker won $315 million in 2002. He was robbed at a club and granddaughter died under strange circumstance. By 2007, he said his bank accounts were largely empty. He told reporters, “I wish I’d torn that ticket up.”

Evelyn Baseshore of New Jersey who won two payouts totaling more than $5 million in the mid-1980s and was besieged by thieves and hangers on. “Everybody wanted my money,” said the former convenience-store manager. “Everybody had their hand out.”

3b. Imagine a person who wins the lottery and was given the gift of perseverance. What does their life look like in 10 years?

Commentary: Money may offer a temporary fix to some problems but it can not build character and integrity in a person like perseverance. A person who preserves gains wisdom that is independent of external and temporary objects.

 

Look In // 15 minutes

4a. Describe a time God built perseverance in you?

Commentary: Looking back is a great discipline for building faith in ourselves and others who are currently facing trials.

4b. Where are you looking for a “50 million dollar” solution?

Leader Note: Remember we are using this analogy as a quick fix or easy out to a problem. Other ways to ask this question may include… “Where are you hopeless and looking for an easy out or Where are you overwhelmed and turning to things outside of God for help?”

4c. What would it look to “let perseverance finish it’s work?”

Leader note: Everyone in your group is either currently or will be going through something hard in their life.  You, as the leader, have an opportunity to speak truth with grace into their lives: Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  If they need help with their perspective of the difficulty, James says we can ask God for wisdom, which means asking God to see it with His eyes.

 

Live It Out // 5 minutes

5. How can your perseverance inspire faith in others? 

Commentary: How many times have you been inspired by another person’s faith to persevere and stick it out?  Persevering faith makes people stop and consider Jesus more than any other way! 

Key Verse(s): Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. – James 1:4

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Learn More About Flow Questions: Check out Kenton Beshore’s book Ask in the Irvine Campus Bookstore for more on the Flow Question model.