Rock and Sand – “The Inner Person”

Are you optimistic about building the life you want – the “full life” God made you for – in this new year? Or are you perhaps confused, discouraged, or resigned to pessimism?  We all come to a new year thinking about who we are, where we’ve been, and where we’re going. So how do we move forward toward the full life God wants for us in 2025?  It might be as simple as developing and following one habit.

1.  What’s In You Is What’s Holding You Up or Holding You Back (James 4:1-3)

• James tells us that the primary source of our “quarrels and fights” in this broken world is what’s inside us – our inner person. Essentially, our inner person wants the wrong things – and when we don’t get them, we’re angry, bitter, resentful and miserable… far from living the “full life.”
• Our inner person (our “soul” or “character” or “spiritual self”) determines how we react to pressure, how we make decisions, and how we face trials or struggles. What’s in us determines what happen through us, to us, and around us. What’s in us (i.e., our inner person) really matters.
• Like a balloon, the kind of “air” that’s inside of us is the key to how we live. What’s in us either holds us up or holds us back; it either lifts us up or lets us down. And simply resolving to “be better” in the new year is like yelling at a balloon filled with heavy air to “get up!” – we can try and try, but unless what’s inside of us changes, the result will be the same. So what can we do to change what’s inside?

2. What Are You Breathing In?  (James 4:7-11) some text
   • After giving us the “bad news” up front, James goes on to give us some hope – hope for how we can see real change in what’s “inside the balloon” and begin to enjoy the full life God wants for us. And it starts with “filling up” with the right stuff – the stuff of life.
   • Coming “near” to God and filling up with the life he offers us isn’t some magical, mystical experience or a sudden epiphany; it’s a process, and it can start fairly simply. It comes down to this: we must be with Jesus so that we can become more like Jesus.
   • One habit that will facilitate this process more than any other is a daily “quiet time” with God. What does that look like? It’s simple 30 or 45 or 60 minutes each day (typically at the beginning of the day) that includes reading some Scripture, intentional prayer, perhaps some journaling, and listening.
   • In a habitual quiet time, you will begin to “breathe in” the Word and Spirit of God. As it turns out, whatever you “breathe in” you begin to sound like – and look like. If we breathe in nothing but work and friends and news and social media, that’s what we’ll sound like; but if we start and focus our day on breathing in the Spirit of Jesus, we’ll begin to sound and look more and more like him.
3. Four Questions to Ask some text
   • Questions can be a powerful catalyst to making our quiet time more and more life-changing. Here are four questions to ask and consider whenever you spend that time with God:some text
     1. What do I need to thank God for?
     2. What do I need to confess?
     3. What do I need to ask God for?
     4. What does God want to say to me?

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE

These passages may provide additional insights related to the subject of this week’s message. All verses are NLT unless otherwise noted.

Psalms 51:10-12; Proverbs 4:23-27; Romans 12:1-2; Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 4:20-24; Philippians 1:6

Video of the Week: The Holy Spirit by the Bible Project

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

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1. Do you typically make New Year’s resolutions each year?  Why or why not?  

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2. Whether you make them or not, what would you say is the key to successfully keeping a New Year’s resolution in such a way that it actually changes your life? 

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3. Read James 4:1-3 again. James clearly says that the reason we don’t have the “full life” we want is because we’re messed up inside – our “inner person” is greedy, selfish, covetous, and focused on the wrong things.  Do you think that’s a fair assessment?  Why or why not?  

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4. When we decide to trust and follow Jesus (aka, when we’re “saved”), the Bible tells us that we’re actually given a “new heart” and are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.  If that’s the case, then why do we need to go through a “process” to become more like Jesus?  

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5. What would you say is the most important factor in that process – the process of “being with Jesus so that we become more like Jesus”?

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6. The fourth “quiet-time question” offered at the end of the message was “What does God want to say to me?”  What do you think is required for us to be able to hear/perceive the answer(s) to that question?  Also, why is it important for me to (personally) hear from God – don’t the Scriptures give us everything he wants to say?

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