Sermon Study Guide | Series: What is a Follower of the Way? |
Sermon: Week 4 - The Vapor [Sacrifical Developer]|
Scripture: James 4:13–17; 5:1–6  | Date: September 6, 2026

For this series we’ve developed a physical Journal for reflection and a What is a Follower of The Way — Resource Guide

If you want to get more “clinical hours” as a Sacrificial Developer, invite a friend to join you at Alpha

CONNECT - “A Personal Reflection”

This section is designed to help you relate personally to the theme of the sermon. It encourages you to reflect on your own life experiences and how they connect to the message.

Most of us can tell the story of how we got where we are: the decisions we made, the risks we took, the work we put in, the opportunities we pursued. But if we tell that story slowly enough, other people start appearing in it. A parent who encouraged us. A teacher who noticed us. A friend who opened a door. Circumstances we could never have arranged. Gifts we never earned. This final message in the series asks us to reconsider a question we rarely stop to ask: How much of what I call “mine” was ever really mine to begin with? Think about your own story. What are three things that shaped the life you have today that you did not create, earn, or control? Share with your group.

ENGAGE - “Exploring the Scripture”

This section invites you to dive into the biblical passage, discuss its meaning, and apply it to your life through thoughtful questions.

• Read James 4:13–17. The entrepreneur James describes has a destination, timeline, business plan, and expectation of profit. James does not condemn planning, work, or profit. What is missing from the entrepreneur’s plan?
  
  
• James asks, “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). How does remembering the temporary nature of our lives challenge the way we think about success, security, time, and legacy?
  
  
• The message describes saying “if the Lord wills” as more than adding religious language to our plans. It is “framing our plans as questions rather than an assertion.” Where might you be asking God to bless a decision you have already made rather than genuinely inviting him into the decision?
  
  
• James says, “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17). The message describes this as becoming “more spiritually educated than activated.” What is something God has already shown you that you keep learning about but have not actually acted on?
  
  
• Read James 5:1–6. James describes riches rotting, garments becoming moth-eaten, and even gold and silver corroding. What does this imagery reveal about resources that are continually accumulated but never allowed to move toward others?
  
  
• The message says, “Possession does not mean permission.” How might your perspective on your time, talents, relationships, influence, finances, or opportunities change if you saw yourself primarily as a steward rather than an owner?
  
  
• James draws attention to workers whose cries never reached the wealthy landowner but did reach God (James 5:4). Who are the people your everyday life depends on but whom you rarely stop long enough to really see? What might becoming more attentive to them look like?
  
  
• A Sacrificial Developer is described as open-minded, open-hearted, and open-handed. Which of those postures comes most naturally to you? Which one is hardest? Why?
  
  
• The message says, “Never resist a generous impulse.” What tends to make you hesitate when you sense an opportunity to give your time, encouragement, resources, attention, or influence to someone else?
  
  
• This series has described a follower of the way as an Undivided Follower, Unhurried Friend, Thoughtful Witness, and Sacrificial Developer. Looking back across all four, where have you noticed Jesus already forming you? Which Kingdom Quality feels like the clearest invitation for your next season?

APPLY - “Putting the Scriptures into Action”

This section challenges us to take what we’ve learned and implement it in practical ways in our daily lives.

• Hold one decision open. Identify one personal, professional, financial, or relational decision you may have already settled internally. Instead of simply asking God to bless your plan, put the decision itself back before him. Pray honestly: “If the Lord wills…” Then make enough space to consider whether God might redirect you.
  
  
• Notice who your life runs on. Choose one person whose work regularly makes your life easier but whom you may rarely notice. Ask them a real question this week and stay long enough to hear the actual answer. Do not just try to be nicer; practice being attentive.
  
  
• Never resist a generous impulse. When you feel prompted to encourage, give, invite, help, mentor, make a meal, write a note, share an opportunity, or make time for someone, take one concrete step that same day. You do not need to become the entire solution; simply refuse to settle for doing nothing.
  
  
• Name what you are already sacrificing for. Everyone sacrifices something. Look honestly at your calendar, finances, attention, and energy. What are they revealing about what you are currently sacrificing for? Ask yourself: Will what I am investing in now still matter thirty years from now?
  
  
• Practice healthy sacrifice, not depletion. The message makes an important distinction for those who already give beyond healthy limits: being a Sacrificial Developer does not mean living without boundaries. Ask whether your giving is flowing from a healthy life with Jesus or from exhaustion, guilt, or an inability to say no.

PRAY - “Seeking God’s Guidance”

This section offers a short prayer to help us center our hearts and invite God to work in our lives through his scripture.

Jesus, thank you for every gift we have received and every person you have used to shape our lives. Forgive us for the ways we have made ourselves the hero of stories that were always filled with your grace. Remind us that our time, talents, relationships, opportunities, influence, and resources were never ours to hold tightly.

Teach us to live open-minded, inviting you into plans we have already made; open-hearted, noticing the people we might otherwise overlook; and open-handed, willing to let what you have entrusted to us move toward others. Give us wisdom to know where sacrifice is needed and where healthy boundaries are necessary. As this series ends, continue forming us into Undivided Followers, Unhurried Friends, Thoughtful Witnesses, and Sacrificial Developers.

Lord, our lives are a vapor, so teach us to spend them on what lasts and to follow the way of Jesus with everything we have. Amen.

FIVE-DAY DEVOTIONAL

DAY ONE // THE STORY WITH A HERO IN IT

Read: James 4:13-14

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life?

The merchant in this verse is not a villain. He is competent. He has a destination, a timeline, a business plan, and a profit expectation. Most of us would hire him.

James does not object to any of it. He objects to the confidence.

Because underneath the plan is a story, and in that story the man is the reason it all worked. Not the market. Not the road being open. Not his body holding up for the year he intends to spend there.

You have a version of that story too. So do I. We tell our lives backwards, and told backwards, every accident becomes a decision.

Reflect: Name one thing you take credit for that you did not actually arrange.

Pray: God, I keep writing myself into the middle of a story you were already telling. Amen.

DAY TWO // THE CLAUSE

Read: James 4:15-17

Instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

This is not a spell. God does not need the words.

Jesus said something like it in the garden on the worst night of His life. Not my will, but yours. The Father did not require the sentence. The Son said it anyway, out loud, because saying it is how submission gets into the body.

So it is mental training. It turns a plan from a claim into a question.

And then verse 17 closes the exit. Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it. Not what you took. What you knew and postponed.

Reflect: What is the last true thing you learned that you have not done anything about?

Pray: God, I am more educated than activated. Move something from my head into my week. Amen.

DAY THREE // WHAT SITTING STILL DOES

Read: James 5:1-3

Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you.

Gold does not corrode. James knows that. That is why he says it.

The picture is not of wealth that was spent badly. It is of wealth that sat so long it did something chemically impossible. The rot is not a judgment on how much came in. It is a judgment on how little went out.

And notice the word evidence. It is courtroom language. The man built a trophy and it walked into the room for the other side.

What moves does not rot. That is the whole logic, and it is his, not mine.

Reflect: What in your life has been sitting long enough to change color?

Pray: God, open my hands before something in them spoils. Amen.

DAY FOUR // THE PEOPLE IN THE FIELD

Read: James 5:4-6

The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

The harvesters were there the whole time. He walked past them every day of the harvest. They were working before he was awake.

He did not hate them. He never looked.

That is the part worth sitting with, because it means the sin here did not require malice. It only required a life arranged so that the cost was always somewhere he was not standing.

And their cries did not reach him. They reached God. Somebody heard it, even though he did not.

Reflect: Who does your life run on that you have never asked a real question?

Pray: God, you heard them when I did not. Give me their faces. Amen.

DAY FIVE // THE FARMER WAITS

Read: James 5:7-11

See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it.

This is where James goes after the verdict, and it is the part we did not have time to preach.

He does not tell them to stop investing. He tells them to change what they are waiting on.

A farmer is the most patient investor there is, and he is also the one with the least control. He cannot make it rain. He can only put something in the ground and stay.

That is what open-handed actually costs. Not the giving. The waiting afterward, without getting to watch the return.

You have five days behind you now. Go back and read Day One and see whether the story sounds different.

Reflect: What are you sacrificing for right now, and will it still be there in thirty years?

Pray: God, none of it was mine. Teach me to hand it along and wait. Amen.

The practice continues. Every night, two questions, written by hand. Where did my actions match my words today? Where was I double-minded?

If you have feedback on this guide or ideas that would help your group engage more deeply, we’d love to hear from you. 

Your insight helps us continue growing as a church that wrestles honestly and walks faithfully together. Contact msummers@menlo.church

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