Looking in the mirror

I tend to be a big picture person, and as such I like to cover passages of scripture with more of a telescope than a microscope, if that makes sense. Sometimes that means that there's a lot to cover in a particular sermon, but I want to give a sense of how the pieces fit together as a whole.

With that disclaimer, James is a very pointed book with lots of very specific instruction. In today's passage, James 1:19-27, there's a lot to chew on, and we by no means exhausted all that was there. But, what's clear is that God is concerned about our behavior, just as much if not more so than our brains. We need to study and apply the Word of God, and I can say that even as a pastor, I don't always do that. Hopefully, for myself and everyone else, we are growing in maturity and learning to be doers of the Word as James exhorts us in these verses.

Sermon, July 26

Wanting what we don't have

The passage we looked at in James today dealt with the idea of trusting in God's goodness. That seems straightforward enough, but the context is dealing with wealth and poverty, and temptation. All of us, at some point or another, wish we had more, wish that we were more wealthy. But James says that God exalts the one with less, and the rich man actually has to remember that his riches will pass away. Temptation also strikes all of us, an appeal to our sinful desires. We want to be satisfied with something that we know is wrong. Do we give in or do we turn away and trust that God can give us something better than that tempting thing.

Sermon July 19

Learning God's Way

We've started a new sermon series this week, working through the book of James. I have done Bible studies through it and read it many times, but never preached through it. I love James' abrupt but loving style. He speaks very straightforwardly, and uses many illustrations to get his point across.

Today's sermon takes in the first eight verses, and the main topic is learning through trials and difficulty. We all experience them, some are small, others threaten to overwhelm us completely. God uses them to teach us and work in us, so we should look at them with a joyful attitude. That's not always easy to do, but gradually, I believe we learn more and more to rely on God and depend on His help and wisdom.

Sermon, July 12

Think on these things

I have to start with an apology for this sermon. Well, an apology about the recording, anyway. We had worked up a way to hook my laptop up to the sound system itself a couple of weeks ago, which was working pretty well. Yesterday, when I started getting everything ready, I failed to connect the cable that actually connects the amp to my microphone port on the laptop, which meant that there was basically no sound. Or so I thought. My laptop has a built in microphone, and even though it was in the back of the church, it actually picked up most of the sermon. So, I'm going to go ahead and post this, with the warning that you will probably have to turn your speakers up very, very loud. Don't forget to turn them back down later!

This is the last message in the series on being a healthy church, and the discussion is about having the right perspective. God cares about what we do and think, and Paul's challenge in Philippians 4:8 provides a fitting end (I hope) to this bunch of messages. It's a call to discipleship, to really following Christ, where every part of us belongs to Him.

Sermon, July 5