Wrapping up James

This was the fina; sermon in our study of James, and I hope it took care of more questions than it brought up. James wants us to understand how important following Christ really is, and that it's not just a walk in the park. However, it is worthwhile, worth seeking out the truth, and I hope you've seen that as we've gone through this letter.

Sermon, October 4

Patiently Enduring

James is bringing things full circle now, coming back to the idea of undergoing trials. They are a part of life, but God can use them to teach us many things, including patience. It's hard to wait for things, especially when it's waiting to be rescued from the problems we're going through. We want to jump ahead, avoid difficulty. But, it's a divine appointment that we need to go through.

Sermon, Sept 27

Two for one today

Well, it seems that I completely forgot to upload last week, so there are two links today for sermons! If I get any more forgetful, I'm gonna be in real trouble ;-)

Sermon, Sept 13
Sermon, Sept 20

How We Fight

It's hard not to get a bit upset sometimes when things don't go our way. But how many times have we examined why we get upset? James tells us that it's our own envious nature, our selfishness. We look to blame others, but we can only be responsible for our own actions and reactions. James tells us to humble ourselves and let God raise us up, which is pretty hard to do. Hopefully, though, we find that as we submit to God, we learn that He can solve the problems that vex us.

Sermon, September 6

Real Wisdom

Everyone wants to be thought of as wise. Someone that has answers, that knows what to do. They handle themselves right in any given situation. But maybe there's more to it than that. James thinks there is, and he gives a description of what godly wisdom is so we can understand what God wants us to have.

Sermon, August 30

Taming the tongue

It's hard to keep our mouths in check. I know. I've said more than my share of poorly thought-out stuff, it seems. It really is amazing how quickly we can go from hero to zero with just a few careless words. We all know that little old phrase "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." We also know that it's now true. Words can hurt, and how we speak says a lot about how we think. So, we need to be diligent to control our words, and use them to build others up, and never to tear down.

Sermon, August 23

Prove It

Today's message was a pretty light treatment of James 2:14-26. There's a lot to delve into in this passage, but the basic gist is that real faith produces real works. A faith that has no outward display of an inward change isn't worth much. In fact, James calls it useless. That's pretty stiff, but important nonetheless. Our faith should stand up to being challenged, and we should be able to take a good hard look at ourselves (or have some other Christian that we trust do it) and see at least some evidence of God working in our lives, and an outflowing of that into what we think, say, and do. Just saying "I have faith" isn't enough. The important thing to determine is "Is there proof?"

Sermon, August 16

Also, we had a great afternoon out at lake Pueblo, and the baptism service went wonderfully. God provided a perfect day for us, and there were maybe 80-90 people present to share in the testimony of the four who were baptized today.Thanks to everyone who was there, and perhaps I can even try to get some pictures posted up on here for others to see!