How to Think about Divine Discipline
Hebrews 12:4-11 If you’re here, a few weeks ago, I was in the beginning of Hebrews chapter 12, we’re just going to continue on where I left off. I know many of you are going through some severe trials and tribulations in your life, and I just wanted to continue on in this passage as an encouragement to you. Hoping that this will help you think through your own trials and train us to think through the trials that we…
The Wisdom from Above
James 3:17-18 If you would take your Bibles and turn to James 3, as we come to the end of this passage, we’re finishing up this section from verses 13-18. And as you’re turning there, I just want to begin our time because we’re going to spend a little time in review by reading from this section, just making sure the whole section is firmly planted in our minds as we head into the text today. In verses 13-18 of…
Diagnosing the Wrong Kind of Wisdom
James 3:14-16 We’re going to be returning to the section at the end of James 3 that we started covering last week, and which we will finish up next week. Last week we only really covered the first verse of James 3:13-18, as we took the rhetorical question that James asked at the beginning of verse 13. And then we used it as an opportunity to kind of jump in, make sure that we had a good understanding of what…
The Question of Wisdom
James 3:13 Today we’re in the book of James. So if you’d open your Bibles to James chapter 3, James chapter 3, we’re continuing on in this book, and it’s a new section of the book from the last time I was up here. We’ll be beginning to look at the section which is in verses 13-18 of James chapter 3. We saw, if you remember maybe a month ago or so, the first 12 verses in this chapter were…
Let Us Run to Jesus, Part 2
Hebrews 12:1-3 Last week we started a two-part message out of Hebrews chapter 12, which I entitled Let us run to Jesus. Let us run to Jesus. And if you would turn in your Bibles back there to Hebrews chapter 12. And by way of introduction this morning, I just want to maybe take a snapshot from the book The Pilgrim’s Progress. Many of you may be familiar with that, some of you may be less familiar, but The Pilgrim’s…
Let Us Run to Jesus, Part 1
Hebrews 12:1-3 Turn with me this morning to Hebrews chapter 12, back to where we left off. I want to begin this morning with an anecdote from history just to set the, the stage for Hebrews chapter 12. In 490 BC, the intense conflict between the Greek world and the ruling Persian Empire resulted in the Battle of Marathon, Greece, where we get the name for marathon races today. The Persians were coming to attack Athens, which was a source…
Combat Prayer
Ephesians 6:18-20 Our topic for today is prayer, and it’s not just about prayer, but about the essential role of prayer in spiritual warfare. I’m following up on last week’s sermon on the full armor of God. As I mentioned at the end of our time last week, I wanted to do a focused time on prayer this morning because if we make no progress in our praying, we will make no progress in our fighting, either. Prayer is what…
The Real War and How to Fight It
Ephesians 6:10-20 It’ll come to as no surprise to any of you when I say that we are living in some contentious times. Wars, battles, fights and talk of the same, it’s, it’s common, isn’t it? It’s constant in the culture. It’s like white noise. It’s become so constant: wars, battles, and fights all the time. We’ve actually got actual wars, they’re in the news and headlines all the time, kinetic and violent, like Israel and Hamas, Russia and Ukraine.…
Blessed are Those Who Bless Yahweh
Psalm 144 Today we are going to be in Psalm 144, if you would like to turn there in your Bibles, now. I thought I would do something complementary to what Josh has been going through in James, and I don’t know about you, but I’ve been pretty convicted the last few weeks. A with a great concern for being careful about the words that come out of my mouth. A James the book in and of itself, James kind…
The Weight of Our Words, Part 2
James 3:5-12 James chapter 3, we will be continuing today in the section that we started last week, the section of the letter of James on the subject of the importance of Christian speech, the importance of how we use our tongue. And just once again, as a reminder when we talk about this topic, you should apply it to text messages, emails, social media comments you make. Ah, now it’s getting more convicting, huh? That is part of the…