Jesus said if you don't give up everything you have, you cannot be his disciple. So why is it that Christians still own things?

It would be understandable if the Bible said none of our good works are good enough to make us deserve heaven. We could picture God saying, "I appreciate the effort, you've done some good things, but they aren't quite good enough." That would make sense. But it isn't what the Bible says. What it really says is that every good deed we ever do to earn favor with God is disgusting and filthy and detestable to God. The more good deeds you do to be right with him, the more it alienates you from him. Why is that?

Why is it that sometimes you do things that are really difficult, hard work, but it's not draining? And other things you have to do feel burdensome even though they aren't even all that hard? What is it that makes work burdensome? That's important to know because the things that feel burensome to you and the things that don't can be indications of your eternal destiny.

We all know that bragging is a bad thing. But Scripture often speaks of boasting as a good thing. What is the New Testament talking about when it uses this word "boast" so often? It's crucial that we understand it because it's right at the core of the gospel.

In Philippians 3, Paul condemns people who try to serve God in the flesh and says the true people of God are those who serve God by the Spirit. But how is that done, exactly?

Homosexual activists will often criticize Christians for being inconsistent in the way we interpret the Bible. They say, -You point to verses in the Old Testament against homosexuality, but you ignore other verses in the Old Testament, like the ones that say we should stone homosexuals to death. How can you justify that kind of picking and choosing---Are we guilty of picking and choosing-- We honor verses that say to love God with all your heart, but not verses that say we shouldn't wear clothes with two kinds of fabric. How do we discern which commands to obey and which don't apply--

If someone asked you to summarize the message of the whole Bible in 10 minutes, what would you say-- Do you know how all the parts of the Old Testament and New Testament fit into the overall message--

If someone broke in and was threatening your family, you'd do something about it. If there were a lethal airborn virus, you'd avoid the area. When the roads are icy, you slow down. But what if you discovered there is something threatening your connection to the Lord Jesus Christ right now--

The vast majority of the people in the world want to be good, but their method for becoming a good person only makes them a worse person. That's true of both religious and secular people. What's your method for becoming a better person--

I can't think of any topic in the Bible that I find more interesting and more enjoyable to think about than this one- the will of God. I love contemplating his will because what's closer to the core of God's nature than his will-what he desires, what he likes and hates, what he chooses- Nothing takes you deeper into God heart than contemplating his will. --No wonder Jesus picked that as the best way to describe his family when he said those who do the will of God are my brother and sister and mother. The chief characteristic that reveals whether you're related to Christ is if you do God's will. --Think of all the different ways Jesus could have described believers. But that-doing God's will-is the heart and soul of what it means to belongs to God's family.--Today James is going to show us the connection between God's will and our plans.