No one likes to be judged, yet we all judge each other all the time. From the type of shoes a person wears to the actions they take, we often have an opinion about other people. When are our opinions out of line? When do we move from discerning something to judging someone? In this message we will unpack the role judgement is to play in the life of every Christian.

The root of the problem is our wicked desires that are born out of selfishness, resulting in quarreling, and putting other’s down. We can even pray with wrong motives based on our love for self and the world. The results in grieving the Holy Spirit and requires that we humble ourselves in order to change our thinking to align with that of Jesus.

James 3:13-18 is your spiritual “Watch your step” sign, calling you to pay attention to the attitudes or actions that may be causing you to trip or make a mistake and therefore forfeit the blessing of a closer relationship with your Creator, Savior and with others.

The phrase sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me is a lie. Words do hurt, crush, and kill a spirit if we are not careful. James builds on this idea of being doers of the Word who live single standard lives. We will study this passage looking for ramifications of destructive speech, rewards of controlled speech, and practical ways to watch our words.

Dr. Ryan Hartwig brings us this weeks teaching from James.

God’s heart is for us – He loves us. He loved us from the beginning even before we were joined into His family through Jesus. As a result, our heart should be burdened for the lost, just as His is. How can we join Him in His work for redemptive purposes?

It is easy to judge a book by its cover or a person by their outward appearance. In God’s Kingdom, there is no favoritism based on statues or bank account. Rather, we are to all humble love God and love others in order to display to the watching world a relentless love found only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The trials of life are overwhelming and getting through them is one thing but getting through them in a way that please God is something entirely different. In this message we look at the qualities needed to survive the trials with God’s Word as our guide and the blessing of God on our life.

We have a lot of words to explain hard times in life­— suffering, trials, hardships, grieving, rough patch— and the list goes on. But how does the Bible talk about our trials? What is the point of them? Do we have any hope or purpose in surviving them? In James 1:1-18 we are given a string of truth statements that help us understand why we should endure and the wholeness that comes only through Christ’s power made complete in our weakest moments.