North Boulevard Church of Christ Sermons: Audio

Proverbs 3:3-4

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man."

(NIV)

Happy 70th Birthday North Boulevard! A look at North Boulevard's past, present, and future.

Isaiah 40:31

"but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint."

(NIV)

Waiting for the Lord requires more than sitting still. It requires active patience. The Good News: The Lord is on His way. Good News gets better: He’ll come with mercy and compassion. The Lord will return. Indeed, a divine search and rescue mission is already on its way, and just as the Lord is on a search and rescue mission for you, you should be on a search and rescue mission for others. The final lesson of the Faith In Motion series covers James 5:7-20.

Go to northboulevard.com/party if you are interested in hosting a block party.

James 5:20

"My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins."

(NIV)

Is life slipping out of control? Are you under the bondage of the desires of the world? Do you fight and quarrel to maintain control over relationships? Who is really in control of your future? Surrender to God, and learn from the book of James. Part 4 of David's sermon series on the book of James focuses on James 4:1-5:6. Chapter 4 and the first six verses of chapter 5 emphasize the importance on complete dependence on God. A great battle rages over who will control your soul. The struggle to be human involves the discipline of our passions. To overcome we need intimacy with God. Intimacy with God is found when we surrender ourselves and to give our lives to him.

James 4:1-3

"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

(NIV)

David Young's third lesson on the Book of James covers James 3:1-18. The focus: there is power in your words. Treat each word like a match, for Jesus says "But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." Matthew 12:36-37 (NIV)

James 3:9-12

"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water."

(NIV)

In the second lesson on the Book of James, covering James 1:19-2:26, James discusses the importance of the perfection of the Scripture, and the need to obey it. He then discusses the importance of servitude and that if you love your neighbors, you will help them. We are not to favor the rich, but serve the poor, and what the poor need most is someone to disciple them in following Jesus. James then goes on to discuss that those who have faith will show it through works. Faith without obedience is useless. Put your faith in motion!

James 2:19 - 2:26

"Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder... As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

(NIV)

As James begins his open letter to Christians in the first century, he encourages them to see resistance and trials as a joy-filled opportunity to put their faith into motion. The book of James: A very wise book. The book of James is a Jewish book, with lots of similarities to the OT book of Proverbs and the NT Sermon on the Mount. The book reflects the simple wisdom, morality, and ethics of a Christ-follower. The book is not as concerned with sophisticated theological arguments as it is with how you live out your faith. This first lesson covers James:1:1-18.

This lesson discusses who James was, the point and emphasis of the Book of James, finding joy when facing trials, seeking wisdom, and learning to trust in God, the Father of the heavenly lights.

James 1:13-18

"When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created."

(NIV)

An update on North Boulevard's 2020 Vision.

North Boulevard is committed to a vision of sparking a world-wide spiritual awakening. We call this the 2020 Vision.

The New Day Vision includes:

1. New Day Television Program

2. School of Christian Thought

3. Making Disciple-making the main thing -

(1) North Boulevard has developed a simple tool for disciple-making—Discovery Bible Study (DBS)

(2) North Boulevard has a full-time disciple-making coach, Thad McKellar.

(3) North Boulevard has a school of discipleship that has trained more than 150 people

(4) North Boulevard is the host of the New Day Conference, designed to lead others to become disciple-making churches.

(5) 400-500 of us are in disciple-making relationships

4. Planting 60,000 Christ-centered, biblical churches

5. Developing NB into a multi-ethnic church

6. Ordaining our widows to be in constant prayer for NB

Romans 1:8

"I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world."

(NIV)

Sermon by Steve Flatt

The final lesson on the six fundamentals of the faith given in Hebrews 6 about the sixth fundamental: Judgement. Because God is a good God, He is a just God. If God were not a just God, He would not be a good God. He gives what the people of the world decide that they want. Those who refuse Christ will get what they want: eternity without him. Those who follow Christ will get what they want: eternity with Him, and each of us is guilty of capital crimes, but if you trust Christ, you have the world's best attorney. He has paid your price.

The Good News: God is a just God. God has appointed a day in which He will judge everyone. The Best News: God is a merciful God.

2 Timothy 4:1-8

"In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead,and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing."

(NIV)