Pursue Wisdom

Conflicts happen in relationships. People have different opinions, thoughts, desires, and motivations. All these things can lead to conflict in a relationship. Disciples of Jesus are to work for peace.

There are three ways we need to work for peace: with ourselves, with others, and with God. The only way to be a peacemaker is to live with humility.

Text: James 4:1-12

Bottomline: A disciple of Jesus lives a humble life before God and people.

Challenge: Identify what you did wrong in a relationship and take steps to seek forgiveness.

Communication is one of the key parts of life. Since it is something that we do every day it is not something we give a whole lot of thought to. We default to what seems natural.

The problem is that communication has the potential to do great harm to our relationships. All of us bear the wounds of a careless word that someone said to us. This is why James devoted so much space to teach about controlling the tongue. If we can control the tongue then we can control the other areas of our lives.

Having self-control in our communication is one way we can avoid evil.

Text: James 3:1-18

Bottomline: A disciple of Jesus seeks to live by the wisdom God gives to live the right life.

Challenge: Pray for wisdom this week, not only for yourself, but also for Bethlehem.

A disciple of Jesus should live each day by faith, but what does that mean? What does it mean to have faith?

Often we equate faith with belief. We think that we faith if we believe the right things about God or if we do the right religious activities.

While there is an element that is true: belief influences our behavior and traditions point us to the right path, it also misses a very important part of faith.

We need to start understanding faith in terms of a relationship and not just as belief. Faithfulness is an essential part of a healthy marriage. When we are faithful in marriage we believe the best about the other person, we trust their actions, and we are confident that they have our best interest at heart.

In a relationship we also begin to pick up on the habits, the preferences, and beliefs of the other person. As we are faithful to God, not only will we trust him and be confident about his character, but we will also adopt his character.

This means a person of faith will demonstrate God’s merciful and gracious character in the world.

Text: James 2:14-26

Bottomline: A disciple of Jesus will show compassion as an expression of faith.

Challenge: Show compassion. Who can you help this week?

God cares about how we treat people.

It is easy for us to get caught up in the way our culture evaluates the people. We can judge people based on their economic status, their education level, their political affiliation, or a dozen other factors. When we favor one group of people over another, that is sin.

In our text this week, James tells us that the way we treat people reveals how well we keep the commandments. That means we need to people people with love, respect, kindness, and mercy.

We are representatives of King Jesus. We need to treat people well.

Text: James 2:1-13

Bottomline: A disciple of Jesus treats everyone as a person created in God’s image.

Challenge: Pray for someone you need to forgive. Take steps to forgive that person.

How closely would you listen to instructions if your life depended on it?

We would be foolish not to follow the instructions of a wise and knowledgeable person.

This is James’ point in James 1:19-27. To be wise requires not to simply hear God’s word, but to truly listen to it, which requires doing it. We are not true disciples of Jesus if we merely hear Scripture and claim faith in Jesus. To be a disciple, the teaching we receive from Scripture has to be lived out in our lives.

Text: James 1:19-27

Bottomline: A disciple of Jesus does what God says.

Challenge: Read James 2. Find one way you can put your faith into action and do it.

When someone has our lives in their hands we want to know they have been tested. It is crucial that they have developed the skills necessary to help us. We would never go to someone for surgery that didn’t go to medical school and have the right training, because our very lives are at stake. We want them to have been tested and proven capable.

We are created in God’s image. That means we are to demonstrate his character in the world and to represent him. It is in God’s interested that we be tested so we can develop the right type of character. For us to represent God well requires testing.

This is the second sermon in the series Living by Faith that will take us through the book of James.

Series Bottomline: Disciples of Jesus live each day by faith.

Text: James 1:2-18

Bottomline: A disciple of Jesus endures the difficulties of life as they hope for God’s blessings.

Challenge: Send an encouraging note to someone going through a difficult time.

How do we follow Jesus today?

What does it look like to follow Jesus in our freedom, with the money and luxury we have at our disposal, the multi-cultural and multi-religious realities of our communities, and the social media age that influences our lives?

Our hope is that the wisdom discovered in James will give us insight on how to live as disciples today.

This is the first sermon in the series Living by Faith that will take us through the book of James.

Text: James 1:1 and Mark 3:31-35

Bottomline: A faithful life is lived by doing the will of Jesus.

Challenge: Read Colossians 1:9-10 and ask God for a knowledge of his will each day.

What is the purpose of the Law? What is the Gospel? How do we live as God’s people? These are all questions the apostle Paul answers in his letter to the Galatians. In this first sermon of the series Living in Grace, Pastor Paul Steele looks at the introduction of this letter and identifies three parts of Paul’s ministry that can help us understand our own ministry.

In the beginning of the Bible we read that God created a good world. He desired to have humans to co-rule this world with Him, with His wisdom, love, and grace. The problem is that we have decided to do things our own way, to define good and evil on our own, and that has brought corruption and evil into the world. Jesus came to restore this creation, and so we look forward to the day when he returns and makes everything right.

God gave the Church the mission of making disciples of all nations. At the forefront of the mission was a man named Paul. In this message, Pastor Paul explains the reason why the Apostle Paul was effective in his mission to take the Gospel to the world.