Pride is the doorway to all the places in life we don’t want to end up. And yet, so often, it's pride that we think is the sin we don't struggle with, or we brush it off because we don't realize just how big a pitfall it is. 

But the goal is not humility. Humility is the by-product of the real antidote to pride, and that's intimacy with Jesus. Apart from the Holy Spirit, we stand no chance in the fight against our own pride. 

But God's grace is more. How do we approach our pride with this in mind? 

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If you've ever wondered what kind of weight your words hold, think about the last time you talked yourself into something. Or when you talked yourself out of something. 

If your words can have such a directive impact on you, imagine the impact it can have on others—maybe helpful, maybe harmful, but always powerful. 

James 3 reminds of us of three things to never forget about our words: 

1. They can direct where we go. 
2. They can destroy what we have. 
3. They can display who we are. 

What story will your words tell about your life and your faith? 

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"Talk is cheap. Let's go play." - Johnny Unitas

That’s a modern quote to summarize the back half of James 2 that has troubled Christians for centuries. And it’s because it poses this question: Can you have faith without works? 

If we are saved by faith alone, where do works fall in the equation? What does true saving faith look like?

The gospel produces both faith and works. One without the other is what James calls “dead faith”. 

Christians are called to not “faith AND works”, not “faith OR works”… but a faith THAT works. 

A saving faith means we don’t just talk cheaply—we play too.

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You can have a big head at the same time you have a shrinking heart. A lot of times, you can see the effects of that kind of condition in the way you treat others. 

Enter: the sin of snobbery. When we are drawn to make distinctions—ranking others by a face value like wealth, status, race, age, you name it—James is challenging us to reevaluate. 

And the challenge might not be what you think. It's not to stop showing favoritism; it's to show favor to all. 

We have a model who showed us how to do that, and we have a source of power to help us do it—to "love others as you love yourself." 

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Much of our lives are spent chasing the things we think will make us happy—getting that one job, reaching that one milestone, making that particular amount of money, hitting that status, winning that award… 

The list goes on. And when it’s all said and done, it goes on a shelf, redeemable for nothing in the grand scheme of eternity. 

Many dreams don’t deliver. And if we spend our lives chasing them, we’ll never have both eyes on what we should be chasing—Jesus. 

What dream isn’t delivering for you? What do you have to set aside to put your all into the pursuit of the only One who does deliver? 

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"Church is not an organization you join, it’s a family where you belong, a home where you are loved, and a hospital where you find healing.” – Nicky Gumbel

Church is a family, not an event. It’s doing life together, in both the mountaintop and valley seasons of life. The early church understood this, and the world was never the same again. We’ll never fully experience what God meant for us to experience without authentic, vulnerable, Gospel community. Jesus doesn’t just want our Sundays, as important as those are: He wants our whole life, as we remember that God is the one who changes lives.

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Here is a staggering statistic: more than half of Americans report feeling lonely. 

Loneliness is one of our greatest fears and hardships, but the antidote is something we’re almost equally as fearful of—vulnerability with others. There is so much good found in relationship with others, but sometimes it’s messy and hard, so we turn the other way. 

But from the very beginning, being alone is one of the things God deemed “not good.” It’s in our very design to be among others—designed for community by a God who embodies community. 

How do we fight the loneliness? How do we live in community the way God has always intended for us? 

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