Wesley Memorial Church (High Point, NC) Sermons & Podcast

Part I of We Are Wesley 2024: doing life together in Christ. Acts 2:42-47

part I of the Fall 2024 series - We are Wesley: doing life together in Christ. Acts 2:42-47

part 2 of Pastor Jeff's revelation Bible study

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul addresses a church that has been through a great conflict, and is now being repositioned for a new season. He calls them to be reconciled to God yet again, and with that example of God's new birth from within, to then go and carry out a ministry of reconciliation in the world.

Part 2 of Pastor Jeff's Fall 2024 study of the 10 Commandments

Part 1 of the Fall 2024 Revelation Bible study

When James says that faith without works is dead and that faith without works "will not save anyone", does this contradict Ephesians 2:8 which emphatically states that people are "saved by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ"?

the Bible does not contradict itself. In fact, a saving faith in Jesus Christ will always bear good fruit (works) in the life of a believer.

Part one of Pastor Jeff's 10 Commandment study (recorded 9/9/24)

James 2 says, 14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (ESV)

What is faith? What are "works"? Why is it vital to understand how faith and works should holistically work together?

James makes repeated reference to the power of speech. To the power of the tongue. It has the power to give life life or take life away. You hear echoes of Jesus teaching that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. You may not remember everything someone has said to you, but you certainly will remember how those words made you feel. Words have that power.

James tells us that the most vital and yet the most difficult thing to master in our Christian discipleship is our words, to listen first before speaking, and then when we do speak, to speak thoughtfully.

. It is not so much what goes in one ear and comes out the other that bothers us, it is what goes in one ear, gets garbled up here in the middle, and then comes out the mouth is what really matters.