The Town

The Gospel is about God restoring his broken children so that they can enjoy a right relationship with him. Parenting is an earthly demonstration of this truth, and we need to look to Jesus not only for the grace to love our children well, but to also trust that he is ultimately responsible for their souls.

When church is on Sundays we will ruin everything. James closes his letter with a look into how the Christian should understand the church. We are to be truthful with each other. We are to be praying for each other. We are to be confessing our sins to one another. We are to restore one another. In summary, we are to be the church. If we are to evolve as a church we will have to grasp the concept t...

When Jesus' return is irrelevant to our mission and community we will ruin everything. James encourages us to live like Job. That takes perseverance. James' reminds us that the story of Job promises that the Lord would be compassionate and merciful as he preserves those he has saved. A church must do everything with the coming of Christ in view. Jesus' second coming must be relevant as we work wit...

If we are going to plant a church that is making a big impact, we will have to make hard decisions in each of our personal lives. It doesn't seem like your one personal choice will affect the bigger plan—but when a church is full of people who are making bad stewardship choices the collective effort is ruined. When we are not intentional with our time, money and resources we will ruin everything.

It takes about 3 minutes from the birth of a church program for church people to be willing to die for a program, idea or tradition. Some of the same church people who are willing to die for a sacred cow were at one point willing to kill if the sacred cow was erected. Sacred cows become sacred because we seek our own ends and not the Lord's will. Sacred cows graze when we are not flexible to the d...

The lead pastor of Mars Hill Church, Mark Driscoll, makes it a point of saying, "I am just a nobody, trying to tell everybody, about a somebody." This just about sums up what James is saying in these verses. We often find ourselves slandering other people rather than taking inventory in our own lives. It is very difficult to pass judgment and slander others if we have in view that we are nobody tr...

When it is all about us we will ruin everything. For three weeks we will examine this one area in which we could ruin everything. Our mission and community cannot be about us. We must make much about Jesus. The third area we will deal with is what we are drawn too. When we stop drawing near to Jesus and drawing others to Jesus we will ruin everything.

When it is all about us we will ruin everything. For three weeks we will examine this one area in which we could ruin everything. Our mission and community cannot be about us. We must make much about Jesus. The second area we will deal with is our influence. We know that our mission is about us when we stop transforming the culture and are instead transformed by the culture.

When it is all about us we will ruin everything. For three weeks we will examine this one area in which we could ruin everything. Our mission and community cannot be about us. We must make much about Jesus. The first area we will deal with is our personal desire. When our personal desire drives us we will ruin everything.

Satan and his demons have a real handle on Scripture. Many of them could probably surpass our best theologians with their knowledge and understanding of who God is. If it were possible, they could pass ordination exams, seminary classes, and even disguise themselves as good Christians. They have knowledge that appears to be wisdom. But this wisdom is from below. It is a pseudo-wisdom. When our wis...

Words kill people every day. A father can crush his children with his words. A marriage can fall apart when words are too many or too absent. Rumors can bring a person to ruin regardless of the truth. Words can also bring healing. They can build up. They can be constructive. When gossip rages on and the image of God means nothing we will ruin everything.

Fame is a god that has no place in the church. Many of us desire to have a place of fame. We want to be noticed. Technology has given us all kinds of ways to be famous among our friends. A clever Facebook status makes us popular for a day. Our good deeds make us look good. Perhaps we are a good teacher and can really conduct a great Bible Study or Community Group. And yet James gives us a somber w...

If what we believe does not impact the world, we will ruin everything. When we return to authentic faith, we will know it. Our community will know it. Our friends and family will know it. We are not just speaking about an individual faith but a church full of people who have an authentic faith that works.

When our Christian walk is defined by our knowledge alone, and/or we lack a life of gratitude, we will ruin everything. James gets right to the point when he says that a faith that has no works is not able to save. The reason being is that a faith without a life of gratitude is not faith at all. James really brings it home when he says that a faith without works is very much like the faith of demo...

When we fail to realize that every single human being has been created in the image of God, we will ruin everything. James confronts the church regarding favoritism. He uses the example of the rich receiving preference over the poor. This example has many applications. A theme we will take a look at is the theology of Imago Dei. We are all created in the image of God. Every human being ought to be...

We have all been there. We are moved by the preaching, the music, and the fellowship. But when Monday comes, we can barely remember why we went to church outside of the fact that we are creatures of habit. When worship and our daily lives are not connected, we will ruin everything.

If men and women cannot be quick to listen, slow to speak and instead continually seethe in anger, they will ruin everything. Every Sunday, there is an epidemic across the world—hundreds of thousands of people are falling asleep in pews. But what is even worse is that there are millions whose eyes have been opened who have also fallen asleep in their faith. Many Christians are not inclined to hear...

If men and women cannot be broken before God and each other, they will ruin everything. There are times in our lives when God doesn't seem so good. James admits as much. But he tells us not to be deceived about God's character. You can sense James' pastoral nature when he encourages the church to not fall into the deception of believing that God is not good.

The devil certainly did not make you do it. If men and women are unwilling to own up to their sin, they will ruin everything. Whatever it is that you see in this combat zone you can be certain that the Devil probably doesn't even know your name. When you sin, it is because you made you do it. In this passage, you will be challenged to examine the various temptations in your life that you are conti...

If the men and women aren't maturing in their faith, they will ruin everything. We are unwise. The generation that walks the earth today is lacking in wisdom and maturity. Statistics show that men are no longer the spiritual heads of their households but can school their buddies in a mean game of Modern Warfare. They know incredible button combinations on their Xbox controllers and computer keyboa...

James doesn't make it easy on us. If the church is unwilling to "count it all joy" it will fail. The first confrontation is to see how deep our joy goes. Church people love to talk about joy--until their lives are wrecked. Joy becomes an elusive concept when the wrecking ball smashes into the side of our American dreams.

Can you imagine what it must have been like for those 40 days in between the time Jesus rose from the grave and his ascension? We only have a few snippets of the euphoria that surrounded the followers of Jesus. Acts 1 gives us some insight as to their mindset. The Disciples believed that Jesus was going to usher in the fully realized Kingdom of God. There would be no more death, no more pain, and...

Almost every single Jesus movie ever made will cause you to doubt how a man like the one portrayed on the screen could rule the universe. It is true that Jesus was poor, a peasant, and from a backwater part of the Roman Empire. However, he probably didn't have long hair and never wore blush on his cheeks. He left the halo in heaven and worked like a blue collar man. Even so, Jesus is no longer the...