Washed in the Word

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Patience is not something we always value, but it is something God values.  God is so committed to us developing patience that He providentially permits us to enter into stretching situations so we can cultivate this vital virtue. Why is patience something God actively seeks to cultivate in us?  Because He wants to conform us more and more to the image of C...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Greed hides itself from its victim. Greed is all too often a cancer that remains undetected in our hearts.    In our text today, God wants to help us scan our hearts before this cancer consumes our souls.  In this our twelfth session in the book of James we shall endeavor to discover that True Faith Works on Our Greed.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & printou...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. James’ entire epistle hinges on the premise that True Faith Works.  James 1 & 2 showed us that True Faith Works on our Perspectives & our Actions.  James 3 demonstrated that True Faith Works on Taming Our Tongues & True Faith Works Us Toward True Wisdom.  James 4 demonstrated that True Faith Works on our Judgmentalism.  Today in our eleventh mes...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Don’t Judge Me Bro! is the refrain of our age.  People who know perhaps no other Bible verse can quickly quote “Judge not, Lest ye be judged.”   This statement is used as a blank check by our society that any and all behavior is beyond any and all scrutiny in any and all situations.  It is true that Jesus said in Matthew 7 & Luke 6 "Judge not, &amp...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Conflicts are common. If we are not careful those conflicts can rend relationships & ravage churches.  The good news from James 4 is that True Faith Works on Our Conflicts. James 4, like a searchlight on a dark night, reveals why we fight and like a surgeon’s scalpel it shows how to make it right.  Join us today in our ninth message in the book of James...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. What marks true wisdom?  How many kinds of wisdom are there?  How many sources of wisdom are there?  How can I identify which wisdom is being presented to me?  And what is the result of employing each?  Those are the questions James answers in our passage today as we endeavor to discover that True Faith Works Us Towards True Wisdom.  Grab your Bible, downlo...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. The tongue is a restless evil full of deadly poison, James tells us.  So how do we tame our tongues?  Join us today in our seventh message in the book of James as we see how "True Faith Works on Taming Our Tongues.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & study guide and let's get Washed in the Word! Free...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Some allege that Paul & James contradict each other.  Some use the book of James to argue that we are saved by works.  James & Paul agree, but they look at faith & works from different vantage points.  Paul explains how to get saved, James explains what saving faith looks like.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & download the free sermon outline &amp...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. What is the legitimate role of the Law in the lives of New Testament saints?  We are heirs of the Reformation which called us back to the cardinal biblical truths of sola gratia, sola fide, sola Christus, sola scriptura, sola deo Gloria That is, we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, by Scripture alone to the glory of God alone.  S...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. In this our fourth teaching in the book of James, the Holy Spirit zeros in on the reality that "True Faith Works on our Partiality."  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable study guide to dive deeper in Scripture together as we get Washed in the Word! Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. True faith is not mere mental assent to the facts of the gospel, it is a life changing relationship to the Lord Jesus where you start to act on the gospel.  True faith changes us.  This change starts in the heart but it inevitably heads to our hands. Works don’t save us, God saves us.  We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  This i...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Perspective is powerful.  How we see the world, influences how we interact with that world.  Today, James calls us to a radical reassessment of our perspective on our circumstances, on temptation, & on our salvation.  James is a book of action, yet he rightly starts not with a call to recalibrate our performance but with a call to recalibrate our perspe...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Today is our first session in the powerful, practical, easily applicable book of James.  Today we will learn the lay of the land regarding the book's author, message, circumstances etc... We will see that True Faith Works on Our Perspective.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print off the free downloadable sermon outline and let's get Washed in the W...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Our text today closes out our survey of the book of Joshua.  Joshua 24 offers us a simple question: “How’s your serve?”  Twelve times in eleven verses in the middle of Joshua’s final farewell the subject of serving the Lord crops up.   Joshua made his decision, “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”  The people now had to make their choice.  That...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. What are spiritual leaders called to?  What must we careful to remember?  These two questions are addressed head on in the first of Joshua's final farewells. Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the downloadable sermon outline & study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!  Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are availab...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. The Psalmist reminds us How good & pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity!  But we live in a fallen world that is populated with broken people.   Often, hurt people, hurt people.  Sometimes even in our churches we will have interpersonal challenges. The question is how are we to biblically handle these challenges?  Today will be looking at...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Thirteen messages ago when we first began our journey in the book of Joshua we started with a simple statement “God Has a Plan.”  Today we are twenty chapters further in this great book graciously given by our Great God & with just four chapters remaining, God’s Word takes us back to that same subject but from a different set of circumstances.  Grab you...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. This is our second message in this passage & our twelfth in our journey through the book of Joshua.  Last time we examined these chapters with a God-ward focus, seeing that God is the Ultimate Promise Keeper.  This time we shall look at those same seven chapters but with a man-word focus.  In these 218 verses of real estate records, we have the twelve t...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Today we are in Joshua chapters 13-19.  Most likely in your survey of Scripture you may have glossed over these 6 chapters of hard-to-pronounce Hebrew names & obscure tribal boundaries.  Joshua 13-19 is often neglected because it reads like a real estate deed, because on one level that’s what it is but there is oh so much more to explore.  In fact, we a...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Joshua 10 examines the extermination of the Southern Canaanite Confederation.  Joshua 11 annals the annihilation of the Northern Alliance. Joshua 12 surveys the full scale of the slaughter stretching back to Sihon & Og’s defeat under Moses east of the Jordan to Joshua’s conquests west of the Jordan.  To many, these three chapters are some of the most tr...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. The New Testament calls us to faith & perseverance.  Those are tall orders for feeble people in a fallen world.  In order to muster persevering faith we would do well to appropriate an Old Testament injunction.  Ten times in the Old Testament we are called “to be strong & courageous.”  40% of those occur in the book of Joshua & one is found in o...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Proverbs 3:5 famously declares:  "Trust in the LORD with all your heart & lean not on your own understanding…" You & I might be bright, we might be educated & erudite, but we are not God.  This is why Isaiah 55 reminds us: “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD." As God’s people, it i...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Have you ever really messed up spiritually?  If you ever have experienced a significant spiritual failure you may now wonder “Can God ever use me again?”  Today’s text tackles an immensely practical spiritual reality.  When we have failed, when we have spiritually derailed, how do we get back on track?  In our seventh message in our journey through the book...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. What happens when we do it our way?  When we know what God desires & deserves but we want what we want so we go out and get it?  What happens when God tries to get our attention to bring us to repentance & we stubbornly, stridently refuse?  Join us in our sixth session in our journey through the book of Joshua as we explore Joshua 7 & the decisi...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Has God ever led you in a surprising or bewildering way?  What does following God's way entail?  Is it worth it?  Join us today in our fifth message in the book of Joshua as we discover that "God's Way is Best" from Joshua 5:13-6:27.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & printout the free sermon outline & Diving Deeper in Scripture Together...