Join us at 10:30 AM this Sunday, September 23, for the next sermon in
our fall sermon series, “Faith Works” as we study the Book of James.
How do we know when someone has faith? On occasion, my youngest daughter will leap unexpectedly from the middle of our steps toward me, as I stand at the bottom of the landing. Why? Because she has faith that when she leaps, her daddy will be there to catch her. In other words, faith looks like something. Faith Works!
This fall, we will explore together what faith looks like on the ground through the book of James. True faith in Jesus is not a warm feeling that resides privately in a person’s head or heart, but instead will work itself out in real life and in real time. The evidence that one has embraced the gospel by faith in Jesus is not in words that are spoken or concepts that are believed, but instead in a life that has been transformed. In other words, Faith Works! Join us each Sunday, as we begin our fall sermon series, and pray with us that the transforming power of the gospel will be evident in our lives.
To help you prepare, the scripture for this Sunday will be:
James 1:16-27 (ESV)
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
