First Baptist Church Thomson, Ga

Rev. Ben Tarver begins James 4 with a look at James's warning to us about not being friends with the world. He describes an inner war that rages within us and among us as we follow sinful worldly desires that never fulfill.

Who do you consider as wise? Where do you go for direction, guidance, and truth? James gives us a litmus test to see if the "wisdom" we have is true, godly wisdom or false worldly wisdom. I pray you’ll use James’s litmus test to evaluate what kind of wisdom are you pursuing? What are you building your life on? The solid rock of Christ’s wisdom, or the shifting sands of worldly philosophy?

Throughout his letter, James focuses on three tests of faith: how we talk, how we live, and how we serve others. In James 3:1-2, he turns his full focus on controlling our tongues. Of all the ways in which we need discipline and self-control, we need none so much as in watching our words.

James makes his closing arguments for why a deedless faith is dead, and only a fruitful faith that works can be saving faith. He points us to two key witnesses: Abraham and Rahab. We will discover in this message that Paul and James are in complete agreement on the nature of salvation and how faith works together with our actions to produce growing followers of Jesus.

In this sermon, I explore an often misunderstood passage about the relationship between "faith and works." James is challenging us to examine our faith to see if it is a fruitless or fruitful faith. He uses a hypothetical debate to help us see that a faith that doesn't work, that doesn't bear fruit, is dead. It's as useless as a screen door on a submarine.

James explores further the principle of compassionate service to those who are downtrodden and distressed. He gives us five powerful reminders why we must not neglect the poor and show favor to the rich. We can think of these as 5 Reasons to Reject the Folly of Favoritism.

James warns his readers three times in chapter 1 "not to be deceived." We are good a self-deception, especially when it comes to our inherent goodness or religiousness. James challenges us to test our "religion" to see if we possess a true "faith that works." As we look at James’ test, each of the three Marks of True Faith, we must examine ourselves, our faith, and our relationship with Jesus.

James explains how the Word of God enables us to overcome inner temptations, endure outer trials with joy, and experience the fullness of God’s blessing. As we look at this passage, keep in mind the title of this sermon series—“Faith that Works.” It’s not enough to just read, know, and believe God’s Word—we must be Doers of what it says.

James turns from dealing with the outward trials we face to our inner struggle with temptation. In doing so, he clears God of any wrong-doing (God isn't the one who tempts us) and indicts the true culprit (hint: look in the mirror). James makes it very clear where sin and temptation come from, how temptation works against us, and what the solution is to our sin problem.

How do we face times of testing and trial in our lives when it just doesn’t seem fair? How are we to think about the ups and downs of life? James brings us some paradoxical truth that can help us deal with life's unique challenges in both our highs and lows.

James 1:5 gives us the second imperative command in James's letter. Verse 2 commands us to consider it a great joy when we face trials. Now, we are commanded to gain wisdom. In this sermon, we look at what James tells us about the importance of godly wisdom in facing trials, and how we can gain the wisdom we lack.

In this new sermon series on James, we will focus on how the doctrines we believe influence the ways we behave, or how our faith should be translated into actions. James' focus is on having a faith that works. In this sermon, I introduce the book of James and then focus on James 1:2-4 and how we should respond to the variety of trials and difficulties we face in life.

Dr. Matt Ward walks us through the history of religious liberty in the United States, the meaning of the article on Religious Liberty in the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, and how we live in light of both.

Usually, when a preacher talks about stewardship, everyone thinks he’s just going to talk about money. True, money is one of the primary ways the Bible talks about stewardship, but this concept goes much further and deeper than our wallets. It involves the entirety of our lives as followers of Jesus. Ultimately, stewardship isn’t a matter of our bank accounts, but of our hearts.

In this message, I am introducing the main points our kids will be discovering in this week’s VBS. Through the life of Joseph in the book of Genesis, we can discover and celebrate the greatness of God's love, presence, plan, and power.

More than ever before, it is incumbent on God’s people to present a clear, biblical view of God’s purpose and plan for the family. Of all the areas where our world needs the preserving power of Salt and the illumination of the Light, it’s these issues involving families—especially marriage and children.

In looking at the Baptist Faith and Message article on The Christian and the Social Order, we use Jesus' illustration of being salt and light to focus on how we are to be the people of God in today's culture. We examine the biblical worldview and ethic on issues like race, abortion, gender, and sexuality. In a dark and decaying culture, now more than ever we need to shine the light of God's truth and be His preserving agent in the world.

As Christians, our relationship and responsibility to our nation is never more difficult than when it comes to war. We wrestle with questions like: Is war ever justified? If Jesus calls Christians to be peacemakers, is it right to ever take up arms to defend ourselves, our homes, or our country? If so, what principles guide us in war and self-defense?

Cooperation is a conditional value that is clarified with three questions: With whom do we cooperate? Why do we cooperate? and How do we cooperate? How we answer these questions is critical for our identity as Baptists and how we do ministry together with others.

In this sermon, I look at what Southern Baptist believe about the nature and value of education and the importance of education through a decidedly Christian lens. If God is the Creator of all things, and the Omniscient Knower of all things, then all truth is God's truth. That means that apart from knowing the God of Truth, we can only know things as partially true. The implications for how we view knowledge and wisdom and education are immense. I'll use Jesus' parable about the wise and foolish builders and some Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3 to help us see the essentials for constructing a Christian education.