First Baptist Church Thomson, Ga

Hebrews 11, called the “Hall of Faith” chapter, details the stories of the deeds of faith-filled men and women, but the focus is on WHY they did what they did. Their motivation, priority, and nonnegotiable was faith in God’s promises. As we think of having faith in God's promise for the Newborn King and all He would accomplish, let's look at the essence of faith and how we can exercise our faith in King Jesus.

On this first Sunday of Advent, we look at Isaiah 9:1-7, where the prophet was speaking words of hope to the people of Judah who were facing God's judgment for their wickedness. They were walking in darkness, feeling hopeless and helpless. But Isaiah promised that their King was coming, who bring light into darkness and bring them from gloom into joy.

James calls us to look out for one another as we struggle, stumble, and sometimes fall. Out of the overflow of God’s mercy in our lives, we should mercifully get in each other’s way, and turn one another back when we begin to drift off course.

James has been called the "Proverbs" of the New Testament. James helps us focus our faith into practical ways to live. However, James' next topic is something too many people consider as impractical--prayer. What they fail to see is that prayer is one of the most powerful things we can do. when we pray in faith, seeking God's Will to be done, the Lord hears and responds. Prayer should be the first way we put our faith to work. In today’s passage, James gives us some practical principles for powerful prayer.

James' original audience felt they were living in the last days. It was a time of uncertainty, fraught with dangers and difficulties, and it seemed as if things couldn’t get worse. 2,000 years later, we often wonder the same thing! As we face uncertain times, concerned about our own current difficulties and potential dangers, we wonder if these are the last days. How are we to live in uncertain times? How should we live in light of the fact that Jesus will return at a time we won't expect? How can we live knowing that any day could be our last on this earth? James shares 3 essential qualities we must possess to live well in the last days.

James challenges our worldly perspectives on wealth--is it good or bad or neither? Are money and possessions for our enjoyment and benefit or for the good of others and the pursuit of God's Kingdom? James offers a word of stern warning, assesses the real worth of our "stuff", and gives us an audit of our practices in how we view and handle wealth.

In today's passage, James links his themes of Faith and Humility to help us rightly understand Who is in charge of our lives. James specifically deals with two areas that are transformed when we humbly trust God to be in charge: how we speak to about each other, and how we plan for the future.

How do we resist our sinful, fleshly impulses? How can we break-up with the world and devote ourselves wholly to friendship with God? There is nothing we can do to earn or muster such a fellowship with God. But in His grace, God enables us to have a deepening relationship with Him. James outlines four ways we can embrace a friendship with God that transforms our lives.

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.