Summer vacations and activities and therefore a double sermon post, James 4.1-6 & 4.7-12

 

For my friends in Maine they will recognize the water bottle I grabbed for this bicycle ride.  Summer-time brings opportunities for activities like these and I find myself in the land of bike trails.  I bought this bike for the flat lands of Zephyrhills and therefore it is a single speed but I have been standing on the pedals to get up some of the Ohio hills!


This ride took me along this beautiful river flowing toward Lake Erie.  It is a little odd riding on a trail through the woods but at times hearing the cars above you traveling over the interstate bridges.  In places like these, the green spaces provided for us are so precious.  It helps me to reset my mind.  A couple miles from the church is a 3 mile hiking trail that has been my "go to" to spend some time to think and pray.  It reminds me of my 2 mile walks from the accommodations provided by the church in Maine to the church building which was used to speak to God vertically while taking in His creation horizontally.  


This summer has also been an opportunity to take in some time together around music.  If it is jazz in the Medina downtown square, a Sunday evening service at Parkside Church (where Pastor Alister Begg serves) or this evening to hear the Cleveland Orchestra and a Beatles band, we have had some "shoulder to shoulder" time.  This was a tremendous gift of a member of the congregation and a great way to end the day.  (Well, not quite the end of the day because it took an hour and a half to get home only 13 miles away!)

My masters class is done!  Two years of my life in study that I am so glad I did after 35 years from being in the classroom.  It was completely done online with zoom and video lectures.  I am hoping to attend the graduation in December in Jackson, Mississippi.  I do have some extra time now but I am going to pick up some books that have been piling up, dive deeper into the transitional process here at WCC, and focus more on this blog that has dwindled to one post a week with my latest sermon.  I would like to use it more to communicate our other personal and ministry activities and fade away from other forms of social media.  I think I will be more productive if I do so.

I am still walking through the book of James.  My "tech guy" just posted the last two sermons and so I am sharing them with you.  I am thankful that church families are able to take advantage of vacation time together this summer.  So a little wait for these was no problem on this end. 

This first sermon (8/1/21) covers chapter 4.1-6 and we hear from James who is in (p)rophet mode.  He calls his audience, the dispersed 1st century mostly Jewish Christians, "adulterous people" who are siding with the ways of the world rather than the ways of God.  The big point being the external quarrels among them was because there was an internal battle within them.  The way of the world is pride and the way of God is humility.  James 4.6b states, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."


The second sermon (8/8/21) covers chapter 4.7-12 and we hear from James who is in pastor mode.  What do we do if we find ourselves slipping into the ways of the world?  James gives us a bunch of bullet points to take note of.
  • Submit to God.
  • Resist the Devil.
  • Draw near to God.
  • Cleanse your hands. (outside)
  • Purify your hearts. (inside)
  • Be wretched, mourn, and weep over sin.
  • Humble yourself before the One you belong to.
  • Don't speak evil about your brother. (to defame, to criminalize)
  • Don't judge your brother. (to be superior to)
  • Don't act like you are God.
What will they do with this information?  This Sunday and in two weeks, James brings up a couple of ways we try to deal with our sin still siding or being "best man" with the world.  


My goal is to keep up with adding a stand alone sermon between the chapters of James.  I will post this Sunday's sermon next week but I will be working on a sermon to speak about true Christian fellowship for the following Sunday.  

If you are not subscribed to this blog, please feel free to do so and get the email notifications.  Thankful for each of you who have been a part of our lives.

Adam




A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

Image
  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlie...
Read more

God gave us a good weather window to travel...yeah God!!!

Image
  Berthoud Pass Here we are at the top of Berthoud Pass.  It was a whirlwind week to conduct a " hand off " service in Wisconsin on 3/17 and then preach a Palm Sunday sermon in Colorado on 3/24.  We give God all the glory for this happening.  So there are two video links at the bottom of this blog.  One is for the Wisconsin service and the other is for the Colorado service.  I racked up over 12,000 in the last 7 weeks.   I love to take these pictures sitting from the front row of chairs and listening to the one God has provided for the church I had been serving for 20 months.  I now have 3 and I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave us to serve Him in this type of ministry over the last 5 years.  It has been great to add to our daily prayer list Zach in Maine, Chris in Ohio and now Stephen in Wisconsin. This was our set up for the 2000+ mile trip.  No " hiccups " except for the strong eastern winds in Kansas.  Of course e...
Read more

Resurrection Sunday in a new space...Matthew 27.62-28.20

Image
  Resurrection Sunday has come and gone but it was a sweet day to be with the gathered saints of the Stillwater Community Chapel .  We are venturing through the Gospel of Matthew and this Sunday will take us back to Matthew 1.1 but last Sunday we were in Matthew 27.62-28.20.  It was a lot to cover so the white board was truly a help to keep me on track.  This year in my Resurrection Sunday message, I focused on the contrast of the cover-up story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus fueled by a bride and the commission of speaking of a risen Lord fueled by boldness . After the service upstairs, we ventured downstairs to the lower level and had a great meal together.  The conversations around the tables allowed us to continue to talk about the passage of Scripture we covered upstairs.  Maybe this is a very informal picture of what happens at the  Waushara Community Church called the " Going Deeper " classes of the Come For More hour following t...
Read more