James 4:1-4 (NIV)
¹ What causes fights (wars) and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires (used 5 times, always negative, lust), that battle within you? ² You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. ⁴ You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

Today is sanctity of life Sunday and its interesting, I think, that this Sunday follows our discussion last week of sin. It was my goal last week to expand our view of sin. As one might expect, our tendency is to understand sin as the overt, occasional mistake. The bad things we do once in a while. That outburst in word or deed that takes place when I deviate from my normal controlled behavior – or something like that. Defining sin that way is sin. Read the rest of this entry »

Before we actually tackle the questions in this series, I think it’s important that we lay the groundwork for the questions and the answers. So, I want to take a couple of Sunday’s and talk about two vital issues. I want to talk about SIN and I want to talk about SCRIPTURE. Sin and the world we live in and Scripture – God speaking to us. Read the rest of this entry »

[Listen to this sermon]

Sin is a very interesting topic. On the one hand, everyone knows that sin exists and is a part of life. On the other hand, the implications of the reality of sin are so profound that we squirm when we seriously face them because we know our sin is a pointer to God – the One who sees us sin. If there were two themes that permeate the Bible from beginning to end they would be: First, GOD as the primary theme – God’s power, God’s relational intention,  God’s holiness, God’s love, etc. And second, SIN and the incredible pain and chaos and destruction and death that follows in the wake of our desire to serve self rather than God. Read the rest of this entry »

James 5:13-20, “publicly confessing sin” [Listen]

Our culture today is desperately looking for real meaning, purpose, hope and relationship. This is GOOD NEWS for us here today – we have that to share. We have that to share in the person of Jesus and we should have that to share in our fellowship. God’s design is that we live meaning, purpose, hope and relationship! The problem is that much of what passes for Christianity today is nothing more than a different version of the world’s priorities and values. In the end it’s about the money, it’s about the “club”, it’s about self – how can we spin the Bible so that we can live for this world’s priorities and still talk like my loyalty is to Jesus and the Kingdom. Read the rest of this entry »

This article by John Samson was posted on Reformation Study Center 

Why are you reading this? Yes, this particular sentence? There are billions of sentences out there just waiting to be read, in many different languages, but right now, you are reading this one. Why? Read the rest of this entry »

Matthew 5:27-30, “adultery? lust? pornography?” [Listen]

Just as Jesus seemed to say that we are shallow if we don’t take hate as seriously as murder (Matt 5:21-26), here he seems to say we must look at lust the way we look at adultery. Read the rest of this entry »

We have all seen people “fall” from positions of power and influence over their inappropriate actions. In 2006 a Minneapolis City Counsel member was convicted of taking a $7,200 bribe that, as a result, will impact the rest of his life. The Bible shows us many, many examples of the devastating consequences of yielding to temptation. Moses, for example, was a man used mightily by God, but missed entering into the land of destiny because he responded to self rather than God.

The interesting thing about temptation… We can easily look at someone else’s sin and be bewildered at their decision. We see the devastating results – families are decimated, hopes are crushed, destruction reigns, the pain is enormous. When temptation comes to you and me, however, it’s very appealing. We see minimal consequences as compared to the anticipated satisfaction.

The lure of self and its destructive results should create a desperate longing for the alternative – Jesus.