Understanding Temptation
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James 1:12-16
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God’s Wisdom Workshop
Last week, we began our study in James. Today, in our second lesson, we find a theme woven throughout the book: God’s wisdom. It comes up right here in the beginning, and later in chapter 3, there is a specific section about it. In this short book, wisdom is often mentioned; if we want to be wise, we better pay attention. This wisdom will never be outdated, and you don’t have to worry about some discovery being made that renders it obsolete. It won’t happen; this is a timeless truth.
The Potential of Trials
Our opening text is James 1:1-4. James echoes Jesus' teaching that trials and suffering are expected in our Christian experience. Our text outlines our response and the benefits we can anticipate. If you and I want to develop a faith that works, we must understand the need to strengthen our faith by testing. I’ve titled the message “The Potential of Trials.”
Are You in the Faith?
Thanks so much for joining us today. We are honored to be with you and look forward to studying God’s Word together. Today’s lesson is our last lesson from II Corinthians. So, we will look at chapter 13. If there is any teaching from II Corinthians you missed or would like to hear again, no problem. We would love to help you with it. You can find it online at heraldsofhope.org. We do our best to keep our teaching here accessible. Today, our title is a question: Are you in the faith? Let’s follow Pastor J Mark to chapter 13 as we finish our study of II Corinthians.
The Conundrum of Love
Many in our world have a distorted understanding of love. To them, love is irresistible, fun, and delightful. I’ll love you, and you’ll love me. We’ll live happily ever after. There’s a sense in which that can be true. But it’s also true that love is hard work, painful, and exhausting.
Delighting in Your Disability
Think about your own life. Usually, the areas of our greatest passion are areas where we have been wounded or experienced great difficulty. It is just like God to use these areas in our lives to help others going through similar circumstances. This is not us; it is God at work, and Paul sums it up perfectly in this powerful verse: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
“A Fool for God’s Glory”
What matters more than your reputation? What are you willing to do in this life, no matter what others think? Are you willing to be a fool for God’s glory? How can we do this? Let’s go with J Mark to the last half of II Corinthians 11 and learn from this passage.
A Godly Leader’s Judgment
In our last time together, we learned a lesson in leadership from Paul. Today our title is A Godly Leader’s Judgement, someone is probably thinking, “Another lesson on leadership, well this won’t apply to me.” Not so fast, before you go there, think about what leadership really is.
A Leader’s Godly Jealousy
Today our study takes us to II Corinthians 11 where Paul is defending himself before the Corinthians. Here Paul stands up to those who are criticizing him. This takes lots of humility and wisdom. Our title is “A Leaders Godly Jealousy” and J Mark will share three responses of a Godly leader’s jealousy, lets listen and learn together.
What Do You Boast In?
We cannot fully imagine what it meant for Jesus to humble Himself and take on human form. He exchanged His heavenly perfection for the form of a human being and took on the characteristics of an obedient servant. He did it willingly, motivated by His love for you and me. According to Philippians 2:5, we are to adopt this mindset in our relationships with each other.
Engaging in Spiritual Warfare
Today’s teaching is a lot like driving a vehicle. We have got to keep it in the middle, on either side there is a ditch, meaning there is error if we swing too far either direction. Satan does not care which ditch you fall into. He will be happy with either one. Our topic today is “Engaging in Spiritual Warfare” this topic has two extremes or ditches we must do our best to avoid. CS Lewis summarized it well he said, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”