July 19, 2020
Along with the rest of the world, we continue to do a few things doing
differently. While we are back in the sanctuary, we continue to present a service in the form of a YouTube
Playlist. Audio
only podcasts are still available as per usual. The sermon is given by Pastor Chris.
Link To YouTube Sunday Service Play List
Link to YouTube Sermon Only
Link To Sermon Audio
Scripture:
James 1:19-27
My dear brothers, take note of this:
Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for
man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and
humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and
so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does
not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after
looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But
the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and
continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be
blessed in what he does.
If anyone considers himself religious
and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his
religion is worthless. Religion that God
our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and
widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
James 3:2-12
We all stumble in many ways. If
anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his
whole body in check.
When we put bits into the mouths of
horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an
example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are
steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise the
tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a
great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a
world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets
the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles
and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man
can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
With the tongue we praise our Lord
and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out
of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can
both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a
fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring
produce fresh water.
