Sermons found for the topic James

Walk on Water, Pete! - Matthew 14:22-33

Christ calls us to find out what he is doing in the world, and then to fling ourselves wholeheartedly into his cause. Staying in the boat may be comfortable and safe, but that’s not what the life of faith is all about. More

Praying for the Sick–Part 1 - James 5:14-15

If we pray at all, sooner or later we will spend time paying for the sick. Our prayers matter to him. Our prayers matter to the sick. When we pray for the sick, we are bringing God’s mercy into the hospital room and inviting the Great Physician to take up the case. More

The Mother of Two Sons: Christ Speaks to the Problem of Misguided Ambition - Matthew 20:20-28

This is the story of a mother who wanted only the best for her sons. Because she loved them and was proud of them and because she had great dreams for them, she came to Jesus one day with an audacious request. She ask More

Praying For the Sick - James 5:13-16

If you have read the title, you know exactly what this sermon is about. Praying for the sick is something we are all asked to do from time to time. It is certainly something that all pastors do every week. That fact a More

The James Ossuary

THE JAMES OSSUARY BY RAY PRITCHARD The recent discovery of the “James ossuary” has given the world a close encounter with Jesus and his family. An ossuary was a small limestone box in which the bones of a deceased loved one were placed. This sort of burial was very common among the Jews of the first century. What … More

What Was That I Never Heard You Say? - James 1:19

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the woman who went to see a lawyer about getting a divorce. The lawyer decided it would be helpful if he could get a little background so he asked the woman if she had grounds More

The Sixth Law: There is No Growth Without Struggle - James 1:2-4

Life is hard. Does anyone reading these words have any question about that? I didn’t think so. Because we live in a fallen world, nothing works the way it’s supposed to. Sin has stained every part of the p More

The Midway

If only a few people will be saved, how can there be a vast multitude in heaven? And why do so many people miss the narrow gate while many others find it? Life on the midway helps us answer those questions. More

Praying for the Sick–Part 2 - James 5:14-16

Through prayer we have the privilege of lifting the burden from our brothers and sisters. Through prayer we may become agents of healing to those who are sick. What an honor to be used of God in this way. When we pray for the sick, we are doing the work of Jesus in the world. More

Does God Lead His Children Into Temptation? - Matthew 6:13

“And lead us not into temptation.” Matthew 6:13aBefore we begin: What is the difference between temptation and testing? How can a temptation to sin become an avenue for spiritual growth? Does God lead hi More

The Church on its Knees: Unleashing the Power of United Prayer - Acts 1:12-14

"Prayer is that slender nerve that moves the muscles of omnipotence." Charles SpurgeonI don’t often begin a sermon with a confession but this week it seems the appropriate thing to do. Over the years when More

Risky Business: The Other Side of Christian Freedom - Galatians 5:13-15

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1a). What exactly is this Christian freedom that Paul talks so much about in Galatians? In order to help us understand the answer, I’d like to b More

How to Be a Leader People Want to Follow

To be credible means that you are believable. To be authentic means that you are genuine and real, not a fake or phony. Put the words together and a credible, authentic leader is someone who can be trusted because he is what he professes to be. He is the real deal, what you see is what you get. More

Bad Manners at the Dinner Table: A Powerful Lesson in Biblical Confrontation - Galatians 2:11-14

This is a sermon about conflict in the church—where it comes from and how to handle it. As a place to begin, I’d like to start with the observation that most church conflicts fall into one of two categorie More

Bad Manners at the Dinner Table - Galatians 2:11-14

We need an infusion of God’s love to make us open in our friendships, open in our churches, and open on Sunday morning to new people who love the Lord but don’t fit our particular target group. More

Invitation to the Heart of God - Matthew 6:9

We approach the Lord’s Prayer with humility, saying with the first disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Through prayer we journey from wherever we are on earth to the very heart of God. More

God's Mountain Man - 1 Kings 17:1

Last December right after the tsunami disaster, my friend Ramesh Richard, a professor at Dallas Seminary, sent an email that contained a simple, one-sentence prayer. He called it a “dangerous prayer.” The More

Forward-Leaning Defense

“There is no victory at bargain basement prices.” General Dwight Eisenhower“World War IV began in a long string of terrorist attacks, whose real nature went unrecognized until on September 11, 2001, More

Repent! The Forgotten Doctrine of Salvation - Acts 17:30

In 1937 the American Tract Society sponsored a contest in which they offered a prize of $1,000 for the best new book written on one of the “essential evangelical doctrines of the Christian faith.” Sixty-on More

Trouble in the Church! - Romans 16:17-20

Greet one another with a holy kiss … but don’t go kissing everyone.That will serve as a useful summary of our text. Sometimes it’s not what you say but when you say it that matters. Paul writes thes More

Why Love Has a Bad Memory - I Corinthians 13:4-6

A Peanuts cartoon shows Lucy standing with her arms folded and a stern expression on her face. Charlie Brown pleads, “Lucy, you must be more loving. This world really needs love. You have to let yourself love to More

Come Before Winter - 2 Timothy 4:21

Procrastination destroys many good intentions. Some things must be done “before winter” or they will not be done at all. There are doors of opportunity that open before us today, but if we do not take advantage of them, tomorrow they will be forever shut. More

Do Not Grieve the Spirit - Ephesians 4:29-32

It is so easy for us to be unkind and ungracious. Ephesians 4:29-32 shows us that we grieve the Holy Spirit first by rotten speech (v. 29) and second by rotten attitudes (v. 31). But these two things are not separate. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. We must stop making the Holy Spirit weep because of our unkind words and inner ugliness. Cry out to God for his help. Ask the Lord to open your eyes and see the uncleanness within. Pray for a fresh vision of Jesus dying for you. More

If God is Sovereign, Why Pray? - Matthew 6:8

When we surveyed the congregation last year several people asked this question. I would suppose that most Christians have wondered about it at one time or another. Certainly skeptics have thrown it in our faces to dis More

Serving to the End - Malachi 3:13-18

Are you looking around and complaining, or are you looking up and comprehending? As God eavesdrops on our lives, He makes a distinction between those who know Him and those who do not. We see this in the last verse of Malachi 3: “And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” More

Lessons From the Master Teacher - Luke 6:40

Teachers deserve special honor because they help shape the next generation. By their words and by their deeds, teachers mold the leaders of tomorrow. Henry Brooks Adams said, “A teacher affects eternity. He can More

Nothing More, Nothing Less, Nothing Else - Matthew 6:10

Praying “Your will be done” is an act of God-ordained rebellion. This is not a prayer for the weak or the timid. This is a prayer for troublemakers and rabblerousers. More

Integrity: The Ultimate Virtue - Various

I want to begin this sermon by giving you a verse of Scripture that is hard to know where it fits. It is Proverbs 24:26. It seems to fit well on the first Sunday of the new year. It says, “An honest answer is li More

The Frustrated Fisherman: Christ Speaks to the Problem of Limited Vision - Luke 5:1-11

Occasionally I am asked how I ended up in the ministry. My close friends know that I come from a family with a background in medicine. My father was a surgeon and my three brothers are all medical doctors. There are n More

Faithful to the Tempted - I Corinthians 10:13; Genesis 39

We begin with two quotations. The first comes from British playwright Oscar Wilde who said, “I can resist anything except temptation.” We smile when we read those words because they speak an important truth More

Nothing Shall Offend Them: A Message for Unhappy, Irritated, and Bent-Out-of-Shape Christians - Psalm 119:165

For our final message in this short series from Psalm 119, I want to look at a verse I first learned in Mrs. Sandberg’s British Literature class 30 years ago. As she began class one day, she read a verse of Scri More

Darwin’s Delusion: Why I Believe in Creation

If we start with the biblical record, we find it fundamentally incompatible with evolutionary naturalism. Three words summarize where we come from–created, not evolved. We need to teach those three words to our children and make them a bulwark of our own personal faith. More

Praying From the Footnotes - Matthew 6:13

When we pray, we are to begin by asking that God’s name be hallowed and we are to end by praising God for his sovereign rule over the affairs of men. Thus the Lord’s Prayer begins with God and ends with God. More

Why God Prefers Losers - 2 Corinthians 4:7

God prefers losers who know their weakness, see their flaws, admit their mistakes, and cry out to him for help. More

What I’ve Learned About Preaching

Preaching is the highest calling in the whole world, worthy of the greatest effort week by week, as men called by God rise in the power of the Spirit to deliver the Word of God to a waiting congregation. More

Something Big Is Happening Here - Ephesians 3:10

When we face hard times and when life makes no sense whatsoever, we need to stop and say to ourselves, “Something big is happening here.” God never wastes anything. Not even the tiniest tear falls without a purpose. More

The Whole Bible in One Message

Here’s the whole Bible presented as a drama in six acts, starting with creation and ending with the Second Coming of Christ. More

Lord, Please Change Me! - Romans 12:2

Knowledge alone will not save us and knowledge alone will certainly not change us. You’ve got to do something with the knowledge you have. More

Resurrection Hospital - 1 Kings 17:17-24

Of all the episodes in the life of Elijah, this is probably the most troublesome. There really isn’t anything else like it in the Old Testament. In our text Elijah lays himself out over the body of a dead child More

Behind Closed Doors - Hebrews 13:4

There are times when a writer knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he doesn’t have to worry about getting the reader’s attention. Certain subjects require no gimmicks, tricks or elaborate introductions. More

When God Prays for You - Romans 8:26-27

With this message we come to the final installment in the series called Adventures in Prayer. When we started I said that I wanted to encourage you about the boundless possibilities of prayer. It’s easy to feel More

Repent! The Forgotten Doctrine of Salvation - Acts 17:30

In 1937 the American Tract Society sponsored a contest in which they offered a prize of $1,000 for the best new book written on one of the “essential evangelical doctrines of the Christian faith.” Sixty-on More

Christmas Joy - Luke 2:8-11

If there is a single word that describes what Christmas is all about, it’s the little word “joy.” Several of our favorite carols mention it: “Joy to the world, the Lord is come,” “O More

The Winds Of War - Matthew 24:6

(Date: January 20, 1991)What a week it’s been for all of us! This has been one of those rare moments when time, which had been rolling smoothly along, suddenly came to a total halt. Do you remember where you wer More

The Most Sought After Things in the World - Romans 5:1-5

A number of years ago a major American magazine published the results of a most fascinating survey. The editors had asked 16 prominent Americans what they did in order to find peace of mind in the midst of our stressf More

What is Heaven Like? - Philippians 3:20-21

"Heaven is a place, just as much a place as is New York or Chicago.” Charles Ferguson Ball I begin this sermon with two statements that I believe to be almost universally true: Everyone wants to know about heave More

Five Words on a Tombstone - 1 Thessalonians 2:1-6

Several years ago my older brother took me to visit a cemetery outside Florence, Alabama, near the remains of an ante-bellum mansion called Forks of Cypress. The mansion was built in the 1820s by James Jackson, an ea More

From Temptation to Triumph

Playwright Oscar Wilde once jokingly remarked, “I can resist everything except temptation.” We smile when we read those words because they speak an important truth about the human condition. Temptation p More

If I Should Die Before I Wake - Hebrews 11:20-22

The stories of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph show us what faith looks like at the end of life. Here is one mark of genuine Christianity. When you come to the end of your earthly journey, you still hold on to what you believe. Because Jesus died and rose again, we can face our own death with confidence, knowing that the Lord will not abandon us when we need him most. More

Angry Man Alert

In this message, Ray Pritchard talks about the five character qualities that relate to a man and his anger. When our power is not under God’s control, we hurt ourselves and those closest to us. We need God’s help so that we might become like Jesus who was both gentle and strong, a true “gentle man.” More