I don’t like to wrap. I used to be really bad at wrapping. Now I do a pretty descent job. I’ve never got the art of the bow down.

Here’s the thing about wrapping paper, it can be very deceiving about what’s inside. You can look at some really amazingly wrapped gifts and be misled that something really good is inside of it.

You can take something that no one wants, something that people try to avoid, and make it look desirable.

In today’s message I want to unwrap sin. Sin always presents itself in a very attractive way. Satan is a master deceiver.

Wrapping

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Luke 17:9 (New Living Translation)
9 And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not.

Jesus is saying that there is a condition for appreciation, gratitude. There is some criteria that must be met.

He says if you want to be appreciated, if you want gratitude, you need to do something that is thankable. Just doing what is required, what is expected, is not thankable behavior.

Today I want to talk about the unthankful.

God Is

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I say thank you all the time. I say thank you a lot. Every time I’m in a checkout line I purposely look at the person’s name so that when they hand me my receipt I can say “thank you, Gertrude.”

While being polite is great, Jesus tells us that real thankfulness should be in response to something extraordinary.

God Is

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Most of life is determined by the choices we make. Where to live, where to work, who to date, who to marry. Choices to put my needs above other people’s needs. The choice to surrender my wants, desires, and will to God, or to do my own thing and hope it works out.

Often our daily choices don’t matter very much; what to wear, where to eat lunch. Other times, our choices are extremely important and affect our lives in a big way. It requires wisdom to know the difference.

How many times have you made choices, later to find out that you should have chosen something else? All of us have had times in our life when you say, “Well, if I would’ve known this, I wouldn’t have done that.” Maybe you can identify with the song lyrics, “I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger.”

Wisdom

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Perseverance and patience is not putting up with things until you go to Heaven. This is not what James is telling us to do.
When test and trials come, we must be patient and persevere WHILE OVERCOMING the test and trials.

Perseverance and patience is not passive. Say that with me. It is not sitting there waiting for things to be different.
James is the guy that tells us to do the Word not just listen, he’s the one that says faith without works is dead. He challenges us to action!

Patience Isn’t Passive

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We are in a series of talks right now where we are looking at the book of James to see what it means to be a mature Christian.

God’s will for every person is that they grow.  In Hebrews 6:1, “Let us go on to maturity.”  God says grow up.  Create a growing community that makes Jesus attractive. Growing spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and becoming more Christlike.

James challenges followers of Christ to not just “talk the talk,” but to “walk the walk.”
Good works are not the cause of salvation, but they are the result of it.

James is a manual on how to live a mature Christian life. James talks a lot about Patience and Perseverance. Patience and Perseverance should be evident in a mature persons life.

Patience

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The Book of James: The author of this letter is James, the brother of Jesus Christ.
Mark 6 Jesus returned to Nazareth, his hometown. Then they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.

James was not a believer (John 7:5 For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.) until after the resurrection (Acts 1:14; 1 Corinthians 15:7; Galatians 1:19). He became the head of the Jerusalem church and is mentioned first as a pillar of the church (Galatians 2:9).

Walking And Talking

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We are in a series called Rings And Things and today we are actually dealing with the topic of being single. If you are single, chances are that many people are offering you their advice on what you should do. Grandma, aunt Myrtle, your married brother or sister, friends, and co-workers are all giving you their opinion about what you should do with your life. Or maybe if you are married now, you can remember what that was like. Today we are going to look at what the bible has to say about being single.

Singleness

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God designed the family with the intention that the parents would protect, train, love, and discipline the children. It’s the parents responsibility to help shape and mold the kids into the people that God has created them to be.

Training, Discipline, Consequences
Training is preparations for the future.
Discipline is corrective training in response to wrong behavior.
Consequences are the results and effects of our actions.  

Each of these have their own unique qualities and specific times of use. As a child develops and matures the usefulness and amounts of these will vary.

Parenting, pt.2

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God designed the family with the intention that the parents would protect, train, love, and discipline the children. It’s the parents responsibility to help shape and mold the kids into the people that God has created them to be.

The marriage relationship lays the first foundation to the parents/child relationship. With parenting, as with many things in life, more is caught than is taught. If you don’t listen to each other and talk back and fight, The kids will do the same.

One of the most important things we can do as parents is to agree to keep a unified stance in front of our children.

Parenting, pt.1

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