Crosspoint Baptist Church Blog

A few days ago, my wife’s grandfather gave her several copies of a magazine called Reminence. It is filled with old photos and stories of life back in the first half of the 20th century. I love old photos and so I have greatly enjoyed scanning the pages and seeing life of yesteryear. Now, since I am the ripe old age of 30, I have come to the realization that much has changed over the years. Morethan simply the technology, much has changed in the way of community. Gone are days of neighbors helping neighbors, family helping family, etc. There are 2 thoughts that I’ve stewed over the last few days and one is the need for community. Not just in the way of business and coop but in the body of Christ. There is missing in many churches the authentic sense of community that brings about unity, accountability, progress, and discipleship. Rather than seeing church as the gathering of God;s people for edification and equipping, church has become a marketplace of ideaology, inward fracture, and lack of vision. Church has to be viewed in the lens of a community of believers centered on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to display God’s glory in a fallen world.

a 2nd thought I had was that despite the warm memories of days gone by, there was a sense of appreciation for living in the here and now. I found that the values of family community never change but the methods of “liivng” have changed. To be clear, let me say that the message of the gospel, correctly understood and apprehended, NEVER changes. True community cannot exists apart from the gospel. Yet, the means we have today cannot stuck in the past simply because “that’s the way geampa did it.” Let me illustrate what I mean. Use to be that neighbors would often help each other harvest the crops because often times there was only 1 tractor in the community and it became a community event. Now, we have specialized machinery that huge farms have to bring in the crops. Old mule plows have been replaced with tractors that have Sirrius satelite radio. One thing that hasn’t changed is the planting of the crop. The seeds still have to be planted. The gospel is always to be proclaimed in every generation. This doesn’t change nor can it be compromimised yet to reach the world with we must use the methods God has given us, though they may be different than yesteryear, to procliam the gospel.

In about an hour and a half I am going to be preaching out of James 1:16-18. We started a series out of James a few weeks ago and the reason we want to study this book, like any other book in scripture, is that we may grow in the likeness of our savior Jesus Christ. James desired for the believers of his day to demonstrate their faith in Jesus Christ in all they do. We have been learning how this applies to our day as well. Trials can derail our faith in God and thus cause us to not live it out each day. Through a series of statements, James has made it clear that God always uses trials in the lives of His people to accomplish His purposes. He has encouraged us to seek God’s wisdom to endure, to remember both our identity with and inability apart from the Lord Jesus, and to understand that we are blessed for having endured trials. Now, he encourages us to remember the unchanging goodness of God. This helps us understand a little more about the nature of God and it shows us the heart of God. The following outline is the sermon outline for today and I hope it will remind you to seek the Lord each day and to live for HIS glory and to love HIM above all else. God bless my friends.

Text: James 1:16-18

Proposition: The Unchanging goodness of God is an encouragement for believers.

Intro: Recap –

1.) Trials are used by God to accomplish His purposes in the lives of believers.

2.) Believers are encouraged to seek by faith the wisdom of God to endure trials.

3.) Believers are reminded of both their identity with and inability without the Lord Jesus Christ.

4.) Believers are blessed for having endured trials.

5.) Believers are warned against the temptation to sin in the midst of trials.

6.) Believers are encouraged in the midst of trials by the unchanging goodness of God.

Job said, “The LORD gives and the LORD takes away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” Job 1:21

It is easy and almost expected to change our view of God when difficulties hit our life. James very sternly tells them to avoid being deceived and to be encouraged that God never changes. The same good purpose he had for their life before the persecutions is the same good purpose he is going to bring about.

Transition: Again, it is easy and almost expected for someone to change their view of God when difficulties hit their life. Yet, in stark contrast, the UNCHANGING goodness of God is an encouragement to us because…

1.) We are taught about the Nature of God: vs. 17

EXEGESIS: James teaches the persecuted believers that every (all, entire) gift comes from God (is from above). To clarify his exact point, James uses 2 different words for gift. The first is the word dosis and it means the act of giving. The second word is dowrema and it means the perfecting of the gift. Thus, every good act of giving and the perfection of that gift are both from God. Trials, as seen throughout chapter 1 and the scriptures always are portrayed as being a gift. Therefore, James concludes, God is no less good because he allows trials to happen in the lives of his people.

Another aspect of God’s nature seen in this verse is the unchanging nature of God, often called his immutability. James uses the word picture of light cast by the sun to demonstrate what he means. God, unlike the variation of sunlight or the shadows often cast by the sun, never changes. Louis Berkhoff uses 4 words to summarize God’s immutability: being, perfections, purposes, and promises. The word picture here is that God who created light to shine is above them in that He does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (1 John 1:5; Numbers 23:19; Malachi 3:6)

APPLICATION: The application of this text teaches us to understand, as best we can, the nature of God. We are encouraged when we begin to see that God is good and that he has not changed. There is no variation in his character nor is there any deception in his actions. It is easy to have our view of God changed when trials occur but we can be encouraged by the unchanging goodness of God.

ILLUSTRATION:

2.) We are taught about Heart of God: vs. 18

EXEGESIS: In this verse, James begins shifting direction away from the importance of living out faith in the midst of trials by teaching something about the heart of God. Again, this verse serves as a bridge that connects the whole of his message and the message he now moves to is God’s unchanging goodness is most clearly seen in his redemption of people. James uses the same word picture he uses in verse 13-15 to describe a birth that results in life rather death. Unlike those verses, redemption is seen as an intentional act of God’s will to give life to sinful rebels through the word of truth, the gospel. The heart of God is redemption. The greatest display of God’s unchanging goodness is his salvation of his enemies. The text here describes this as regeneration. The word means that God has given new life to a dead sinner. This is often called the new birth. Regeneration is the result of something only God can do and it is the beginning of a new life in Jesus Christ. This life of faith is then lived out each day before a world that needs to know the gospel. The purpose of our regeneration is that we may be presented as the first fruits of God. This is an agricultural term that gives the picture of those first crops that are harvested. It is a picture of consecration. One day all of creation will be regenerated and the salvation of people are the first products of that coming harvest.

APPLICATION: God’s heart is in redemption. He desires that we see his unchanging goodness and be encouraged through it. As we seek to demonstrate our faith each day, we must keep in our hearts and mind the fact that he has given us new life. He has demonstrated his love for us at the cross and through the resurrection. He has not changed nor will he change. Be encouraged and look to him.

Last tuesday night, me and a couple of our men went to make some contact with some people in our community who had visited our church. I was reminded that all around us (literally!) there are so many unchurched people. To designate them as such is not to belittle them or to make ourselves superior, but to help us understand that the fields are white for harvest. I love what Larry White said about true growth in the church. He pointed out that true addition is more than people moving their membership and changing church homes. True growth is when people are being presented with the gospel and through repentence and faith they are converted. True growth, then, is when people are being saved and then as a church we disciple them and see them grow up in the faith and become single minded, whole hearted followers of Christ.

Our goal should be to live out our faith and demonstrate it everyday to a lost world that literally surrounds our church. May we pray specifically for workers to go out into the harvest.  God has placed us here for a purpose and that is to proclaim the gospel, the only true hope for a lost soul. The harvest is ready.

Hello and welcome to the blog of CrossPoint Baptist Church. Check back each week as we let you know about upcoming events and information about our church.

We are truly excited about the future of our church and its desire to build the kingdom of God. Join us for our equipping hour on Sunday mornings at 9:30am and worship with us at either 10am or 6pm. We have a mid week fellowship meal and several age related studies to help strengthen families and foster community within the body.

Finally, thank you for stopping by this site and may God bless you, keep you, and cause his face to shine on you.