James: Fighting for Wholeness
James, the brother of Jesus, wrote a short letter to believers who were struggling to hold it all together.
They said they believed in God… but they struggled to live like it. They knew money couldn't buy them happiness… but they found it hard not to live like it kind of could. They wanted to follow Jesus… but they also wanted everything this world had to offer. Their own desires waging war within them.
James had a word for it: "double-souled."
So he wrote this letter to them (and to us) to help us fight for wholeness. To not let this world tear us apart. To seek the one thing worth everything.
If you've ever felt like you are being pulled apart, this one's for you. Come join us this fall.
Week 1: I Want Jesus. And I Don’t. (Why James Calls Me Adulterous)
That tension. James has a word for it: double-souled.
And if you don't do something about it, it's going to tear you apart. In this message, we begin our study of what scholars believe to be the earliest New Testament writing: the Letter of James. But this letter has quite an edge to it. His message can be summed up in three words: "You adulterous people."
So that needs some explaining.
Who exactly is this James?
And what could he possibly mean calling me adulterous?
If you (like me) have ever found yourself fully devoted to Jesus... and not fully devoted to Jesus... at the same time, this message is for you.
Week 2: I Hate This. And It's Healing Me. (Why James Says Choose Joy)
Hardships will come. Choose joy.
Easy to say. Terrible advice if you don't understand what James actually means.
James isn't telling you to feel happy when your life falls apart. He's saying something far greater: that the very thing you hate might be the thing God is using to make you whole.
In this message, we continue our study of the Letter of James — likely the earliest writing in the New Testament. James picks up three themes he'll develop across the entire letter: how you suffer, how you talk, and what your relationship with money says about you. But the one he starts with — the one he thinks everything else depends on — is what hardship is doing to you.
So what is it doing to you? And why does James think you should call it joy?
If you've ever been in a season of suffering and wondered whether God forgot about you — or worse, whether he even likes you — this message is for you.
Week 3: Did God Set Me Up? | James 1:12-18
When something hard happens, your instinct says: I'm being set up.
In James 1:12-18, Jesus' own brother, the one who once thought Jesus had lost his mind, takes that suspicion head-on. In this sermon, we walk through what to do when life presses on you, where the pull toward our worst choices actually comes from, and what God has to do with any of it. Along the way, there's a pear tree that the teenage Augustine never stopped thinking about, a fishing rod, why you can crave what you don't even enjoy, and Jesus alone in the wilderness, facing the same question underneath all of it.
You'll wrestle with whether God is behind your hardest seasons and what you really believe about His face. You'll also meet a surprising claim at the center of the text: your wanting doesn't get the last word. His choosing does.
Week 4: I Know Myself. And I Have No Idea. (Why James Hands Me a Mirror) | James 1:19–27
There's a kind of not-knowing-yourself that's harmless, even sweet.
And there's a kind that can rip your life apart. James writes to people who say "Jesus is Lord" but whose lives tell a different story. He calls them double-souled. Divided. And the worst part is, they can't see it. They're self-deceived.
So how do you find the gaps in your life when you're the last person who can see them?
James gives us three telltales: what makes you angry, what comes out of your mouth, and how you treat people who can do nothing for you. And then he puts a mirror in front of us, exposing the gaps between who we think we are and how we actually live.
It's frightening. And ultimately freeing.
Week 5: I Hate Being Used. And I Use People. (Why James Checks the Seating Chart)
Nobody likes feeling used. But what happens when we realize we do the same thing to other people... often without even noticing?
James 2. Two men walk into a church. One wears a gold ring and a toga bleached brilliant white (with urine, it turns out). The other owns one outfit, and it’s filthy. James asks a simple question: who gets the good seat?
In the Roman world, giving the rich man the best seat wasn’t just smart. It was considered the moral thing to do. But James says the judgments we make in 1/10th of a second reveal what we really believe about God, about other people, and about ourselves.
This message explores favoritism, status, usefulness, and the strange freedom of discovering that God does not love you because of what you can do for him. Used people use people.
But loved people are free to love people. And in the kingdom of Jesus, mercy triumphs over judgment.
