Summit Ridge Sermon Podcast

The Book of James: "Overcoming the Battle Within"

April 21, 2024
Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker
 
"When divisions are rife in religion, it is bound to happen that what is in men’s minds will soon erupt in real conflict. For while nothing is more effective for joining us together, and there is nothing which does more to unite our minds, and keep them peaceful, than agreement in religion, yet if disagreement has somehow arisen in connection with it, the inevitable result is that men are quickly stirred up to engage in fighting, and there is no other field with fiercer disputes." -John Calvin
"What! At peace with the Father, and at war with His children? It cannot be." -John Flavel
"Divisions in the church always breed atheism in the world." -Thomas Manton
"The cause of sin is never so much helped as when Christians waste their strength in quarreling with one another, and spend their time in petty squabbles." -J.C. Ryle
 
James 3:13-4:6
 
"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live" -Oscar Wilde
 
”Nothing is bloodier than a religious war. Issues aren’t just as human squabbles; everything is elevated to eternal importance… How tempting… to mistake our will for God’s. How devilish to believe that disagreeing with me is disagreeing with God.” -Marshall Shelly
 
James 4:7-10
 
Romans 7:15
 
(NET)
 
 
 

The Book of James: "What Would Jesus Say?"

April 14, 2024
Associate Pastor Eric Burch
 
James 3:1
1 Corinthians 12:27-28
James 3:2 
Genesis 3:12
Romans 313-14
1 Peter 3:10
James 3:3-4
 
The Tongue is the Master Key for Keeping Our Whole Body in Check.
James 3:5a 
 
The Tongue has Enormous power to do Harm.
James 3:5b-6
Matthew 16:22-23
 
The Tongue is Humanly Uncontrollable.
James 3:7-8
Acts 2:2-4 
 
We struggle with Consistency.
James 3:9-12
Romans 7:21-24
Matthew 12:33-37
 
(NASB 2020)
 

The Book of James: "This is What Faith Looks Like"

April 7, 2024
Associate Pastor Louise Waller
 
James 2:14-16
Faith without action is deadMatthew 25:41-45
Action without faith is deadMatthew 7:15-23
Faith and Action are oneGalatians 6:7-8Ephesians 2:8-10
Faithful Action bears good fruit
 
(NIV)
 

Easter: "Why the Resurrection Matters"

March 31, 2024
 
"Why is Easter Sunday Still Relevant?"
Associate Pastor Justin Brunenkant
 
"What Does it Mean to be Born Again?
Associate Pastor Eric Burch
 
"The Physical Resurrection"
Associate Pastor Louise Waller
 
"Without the Resurrection Nothing Else Matters"
Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker

The Book of James: "Loving Others Well"

March 24, 2024
Associate Pastor Justin Brunenkant
 
James 2:1-13
Galatians 3:26-29
1 Peter 3:3-4
 (NKJV)

The Book of James: "Living Like the Church: Do What It Says!"

March 17, 2024
Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker
 
 
I CAN’T ANGER MY WAY TO RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS! 
 
James 1:19-21
 
“Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.” -Aristotle
 
Proverbs 17:28
 
“There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. It is an impatient, inattentive listening, that despises the brother and is only waiting for a chance to speak and thus get rid of the other person…But Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by Him who is Himself the great listener and whose work they should share. We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer
 
I CAN’T FAKE MY WAY TO RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS
 
James 1:22-26
 
To serve one another by following the example of Jesus Christ ensuring others are seen, heard, valued, and cared for as deeply valued members of God’s family and this church. 
 
1 Peter 4:8-11
 
I CAN OBEY MY WAY TO RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS
 
James 1:27
 
“The real act of, say, building a friendship or creating a community involves performing a series of small, concrete social actions well: disagreeing without poisoning the relationship; revealing vulnerability at the appropriate pace; being a good listener; knowing how to end a conversation gracefully; knowing how to ask for and offer forgiveness; knowing how to let someone down without breaking their heart; knowing how to sit with someone who is suffering; knowing how to host a gathering where everyone feels embraced; knowing how to see things from another’s point of view.” -David Brooks
 
(NET)
 

The Book of James: "Living Like the Church: Our Training Ground"

March 10, 2024
Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker 
 
James 1:9-18
Galatians 3:28-29
 
(NET)

The Book of James: "Living Like the Church: Wanting Godly Wisdom"

March 3, 2024
Associate Pastor Eric Burch
James 1:5-8 NASB
 
What does the Bible mean by Wisdom?
Luke 2:52 
Matthew 13:54
Acts 7:22 
1 Kings 3:9
1 Kings 3:11-12
 
What does James say here about God?
James 1:5
Psalms 103:8
Matthew 7:9-11
Matthew 7:7-8
 
What does James say about our sincerity?
 
James 1:6-8
Matthew 21:20-22 
John 17:20-21
Colossians 2:6 
 
(NASB 2020)
 
 

The Book of James: "Living Like the Church: The Long Haul"

February 25, 2024
Associate Pastor Louise Waller
 
James 1:1-4
Trials of many kinds
 …To Test Our Faith
Hebrews 12:1-3
“…Let us run with…"
"Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when you get diagnosed with cancer or when you haveto declare bankruptcy or when you just lost your job or when you just got serveddivorce papers. How we think about tests and challenges will determine the outcomethey produce in our lives. Tests and challenges can utterly ruin people or renovate them.We are not to be broken by the trials but broken by God in the midst of trials. To bebroken by God means to be healed of our sick and willful ways of dealing with life. To bebroken by God means to finally come to the place where we can admit that we do nothave what it takes; that we have exhausted our resources, are at the end of our rope,and that we are poor in spirit. It means to finally be brought to the place where we areready for an entirely new way of living life—God’s way, filled with God’s power,moment by moment. This is how our faith is perfected."  -J.D. WaltReward: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness,Gentleness, Self-Control1 Peter 1:3-7
 
(NIV)
 

Seven Challenges of the Church: "Playing Church Instead of Being Church"

February 18, 2024
Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker
 
"I believe that every Christian ought to be joined to some visible church; that is his plain duty, according to the Scriptures. God’s people are not dogs, else they might go about one by one; but they are sheep, and therefore they should be in flocks." -Charles Spurgeon
“The Church needs more people willing to wash feet, not just point out they're dirty or complain that they smell.” -Mark Hart
 
 
Revelation 3:14-22
 
 
"Complacency is the deadly enemy of spiritual progress. The contented soul is the stagnant soul." -A.W. Tozer"We need to repent of the haughty way in which we sometimes stand in judgment upon Scripture and must learn to sit humbly under its judgments instead. If we come to Scripture with our minds made up, expecting to hear from it only an echo of our own thoughts and never the thunderclap of God's, then indeed he will not speak to us and we shall only be confirmed in our own prejudices. We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior." -John Stott
 
(NET)