What does First B Jackson teach about self examination?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on self-examination starts with a simple but uncomfortable premise: the vice lists scattered through Paul's letters were written to people inside the church, not as a critique of the outside world. Pastor Carl has pressed this point more than once, most directly in a sermon from Colossians 3 where he walked through sins like sexual immorality, anger, malice, slander, and lying and asked the congregation to recognize them as things Paul expected believers to find in their own lives, not just in someone else's.
That same inward honesty shapes the way the church approaches communion. Both Pastor Carl and Pastor Mark have used 1 Peter 1:22-2:3 to walk the congregation through a short list before coming to the table: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. Each item gets careful attention. Hypocrisy, for instance, is described as wearing a mask that everything is fine when it is not, and Pastor Mark has pointed out that dropping that mask would actually help others who are struggling. Envy is not just jealousy but a sourness that takes pleasure in someone else's stumble. The self-examination is meant to be pointed and honest, not a formality before moving on.
Pastor Ray has brought this same practice into his series on the twelve steps as a biblical framework, where step four is making a fearless and searching moral inventory of yourself, and step five is confessing the exact nature of those wrongs to God, to yourself, and to another person. He connected step five to James 5:16 and to 1 John 1:9, where confession is tied to both forgiveness and being purified from all unrighteousness. The pattern across all of these messages is the same: honest self-examination is not self-condemnation, but it is the necessary starting point for anyone who wants to move toward God and toward other people.
Taught from 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 · 1 Peter 1:22 · 1 Peter 2:1-3 · 1 John 1:9 · Colossians 3:1-11
The passage taught · 1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- September 15, 2024 Love Must Have an Object The pastor walks through steps one through eight of a biblical framework for freedom from sin, focusing on willingness to make amends and pursuing peace with God and others.
- September 2, 2018 Loving and Longing Peter calls believers to fervently love one another and crave God's Word, while laying aside malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. First Peter 1:22, 2:3.
- September 2, 2018 The Grass Withers but the Word Stands Forever Pastor Carl walks First Peter 1:22-2:3 through two commands: fervently love one another and crave God's Word, then leads the congregation in communion and self-examination.
- March 5, 2017 Christ Is All and in All Colossians 3:1-11 examined as a word to Christians, not just the world, calling believers to put off the old self and find unity in Christ alone.
- November 23, 2014 Called Out and Called Into A Wyoming pastor's rebuke of division at the Lord's Supper, drawn from 1 Corinthians 11, calls every believer to self-examination and unity at the foot of the cross.