Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Amen.
[00:00:03] So, Father, as we come in your presence this morning, we're so grateful for your beautiful acceptance and forgiveness and love towards us. You're so amazing.
[00:00:16] And Lord, as we look at your word today, and I know the book of James is so challenging. And anytime you think you're doing great, just start reading that book and you realize there's still areas of growth that are needed. And I just pray that you'll help us to continue to grow up, help us to continue to mature and develop and Lord, become more like you so that we can become good ambassadors. That we'd represent you so well in our community, Father, that as people look at our transformed and transforming life, that they will be drawn, they'll be attracted to your wonderful message of grace and hope and love and understanding. And I just pray today that you would open our hearts. Lord, right now, as we're here, we could easily be thinking about our problems, our challenges, trying to solve things. Maybe we've got a little measure of anxiety, Lord. Maybe there's things weighing on our heart. I pray right now that you'll help us just to tune in, to hear your voice, to speak specifically and individually in every heart as you're speaking to us collectively. And I pray that be true not only for those that are gathered here presently, but those that are watching livestream and those that are going to hear this as a recorded message, that you're going to speak powerfully into their lives. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name and God's people said, amen. Amen. You may be seated. We're going to look at the book of James. That's where I started. And I took a month sabbatical. I was here on Sundays, but I wasn't speaking. I wasn't in my usual office time. I was actually working in book number three. That's what I was doing with my time. I was writing.
[00:01:52] And it's kind of nice to be able to just stop and do something and concentrate on it and not have all the other distractions that we have in life. So Patty and I actually were watching a documentary here a couple of weeks ago. And this is going to kind of time date us. But we were watching.
[00:02:12] It was called Sunday, the Sunday's Best Hour. It was basically a documentary on Ed Sullivan. How many remember Ed Sullivan? Anybody? So this is dating us, some of us, you know. And this was back in the days you didn't have cable tv. There was like maybe one or two channels, you know, if you're. I live close to the States we probably had four. If you had cable, you had maybe 12. I don't know, it was really limited. If you were in Canada, I remember living in the prairies, you'd have two channels, maybe, you know, that's about it. And of course Ed Sullivan was really well known. It was a variety show and he hosted the show for 27 years.
[00:02:48] And one of the things that Ed Sullivan was noted for was trying to help integrate into his program African American entertainers because of the deep prejudice against African Americans, particularly in the southern part of the United States. And while they were going through this, I mean, he was actually doing things that people were getting upset about because of their biases and prejudices, you know, know even the sponsors of the show, everything else. And one of the reasons I believe, and it shares this for his commitment.
[00:03:23] Okay, I'm going. Okay, that's great.
[00:03:26] To this concern regarding racial discrimination was simply he grew up, his background, his family background, that they were Irish immigrants to the US and they had experienced firsthand the pain of discrimination and favoritism.
[00:03:45] And maybe some of you have experienced that. And we're going to look at what the scriptures have to say about this very powerful topic.
[00:03:53] In James chapter two, we find these same concerns exposed, favoritism, discrimination.
[00:04:00] And a lot of times, you know, we may think, well, I'm not very prejudiced, I'm pretty open minded. But I pray today keep our minds open because I believe that there's things inside of us that God wants to address in our souls so that we can better represent him amongst people. Because our deepest attitudes are usually reflected in how we behave and treat other people.
[00:04:23] As a matter of fact, I wrote that down. How we treat people reveals the kind of person we truly are.
[00:04:30] But I think more importantly, the bigger question we should ask is how does God treat people?
[00:04:36] And if God treats people in a certain way, and I'm actually becoming hopefully more like him, then I'm going to beginning to treat people the way God treats people.
[00:04:46] That's really the premise of this message today. I think when we view life, the life of Christ, we begin to see the pattern or the model for the way we should be treating other people. We should be treating people exactly the way Jesus treats them. And so when we look at Jesus life, we see that he always reached out to the marginalized. How many recognize that he always focused in on those people that were looked down upon, you know, the publicans and sinners or the Samaritans or even women in that period of time. They were marginalized in Society, Jesus literally focused in on the people other people overlooked.
[00:05:24] So if you and I are going to be like Jesus, we're going to begin to focus in on the people other people even notice and don't even see and don't even seem to care about.
[00:05:34] But you and I, if we're like him, we're going to start caring about people other people are just totally overlooking.
[00:05:41] Matter of fact, Jesus saw that people were looked down because of. And it's still true today, economic reasons, social reasons, racial reasons. You know, some people go, I don't even relate to this stuff because maybe you've been one of those people who've been fortunate. You've had everything you know you've had. You've been in the optimum chair, if I can say it that way, and everything comes your way. But for a lot of people, that's not the case. They've had to overcome tremendous discrimination and prejudice.
[00:06:10] Maybe lack of educational opportunities. It could be, whatever the reasons.
[00:06:16] And you know, sometimes it's just simply the body God gave us and people discriminate against us because of our bodies.
[00:06:24] Want to look at that this morning? This is a very, I think, meaningful and profound topic that we need to discuss. Isn't it interesting? The Bible talks about these things.
[00:06:34] The Bible is very straightforward and addresses this.
[00:06:39] Jesus was the kind of person that, you know, where others were looked down upon, he looked to them with a word of encouragement and hope and grace and forgiveness and kindness.
[00:06:54] As a matter of fact, Jesus was known as the friend of sinners.
[00:06:58] You know, sometimes I hear Christians going, well, you know, if you hang with that person, then you have to be a bad person. I'm going, not necessarily. I mean, you're branding Jesus.
[00:07:09] You know, I've even seen Christians that get upset about, you know, if you listen to this person that's preaching and you are going down that track and you're a terrible person. I'm going, wait a minute. Be careful. As we're about to see in the Book of James, we have to let every person stand before Almighty God and answer for their own behavior.
[00:07:30] But we can't judge people by all the things that we think we can. And that's what I want us to look at today.
[00:07:39] As a matter of fact, the Samaritans, they were considered impure.
[00:07:43] They were considered defiled people.
[00:07:45] They were ignored by the Jewish mainstream. As a matter of fact, I would even argue if you study carefully the first century, you, you would find out that the Galileans, the northern people that were further away from the southern part of the country where the temple was. They were considered, you know, those backwards. You know, they're not that pure, you know, and then just the ordinary people. I mean, if you're a Pharisee, like, you know, like five or six thousand Pharisees in the first century, they looked down on everybody. You know, they were like. Cause the Pharisees, their whole sect really considered that they were the people that maintained a high level of purity spirituality. And everybody else was just rubbish in their eyes.
[00:08:28] Well, Jesus had a little bit to say about those guys. If you read the New Testament very carefully, he did not appreciate that attitude. And I can see that James, who, by the way, most believe was the half brother of Jesus. Can you imagine growing up with Jesus?
[00:08:42] I mean, here's someone that's sinless.
[00:08:44] So he saw the way Jesus treated people. And James also was very. You know, when you study the book of James, you can see that he's totally shaped on a Jewish mindset and he's totally locked into the Old Testament. And he knows what God's attitude is towards this stuff. So between the modeling of Jesus and the old Testament scripture, for example, Leviticus, chapter 19, verse 15, it says, do not pervert justice, do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
[00:09:17] In other words, he said, God's not a respecter of persons.
[00:09:21] God judges differently than human beings do.
[00:09:27] New Testament scholar Douglas Moog explains what James is challenging us with. He says it this way in his typically practical manner. James, in this paragraph we're about to read, gives voice to an important Christian value. The equal worth of all people in the sight of God.
[00:09:43] I like that line.
[00:09:45] Everybody's on the same page with God. Isn't that great? Nobody's better. Nobody's less on the same page. You know, worldly culture is marked by distinctions between one ethnic group and another. Men and women, rich and poor, and so on. These distinctions are not necessarily erased in the church, but they're relativized in light of the revelation of God's radical grace to all humans. In Christ, what does he mean? Neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither is there male or female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. What he means by this text, Galatians 3:28, is simply this.
[00:10:25] Everyone in this room has the same relationship with God.
[00:10:30] We all have the same standing. We come to God in Christ.
[00:10:34] We're all forgiven the same way. We all have the same access to God. Nobody has better access to God than anybody else. How's that? We're all equal before him. The moment you cry, your prayers are not any less than my prayers.
[00:10:49] Everybody's prayers are equal in the sight of God. God hears every cry, every heart. That's just as important to God. There's no favorites with God.
[00:10:59] It's beautiful. It's an invitation that he cares about each of us equally.
[00:11:06] I love that about him.
[00:11:08] So there's an equality of personhood. We discover from Scripture, every person created in the image of God.
[00:11:18] Isn't that beautiful?
[00:11:20] And we all created like. And he's going to talk about this later on in the book. He says, how can you, you know, praise God and curse human beings who are made in the image of God?
[00:11:32] You can't do that.
[00:11:34] You see, you have to understand that every human being intrinsically has worth and value and dignity. They're God's creation.
[00:11:42] You say, well, yeah, but some people are pretty messed up people. And some people are pretty broken. I'm going, yeah, those things are all true. But let me point out one thing to you. Sin.
[00:11:51] No matter what kind of sin we sin, even the sin we're going to talk about today, Mars, that image of God in our lives, it impedes your God's image from flowing out of us correctly.
[00:12:03] That's what we need to understand so we can take a look at how God evaluates things. You know, we look at things after a external point of view, cultural point of view.
[00:12:19] Remember Samuel the prophet came up to anoint a new king.
[00:12:23] And he gets to the household of Jesse, and there he sees Eliab, the eldest son. And he immediately, he's tall, he's handsome. You know, he just thinks, this has got to be the guy.
[00:12:33] And you know what God said to Samuel? He said to him there, listen.
[00:12:40] It says, when he arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed stands before the Lord.
[00:12:46] But the Lord spoke to Samuel. Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at.
[00:12:56] People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
[00:13:02] You know what God's looking at today?
[00:13:04] Your heart.
[00:13:05] That's what he's seeing.
[00:13:08] So let's take a look at three aspects regarding discrimination.
[00:13:14] First of all is an exhortation.
[00:13:17] First verse James, chapter two, verse one.
[00:13:21] He says there, brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.
[00:13:29] Now let me give you a couple of ideas about favoritism. What is it?
[00:13:35] Well, let Me give you the biblical idea Douglas Booth describes where this word comes from. Favoritism is really translated from a Greek word that means literally receiving the face.
[00:13:49] And it's first used in the New Testament as a literal rendering of the Old Testament Testament, Hebrew language for partiality.
[00:13:57] And it means to receive the face is to make judgments and distinctions based on external considerations such as physical appearance, social status, or race.
[00:14:11] This God never does, as the Old Testament repeatedly reaffirms. As a matter of fact, In Deuteronomy, chapter 10, verse 17, it says, for the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of horse host, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.
[00:14:33] So once God has filled our hearts, one of the things that God wants to bring about transformation, you know, not only does he forgive our sins, God's in the transforming business.
[00:14:45] You don't know this, but God had a plan right from when he decided to create you in eternity.
[00:14:51] He had a design in mind. He had a plan for you to live out. He has things for you to accomplish, and he wants to bring about change in our lives because he knows we've all been marred by sin. And what he's doing is creating a renewed model of the person he originally designed for you to become. And that's to become like him in your attitudes and in your actions and in your thinking, in the way you treat people, the way you relate to other people. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. And so we begin to become more like Him. One of these issues is being changed in some of our prejudices, biases that we are encumbered with when we grow up in our certain family dynamics. You know, people grow up in homes, and maybe there's a lot of prejudice in that home. Those children are going to learn prejudice. How many say that's true? That's all they've learned, you know. And our culture has prejudices too, by the way. As a society, we value certain things. What do we value? We value success, fame, money, beauty. We could just go down the list, right? These are all the things that our society. And so because we value those things, people start to value those things, and then they begin to pursue those things, and then they become idols to us.
[00:16:05] And we begin to put that ahead of everything else. We put that ahead of people. We put that ahead of the real God.
[00:16:12] And we do that at the expense of relationships. And many times we do it at the expense of ourselves. And when we feel we can't arrive or achieve these things, many times we get so in a state of despair. We give up. Many times we self medicate. There's all kinds of things that are going on. And it all starts because we have a wrong understanding of what God really wants us to be about.
[00:16:33] You know, let me just stop and say this.
[00:16:36] God values you.
[00:16:41] God values you so much that he was willing to die on a cross so that he could restore us.
[00:16:52] That's the value God puts on us.
[00:16:55] You yourself have a tremendous value in the eyes of God even before you do anything.
[00:17:02] Isn't that a beautiful thought?
[00:17:04] So I think we need to understand something. You know, sometimes when we grew up in our homes, we weren't valued by our parents. Maybe, maybe we felt we had to earn their approval. You don't have to do that with God.
[00:17:16] He loves us. He values us. I think that's. You have to have the right foundation. You know, maybe today I'm praying for a miracle today. Some of you, you're broken and you don't even know it. We're going to strip down to the foundation. You need to hear this real carefully.
[00:17:30] You're loved and valued by God.
[00:17:33] You need to get this.
[00:17:35] We're going to try to ask God to do a healing in the broken places in our soul so we can just move from this place and move out of a sense of healing and wholeness. So we don't have to prove anything to anybody.
[00:17:48] We can just accept the fact that this is who God made me to be and I'm going to become the best version of who God made me to be and I'm going to become more like him. That's what it's all about.
[00:17:59] So I've already quoted these verses.
[00:18:02] Well, let me go say this.
[00:18:04] Yeah. God defends the cause of the fatherless. The widow loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. In other words, God says, I'm going to take care of people that other people are overlooking. That's the nature of who God is.
[00:18:18] Okay, now we've already looked at these two verses. I've already talked about how we judge.
[00:18:24] So God does not look at people the same way. He doesn't look at our outward elements as much as he's looking at what's inside of us.
[00:18:33] Now, let me point out probably an area that I think this partiality really shows up. And a lot of times we think of discrimination or prejudice. We think of racial prejudice and these things all exist. I get that. But I'm gonna focus in on something. Where does it really start?
[00:18:53] And it starts in the Home. And this is where we see the subtlety of showing parental favoritism.
[00:19:02] So many of us, we grew up in a home.
[00:19:04] How many here? Probably you don't have to raise your hand, but I'm gonna say something to you. Say I never felt like my parents accepted me. I always felt like, you know, they liked my sister, my brother. I felt, you know, I wasn't the person that was my parents favorite person, you know.
[00:19:24] And it creates tension in the family. We don't even realize it. And I'm going to give you an example. Go a little back to the book of Genesis and we see an example of what happens when parents begin to treat different children differently and how it creates division and tension in the family dynamics.
[00:19:41] Just watch what happens in the book of Genesis. It said Isaac.
[00:19:46] Now Isaac is the son of Abraham, the chosen son of Abraham. It said he had a taste for wild game and he loved Esau. Why did he love Esau? Because Esau provided wild game for him. In other words, he gained his dad's favor because of what he did. And his dad liked this about this boy. And it's just like, you know, it's like sometimes, you know, fathers, you know, maybe have an athletic son, that's what they wanted, but they got it and they focus on this son. And I've actually witnessed it. And then the other son comes along and he's not athletic and he's almost ignored by the way. I've seen it. I've seen that happen. Okay, Now Rebecca, the mom, it says she loved Jacob and so she was an advocate for Jacob. And if you study the story and if you want to read it, go back to the book of Genesis. You're going to find out how this develops. Rebecca actually cheats Esau out of his helps, you know, get, you know, basically doesn't receive the blessing because she encourages Jacob to take her brother's blessing.
[00:20:48] And Esau is so alienated by this experience that he hates his brother because now he feels cheated by his brother. And it creates an alienation and a division in their relationship. How many can see that showing favoritism as parents is actually destroying the relationship between the children?
[00:21:09] And that doesn't stop there, folks.
[00:21:11] Didn't end here. Would to God that it would have ended with this generation. But no, it goes right into the next generation.
[00:21:17] As a matter of fact, one of the reasons why we talk about, you know, generational sins. Can I explain what generational sins is? We made a lot of it. But I'm going to explain what it is it's learned behavior.
[00:21:28] And we end up copying the behavior of what we grew up around. And that's why psychologists, you know, they'll talk about things like, you know, family of origin issues, because you're learning your behavior of your parents. And let me point out to you, it's your natural. I'll call it your natural default switch. It's how you were trained to be a parent. You actually parent like your parents. Unless you go.
[00:21:54] Was not a healthy pattern. I recognize the flaws in it. I've asked God to forgive them. I've asked God to help me so that I would not repeat that kind of a pattern, because that's all I learned. I have to go do all the hard work of relearning how to be a better parent. And I'm going to give you an encouraging word. God is the very best parent I know. And the more you get to know him and the more you understand what he's like, the better of a parent you'll actually become.
[00:22:22] The Bible is the best parenting book.
[00:22:25] How's that? This will help you.
[00:22:28] So what's the next story here? His son Jacob now has 12 sons. Oh, he's got a favorite. His name's Joseph. And we know why he's a favorite because he's got four wives, and he's got children through these wives. And the wife he loved the most is the son that came from Rachel, and that's Joseph. He becomes the father's favorite. And you know what that creates in that family again?
[00:22:58] Hatred.
[00:22:59] Division.
[00:23:00] The other brothers hate. Some of them hate Joseph so much they want to kill him. But some of the older guys in the family say, no, no, no, we're not going to kill him. Oh, there's some slave traders. We'll just sell them off to be slaves. Nice brothers, right? They sold him down the river and thought they got rid of this kid.
[00:23:18] And he pops up later on in the story. If you read the book of Genesis, you'll find out what happens there. So God even used that terrible thing to make it a good thing in the end. And Joseph comes to terms with the fact that, you know what, he was the recipient of his father's favor, but he suffered a lot as a result of it, too.
[00:23:36] I want you to see it's problematic. How many say Partiality and favoritism can be very problematic. Does anybody see it? Are we all tracking with me right now? I just tried to give you an illustration of it in a very specific way. In our families, our society does the same thing. It shows favoritism to the rich and famous. And how many know if you're athletic and you're really good, you get paid these outstanding salaries that are not even rational?
[00:24:03] How many know that's true?
[00:24:05] No, I love sports. I, you know, I enjoy sports a lot. But I go, hey, listen, there's a firefighter or police officer who's risked their lives for us, and they're getting paid this salary. And here's an athlete that has a short career. I know it's a short career, but they get paid, some of them. It's just unbelievable. It's a sin. And then you got movie stars. That's even up there, too. And this is what people go. These are the people we aspire to become like.
[00:24:31] But is that what God. Is that what God aspires for us? No, it's the world system. It's the way they think.
[00:24:39] So in John, he says this. Do not love the world or anything in this world. It's value system. That's what he's talking about, our culture's value system. That's anti God. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. He says, for everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life comes not from the Father, but from the world. And if you look at all of those things, they're all external.
[00:25:01] And here's what I want to. I'm going to help you with.
[00:25:04] Don't go after that, which is external. You go, why?
[00:25:07] Because as you get old, you're going to have to downsize anyways. It's all going to wear out. You're going to have losses.
[00:25:13] It doesn't really matter.
[00:25:15] What really matters is the investment you're putting into the lives of other people.
[00:25:20] And a lot of us get caught up in, you know, working hard, making money, doing this, doing that. But really, what's really important in life is focus on the people around you, Develop the people around you, care for people around you. That's what's the most important.
[00:25:35] So we have a new pattern and a value system according to the book of James.
[00:25:40] And he goes on to say here, okay, simply this, he's saying, and I brought this up when I talked in the Book of John. It was like an epiphany for me.
[00:25:58] And we're going to get to this. I'm building to bringing out. I'm just introducing the problem, then we'll look at the solution. But this is what Jesus, he's giving us a new commandment I always thought this was an interesting. I'd read this so many times, and then I had this epiphany. A new commandment. I give you love one another. Well, how many know that? That's always been in the Bible, even in the Old Testament, it's said to love one another, we're to love one another, we're to love our neighbor as ourselves, right? Jesus even says, love your enemies.
[00:26:27] But Jesus says to these guys in the upper room, this is an upper room sermon. He says, I want to tell you how I want you to love other people. Not just love other people as you love yourself. I want you to love other people as I have loved you.
[00:26:44] Now I got to start loving people the way Jesus loves people. How many go, that's a bigger standard.
[00:26:50] How many know that's a bigger standard? Big standard. That's an impossible standard. But he says, if you will begin to do that, if you'll begin to love the way I love people, this is what you'll find out. Everyone will know, then you're my followers, because only my followers are going to do this. If you love one another as I've loved you, well, how does Jesus love us? That's a great question.
[00:27:15] When we talk about this kind of love, it's self giving.
[00:27:22] It's a self giving love. It's being extended to each other and it's absolutely powerful. It's an attractive thing. When you and I see, we think love is something that I'm getting, but biblical love is something you're giving.
[00:27:37] It's totally different.
[00:27:39] It's the opposite. You know, the greatest need each of us has in life is to be loved. And showing favoritism and discriminating against others is the very opposite what Jesus is teaching and modeling. Are you following that?
[00:27:58] How many are kind of moving along with me here? You're tracking, you're getting this, you're hearing what's being said. You're going, oh, I gotta love like Jesus loves. And if I do that, people will know that this is an identification marker, that I'm a follower of Jesus. And if I'm not doing that, it's probably, there's a problem in my life we have to take care of. There's an issue called sin and we're going to address it today so we can move on to this. But let me move on now to the illustration or the example that James now uses.
[00:28:25] And he's using social and an economic distinction and it's really an ungodly attitude and action. How many cringe When I use the word ungodly, it's always, that's a negative term, right? Well, think about what does it mean to be ungodly? It means you're unlike God.
[00:28:41] So a lot of people really don't care to be like God, so they don't mind being ungodly. But if you're a person that really loves God, you want to be like God, you want to be godly. Are we tracking with that definition? But I want to show you how ungodly or how unlike God this action really is. He goes on to say in verse two to four, suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. So he's now making a social distinction, right? An economic distinction. And he goes on, if you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, here's a good seat for you, or say to the poor man, you stand there or sit on the floor by my feet. Have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
[00:29:23] What's he saying here?
[00:29:25] He's basically saying that you are putting value on a person based on what he possesses rather than on the intrinsic idea that every human being has dignity and value, and economics has nothing to do with it.
[00:29:42] Timothy Luke Johnson, who's a New Testament scholar, says the dynamics of the scene are instantaneously recognizable. James sketches human behavior that is virtually universal. The rich and powerful are the ones who can benefit us, and the favor shown them, it is assumed, will come back to us. In other words, if I'm nice to this rich guy, maybe down the road it'll come back to me that that's what he's saying. So we're doing it with a vested interest in mind. No great grasp of cultural comparison is required to make this example come alive. It's enacted daily in countless ways. He's saying this is transcending time and culture. You see this all the time. This is all over the world. You know, the rich are sucked up to, is what he's saying, and the poor are basically overlooked and forgotten. How many say that's probably true? You can't even argue this point.
[00:30:28] All right.
[00:30:29] But James does provide us a glimpse of the ordinary way in which the honor and shame world in the patronage system of the ancient Mediterranean world.
[00:30:40] In the way of the world, those who have possessions and power and prestige are shown honor, whereas none is due those lacking such status, signs of status. James perception of such behavior is strongly negative. In other words, he's saying, if you lived in the first century in a shame and honor culture, you have these things called patrons.
[00:30:57] You know, most of us probably have seen, you know, the Godfather, you know, the idea of the Roman father, the patron that goes back to the Mediterranean, 1st century world shame and honor, where the patron that was affluent would take care of all of these other people and they would be now indebted to do what he wanted them to do.
[00:31:15] And James is saying that's favoritism and that's unhealthy. He's criticizing that in his own time.
[00:31:21] But we see it in a different model, but it's still the same idea.
[00:31:25] So let's take a look at learning to embrace God's attitude and actions. So verses 5 to 7, he goes on and says, listen, my dear brothers and sisters, has not God chosen those poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised to those who loved him?
[00:31:45] It's interesting. He's basically saying, I want you to think about how it normally works. How many know. It's usually the people who know, they don't. They need help that come to faith in Christ. And then the other people, we have a whole bunch of people in North America. You know why they're hard to reach? I'm gonna tell you why they're hard to reach. Because they see themselves as self sufficient. They don't see any need. If you don't have a need, you don't. You're not gonna go to something that you think you need. And most people don't see their spiritual bankruptcy. They don't see their spiritual poverty. As a matter of fact, most people think they're okay.
[00:32:17] And as a matter of fact, Bill and I were talking about this earlier in the beginning of the service. The closer you get to God, the more you're going to recognize how deeply you've sinned against God. But most people never see themselves as sinners.
[00:32:29] But I'll tell you what, I've been a Christian now five decades, I can tell you right now, I know I'm a sinner.
[00:32:36] And over time, this is almost.
[00:32:39] It almost doesn't seem to make sense. But I get it. The closer you get to the light, the more you can see the darkness. And the darkness you see is within your own soul. And you know what that does to you is you recognize it doesn't mean that you are out there doing a lot of sin. It just means that you recognize the propensity of sin in your own soul. And it Actually helps you to not want to sin because you realize the damage that sin really causes, not only in your own life, but in the lives of other people.
[00:33:05] And God's love is now motivating you to do the right thing.
[00:33:09] Okay, he goes on, but you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you?
[00:33:16] He goes on to say, are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name by whom you belong? In other words, he's saying, aren't you guys being inconsistent? God chose the poor people, and now you're out honoring the rich people. He said, paul reminds us. He said, think about it, brothers and sisters. Think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many of you were influential. Not many of you were of noble birth. How many say that's true?
[00:33:49] But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. In other words, you ever ask yourself the question, why in the world did God choose me?
[00:33:59] Why is it that you have a gift of faith? Why is it that some people have said to me, I wish I had the faith you have because I just don't believe you believe.
[00:34:08] Why do you believe? You say, well, I grew up in it, Pastor. That's not a good enough answer. I see a lot of people growing up in church, and some of them choose to walk with God. Some of them choose not to. Come on now. Why did God choose you?
[00:34:21] You ever ask yourself that question?
[00:34:23] And you know what? If you look at your life, you know what you're going to say to yourself, I'm so glad he did. And I'll tell you what, I look back now and I go, I didn't have anything going for me.
[00:34:35] And I know I needed help.
[00:34:37] And in a moment of great desperation, I said, God, would you save me? God, would you forgive me?
[00:34:43] And I gave my life to him. And when I did, I meant it. It was radical in some ways, because my prayer, I didn't have anybody sharing the gospel with me. But I was so desperate. And I grew up enough around a church environment and had read enough things to know that I needed God's forgiveness. Forgiveness. How's that? That's the best way of describing it. And I said, God, if you'll forgive me, I'll serve you the rest of my life. And I meant it.
[00:35:06] And at that moment, something happened. There was a divine action Cheryl, there was a transaction. Same thing. Wasn't even in church. It was transaction. See, we think that this is all formulaic. It's not. It's the human heart crying out to the Creator and saying, God, I need you. And God says, yes, I hear that cry.
[00:35:27] That's what God is interested in. No, it's not. Well, I've got all the right doctrine in my head. No, it's more than that.
[00:35:33] It's a cry of desperation to God saying, I need you, I need you, I need you. And God says, yes, and I'm calling you.
[00:35:42] Actually, I'm calling everyone. But there's only the ones that are listing as the ones that come to that realization that they need a savior. And that's how you come into God's kingdom.
[00:35:52] It's powerful.
[00:35:55] He says, I've chosen the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify, to make naught, to just basically put down all of man's glorying. If we could say it that way. No one can boast before God. There's nobody that can walk around saying, I'm a self made person. No one is self made. There's no boasting on this planet. You can say all you want to. We're all a product of so much at the end of the day.
[00:36:24] And it's because of him you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Douglas Moose says, in keeping with the rest of the New Testament, James traces the Christian salvation back to the sovereign choice of God. Thus, the many poor people who had embraced the gospel could stand as a powerful testimony to, to God's own attitude. These people, poor in the eyes of the world, were in fact rich in the sight of God.
[00:36:51] I'd rather be poor in the sight of the world and rich in the sight of God any day.
[00:36:57] It is from the spiritual vantage point, not the material, that Christians should judge others.
[00:37:02] So in other words, stop looking what people have.
[00:37:06] It doesn't really matter actually if you're affluent. And I'm going to say this, most of us in this room are quite affluent compared to the rest of the world, we're affluent.
[00:37:18] We should be very grateful that we're even saved rather than trust what this world has to offer. But let me just say that don't judge people based on what they have.
[00:37:28] It's a mistake.
[00:37:31] You know, some of the most miserable people on the planet are extremely affluent, extremely rich and extremely famous.
[00:37:38] And they're miserable.
[00:37:41] So don't go there. It's the wrong value system. Don't go down that path.
[00:37:45] That's not where we get our value from.
[00:37:50] Well, goes on to say, whether believers or unbelievers, people should not be evaluated by Christians according to the standards that this world brings. Just don't do that. Let me move on to the final aspect, the explanation.
[00:38:07] James continues with, why is this so critical? He wants us to understand how we need to treat people as believers. We have this received, this nature of Jesus and in turn are becoming like Jesus. But how many have recognized you have another nature inside of you? It's called the sin nature.
[00:38:24] Anybody know what that is? How many here go, I get it. Yeah. I got wrong attitudes, wrong thoughts, wrong. I make judgments, I say things I shouldn't say. Come on, anybody relate to that? Okay, but you also have another nature. You have a divine nature inside of you. And you have to decide which nature are you going to give yourself towards.
[00:38:47] In other words, you can just, you know, just say, I'm just going to do how. I'm just going to go by my emotions and how I feel and do my own thing. It's about me. Or you can say, no, I'm not going to feed that.
[00:38:57] I'm going to embrace what God's promised. I have a new nature.
[00:39:01] I'm going to begin to walk in that freedom that that new nature brings. And we'll talk here and he'll show us that it's interesting. Favoritism or discrimination is a sin against love.
[00:39:11] If you really keep the royal law in scripture, love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.
[00:39:23] Wow.
[00:39:24] I could just say this, that, you know, an absence, basically, if I don't love, I'm breaking the law.
[00:39:33] You know, I don't even need to follow the law. If I love everybody, if I love God above myself and I love you above me, I'm going to keep all the laws.
[00:39:43] How's that?
[00:39:45] So really it's. We're going to follow the royal law found in scripture. It's love. That's the highest law. That's why Paul could say, if you're full of God's spirit, God's presence, the fruit of the spirit, is love, joy, peace. Above these, there is no law. You're going to be. You're above the law because you're not violating law. That's what he's really telling us. It's not like God is Against the law. The law reveals to us that really God's standard. But when you're full of love, you don't even worry about that standard because you're living.
[00:40:15] You're not even breaking the law. You're living above the law in that sense. You're not beyond the law in the sense that I can break it and I can get away with it. That's not what we're talking about here. Listen, if you break the law, you're going to get penalized for it. There's a consequence to that, even in the spiritual realm.
[00:40:34] So Alec Motier says this. Everything conspires today to define love primarily in emotional terms.
[00:40:45] I think it's an important statement. That's how the world views love, emotion.
[00:40:49] Scripturally, love is to be defined in caring terms.
[00:40:54] Interesting. For the love that is owed to our neighbor is the love we expend on ourselves.
[00:41:03] In other words, he's saying we're going to treat people the way we'd like them to be for ourselves to be treated. That's what he's saying there. The essence of the royal law is that whenever there is a need, there's an obligation to extend the sort of love we lavish on ourselves. In other words, if I was in that place, what would I want done for me?
[00:41:20] How should I try to meet that need? That's what he's saying here. The essence of partiality is to select the recipients of our care on some ground other than that they are in need.
[00:41:31] So what he's basically saying is we choose to love people based on things like they're nice to me or we want something from them.
[00:41:40] But God's love is shown to people who don't deserve it, never have earned it. It's expressed when we least deserve it. And when we're in the most state of rebellion against him and we're in the greatest state of need, that's when God shows us love. How many think that's amazing. How many think God's love is already different than our love?
[00:41:59] I mean, so a lot of times I'm running into people they don't need. You know, they don't deserve me doing this, but I didn't deserve what God gave me. So then I got to say to myself, I need to do something for them, even though they don't. They didn't earn it, they don't deserve it. Hmm, interesting.
[00:42:16] You know, genuine love is not about getting, it's about giving.
[00:42:21] So what does God do in our lives so we can reflect that self Giving love.
[00:42:25] Well, you know what God does? He brings needy people into our lives.
[00:42:30] Anybody met any needy people?
[00:42:32] I'm not just talking about financially needy people. You'll bring those in, too. But how about people that are emotionally needy?
[00:42:38] How many have needy people in your life?
[00:42:41] Well, we could go on and talk about. You've got needy people in your life. I would argue that everybody in this room is needy to some degree.
[00:42:50] Come on, now.
[00:42:52] You don't tell me you're not needy.
[00:42:57] I think we all are.
[00:43:00] I just think we have to go to the right source to have our need met. There's the problem with most people. We go to God. That's the best place to get our need met. That's where we need to start. Okay?
[00:43:11] Yeah.
[00:43:12] So he brings these people into our lives.
[00:43:15] Though we may not have the resources to minister to all of them, we must not discriminate against them based on ethnicity or social and economic distinctions. That's what he's talking about.
[00:43:27] But we must do what we can to the degree that we can do. You can't do everything. We're not God. We're not unlimited here.
[00:43:36] What should motivate us is to see Christ in them.
[00:43:41] And also what should motivate us is to recognize that even as they're needy, so I'm needy. And if I can meet this need, then I should help them because I'm loving them as I would love myself. In other words, I'm putting myself in their place and I'm going, what would I want me to do for me?
[00:44:00] Because I think we do that all the time, don't we?
[00:44:03] Every time we go shopping. This isn't the need I have. This is the need I want to meet.
[00:44:07] But let's do it for somebody else. That's what James is kind of challenging us. If I were in that place, what would I want someone to do for me? Though we do not keep the law in order to be saved, saved from our sin, the moral law is still the standard.
[00:44:21] What's right in God's eyes. Here James is revealing, as Jesus did, the summary of the law.
[00:44:26] Simply that we love.
[00:44:27] And then he says this. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God. Because why God's love?
[00:44:41] It's upon this ground that God's going to judge us.
[00:44:45] Now, I know some of you think, okay, I've had it preached to me so long, we'll never be judged for sin, okay? But I want to shatter something here for a moment. Okay, Just follow with me. Yes. Our sins are forgiven by Christ on the cross. I get all of that.
[00:44:59] But, you know, you and I are going to stand before God one day.
[00:45:03] Listen to what it says here. I want to move on because I'm coming to the end here.
[00:45:10] Okay, he says you then why do you judge your brothers or sisters? Paul's writing to Christians here at Rome?
[00:45:17] Or why do you treat them with contempt?
[00:45:20] For we will all stand before what God's judgment seat.
[00:45:25] Interesting as it is written, as surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me, every tongue will acknowledge God. So then each of you will give an account of ourselves to God. Do you know all of us are going to give an account of how we lived our lives?
[00:45:43] This is the one that really is interesting. 2nd Corinthians 5.
[00:45:47] I gave you a little bit more to show you the context. We are confident, I say, would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. He's talking about Christians, right?
[00:45:55] Being with Jesus.
[00:45:56] So we make it our goal to please him. What's your goal today?
[00:46:01] Hopefully, it's to please him.
[00:46:03] Some of us say, oh, I can't say that, Pastor. My goal is to please me.
[00:46:08] No, you got to change that. That's what we're going to pray about today. Please him. Whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in this body, whether good or bad. Now we think of the word bad as, you know, like sin. No.
[00:46:30] Whether it has value.
[00:46:33] And that word bad means has no value.
[00:46:36] How much stuff do we do that has no value?
[00:46:39] Ooh.
[00:46:41] Okay. Ah, interesting. This is. This is. This is important. We understand that. But let me close with this, because I. I'm looking at my time, and I'm going to close with you standing because I want to do something this morning with you, so I want to pray with you.
[00:46:55] And I think this is so important. I think I got the point across.
[00:46:57] How many know that showing favoritism at the expense of other people is a. What?
[00:47:03] What is it?
[00:47:05] Thank you. It's a sin. Okay. What should we be doing?
[00:47:10] Treating other people as if, you know, first of all, we should treat them as if they're Christ.
[00:47:19] We should treat them as if they're ourselves.
[00:47:22] We should treat them as if we are allowing Christ to live through us. So we're going to treat everybody the way Jesus would treat them.
[00:47:30] Could you imagine if you made it in your heart you say this? This morning, I'm going to make a prayer. I'm going to ask God to help me to treat all the people that come into my life as if I were in Christ's stead, his ambassador. I'm representing Jesus now. I'm going to treat them as if the way Jesus would treat them. How many say, that would be pretty radical. If everyone in this church says, I'm going to start treating people exactly the way Jesus treats other people, how many think that might change a little bit? Something in your life might have an impact?
[00:48:01] But here's what I've recognized. One of the reasons why we do not do this, you know, you can say, yeah, I want to do that, Pastor. That's a great plan. Awesome. I'm gung ho. I'm 100% in. I want to treat everybody like Jesus treats them. How many go, doesn't that sound good? How many say, that really sounds amazing.
[00:48:20] I got my hand up. Don't you think that sounds amazing? We're gonna all treat people the way Jesus treats people. How many say, yeah, that's awesome. How many agree with that? How many think we should be doing that? See, I think the sermon is telling you to do that. How many go, I'm having a problem doing it. Let's be honest. I'm having a problem doing that. That's just the other problem, right? I have a problem treating people the way people. Jesus is going to treat them. Let's have every head bowed.
[00:48:44] I want you to raise your hand right now. Say, pastor, listen to me carefully.
[00:48:49] I have woundedness in my life. I've experienced rejection in my life. I have been shown, you know, growing up, you know, maybe I felt, you know, favoritism to another sibling, and I felt like I was the odd man out or the odd girl out.
[00:49:05] I felt rejection.
[00:49:07] You see, when you and I are broken, all we can give people is brokenness. That's all we have to give. How many? See what I'm getting at? You see, I could tell you, yeah, we need to go out there and treat everybody like, you know, like Jesus is going to treat him. But the problem is I'm so messed up and broken on the inside. It's not like I don't want to do that. I would love to do that. But there's something inside of me that's broken and needs to be fixed.
[00:49:34] It needs to be healed. I need to get to a point where that's no longer inside of my soul.
[00:49:41] That's where I wanted to get to this morning.
[00:49:44] Because just telling you to go out there and treat everybody like Jesus treats them. I know it's not going to happen until we fix the problem inside of us.
[00:49:53] And right now I want you to be really honest.
[00:49:56] Heads bowed. Right now I want you to say, pastor, I know that I don't treat people like Jesus treats them.
[00:50:05] And I can look now and I can say to myself, it starts with my spouse, starts with my kids, starts with my co workers. It starts with the people I know.
[00:50:15] There are people I'm just not dealing well with. I want you to raise your hand right now. We're going to pray. God's going to do a work inside your soul today.
[00:50:23] This is a work that needs to be done. There's been rejection.
[00:50:27] You felt rejection. You feel brokenness. There's been favoritism.
[00:50:31] Let's pray. Let's ask God to help us. Let's ask God to come. He's the great psychiatrist, he's the great psychologist, he's the great inner healer. He's the one that can restore the broken places. You say, how does that come about, Pastor, I'm going to tell you how it happens. The people that did this to you, you need to forgive them right now.
[00:50:51] You say, why, they probably learned it from their parents and they passed it on to you.
[00:50:58] We got to forgive people, folks. If you keep holding people in unforgiveness, you will stay in misery. You will stay in brokenness.
[00:51:06] I want you to let it go today.
[00:51:08] Once you let all stuff go, yeah, but this person did this to me. I go, yeah, but you know what? For you and I to receive God's forgiveness, we have to forgive. It's conditional.
[00:51:19] We gotta let go of unforgiveness in our soul.
[00:51:23] We gotta let go of that feeling of rejection and brokenness in our lives. We gotta ask God's spirit to come inside of us. You and I can only treat people like Jesus. If Jesus is free to flow through you and me, that's the only way it's gonna happen.
[00:51:39] We gotta get past those blows. Broken places. And so right now, Father, I believe your spirit is moving right now.
[00:51:46] As a matter of fact, Father, I was going to share this closing illustration, that if you walked into this room physically right now, you'd walk up to each one of us and take time with each one of us.
[00:52:02] There would not be one person in this room that would be overlooked.
[00:52:06] You would speak into our deepest emotional parts. Of our being. You would speak into our souls. You would bring hope and grace and compassion and love into our hearts. And so Father, I pray today that you would touch us just like that, just as if you were walking up to us right now, physically in this room right now, walking up to us and saying, I know what's going on and I want to help you with that.
[00:52:30] I want you to help you overcome that. I want you to release that pain in your soul. I want you to set you free today so you can experience a life that you've never known before. My life flowing in and through you like a channel, like a current, like a stream that's going to bring life to you and life through you.
[00:52:50] And we thank you for that, Father. Thank you for what you're doing right now. I believe you're doing something. I believe you're stirring something in our hearts and you're bringing healing into our lives and we thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave this morning.
