Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Reading 1 Cor 1:26-31

Welcome

Good morning church family.

I hope you had a very blessed week and if you didn’t I hope you will find a time of peace and encouragement as you worship and grow under the guidance of his word today.

If you are a guest with us today I would love to follow up with you and learn about your story and what God is doing in your life.

We have a couple of announcements this morning.

Announcements

Small groups are staring up this week.

New Member Class - See Pastor Kyle

Operation Christmas Child - See Mary Long

Prayers

Rex Phillips

Poor in our community

Pray for Wisdom for the Church

Let us Pray

Last week we started James chapter 2. In this chapter James deals with the sin of favoritism.

James was clear that believers were not to show favoritism amongst each other as it is a sin.

Favoritism is the opposite of fairness and is the treatment of people differently not based on who they really are but on the outward appearance of a person.

James defined the principle, that believers are not supposed to play favorites and he also gave a made up example to make his point.

We looked at why this was sin by looking at the character of God and that throughout the bible the bible is clear that God is impartial and does not have favorites and as a believer that is supposed to reflect the character of God that the sin of favoritism is in direct conflict with God’s character.

James 2:1–13 (CSB)

1 My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. 2 For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in, 3 if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,” 4 haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?

6 Yet you have dishonored the poor.

Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court?

7 Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?

8 Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.

9 If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.

11 For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder.

So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.

12 Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.

13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy.

Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Verse 5 begins with listen, brothers and sisters, he is calling them to slow down and take head for what he is about to say is vert important.

Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?

Principle 1

Favoritism is opposed to God’s selection of the poor to demonstrate his Glory.

1 Corinthians 1:26–29 (CSB)

26 Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.

27 Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

28 God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, 29 so that no one may boast in his presence.

The history of the church and in the time of James the church was primarily filled with those that the world defined as poor.

Those that were insignificant, unwanted.

Those that were foolish.

Not to say that there have not been those with wealth in the church but that has not been the majority.

The world has defined who is powerful, or wise, strong, valuable or significant.

We have seen periods of time where those of power sought out to wipe out those who were defined as insignificant.

Per the UN Genocide Convention defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

They listed just 39 of these genocides.

The holocaust: 1941-1945, 4 to 7 million of the Jewish population in Europe.

During the same period Nazi Germany killed around 3 1/2 million Soviet prisoners because they believed they were sub-human.

Cambodian Genocide: Lead by Communist party of Kampuchea, between 1.3 and 3 million Cambodians

Rwanda Genocide: 1994, 1/2 million Tutsis killed for just being them.

Darfur Genocide: started in 2003 and is still going on today with hundreds of thousands killed

The sin of man continues and will continue to separate, divide, elevate and define what is significant in the world.

But in the church this cannot be.

This cannot be how believers look at the world around them.

Why?

Because God commands it.

Galatians 3:27–29 (CSB)

27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.

28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus.

29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.

Each and every believer is clothed in Christ.

Chosen not because of who they are but because of who God is.

there are no distinctions among God’s people.

We are one people, saved by one God, for the Glory of the one and only God.

It is completely against God to create divisions in the church.

Divisions, by age, by economic status, by gender, by race, by married status or any other way we can think of.

Now I am not saying that God has equal roles for everyone in the church.

Husbands, wives, children, deacon, elders, and others have been defined in the church as God has established but to show favoritism to one person over another for nothing more than worldly definitions is against how God looks at the world.

Favoritism dishonors those that God honors.

as verse 6 starts:

Yet you have dishonored the poor.

God has chosen to give honor to the poor and favoritism is not consistent with God.

We are basically saying “God it is nice that you saved them but I don’t think they are worth my time.

They are not as important as that person over there.”

This is what we see in the church.

How many people come through a churches door and and are not greeted or engaged with for the sole reason they are not one of us.

I am encouraged that over the years we have recieved feedback that we are a very welcoming church but that isn’t always the case.

Pastor Gary’s experience.

Each end every person who walks through a door of a church this morning should receive equal consideration as people that God has brought to church this morning.

We should look out and not see what separates us but what unites us.

And that is a desire to follow God, no matter where a person is at with their walk with him.

Not only does favoritism not honor those God has honored.

Those that God has called and chosen, But

Favoritism leads to false honor

Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court?

7 Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?

The word for oppress here is like being a tyrant of you.

When believers look to outside appearances or those that have money is is too easy to be distracted and loose site of what is real.

What is important.

This was an issue that James was addressing.

Why are you captivated by the rich.

They oppress you and take you to court and Blaspheme the good name over them.

Blaspheme can also mean slander.

He is looking at the people and going why are you doting on the rich when they oppress and slander the name of your Lord, namely Jesus.

Why? Wake up and see what is really going on.

You have elevated these people to a status that they have not earned.