The Faith Question

James 2:14–19 “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.”

James 2:21–24 “Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God. So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.”

James 2:26 “Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.”

Biblical faith takes action against the culture where cultural Christianity sides with culture by its silence.

Let me set the stage with a story from this book I am reading called Letter to the American Church by Eric Metaxes:

In the 1930s, there had been a man by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer that had been preaching and proclaiming to the pastors and ministers of Germany that they needed to wake up and BE the church. The church as a whole was living in blessing and was comfortable in their current state. They saw no need to do anything. Bonhoeffer was watching as the government hurled itself toward destruction and demonic agendas. The Nazi party of the day was spewing hateful rhetoric. The man who was up and coming to power, Adolf Hitler, was an anti-Christian maniac who Bonhoeffer saw right through. It was as if his spiritual senses were awake and were allowing him to see the trajectory of his nation and the church of Germany before it happened. So with an unusual boldness of that day, Bonhoeffer stood on a platform of what we would call today “a mega-church” and proclaimed a message to that congregation on Oct 31 that called that church and the church of Jesus in Germany to repent. This is the Scriptures he used:

Revelation 2:4–5 ““But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.”

He was calling their spirits to awaken out of their sleep to realize they had become all-consumed with themselves and the blessings and comfort they lived in instead of being all-consumed with their Savior. He spoke more harsh things to them that day, and little did he know, but that sermon would be the staple of a call to this generation to repent before judgement and repent before things turned south. The attitudes didn’t change. Nobody became the catalyst for change in that time. Three months later, Adolf Hitler comes into power with his agenda to change Germany. This agenda wouldn’t just affect the elites ad rich, but down to the middle class and the poor. Everyday life would be changed, and that included church life. The hatred of the Jewish people was front and center. Soon censorship began to happen against anyone who opposed his views. The Jews were being pushed out of the public circle by Hitler, banning them from holding government positions, but that wasn’t the end of it. Soon, they would be banned from all positions of authority, including serving as pastors and ministers. Because the German Church had allowed the German government to have a foothold in the church, this allowed them to make these strong rules. Though it seemed small, this problem was should’ve sparked a sense of urgency in the church, but it did not. There became this divide in the church in which one sided with Hitler and the other sided with the Bible. Those who desired to fight the biblical fight decided to sign a document that declared their freedom from government authority and declared their authority in submission to Christ. What is the most shocking thing is that it is recorded that the majority of pastors at the time did not sign the document. No reasons were explicitly stated, but it is assumed by either cowardice or ignorance they didn’t. At the time, it is estimated that there were roughly 18,000 churches at the time. There is no exact number recorded, but it is estimated to be about 6,000 churches signed the document but only about 3,000 boldly stood in face of opposition. What we do know is that those who confessed the terms “God over government” began to face persecution from the government for not bending the knee. There were about 3,000 churches that sided with the government on this issue. There was a remaining 12,000 that either backed out or never picked a side a chose to stay neutral. There is no definite answer as to why, but many presume that they didn’t want to take the heat from the government. The persecution and threats were too much. Eventually, the Nazi government prevailed and began to separate and openly demonize those pastors for standing against them. In 1935 alone, 7,000 ministers were arrested. Those who chose silence remained quiet as their bold Christian brothers and sisters were arrested and persecuted. I’m sure that those who chose silence and neutrality didn’t know that over the twelve year span of Hitler’s reign that his death grip on the nation would result in Jewish concentration camps where millions would be murdered. A decision would be made halfway through WW2 that would determine the fate of the Jews in that region to be one of death and destruction. Bonhoeffer, and I am sure many others unnamed, saw what was coming with spiritual eyes, but many did not. They chose silence and inaction, not realizing that silence and inaction is an answer itself. And it is nothing more than an answer about where their faith lied, which wasn’t truly rooted in the Gospel of Jesus.

Students, I tell you that story today to make you realize that although we don’t have the exact same issues as Germany and the church of Germany back in the 30s, we have our own issues that require the Church’s answer. Issues like…

Abortion

The LGBTQ+ agenda

Israel-Hamas War

Sex and Pornography

Racism throughout all ethnic communities

These issues require a definite answer from the Church. One only founded in the Word of God and not man’s opinions nor feelings. These issues that we face require real faith relationship with Jesus Christ so we can understand His heart and then as we are exposed to His heart, our heart begins to align with His. We then begin to speak as He speaks about issues, confront issues how He would confront issues, etc.

Make no mistake: Your good deeds will not save you.

Ephesians 2:8–10 “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

But notice that God saved you by your faith IN HIM to conquer things on this Earth FOR HIM

Our faith relationship with Jesus was never meant to just benefit us, but to go beyond us.

John 3:16 ( ““For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”) is God’s heart for humanity. He desires that the world believe on Jesus and be saved to live with Him forever in Heaven instead of separation from Him in hell. Once we receive Jesus as our Savior, that relationship is to have such a profound effect on our lives that those around us (including the culture) is affected by the aroma of our relationship with Him.

Peter and John told the government when they were arrested and then threatened for preaching the Gospel this…

Acts 4:19–20 “But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.””

Their encounter with Jesus left an aroma on their life that they couldn’t and didn’t want to shake. The same should be said about us, Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha, of 2024. We should smell just like we came out of the shower of his presence, instead of smelling like the stench of this world.

Some of us have gone nose-blind to the Truth because we’ve been accustomed to living in the the crap of this culture for far too long. God is calling us up and out of all tonight, and not merely just to save ourselves, but to in turn reach back in and rescue others.

Its time to adopt the belief of what God says about abortion instead of adopting Taylor Swift’s opinion.

Its time to adopt the belief of what God says about sexuality and relationships instead of adopting what our favorite athletes say about being with whoever, with whomever, and however we want.

Its time to adopt the belief of what God says about Israel and innocent lives being lost instead of adopting an anti-God belief that Israel should give up their promised land and not defend themselves from evil.

Its time to adopt the belief of what God says about all lives being valuable to Him instead of adopting a victim mentality and hatred toward all races but your own that the world would say is valid and justifiable.

Its time we stop aligning with political parties that are anti-God and pro-demonic agenda. You may be too young to vote in this country, but you are not too young to have your voice be heard!

You are up to change the trajectory of the culture of our nation.

You are the NOW generation.

Now the question is, “WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?”

I want to look at a specific king in the OT that made waves in the culture of that day, and he didn’t even have the best upbringing.

Before Josiah became king, he came from a grandfather and father who were known for doing “evil things in the Lord’s sight”. Josiah’s father, Amon, gets killed by his own servants and then Josiah, an 8 year old, is set as the king of the nation.

2 Kings 22:1–2 “Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah from Bozkath. He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight and followed the example of his ancestor David. He did not turn away from doing what was right.”

Notice he didn’t follow after his generational line in committing evil acts. He didn’t follow after his father’s lead, but instead God’s lead.

One day, when he was 26 years old, while making sure the priest received the money from the house of God to distribute as needed to the workers, his servant goes to the priest and the priest tells him that he has found the Book of the Law. This Book of the Law was what was written of Scripture up to that point. Particularly by Moses

The servants takes the book back to the king and reads it to him. This is his response:

2 Kings 22:11–13 “When the king heard what was written in the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes in despair. Then he gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the court secretary, and Asaiah the king’s personal adviser: “Go to the Temple and speak to the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah. Inquire about the words written in this scroll that has been found. For the Lord’s great anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words in this scroll. We have not been doing everything it says we must do.””

Upon hearing the Lord was going to bring judgement on the land, but spare him from experiencing the destruction, he didn’t take the words and just ride out his time.

Josiah could’ve taken the blessing of the Lord on his life in sparing him and just do nothing. After all, he would be spared.

No, Josiah still began to bring reform (straightening up) to his land. He used the authority and influence given to him as king to make waves.

He promised God he would follow Him and do exactly as he asked, following it with everything in him.

He then preceded to destroy everything used to worship other Gods. He broke the ties of his nation to those foreign gods. He overthrew the “priests” of that day that played the part, but lead others to worship other gods. He called them out. Where the altars (places of sacrifice and change) had been placed and used to lead people to sacrifice to other gods and had been causing generations before him to sin and turn away from God, he burned them and crushed them to powder. He took matters into his hands, no matter if the people agreed with him or not. Pleasing people didn’t matter to him, only pleasing the Lord and following His Words did.

Because of Josiah’s bold surrender to God and his actions following his faith, this is what happened:

2 Kings 23:21–25 “King Josiah then issued this order to all the people: “You must celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, as required in this Book of the Covenant.” There had not been a Passover celebration like that since the time when the judges ruled in Israel, nor throughout all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, this Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem. Josiah also got rid of the mediums and psychics, the household gods, the idols, and every other kind of detestable practice, both in Jerusalem and throughout the land of Judah. He did this in obedience to the laws written in the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had found in the Lord’s Temple. Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since.”

Josiah made a statement in his culture. Though judgement was still to come from God concerning the wickedness that had been allowed for generations, we see Josiah as a fleck of light and boldness in the middle of the darkness. Even though the trajectory of the nation didn’t change, Josiah still showed us that true repentance and boldness is possible even in the darkest of times.

God can use the influence and authority He has given us to change a nation, but the surrender and relationship built with Him to receive those things changes YOU.

Even if nothing else changes around us, can you accept the fact that you might be the only one who changes?

Is challenging the status quo, experiencing persecution, and walking set apart from the rest worth it if you are only found right in God’s eyes?

Jeremiah 1:4–10 “The Lord gave me this message: “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” “O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!” The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!” Then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth and said, “Look, I have put my words in your mouth! Today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow. Others you must build up and plant.””

Prophet: a man or woman who is a speaker or spokesman, one that is daring to

A prophet prophesies, which means they utter by divine inspiration the burden or load placed upon them

God is commissioning you tonight, just like He did the prophet Jeremiah, to UPROOT, TEAR DOWN, STAND UP AGAINST, OVERTHROW, AND DESTROY every work of the enemy in this nation and God is calling you to BUILD UP AND PLANT that which pleases the Lord

Biblical faith takes action against the culture where cultural Christianity sides with culture by its silence.