Come Close // James 4:4-12

Intro

Welcome:

If it’s your first time here at Wellspring, that’s ok… mine too! And we are glad that you’re here!

You probably don’t recognize me. My name is Gage. I am the college minister at Faith Youngsville, which is just down the road, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to open God’s Word with you this morning.

Pastor’s Eric and Kevin have been very kind in allowing me to join you all this morning, and that being said, I’m maybe the most grateful to [reader’s name] for reading our passage in James for us this morning so that my first address to all of you was not, “You adulterous people!”

When I was growing up in South Carolina, and I had a mentor who served in our youth group who challenged us one night saying, “if you show me your five closest friends I will show you your future.”

As I look back, I wish that I would’ve taken that challenge a bit more seriously.

The truth that he was trying to get me to understand was that the people that you spend your time with will influence the kind of person that you become.

You may look back, or even consider right now, the people that you spend your time with and see how they influence the way you live. I can look back on my time in high school, in college, and even when I moved to Wake Forest for seminary and see how the people that I surround myself with have influenced how I spend my time, the way I talk, and even my hobbies.

Pastor Eric, for the last several weeks, has been leading this study through the book of James. The focus has been on connecting the dots between what we say we believe and the way that we live. Living out our real faith in real life.

And right now, as I’m sure many of you are reflecting on who your friends are, a challenging question we can ask ourselves is: “Are my friends causing me to look more like Jesus or more like the sinful world that we live in.”

Is the way of the world attractive to you? If you have lost friends, are you jealous of the things they “get” to do because they don’t claim to be Christians? Are you tempted to give in and say, “They have got it easier because they don’t HAVE to obey God.”

And I think that’s part of our problem, even as Christians:

FCF: We follow the way of the world because it seems easier or more enjoyable than following Jesus.

In the text that will be looking at today, James is going to give us a picture of 2 different kinds of people:

Someone who has befriended the world.

Someone who has drawn near to God.

Main Idea: Real faith in Jesus requires humble submission displayed through genuine repentance.

Quotes:

Bonhoeffer’s Cheap Grace:

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace.

Cheap grace… amounts to a denial of the living Word of God...

Cheap grace means [justifying] sin without the justification of the sinner.

Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession… Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ...

Costly Grace:

Such grace… is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of His Son… and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us.