Changing Our Actions

Introduction

Good morning and welcome back!

It is good to see everyone out this morning and for all those watching us on Facebook, welcome to you as well!

And this morning we are going to continue our series on “Being the Church” turning our attention to the idea of “Changing our Actions.”

And for some it may be a call to actually engage in some sort of action, rather than changing our actions.

And to make our point this morning we are going to be looking at James’ letter, and you will have to follow along in a Bible this morning as our screen is still down.

But we are going be looking at James 2 and focusing primarily on the second part of that chapter, from verse 14-26.

We will however be looking briefly at the first part of the chapter as well.

And just to remind us of how we got to where we are this morning, if you remember (2) weeks ago, we looked at the broad subject of “Being The Church” looking at the two main points of Being the Church, which were:

Following the Great Commandment found in Matthew 22 to love God with all our being and love our neighbor as ourselves.

And, following the Great Commission found in Matthew 28 to go and share the Gospel.

Those two things were to tell us who we are to be and what we are supposed to do.

Then, last week we looked at the first step in “Being the Church” which involved us “Changing Our Attitude.

And we looked at Philippians 2 and Paul’s admonishment for us to take on the attitude of Jesus Christ.

To let the Holy Spirit lead, guide, and inform us of all things and to transform our minds into one that is a reflection of Jesus Christ to our world around us.

And all of that so far is leading up to what we are talking about this morning regarding the call to Change our actions.

And in many ways it builds on the last two weeks.

Remember last week I said we were building a pyramid and the base layer was the call to Be the Church.

Then the next layer dealt with our attitude.

Now, this layer is going to deal with our actions or more accurately our lack of action, our inaction if you will.

And what I am really talking about is our call to love God with all our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

To fully exhibit this type of love, there must be some sort of action.

True love is not a passive love, true love is love in action.

But what is that? What does that mean?

Well, a good example is when we tell someone “I love you.”

Without some sort of action behind it, all that is is an empty phrase.

And I believe we have all experienced that in some way.

Everyone has had people say, “I love you” and they don’t mean that any more than the man in the moon.

It is just an empty and useless phrase.

For love to be real and true, there has to be some sort of demonstration of commitment, a willingness to sacrifice something for that other person.

There has to be some sort of action involved.

That is just the nature of what love is.

Which is exactly what we are talking about this morning with regards to our call to action, or call to change our actions.

So, if you have found James 2 in your Bibles, I’d invite you to follow along with me.

Starting in verse 14, James writes this . . .

Scripture Focus

James 2:14–17 NIV - Anglicised

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

Playing Favorites (vs 1-12)

Now, I know that James is framing this passage in light of faith, but it is in realty the same thing.

All love for God and love for others is a demonstration of our faith in God.

And James has made our point, so I guess we can just go home.

Not so fast, there is more to it than just these four verses.

And to put it into context, lets back up and look at the very beginning of that chapter because I think it will point some things out to us.

Starting back in verse 1, James writes . . .

James 2:1 NIV - Anglicised

My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favouritism.

Now, this is an extremely important point and I don’t want us to miss it.

James flat out tells them that they should not be playing favorites.

And what is going on here is they were playing favorites inside the church.

The ones who could give the most or do the most to boost the leaderships clout and authority were getting all the attention and accolades.

The ones who were most likable and friendly were getting all the attention.

And the poor and downtrodden were being mostly ignored.

James goes on and explains this . . .

James 2:2–4 NIV - Anglicised

Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but 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?

But wait there’s more . . .

James 2:5–7 NIV - Anglicised

Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?

And what James is doing is pointing out their hypocrisy and ungodly attitude toward other brothers and sisters inside the Church.

But again, he’s talking about those inside the Church, what does that have to do with us sharing the Gospel with others?

Well, how we treat others inside the Church is going to be a direct reflection of how we treat others outside the church.

If this is the attitude we have, then we will only share the Gospel with those who “look like us, act like us, think like us.”

We will only be interested in sharing the Gospel with those who we think can “contribute the most” in time, talents, and most importantly in our minds, treasures.

And all the time ignoring the vast majority of people in this world who are different from us.

James goes on and says . . .

James 2:8–9 NIV - Anglicised

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbour as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favouritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as law-breakers.

And even worse than showing this level of favoritism is talking on an stance of inaction toward everyone else.

Love Without Action is Dead (vs 14-26)

We adopt this attitude that we’ve “done all we can” and “reached everyone we can.”

I see this is lots of bigger churches—not all of them, but several.

Where they fill their pews with the rich and influential in the community.

Their bank account grows fat and their building turns into a palace.

And they completely ignore the poor neighborhood across the street.

It happens.

In fact, I have seen it happen in our own community.

As most of you know we have a food bank and Bro. Dennis has run it for a couple of years now, and I don’t know if he’s ran into this or not.

But there has been on more than one occasion when I was taking calls for it, that people would say that “such and such church” sent me to you.

They told me to call you.

And these were churches who were much, much larger than our church.

And instead of helping the person with a can of green beans, they sent them down the road to someone else.

That is a faith or a love that is dead and empty.

And that type of attitude and inaction is exactly what James is talking about in our passage.

Again starting in verse 14, he writes . . .

James 2:14–17 NIV - Anglicised

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

And it is not just on a congregational level or church level either.

We, as individuals are guilty of this as well.

We see people walk by us, in need—and it doesn’t have to be physical need—in fact I am really not talking about physical needs.

Now, don’t get me wrong, if we encounter someone with a physical need, and we the means and ability to help, we should help.

But what goes deeper than even that is the spiritual need.

We are surrounded by hundreds, a couple of thousand even, who have real spiritual needs.

And we have the means to help them.

We have Jesus Christ.

We have the key to the Kingdom of Heaven.

And we have an obligation to God to help them and to share that with them.

And we hear, “I don’t know what to do” or “I don’t know what to say,” or “I’m afraid.”

Afraid of what? That your preconceived idea and notion about another person might be wrong.

Or is it that you might actually have to get up and do something, rather than sitting on the pew and simply consuming.

What is it?

What is it that is holding us back.

James is very plain here, faith, by itself, if it not accompanied by action is DEAD.

Is that how you want your faith described by God?

Dead?

We are called to be a people of action.

We must change our actions.

We must engage in some sort of real action.

When we say with love God with all our being and our neighbor as ourselves, we must prove it.

We must do something to actually show it.

James goes on . . .

James 2:18–20 NIV - Anglicised

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?

In other words, he is saying we can get up here and preach all day.

We can sit in the pew and amen all day long.

We can believe in God all day—that’s all good—but even demons can do that.

If we want to really be a people of faith, if we really want to be the Church we have to actually do something.

And he goes on to give some examples.

James writes . . .

James 2:21–25 NIV - Anglicised

Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?

Altar/Challenge

And the last verse of that chapter, James says this . . .

James 2:26 NIV - Anglicised

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Love without action is, in fact dead, worthless, idle words.

So, this morning, what will it be?

Will we continue to be a people of inaction?

Will we continue to be a people who only move to action for those we are comfortable around?

Will we be the church that sends people down the road to the next church?

Or are we going to be THE CHURCH?

Are we going to be the People God has called us to be?

Are we going to be the people who share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others?

Are we going to open ourselves us and be a people of action.

True action—not some surface level action?

And most of us will say this is what we want our church to be.

But in order for the church to be that, we have to be that.

We have to be willing to step it up and be the people God has called us to be.

The Church can only do what the individuals in the Church are willing to do.

So, this morning what will it be?

That is what each of us have to decide.