A Faith That Works

Introduction

Good morning Forestview! And to all those who have joined in with us online, welcome. It’s great to have you.

My name is Jason Pluim and I am a member here at Forestview, and it is an honour to be invited to share with you this morning.

We are continuing in our series entitled “Faith that Works” as we read through the book of James.

And so I invite you to open your Bibles up to James chapter 2, beginning at verse 14.

And while you are finding that, I got to let you know—I wrote three sermons in preparation for today. Now don’t worry I am only preaching one of them!

But I share that with you because I was at a loss on how to go about speaking from the text we are about to read.

James is writing to Christians in a high context situation—

and what I mean by that is that James and his immediate audience share a lot of knowledge together about the Bible (which is what we call the Old Testament—or all the books that were written before Jesus arrived on the scene)

and so James is building on a foundation of thought that was well established in the minds of his readers and he is building his arguments based on that common knowledge.

but many of us do not share that common knowledge.

And here at Forestview, we want both those who have been studying the Bible and those who are just hearing about it for the first time to feel welcomed and included in this conversation.

And this text did not make that easy for me.

And so, although this text raises some very important in-house questions for us, I thought it best to leave those for the life groups that meet during the week.

And what I am going to speak on here is going to address the following question: What is it about the Christian faith that works? In other words, how does the Christian faith change the way that we see the world and how does it change the way that we respond to all that is going on in our world?

In other words, why would we consider the Christian worldview, amidst all the other world-views out there?

And I found it very difficult to prepare something that speaks to both.

And James has some pretty strong words here for his readers, but it is an “in house” sort of discussion. And if we are just tuning in here, we might feel a bit uncomfortable.

Have you ever been at a friends house where one of the kids of the parents is getting in trouble for something… and you don’t know whether you should stay or show yourself out? Well, that is kind of what this situation feels like.

Well, if you feel like that, as we read this text, I encourage you—please stay. And I speak here as one of those kids who are getting in trouble from James.

And he’s getting me in trouble because he loves me, and he wants me not to lose sight of what the Christian faith is all about.

You see, James is speaking to people who claim to have faith in Jesus, but who are not living out that faith in their everyday lives as they ought to be.

And he’s right, I haven’t been. And this begs the question that we are going to be addressing today: What is it about faith—genuine faith—that works? In other words, how does the Christian faith change us in a way that helps us not only to see the world differently, but also to respond to all that is going on in our world differently?