Favouritism

We are in our 4 week out 6 of our series this morning The Heart Matters

This 6 week series leading up to to Easter Sunday will encourage you to examine your heart, your motivations, and your loves as you walk in repentance toward Resurrection Sunday. This season reminds us that we are all broken and in need of a Savior who has overcome sin and death.

This morning we will be back in James 2:1-9 So if you have your bible go ahead and turn there. If not you can follow along on the screen in a few moments.

Lets do a quick review of what we have talk about so far in this series

Week 1- We should be confess our sin to God and try to dey ourselves in faithful obedience. Repentance can not only be words. It must have action and change rooted in God.

Week 2 - We look at how to be a doer of the word. Sometime we allow sin to creep in and we do not even know it. We say this little thing want mater but it does. In order to be a doer you must be willing to die to yourself and live by faith.

Week 3- We look at what are your Idols? Each and everyone of us has something in our life that has become an idol or it will soon become one. We must be willing to allow God to show us what idols are in our life and allow him to help us remove them.

This morning we will be look at what James had to say about favouritism and how it can effect us as believers in Christ.

Before we do I have a question for you. So think for a moment.

Do you show favouritism?

For those that have had kids do you show favouritism to one child over the other?

of course not right. We try our best to treat each child the same.

have you show favouritism to a group of friend or other family member or neighbour.

Let’s take a look at what James says about favouritism

James 2:1–9 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.

Do not show favouritism in your faith

partiality-

There is no room for prejudice in your walk with Christ. We are all in this together. There are time that we want to help someone more than the other. Or we talk to someone else over the other because of how they are. we cant do this in our walk.

James talks about two different people in this verses. The rich and the poor.

The rich person

or the well off person. James described this person has someone wearing gold rings and fine clothes. Let’s call him Jim. In our time Jim most likely will not be wearing gold rings. In fact, he might not look rich at or he could show up in a lambo. We see all kind of rich people in this world. For the movie star to pro sports stars to youtube star. How would you treat Jim if was one of your favour movie stars? Would you run and invite him to sit up you or make the best place for him? Or would you treat him like any other person.

Then there

The poor person

or a homeless person some other that is living on welfare. James describes this person has someone that has filthy clothes. Lets call this person Tim. Tim walks in and you see him he looks like the world as spit him out and nothing seems to be going his way. Tim could be homeless. He could have dirty clothes or torn clothes. He could smell like he hasn’t taken a bath in days but let not look at that Tim. How would you treat Tim. Would invite him over to set with you. Would you just leave him in the corner. Would you have him set with you and talk for a little?

Love your neighbour as yourself

We are to not treat anyone any different. We are call by Jesus to love your neighbour as yourself.

Jesus is our source of strength, but that doesn’t mean it will be painless to move in obedience to what he reveals in us. James was writing to believers in the early church, and he wasn’t taking it easy on them with feel-good pep talk sermons. As we seek to have a posture of humility and practice repentance during the weeks leading up to the resurrection, we should consider how our faith is put into action when it comes to loving our neighbor. Who is our neighbor? Well, it’s everyone.

It’s fellow believers of all denominations, nonbelievers, people of all races, rich folks, poor folks, the homeless, those with special needs, gay, lesbian, and transgender people, Republicans, Democrats, the welfare recipient, the refugee, the immigrant, and even our family members. Ask God to help you see where you may have failed to love your neighbors.

James 2:9 CSB

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

Favouritism is a sin

James taught that faith without practical action wasn’t true faith; the same can be said for repentance. If we confess to God our wrong thoughts and actions against our neighbor but fail to ask forgiveness of our neighbor or make reparations, we aren’t really repenting, are we?

Do you need to repent this morning? Do you need to allow God to help you not show favouritism?

Favouritism has no place in God’s kingdom

Application Point: Loving our neighbor means making wrongs right and treating all people equally. This does not mean you have to agree with what they believe in but we must love them like our bother and sisters.