Friday youth
Notes
Transcript
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favouritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old 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? Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: 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 dishonoured 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 blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
There are 4 things about James’ argument in this passage today,
1st - Don’t favour the ‘best’ v1-4
1st - Don’t favour the ‘best’ v1-4
Pretty simply - If you believe in the glorious Lord Jesus, v1 - don’t show favouritism!
And we all do it all the time!
IN james - they really liked rich people.
We often do as well.
If someone turns up in a Bentley wearing expensive cloths, we’d want to sit next to them and welcome them. If a homeless guy turned up, or someone who’s not dressed as well as we’d like, we might say hello, but we’d not be so keen.
But it’s not just about rich people.
We judge other all the time!
What about the new kid at school who doesn’t speak much English.
Or the one in the playground who struggles socially.
Or the new youth member who doesn’t know the bible as well as the rest of us so says odd things sometimes.
Do we show favouritism?
Of course -
We favour the best
but we shouldn’t,
why?
2nd - Because God favours the ‘worst’ v5-7
2nd - Because God favours the ‘worst’ v5-7
Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: 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?
It’s funny isn’t it, that we often like people who are confident in themselves,
able to show off a bit of money,
or show off their body,
or show off their sporting ability - lot’s of outward things that cause us to like them.
But God doesn’t look for anything good in a person - becasue if that was the case he wouldn’t find anyone good.
Luke 18:19 (NIV (Anglicised, 2011))
Jesus answered. ‘No one is good—except God alone.
God looks for those who know they are poor - who know they have nothing to offer God
IN Matt 5 Jesus says:
He said: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Before God the only thing we can do is realise we are poor.
We have nothing to offer him - just an empty hand asking for his love.
So there is nothing wrong with being rich, sporty or beautiful
- but God doesn’t love you becasue of those things.
He loves us when we realise we are poor before him.
So if God loves us even though we have nothing good to offer him,
we surely have to be able to love others equally too.
Not based on who we think is best -
but based on our God who loves us - the worst!
The second half of the reading
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. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘You shall not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a law-breaker. Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
3rd - So, love others as yourself v8
3rd - So, love others as yourself v8
Love others as yourself.
Nothing new to us - we’ve heard Jesus say this all through the NT.
Put yourself in the other persons shoes - how would you like to be loved?
Think about the person who struggles socially
- perhaps becasue of autism,
or a difficult home life,
or has moved a lot
or is just awkward.
If that was you
How would you like to be treated?
How would God treat him or her?
Or the person who is embarrassed about a bad skin complection,
or the clothes their parent gives her to wear.
How would you like to be treated if that were you?
Or the person who doesn’t know how to answer bible questions at youth?
How would you like to be treated in that situation?
It’s easy to know how we’d like to be treated - funny how hard it is to treat people like that sometimes!
But the last reminder is that if we don’t want to love others as ourselves,
then we ought to realise it says something about whether we really have accepted that God loves us.
4th - to show that God loves you v9-13
4th - to show that God loves you v9-13
James basically says in these verses that the second you get anything wrong at all according to God’s law - you are in big trouble.
You’re a law breaker.
And before God that’s a problem!
So don’t go around judging people and showing favouritism -
Because if that is how God acted towards you - we’d be going to hell.
make sure you show mercy and love towards others,
becasue that is how we need God to treat us.
because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
We all deserve judgement - but mercy triumphs!
In other words Jesus’s love for us - his mercy - not giving us what we deserve - is greater than the judgement we deserve!
We will be forgiven if we ask for his mercy.
But if we have received his mercy - then we too will want to show mercy and love to others.
In fact James seems to say,
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favouritism.
1st - Don’t favour the ‘best’ v1-4
2nd - Because God favours the ‘worst’
3rd - So love others as yourself
4th - to show that God loves you.
DICE game
Discussions
Why do we find it easy to judge others/look down on them?
What ‘sort of person’ does God love and why is that good news for us?
How should God’s love for us affect our attitude towards others?
How would you like to be treated by others?
How are you going to love those who are different at youth group, church and school?
Dice #1:
1. A person who barely speaks English…
2. A person who communicates using sign language…
3. A person who is always getting in trouble…
4. A person who has no friends…
5. A person who smells different…
6. A person whose skin color is different from yours…
Dice #2:
1…is coming to your birthday party.
2…moves next door to you.
3…is new to your class.
4…joins your soccer team.
5…sits at your lunch table.
6…sits next to you on the bus.