Love God, Love Others, Be Free.
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Good morning!
I hope you all had a great week.
We had a wonderful trip and then two what felt like several Mondays back to back. lol
Last week we had a wonderful service that was full of testimony and, it was so good!
I appreciate Bethany reminding us that we are studying New Testament wisdom literature.
It is a good reminder because if we lose that focus, it may appear that I’ve gone down a weird path of very pointed teaching.
I’ll be honest, the kinds of messages that we have had recently are hard.
Primarily because they touch parts of our lives that we don’t really want to talk about publicly.
That will certainly be the case today.
So, again, thanks for the reminder that we are walking through wisdom literature, not a vengeful sermon series cooked up by the pastor.
Amen!?
Okay, sit up and buckle up.
We are going to hit a lot of scripture today as God works this truth into us.
At the beginning of the message, we talked again about true faith, and I want to recap that portion again because it is so important for us to understand.
We have come to understand that true faith never stops growing.
Not only does True Faith continue to grow, but also, it always reveals itself.
Biblical faith is the certainty that it will happen, not based only on hope or hard work but on the revelation of God’s truth and character.
Our faith grows as we spend time with God, follow His directions, and get to see Him work in our lives.
Over time we learn to trust God’s voice and His ways.
It is by allowing God to work in our lives that our faith is grown and that faith will reveal itself to the world around us.
As we discussed two weeks ago, we have all, individually and corporately, been called to action.
We have been called to make disciples.
I want all of us to realize that as our faith grows, it will be revealed to the world by virtue of itself.
To take that idea further, if you grow in faith as God works in your life, you cannot hide it.
I hope you see the way God has designed this to work.
We aren’t discipling people or leading them to God by our own words, but by simply sharing with them what God has done in our lives.
The more active our relationship with God is, the more we will see him, and the more the world will see of him.
As I mentioned last week, the inverse is also true.
If our relationship with God is not active, we won’t experience God’s goodness, and neither will the world around us.
Over the last few years, God has revealed to us that if we are going to be His people, we aren’t going to look or act like the rest of the world.
Not because we have learned to look or act better, but because God is changing us into His likeness.
That is the goal.
However, the problem we all run into is that we don’t want to be that different from the world.
This world has some creature comforts that make us feel good.
I hope that by the end of this message today, we see God has something far greater than what this world can offer.
You see, we suffer from an identity crisis.
As believers, we are no longer from this broken world.
We belong to a different kingdom.
We are still in a broken world, but we are to be different.
Look at how Jesus described it.
9 “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they are yours.
10 Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine, and I am glorified in them.
11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one.
We are united with the Father through the Son, and our purpose is to be in the world telling it about the Father and the Son.
13 Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them.
14 I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
15 I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
This is not our home, but we are not to leave yet.
Jesus said that He is not praying that God would take us from this world, but that He would protect us from the evil one.
We are strangers in this world, but we have a purpose.
That purpose is to reveal God to the world as He works in our lives.
That work is not easy.
It does not always feel restful.
Do you know why?
Jesus tells us.
17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
18 As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
19 I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
What does it mean to be sanctified?
to sanctify v. — to make as dedicated to God; either in becoming more distinct, devoted, or morally pure.
Sanctification is a difficult, God-sized, job.
You were born in the world and of the world, but at some point, you heard the gospel, and chose (for yourself) to GIVE your life to God.
You asked for and received sanctification, and that is an ongoing process.
So, when we say that our goal is to develop True Faith, we are saying that our goal is
to be sanctified,
set apart from the world,
made more like Jesus,
So that we are recognizably different from the world.
Why has and does God do all this?
So that His joy may be complete in you.
12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us.
The world comes to know God by seeing his activity, his joy completing work, in your life.
While His sanctifying work may not be easy or restful, it always leads to joy.
The purpose for which we were created, we rebelled against, but God has done the work to bring us back to himself so that we can experience the incredible relationship he intended.
God intends for the world to see the beauty of that relationship through your life.
This is why James is speaking so brashly against partiality.
When we don’t treat others the way God does, we are doing the exact opposite of what God wants.
Last week James talked about not playing favorites, particularly between the rich and the poor.
He is going to further develop that thought in this next section.
We have talked about how James is pointing to a new teaching when he says, “my dear brothers and sisters, but in this case, he adds the word “listen.”
He does that to get their attention because this is such a big deal.
It isn’t a problem that no longer exists but is rampant in churches today.
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?
We are keenly aware that we live in a culture that is obsessed with and run by money.
This is not a new phenomenon.
Those with the ability to purchase or trade the most have historically held the seats of power in society.
This was certainly the case at the time of James’ writing.
The Letter of James James 2:6
James therefore first asks, Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? James, as we have seen, treats the majority of the Christians to whom he writes as poor. Contributing to this poverty, he now suggests, are the immoral and perhaps illegal practices of rich people. The strongly marked socioeconomic class distinction presupposed here corresponds closely to what we know of conditions in the first-century Middle East. A small group of wealthy landowners and merchants accumulated more and more power, while large numbers of people were forced from their land and grew even poorer. Most of James’s readers probably belonged to this class of poor agricultural laborers. The scenario is one that would be very familiar to readers of the OT. The prophets frequently denounce (even using the same verb James uses here, katadynasteuō) rich people who “oppress” the poor (Amos 4:1), including orphans and widows (Ezek. 22:7).
This is what James means by exploitation.
It is possible that you don’t personally feel the effects of this system in play, but there are certainly many who do.
I’ll share more about this after the message, but part of what Cenla Interfaith is working on is helping families that are in difficult places financially because of this very issue.
James wants the church to know that God does not favor the rich as the world does.
In fact, He and Jesus have had much to say about how they view the poor.
19 God is not partial to princes and does not favor the rich over the poor, for they are all the work of his hands.
19 The humble will have joy after joy in the Lord, and the poor people will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners;
51 He has done a mighty deed with his arm; he has scattered the proud because of the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly.
53 He has satisfied the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.
God sees the poor, those that feel the effects of the broken world more than any, and he has promised them a great inheritance.
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
20 Then looking up at his disciples, he said: Blessed are you who are poor, because the kingdom of God is yours.
We talk a lot about having God’s perspective, and this is one area of our lives in which we need God to change how we see people.
We look at those with big homes, fancy cars, etc, and think they are really blessed by God, but Jesus says that the poor are the blessed.
The poor are blessed because they will receive far greater things as heirs in God’s kingdom.
26 Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.
27 Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
28 God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something,
29 so that no one may boast in his presence.
We talked several weeks ago about death being the great equalizer, and as a result, there will be a reversal that happens.
A person might have a lot of possessions while they are alive, but they lose all of it when they die.
On the flip side of that coin, a person may have nothing in this world but will gain everything when they die.
If we really believe this, why do we act like it isn’t true?
James goes on to say, those who are rich and whom we are tempted to give special favor to, they have dishonored the poor and God.
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?
Here he is referring to their first-century Middle-eastern culture in which the wealthy got more wealth and took from the poor to get it.
James wants us to understand that as believers, this world is not our home.
We are here only temporarily, and if we spend our time building up our kingdom on earth, we are missing the whole point.
We already have a kingdom, and it is in heaven.
While we are here, our singular focus should be on building up God’s kingdom.
Do you remember that we learned last week that by showing favoritism, we are telling the world something about God that isn’t true?
The exact same thing is happening if we give the rich places of honor and neglect the poor.
As we have seen through much scripture today, God has promised his kingdom to the poor, not the rich.
It’s not the successful, wise, powerful, or influential that God is concerned with.
God wants to use the weak, average, despised and overlooked.
He does this because it brings Him glory.
Look at what James goes on to say in the next verses.
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.
10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.
11 For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.
Do you see who James is addressing here?
It’s not those who don’t know God.
He is talking to the church and us.
If we are showing favoritism, we are living in sin.
Look at it again.
He is addressing those of us who are choosing to be sanctified.
He is saying that is wonderful, BUT if you are going to purposefully show favoritism to the rich, you might as well break all the law.
We cannot turn a blind eye to some sin!
James is referring to Jesus’s conversation with the rich young ruler.
16 Just then someone came up and asked him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?”
17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” he said to him. “There is only one who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
18 “Which ones?” he asked him. Jesus answered: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness;
19 honor your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as yourself.
20 “I have kept all these,” the young man told him. “What do I still lack?”
21 “If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 When the young man heard that, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.
I want you to hear what James and Jesus are saying.
The problem or sin isn’t in being wealthy.
The problem is in what we do with our wealth and whether we are trusting in it or in Jesus.
Jesus goes on to say that it is incredibly difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom.
23 Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.
24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
Wealth creates a false sense of security, and we put our trust in it rather than in Jesus.
We become so accustomed to that security blanket that it is nearly impossible to let go of it.
Circling back to what James is teaching, if we show favoritism to the rich, we are creating a false image of God and are leading people to desire and trust in wealth rather than in Jesus.
9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Money is a big sticky spot in our culture.
We get consumed by the desire to be comfortable according to our culture.
It becomes the main driver in the decisions that we make.
James is pushing back against that ideology because Jesus also pushed back against it.
So, what do we do with all this?
James is warning us against showing favoritism to the rich because in doing so, we paint a false picture of God.
What does James want us to do?
How do you and I push back against a culture that places so much emphasis on wealth?
12 Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.
13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
The Law of Freedom is the two greatest commandments, Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself.
This should be our daily driver, not a pursuit after security through wealth.
Love God, Love others, and be free.
The clearest example of this in scripture is found in Acts.
43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles.
44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common.
45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need.
46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts,
47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
This is the freedom and Joy that Jesus and James are talking about.
The focus of these believers' lives was simply on God and one another.
How did they get to that point, how were their lives changed so radically?
41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them.
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.
They were filled with the Holy Spirit and made their relationship with God and one another the main priorities in their lives.
They were intentional about Loving God, Loving Others, and experienced freedom in return.
We don’t need to worry about if we will have enough.
As we saw at the beginning of this message, Jesus said that all He has is ours.
We can experience freedom as we learn to trust God just like the early church did.
God wants the same freedom the early church experienced for you and me.
All that is required is for us to follow their example.
Trust God to be your security.
Love God, Love Others, and Be Free.