Faith IRL - Real Faith Loves - James 2:1–13

Welcome to South Sub Church. We are so glad that you've decided to worship with us today. Whether you're in the room right now or watching from home, wherever it is, we're just so glad that we get to spend this time together and worship the Lord together as one. Here at South Sub Church, we believe we are one church with two expressions of worship, but we have one mission to bring people to Jesus Christ and together become passionate followers of him. Another way that we worship is through our ti and offerings. And here at South Church, we believe that we give the Lord back what he gives us. And there's a couple ways that I want to invite you to do that this morning. One is giving online at southub.urch/give. Another way is by texting the number that's on the screen right now. Or there's an envelope in your seatback pocket. And here's what I want to invite you to do. No matter what gift you give, big or small, we believe that whatever we give, the Lord multiplies that and we are able to be the hands and feet of Jesus here where we are right now. If you're new, we invite you to fill out a connect card. We would love to get to know you, pray for you, and find a way for you to get more connected with our church. And if you're watching us online, make sure you leave a comment wherever you are. Maybe you're going to the mountains, maybe you have a soccer game to go to. Whatever it is, we're just so glad that you've decided to join us for worship. You picked a great week to be here. Let's jump into God's word together. Let's worship him today.

Heat. Heat.

Well, good morning for all those excited about that 1:00 kickoff. I promise you I will have you out here by 12:59. So, you'll have plenty of time to get to that football game. Someone asked me why I didn't wear my my Bronco jersey this week. And here's why. I am positive and faithful enough and confident enough. I didn't want to wear it two times in a row. So, I'm saving it for two weeks down the road when we're in the Super Bowl. How's that sound for a good Bronco fan all the way? Listen, um last week we um talked about it continued in our series, the book of James. And if you're just now joining us, this is our third week in the book of James. And here's what we're learning in the book of James. It is a hands-on like here's what real faith looks like. Um while some of the other books of the New Testament might talk about some theology and just set some real groundwork up to our faith, James jumps into it and says, "I'm not going to tell you about faith. I'm going to tell you how to live faith." And one of the verses that we looked at last week, James said something really simple and clear. and he said, "Real faith is one that takes care of our widows and our orphans." And um we have a special thing that we do every year here at the church, an event, and it's called our widow's banquet. And usually it happens around Valentine's. This year we're going to move it to March, but it's a time in the life of our church that we gather all the widows, men and women who have lost their spouses, and we just celebrate them. We celebrate the love that they had for their spouses. And last year, we had almost a hundred people at this event. Now, here's the good news about it. It's just not those that have lost spouses, but every one of those gets a host. And so, a husband, wife, a single person, it doesn't matter, but somebody will go pick them up, bring them to the banquet, and just love on them all night long. And I thought last week as we were preaching the book of James, what a great expression exactly what James is talking about. And so, when you came in today and you got your hand out, you received a yellow card in here. And many times you may look at that and think that's for a guest to fill out. And if you're a guest with us, we're so glad you're here and we hope you do. But on the back side of it, as we get ready for our widow's banquet, March the 10th, we need more hosts. And so if you would like to host, just means you just, it's kind of your date for the night, the individual you pick up, the individual you love on, there's a place on there that you can mark. if you'll fill that out, you can drop in one of the offering boxes when you leave here, or you can stop off and drop it off at the guest reception desk, but we would love to have you host. And then on that same note, there may be some of you here that this has been one of those years that you did lose a spouse, um that someone you love so dearly, and as you round out this year, there's those moments that you just kind of feel alone. Don't feel alone on this widow's banquet. Choose us night. Sign that up. we'll contact you and we will make sure that you've got someone just to remember and celebrate that love of your life with you. So just advertisement, but more than a promo, it really is God's word in action that we're doing. So as I talk about James, there's several things in James that we'll be looking at. And it made me start thinking about um about 10 years ago when my son graduated high school, I remember as a parent feeling the stress, the anxiety of him about to move off. We were living in Texas at the time in Dallas. He was going to be going to the University of Arkansas. And my wife and I, his whole life, of course, we had tried to raise him responsible. We had tried to teach him how to do his laundry. We had teach try to teach him how to pour a bowl of cereal so he doesn't go hungry for the rest of his life. Um, we try to teach him how to be a just a good citizen, all the things, right? But there's this moment, and maybe you felt it with your kids or even your grandkids, when they're about to go off, you think to yourself, did I teach him everything he needed to know? Was he going to remember everything he had to know? And as a parent, I just felt this anxiousness. I felt this overwhelmingness going, "But what if he doesn't get it? What if he doesn't get it from what I told him and it moves to the part of his life where he can actually live it out?" And I began thinking about our study of James. And I think maybe that's why James wrote his letter that we call the book of James, but it was actually a letter, a letter to Christians that had been dispersed around the country. I wonder if that's why he wrote it. Because here's what was taking place. Because of persecution, when all these Christians left their kind of their their bubble of living together and they were dispersed in the world, I wonder if James thought, did they really get it? Did they listen to the sermon last week? Did they listen to when we talked about this? Do they understand what Jesus really meant to have faith? And maybe he was a little anxious thinking, what if what if it was only head knowledge and it doesn't become a heart living that out? And so he sat down and he pinned this letter that we call the book of James. And in this letter, he just begins to describe to them just kind of throw out lists, throw out ideas going, don't forget this, don't forget this, don't forget this. And today we're going to pick it up in what we call chapter two. You might refer to it as a second page of James's letter, but we'll be looking at chapter two. And James has some very pointed things that he wants us to understand, not just for Christians 2,000 years ago, but for us today as we follow Jesus. And so we'll have the the scripture there on the screen. If you have your handout, it's there or you can look this up in your Bible. But here's what it says in James chapter 2 verse one. He said, "My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory." So, as James starts this second chapter, he doesn't hold back. He doesn't hold back any punches. And he says it very clearly, "Show no partiality." In fact, I really like the way the New Living Translation says it. Let me read this for you. says, "My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?" Here's what James is trying to get across again to them 2,000 years ago, but to us today, showing favoritism or partiality through stereotyping, through picking and choosing who we're going to like or reach out to or try to care for. um showing partiality by making assumptions about people before you ever really meet them or judging people just by what you think about them or even showing partiality by putting people in boxes that you think they ought to go in. And here's what James is saying. When we do that, we're not really living out the faith that we claim to have in Jesus Christ. In fact, James might say this that when we have favoritism in our life, when we have prejudices in our life, when we show partiality in our life for some people versus other people, and when he shows and talks about this partiality and this favoritism, he's not just talking about this the color of their skin. He's also talking about the amount of money in their bank accounts. talking about if they lived on this side of the the tracks or this side of the tracks or they grew up in this country or grew up in this country or or even maybe talking about a person's political preferences. When we begin to box people up, when we begin begin to show partiality based on these type of things, here's what the James would say. He goes, "That's not a character flaw in your life. That's actually a huge contradiction to who Jesus should be in your life." There's a big difference there, right? And we all have some kind some types and some kinds of character flaws that we need to work on. But a character flaw versus a complete contradiction to who Jesus is are two different things. And Paul says when we show partiality, when we show favoritism, it is not just a character flaw. It is a contradiction of who Jesus should be in your life. And then he goes on to give an illustration. He goes, "Here's what I've observed in some of your churches. When you gather together in the name of Jesus, here's what I notice. That you have a rich person walk into your church and as soon as that rich person walks and you look at them and you run over to them, you shake their hand going, "Man, we're so glad you're here today. We are so happy to have you here." And you bring them up front and you give them the choice seats, whether it's the one with the best view, the one with the best most cushions in the seat, but you bend over backwards to make sure this person feels welcome and accepted and a part of your church. He says, ' But at the same time, then someone else comes in and they're not wearing the fancy clothes. They don't have the fancy jewelry on. So, it's very obvious they don't have as big a bank account as the person you just greeted. And when they walk in, you don't do anything. You don't show them the nice seat. You don't try to help them know where to sit and get to know people. You just kind of leave them on their own. And he looked at and in James, you can read this there in the chapter 2. He says, "Don't you understand when you do that? You've got two equal people, but you're treating one completely different than the other." And he made an observation in this particular example. He said, "The rich one that you're trying to treat so well, they're the ones taking you to court. They're the ones that's doing you bad in business. They don't even treat you fair, but yet you're trying to feed them treat them fair because you think they're better than the person over here." And James is drawing the story and painting the story because he wants us to understand this. And if you're taking notes, here's the first thing about real faith. Real faith values people over position.

Someone once said that at the foot of the cross is the most level place that you'll ever come to. Yet, we come to the foot of the cross and we size people up, don't we? We come to the foot of the cross and we put this person over here and we put this person over here and we show great partiality or great great biasness or even prejudicness as we view those people and judge those people not for what's on the inside but what's on the outside. And James wants you and I to understand as just as it was 2,000 years ago to this world that in God's kingdom, we're all equal because we were made in the very image of God. We may have different skin color. We may have different political preferences. We might have been born in different countries. And the list goes on and on and on. But when it comes to faith, we're all the same. And so real faith values people over position. But James didn't stop there. He went on to say this in verse eight. He says, "If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, and that law being this, that you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you're doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law of transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point, has become guilty of all of it. And then in verse 11, he says, "For he who said, do not commit adultery also said, do not commit murder. If you do not commit adultery, but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law." Here's what was going on as James is writing this this group of people. They knew the letter of the law. They knew the holy scriptures. They knew what they were supposed to do. They knew what they weren't supposed to do. And actually, they were doing pretty good checking out the box. Well, I don't do this and I don't do this and I didn't say that and I didn't say this to this person. And they were really doing good on the outside obeying all those laws. Referring back to the story that he just said. But here's the problem. You're doing good on the outside, but you're not doing very good on the inside. You see that rich person comes in and you show them where to seat. Check the box. You're really nice to them. You go out of your way to greet them. Check the box. That poor person comes in, you don't say anything bad about them. Check the box. You you you don't tell them to go down the street someplace else to worship because they're not welcome there. Check the box. He said, "So on the outside, you're living the legalistic law. You're doing all the things you're supposed to." He said, ' But what's the problem is is you don't have your love in your heart for all people. You may not be talking bad about the person over here that doesn't fit in the box you want them to fit in. But you've never gone out of your way to embrace and love and care for that person. You're doing all the right things on the outside, but you're missing something on the inside. And the thing you're missing, he says, is love. In fact, if you're taking notes, you can write this down. Real faith chooses love over legalism. Real faith chooses love over legalism. You see, when I use the word legalism, here's a question you often ask with legalism. What did I do wrong? But when you think about love, that's not the question you ask yourself. When you think about love, you ask yourself, did I treat that person the way Jesus would treat them? Let's go back to the poor person in our story. Did I do anything wrong? Nope. Didn't badmouth them. Didn't send them down the street. You just didn't love them. You just didn't treat them the way Jesus would treat them. And so, real faith chooses love over legalism. Real faith doesn't hide behind religious behavior. It shows up in how we treat people. That's what real faith is. And so here's James. He's writing this letter to these Christians 2,000 years ago, but to us. And he's trying to say, if you want to have real faith, let me not tell you how to like break it down. Let me tell you how to live it out. And he says, you got to choose love over legalism. He says, you got to value people over positions. And then he goes on in verse 12 and he says this, "So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty." He said in verse 13, "For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy." And then he makes a statement, "But mercy triumphs over judgment." As he finishes this part of his letter, he brings it to sharp conclusion. And if you're taking notes, you can write this down. He says this, "Real faith extends mercy over merit." Real faith extends mercy over merit. Let me see if I can draw a comparison of these two words, mercy and merit. When I use the word merit, merit asked this question, do you deserve it? But mercy asked the question, do you need it? Merit asks, do you deserve it? Mercy asks, do you need it? And real faith extends mercy over merit. You see, if we get down to it, mercy reveals what we truly truly believe about grace. You see, when I keep score of other people's wrongdoings, when I put it, oh, another mistake. Oh, another mistake. And I'm keeping a scorecard. When I determine a person's usefulness in society, so I put them in a certain box.

When I judge people on their externalness more than their internalness, I'm choosing merit. But when I walk over to somebody that I do or don't know, and regardless of the decisions they've made in the past, regardless of the current situation that they're living in, regardless if they're like me or not like me, and I reach out to them, and I put my hand out and say, "How can I help you?" See, mercy is more than greeting somebody. Mercy is inviting somebody. Mercy is embracing somebody. Mercy is caring for somebody. And James is writing and say, if you want to have real faith, then you have to have mercy over meriting people. You see, mercy when it's present, it changes how we speak. It changes how we act. And it changes how we see people. Mercy sees people as God sees them, not as the world sees them. Now, now don't get me wrong, mercy doesn't ignore sin. Our society has reached this point and it's crept its way into our churches, even into our Christian thinking that everybody does what's right in their own eyes. You do you and I'll do me, and we can kind of make sin or not sin or right or wrong a moving target. Here's what we need to understand. The Bible is clear. The Bible calls sin sin. There are things that we do that are wrong before God. Society doesn't get determined right or wrong. God determines right or wrong. And so mercy doesn't mean we ignore sin. But when we see somebody in sin, mercy requires us to reach out to them in the same way that God reaches out to us in our sin. Mercy doesn't excuse sin. You might even say it this way. Mercy doesn't excuse sin, but mercy embraces the one who is in sin.

And then James ends in that that that one phrase. He says this, "Mercy triumphs over judgment." When it's all and said and done, when you and I are no longer the judge and say, "That person should sit over here and this person should sit over here." When we're no longer the self-proclaimed judge and God rises up and he goes, "By golly, I am the judge." Guess what wins? Mercy will win every single time. Not because sin doesn't matter, but because God's grace is greater than our failures. God's grace is better than my mistakes. Mercy will win every single time. That same mercy that saves us is the mercy then that you and I are meant to pass along. And that's why James is writing this letter. that he was afraid that the Christians that they were dispersed and set in all their different places, they would try to ho holy huddle up again and they'd get over here and these Christians would get over here and these Christians would get over here and they would look and going, "Well, look how good we're acting and and look at all the right things that we do and look at all the rules that we're following. Oo, look at those people over there and oh, look at those people over there." And James was afraid that the Christians would become so self-righteous and so self-involved in who they were that they would forget mercy allows Jesus to live through them and extend that same mercy to everybody else.

As I said, the letter is as relevant to us today as it was 2,000 years ago. Do you know why James was so adamant? We can't get to this judgmental. We can't get to place that we show partiality that we as individual followers of Jesus. But here's what's really interesting. As he writes this letter, describes his situation. He's not just writing to individuals. He's writing to the corporate community of church as well. And do you know why he was so impassionate? Why he was just so just bent all out of shape? You got to get this church. You can't show impartiality. You got to get this. You have to extend mercy over merit. You have to choose love over legalism. You have to value people over position. Do you know why that was so important to him? Because that's how the very savior that he was given his life to lived his life. That's who Jesus was. Jesus, James was the halfb brotherther of Jesus. He saw a model his whole life. And at some point in his life, he's going, "That's a better way than the way I'm choosing."

He thought back his life and he remembered how Jesus always looked for the overlooked. Hey, I was always chasing after the broken, how he was always going after the unwanted. And if the church 2,000 years ago, but the church today, if South Subchurch keeps the power and has the power of the spirit living in us and through us, we must resemble Jesus. We must be willing to look for the overlooked, to go after the unbroken and accept the unwanted amongst us. You see, Jesus graced people with his acceptance. He graced him with his forgiveness. He graced him with his unconditional love. Think about the different people that that the stories that we hear about the New Testament. the woman caught in adultery. While the religious people ready to stone her and they put her in this class over here and after they all left, what did Jesus do? He reached out and loved her. Think about the demon-possessed. Many times you can read in the New Testament when there was an individual that was demonpossessed, that was emotionally unstable, they would put them outside the town going, "You live over there because we don't want you over here." But Jesus would go to the demon-possessed. He would go to the emotionally mentally unstable people.

Think about tax collectors. That occupation in the Jewish world like you are tax collector then you're not have nothing to do with us. Jesus went after a tax collector and made him one of his disciples. The list goes on. Outcasts of society. Jesus brought them into him. Here's somebody Jesus brought into him. You and I.

No one's ever claimed accused me of being demonp possessed. My wife said I'm crazy sometimes, but she's never told me I'm demonpossessed.

I don't have the sin of adultery next to my name.

But oh, if you knew all the stories in my life of where I've fallen short, if you knew the things I thought about people that I should never have crossed my mind, if if you knew the sins that the world doesn't see, I fit in that bunch in the New Testament. But here's what I know. That Jesus showed his great mercy. He never put Keith in a box over here going, "That's not the kind of people I'm after. I'm going for these kind of people." Jesus picked me up and where I was in my sin. And he said, "I will bring you to me." In fact, Jesus was so overt in that, he didn't wait for me to come find him. He came and found me. And he didn't come find me going, "Hey, when you clean yourself up and change that and adjust that and look a little bit better, come to me because I think I could use you, Keith. He came to me, my dirty, filthy sinfulness. And he said, "Come, you're mine." And that's what Jesus has done to each of us. And so you ask the question, why? Why? Why should we be so focused on not showing partiality? Why why should we be so concerned about not showing favoritism? Because that's how Jesus did us. And God desires the world to see such a clear picture of Jesus. If we don't look like him, they'll never know who he is.

So James is writing. He's going, "Let me tell you what real faith is." Real faith is choosing love over legalism.

Real faith is really accepting people for who they are. Extending that mercy over merit. Real faith values people over the box that you or someone else puts them in.

James says, "You want real faith? That's what it has to look like."

And so church, as we use the word of James, the book of James, as we said last week, not as a mirror to view the world or not as a window to view the world, but as a mirror to look at our very own souls.

May we take time this week to look and say, God, where am I showing favoritism? Where am I showing prejudicness? Where am I showing they fit in my box and they don't fit in my box? May our life be overflowing with the same grace that God bestows on us. You know, I thought about it this week. One of the things that we value here at the church is communion every week. And if you've been around here very long, you'll hear this expression, the table is set, come one, come all. Do you know why we say that? Because it is not for us to judge anybody else. That that the table communion and we'll use that table symbolically. The table or communion is this moment that we all no matter who we are can come to Jesus. But here's what I recognize that sometimes one doesn't feel worthy to come. In fact, I think there are people going, "Hey, I would be interested in God and I hear this relationship with Jesus, but but I'm just not good enough." And they convince themselves and they put themselves in a box. And they put followers of Jesus in a box over here, but they put themselves over here because they're just going, "They don't know me. They don't know what I've done. They don't know where I've been.

If you're here today in the sound of my voice, if you're listening to me online, let me let you know this. God says, "Tear up your box." Fact, God doesn't tell you to tear up a box. He's come up going, "Let me just rip this box up because I want you as you are."

So, if you've never responded to Christ and trusting in Jesus, here's what it means. is just simply say, "Jesus, I need you. I trust you." That's what it means to follow Jesus. You don't have to know everything. You don't have to have all the datas and facts and figures and verses all memorized. God will help you that as he grows you, but just simply come to the point going, "God, I need you. I I I I receive your mercy and your forgiveness. I don't deserve it. I can't earn it. I just get it. God, would you forgive me? There's nothing you can do to get it. And the Bible says with that type of prayer, that's where the relationship with God begins. And he says, "Come, come to the table." Again, figuratively, symbolically, "Come." The table is there.

Now, for those of us that know Jesus and we've been following Jesus, but we have to confess sometimes we're a little selective in who we want at the table. We would never say that out loud. God forbid we'd say that out loud, but we're not inviting to the table. This past week, as we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. day. Go back to the memories. And some of y'all live these days where there used to be a water fountain says white folks. Another water fountain said color folks. And the day those signs ripped off and said all folks and all folks was a glorious day in our in our country. But there is a difference in having a water fountain that somebody can go drink from. and inviting somebody to my home to eat with me. And again, I'm not talking just a color thing. I'm talking there's so many ways that we show partiality. There's so many ways that we show favoritism to people. And here's what James says. Stop, church, and be the hands and feet of Jesus. No matter where you are and no matter who you're with,

come. The table is set. Dine with me. Don't just sit at my table here. Take my own seat that I usually sit in. Come. And when you and I live our life that way, we will look like Jesus and the world will get the clearest best picture of a merciful savior that invited us to him. And so today as as we take communion together, the table is set. All are invited, but let's live a life the same way in an invitation to others that's been extended to us. Will you pray with me? Father, thank you for your word. And I'm so glad, God, that your word doesn't have a shelf life.

that the words that your disciple James spoke thousands of years ago are as relevant to us today.

And so we pray Jesus that your words today would indeed be a mirror that we can look into our soul.

May we not just greet all people. May we invite all people. May we care for all people. May we embrace all people. May we love all people regardless of their skin color, regardless of their political preference, regardless of what side of the tracks they grew up on, regardless of what country they were born, regardless of any box the world may put them in. God, may we love all people as you do, Jesus.

May we look like you so the world knows who you are. And we pray this in your holy name, Jesus. Amen. I'm going to ask our elders