John Gunter: You're here this morning. We got some some visitors that may be familiar to you. We got some that may not be. I wanna encourage you to look around the room and make sure you get to shake some hands and meet some people this morning. I want to encourage those who are watching online, I know we have people watching online that haven't been able to make it in a while, we want know you're missed.
We'd love to have you back. We've got some that are out on a cruise ship right now, and we miss you guys as well. The men are all already planning a getaway since the ladies went this time, so That's right. This morning, we continue with our our study through the book of James, the title of it is Prepared Real Faith for Real Challenges. And so, kind of as a recap, this series is about building faith that's ready before the pressure, before the storm comes, because storms of life are gonna come.
Are they not, church? Do we want to be prepared, or do we just want to react in the moment? Right? Just like we used the example of the hurricane. When I moved from Arkansas, you guys are like, I like hurricanes better than tornadoes.
You can prepare, you can get ready. But often, our faith is not treated in the same light. We don't try to prepare in a way, we kind of get overwhelmed in the situation because we have not prepared. And so, that's what this series is trying to do. Week one taught us to seek God's wisdom in everything that we do as we prepare.
Week two last week reminded us to live what we hear, because what good is it to just hear and not do anything? And now, in week three, we learn that preparation also means that we we need to shape and we need to prepare about how to treat people. That we need to treat people in the right way. Correct? That's an easy question.
Yes? It becomes much more difficult when that person that you don't particularly care for, or that you know has some kind of tension between the two of you, shows up, and then what are you doing? Blood pressure through the roof, how do I handle this situation? Do I duck down the aisle at H E B? I don't think they saw me.
Let me check out real quick. Yeah. And so, today, that's what we're talking about. We want to we want the way we see and serve others to kind of reveal our heart. Right?
That if we're going to claim to be people of faith, we need to live that out in the way we interact with one another, the relationships we have with one another. If all we do is come together and we live on this kind of artificial surface level, where is that going to get us? Right? And so, if we're here to fake it, that's going to be revealed in the way that we treat one another. If I claim to be a person of faith, and I stand before you each week and claim that, and then after services you see me berating one of our members outside, what are you going to think?
He needs to be gone. Right? We need to get him out of here. But we all are in those situations all the time. You may work with someone who's difficult, do you want to show your faith and your heart in that situation?
You may have someone in your family who's difficult. Nobody has a messed up family. Correct? Amen. Thanksgiving is getting close.
A lot of us may sit around tables, you're already dreading that interaction. How can I get out of here quickly and still get my pecan pie? And so we prepare in advance on how we treat people that I want to come off in a way, even when someone is difficult, or angry, or things like that, that I still want to show the love of Jesus to them. That's very easily said and not lived out. Yes?
But we want to prepare. Remember, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with everyone. Yes? Sometimes people don't want to be gotten along with. Right?
And that's just the case, but as far as it depends on you, we should be preparing to treat people well. And so, we prepare for everything else, don't we? We prepare for our careers, what school we go to. Some of you even chose A and M, and I have no idea why. They win.
Yeah, they win. Yeah. So glad that we were able to play with such a prestigious institution yesterday, University of Arkansas. We prepare for our meals and what we're going to eat during the week, you may have already planned what you're going to go do right after this service, we plan for emergencies, but do we ever actually prepare for how we want to treat others? And knowing maybe that difficult interaction is coming.
Because those are the most difficult things. Right? The ones that spring upon you. I joke sometimes that the most random things seem to come out of the blue for me, and like, oh my goodness, I've got to deal with this now. Right?
Something I would have never even thought about. And so those can be the most difficult things, and so our world divides quickly, and we kind of judge what is visible, but James tells us, and what we're going to read about this morning is about prejudice, and kind of favoritism, and that is not the way of Christ, is it? And so prepared believers see people differently through the eyes of Christ. There used to be a song, there still is a song out there. It's kind of a prayer, God, give me your eyes for just one second.
Give me your eyes so I can see. It's a prayer asking to see the world and to see people the way God sees them. Because if we did that, I think we would live in a much different environment, wouldn't we? Because we do react, and we do judge quickly and harshly at times, and our mouth is not slow to speak, and it becomes something else. But when we think about God as our perfect Father, you've got to think about, okay, well, he sees me differently as a child of his.
And so we want to see other people in the same way, and so faith that is ready to love doesn't wait for a comfort or convenience. It's easy to love people who love you back, and they're kind to you, and you get along with them. Right? But it's that person that seems a little bit difficult that it can be, okay, how am I going to do this? Or maybe it's, I'm going to get them this time.
Yeah? Sometimes it feels that way, and I'm good at that, especially with my brothers and sisters. So I understand it. We begin this morning with James two, starting in well, it says one through seven, we'll get verse three. There we go.
My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, you sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there, or sit down at my feet. Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?
But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court. Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? Well, is a difficult thing, because I think we all can easily and quickly judge a situation by what our eyes think we see, and we can show favoritism in the same way, and maybe it's not just poor versus rich, maybe it's the tattooed versus the untattooed. Right?
The things that as I'm raising two boys, I'm trying to explain things, and I know you've been there if you're raising kids. Katie has already told the boys, I don't care if you get tattoos, just don't do it on your face, and visible, it's going to limit your options. And they go, why does that matter? I'm like, it shouldn't, but it does. And so we go around, it's easy if I was standing before you with some of those things, and I just use that as an example.
Right? If I stood before you this morning with that, you may perceive me in a certain way that if I didn't have those, you wouldn't perceive. That's what James is saying, we are quick to assign motives, or this is who this person is, just by the way they appear. And often it is, Oh, he looks like he's well-to-do. I'd love to have them as a part of our church.
That guy though, he doesn't seem like he's got a lot going on, he's wearing some poor clothes or things like that. I don't know if we have time for him. You sit over here, we're not going to talk to you. One of the things, and this is a big thing in my life, I do not like to ever wear something that I feel like may intimidate someone. When I would do prison ministry, I would stand before them in something similar to this, but I made sure to let them know that what I had on came from goodwill.
Like, listen, this does not cost much, I don't want to stand before you in some kind of hierarchy that I'm better than you, or anything like that. We are here trying to worship God together. Period. That's what we should be. Right?
People coming to God on the same level, trying to serve him. Period. No partiality. No, you're better than them, or you're worse than them. And that's what James seems to have to point out that he's pointing out that isn't the isn't isn't it the poor man that actually has the faith?
Isn't that what we say we're about? Aren't isn't it the rich person that has the means to drag you to court and cause all kinds of problems in your life, yet you have it mixed up? And so he's just pointing out how easy it is for us to just mess all of that up, just to deal with, or try to judge people by what we see. We get this in first Samuel chapter 16, when remember, this is a point where we're trying to figure out which of these sons are are gonna be the next king. And so, said, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance, because Samuel, as he looked on these brothers, the oldest remember, he looked good.
He was a tall guy. Like, this has got to be God's favor is on him. And which one did he end up picking? The little ruddy guy out there tending the sheep. Yes.
Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature because I have rejected him. Yet you thought it looked good, and God's got to have blessed this because it's good to my eyes. He said, now don't worry about all that. Okay? For the Lord sees not as man sees.
Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Everybody say amen to that. Because that that is the the key thing that keeps us, or should keep us, from judging one another so harshly. Right? We're told over and over that you better be careful about how you judge, because that kind of judgment is a judgment you're gonna get in return.
And the fact is, is that you don't actually know. You don't know people's hearts. My wife lives with me every day, she knows me better than anyone, does she know my heart like God knows my heart? No. We need to live with that fact and understand it, and that will keep us from showing this partiality or judging so quickly when we're having interactions with people, or condemning to hell that person that just cut us off in traffic.
Right? Maybe they've got something going on. Maybe we show a little grace and mercy. Right? Because I've never cut anybody off.
Moving on. Proverbs twenty two and two says this way, The rich and the poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all. I love that, because in that statement you see we're all together. Not this, we are all together. And if you start seeing other people as children of God, that changes your vision and the way you judge.
Because if we look at them, and here I am with my righteous indignation, and here they are and all their terrible choices, that's a different view than the Lord is the maker of them all, children of God, that will change everything you do. And so, we often give our best energy to people who can give something back. People with whom I'm going to give something this week, you're going to give something next week, and we're just good friends, and we're all kind of here. But Jesus calls us to honor those who cannot even repay us. And that may be difficult because we the way we see people.
And so, when faith prepares the eyes, when you prepare in a way like Proverbs twenty two two, when faith prepares the eyes, the heart will follow. You start thinking about things differently. You start loving in a different way. Back to James two and verse eight, if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
For whoever keeps the whole law, but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said do not commit adultery also said do not murder. If you do not commit adultery, but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy.
Mercy triumphs over judgment. You better say amen to that now. Because we walk around a lot of times feeling very, very guilty, and we're thinking about judgment, oh, I have not been good enough, and God has told you, you just read, mercy triumphs over judgment. And so, if mercy triumphs over judgment with God's view toward you, you better live a life where mercy triumphs over judgment. That as you interact with other people, I want to show mercy.
It is very easy to see a situation and want to be judge, jury, and executioner, and know I am right, and feel like I am right. But we've got to remember, God knows the heart, I don't know the heart, I don't know everything, mercy triumphs over judgment, and praise God for that. That's that's the way he he sees us. Luke six thirty six, be merciful even as your father is merciful. And this is just a scripture pointing out that God has shown you how to live.
Now, you don't view God as merciful, that's gonna taint the way you see things. Right? If you think God and we had a series about this, what, a couple years ago now. If you think God is just waiting on you to mess up, brother Jones, know, God just hovering over the book of life, that's the way some of us were raised, hovering over the book of life with an eraser. Your name was written in there, and boy, I can't wait till you stub your toe and say that word you know you're not supposed to say, and I got you.
If you view God that way, this is going to mess you up. Right? You're not going to see people that way. You're going to Alright, I'll treat other people the way God waiting to get me. I'm going to get them.
Some people live their life that way, let me get ahead before they get me. But it says, be merciful even as your father is merciful, and so you need to understand that God is a God of mercy, and when you do that, you start seeing other people in a different light. But I want to be a person that is a person of mercy. Ephesians four thirty two says, be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. If you didn't think God was merciful this morning, what does this scripture tell you?
What does this remind you? That God loved you so much. Right? For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. Right?
For you. All those things that we are so critical of ourselves, we're carrying around going, I can't believe I did that again this week. God has given his son because he loved you to take care of all of that. Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, should we can say, because God in Christ forgave you. You have been forgiven.
Amen? I hope we walk around knowing we have been forgiven, and remembering all the things not not to walk around with guilt, but to walk around understanding all that God has forgiven of me. Because when I I kind of hold that and understand that, it's a lot easier for me to forgive someone else, and to deal with them, and to have a different relationship with them. Because even when they do something to me, I realize I am forgiven, I need to be a forgiver as well. God in Christ forgave you, and so you can prepare for conflict long before it happens.
Do you understand that? By deciding now that mercy will shape your response when the offense comes, because it will come. Whether you work in a place that's difficult, or you've got that family member, or just somebody you know is going be difficult, it is something you can prepare for. How do I want to represent myself? And I hope that is a person of faith.
And so, one thing I want to remind you of is that mercy is not weakness. Sometimes we get some things really off in our society. Mercy is not weakness, it's the strength of your heart that has already been prepared by thinking about these things that we've talked about this morning. That God is a God of mercy, that God has loved us in this way, that he has forgiven us. And so when we do that, we are actually showing strength.
Say amen. You know that it takes strength to do this. Yes? When you have that difficult thing that makes you, I'm anxious, I'm out of this, you know how much strength it takes. You ever gotten, you know, where your voice is cracking and you're like, I can't get my words?
I've been there. Well, I used to be there all the time, and unfortunately, I had enough situations where I got used to it. Okay, I still want to present myself the way I'm going to present myself, that I have chosen to be a person of faith following Christ, and I want to be that whether you and I are having a disagreement, or we're going out to lunch a little bit just as friends. That's who I want to be, and so we prepare for every situation. And no, you're not going to be prepared literally for every situation, but as you prepare to see people in a different way, as forgiven, as loved by God, as people children of God, that will prepare you for every situation, because you have already chosen before it happens how I'm going to see the other person.
Then you can take a breath, you can do what else James says, you know, be slow to speak, take that breath. Okay. This is the way I'm going to respond. Starting in verse 14 again, What good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
That's a rhetorical question. The answer is no. Right? What good is it my brother if someone says he has faith but does not have works? He's all talk.
Right? Can that faith save him? No, because it's not actually faith. It's just talk. I'm a person of faith.
And if I had no nothing of my life told you that I was a person of faith, you'd say, nah, you're you're full of it, John. Because all you're doing is talking. Can that faith save him? No, because you're not actually a person of faith. You're a person just talking about faith.
And so, if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, I really just think this is dripping with sarcasm and righteous indignation to somebody else, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, and you don't actually give them the things needed for the body. He says, what good is that? I'm trying to present myself as someone who is just holy and righteous, and man, I'm glad you came to me. You came to the right spot, because I'm gonna tell you, go in peace. You're welcome.
Right? That's the way this this is set up, isn't it? And he says, what good is that? The answer is, church, no good at all. Right?
It doesn't do anything. If you are in this situation, don't don't put yourself in the situation of I'm the person that can say, know, go in peace, because we can be in that. Put yourself in the situation of I'm the person in need. Is that any good to you? Go in peace.
Thank you. I appreciate that. We'll see you next week when I need to ask again because you gave me nothing. Yes. So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Not what we're shooting for, not what we're talking about. Faith also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead because at that point, it's not actually faith. It's just saying this is who I am without actually being anyone different. It's hearing all the information without having any kind of heart change. You understand the difference?
It's saying, I'm going to be at church on Sunday, but I have no desire through the week to live it out. Saying I have faith without anything to go with it. First John three eighteen says, Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. Talk is cheap, is it not? Talk is very cheap.
Oh, I'll help you next week, and if I never show up, what good was that? Right? Let us not love in word or talk. Oh, I love you. How do you love me?
Love your neighbor as yourself. Oh, I do. Well, how do you show that? Does it ever come out in any kind of action, or are you just a person who likes to talk? Let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
Galatians chapter six nine and ten says this, And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Now, can go into the reason for that last sentence there. But if you are preparing your mind today, this is a good verse to think about. Okay?
Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up, because it feels like at times things are very difficult, how am I gonna get through this? Okay? If you don't give up, scripture talks over and over about perseverance, so then as we have opportunity, those are going to come, are they not? Let us do good to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith, and I would add this, especially to those who you have a rocky relationship with right now. How are you preparing your heart and mind to mend those relationships as far as it depends on you?
Faith at Acts Faith at Acts looks like checking on a struggling friend, it can be delivering a meal, it can be shooting a text or a message just to see how are you doing today, encouraging someone who's isolated, reaching out and saying, I care about you. And so, the heart that's prepared to love will always find a way to act. If you are prepared to love, those opportunities are going to be there. Okay? You're not going to have to make a decision in that moment, you're going to be ready.
In Micah six eight, and if you've been here for the last couple of weeks, I'm I'm repeating a few scriptures because I want those in our mind. This is one of them, a very important scripture. Micah six verse eight, He has told you, o man, what is good, and what what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? That's who we need to be. Alright?
I want to be someone to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God. And also, from Matthew twenty five forty, and the king will answer them, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. So one more time, prepared faith doesn't have to make a decision. It's already decided to show love. So when those opportunities come, you are prepared.
You are ready to present yourself as a person following Christ. You're not just reacting in the moment, not sure what to do or how to handle yourself. You are ready if you choose to follow Him. And so, this morning, I want to encourage you that if that doesn't describe you as a person who's ready to show the love and the grace and the mercy of Jesus, well a, why not? But b, what a better time to start than right now?
That we've read this morning that that God is a God, he's a forgiving God. He is a God who is merciful. He's a God who knows our heart and knows all the things we've done. Even those things nobody else knows. And he loves us enough to forgive us.
Hold that close to your heart as you deal with people this week. We've got a song of invitation this morning that Tyler's gonna sing. If you want the prayers of this church, we'd love to wrap our arms around you and pray for you. Would you come as we stand and as we