The Call to Consistency | James: Tried, Tested, and True

Just to make sure, we have some verbal commitment

binding in the state of Indiana.

We continue, like I said, our sermon series on faith

to a very poignant passage as we close chapter two.

To me, and I say this, the youth pastor that Carrie and I

actually met under when we were in high school,

the one that did our wedding, was a mentor in my life

for a long time, confirmed the call of ministry.

I would always remember he'd have this as his voicemail,

the first couple of verses that we're going to read.

And I always thought that was interesting

because I was a high needs kid, I know you're surprised,

and so I called his phone a lot.

And it didn't dawn on me that he just sent it to voicemail

for a long time.

I think just for me to listen to him read this,

because it really made a point in my life,

and hopefully it does for you today,

to answer the question, what good is your faith?

It's a hard question to ask, it's a hard question

to answer, I'm sure, but I'm hoping there's two,

maybe three or four brave souls

that take that question honestly.

What good, not the person, not the faith of the person

next to you, or your spouse, or your kids, or the church,

what is good about your faith?

What's good about it?

It drives you to love God and love people, okay?

Others, up in the front, or in the balcony.

It's very comforting, okay?

Yeah.

I appreciate that you guys are trying to raise your hands

like it's a class, we don't need to do that, okay?

I will engage regardless, because I may not see it.

It what?

Keeps you sober, okay?

Okay, maybe I do need you to raise your hands.

No, well go ahead.

You're not alone, absolutely, yeah.

It comforted, absolutely, you definitely have comfort.

I heard one over here in the back.

Humble, at least I hope, right?

At least I hope it makes you humble, yeah.

Gives you hope.

It drives you, okay, yeah.

Gives you a purpose, these are all good answers, right?

And I'm not looking for one specific one,

this was for you to really take that question.

For me, what good is my faith?

It keeps me grounded.

Vanity is a temptation of,

I probably can say every pastor, right?

That you have stepped into a life

that in a lot of ways is a fishbowl.

Just opinions and people, especially with a growing church,

it's one of the things, people always say,

wow, you have a growing church.

Man, you have 350 bosses, and I go, no, I don't.

I have 350 opinions.

I have a heavenly boss, right, in Christ.

I have an earthly boss in Kerry.

I have eight or 10 project overseers,

and those are my elders, okay?

But the life of a pastor, one of the easiest temptations

that Satan hits on pastors all the time,

and we actually talked about this while I was away this week,

is the idea of pride and vanity.

And I was able to say with a lot of certainty

that I have people in my life,

God has put people in my life,

namely my wife, my mom, my dad,

pretty much all of our elders.

And if you are put on the slate for elders,

that you get to have that as one of your jobs, right,

is to make sure that my head fits in this sanctuary, okay?

Because pride and vanity for a pastor is a massive thing.

Because at the end of the day,

it is and can be a work of applause.

Oh, I gotta make sure I have a good sermon this week,

gotta make sure I'm available,

I gotta make sure to do all of these things,

because if I don't, then people's opinions may shift.

But the same goes for your faith.

Because when we look at really what the book of James

is calling out right in the beginning of our text today,

is everything you guys just talked about

about what is so good about your faith.

Now I love that none of you said,

well my faith's better than that person's,

and now I probably would think

no one would actually verbalize that here, right?

But I know for a lot of us we think about it,

that we are far more devout than other people.

Oh, I can't believe they did that on Sunday,

I can't believe all of these things,

I mean, the list goes on and on.

But let's dive in, because today what we're gonna look at,

we've already defined faith in trials,

we already defined on how faith is really rooted,

not only in scripture,

and we're gonna get to that more in a couple weeks,

but a faith that is alive, a dormant faith,

that James would say is not a faith.

That faith is called to be active,

but again, like we've said,

this isn't as a way of earning salvation,

it is a way of responding to salvation.

The Holy Spirit regenerating in our hearts

that we are sanctified by Jesus, we profess,

and therefore we do something.

How many people enjoy receiving jewelry

for some kind of gifts, right?

You can just do a little hand,

you know, but however you wanna do that,

and that's fine, right?

Jewelry is awesome, I guess,

but when you get jewelry,

you kinda wanna show it off, right?

Let's be honest, all those that rose your hand,

like when you get jewelry,

let's say you get a nice necklace,

for the next month, you're not wearing turtlenecks,

are you?

Like you're not trying to cover it up.

No, you have a nice piece of jewelry,

you wanna show it off.

That's all well and good.

How many of you love dogs?

How many of you love cats?

Yeah.

For the dog people, right,

because I'm gonna reject the cat thing,

but for the dog people,

how many of you, when you get your dog,

the first thing you do is you wanna post it on social media?

Be honest, right?

Because you wanna show it off, right?

Even if you have an ugly dog,

you wanna show it off

because it's something you are proud of.

We do it all the time,

but even more so, we should do it with our faith.

That's exactly where James is gonna go with it.

That if you have faith, you need to show it off,

but not in a vanity kind of way,

not in a way that's look at me, look at me,

because if you're gonna do that,

then your faith better be active.

So let's dive in for this call of consistency

when it comes to faith.

Chapter two, verse 14.

What good is it, my brothers,

if someone says he has faith but does not have works?

Can such a faith save him?

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed

and lacking in daily food,

and one of you says to them,

go in peace, be warm and filled,

without giving them the things needed for the body,

what good is that?

So also faith by itself,

it is if it does not have works is dead.

But someone will say, you have faith, I have works.

Show me your faith apart from your works,

and I will show you my faith by my works.

I'm gonna pause there,

I know we have a couple more verses in that,

but I'm gonna pause.

Because that is a very important text.

It's a very important text in the life of the believer.

It is a text that Martin Luther couldn't stand

because he thought that it sounded very Catholic.

He thought that it sound very much like works righteousness.

That's why I said in the beginning,

this is not pre-salvation, this is post-salvation.

This is you have been saved,

you've done the altar call,

you've professed your faith, you've been baptized.

However the faith expression you grew up or you're in now,

you have made that faith your own.

In the CRC, that means you have professed your faith

and you have joined the church.

That's part of that.

You came before the elders, you professed your faith,

they process that,

and then you come up and you do the professing of your faith.

We have a couple adult baptisms and professions coming up

in this month and next month.

Super excited about that.

But this is what we're talking about this time,

not over here, we're talking about this.

But Luther hated this because of how much the word works

is tied to faith.

And it's awkward and it's rough,

especially for reformed people because we wanna be,

we wanna reject that idea of works righteousness.

But what James is saying,

what good is faith if it produces nothing?

And that's hard.

It's hard because what it does,

it shoots right in the face of sometimes tradition,

habitual actions of faith,

like, oh, it's Sunday again, gotta go to church.

Maybe you as adults don't feel like it, maybe you do,

but I know your kids do.

I know I did, we gotta go again.

It's every week.

And for some of you that grew up, you went twice.

You went morning, and then you got home

and you had a nice roast or ham buns or whatever it was.

You weren't allowed to go outside

and then you were back at it at what time?

Five?

Seven, seven.

I can't even, seven o'clock?

Did you have one in like early afternoon,

you just chose the late show or?

No, you didn't.

You're like, I didn't have a choice in that at all.

No, we went, we were there.

And how long did it go?

Good hour and 15 minutes.

So 815.

I'm tired just thinking about that.

But for some of you, that was your faith expression.

Like, you went twice.

And so that's what James is saying is

that is all well and good.

Having those traditions, having all of those values, right?

And I know Jo, she's pretty great.

So I think that worked, right?

Going the two times.

And so understanding that, James is saying

that is all well and good if you're doing something with it.

If you're actually doing something with your faith.

You're doing stuff in faith.

You're walking out your faith.

And he throws, I love how he throws.

What good is it?

But it does not have works.

And then he goes into a prime example, right?

Which echoes a little bit of Matthew 25.

Sheep and the goats.

When you've done to the least of these,

you have done unto me.

That's coming from Jesus, the King.

And he kinda goes right there.

Go and, if a brother or sister is poorly clothed

and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them,

go in peace, be warmed and filled.

But does nothing.

Can you imagine how awkward that is?

That if you're sitting next to someone

that has not had a meal in, let's say, three or four days,

which even the thought of that for some was like,

no, I'd be dead, right?

If I did not eat for three or four days.

And I think the body can, and people that are smarter

than I, and can talk better, how many days can you go

without food before you really start to have problems?

Does anybody know?

Okay, don't guess.

I'm not gonna take a kid's word on this, okay?

Let's talk to adults.

Well, maybe Mr. Scott, yes.

Three weeks, interesting.

All right, has this been experienced in the Scott house?

We can talk.

We have, I have office hours.

I don't think that's true, but,

cause three weeks, that's a long time.

But we're gonna go with it, all right?

We're gonna go with it.

So you're sitting next to someone

that hasn't eaten for three weeks.

Now, think of yourself.

If you haven't eaten for three weeks,

what does your physical presence look like?

Jeremiah, what does your physical presence look like

after not eating for, and I've been with Jeremiah, right?

He can put down some food.

Three weeks, you haven't eaten.

How are you?

Not well, okay.

Maybe a little disheveled.

Yeah, probably didn't shave,

because a lot of that probably connects,

and we don't even know why.

Like, I'm hungry, I'm just, I'm gonna throw in the towel.

Sorry, Ashley.

You know, all of those things,

but your mental state, how are you

after three weeks of not eating?

You're throwing up, I doubt it,

because you probably don't have anything in you to throw up.

You've already purged.

Defeated, wow, ooh, hang on, defeated.

Why defeated?

That was a phenomenal answer.

Mike, yours was okay, but you know,

defeated, why, Jess?

Because you gave up hope.

I think part of that is because no one stepped into that.

I think, was it you, were you going there?

Yeah, like three weeks you went without food.

Nobody has stepped into it.

Nobody has tossed you a cracker.

But what James is saying is you have that person

sitting next to you, and your faith is so pious,

meaning at times, pious of that of the Pharisees is bad.

Piety as far as wanting to walk out that tradition

and understand the foundation and why we do what we do,

that level of piety, good things.

The Pharisees was, no, no, no, do as I say, not as I do.

And Jess, so you're sitting next to someone,

we're not gonna say Joel, make it awkward,

but you know, you're sitting next to somebody,

and you let them know, I haven't had a thing

in three weeks, and they go,

sister praying for you, be filled.

Maybe they put their hand on your shoulder, you know.

Maybe if they're weird, they put it on your stomach.

But what happens to that hope?

It goes in one ear and out the other

because they're not backing that up.

Because they are putting it on somebody else to deal with.

Oof, that hurts.

Oof, that hurts.

Because I think for a lot of us,

that's kind of the mentality.

When we pass somebody, maybe that has a sign,

and maybe you grew up, and we've talked about this before,

we grew up with maybe two different camps.

One camp is, don't give that person money

because all they're gonna do is

spend it on drugs, right?

Or alcohol, or we go to the bad type thing.

My dad always said, your choice is to give them the food,

or give them the money, their choice is to do something

with it, but we always tried to give food instead of money

whenever we saw that.

But in our house, it's like, well,

we'll just give them the leftovers.

That's a whole nother sermon,

if you actually think about it.

But it's interesting to say, the words will go in one ear

and out the other.

I think that's what James is trying to say.

What good is your faith if you're not gonna step in

and meet the needs of people?

What good is your faith if you're not gonna meet

the needs of people?

You've already gotten the commandment from Jesus, by the way,

before this book was written,

where he literally said the same thing,

and he actually broke it down to how we do it.

We give food to the hungry, give water to the thirsty,

we clothe the naked, we see those that are imprisoned.

The downtrodden, the least of these,

not having anything to eat for three weeks,

I would think that qualifies to be a part of the least

of these, and we do nothing with it.

And the goats said, Lord, when?

And he goes into that line, and the sheep do,

and they go into glory.

The goats don't, and they go to hell.

And understand that it's, and this again,

you can see why Luther struggled with this,

because it's not in order to gain salvation,

it is the outflow, the outpouring of your faith.

But it means we have to have eyes to see it first.

That consistency in faith means you are developing eyes

to see the needs of people,

and not just the needs that you want to fulfill.

Because then you're kind of putting people's needs

on your own kind of Burger King understanding

of your way right away.

Like, I'm only gonna meet the need that I'm comfortable

meeting when you need it.

What?

That doesn't make any sense.

That sounds like crazy town to me.

That's crazy talk.

Because the world needs so many different things.

It's not always gonna be the same,

but isn't it funny that we break it down

to just the simplest of things, food and water.

A basic necessity of life, food and water.

That's why we work with Love, Inc.,

but if there is someone that comes to this church

and says we need food, our food pantry team

has bags already made for us,

because how can we be a church and say,

you can go over to Faith Munster,

we think they can help you?

No, that is something we're never gonna do.

Now, are there people that are gonna probably

work the system and maybe take advantage?

Absolutely not.

Take advantage, absolutely.

But if you're hungry and you need food,

we're gonna give you food, a basic need,

because we believe what Jesus says, more importantly,

but then we also believe what James says right here.

Because we wanna be of good faith.

Now, you also get people that come and say,

I need $1,500 to pay my mortgage.

Well, we're not an ATM.

We do have a process of stewardship, right?

And we've talked about that,

the deacons got it a little bit last week,

but part of this is the spiritual care of others,

seeing the needs.

And guess what?

Who's supposed to lead that charge in the church?

Every one of us, okay, you just gave 10 guys a pass

on that, okay?

Because we're gonna, let's go a little higher, our elders.

That the elders oversee the doctrine

and life of other people.

Yeah, there are some elders that they like to stick

to the doctrine side and okay,

but it's the life side as well.

And when elders and deacons work together,

it's a beautiful thing because if someone

hasn't eaten for three weeks, I guarantee you

there's something else going on besides a food problem.

And so it's the working together to find that hope,

to give those necessities to people, basic needs.

I think that's why James is calling this out.

Verse 19, I'll go back to verse 18,

but someone will say, you have faith, I have works.

Show me your faith apart from your works

and I will show you my faith by my works.

You believe that God is one.

You do well.

Even the demons believe and shudder.

Do you want to be shown, you foolish person,

that faith apart from works is useless?

So James is gonna double down on this.

So you believe that God is one and that we are called

to engage the needs of others.

Fantastic, guess what?

Satan believes that too.

He knows, he's just coming at it from a very different

defeated perspective.

That if we know that God is one, that we know God

has called us into this life of faith, has saved your soul,

that we are called to do something with it.

We are called to go and meet the needs of others.

You guys have probably heard, and when I was,

I started school to be a teacher.

I thought I was gonna be a junior high teacher

because I figured I acted like one,

it would be easier to teach him.

And so when I, stop shaking your head when I say that, okay?

But understand, one of the things that I learned

very early on is students and I think,

where's Alicia, right?

She's one of our teachers.

Kids don't care what you know until they,

until they do it and until they know that you care, okay?

Kids don't care what you know

until they know that you care.

Now for education, you have to teach regardless, right?

You have to teach regardless.

How you teach, what you teach, curriculum, however,

but it's the caring piece

that I'm sure a lot of us remember.

I remember in sixth grade, it was Mr. T. Hogan,

because we also had a J. Hogan at Orland Junior High.

And I just remember not only the way he taught us,

but the way he cared for us was such a holistic

understanding of how to learn.

In sixth grade, I didn't get it.

But looking back on it, I do now.

That the same thing kind of goes with the gospel,

doesn't it?

That people don't care what you know

until they know that you care.

We can give the gospel.

You can shout it from the rooftops,

you can use the megaphone,

you can wear the sandwich board and ring your bell.

You can do what Jonah did, right?

40 more days and Nineveh will be in the pocket,

which he thought meant destroyed.

And so he was coming at it from a very pious,

ha ha, God's gonna get you, kind of way,

like Ninevites, you're gonna get yours.

But the Hebrew word, if you remember,

all the way back to 2020, and I'm sure you all do,

that in the pocket meant changed.

That the town was going to be changed.

Jonah didn't even realize what he was saying.

But that was the result.

Our action is a result of our faith

that people will understand the gospel better

when their basic needs are being met.

Because as Jess said, three weeks, no food,

she's given up hope.

And anybody that's just gonna want, want, want,

is gonna be more like the teacher from Charlie Brown

than anything.

You're not gonna understand a word they say

because you're not in a place to receive it.

Yet there are some of us that go,

no, I'm still gonna give it to you

because I know what's better for you.

I know what's better for your soul,

even if you've given up hope.

I don't think it works like that.

I don't think James is telling us to do it that way.

Do you want to be shown, you foolish person,

that faith apart from works is useless?

And he continues on in verse 21.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works

when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

You see that faith was active along with his works

and faith was completed by his works

and the scripture was fulfilled that says,

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him

as righteousness and he was called a friend of God.

That's so amazing.

Then verse 24, you see that a person is justified by works

and not by faith alone.

Even in the Old Testament, this is pre-Jesus.

This is looking toward the Messiah in the very early stages

that there was a righteous understanding

that when God called you to something, you did it.

Oh, how that's changed in 2024.

Abraham was called to do what?

To offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice.

I gotta be honest, if God did that,

if God told me to do that, I don't think I could.

If you were called to do that,

you were called to give up a family member

and when I say give up, we mean killed.

Okay, that's what it was.

Could you do that?

Could I do that?

I'm seeing a lot of heads doing this.

I see some doing this and you're sitting by yourself

and you're doing this, but it's hard.

But it was counted as righteousness,

he was called a friend of God

because he followed God's voice

and for about 42% of you, you don't like that

because it comes down to control.

In order to be a friend of God, I have to do what God says?

Yes.

Yep, that's all over this book.

I could just say that and be done.

Let's follow what God says and we'll be good.

Oh, we wanna dissect it, we wanna make it hard.

He goes again, verse 25.

And in the same way was not Rahab the prostitute

justified by works?

Listen to that sentence.

That's a thinker.

And in the same way was also not Rahab the prostitute

justified by works when she received the messengers

and sent them out by another way.

Whereas the body apart from the spirit is dead,

so also faith apart from the works is dead.

Now we can probably talk a whole lot about how that works,

that Rahab not having the most honorable job

still was counted as righteous.

I'm just gonna say, I think she stopped turning tricks

after this, that's just my understanding of the situation,

much like the woman caught in the act of adultery,

which is not just for her but also for all the ones

that wanted to kill her.

That I think what does life look like after the Jesus moment?

What does it look like when Jesus saves you from yourself?

He's not saving you from other people,

he's saving you for you.

He's saving you so you can be with him in glory.

Now can he use your story to help save other people?

Absolutely, and there are dozens of stories of that

here in this church.

But understand that it's following the call of God

in your life, and here's a spoiler alert,

it's not always gonna come the way you want it,

it's not always gonna be exactly how you want it to be,

and you may be called to go places

you never thought you'd go.

I guarantee you that eight year old, nine year old Jim

never thought I'd be here.

And maybe you feel the same way about your life,

but guess what, the author and perfecter of faith

is going to write it and perfect it in you.

But what are you gonna do about it?

The hope is that you go and talk to people about Jesus.

That's my hope for the church, that's your hope for me.

What kind of pastor would I be if I don't,

I preach, I don't evangelize.

No, that's pastor hypocrite.

But the same goes for any believer.

That I have faith, I love God, I was baptized in the church,

I made my profession of faith, maybe even I was rebaptized

if you were in a non-reformed understanding,

more of a Baptist or Armenian understanding

where they put more emphasis on us choosing that,

where we believe on the reform side

that we are all been chosen, and that's a wonderful thing.

Chosen for what?

To fill up a seat?

To maybe give to a future building project?

To lead cadets?

To be a leader in gems?

Just battle through nursery?

I always wonder, the people that do the first Sunday

of the month, if they're like, oh, I forgot it's communion.

Please don't start doing that, by the way.

But, I mean, for what?

That God saved you.

God's called you.

Well, what did he save you from?

Hell and death forever.

But what did he call you to?

To do good works.

That's hard, because there are days, let's be honest,

I don't wanna do good works.

I'm exhausted spiritually.

What did I say last week?

Take a day.

God's not done calling you.

How do you know when God's done calling you?

Does anyone know?

Well, you can say it in a much different way than that.

You're dead.

He's done calling you when you get to see him face to face.

Because now you've been called forever.

So what are we doing with this calling?

What are we doing as Munster Church?

Munster Church, we're a friendly church

and we're a community church.

Great, how do we know that?

Well, we had 2,000 people come to our trunk or treat.

What else?

Sometimes it can be like that.

That when we wanna be a community church

and the community starts to come

and be a part of what we're doing,

what are we doing with that?

What are we being called to in those moments?

Now, some of you, and I'm gonna hope

that there is 43 of you,

I just made that number up.

I hope there's 43 of you right now

that everything inside of you is just binding

because this is something that the Lord's been telling you

for the last weeks, months, maybe even years,

and you're like, nope, too old to serve,

don't have enough energy to serve,

not in the right age bracket, I hate children,

whatever it is, but it's just,

and all of a sudden I'm saying these things

and you're like, why does he keep talking to me?

And I love it, some of you actually tell me that

and that's awesome,

because I'm like, oh, you're the one.

All of these sermons are for me, selfishly, they are,

but if you get something out of them, praise the Lord.

But for those 43 of you, what God might be saying is,

it's time to get to work.

I've called you to something more

than what you're doing right now.

Now, for some of you, you are looking forward

to the finish line of the ministry year,

that you have worked tirelessly and that is fantastic.

Lisa, I'm looking at you, right?

You do a lot of things.

It's okay to say amen, that, you know,

it makes sense why you go on vacations.

And so understand that when you've done the race,

you've done all of those things,

it's okay to take a break.

Lisa, and we give you a break, we give you seven weeks,

and then it's right back into it.

Seven, because it's the number of completion, okay?

But understand that there are some of you

that you are doing stuff, your faith is producing,

you are doing good works, and way to go, I love that.

But we've gotten into this mentality in the Western church

that at certain seasons of life, I'm just gonna be done.

Right, for some of you, I deal with little kids at home,

so I do not wanna do nursery in this season of life.

I totally get that, and I'm feeling that glare

from my wife right now, as I'm saying it,

so I'm going over here where it's safe.

But understand, after that season of life,

maybe you're called to get back into the nursery.

And so just understand that there are these,

not only these seasons, but that God is going to call you

the way, guess what, God wants to call you.

And here's the thing, and I'm gonna land here today,

because we're gonna pick it up next week.

He may be calling you to do something

that you have no idea how to do.

He may be growing a gift in you right now.

And I know, because some of you have taken a break

gift inventory, shameful plug, we have updated a lot of that.

Is it ready to go?

That if you do it, you will get a video sent to you

of how to break it down, so it's not all of a sudden

you have to meet with me right away,

but please still meet with me, because it's a lot of fun

to talk about where we can get involved,

but we have made some, Mike has done phenomenal work

on that, and it is live, ready to go on our website.

But you're all called, and guess what, you're all gifted.

But he may be calling you to a place where you have to fully depend

on him in the moment.

And we know that when he calls us to it,

he's gonna bring us through it.

We know that about God, we can bank on that.

But where does it start?

It starts by meeting the physical needs of people.

Guess what, the church doesn't know that you care.

How do I do this?

The world doesn't know, stop, rewind,

let me see if I got this right, this is what happens

when I go off the cuff.

The world doesn't care what the church knows

until the world knows that the church cares.

So how are we doing in that?

And where does it start?

It starts by meeting the physical needs of people.

And where does it start?

The church doesn't know that you care.

How do I do this?

The world doesn't know, stop, rewind,

let me see if I got this right, this is what happens

when I go off the cuff.

The church doesn't know that you care.

How do I do this?

The church doesn't know that you care.