Faith Tested & Perfected | James: Tried, Tested, and True

So, as I mentioned in the beginning of service, we continue now to chapter two of the book

of James where we're taking pretty much this time through April and May up until summer

of Psalms starting in June to look at every verse in the gospel, or not in the gospel

of James, that's not a thing, but in the epistle of James.

It's the half-brother of Jesus writing to Jews, Gentiles, helping them understand life after

Christ in the sense of life transformation or in reform words the sanctification and

regeneration of the heart that we were living dead, now with Christ we live alive and now

that means something.

And I offered a thought before I gave God's greeting that as we talk about a sovereign

God in our church and that is a core belief of reform theology that God is sovereign,

and again we already did a sermon about it, I'm sure we'll do more, but if God is sovereign

then the works that we are to do in life as a believer is expected.

Now let me ask a question, how many of you did chores growing up?

Okay, how many of you didn't?

I cannot believe you rose your hand.

But okay, so this might not make any sense to Jess as you literally were the only one,

but so this, or maybe it's for Jess, we don't know, but was there expecting of chores growing

up?

Like you didn't have a choice, right?

What happens if you didn't do the chore?

Grounded, straight up, wow, that, like, okay, didn't you grounded?

What else?

Couldn't go out, absolutely, things were taken away.

How many of you the chores equaled allowance?

Wow, think about all the hands that went up that you had to do chores and you guys were

a bunch of suckers, you got no money for it.

What did you get?

And don't tell me the Dutch work ethic.

What?

Dinner.

Father, we pray for the Montman family, we pray for the scarring of those hearts, no,

that it's an understanding that there was an expectation on our life.

If our boys were here, they would know that it's not just a free ride until you're married.

That's not how it is in our house.

That they are expected to do things.

And again, I get all the different kinds of excuses.

I have my analytic one, how many people know who the analytic one is?

You can name his name, who's the analytic one?

They're not here.

Joey, right?

Yes, so he will calculate how many times he actually took the garbage cans out, brought

them in, and then he will then kind of didact that from how little Teddy has done that and

he will make sure he makes that connection to the point where he would even say, I think

I deserve more allowance, and he starts bartering with me.

He's 11.

Oh, I pray for his future wife one day.

That is going to be interesting.

But it's this understanding that, yes, there are things to do.

In the Holland owner house, we get to work.

Because if mom has to do all the things, that's not a happy house.

Okay?

Notice how I said that.

I take part in that too, right?

I do not want mom to do all of the things.

But there's an expectation that comes.

Now we waited until they could at least walk, and then we put that on them.

I don't know when you guys started chores, but there's an expectation.

If I may be so bold as the pastor of this church, I do have an expectation on all of

you that if you claim Jesus is Lord, that you are going to join me and your elders and

deacons in the work of the church.

Now I have that expectation of you.

I hold an even greater expectation to those names that have been pulled out as lots.

That if you are an elder and a deacon, you are expected to get to work.

Right?

Because elders and deacons that don't take an active part in the body of Christ, yet

think their vote should matter, that doesn't make any sense.

And believe me, I've said this to our council before, so this isn't the first time they're

hearing it.

If it is, they weren't listening.

But understand there's an expectation when it comes to faith.

Now notice I made a dichotomy that those of you that are here that maybe don't claim Jesus

is the Lord of your life, maybe you're trying out church, maybe you're trying out Christianity,

you're kind of seeing how this faith shirt fits or so, that this isn't necessarily for

you.

Now I would encourage you to be a moral person in the world that our laws come out of the

Ten Commandments.

Right?

That's not a shocker.

You're not just allowed to go and murder people in this country or steal from them without

even though we're seeing, anyway, that's all, never mind.

But understand that with Christ there's a difference.

That when Christ is living in you and you have the hope of glory, this is going to be

awkward, how dare we not do anything about it or do anything with it?

Now I told them I wasn't going to introduce him but since I asked questions I'm going

to ask Reverend Van Lew, right?

So Reverend Van Lew is here if you want to know who he is.

He's the bottom picture over there.

He was, as Ellie said, one of Besine's favorites and I told her I won't take that personally.

But Reverend Van Lew, as a pastor for how many years?

Forty years.

Was it frustrating for you to see people of God just sit on their faith?

Yes, absolutely.

And what is your encouragement to a church to go out and be active, maybe like when they

were here?

What is your encouragement for them today?

Do what?

Say that again.

No, you walked right into it.

Do whatever with their what?

Does anyone else, what did he say?

You couldn't hear.

You said gifts.

Interesting.

Do whatever you can with your gifts.

So not only is Reverend Holland saying it, with only 17 years in, Reverend Van Lew of

40 plus is saying you're gifted.

You're gifted, go do something with it for the gospel.

So a sovereign God over our lives is expecting us to do some things.

But the struggle we have is not only how we do it, but who do we do it to?

Who is it that we're supposed to minister to?

Who are we supposed to walk alongside?

And if we're being honest, and I hope we are every Sunday morning, is that it should be

anybody.

Even the people that look different than you.

That act different than you.

We do a really good job of loving churches and being a part of churches where everybody

is pretty much exactly the same.

And we think, and I've said this before, that we think talking to saved people about Jesus'

evangelism, it's not.

It's just a spiritual conversation.

That what we are called to do is faith in action, the book of James, right?

That our faith is grown, our faith is tested, tried, and made true with the people that

we walk with in life.

Now let's do that rung.

So in pre-marital, I talk about the center target.

That Maddie, you're getting married in how many days?

48 days, but who's counting?

So you and Kyle, on that day, something's going to be established.

It's going to be you two and Jesus, the center of that target.

That that is that room of intimacy that the Lord is calling them to be together forever.

That bond of three strands, that cord of three strands not easily broken.

So it's them and Jesus.

Then you have family, one day kids, you have professions, neighbors, coworkers, it all

kind of rings out.

And it's careful not to let all of that into that room of intimacy.

But if we go to the next rung, living out our faith for our family, absolutely.

Some of you, that might not be easy because you may come from families that don't have

believers in them.

Or some of you may have people in your family of people that walked away.

Or some of you, you have people in your family that have never been in church and want nothing

to do with church, reject the light and love to live in the dark.

So but family, okay, what if I said, I want you in the next week to think of a family

member that doesn't know Jesus and share the gospel with him this week.

How many of you would be super comfortable to do that?

I'll wait.

So right then and there, we're throwing up a roadblock.

And I know that it's not because everybody in your family is saved.

Because I know a lot of you and that's not the case.

Yet it's, ooh, I don't know if I want to do that.

I don't know if I want to rock the boat.

I don't know if I because that, oh, that next family party is going to be real awkward.

Or you know what?

We've decided in our family, we don't do politics and we don't do religion.

How does that work?

When we're believers, we're called to do it, that we say to my family members, not going

to go there.

My hope and my prayer is that you're not too late or then all of a sudden you and I are

sitting in my office and you're mourning the fact that you never took the opportunity.

But we like to hold partiality with the people we want to bring to Jesus.

Well, we're not alone.

James is writing to a church that did the same thing.

James 2, starting with verse 1, my brother, show no partiality as you hold the faith in

our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

If a man is wearing a gold ring and fine clothes comes into your assembly and a poor man in

shabby clothes comes in and if you pay attention to one, the one who wears the fine clothing

and says, sit here in the good place, while you say to the poor man, sit over there or

sit down at my feet, have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil

thoughts?

So he's writing a very, this isn't hyperbole, all right?

This isn't like guess what I'm trying to say, this is James laying it out there pretty thick.

That there were people in the churches in the first century that when you came in and

people did this and they do it in a different way now, but people came in and adorned all

of their finest.

And guess what?

The churches were treating them differently.

It's one of the things I love about my job that I can tell my deacons and tell my council,

I never want to know what anybody gives.

I don't want to know what they make.

I do not want any of that conversation.

But it's also for you to pray for your deacons who knows that information.

And that can be a burden at times because our human nature is exactly what James is

calling out.

What if this was a church of homeless people that look and act very different than us?

And some of you might dare say, well, no, no, no, no, no, no, they don't have to come

here.

We have Pastor Jameel's church across the street.

If I ever hear that, that's not going to go well.

But this is what James is talking about.

That we cannot sit and be the judge of people that look and act differently regardless

of whether we agree with whatever that they are bringing.

Because if you put that judgment on someone coming to the house of the Lord, you are literally

putting something between in your mind that they are not good enough to be here.

Let me just get this out of the way in case there's any confusions.

None of us are good enough to be here.

We come here as a hospital for the sick.

If you're here, you are admitting you are sick.

That you have parts of your life living in darkness and you need the light.

The light doesn't come from me.

The light doesn't come from the band.

The light doesn't come from the council.

The light comes from the cross.

And the cross is what matters.

The church, as we just sang, for to rise up, we are not going to rise up if the anthem

is we know.

How many people have ever seen the movie Dodgeball?

Right?

If not, you are probably better off in life.

But there is a group called Globo Gym.

And what is their slogan?

We are better than you and we know it.

As we work through the rebranding of Munster Church, please know that's not what it's going

to be.

How would that look though if we were known as a church of Munster Church?

We are better than you and we know it.

Now some of you may have already gone to a church in your mind and go, that's probably

a problem but that's a whole other sermon.

So I think the world believes that about the church.

I think the world struggles with that about the church.

The hypocrisy.

That's real hard.

Friend, I love you and I want you to come and find Jesus but I need you to be a lot

more like me in order for me to be comfortable with it.

How does that work?

Where do you see that here?

Because really if you are saying I want you to be more like me and if we are all sinners

by the transitive property that I just made up, then we are all to be like sinners.

And if we are all coming to church as sinners, then that's what we have in common.

Well, I've been in the church 70 years or I was baptized in this church.

Fantastic.

I love that you are still here.

Guess what?

You are still a sinner.

You still don't have it all together but I will say if you have been in church that

long and you are not walking alongside people that are lost needing to be found, then I

don't think you have been listening for 70 years.

Because maybe you are just making it all about this.

And I think we struggle with that.

We make it about the church service.

I go to church, I am good.

I give my money, I am good.

I talk to one person a year about Jesus, don't know them and I run away, I am good.

No.

James is saying this is going to happen in your church.

This is how you need to walk out in partiality with your life.

The sovereignty of God brings a non-discrimination.

Now in our culture today, that's tricky because there are aspects of people's lives that are

walking in sin.

It's very clear.

The truth of God's word is there.

This is so hard.

But we are not the judges of that.

Are we called to correct and rebuke?

Absolutely.

But we have said this before.

You can rebuke in love or you can rebuke in rage.

That's your choice.

I am going to try to rebuke in love knowing that the ultimate say is not mine.

They don't need to believe in the gospel according to Jim.

They need to believe in the gospel according to Christ.

That Romans tells us if we confess Christ that he is Lord and believe that God raised

him from the dead, we will be saved.

Now what?

Because the Bible makes it very clear there are going to be people that confess that,

but they don't live it out.

They don't actually believe it.

So there should be no discrimination when it comes to the sovereignty of God.

But then James is going to double down on it in verse 5.

Listen my beloved brothers.

Has not God chosen those who are poor to be in the world, 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?

You have dishonored the poor man.

They are not the rich ones who oppress you and the ones that drag you into court.

They are not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called.

Go into verse 9.

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scriptures, 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 of transgressors.

It's right there.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Guess what?

If you love yourself a lot, fantastic.

Love others a lot.

One of the things that James is calling out is not those that come to the church seeking

help, taking a step of faith more than maybe we do week in and week out.

And that's where you need to pray for your deacons when it comes to benevolence.

Because we know that there are people that are just trying to get an easy take.

I get that.

That is a burden the deacons have and are working through.

So many churches the deacons can get up on here, kind of a little bit on a high horse,

hold that pocketbook and say we are the filter of all the money.

Well, that's not scriptural.

That's not exactly what the deacons were called to.

They were called to give it out in a stewardship focused way.

So the idea of coming, we need people to come to us and express a need and then we will

pray to meet that need.

Shocker that no one really comes.

But if our deaconate like ours is, is known at being generous and being faithful in that

and not going we are going to get the Benny up to $100,000, put it into a CD and make

interest on the money that we are supposed to give to other people to help them in life.

That would be a terrible model.

Terrible model.

But our love for one, for another to meet the needs of those that guess what, are in

need.

Because I do believe what James says is true that they are here for a reason.

That you have an opportunity to love on them or you have an opportunity to dishonor them.

And that's more than just the deacons.

Just in our reformed governance that is a branch of our church.

And you all give to the benevolence very well.

It is awesome to be able to have those resources, to be able to help.

Like the Lee Slosky family, it is a small token of our love for them even though 98%

of us don't know who they are.

But understand that as the people of God we are supposed to live out our faith the exact

same way.

Give and it will be given unto you.

Knock and the door will be answered.

There is this transactional understanding but for a lot of us we don't like that because

we have not gotten in our minds a return on our investment.

In a couple of weeks we are going to talk and we are going to do a presentation about

the next potential steps for a building project.

And there is a lot of questions, right?

It's taken a very long time to get the numbers and all of that kind of figured out.

And okay, if it was me doing all the work you wouldn't get numbers until two years from

now because I would not understand what I was reading.

But we have very smart people in a room that want to give really smart numbers.

And we are going to talk about that.

But the minute we think that oh, good stewardship means I am going to invest in order to expect

is not stewardship at all.

That part of it is just giving.

And again, we don't talk about money a lot here.

We do at some points because we all need that reminder, myself included.

But we are called to give.

James is reminding the church, be a church known for giving.

Be a church known for loving quote unquote the least of these and meeting their needs.

Yes, there is a line between loving and enabling.

Absolutely.

And I believe that our deacons have a decent understanding of that.

And they are growing in that every day just like we all should.

But let's take it out of the church for a second and go to your block.

The street you live on.

How are we doing this with our faith on our street?

How are we doing this with the people that live right next door to us?

Because that is also what James is talking about.

That there are times we walk down Costco, we walk down our neighborhoods, whatever,

and we have these thoughts.

We do.

It is a giant check your heart moment when you are walking by a house and all of a sudden

you see it is unkept and a laundry list of things start to bur up in your mind and you

start just believing those with absolutely no proof.

What if there was a medical emergency and they can't cut their lawn?

What is the harm in asking?

They are going to tell you no?

Exactly.

Thank you.

Whoa.

So?

Ask somebody else.

Take that step of faith.

But some of us go into our minds, man, if we go up, if we go up and ask to do that or

help or whatever, they are going to hit us with a bat.

My guess is they won't.

Take that step of faith.

Be quick on your feet, but take that step of faith.

That is exactly what James is talking about.

That faith is evidenced.

Because what would it look like if you lived on a street for 25 years?

And nobody knew you were a believer.

Or they saw the way you lived your life and assumed that.

Now, some of you could come back and say, Jim, it is not my issue what other people

think about me.

And in that sense, you are right.

But what I will say is 25 years on the same street?

What a giant wasted opportunity.

Well, Pastor, I am an introvert.

I don't know how to do any of that.

Let's sit down and talk because introverts can be evangelists, too.

That should be a class.

I won't lead it as an extrovert.

That would be way too much.

But understand that the Bible doesn't really care about that.

The Bible doesn't say if it is in your wheelhouse, in your comfort zone, then go.

No, it just says go.

And you are going to go in the ways that you and the Spirit work.

Because as Reverend Van Lue said, you are all gifted.

If you don't like that, blame him.

He leaves in a couple of days anyway.

But understand that we are and we are gifted for a purpose.

What is that purpose?

James 2.10 tells us what that purpose is.

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.

So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.

For judgment is without mercy to those who have shown no mercy.

Mercy trumps over judgment.

That is literally the Bible saying if you are going to talk the talk, walk the walk.

Let's go back to the allowance example.

There's a set list that our boys have.

Hey, this is what you need to do on this day.

You need to always pick up every weekend.

We are going to clean our rooms and all of those things because we know throughout the

week life happens.

I could care less if you judge me on that.

But understand that's just how we roll.

That's why you can close a door.

So understand that when things don't get done and I have my wonderful Joey going, well,

I've done 80% of my chores so I deserve 80% of my allowance and I say you have 0% understanding

of how this works.

It's all or nothing.

But pastor, where's the grace?

Where's the grace?

I want seven of you next weekend to ask Joey if he's ever missed a meal, if he's ever gone

to school naked, and if he lives in a pile of clothes under the stairs.

Knowing Joey he'll say yes to the last one.

But the other two is not true because sometimes the blessing isn't what we want.

It's what we need.

So if we're going to be people of faith and we're going to walk that out, walking it out,

if we are to give people the good news of salvation and we live our life this way and

go you deserve it, you don't deserve it, Damien you deserve it, mom you don't deserve it, you

got a ring so you deserve it, up here we'll pray about you.

And we, what?

That's the church that you're going to represent?

Friend, please do not tell people you go to Munster Church then because I don't back that.

And it's not about me, your council doesn't back that.

You shouldn't back that either.

Or on the other side go, yep, I'm going to work on you, yep, you get the gospel, you

are way too far gone.

Now Jim is not, though he's a Purdue fan, but understand that Jesus loves Purdue fans

and if that's the case, so do I.

But I don't agree with their lifestyle.

I get that.

This is now not Jim.

Sorry that was a really weird.

Yeah, let's end that, we'll start a new paragraph in that.

Understand that that's catching a lot of you.

I know it is.

But you're still called to love them, right?

What in the book of James are you going to say, can't love them?

Or what are you going to say, I don't think Jesus loves them.

Friends, the minute your faith takes you to that place, you have become a Pharisee.

I don't want that for you.

I don't think Jesus does.

And I'm not taking, I don't want the hippie dippy love Jesus.

I don't believe that's true either.

I believe that there is laws.

There are things that we are called to live by, right?

Beating people over the head that don't live those isn't the best way to win them for Jesus.

The bullhorn guy, no.

But a cup of coffee, you can say the same thing with a cup of coffee.

My guess is it's going to be more receptive.

And change or you're going to hell.

That's not the gospel.

Some of you are going to fight me and say, no, that's exactly the gospel.

Okay, you do it your way.

I'm going to do it in a more what I believe Christ-like way.

And I don't want to say, and we'll see who gets more saves because that's not it either.

But I want to be known for someone that's a church, a body of Christ that is actually

going to walk Christ out.

Nonpartiality, working and having our faith evidenced in the world that is following the

obedience of God's law.

It's funny, the canons of Dort affirm the necessary for regeneration of the heart.

And what that teaching is, is that apart from being regenerated without the Holy Spirit

at work in our life, no one can believe in Christ or obey God's commands.

That a church founded in a theology that God is sovereign but fails to model forgiveness

and reconciliation is showing a world that the church's heart has not been regenerated.

Because in order for the regeneration of the heart, for Christ to come in, the Holy Spirit,

to transform you, is to bring you to your knees to say, I am a sinner.

I am in need of a savior.

That's the gospel.

Plain and simple, that's the gospel.

And if we're going to be a church that puts conditions on it, ooh, you don't look, sound,

or smell like us, so I don't know if you have membership here.

Nope.

That's not it.

That's a giant swing and a miss.

And we know churches that are like that.

And that is one we don't want to be.

If we navigate, like Doug said, the trials of our life without faith, that's a missed

opportunity.

That we walk out our faith by what we do.

Our faith, this is not pre-faith.

This is after that.

I have faith, so what, now what, and I live it out.

And I need to live that out to whatever world the Lord is going to put me in.

And I think we all would agree this world needs more Jesus.

We've done a good job taking him out of our conversations and all of our establishments.

That's about as political as I'm going to get.

Do I believe we should usher him back in?

Always yes and amen.

But if it's not going to there, where is it going to come from?

Somebody.

Right here, the church.

The church is going to be that voice.

So how are we doing on that?

How are you doing on that?

The beautiful thing is, yeah, James punched us a little bit in the mouth today.

But next week, we're going to get a beautiful other punch in the mouth.