Living or Dead… How Are We Doing?

The scripture reading today comes from the book of James, chapter 2.

James 2 · chapter mention

Please read along in your bulletin.

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works, can that faith save him?

If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them,

Go in peace, be warmed, and be filled, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?

Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

But someone may as well say, You have faith and I have works.

Show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith with my works.

You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe and shudder.

But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac, his son, on the altar?

You see that faith was working with his works.

And as a result of the works, faith was perfected.

And the scripture was fulfilled, which says,

And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

And he was called the friend of God.

You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

This is God's word.

Amen.

Amen.

Wow.

That's amazing.

Great worship.

Thanks, guys.

You could tell there was a theme there in the songs, right?

The songs came up with the same theme.

Welcome to Watermark Community Church.

My name is Tobin Miller.

I'm one of the pastors here, teaching pastor.

So if this is your first time here, we are glad that you're here with us and joining us as we worship the Lord.

One of the things you'll see in our church is we're kind of chaotic with kids everywhere.

And part of that is because that's kind of our stage of life, too, with four kids.

And our world is out of control sometimes.

One of the things that I would say we're very teachable on as a couple.

One of the things that God continues to teach us on is how to raise our children.

And so if you have methods of how you've raised perfect kids, we would love to hear that.

Because we have the big L written up, not loser, but learners.

Might be losers, too, but I don't know.

So we have the big learner there.

And it's interesting because with four kids, each of our kids is so different.

And as a dad, I just want to get in there and fix it.

I just want to get the right thing for the right kid and the right time.

And those things don't always work that way.

And what I'm continuing to learn is we have truth and we have love and we have grace.

And as we speak with people and we speak with our children, those three need to be intertwined or it doesn't necessarily work very well.

One of our kids, when they do something wrong, I just need to look at them.

And they just fall apart.

And they need a lot of grace and they need a lot of love.

And they respond to truth.

And the truth is they just know their heart is so sensitive.

One of our kids, when they do something wrong, they want to debate why they did it wrong.

And to prove to us that it's not their fault, but that someone else caused them to do that.

And so for them, I have to share a little bit more of truth and talk to them about this is what's going on and what's happening here.

And then bring in the grace and love.

One of our kids has this rock for a head.

And no matter what happens to, I won't say their name, but they just cannot get what's going on in their world.

And so with that, I feel like I need a lot of truth, a hammer of truth to try to break the rock.

And at the end, as we sit there and watch our kids grow and watch people grow and go on journeys,

we realize that unless God is working in people's hearts,

unless God is there and he's making us sensitive to his spirit,

that often, no matter how well you do, grace and truth and love,

not much works out.

James learned that in his church.

We're going through the book of James.

James was the half-brother of Jesus.

He's the first pastor in the church of Jerusalem.

The book of James that we're reading is probably the earliest book in the New Testament.

It was probably written about 55 A.D.

So most of the people in the church had seen Jesus.

They had seen his life.

They had seen him walk.

They had heard his words.

And 15 years into this church, the church is having a lot of problems.

Remember, James is this pastor.

And one of the things you learn as you read about history of James

is that everyone in the congregation knew that he cared for them and that he loved them.

His nickname was Camel Knees.

And he got that nickname, Camel Knees, because he spent so much time praying for his people

that he developed these massive calluses on his knees that everyone could see.

And so whenever there was truth coming in and people came in and said,

well, I don't know, where's the love?

All they would have to look at sometimes is his knees.

And they'd realize that he loves them in amazing ways.

And he's proved that as he walks with them.

And so the church has gone through these struggles.

And the struggle is they've looked at different mirrors in their world

and they're trying to find out how they're doing.

Are they doing well?

Are they doing good?

And so they put up these different mirrors like we talked about last week.

And they looked at how are we doing in these things.

And they've used the mirror of the world.

And they've used the mirror of culture.

And they've used the mirror of religion.

And they used the mirror of peers.

And they used the mirror of themselves.

And all the time they're looking into these things around them.

And they're trying to evaluate, am I doing well?

Am I doing good?

And James says that the only mirror that we can look into is the mirror of God's word.

Because it's the only thing that's constant.

It's the only thing that's of authority.

It never changes.

It's spoken from the word of God coming out of his mouth into people.

And through his word we evaluate everything.

It's the only mirror that we can look at in our world

and try to figure out what's going on there.

And so as we look into the mirror of God's word,

it changes how we think about his word and about people and about God.

God's word is the only thing that can convict us and speak to us

and encourage us and tear us apart and restore us.

Today I want to look at this passage.

This passage has caused me a lot of problems as an early Christian.

A lot of problems.

When I had come to faith at an early age,

I developed this huge burden for my family.

And I prayed for my family for a long time.

My extended family lived in Montana.

And so we knew that that summer we were going to go up there.

And so I started to go on this journey with God

and ask about how God has changed me

and the things that he's been teaching me.

And I started to pray for my family.

Because I knew I would have a chance to see my grandparents.

We only saw them once every three years.

And in this opportunity, I was praying that I could share

what God had done in my life to them.

And so I prayed and I studied and I read the four laws

and I looked at the navigator bridge and I looked at the wheel

and I learned all these different ways to share my faith.

And I had people praying.

Did I mention that?

Praying and praying and praying.

And we got up there and we drove to Montana

to come visit them.

And one quiet afternoon, I got my grandparents by themselves,

the 12-year-old.

And I shared with them about what God had done in my life.

How he came into my heart.

How he showed me mercy.

How he showed me grace.

How he showed me love.

I shared with them my sin and the things that were wrong in my life.

Even as a 12-year-old, I realized that I was separated from God

and there was no way that I could get back to him.

I shared with them how God had opened my eyes and my heart to his son Jesus.

I shared with them the gospel of faith,

just as Paul shares in Romans, that it's by faith alone.

And I stopped.

And I waited for their response.

It was silent.

There wasn't a drill drill like now.

And all of a sudden, they looked at me and they said,

Tobin, are you trying to tell us that we are saved just by faith

and not by our works?

Are you trying to say that once we're saved, that that's it,

that God's grace powers over us,

and that nothing that we can do, we can lie, we can cheat,

we can do anything, and God has to forgive us?

Yes.

Then they said, are you telling us that even Hitler

could be in heaven right now if he asked for forgiveness for what he did?

And I don't know, my parents, my grandparents were kind of strange

because immediately after that, they said,

even Elvis?

To this day, I do not understand that.

But for some reason, they equated Elvis and Hitler together.

And they said, do you mean even Elvis could be in heaven

if he prayed and asked God for forgiveness

and to make away all the things that he did?

And I kind of sat there and they go, you know,

we know so many people in the church

who have said that they follow Christ,

but they live lives that are totally, totally out of control.

And then they opened up the Bible

and they went to this passage in Luke,

I mean, James chapter 2,

James 2 · chapter mention

and they read verse 17 to me

and they said, even so, faith, if it has no works,

is dead, being by itself.

And they continued to go through the book of James with me

about works, works, works.

You see, they were going to a church at that time

which is similar to the church in Wan Chai

with the big cathedral

and the guys wear the white shirts

and they wear the ties

and they wear that little name tag that says elder, so and so.

Because they had left their church

because they felt like everybody was a hypocrite

and inconsistent.

And then they looked at me and said,

Tobin, you're 12 years old,

but you're so naive

because everybody knows

that you need to work

to earn your salvation.

It says so in James.

I was silent.

I mean, I just kind of sat there like,

fail on what I just tried to do, right?

And I sat there and I started praying

and I walked away from that time

and I went home

and I started reading the Bible

because I had this fear.

The fear was that maybe my faith

wasn't real.

Maybe my faith was insincere.

Maybe I had learned the wrong thing.

Maybe I was doing the wrong thing.

And so I studied and I studied

and I studied

because I wanted my faith to be alive,

not dead.

And I want to talk to you really briefly

about some things

that I have been learning over these years.

Some things that I wish

that I could have said

to my grandparents.

But I didn't know.

I didn't know.

The first thing we know right away

is whenever we come to Scripture

that whenever Scripture

seems to contradict itself,

the assumption most of us say

is that God is wrong.

God did something bad.

God contradicts Himself.

None of us ever say,

well, maybe I'm understanding this wrong.

But the first thing I learned

was that whenever we come to Scripture

that God is consistent,

that He never contradicts Himself,

that He always is truthful

in everything that He does.

The problem is with you

and with me,

that we're not listening to Him

and we're not looking at

what God's Word is actually saying.

The next thing that I learned

as I looked at Paul

and I just read Romans

over and over

and James over and over,

I learned that in Romans,

Paul was talking about

how a man gets to God.

If there's a timeline

and there's a cross,

Paul was before the cross

in Romans

and he's looking at

our journey to the cross.

And he's saying

that we get to the cross

by faith,

faith alone

in the works of Jesus Christ

and His life

that was sacrificed for us

on the cross,

the blood that was shed

and that is the root

of our salvation.

When James talks about it,

when James talks about

faith and works in his book,

what he's talking about

and what he's addressing

is people who are hypocrites

in the church.

People who say

they're Christians

but they're living differently.

And so as Paul's

looking towards the cross,

James is looking back

at the cross,

James is looking at

over his whole life

and he's saying,

are we living lives

that are consistent

to our faith

and our words?

When Paul comes

to the scripture,

he looks at things

from God's perspective.

He's looking down

and seeing

how can we reach God?

When James and James

talks about things,

he's talking about

from man's perspective.

He's looking at

as you look at people

and you look at their lives

and you're seeing

have they reached God?

If you were to ask Paul,

how do I know

that person is a saved person?

Paul would say,

you go into their house

and you look in the fireplace.

How do you know

there's a fire

in the fireplace?

You look.

And if there's a fire there,

you know that something's

going on there.

There's a change

in their life.

You look at their heart.

So only God can do that.

But James says,

if you were to talk to James,

how do I know

that person's saved?

How do you know

that person's been born again?

James would say,

well, I can't look at their heart.

I can't go inside

and see what's going on

in their heart.

But I can walk by their house.

And I can look at the chimney.

And I can know

if there's a fire

in the chimney,

if there's smoke

coming up

out of

the chimney.

James would say

that we are justified

by works.

And what he means by that

is that we prove

that we have this

right relationship

with God,

that God met with us

and that we've been justified

by His works.

And our works show

that we've already

come to faith.

And Paul says

that we are justified

by faith.

And what he's saying

is the only way

we can reach God

is through the life

and sacrifice

of Jesus.

Paul and James

are saying the same thing.

James is saying this,

we come to God

by faith.

but

not by a faith

that is alone.

That we've come

to God

by faith

but that faith

changes us.

And so Paul,

James is trying

to show

the people in his church

what it looks like

to be saved,

how we can be saved.

James is going to talk

about alive faith

and dead faith

and demonic faith.

And he's saying

every one of us

is living one of those.

And he wants to talk

about alive faith,

dead faith,

and demonic faith.

And what he's going to say

is I want to show you

four things that are true.

Four things that are true

about a faith

that is alive.

And so we can just

go through it

and we're going to

fly through this.

You look at your passage

verses 14 through 16.

The first thing you see

is James says

that when the faith

is alive,

what uses it,

my brethren,

if someone says

he has faith

but he has no works,

can that faith save them?

If a brother or sister

is without clothing

and in need of daily food

and then one of you

says to them,

go in peace

and be warned

and be filled

and yet you do not

do anything to help them,

what is necessary,

what use is that?

And James says right away

that a faith that is alive

is not indifferent

to people in need.

That if your faith

is alive,

when you look at people

who are in need,

especially people

within the family of God,

if you see people

that are hurting

and alive faith

draws you towards

those people

and alive faith

prompts you

to do something

that the seed

of the gospel

that's been put

in your life,

when it sees

brothers and sisters,

especially in the family

of God who are in need,

that seed is growing

and that seed draws us

towards people

who are hurting

and who have needs.

If your faith is dead,

he says you can walk away,

you can walk past them,

you cannot be bothered

by them,

you cannot be affected

by them.

Dead faith allows us

not to be affected

by people in needs.

He says dead faith

would say,

as you looked at

those people in needs,

oh, that's too bad,

that's their fault.

Too bad they got

themselves in that situation.

And what he's saying

is a dead person

doesn't remember

that they could be there also

if it wasn't for God's grace

and mercy

in their life.

James goes on

and he says

that alive faith

in verse 17,

even so,

if faith has no works,

it is dead,

being by itself.

He said that if faith

is alive,

that it's not independent

of works,

that faith always

produces works,

faith always produces fruit.

He says basically

in Greek

that faith and works

are like two wings

on a bird

and they have to be there.

They have to work together

and a bird with one wing

just doesn't work

and he says in the same way

that is true

with our life,

that if our faith

is alive,

that there's works

that follow.

That if our faith

is alive

and the word he uses there

is really intense,

if it has no works,

it's dead.

The Greek word

is nekra,

necrotic.

It's gangrene.

That when God looks at us

and our faith is dead,

all he sees is gangrene,

dirty tissue,

something bad.

But in a live faith,

James says,

in a live faith

it will affect our hearts,

it will affect our hands,

it will affect our feet,

it will affect our mouth,

it will affect our money,

it will affect our time usage,

it will affect what we do in there.

You see,

in James' church,

people were coming to church

every day

and they were reading

the Apostles' Creed.

Every day people

were walking into church

and they were dropping

their kids off of childcare

and they were doing communion.

Every day people

were listening to testimonies

over and over

in James' church

as he looked at the people

in his congregation.

He realized that

not many people

were changing.

That their lives

were the same.

Two months before,

six months before,

one year before,

that there wasn't

a change in their hearts,

there wasn't a change

in their actions,

there wasn't a change

in their mannerisms.

And James says,

really bluntly,

if that's true,

your faith is dead.

So maybe the question

we ask ourselves today

is we look at our life.

Has your life changed?

I mean,

are you different

in your walk with God

today

than you were

two months ago?

Six months ago?

Two years ago?

If you were to examine

your walk with the Lord

in your life,

is it different?

And James is saying

it has to be different.

Because if you have

the seed of the gospel

in your life,

if you have Christ

in your heart,

you're going to look

more and more like Him.

And the question

that James put to us

is are we looking

more and more

like Christ

these days?

Or are we looking

more and more

like Tobin?

He says,

a live faith

will change us

and we'll be different.

He goes on

and he says

in verses 18,

he says,

a live faith,

a genuine faith

is not invisible.

But someone may say,

show me your faith.

I have works.

Show me my works.

You have faith.

And what he's trying

to say in the midst

of all of that

is that if you have

a faith that is alive,

people can see it.

People can see

your faith

being lived out.

They can see

a difference

in your world.

He never had place

where people

who come in

and you're talking

to them

and they say,

yeah,

I'm a believer.

I follow Christ.

And you say,

well,

how do I know that?

And you say,

because I said so.

And you said,

well,

show me

the change

in your life.

And the person says,

well,

my faith

is very private.

I don't want

to talk about that.

And James says,

if that's

who we are,

our faith is dead.

It's useless.

It's necrotic.

It's gangrene.

He says,

in a live faith,

you're always

going to be seen.

A live faith

will always

represent itself.

It will always

manifest itself

in relationships.

Relationships

with God.

And relationships

with the people

around us.

And so James

is warning his church,

he's warning us

to be careful

how you think

you are.

Don't think

that your faith

is alive

if it's not.

Man,

I've been running

through this passage

for 40 years now.

And every time

I look at it,

those questions

hit me.

And I have

to ask myself.

Finally,

James says

in verses 19

and 20,

and I think

this is the

hardest one

of all,

verses 19

and 20,

he says,

you believe

that God

is one,

you do well.

The demons

also believe

and they

shudder.

But are you

willing to

recognize,

you foolish fellow,

that your faith

without works

is useless?

what James

says here

is that

faith,

alive faith,

is not just

intellectual.

It's just not

knowing the right

things to say.

It's not just

being theologically

correct.

It's not doing

the right things

and saying the right

things and reading

the right books.

He says

if that's how

we live our life,

then our faith

is demonic.

Did you catch

that?

He says

if your life

is just

intellectual

exercise,

if you're just

reading and

thinking and

learning and

spouting out

things,

but there's no

change in your

life,

it's just words,

it's just

accumulation,

it's just

things that

you're reading

but you're not

doing,

if you're doing

that,

he says your

faith is

demonic.

C.S. Lewis

would say

the best people

to learn

theology from

are demons

because demons

know everything.

They've been

in the presence

of God.

Their theology

is perfect.

Their orthodoxy

is perfect.

In scripture

they're always

shouting out

you're the son,

the holy one

of God,

you've come

to save us,

you've come

to put us

away.

Listen to him.

The demons

know their

Bible.

But their

works are

dead.

And James

is warning

his church,

he's warning

us and he's

saying be

careful,

don't think

that just

because you're

orthodox that

you understand

and you believe

because that's

what the demons

think.

You ever

done this?

You're living

life like you

shouldn't do,

this is me.

And you're

making choices

that are poor,

and you're

doing things

that you

know don't

please the

Lord.

And then

someone asks

you why

you're doing

that.

And sometimes

your response

is, well,

I don't know

why I'm doing

this, but I

still love God,

I still know

God, I still

know God.

And James

says don't

do that

because the

demons

know God.

And they

do something

different.

They know

God and they

shudder.

The Greek

word is they

have these

chills, it's

like a cat

arching his

back.

They know

what's going

to happen

when God

comes.

But James

says sometimes

we just

live these

intellectual

exercises.

And we

say, well, I

know God, I

know God.

And he

says if

knowing God

was enough

to get you

into heaven,

the demons

would be

there.

know God.

Knowing God,

knowing about

God, having a

special agreement

with him, a

special relationship,

if that was

enough to get

you into

heaven, the

demons know

that.

So James is

warning us,

he's saying be

careful, be

careful of what

you believe

because belief

is not enough

to get into

heaven.

And a

live faith

grows and

it's connected

to works, it's

connected to

actions and

it's seen in

friendships and

relationships.

Then James

goes on and

he says, I

want to show

you what a

live faith is

like.

And he

gives us two

examples and

the two examples

cannot be more

opposite than

each other.

One is a

lady named

Rahab.

She's a

pagan.

She's living in

the city of

Jericho.

And one is a

person named

Abraham, the

father of the

faith.

And James

uses both of

those as

examples.

They're totally

opposite in

personality and

background and

everything.

But he says,

this is what a

live faith looks

like.

He says, look at

Rahab.

She's living in

the walls of

Jericho.

We've seen the

walls.

If you go to

Israel, you can

see them.

They're laid

down, but the

archaeologists

uncover them.

And the walls

were like a

series of walls.

And in between

the walls, there

were rooms.

And the rooms

were filled with

weapons and

businesses and

houses built into

the walls.

And so she's

living in the

walls and she's

carrying out the

world's oldest

profession.

Not a bakery.

She's a

prostitute.

Sometimes people

get that confused.

And so she's

living in there and

she's hearing these

stories of God's

people coming

through and

destroying

everything.

And everybody's

afraid.

And then one day

the spies, two

spies come to her

door and they

ask her to hide

them.

And she hides

them on the

roof.

Now she's

heard about

God.

She's seen him

moving his

people through

the land.

Somewhere in

that process, she's

put faith in

God.

Somewhere in that

process, she's

saying, this is

what I need.

This is what I

want.

And so she

talks to the

spies.

When they're

about to leave,

she sends the

people chasing

them out in a

different direction.

That's another

sermon.

And she talks

to them and

she says, I

know that your

God is the God

of heaven and

earth.

She makes a

proclamation.

It's her

faith.

In Hebrew, she's

coming to

faith.

I know that

your God

controls everything.

I know that

your God is

going to take

care of all

this land and

it's going to

be yours one

day.

I just ask it,

when that

happens, would

you remember

me?

And the

scout goes,

okay, this is

what I want you

to do.

I want you to

take this red

ribbon and I

want you to tie

it around the

window of your

wall.

And whoever's

inside your

house when we

attack, they

will be saved.

But whoever's

outside of this

house, they

will be destroyed.

And if that

ribbon falls down,

the bargain's

off.

If you tell

anybody about

what's happened,

the bargain's

off.

Think about

that.

And so she

does that.

Her faith is

being acted

out in works.

In the midst

of this battle,

the walls are

shaking.

The walls are

falling down.

And she's

living in the

walls.

Does that take

courage and

faith?

And the

scripture says

that she's

saved.

And she's

brought into the

family of God.

And James

says, look at

her faith.

She has

courage.

She trusted

the Lord.

She made

this statement

of faith.

And she

lived it out.

And you

can see by

her living

out that

that statement

of faith was

true and

righteous and

good.

And that

her faith is

alive.

Look at

Abraham, the

father of our

people.

He was once a

pagan and

Ur of Chaldees.

He was

worshiping false

gods, we're

told.

He's not

Jewish.

There's no

such thing as

Jewish people

before Abraham

comes.

And God

comes to him

at the age

of 75.

He says, I

want you to

leave everything.

He was a

very wealthy

businessman.

He was

surrounded by

his family.

He had a

lot of

land.

I want you

to leave

everything.

I want you

to go to

this new

land where

I'm going

to show

you, and

you've never

been there,

but I'm

going to

show you

this new

land.

And we're

told that

Abraham

listens.

He comes

to know the

Lord.

He puts

that seed,

that grain of

the gospel in

his life.

And he

says, okay.

But is

Abraham a

Christian yet?

I don't

know.

We know that

the seed went

into his life.

It's like Jesus

telling this parable

of the sower.

The message

went out.

He accepted it,

but we don't

know what's

going to happen

to that

message.

And so

Abraham does

what God

says.

He leaves

everything.

He goes to

this foreign

land.

And then

at the

age of

99,

the three

things that

he was

promised was

a name that

would be

made great,

land,

and a

heritage,

a massive

people following

him.

At the age

of 99,

he still has

no son.

And so

God says,

I'm going

to give you

a son.

Okay.

And he

has faith and

he trusts God.

And that

seed of the

gospel continues

to grow and

gets bigger

in his

life.

then 40

years after

he first

meets God,

so 40

years after

God first

meets him

and talks

to him about

what he

wants from

him,

God comes

to him and

says,

I want you

to take

your son,

the son

that you

love,

your only

son.

It's very

specific in

Hebrew.

He's not

going to say,

well, what son

are you talking

about?

God just

pins him

down to the

ground.

And I

want you

to take

him to

a far

way land

where I'll

show you.

And I

want you

to make

a malk

there.

In Hebrew

what he's

saying is I

want you

to do a

burnt

offering

of him.

So now

Abraham's

like 120

years old.

And the

Bible says

he took

his son

with two

helpers and

they went

to that

land.

And as

they get

to that

land,

they're

about to

do the

sacrifice

he

tells

the boys,

the two

helpers,

you stay

here and

the boy

and I

will go

worship.

And when

we're done

worshiping,

we're coming

back.

So Abraham,

he has

faith.

He knows

that Isaac

is who

he's supposed

to have

the heritage

in.

For some

reason,

God is

doing this.

I don't

know what's

going to

happen,

but maybe

God's going

to raise

Isaac from

the dead.

I don't

know,

but I

know the

promises

in Isaac

and God

has told

me to

sacrifice

him and

I just

need to

be obedient

to whatever

God has

called me

to do.

And we're

told in the

passage that

when he

gets there

and he's

about to

raise his

hand with

the knife,

God speaks

to him.

He says,

Abraham,

Abraham,

don't raise

your hand

against the

son.

Because now

I know

you love

me more

than all

these other

things.

Now I

know that

you fear

me more

than all

these other

things.

James tells

us as we

look at

Abraham's

life,

we see a

life of

obedience.

That kernel

of truth,

the gospel,

the message

entered into

his life,

but it

hadn't been

fruitioned yet.

And it

wasn't until

40 years

later when

these works

happened and

he showed

that his

faith was

true by

his works.

But James

says he

was justified

by his

works.

He didn't

come to

faith.

His faith

was seen

to be true

and real

because of

his obedience.

And so

James tells

us this is

what it looks

like to

follow the

Lord.

God.

We're told

in the

passage later

on that

Abraham is

called a

friend of

God because

he obeys.

What a

great title.

Wouldn't

you like to

have a

business card

with Tobin

Miller,

friend of

God?

If even

neater,

if God

was the

one who's

saying,

he's my

friend.

That would

be amazing.

in John

15,

Jesus says

that all

of his

children

are his

friend.

But you

know what

he says?

You're my

friend if

you obey

me.

Because as

we obey,

as we walk

with him,

our faith

is made

full and

true and

real and

seen by

everybody

around us.

Finally,

James ends

in verse 26

where just as

the body

with the

spirit is

dead,

so also

faith without

works is

dead.

What he's

basically saying

there is that

if you don't

have works,

if people

cannot see a

difference in

your life,

if they can't

see a change

in your life,

then your

faith is not

real faith.

How are we

doing?

I mean,

when people

look at your

life and

they look at

your faith,

do they see

a faith that's

indifferent to

the needs of

people?

Or do they

see a faith

that is

concerned with

needy and

hurt people?

When people

look at your

life, do they

see a faith

that's independent

of works?

It's just

words, it's

just words,

it's just

words, but

it's nothing

else besides

words.

When people

look at your

life, do

they see a

faith that

is invisible,

that it

can't be

seen by

everyone?

It's

private.

When people

look at your

life, do

they see

something that

is intellectual?

Do you

talk about

your life a

lot?

Do they

talk about

your faith

a lot?

But all

they know

about you

is your

talk.

They don't

see fruit.

they don't

see works

coming forth

from that.

What kind

of faith

do they

see in

us?

I'm

over,

but I have

one last

thought to

give you.

God's

love.

I have

heard that

you love

me more

than all

these things.

Your works

have shown,

they've proven,

they've borne

fruit, that

your faith is

true and

sincere, you

love me.

Fast forward

2,000 years

on the same

mountain in

Jerusalem.

God, our

Father,

takes his

only son.

He doesn't

put him

there for

display in

his act of

do I love

you more

than all

these other

things.

We're told

God the

Father

crucifies and

sacrifices his

son for

you and

for me.

I know

it's not in

scripture,

but I wonder

if God is

saying there as

he's doing

that.

I love you

more than

this.

I love you

more than

this.

The question

I have for us

as a church

and as

individuals is

when we

think of

that,

when we

think of

what God

has done

for us

in the

sacrificing

of his

son,

what kind

of emotions

stir up

inside of

you?

When we

think of

Christ being

crucified for

you,

and God

saying,

I love

you,

and I

never want

you to

doubt how

much I

love you,

let me

prove it

through

killing my

son.

What are

the thoughts

that come

into your

head?

What are

the actions

that are

stirred up

inside of

you?

What are

the emotions

that you

feel?

What are

the things

that come

into you

as you

think of

these

things?

James

says

that if

your faith

is alive,

your heart

is going

to be

stirred,

that you're

going to

be

different,

that you're

going to

look at

people

differently,

that you're

going to

look at

your life

differently,

you're

going to

do things

differently.

You have

to,

because your

faith is

alive.

And if you

think of the

cross and you

think of what

Christ has

done,

what God

has done

for you,

and it

doesn't

elicit a

change of

movement,

an emotion,

a thought,

you're not

doing it to

get saved.

I mean,

if we're

God's

children,

we're already

saved.

But James

says you're

doing it

because you

love God.

God's

love God.

So my

question to

close our

time with

is do you

love God?

Do you

love God?

love God?

Do you

love Him?

James says

if we do,

our life is

going to be

different.

It's going to be

marked by works

and fruit

that is going

to be seen

in every

relationship of

your life

and in

your relationship

with God.

Father, we

thank you for

this day.

We thank you

for your

son.

We thank you

for the

book of

James,

which is

hard.

Some of

us are

hard-headed.

We need to

get beat up

sometimes.

But the

amazing thing

is that you

always pour

grace and

mercy over

us.

And so we

come before

you and we

look at this

passage and

we,

I pray that

none of us

don't go to

sleep this

week in some

way and not

think about

what is my

faith really

like?

Lord, show

us if our

faith is

alive.

Show us if

our faith is

dead.

Show us if

our faith is

demonic.

And wherever

we are in that

journey, Lord,

we just need

you and we

love you.

And we ask

you to change

us and to

make us

people that

are different,

people that

are seen as

different to

the world.

Again, not

because we're

trying to earn

your favor,

because there's

no way your

son did that

for us, but

because we

love you.

God, I pray

for this

church.

I know that

I don't pray

for people as

much as James

did, but

what I pray

for us,

that when

people look at

our words,