Everybody is Somebody in God's House

Welcome to this week's message from the Church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

James chapter 2.

James 2 · chapter mention

What a powerful chapter.

You know, we started out at James dealing with trials that God used to teach us endurance and to teach us maturity.

And then we went next to not just trials, but to temptations which were brought on by Satan to not mature us, but to discourage us and to destroy us ultimately.

When lust has conceived, it brings forth sin, and when sin is finished, it brings forth death.

James 1.19.

So as we deal with those trials and those temptations, we enter into chapter 2, and we saw at the end of chapter 1 that pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

In fact, basically the last verse, verse 27 in James chapter 1, says, if you profess to be a Christian, you ought to be living your Christianity.

James 1 · chapter mention

What's wrong in the church today is we have a lot of professors that aren't possessors of the power of the Holy Spirit living in their hearts.

Everybody, now that's getting less because of our culture.

But for the last 25 years of ministry, every time I'd say, Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

They would say, Yes.

And you know, I'd say, When did you get saved?

Here's what most people would tell me.

Well, I joined the church.

I didn't ask that question.

The question was, when did you ask the Lord Jesus to come into your heart?

Well, isn't that the same thing?

Absolutely not.

You can be a church member and be lost.

Hello?

You can be a church member and be lost.

And the way sometimes we see church members act, it really questions there to me if they really are saved.

Because saved people aren't supposed to act that way.

But sometimes colonel Christians do.

And so when we get to chapter two, this is awesome.

We see the whole chapter, there's two temptations.

Satan comes in and he and it's powerful.

One, he says, I'm going to give you the temptation of being, are you ready for this?

A snobby Christian.

Hello.

You heard me.

I would ask the question does anybody know anyone that's snobby, but I'm afraid to ask that because I don't want to hear the answer.

Because we've all been there.

We've all experienced the snobby Christian.

And we've all been the snobby Christian.

Hello?

You with me?

In fact, let me give you the definition of a snobby person.

One who despises, ignores, or is patronizing to those he or she considers inferior.

Let me put another one.

Let me give you maybe him a little bit more simple.

One who is convinced of his or her superiority.

I'm better than you.

I know more than you.

You don't rise to my expectations.

Hello?

It's called social classes.

And if they don't fit your social class, you snob them.

Hello?

You with me?

And then some of us don't feel like we're good enough to be in that social class.

Well, guess what?

It's not about class, it's about a relationship with Jesus.

Because when you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, there's only one class.

And that's the family of God.

Can I get an amen?

Amen?

We all have different gifts, we have different talents, we have different abilities, but we're all one in Christ.

Galatians 3.28.

Amen?

Neither Jew nor Gentile.

Hey, it's not about how much money you make, how much education you have, what house or neighborhood you live in, or what trailer park you live in.

It's all about a relationship with Jesus Christ.

That's why I love this church.

When you walk, when you drive on this property, we're one in Christ.

We don't care who you are, what color you are, what social class you are, what you are.

We love you for who you are.

And what God wants to do in your life.

We're not interested in your past, we're interested in your future.

And God's got a fantastic future for you.

So with that said, I gave you a little better title.

Make you be a little more encouraged than a snobby Christian.

Started to use that, but I said, mm, that's pretty tough.

So I said, everybody is somebody in God's house.

Don't you like that?

Say that with me.

Everybody is somebody in God's house.

God is no respecter of persons.

Romans 2.11.

Everybody is somebody in God's house.

How would you like it if people based their friendship with you on the clothes that you wore?

The car that you drove, the position in the community that you have, the influence that you have, the popularity that you have.

Do you shun those that might be poorer than you?

Do you shun those that, hey, may be richer than you?

See, it goes both ways.

It's snobby.

So what do you do?

In James' day, you said, but that doesn't go on in the church.

Oh, really?

There's no clicks in the church.

Oh my so, sometimes you the worst place for clicks is in the church.

You get, and I, hey, why do you think on Sundays it's a good way to touch it again every so often?

Hey, when you eat, we eat together.

I love eating together.

It's it's intimate fellowship.

That's one of our core values.

We do.

And I encourage our people when you eat together, and I love for you to stay and eat with us and because I I come around just to hug everybody next, and new people, I get to know them better.

That's what I do.

While y'all eating, hey, I can eat later.

But listen, I do steal a dessert if I like the dessert that's there, so I'll go ahead and fess up.

But listen, what I love is to see people sit with other people.

You know, our tendency is to sit with the people we like.

There's nothing wrong with that.

Amen.

Here's the problem, though.

If that's always doing that, guess what?

You don't even realize it.

Satan's got you and you don't know it, me included.

Hey, you're developing a little click.

And you know why you like those folks?

Because they're more like you, they think like you, they dress like you, they work like you, they smell good like you sometimes.

I mean, they just fit you.

So it's in your comfort zone.

And you don't like to get out of your comfort zone.

Most people don't like to get out of their comfort zone because, to be honest, I'm gonna help you.

Now, don't take this as a legitimate excuse.

Most people are not extroverted.

There's only 5% of us, and we're enough for the rest of the 95%.

Hello.

We don't meet anybody, we don't know a stranger.

We just, woo! Let's go.

I'm the life of the party.

Come on, let's party.

Everybody's welcome.

So I understand that.

But as Christians, we got to realize God has saved us for a reason to be what?

To be vibrant ambassadors for Christ to reach out to everyone in the area of our influence.

And that's red, yellow, black, and white.

They're all precious in his sight.

It's the rich, it's the poor, it's the medium, it's everybody.

Can I get an amen?

So we have to work on.

When Susan met me, she'll tell you, she was, she's really, you'd never know it by her because of her maturity in the Lord all those years.

But she's really an introvert, intellect, social, non-existent in the flesh.

She'd rather have her glasses on and be over in a corner reading a book.

In fact, she's already read two Tarzan's books, and I've I didn't even know the history of Tarzan.

She's been telling me the history of Tarzan.

And the thing is, she read the suckers in two books in two hours.

I can't read a book in two days.

I'm a slow reader.

We tried to read together on the airplane one time, one book.

We're reading, I said, we'll read it together.

And I'm reading the book.

I think it was Dean Dobson's own tough luck, and we're reading the book, and she'd go, and then she'd look up, start looking around.

And I hadn't even gotten through the first paragraph.

And I said, There is no way you read that, and no one, and she told me everything that I, you know what it?

I gave her the book that said, read it out loud.

She's smart, she's her IQ's higher than I can count.

She graduated some of Lord, and I graduated, thank the Lord.

Amen.

So we have all these different classes.

So, I got news for you.

Psalms 139, verse 14.

Psalms 139:14

I want you to put it up there, Jason.

God gave me this early this morning.

I just was so excited when I saw that.

It says, I will praise you, Lord.

Say that with me, church.

I will praise you, Lord.

And you know what it says next?

Because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

So let's say that again.

I will praise you, Lord, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

And then he goes on and says, Marvelous are thy works.

That you are special to God.

Are you understanding?

Hey, when you get up and you say, I wished I was like so, don't you dare do that.

That's you're saying, and I'm saying when I say that, that we're not, hey, we're not content with who God made us.

Whoa, now that's pretty tough preaching.

Teach that word.

You get up in the morning, you thank God for who you are.

You look up, you look in the mirror, and you say, Wow, God, you did a good job.

Amen.

Really?

I'm serious.

Now, watch.

Now, watch this.

Marvelous are the works.

Now, watch I had never seen, I quoted it, but I didn't understand.

Well, I did, but I just never saw it until this morning.

That my soul knoweth right well.

You know what that means?

You have peace with who you are in Christ Jesus.

I'm excited God didn't make me somebody else.

Because if God had made me somebody else, I couldn't be doing what I'm doing.

I used to listen to Adrian Rogers preach.

And I used to say, Man, I wished I could preach like Adrian Rogers.

Love worth finding.

Have you ever heard him on radio?

Unbelievable.

We were riding down the road, and I asked Susan one day, Adrian was preaching, and I said, Honey, he's so eloquent.

I turned and I said, Honey, am I eloquent when I preach?

I thought, have you ever said something and why it's going out of your mouth, you're trying to get it back.

I shouldn't have said that.

Hello.

And she had a long pause.

I said, This is gonna be bad.

She said, honey, when I think of your preaching, I don't think of you being eloquent.

I think of you being passionate.

I said, Yeah, yeah.

Later on I came to be very close friends with Adrian Rogers.

And I'll never forget.

We preached on the super conference together.

10,000 people, folks.

I had to go preach before Adrian Rogers.

I asked Dr.

Falwell, what are you doing?

He said, just watch.

And God just anointed me to priest on Daniel and last year.

Then Adrian got up and preached his eloquent way that he did.

And the next morning I picked him up because when he came to liberty, he wanted me to pick him around.

He says, I like his mask.

No one tell me that what I wanted to do.

He said, I want to show you.

Oh my God.

We're talking about the Prince of Preachers.

I could not have had a greater compliment.

Because when he first said that, he said, I want to show you what got you.

I said, please help me, Doc.

I need help.

He said, no, no, no.

He rebuked me in a loving way.

He said, no, I'm not talking about that.

I want you to know what God showed me through you.

That's when I learned.

Hey, I can't preach like Adrian Rogers.

I can't preach like Dr.

Jerry Falwell.

I can't preach like Billy Graham.

But guess what?

They can't preach like me.

Amen.

We're one in Christ.

God's made me the way He's made me for that purpose.

Amen.

It's awesome.

When you come, that's what he means.

Hey, right there.

And that my soul knoweth right well who you are in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

We all have our place.

We all have our place.

I can't even get started.

I'm so full.

Number one, let's look at these three things.

I've given you a lot of verses.

I won't have time to hit them all, but I'll give you the highlights.

You'll get it.

First of all, verses one through five.

My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect to persons.

For if there come unto you an assembly, in other words, when we gather together a man with a gold ring and goodly, that means fine apparel.

That means good, fine, luxury, beautiful apparel.

And there come in also a poor man in vile raiment.

It means bad, hey, not nice looking clothes, and even maybe a smelling clothes.

And ye have respect to him that wears the gay clothing, the word gay there literally means splendid clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place, and say to the poor, stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool, are ye not then partial in yourselves and are become judges of evil thoughts?

Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which he hath promised to them that love him.

So the first thing we see is the favoritism of people in the church.

In the church.

The book of James, as you recall, as we started, I told you, is the epistle of right living.

It teaches us to live right.

It's the proverbs of the New Testament.

It really is.

See, James does not only deal with eternal life, but James also deals with the external life.

How we live, how we approach life as believers.

What man believes is important, would you not agree?

Amen.

But how he behaves is as equally important.

Because really, your belief system determines your living system, your behavioral system.

It always has and always will.

We are to have a belief.

I thought this, we are to have a belief, are you ready?

That behaves.

Somebody say that's good.

You ought to write that down.

We need a belief system that behaves right.

That is so good.

If you claim to be a Christian and you don't behave right, then you are what?

You are bringing a hypocrite, but you're bringing a disclaimer to what you said you are.

It's so important.

It really is, folks.

I promise.

So we see that.

Now, look.

God says, if you remember in James 1, be ye doers of the word, not hearers only.

Okay?

James 1 22.

But now watch under here.

First thing I want you to see about this favoritism with the people in these five verses.

Number one, verse one, we have a command to Christians.

Notice what he says.

My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect to persons.

Christians are not to have an attitude of prejudice or personal favoritism toward people.

The word respect to persons, let me give you the word there.

It's a tough Greek word.

I've worked on it all week.

I don't know if I can say it.

Prosopalapisi.

I'm not trying it again.

That's good enough.

But here's what that means: it means to accept a person with favor, with undue or unfair partiality.

That's what it means.

In other words, you show favoritism to that person.

And most of the time, the reason we show favoritism to that person is because, one, we think that person can help us in some way.

Hello?

Or in our own self, we would never omit it.

We really want to be like that person.

We're not content in who we are.

I wish, I wish, I was like David Wilson and on all these business.

Oh, I wished I was like Adrian Rogers, had a big church.

You know what Adrian taught all our preacher boys?

He used to come up and teach for me.

He said, Oh, you young preachers, or and we'd have a pastor's conference.

There'd be three or four hundred of us pastors sitting there.

He'd say, Oh, y'all want to have a church at least a thousand, I know, wouldn't you?

Everybody will raise their hand.

He said, Let me remind you, the larger church have larger problems.

Hey, trust me.

I've started with 30 and I've pastored 2,000 plus.

The bigger you get, the more problems you have.

The sister fluffy heads and deacon potato heads sprout out everywhere.

They come from all directions.

From all areas.

But here we see the word here literally, this is a great word, lifts up someone's face with the idea of judging by appearance and giving special favor and respect.

Christians are not to show this favoritism because it destroys the unity of the church.

We're not to have clicks.

If we have clicks, we need one click and they ought to be clicking together.

Amen.

That's the kind of click we need.

One click.

And that click is clicking together.

The Bible is very clear on the fact that God is not a respecter of persons.

Romans 2 11, for there's no respect of persons with God.

Look at Ephesians 6 9, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him.

Whoo! And then, oh, this is a toughie.

Colossians 3 25.

But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done.

And there is no respecter of persons.

Listen, hey, God doesn't see the rich, the poor in the medium.

God doesn't see color.

God sees, hey, people.

God created the people.

Amen.

He loves people.

And seemingly he spent more time with the poor than with the rich.

There's a reason for that.

Because the poor, the less you have, the more Jesus you want.

Isn't that amazing?

Boy, you didn't catch that.

I said the, hey, it seems to be the less you have, the more Jesus you want.

Hello?

When you go to a third world country, uh, and when you go and preach, and some of you, I know Clay's been with me.

Darren's been, when we went down to the foundry and I preached a couple times, Darren, the first time he heard me preach like that, he said, What?

Man, you don't preach like that on Sunday morning.

Well, I say, Yeah, I do, halfway.

But here's why.

Those people down there, their only hopes, Jesus, or their throat.

And when you get in a position like that and you come into a church service, hey, you have a whole different attitude about worshiping the King.

When you are depending on Him for daily bread every day, instead of, well, what did I want to eat today?

There's a big difference with your attitude.

And boy, when you get in that kind of preaching, it's nothing like preaching.

Because people are crying out for God.

There's a difference.

When there's a crying out honestly and hopelessly for God, like if God doesn't show up, I'm through.

Ladies and gentlemen, he shows up.

But when we come in here and say, Well, I'm supposed to be in church today, let's go to church.

Well, we got anything else to do?

Well, we could go play golf today.

We could go hunting day, we could go boating, blah, blah, blah.

Well, no, we need to go to church.

So you come to church, and then Pastor Danny's nailing you, and you say, Why did I come?

I'm not nailing you.

I'm nailing me.

I'm the guilty one.

Amen.

I'm the guilty.

But there's a big difference.

There's a huge difference.

Huge difference.

Notice second thing.

Verses 2 and 3, we see the case of clothing.

Man, what a hypothetical, but in fact, the key word here is if.

James is starting a, excuse me, is stating a hypothetical case here by using the word if.

It may be true, it may not be true.

But the word assembly here, synagogue here, means to come together.

And what he is saying is the group of people have come together, supposedly to worship God, and we see a rich person walks in, and the way that we know he's rich is because of the gold ring.

Back then, in Jesus' day, hey, people wore gold rings on every finger except the middle finger.

I tried to, I did research, I don't know why.

Then nobody didn't say.

I guess you need one finger that you can do without gold on it.

I don't know.

But they had gold on all fingers.

I meant really.

So, so gold, diamond, today we don't, well, we you see a lot of people with gold rings.

Anyway, it was a status, it was a status position.

If you had gold rings on all fingers but your middle fingers, you were wealthy.

Today, you'd be in deep debt.

They didn't have credit cards back then, folks.

Sorry.

So there was a distinguished.

Now, today we don't we see that, but it's in a lot of different ways.

It could be in cars, it can be in the way you dress.

I've been in some churches, they try to impress people by the car they drive into the parking lot.

And how much they paid for their suit.

I'm telling you, that's that's true.

And it's amazing how if you come in in a plunker, y'all know what a clunker is, don't you?

Hello.

Just just a thought.

And you don't come in in your BMW or your Cadillac, hey, guess what?

They kind of look at you and just go on.

But if you drive in in that big M or that very expensive car, that big Cadillac, the big link, whoa, hey brother, how you doing?

The guy in the clunker, uh-huh, well, he's just going on by.

Hello?

Hello.

Isn't it amazing?

How we socially classify and we don't even realize we're doing it.

I can remember the first time I got a Lincoln.

David remembers this.

People say, Oh, you got a Lincoln.

I had to get up and tell the church because in fact, you know what happened?

We were on television, I'm preaching the word of God.

Oh, unbelievably, people being saved, just like here every week.

And the Lincoln dealer, the Bill DeLoach, watched me every Sunday.

I won't call the denomination.

He went to another church early service.

He came home.

His ritual every Sunday then was to watch me.

He said, I like your passion and I like people getting saved.

He said, I want you to come see me.

I want to put you in a Lincoln.

I said, What's that mean?

It means a Lincoln.

So I went down.

And what you don't realize, we had just kicked off a building program.

And so yeah, yeah, you can see it building, can't you?

And Susan and I had made it a commitment.

I asked Susan, I said, I want you, I want you to figure out how much it takes, bare minimum for us to live, and we're God's told me we're gonna give the rest to the Lord during this year or two-year commitment.

I think it's two-year commitment we had made to build a building, trying to stay dead free, or as less amount of debt as we could.

And I never forget it.

She said, Well, we don't have a whole lot left.

I said, I don't care, just do it.

Long story short, we did that, made that commitment to God.

And first call I get was from the Lincoln dealer guy, Bill DeLoach.

He calls me, he says, Pastor, come see me.

He says, I know what kind of car you're driving.

Well, he ought to.

I just drove up in it.

I was driving a blue Pinto station wagon.

Hello.

That's where I actually I hey, guess worse than that.

I started with a beat-up Volkswagen Beetle.

300 miles, 300,000 miles we put on, put three picture boys through church.

I meant through seminary.

All right?

Long story short, he said, hey, you you you need a car.

He said, you don't need to be driving that pento station wagon.

In my flesh, I said, Amen.

As long as he said, here.

It's a it's a it's a what do you call them?

A dealer's car?

No, a demo.

Thank you.

A demo.

He says, it's got 3,000 miles.

When it gets 8,000, come back and I'll give you another one.

You're just gonna drive it, I'm gonna take care of everything.

I said, I can't do that.

He said, Yes, you can.

I said, no, I've done this and he said, Well, I'll come tell everybody then.

I said, no, don't do that.

So anyway, I got back and told the church, explained it to them.

I don't know if they received that or not.

No, they did.

And then, hey, then I had a doctor come up to me in our church and said, Hey, God's told me the next two years I need to take care of you and Susan's.

I had a dentist, he was a pediatrician, but hey, I'm a big kid anyway, hey men.

He took care of me and my kids.

And then I had a dentist come up, took uh thousands of dollars of Susan's beautiful, smart, got terrible teeth.

But so the the doctor, the doctor took care of her teeth.

I didn't mean they look bad, they're just no good.

So she had to have had to have root canals and all that nose.

Well, anyway, he took care of all that.

Stop, stop, stop.

Baby, you can explain that to him, please.

All right, and then hey, dry cleaner.

Anyway, what I'm trying to tell you, after two years, I sat down.

I think I was we were making about 22,000, 25,000 everything that year.

I sat down, and those next two years, God, I was living at a$75,000 to$80,000 salary because we had been obedient to God, showing God, living for God, not doing anything but doing what God said.

Woo! And people ask me why we do what we do, why we give.

You can't have giving.

You cannot give God.

Wow.

Those are the experience I remember and think about when the times come and not show it.

Hey, it's not, but what I'm saying is, and here's something else, isn't it amazing?

If I went out and bought a big Cadillac or Lincoln, y'all say, the peaches got a lot of money.

Or I can go buy a Yukon or a Taho that costs more than the Cadillac and you don't say a word.

Why?

It's social, it's that social thing, you know, it's that ring thing.

And we don't even know it.

Am I not telling the truth?

Come on, folks.

And so guess what?

I just drive a truck with 250,000 miles on it.

I don't care.

It gets me from A to B.

I'm not trying to impress you.

But I will say this: if Bill DeLoch was to come back from the dead and offer me a Lincoln, I will take it.

I'd ask him, could I have a Mustang instead, though?

A souped-up one.

But notice, listen to this.

Listen to this, you got to, you got to listen to this example.

Muhammad Gandhi.

Ever heard of Muhammad Gandhi?

Watch this.

In his autobiography, he wrote that during his student days, he was searching in his life.

He read the gospel seriously and considered converting to Christianity.

He believed that in the teachings of Jesus he could find the solution to the case system, the social class system that was dividing the people of India.

So one Sunday he decided to ascend services at a nearby church and talk to the minister about becoming a Christian.

He was going to church and then going to talk to the minister now about becoming a Christian.

Listen to this.

When he entered the sanctuary, however, the usher refused to give him a seat and suggested that he go worship with his own people.

Hello.

I've had people tell me that's happened to them.

Are you ready?

Right here in Westover.

Or back when I was in Tuscaloosa.

Hello?

Don't think it's not here, folks.

Don't think it's not here.

Now watch what happened.

When he entered the sanctuary, and after that, Gandhi left the church and never returned.

If Christians, listen to what he wrote in his autobiography, if Christians have case differences, also, he said this, I might as well remain the Hindu.

That Usher's prejudice not only betrayed Jesus, but also turned a person from trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Mm-mm-mm.

You know what the Usher was?

He was a snobby Christian.

If he was a Christian at all.

Listen to this.

This is another powerful illustration.

When Charles Evan Hughes was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, he moved to Washington and transferred his membership to a Baptist church.

His father had been a Baptist minister.

And Hughes had been a lifelong witness to his own faith in Christ.

He was, it was custom to him to go to a church, and in most Baptist churches, we do it a little different here.

You know, they come down the aisle and they join the church.

Then we turn around and present you to the church, and the church votes on you.

Can I tell you something?

You will never see us vote you into this church.

There is no such thing in the Bible that we have the approval to vote you into God's, hey, God's church.

Now, what we will do is present you and say, look, they have signed the covenant, they are part of our family.

Can I get an amen?

Amen.

That great, oh.

You don't have the authority to vote somebody into the kingdom.

Hello.

Ecclesiaon, it's God's church, God's people.

Hello.

You said, Well, you just broke all tradition.

Yes, I did.

That's why I'm so glad when we started this church.

I said, Bless God, we're gonna do it the Bible way.

Amen.

The B-I-B-L-E, that's the book for me.

Now watch.

So, on this particular day, the first to be called was a Chinese laundryman.

A Singh, who had moved to Washington from San Francisco, kept a laundry near the church.

He stood there at the far side of the pulpit, and others were called.

They took their position at the extreme opposite side.

When a dozen people had gathered, a dozen, everybody on one side, A Singh, still stood alone.

Then Chief Justice Hughes was called, and he significantly stood next to the laundryman.

A Christian who only associates with people of the same intellect, academic, social status, is a snobby Christian.

He went there and made a point.

I'm with this gentleman.

He's part of our family.

On another occasion, in Virginia.

There was a church in Stanton, Virginia.

And this African American had come to church.

And it was the Lord's Supper.

That day, the African American went down, and back then they had one cup.

I don't know everybody.

I understand.

But the African American took a drink and took the Lord's Supper with the pastor.

You could hear in the whole church nobody would come after it.

Nobody.

His name was Robert Lee.

And after that, everybody started calling in laughter.

Why?

Because he didn't see color.

He saw a soul of a person.

Folks, it makes a big difference.

And then the condemnation of conduct.

Are you not then partial yourselves?

You become the judge.

Listen to 1 Timothy 5 21.

I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.

Then D.

Look at verse 5, the choice of Christ.

You know what he's saying?

This powerful verse here makes me want to.

Look, hearken, my beloved brethren.

Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom?

He says the only thing that matters to God is you knowing him as, hey, Lord and Savior.

That you know him as Lord and Savior, and you are interested in glorifying him and not what people think, but what God thinks.

Can I get an amen?

Yes.

Yes.

C, a condemnation of the conduct.

He says, no, no.

Judge not that you be not judged, Jesus said.

John 7, 24.

And then D, the choice of Christ in verse 5.

Oh.

Again, it's just, hey, it's all about Christ.

Look at 1 Corinthians.

This is awesome.

You got to see it.

Verse 26 through 27.

Watch this.

For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.

But God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things that are mighty.

Isn't that amazing?

He doesn't use the most brightest, he doesn't use the most wealthiest, he uses the common man.

This gives me hope.

It gives every one of us hope.

Man, that's good.

Notice the second thing.

Not only the favoritism of the people, but the fierceness of greed.

Oh boy.

Verse 6.

But ye have despised the poor.

James rebukes him by saying, You have despised the poor.

Now that word despise means to insult, treat with contempt, to shame or dishonor.

Can I tell you something?

You can shame a person by never saying a word to him.

By just ignoring them.

You know that.

I thank God.

You know, I look back on my, have you ever had a pity party?

Am I, there's four of us?

You want me to give you the definition of a pity party?

Hey.

I used to think because I I didn't grow up on the right side of the track.

Now if you live in deep south, you know what I mean by that.

And I said that on purpose.

And I used to wonder why the why why?

And I asked her girl out one time, and her dad said, You can't take my daughter out, you're not good enough.

I said, that really happened.

Because I was from the wrong family.

He actually told me that.

I'll never forget that as long as I live.

To this day, I can see people right there telling me that.

Seventeen years, sixteen years old.

And God began to teach me.

And then I why did I have to work so hard?

Why didn't my all these other people had they got cars and I had to work for everything?

I just had a penny party.

Why why couldn't I been born in a better thing?

Why was my mother an alcoholic?

Why didn't my mother kick me out?

All these things.

And then one day God dealt with me.

And he says, You just trust me.

You're mine, and I've got a plan for your life.

And I look back and that today, and I would not take one thing different.

Why?

Because I was brought up to love people for who they were and not who they thought they were.

I've never, never had a prejudice bone in my body.

Never.

I'll never forget.

I'll never forget the first couple that joined Open Door Baptist Church.

You remember this?

It was a Navajo Indian chief and a white lady.

I had five families come to me and say, if you let them join the church, we're leaving.

That was my first, I hadn't been there a year.

Half your church, and they were the big givers.

Hello?

You're gonna see that here in a minute.

Money.

And you know what one of them said?

You know you won't make it if we leave because you won't have any money.

Now I'm young.

I'm right out of seminary.

My wife's died.

I'm I'm here, we got about 150 people and half, and they were the biggest givers, part of them.

They really were.

And I'm sitting there, Lord, what do I do?

And that that immaturity, ignorance, fiery temper took control.

And I said, if that's the way you feel, let's believe.

I shouldn't have said it.

And I said, As they got up and started walking out, I said, and if God can't build this church, well, I'm through.

Within the next year, we triple, doubled.

Money was no problem.

Yes, amen.

I learned early, folks.

It's not about who you are.

It's about who he is.

And I can just tell you story after story like that.

This is a very sensitive, isn't it amazing?

And let me show you something.

Hey, he said, My brethren have not, excuse me.

Let me, yeah.

He says in verse 1, my brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord of glory.

We respect the person.

He says, you better put your faith in the Lord and you better love everybody.

Let me get your attention right up front because this is going to be the greatest, one of the greatest temptations you have in the church is to show favoritism.

That's a major thing in this book.

It's a major thing in life.

He that oppresses the poor reproaches his maker.

But he that honors him has mercy on the poor.

Woo! Proverbs 14, 31.

Jesus said, and the king shall answer, say to them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me.

When you lend, hey, when you help the poor, Proverbs says it's as lending to the Lord.

That's why this church is what we are and what we do.

A, despising the poor, B, dragging to prison.

You know what happens?

With the people that are think they know it all, they'll take you to court, they'll try to take everything they got from you.

That's what that means.

They'll press you, they'll lord over you.

Now, with that said, there's a point right here that's very important.

We that are in leadership positions, whether it's a pastor or whether it's a boss or your own, hey, we're not to be Lord in our position and our power over people.

Can I get an amen?

Pastors that do that, they're going to receive a tremendous judgment one day.

Hey, I'm not your Lord.

I don't Lord over you.

I'm part of your family.

God's placed me as your pastor teacher, and I love you, and we all work together to help each other to be more like Jesus every day.

We're one.

I'm here because God's placed me here.

I didn't ask for this job.

I was appointed.

And true preachers are appointed.

And it's time we have shepherds and not CEOs.

And we got too many CEOs in the pulpit and not enough shepherds.

The word Lords carries the idea of overruling.

This is what 1 Peter 5 3 says.

Neither is being lords over God's heritage.

It's not my heritage, it's God's heritage.

But being examples to the flock.

I hope I am a living example to you.

I'm not perfect and I will fail you sometimes.

But I love you and I will try to lead you in the right direction.

But I am human.

Don't put your faith in me.

I got feet of clay just like you.

But we together put our faith in Him and work together and allow the Word of God to lead us.

Same way with business owners and people in positions of authority.

Then verse 7, defaming the Lord.

You know what he says?

When you show partiality, you defame the Lord.

Wow.

In fact, he goes on.

And let me show you something I missed.

Worthy name by which you're called.

You know what he's saying?

He's saying that because God has called you by his name, you've placed your faith in Christ.

You're a child of the king.

For anybody to show partiality and treat you abruptly and dishonorably and shame you, God help them.

Wow.

You hey, hey, you got a special name.

You're a child of the king.

God's reputation's on the line.

Hello.

Hello.

I'm gonna give you.

It's gonna be quick.

It's not there, but I've given you the verses, but I'm gonna tell you what they are.

You know, when we see right here we represent the Lord Jesus Christ and should be careful to protect God's reputation by the way we live, act, talk, walk, and dress.

I hear's the question I asked myself when I was putting this together.

If I'm to protect God's name, why?

I've been called by God's name.

You see that?

See, we miss that.

You kind of read over that last phrase and just jump and go on.

You've been called by God's name.

You are special.

You are an ambassador.

And you know what an ambassador does?

It protects its country's values and who they are, what they are, and they stand for that country's rights.

See, you don't see that when you just read that.

That's what he's saying.

He's saying, James is saying, do you understand?

We are Christians, and we are, hey, we are ambassadors, we are not to show partiality to the rich.

And by the way, let me tell you what would happen.

When those two people came in, there were some little benches, and the rich and the high uh Pharisees and the Pharisees and the preachers and the high priests all had the special seats right there.

And what they were saying was when the rich came in, they would let him sit on the little bench.

But when the poor came, they didn't even say squat to him.

And even if the poor came and what they'd do, they'd come in and they'd sit down in front on the floors like this.

And if the poor came down to sit, they'd kick him and move and say, No, you're not gonna sit here, go on.

That's the picture here.

You listening?

That'd be like somebody walking or somebody come to the door and you don't like what they look like, or you don't care what they are, and you just turn around and start talking about football.

Bless God.

I'm telling you, thank you for what you do at the door.

Hey, everywhere I visit, and I visit everybody, visits this church.

Do you know what they say?

I've never been hugged so many times when I get to the door in any place in my life.

It means something.

A lot of people have never been hugged.

And I'm gonna hug them and I'm gonna tell them I love them.

And if they don't want me to hug them, that's okay.

I'm gonna try to hug them.

If they want to be a snobby Christian, let them be a snobby Christian.

Go ahead.

I'm still gonna love you.

You've heard me say, I've done this.

If somebody leaves this church, they're upset next time I see them, and I just saw somebody in the lows.

I went up and hugged his neck.

We talked for 25 minutes.

You'd have thought we'd never had a, you know, there was any problem.

But that's the way it's supposed to be.

I appreciate his maturity.

Most of the time they try to, I'll be going down, I see them, they see, I see them, they take off and go to the other aisle.

Then I stop and go back around him, and bam, we run right into each other.

That's the truth, that's Susan.

I'm not, will I not do that?

Yeah, I said, hang on, honey, I'll be back.

I'm gonna meet them another aisle.

Why?

I need that.

They need that.

We're Christians.

They say they're Christian.

They don't, they decided they don't want to work be a part of this fellowship.

They need to be.

I listen, I'll help people.

If you don't fit here, let me help you find a place where you fit.

I just told a I just told a couple recently.

I said, you're not fitting here.

I know that.

I've been doing this a long time, folks, 33 years.

I said, let me suggest a couple places.

You know what?

I saw them another day.

You know what this is?

I said, have this.

And I even called the pastors, told the pastors, make contact.

And you know what they said?

We think we do like that one.

Thank you, Pastor.

I said, that's what I'm here for.

I don't want you to come here and be miserable.

Because you won't last.

Listen, God's gotten, God knows who we are, what we need, who we need, and God knows that, and all I have to do is be faithful to Him.

And still, and I'll listen, I'll love you if you're going to another church.

Hallelujah! Just make sure it preaches the book.

Now, if it's a liberal church, I won't like it.

But if it's a good church, amen.

I used to think in my immaturity, our place is the only place anywhere near our place, like our place, so come join our place.

I was wrong.

I was prideful.

Ignorant.

Thought I knew it all, and don't say amen.

And I see that in these young preachers right now.

Oh, do I see it, Greg?

Sorry, amen.

But I was there.

You can't tell us anything.

We know it all.

We got a seminary degree.

God help us.

All right, quickly, seven ways, seven verses.

I'm gonna just give them to you.

By conquering hypocrisy.

Don't be hypocritical.

Be what you say you are.

Matthew 23, 27 through 28.

Jesus talks about the hypocrites.

Number two, by consistency in your conduct.

Titus 2, 7.

Be consistent.

I didn't say perfect.

You're writing a gospel, a chapter each day, by the deeds that you do and the words that you say.

Men read what you write, distorted to true.

What is the gospel according to you?

The reason we are inconsistent is because we're trying to serve two masters.

No man can serve two masters.

Either hate the one, love the other, hold to one, despise the other.

Matthew 6, 24.

God wants us to finish our course for Christ.

Not be a demons.

Demons didn't finish.

Jesus never said life of faith would be easy.

But he did say.

You can finish.

Stephen Aqua of Tanzania.

Did I say that right?

Not Tanzania, Tanzania.

Yeah.

Well, anyway.

It's one of those countries.

He was in the I remember this.

I've seen the I've seen a story on this.

He was running the marathon race in the winter, uh, the winner of the Olympics marathon, had been declared over, and and he he had gotten hurt about five or six miles into the race.

So instead of running it, he was very fast.

He he was running at about a fourth of the speed.

It took him, he was the last one, it took him like three, like an hour and a half or two hours longer than it should have taken him.

And but they knew he was, they they sort of, don't you want to quit?

Don't you want to stop?

He said, I can't quit.

I can't quit.

I can't quit.

And he got there and his, it was only a handful of people clapping as he came through.

And the reporter went up and said, Why didn't you quit?

Why didn't you quit?

He said, he said, Well, that's a crazy quest question.

And the reporter said, You can't hardly walk and you're still doing this.

He said, Why?

Why?

He said, My country did not send me here to win.

My country sent me here to finish.

Wow.

God has called us to finish the race.

To finish the race.

With joy.

With joy.

By consistency.

By compassion and concern for others.

By our Christ-like conversation.

We've already talked, so I'm not dealing with death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruits thereof.

There it is.

We gotta speak right.

We gotta, we don't need to be uh cussing and being ugly and saying bad things.

We just need to exalt one another.

Number five, by clearing our conscience.

Let me tell you, this is a biggie.

If you have aught with the Lord, you gotta get it right.

And then if you got aught with your brother and sister, you gotta get it right.

Can I get an amen?

You gotta get it right.

Go.

Go and you go along, Matthew 18.

Matthew 5, lay your gift at the altar and go make it right.

You gotta do that.

You gotta be able to lay your head down tonight and know that everything's all right with you and everything's all right with your brothers and sisters.

Can I get an amen?

I'm telling you, that's major if you're gonna protect the reputation of God.

And then number six, by a consecration.

Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be a partaker of other men's sins, keep thyself pure.

Years ago, a communist government in China commissioned an author to write a biography of Hudson Taylor.

Remember the great missionary?

Well, the purpose was to defame his life.

They wanted to discredit the name of this consecrated missionary of the gospel.

As the author was doing his research, he was increasingly impressed by Taylor's saintly character and godly life, and he found it extremely difficult to carry out his assignment task with a clear conscience.

Eventually, at the risk of losing his life, he laid aside his pen, renounced his atheism, and received Jesus as his personal Savior.

Whether we look realize it or not, here's what, hey, Hudson Taylor said, our example of consecration and godliness leaves an impression on others.

Hudson Taylor protected God's reputation by a godly life.

His life pointed an unsaved man to Christ.

And let me say this.

I'm learning this and been learning it.

Hey, lost people, they will not live like Christ wants them to live.

But if you claim you're a Christian, they expect you to live that way.

You with me?

So don't tell them you're a Christian.

Please.

If you're living like the devil, amen.

Don't do that.

Give us a chance to reach them.

Because when I say, well, hey, I'm pastor of CCW, oh yeah, do you know so-and-so that goes to your church?

I say, uh-oh, here it comes.

He hadn't paid me, he's been owing me for a year.

Oh yeah?

Yeah.

That's why when I get a bill, I try to pay it as quick as, especially for you in our church, I try to make sure, hey, I don't want.

He that knows he owes ought to pay.

Why?

It's not me.

It's God's reputation on the line.

That I do what I say I'm gonna do.

And if I don't, please come to me quickly and say, yeah, you hadn't paid me yet.

And I'm gonna blame it on Susan because I don't do the book work.

I don't even know what I make.

All I do is get an allowance.

Pretty big allowance.

Hello.

She does all that.

If you if I did that, I'd be bankrupt.

I'd give it all away.

And then the last thing, our confidence in the Lord.

How can we lead other people to the Lord if we're not confident in the Lord?

If we don't live confidently in the Lord.

I like what he says in Psalms 107, verse 2, let the redeemer of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.

Psalms 107:2

We got a power, we got a life that's different because of him.

Last thing and I'm through.

Number three, the fulfilling the royal law.

Verses 8 through 13.

You know what that is?

Here it is.

Look at what he says in verse 10.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Oh, those verses.

Luke 10, 29 through 37.

The Good Samaritan.

You remember that story.

Loving your neighbor.

Look at what he says right here.

Loving your neighbor is referred to as the royal law because it was given to us by the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

He said, A new commandment I give it unto you that you love one another as I loved you, that you also love one another.

John 13, 34.

It is the royal law because it supersedes all other laws.

Christ placed a huge emphasis on loving others.

Romans 13, 10, he said, Love works no ill to its neighbor.

And then look at the last part.

And I'm through.

This is so good.

Oh, verse 12, so speak ye and so do as they shall be judged by the law of liberty.

You know what he's saying?

You're not going to be judged by people, you're going to be judged by the law of liberty, the word of God.

And I gave you those verses.

Hey, God's law frees his people.

Can I get an A?

Amen.

Number one.

God's law frees his people.

Then Jesus said to those Jews which believe on him, if you continue in my word, you're my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth.

And say it with me.

Truth shall what?

Then number two, his law gives liberty.

He says, I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts.

Psalms 119, 45.

Number three, the liberty we have in Christ is, and hey, it's not a liberty to sin and to live wickedly, it's a liberty to exalt Christ.

Liberty means the freedom to be all that I can be in Jesus Christ.

Galatians 5, 13, he says, by love serve one another.

And number four, our liberty in Christ is never to become a stumbling block.

Never.

He says, Don't let your liberty become a stumbling block to them that are weak.

Oh, that's good.

And then number five, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty.

Wow.

What a passage of scripture that is so convicting.

So unbelievable convicting.

Because we're all guilty.

Sometime, someplace, somewhere.

Let me say thank you.

We've had our church now almost August, end of August, mid-August, it'll be four years.

It'll be our fourth anniversary.

And I mean this.

I have not sensed one bit of a majority of social injustice or partiality in our church.

Can we give God a hand for that?

Now, we've had all things kind of things said about us.

I'm serious.

The greatest compliment this church has ever paid for me as a pastor, our our pastor, to get.

I've had people come to this church.

And you know what they said?

They said, we were told by another church that we ought to come to C CW.

And and here's what I said.

Why'd they say that?

They said, we probably would be more acceptable.

I've had people come here and tell me that.

They've worshipped here because people had sent them here.

Because they said they might feel more welcome there.

You know who what that person was a total name?

A snobby Christian.

Hello.

I'm not being ugly.

I would tell it to their face.

Amen.

Thank you.

For being here.

I look out here.

I look out here to see the diversity in all areas.

And then I look, man, where it says loving God and loving people.

And I know that's true here.

I've been in churches, I've preached in churches.

I know that wasn't true.

I've had pastors run off because that wasn't true.

Because they were going after the wrong crowd.

I've dealt with that for 30 years.

Thank God.

Thank God.

You're in a church.

You'll never have to worry about that.

And then if that is a problem for you, guess what?

This probably is not the place for you.

Because we're not going to debate it, we're not going to argue about it.

This is God's house.

It's not Danny's house.

It's not the council's house.

It's not your house.

This is God's house, and it's open to whosoever.

Thank you, Lord.

I'm gonna love you.

I don't care if you've got, hey, I don't care if you gave$50 for the goals, or you gave$1,000 for the goals, I'm gonna love you the same.

Or if you gave no money to the goals, I'm gonna love you the same.

I didn't see your hand go up.

No, okay.

I'm joking.

It's getting a little heavy there.

I knew he could let me kind of lighten this thing up a little bit.

But really, does that make sense, church?

Come on, help me.

Doesn't that make sense?

Let me tell you something about your counsel.

There's some of the best givers in this church.

And I'm saying that to you to let you know your leaders live what they say they are.

Or they won't be a leader.

Amen.

Amen.

That's the way it's supposed to be.

We're to be an example to you.

We love you.

I love you so much.

I was putting this together and I was thinking, thank you.

You know what I do most times?

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord, for our church.

Thank you, Lord, for our church.

Thank you, Lord, for our church.

I just started thinking about you and the names.

And you know what I want to do?

Sarah's gonna help us do this.

We want to get a directory, an online directory.

Wouldn't that be helpful?

And we only have about 110 covenant members, but we have about 250 people come regularly.

And we want your picture too.

If you're not a covenant member, that's okay.

You still feel like this is your family.

And it is, whether you've signed the covenant or not, we're your family.

But there's a reason for that covenant.

Because we want you to be really, hey, this is my family, but more than that, I want to make a covenant to help our family be all that it can be.

And you that have signed it doesn't mean that you don't mean that, but it is kind of a level of another commitment step level.

That's all that is.

So we can, when we do need leaders and we do need Sunday school teachers, and we're starting five Sunday school classes this fall.

We that's where we have to, you know, the only thing you can't do if you're not a covenant member.

And I'm saying this for readings because I'm gonna invite you, if you're interested in joining church, come here and get a covenant book.

But the only thing you can't do if you're not a covenant member is you can't vote when the church makes major decisions, and you can't be in a leadership position if you're not a covenant member.

But you can do everything else, and that's great.

But if you want to be there, then you know that.

But by the way, I don't go up and say, well, bless God, Greg, you're a covenant member.

I love you.

Well, David, you're not a covenant member, God bless you.

I think that's just what I show you is partiality.

No, no, we don't, folks, we don't do that.

We don't do that.

We love you.

So, where are you today?

Here's the invitation.

Is your light shining?

If people where you live, in your, hey, in your work, in your school, you graduates, wherever you are, when they look at you, do they see Christ?

That's it.

That's the invitation.

Do they see Christ?

Do they know you are a living Christian?

Not a professing Christian, but a living Christian.

You live your Christianity.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

If you would like to find out more about us, visit us on our webpage at thechurch at cw.com.

You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at TheChurch at CW.

Need prayer or more information?

Send us an email at office at the church at cw dot com.

We hope you have a wonderful day, and again, God bless you.