Wander

And so you can't say to yourself, no, no, no, no, no, not me. I can't do it. I'm a hypocrite. Baloney. Forget it.

You stop looking at yourself. Forget that. Look to Christ and follow him. That's your authority.

Hello, friends. Welcome to the Life Tabernacle Church podcast. It's an honor to be with you today. This podcast serves as our church's weekly sermon archive. Tune in each week to hear what God speaking in our community.

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All of God's people said, amen. Amen. This morning, we're gonna be in James for the last time. It's been eighteen weeks. We've been working through the entire letter or the entire book of James.

And let me tell you, it has been a pleasure. Amen? I've done some series through the Bible, but I've never done one quite like this. So it has been an honor being able to try to present to you all each week God's word for you in a way that would impact you. I'm gonna thank Kenny and Dreama as they told me months ago, toward the beginning of the year, hey, I would love to hear, have a sermon series on the book of James.

And so thank you so much for hearing from the Lord, and he placed that on your heart. And I think it's been a blessing to us. And I think we've been well informed week after week that the Christian life is much more than just having the right information. Right? We have information.

We have more information readily available to us than ever before because of our devices, because of the Internet, because of all of that. But we all know there's a big difference between having information and then actually being able to integrate that information into our lives. All of us know we should probably work out and not eat as much ice cream, right? But we have that information, but we don't do it. And that's what James has really been telling us.

It's not about just being hearers of God's word, it's about being doing what? Doers, good. We've passed our test. That was your one test, one question quiz this morning. We've been told over the last seventeen weeks a few things.

We are told that we are to be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. We were told that we need to find joy in our trials. We were told to not shipwreck our faith. We were told to take pride in our high positions in Christ. We were told to keep our eyes on the prize.

We were told to not be hearers of the word, but be doers of the word. We were told not to show favoritism. We were told to make sure our works and faith are working together. We were told to watch our mouths. Y'all still got your tongues that I gave away that Sunday?

Did y'all lose them? If you need a new one, I get you one. A terrible tongue of ours. We were told to pursue wisdom. We were told to humble ourselves.

We were told we need to weigh the... Need to watch the way we judge others. We were told to be careful with spiritual weariness and doing good for Christ. We were told we need to watch out for wealth and how it persuades us not to follow Christ faithfully. We were told to be patient until the Lord's return.

We were told that our faith is really real by the way we say yes or no. And last week, were told we need to pray and we need to move heaven upon this earth with a powerful, faith filled prayer life. And today, James concludes this book, I think, in a perfect manner. James is an absolute masterpiece, and the way he brings it to conclusion makes everything come together. It makes it all...

If it hasn't come alive for you yet, this will do it for you. So for the last times, grab your bibles. James chapter five, be looking at verses nineteen and twenty. My friends, this is the word of the Lord. My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and should bring that person back, remember this.

Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their wave will save them from death and cover a multitude of sins. My friends, this is the word of the Lord. Amen? Amen. Look at your neighbor and say, last day in James.

Last day in James. It was fitting yesterday, my sister-in-law, Milan, who is here in May for our women's gathering that we had, she went through something very, very difficult and very scary. Okay? So my in laws, my brother and sister-in-law, Caleb Milan, are known as district youth directors. And if you don't know what that means, basically, they're youth pastors over the whole state, and they're over the whole state of Michigan.

Their job is to pastor and to lead and to guide all the youth pastors and all the churches into all the youth. They're kinda like they're bishops in a way. And and and one of the ways that my my in laws raise money for their department is that they had this gig where they go to Michigan State University, and during all the home football games in the fall, they do all the the the crosswalk traffic. Okay? They help the police make sure people are crossing the road safely.

And they basically do this for half the season, and it's really long days. Like yesterday, my father-in-law had to wake up at like 03:30 and had to be at the stadium at 5AM, and they didn't get home till like 7PM. It's a very long day. And this is not like, you know, the cute crossing guard you had as a kid when you're crossing the street leaving school. Because I wish it was just elementary school kids, because elementary school kids sometimes listen.

But when you're at a football game and there's 70,000 people, many of them inebriated, very confused, loud, boisterous. It is very difficult to get people's attention when they're under the influence of alcohol. Right? And they're doing this in the name of Christ as well. And so while they were doing this, there's again, 60, 70,000 people at the game and something terrible happens.

There was this little boy about semi's age. He runs up to my sister-in-law Milan and goes, I can't find my mom and dad. He had wandered off from his parents. And again, this is not Walmart. I don't know if...

Has anybody's kids ever get lost to Walmart or Kroger? Anybody? Target? Okay. You.

Okay. All right. Thanks, Christie, for being honest. He turned... Kaden turned out okay.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. Was okay. So, you know, this is not that.

This is a a crowd of people that you're going to certainly get lost in. And this little boy is losing his mind because he can't find his mom and dad. So Milan was able to calm the little boy down, and they were able to find a police officer. Then somehow, by God's grace, they were able to locate the parents. But can you imagine the feeling in those parents' heart?

I mean, you're in a crowd, you're at a football game, and even though your team's not very good, Michigan state's awful. Even though your team's not very good, you're going to cheer on your team. And all of a sudden, you just have to, I don't know where my son is. I don't know where my daughter is. And I thankfully that's never happened to be a...

But I can imagine my stomach would just drop. And because some of the stories end like this one did. Police are able to reunite with the parents and all is good. But sometimes kids get lost and they don't make their way home. They wander off and they never make it back home.

And that story actually reminds me of another story that I heard. And I wanna tell you this one as well. I heard a story about there was this young boy who wandered away from God. He was said to grow up in a great church. He had wonderful parents.

He had great siblings. And he really had everything you would ever need. And and people actually called this little boy spoiled. He was a spoiled little brat, some would say. And some...

And and and and and he also... In high school, he went to a great high school. He got to play high school sports. He was really the king of high school. It was awesome.

It was beautiful. He had such a fun time. Life was good. Everything was going in his direction. And then, after a series of uncontrollable events, this young man began to question his faith.

He began wondering to himself, is God really real? Is this whole Christian life thing something that I I should actually be giving my life to? And for a season, this young man turned his back on Christ and wandered away from the faith. But the story goes, as this young man wandered into darkness, as his heart was strewn in pieces from the sins and temptations of the world. As this young man walked away from the fold of God, depressed, suicidal, and not wanting any will to live.

It was a couple of his friends or what James would call a couple of his brothers and sisters that were able to get to this young man somehow. And the story goes that this young man was deep in darkness yet his brothers and sisters were able to get to him and encourage him. Hey, Christ has more for you. You don't have to give your life up. And the legend goes that after a very painful time, this young man began to turn his eyes back to Christ.

A young man who thought he was going to be dead early in a cedar box. And I think at this point, I think you know who that young man is. I stand before you today not proud of everything that I've done in my past. Not proud I went through such a season of darkness. But I can tell you this, I don't glory in the fact that I have had pain, sin, and destruction in my life.

I only glory in the fact that when I had walked away from the fold of God, Christ came running for me. I had wandered from Christ and his glorious church, and yet he ran me down all the way. And so today, this passage hits a little different for me. Because I know what it's like to wander away. As we were singing Come Thou Fount this morning, that's why I asked the worship team to sing it.

There's not a hymn that I love more than that one. Prone to Wander. Lord, I feel it. Don't you feel that in your hearts? We've been following Christ for a long time, but we're all prone to wander.

So singing that today, was just thinking back to ten years ago. I was wandering away. And that's in all of our hearts. And so these concluding verses in the book of James mean a lot to me. It is not just about what it means to me.

I hope by the end of today, it would mean something to you. It would mean something really real to you. Look at your neighbor and say, wander. Wander. Let's look back to verse 19 and James chapter five together.

James five nineteen says, my brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, pause there. For the last time in this beautiful book, James employs his favorite address. He loves to address his audience as brothers and sisters. Look at your neighbor and say, what's up brother? But if it's a sister, say, what's up sister?

We're brothers and sisters. All of us in Christ. Even though Lewis and I don't look anything alike, and I'm one foot taller than him, we are nevertheless brothers, are we not? We are brothers in Christ because we have all experienced, and we're all under the blood of Christ. And for the last time, James kindly reminds them, family of God, siblings of God, you brothers and sisters.

He gets their attention one last time and he says this, if one of you should wander from the truth. Let's pause there. Because this this is what happened to me in that story I told you. If we are to wander from the truth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, He doesn't say if someone out there, if someone who doesn't know Christ, if some sinner, unbeliever in the world. No.

He says, if one of you. He's speaking to us, brothers and sisters who are belong to God's church. If one of you shall wander from the faith. Speaking to us. And I just wanna...

I... Again, if there's any pride in our hearts about this, I just want you to humble yourself. We are all prone to wander. Even the best of us. And it might not be what I went through in my life, but some of us just wander in our hearts.

We show up every week to church, but we're still not here. We've wandered from God. And so I think we all have to recognize. He says, if it is one of you, this could be us if we're not careful and we don't pay attention. He says, if one of you shall wander from the faith.

Look at that word, wander. It's what it means. It means to wander about, to kinda walk around aimlessly, kinda confused, kinda like when you get out Google Maps and it doesn't work. You're just wandering around, driving around, wandering where you are. He says, if one of you should wander from the faith, and you're probably wondering how do you wander.

There's a few different ways that people wander. The first one I wanna show you. People wander because they wander away from the faith is because they have shallow faith. Look at your neighbor and say shallow faith. This is what it says in Matthew 13 verses 20 through 21.

Matthew 13:20–21

It says, the seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly follow way. This is from the parable of the sower, one of Jesus' best teachings. And this is talking about the seed that falls on rocky soil.

A lot of people wander away from Jesus and the faith simply, they do not have deep faith, they have shallow faith. People excitingly come to God. There's a revival. Some move of God happens. They give their heart to Christ, but they really didn't like didn't consider the whole cost.

And then when life gets hard, they're like, nah, forget this whole Jesus thing. I'm just gonna go try to do it my own way. And you're wondering, why did they wander away? They just had shallow faith. It wasn't deep enough.

And so as things happen in life, they didn't have enough roots to stay in Christ. People wander away because of shallow faith. Number two, is sometimes people wander away because they are enticed by their own sinful desires. James one fourteen says this, but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. You're wondering, oh, wow.

You know, why did so and so, you know, I can't believe, you know, they're they're sending out in the world. Well, they've been dragged away by their own sinful desires that wage war within them. And sometimes people give into that. And they wander away from Christ and what he wants for their life because of these evil desires, these disordered desires that they're unable to compete with. And they wander away because their own sinful desires.

Number three, sometimes people wander away because they're hurt. Oh. You ever heard the word church hurt? I think we've all seen people wander away because they've been hurt in the church or by the church. Right?

Actually, when I was writing this, thought about Judas. You know, Judas Iscariot who was pulled away by his evil desires of wealth and to try to make things happen his own way. Judas was not happy that Jesus was not the Messiah he was expecting. He was expecting Jesus to be some political figure, some type of spirit, Jewish, like real king that was gonna sit on a throne right now. And Judas could not stand the fact that Jesus wasn't the leader who he thought he was.

And Judas was pulled away by his own evil desires and decides to sell Jesus to the the the high priest for 30 pieces of silver. But nonetheless, Jesus, Judas has certainly walked away or wandered away because he was hurt. He was hurt that Jesus didn't meet his expectation. And he just wanders away from Jesus. And think about you in your own life, whether someone close to you or whether yourself, there's so many people that we know that have wandered away from Christ in the church because some things didn't go their way.

Someone hurt their feelings. Someone sinned against them and they did not forgive them. And they just wander away because they're just hurt. Now I'm not saying that forgiveness is that easy. Forgiveness can be very difficult, but that's really the basic principle.

They don't forgive their hurt, they leave. And they wander away over something they could have dealt with themselves. They could have said, hey, sister so and so, you hurt my feelings. Instead, they just leave altogether. Which is is such a, I guess, shallow reason to leave.

Cause we're brothers and sisters, we hurt each other's feelings sometimes. But nevertheless, people wander away because they get hurt. The fourth reason why people wander away from the faith is because they completely stop believing that Jesus really is who he says he is. They are deceived in believing another savior or in another gospel. And this is something that the Bible warns against over and over and over.

This is what it says in first Timothy four one. It says that the spirit clearly says that in later times, some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Matthew twenty four ten through 13, let the words speak to you. At that time, many people will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

My friends, deception will make people wander off quickly. They'll start believing, hey, you know what? This whole Jesus thing isn't everything that I thought it was going to be. I'm not getting as much spiritual power as I thought I was gonna get. So let me go try this little new age movement.

Let's see if I can rub some crystals and rocks together and get some spells together, and maybe I can manipulate the universe to do what I want. Or maybe, you know what? Jesus is good, but man, Allah and and Mohammed sound really appealing. Islam's growing so fast. Maybe there's something to that.

Maybe Christianity has had its time, and maybe it's time for Islam to be the world's leading religion. And they're just swept away and deceived by doctrines of demons. People wander off. And there's certainly more, but those are the ones that really come to mind. But here's the really scary part about all these, from little to small, is regardless of why people wander away, it's extremely concerning and potentially life threatening.

Look at this, James five twenty says this. He says, remember this, whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover a multitude of sins. So James is saying if you're able to turn a sinner who's wandering away back, you're saving them from this. You're saving them from death and a a multitude of sins. Meaning, if you don't turn this person back, what is waiting for them at the end of the road?

Death and a piled heap of sins upon their head. What is on the table is someone's eternal life. If you ask me, I'm gonna tell you that the blood of Christ is strong. It is very hard for you to wander away from Christ. As I told you in my story, he ran me down.

But nevertheless, people sometimes keep running and running and running and running. And sometimes, out of God's love for them, he will give them what they want. And Christ will say, if you don't want anything to do with me, you don't have to have me. And he'll turn them over to their own device. This is what you see in the book of Exodus.

God's trying to work with Pharaoh over the first five plagues. Moses say, let my people go. And he keeps saying, no, no, no. Then after that verse, the six through 10, it says that God hardened his heart. He'd already made his decision in his heart.

And Pharaoh had already concreted his eternal path. His pride welled up and there was no chance for him anymore. And so what I'm just saying to you is, and I don't wanna cause fear in you like, well, I wander away, am I gonna lose my faith? It's very difficult for you to lose your faith. You have to give it away.

Nevertheless, this is what is on the table. If we wander away and we're not able to turn these people back, what is waiting for them is death and separation from our good and beautiful and holy God. That is what is awaiting those who wander away. And that's why Peter says concerning those who wander away and reject Christ completely in second Peter two twenty through 22, this is what Peter says. He says, if they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, and are again entangled in it, and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.

It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it, and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that has passed on them. Of them, the proverbs are true. A dog returns to his vomit, and a sow that is washed returns and wallowing in her mud. I'm telling you my friends, once you want, once you come to faith in Christ and you wander away, it is very, very difficult to come on back. That's what Peter's saying.

And in another place, the writer of Hebrews says, it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. This is very serious to James. He's writing to brothers and sisters who are walking away from Christ for whatever reason. And he is concerned for their eternal stakes, for their eternity. That is what's on the table.

Is that made clear, y'all think? That's what's on the table here. The stakes are high. That means your friend, your children, your your neighbors, your coworkers, those who have once followed Christ but have wandered away, this is what's on the table for them. Actually, for a moment, just close your eyes for a moment.

Make this real. Think about the person in your life, whoever it is, whoever the Holy Spirit brings to mind, that knew Christ that has wandered away. That person is the one we should be concerned for. And this is what's waiting on them if we can't turn them back. You can open your eyes.

So that is why we must, for the last time, we must obey what James is telling us to do. You ready? This is what he says. Let's read it all together again. My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this, whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

He says, bring that person back. Look at your neighbor and say, turn back. Turn back. Turn Turn back. We must bring that person back.

We must somehow, someway turn people who have wandered away from Christ and his church back into the loving arms of God. But did you catch what James says? He puts the responsibility of turning people from their way upon us. Upon us. And you're sitting here probably like, no.

No. No. No. No, pastor Dallas. No.

No. I I I... No. No. No.

Thank you. Like, they don't wanna hear what I have to say anymore. Like, you know, my brother or my sister, sister, you you know, know, my my my kids don't wanna hear what I have to say about Jesus no more. I've told them a 100 times. You should come on back to church.

You should give your heart back to God. Oh, no. No. They did. Not me.

No. No. No. That's pastor Dallas's job. No.

He's speaking to all of us, brothers and sisters. That is all of our responsibility to turn turn people back from the error of their ways. It is all of our jobs to do this together. And mind you, look, I'm fully aware that God can use a diverse amount of ways to bring a sinner, a brother and sister who's wandered away back into the family. The responsibility is not all completely on you.

It's ultimately on God to help you to do it. And I've known this and I've seen stories like this where you're praying for somebody in your life and that person will make comments to you like, man, like I just can't get away from these Christians. Like everywhere I go, someone wants to pray for me, you know, someone wants to bless me. And and and it's like God's everywhere trying to get my attention and you trying to turn them back. You're like, duh.

That's God. That's what we're trying to do here. So I'm not saying that the responsibility is just completely on you, but I think we have to take responsibility as if the problem or the weight is all on us. We have to have that mindset at least. And we are...

I'm well aware that God's very good and he's good at turning wandering people back. God could do it himself, but he wants to use you. He wants to use us. He wants to use the relationships that we have taken years to build to turn wandering people back to him. He wants to use you.

Look at your neighbor and say, you. You, brother Glenn. You. He wants to use you. He wants to use you, sister Patty.

It doesn't matter how good you think you're at at speaking, how how smart you are when it comes to knowing the things of God and theology. He doesn't care about all that. He just needs a willing heart, A heart of compassion. A heart that loves the person. A heart that loves the neighbor.

That you love your neighbor to the point that you're willing to do anything you need to do to turn them back from the error of their ways. My friends, you are God's number one choice for turning wandering people around in your life. It is you. You are option number one. Not some online preacher, not some podcast, thank God that God uses those things, but he wants to use you.

You have the relational equity with these people. You have built the relationships. There's no one better than you. Again, you might say to yourself, well, you know, they don't wanna hear it from their mom again. It needs to come from somebody else.

Maybe. But maybe maybe you're their mom or dad for a reason. It's you. God's placed you to do it. But with all that said, here's the last kicker though.

Here's usually the thing that actually prohibits from doing us. Here's the thing that really stands in the way from us trying to turn people back. We begin to think to ourselves, oh man, we... I... You know, I gotta I gotta get my brother and my sister.

I gotta I gotta turn them back somehow. But the problem is is I'm a hypocrite. Who am I? Well, I've wandered away. Who am I to judge them?

I I... You... The... I don't I don't have any authority because I don't do what God's word says. And here's the funny thing about James.

If we had listened to what James has said for five chapters, this is easy. James says he wants us to be doers of God's word, not only hearers. And if you are trying your best in the power of the spirit under the blood of Christ to do what God says, my friends, you have the authority to do it. You do. And so you can't say to yourself, no, no, no, no, no, not me.

I can't do it. I'm a hypocrite. Baloney. Forget it. You stop looking at yourself.

Forget that. Look to Christ and follow him. That's your authority. He's the one. So don't shrink back in fear that you're gonna be some judgmental hypocrite.

No. No. No. They're gonna look at your life and say, you know what? There's something about the way Tim has lived his life in the past few years that he actually does the things that he says he believes.

And when people see that over a period of time, you get authority. And when they get that authority, you say, you know what? And you tell something, Donald, why I'm using you, Tim. Maybe I'm prophesying over you, brother. They're gonna look at you and say, you know what, Tim?

You're right. My life's going to hell in a handbasket. And I've seen the way you lived your life obediently to God's word. I want some of that. And that's for all of us.

And that's what the book of James really is all about. Because the book of James ultimately is about loving God and loving our neighbor faithfully. And this is the best way we do it. All up to this point, it's really been all spiritual formation. All the sermons, all the messages have been focusing inwardly on ourselves.

Now we put the cap on the the the whatever whatever it's called. You put the icing on the cake. Is that right? Thank you. You put the icing on the cake.

We built this thing. We do spiritual formation. We do this deep inner work. Why? So that people can come to know Christ.

That's why. You do all these things so that you may be a faithful witness to everyone's around you. That is why when you look at James and he tells you to clean up your mouth, he wants you to clean up your mouth so when you turn wandering people away, they believe you. That is why James has taken this whole book to get to these two verses. That's why it's a masterpiece of literature.

And these two verses, he just brings it all back together. Gives you the reason why. Because to sum it up in the words of John, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, and that who shall ever believeth him shall not perish but have eternal life. That is why. So that people who are far from God can come closer to God's family.

That's why he wants you to do it. Worship team, would you please come up? I mean, don't you just love how God's word's written? It's like God wrote this thing. It's like he inspired men over thousands of years to write his own words.

And you were like, woah, that's such a good ending. Well, God wrote it. That's why. This is God's beautiful word. And so, as it's been made clear, as we conclude the letter or the book of James, James, our brother in Christ, is compelling us not only to be concerned with how we ourselves are walking, but he wants us to be concerned with how others are walking.

This is how we love our neighbor as ourselves.