Faith is an Active Verb - Woody Morwood

What does it mean to have a faith that actually lives?

In James 2:14–24, Pastor Woody Morwood challenges us to recapture an undeniable, living faith—a faith that moves beyond words and belief statements into real, visible action. James confronts the idea that faith can exist without deeds and asks a sobering question: Can that kind of faith save?

Through a powerful story of a small church faithfully serving people released from prison in Venezuela, this message reminds us that faith is not a claim to make—it’s a life to live. A faith rooted in Jesus will always express itself through love, compassion, and obedience. True faith shows up in real moments, responds to real needs, and moves toward people—not away from them.

James teaches that faith and action are not competing ideas. They are inseparable. Faith is a verb, and when it is alive, it shapes how we love, serve, give, and live every day.

This message invites us to examine our faith honestly and ask: Is my faith moving—or has it stalled?

For the full gathering of this message which includes worship, visit our Youtube channel.
 
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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hi, Church. How are you today? Good? You're smiling. That's good. I hope after we get through this section of James, you'll still be smiling. I want to start with a story today. But it was triggered for me in a moment about a month ago when I started seeing news. Have you ever noticed sometimes you go to the news because you want to be informed, and other times you're bombarded by it in a million different ways when you weren't even looking for it? Do you know what I'm talking about? A little bit of both. What came up in the news was Venezuela, a country on the tip of South America. And everything was being talked about. Everything from oil to regimes to leadership to politics and everything else. And I don't know what you thought about when you saw all that news, what was going through your mind, where you camped out your direct line of thought. I would love to share with you where mine was. Can I tell you a story that isn't newsworthy or maybe it should be newsworthy, but it's what I remembered, what I saw when they started talking about it. I was part of a church about 30 years ago that uh had a sister church just outside of Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela. And an opportunity rose up to go like do life with them, to serve with them and help the mission and the work that God was doing in their lives. And so I jumped on an airplane, flew into Caracas, got off the plane, and ended up in a van driving through some of the most beautiful, lush, green, tropical-like space I had ever seen. The city was so busy, so many people walking around, the markets were full, and I was finding myself filled with anticipation to meet people, to experience a place I'd never been before, to see the work of God happening. We drove outside of town and down a dirt road, and when you're in a van with a bunch of people with all your luggage and stuff, you know, every bump you feel it, and you're kind of going, you can kind of see outside, you're curious, but you can't see well. And all of a sudden we pulled into this little spot and we all started to get out. And when I got out, I immediately saw this single building that was the church. And my first thought was, no way, look at this property they have. There's so much expansive space on either side. There's nobody around here. How did they ever get this property to build this church? Like I thought this church didn't have much money. And just as I was thinking that, I'll never forget hearing a loudspeaker like scream through the air. The voice through this loudspeaker was commanding people to move from one place to another place. And I did this immediate 180-degree turn to be staring down a dirt road at a Venezuelan prison. And all of a sudden, I was like, maybe this prime property with space on both sides isn't as prime as I think it is. My world began to change because the pastor invited us all in. And as we went into the church, they had tortilla soup ready for us, fresh baked tortillas, and just the meal of a lifetime. And through English and Spanish and a translator, he started to fill in the blanks that I had, wondering what was going on at this particular church. He said to us with excitement, I could still remember it, even 30 years ago. Can you believe this amazing property we have right across the dirt road from a prison? And it was like he couldn't be more excited. He went on and said, Can you imagine we will be the first thing that a released prisoner will see? We will be the first door that they knock on. We could be the first meal that they eat when they leave that prison. You could begin to see that there was something transformed in him. He wasn't thinking straight. Not the best place to put a church, right? Or the absolutely best place to put a church when it was the calling that God had on their lives. He went on and talked about how many of these prisoners would often be disconnected with families, friends, have nobody, and with excitement, he said another statement like, Could you imagine we could become their family? He went on and with all the casualness in the world, he said this. A lot of things disappear around here. And so when you come to the church every day, you may not want to bring anything that you're not okay giving away or having it all of a sudden disappear. His spirit, his heart, his actions matched a man and a church that had been radically changed by God. And I want to tell you, I got to observe and participate with some of the most authentic faith I've ever seen. I tell you that story because really that is what this James chapter 2 passage is. And so if you have a Bible, I want to encourage you or your phone to pull out James chapter 2, and we're gonna be looking at verses 14 through 20. But before I even read the longer passage of scripture that kind of really gets to our hearts and sees where we're at, I want to give you kind of the theme of today. I'm gonna be spending a lot of time emphasizing faith is a verb, it's not a noun. Faith is a verb, and there is action and movement tied to faith. If you and I call ourselves believers, there should be some giddy up in how we live. Just keep that in mind as I read this passage. The word of God out of James chapter 2, verses 14 through 20 says this. Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, Go in peace, keep warm and well fed, and and does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, You have faith, I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe there is one God? Good. Even the demons believe that and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? God's word sometimes is quite challenging, convicting, and even spurs us on in ways that we never imagined. And so I'm hoping today you are sitting in a seat here at church and are going, oh boy, giddy up. God, I'm an open book. What do you want to point out in me? What I love about this chapter two, verses 14 through 20, is that it really picks up with an ongoing theme that James has writing to his original uh listeners, a church, a group of people that were trying to follow Jesus. And what he was doing even in chapter 1, verse 22, Aaron had highlighted three weeks ago, is he said that we should be doers of the word and not just hearers of the word. There's kind of this ongoing theme in James about if God has shaped you and changed you, there should be some evidence of it. It's not a works-based faith where you have to wake up every morning and force yourself to do things that seem really good. But when you have a right relationship this way, it should change how we do things this way. One of the ways that I'll be saying this quite a bit today is this. When our mind is engaged with God, our head is engaged with God, it impacts our heart. So when mind and heart are deeply stirred by God, guess what it does? It changes what we do with our hands. There's radical change by this God that wants to do something with us. And James believes that so much that he decides to be emphatic about it and really be direct in challenging us. In the seven verses I just read, listen to some of the things that he really got to. He said this faith without deeds is useless. He says that in verse 14 and in verse 16. He says in verse 14 also that this type of faith without deeds is unable to save. In verse 20, he implies and hits at that it's an ineffective. And then he's even more specific with his language in verse 17 and 26. He says that this type of faith is dead. One translator said, This type of faith is a still corpse. There is nothing alive, nothing being stirred, nothing changing. And so a lot of what I'm hoping to do today is to talk with you about an authentic faith, a reliable faith, a dynamic faith, and a faith that absolutely changes how you and I exist in the world and do life with people. I think one of the reasons that uh this passage is pretty challenging is I think James is almost saying to us, do you realize how life and death this reality is? Well, when he said that this faith doesn't, this type of faith won't save you, he's saying you are missing something so significant. This could change your life. This is life-threatening. Pay attention to this. I think I saw that in the truest sense when I was in Venezuela for those couple weeks doing life with a dynamic people that were ready to put action to what they were called to do in that season, and that is have a church across the street from a prison. And the reason it was so impactful for me is I had just finished up a four-month class uh where I was studying theology, I was studying doctrine, I was studying right beliefs. And in the class, we had to write papers, we got to have dialogue or debate. And as I kept talking so much about my faith, it was important to get the head knowledge right. But four weeks sitting in a class, I think there was part of me going, when does the head connect to the heart? And even more so when I was there in Venezuela seeing these people just outside the city of Caracas radically living out what they were reading in the scriptures that was shaping their minds and then shaping their hearts, I was watching them put into practice what it means to follow God. And so I think this whole passage of James is gonna do the same for us. And if you look at verse 14, when it says, What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims? I want to highlight that word claims for a little bit. Have any of you ever said you were gonna do something but then didn't do it? Or am I the only one in the room? Yesterday was Saturday. This is a lighthearted example, quick here. Do you know as I was walking around, I started noticing like honestly, seven, eight, or nine different little projects that I think sometime over the last two months I've told my wife that I would do, but they're still sitting there prepped and ready to happen at some point. Can I use some spiritual examples for you though? With that word claims in verse 14, I tried to think through the difference between my aspirational speech around my faith and what is actually reality. And I'm curious if some of you will relate to some of these claims. If you do, wouldn't it be kind of funny if in here everybody just said ouch every time they were guilty too? You probably won't, but I'm probably the only one. Listen to some of these. Have you ever done these before? Have you ever told anybody I will pray for you? And then you see them at church two weeks later, and you totally forgot to pray for him. What about this one? I forgive you, and then you walk away, and bitterness is kind of fun to dwell on for a little while, isn't it? And sometimes it's horrible. You know what's even more fun than bitterness? Gossip sometimes, and can't wait just to tell one or twenty other people how somebody else had harmed you. Well, what about a spiritual claim like this? I'm going to church this Sunday. Oh, wait, the week got away from me. Maybe next month. What about this one? We should get together. Sometimes I am so bad at this, I almost feel like I need to say, before 2028. What about this one? New year, I'm gonna read my Bible. Everybody, today's February 1st. Has anybody seen my Bible? What about this one? My word of the year is generous. Right after I add up, do I have enough extra to watch out for myself first? And finally, I am done with procrastinating next week. How come none of you said ouch? Is there a collective ouch in here, or am I the only one? These claims that James is talking about is trying to say, where is what you believe in your head connecting with your heart and now being lived out with your hands, your time, and your energy. James is trying to really help us wrestle with this, and he uses two other kind of different like arguments or illustrations, and one of them begins uh a little bit later, and he starts to create kind of this verbal debate, goes back and forth a couple different times. And if you look at verse 18, it begins like this. But someone will say, it's a fictitious uh character, it's uh may have been a conversation that really happened and it may not have, but what he's trying to say is, I've heard this language amongst you, the people that I'm writing to. But someone will say, You have faith, I have deeds, I will show you my faith by what I do. There's a lot of different moments here in this James passage where James is using the technique of a rhetorical question. Like when he says, What good is this kind of faith? Hopefully, in your heart and in your head, you're hearing, it's no good. Well, he creates this back and forth argument between two people fighting about which one is more important: faith, doctrine, and beliefs and ideas about God, or action, living it out. And what I love about James and what I also love about the Apostle Paul, that sometimes this debate comes from is that often it is really two sides of the same coin that they're approaching the conversation. If you're a newer believer and you ever go to a Bible study and somebody is implying over and over again, grace is a free gift, forgiveness is a free gift. When you believe in Jesus, you can't do anything to earn your salvation, they're being 100% true. But if you're in a different Bible study and somebody's going there, man, deeds and living out your faith and action should be happening. That when you are so close to God, you can't help, but now it impacts the way you live. Do you realize this? They're really both saying the same thing. They're two sides of a coin, and the coin is this when we are dynamically in love with God, it will change how we see the world, think about the world, live and act. Let me give you one of the examples of the Apostle Paul in Galatians, where he was really trying to make sure that those that felt like they had been born into the faith because they were Jewish and kind of got a free ticket to connection with God, he was challenging that and trying to make sure that they weren't living just to get the Ten Commandments right. And in Galatians chapter 2, verse 16, the Apostle Paul says this mid-sentence. Know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. All right, if anybody leaves church here today and you go home and you talk to somebody and they say, What'd you learn in church today? Oh, Woody guilted us and shamed us and said we better be full of lots of works and actions or we're not going to heaven. I am not saying that, nor is the apostle Paul. We are saved because God so loved us, he knows how to transform us. But even the apostle Paul believed that our transformed lives should look differently, which equals deeds. Listen a little bit later, three chapters later in Galatians chapter 5, verse 6, the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. If any of us today are living in kind of a cerebral faith where just God knowledge is up here, but we kind of live however we want to out here and never slow down to take care of the things that God would ask us to step up to take care of, we may be missing out on an authentic, dynamic, reliable faith. And that's why I love James. If you open up your heart and you allow God to point out those claims, point out the distractions, point out the procrastination, what's possible over and over is that we become more like the hands and feet of Jesus rather than more and more like myself that seems to avoid the things that God wants me to become. What's fun about this is sometimes some of people will ask me, well, which one comes first? Faith and then the actions, or the actions and then the faith? Or is it all blended up, mixed together, and God can work in a variety of ways? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Do you know where our God knows how to get our attention in so many different ways? I have met non-believers that have come to a serve project that see something so radically different, there is a hunger inside them to know about God because they want to know God. And I've also seen people who know so much about God, but nothing's changed in their lives, that after knowing God and finally surrendering to God, then the transformation comes. This is a dynamic thing called faith in. I'm gonna add an ING onto that action verb faith. Church, are you in the process of faithing? Is your head and your knowledge getting right with God? Is it changing your heart and now your hands are actively doing the work and your body and your time and your energy makes it look like you know this, Jesus? Faith is an action word. It's so dynamic. This action is so important that I found a verse this week as I was preparing that God gave the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, and he said it long ago. And when Jesus, the Son of God, came and was living amongst the disciples and the people that were following him, he also said the exact same quote. So anytime I see something in the Old Testament and the New Testament, I pay attention to it. It said this these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Do you know we can talk a ton about God? We can know a ton about God, but until this and this and these are working in a beautiful, transforming way, we may not have a dynamic, authentic faith. I want to go back to one of the illustrations that was given, and uh James here is trying to show a dynamic of what a moment would look like where deeds are not connected to faith. And so if you go back in your Bible a little bit earlier in verses 15 and 16, it talks about a scenario. And the scenario is this suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? And by the way, that's another rhetorical moment where we all should be saying, It's no good. Could you imagine seeing a family member or a close friend or a colleague at work who came along bad times and all of a sudden had ratty clothes on a cold night sitting on a concrete bus stop bench? And we were to drive up and notice them and go, hey, Freddie, good to see you. Oh man, you look cold and hungry. You know what? Go in peace. Good luck, stay warm and well fed. Uh, can't wait to run into you again and drive away. James knows he's being sarcastic. By the way, most of the time, anyone under the age of, I'll say my age, anyone under the Age of 55, be careful of sarcasm. It's not good for the soul unless it calls out lack of faith. James is using some sarcasm here. It does no good to be a well-wisher or a claims person if action doesn't follow afterwards. As one of the pastors here at Hillside, one of the things that I'm wanting God to shape in me, and then I feel like I want to tenderly throw out to you is our God so badly wants to transform us that if we are gonna have a dynamic impact in Rancho, San Bernardino Valley, Southern California, the majority of people will probably come to know faith and know Jesus not by this worship center, this address, or this location, but you and I living radically dynamic outside and everyday scenarios. What's so powerful about this passage is could you imagine the majority of people that come to know Jesus in this area would say, I know five or six hillsides, something so different about them. They're not perfect, but they really represent Jesus, and Jesus is now attractive to me, and they follow through with their claims. They they actually step up and do something. I would cheer all day long if that was the rumor about this place, rather than, oh my word, you gotta come sit in the worship center. It's amazing. This is about dynamic faith and action. Faith is a verb. You and I are faithing in every way. I wanted to illustrate this in a powerful way. And one of the ways that I thought that we could do this is there's a bunch of hillsiders that are involved in a couple of our different food shelters. And so I just had a conversation and they were able to send somebody down to interview one of our hillsiders, and it's almost like a faith and action testimony video. I want you to see how God's working on one man's heart and what it looks like to believe in and follow Jesus with head, heart, and hands. Watch Blair.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

You know, I I play a lot of roles here. I I've been here for about four years, so they they move me around. Great group of people. I think it's a great ministry, Hope Food Pantry here in Ranch Fukumonga. You can really tell some of the people that really need it and um appreciate it. They're very grateful. People line up at 6 30. Uh we have average probably 150 to 200 on holidays, Christmas, Easter, we have almost 300 people. There's there's been people that drive up and uh we help carry the food out of their car. And then you see a mattress. Car, mattress, and they have the food. So yeah, there's definitely a need. It's sad to see when kids are involved too. Um but yeah, that's it's it's it's it's not uncommon to see moms just trying to provide what they can't. You don't have to have any special skills, just some helpful hands and um be willing to volunteer. We have a lot of people that bring food, or I you can take it to church and uh they gather the food there, and then we go pick it up in trucks and bring it down to the food pantry here. And uh we're here, we're you know, we're here to help any way we can.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

Could you hear the tenderness in Blair's voice? He saw people like Jesus sees people. He's responding in ways like Jesus would. And uh I told Blair I'd be really careful. I don't want to focus on him, I want to focus on the work that God is doing inside of Blair's heart. He was so funny. He said, I wasn't prepared. I didn't know that I was gonna have that tender moment, and I said, I am so thankful they captured that because that is head, heart, and hands connected in a moment when God is clearly shaping somebody's life. Blair's been attending our church for over 27 some years. He's been volunteering up in kids, volunteers on our safety team, and Blair is a retired uh law enforcement officer who has one of the most beautiful, tender hearts I've ever seen, and he is living for God his entire life and even in greater ways now when he has more time. I want God to keep doing that in me. Does anybody else? This passage challenges us to know the people across the street from us, to know the people in our city, to challenge us to know the stories of one another in church. When it says, when you see a brother and sister, there's familiarity in that language. There's like a way that we live where we're looking. God, how do you see this world and how do you want me to engage it and get involved in it? But I know that's challenging because I'm like you. I live in a world that feels really needy sometimes. And I get burned, and I don't always know how to respond, and I don't know what to do. And so I thought what I would do is make this really practical for us today, and I'm hoping you'll open up your mind, your head, and your heart to let God just kind of examine where you're at in life right now on this practical side of living out faith. And the way that I thought I would do it is I'm gonna do it uh by asking a faith is an action verb kind of question. I want to do kind of a pulse check here with you for a second. If faith is an action verb, what's your pulse? What's flowing through you? How are you acting and living? And I thought of these words in this type of language for some of us. Some of us are in a space right now where we have compassion apathy. Some of us are in a space where we have compassion and difference. Some of us are even in a space where we have compassion detachment. And if that happens to be you, and by the way, sometimes I think we flow back and forth in these different things. Could I tell you, I think right now is a sweet season of life for you to keep going back to God and say, could you shape my heart the way it needs to be shaped? Anybody else ever get disillusion disillusioned with how much need and brokenness there is in the world and you kind of want to go isolate somewhere? Man, why am I the only one that needs Jesus in faith? You guys are kind of like quiet. Am I the only one that feels overwhelmed sometimes? I think James would tell us, and faith would tell us, if you notice you have a heart of apathy, indifference, or detachment, what a great prayer to ask God to shape your heart to be able to be ready to see the world that you need to see through Jesus' eyes. There's another extreme that I wrote some language for. What about this one? A faith in action pulse check. Do you have compassion overload? Compassion fatigue, compassion confusion. Do you ever have a friend or a family member that's in such a complicated space? You've been trying for so long and in so many different ways, and you finally just don't even know what to do anymore, and you're confused. In this extreme, later in James chapter 5, it talks about if anyone lacks wisdom, ask God for wisdom. That second set of pulse check that I just did, I think is a perfect example of sometimes when I'm trying to save the world on my own and I'm not doing it with God. Does that make sense? When I feel overwhelmed, when I feel fatigued, when I feel confused, it is like a prime moment for me to go back to God and say, God, help me know what to do in this confusing moment. Help me know what to do when there's not enough hours in the day to take care of all the need I see. God, help me to do the next right act that you would call me to. I'm hoping you're seeing how this faith verb, this faithine, this action happens. When we keep running to God and we're in dynamic, right relationship, it shapes our head, it shapes our heart, and then we daily ask God, how would you have me use my hands, my time, my energy, my resources? And we begin to be a part of the dynamic work of what Christ Jesus has called us into. James in verse 26 is so direct. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. James says, even the demons believe and shudder. When will there be such a dynamic relationship where we live into something different? I mentioned a little tiny church down a dirt road across from a prison, and what they saw shaped their hearts and minds. I've been doing something, try to do it two or three nights a week that when I leave church, I drive up on the parking structure, usually around sunset, and I pause to look over our city, and I pause to pray. God, would you give me eyes to see what you're calling me to and our church to? God, help us to do more than just give a can of soup, but help us to give a can of soup and see if they need volunteers. Not just look at a neighbor across the street and go, hey, I hope everything's going okay, but to maybe surprise them with a meal when their wife is navigating a fight with cancer. I have been trying to pray with eyes for a city. God, would you help Hillside be some of the most radical Christ followers and Christ lovers that what's attractive about following Jesus is what they see in our faith-oriented spurred-on deeds. James is so radically calling us to something. I tried to describe it like this. Isn't it obvious that God talk without God acts is outrageous nonsense? Here's the prayer then. God, would you give us wisdom for each of the next right steps to live boldly into an undeniable faith? We're gonna need wisdom to do that. And so if you have your journal, notice that there is a prayer in there from Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5 and 6. And rather than having you go out of here and try to just live this out of your own power and strength, we thought this would be a great verse to pray as you try to live out an authentic faith. Aaron, the last three weeks has been putting this passage up there and basically inviting all of us to pray it, say it, read it out loud. In view of James chapter 2, are there any other Christians like me that need wisdom? If so, would you read this prayer with me? Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not in your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Could I pray that we would live this way? God, thank you for the directness of your word today. Thanks for the inspiration of your love and your guidance. Would you do something in each of us where our head, our heart, and our hands are connected to live vibrantly in this world? God, I'm hoping today that you were tugging on hearts, that you were opening up spaces that needed to be forgiven. There are things that all of us have left undone. God, there are things that I have claimed that I have not followed through with. God, would you help us to be a dynamic people of God, I pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.