Favoritism | James 2:1-13 | Jarryd Cole

Pastor Jarryd continues in the book of James, teaching about how we as a new life people must fight against favoritism. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to the Ambassador Church Podcast, a church in the city for the city, on Milwaukee's East Side. We pray this message meets you where you are, challenges your faith, and draws you closer to Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

We are continuing our series in the book of James. And if you have your Bibles, you can meet me there. We're gonna be in James chapter two. And as we come into this fresh and new chapter, James is gonna be hitting on another kind of fresh and important topic as he talks about the topic of favoritism. And James is talking about favoritism, but have in mind, he's not talking about like having a favorite color. Okay, he's not talking about having a favorite sports team you cheer for or whatever, okay? But he's talking about having a biased discrimination against people. And before we attack this, I want to kind of just set it up by looking back at chapter one, the very end of chapter one. If you remember this from last week, um, we came to this chapter talking about what it means to not only uh hear the word, but do the word, right? Don't just talk about it, but be about it. But at the very end of chapter one, James has this really unique spot um where he's talking about what pure and true religion is. And I have a question for the room this morning. When you think of religion, I wonder what comes to mind for you. Like, what do you think about whenever you hear the word religion? And so many of us in the evangelical space, we even have this kind of phrase that we have where we say, hey, Christianity isn't a religion. Christianity is a what? Relationship. But y'all, I want to post to us this morning that I I love that phrase. Okay, I think it's good and right. But I also think it often does a kind of disservice to us too. That yes, Christianity is a relationship, but it also has some things in it that are like rules and regulations, too. Like you come to church, you pay your tithes, we pray, we read our Bibles, we get baptized, we do communion, all these different kinds of things. And if you're the type of person who thinks about religion, you might think that that list alone, like, okay, that's that's what religion is. But James also gives us some something else to kind of hold on to. And he says this in James chapter 1, verse 27. It's gonna pop up here on the screen. James says this, that pure and undefiled religion, or we could say true religion, before God the Father is this it is to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world. He's saying true religion is not neglecting or discriminating against the marginalized and the least of these. And to be a person, furthermore, who lives their life more marked by heaven than by earth, unstained from the world. See, that's a little bit different list than what we're kind of more accustomed to, isn't it? Like I'll list it off what, how many, four, five, six things? What's James' list look like? It's just two. He says, this is true religion. And I think it's important for us to know that like what James is talking about here, I don't think he's being super prescriptive in that saying, like, hey, in order to do this, and in order to practice true religion, you have to be caring for the orphans and the widows. I don't think this is like prescriptive for us, but I think it's more descriptive, meaning that true religion is, yes, visiting them, but we can make the case here in our own 2026 context, America, that like this means caring for the incarcerated and the post-incarcerated and the homeless in our midst, right? So many different people, the communities that don't have access to fresh produce, right? Who live in food deserts, right? There's so many of these orphan and widow type people, even around here in our own context, to care for the immigrants, the people who are looking for refuge, coming to a place where they think that they can find it, people of lower socioeconomic status. He's saying that this is what it kind of looks like to practice true religion. In other words, what James is saying is that genuine faith, true religion, has observable change. You might say it like true religion bears fruit. But we have to have the right perspective on that, right? Like it's not like, hey, religion means like I have to work and earn something to be seen right in the eyes of God. That's not what James is trying to say. Maybe here's a nice little quote for you to write down in your notes. If you've taken notes, hear this. The gospel isn't anti-work, it's anti-earning. It's not anti-work, it's anti-earning. It's not like, hey, change to get something from God, because in Christ you already have everything that you can get. This is what's true in the gospel. But your change is a response of conviction and humble gratitude to God for all that He's done. Namely, sent His Son to die on the cross for you. If someone's in here, you're hearing this, and you're like, no, no, no, no. It's Jesus alone. It's grace, it's faith, faith, faith, all this guy. Listen, listen, okay, you're right. Don't come from my head. You can listen to our explicit gospel series from uh several weeks ago, the whole thing. You can listen that we were there with you, okay? But we also have to know that the Christian faith isn't just about some intellectual ascent, but it is about life transformation. Like the document you're holding in your hands, the Bible, the words that we're reading on the screen. Like they don't only hold like these theoretical ideas and truths to help you gain this entry into the kingdom of God, but it is about your practical life even here on earth. Like it's not made for you to only think about and prepare for the life to come. It is that, but it also is made for you to think about and put into practice what it means to live your life now. That what happens to you after you believe in Jesus is that you become something completely different. You're not the old person that you once were, but you are functionally a transformed person. See, 2 Corinthians 5, chapter verse 17. This is where we get the name ambassador church from. Paul is saying to the church in Corinth, he's saying, Hey, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. Therefore, we plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. An ambassador is a transformed person. You are new in Christ, a new creation. And believer in the room, this is great news. Because if you are a Christian, here's what's true: there is new life in you. And the message that the Bible wants to communicate to Christians is that new life people do new life things. And James is saying that specifically here in the pastors today, new life people don't do this thing right here. They don't show favoritism. And here's our key takeaway for the morning. Okay, the main point, if you guys need this, it's that true religion fights against favoritism. So, Ambassador Church, we must fight against favoritism. If you're in the book of James, chapter two, verse one, I want to start reading. Here's what James has to say. He says, brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. What James is kind of saying as he jumps off the bat right here, saying, Hey, favoritism and Christianity are incompatible. Like these things do not go together. Like here, James is making this great appeal for not showing favoritism, and we have to know that he's not saying this to like some random people out there on the street. Like he's not just saying this to the evil people that you can kind of think of in your mind, and like the people who are non-believers, but no, like he's addressing this literally to the church. He's talking to believers, he's talking to you and me, and he's saying, hey, as believers in Jesus, one of the last things that should ever mark us as people who call in the name of Jesus is favoritism. And I want to help us kind of define what I mean by favoritism this morning. Favoritism is this it's what happens when we allow our preferences and our prejudices to rule our lives. This is what favoritism is. And in case you're wondering, who struggles with favoritism, it's every single one of us. If you think I'm talking to you, I am. But you're not alone. Okay? Amen. We might may not show favoritism all the time, but we do show it, and it looks different for a lot of us. Like we might show all the time, and it's actually easy to not show favoritism until favoritism starts to benefit us, right? Or until showing favoritism makes us feel better, or it just starts to feel comfortable to do. And it looks this way among us. Like if we're rich, we begin to discriminate against the poor. And if we're poor, we begin to discriminate against the rich. Like there's so many different ways we can do this. Like, need I go on with politics, with socioeconomics, with the color of skin, with our background, with our culture, creeds, all these things. Like the list can be endless to which we as people are tempted to show favoritism towards and back out of to have a biased discrimination. And y'all, we have to know, like, we live in a place like America that doesn't do us any favors on how not to show favoritism. Like we live in a culture that kind of just breeds this. And it not only breeds it, but it actually throws grease on the fire. Yeah. Like some of y'all remember during the times of COVID, that was some of the most heightened times that we experienced, man. And so much division, so much hatred, so many different things. Like I remember even talking to some of my like Asian American brothers and sisters. And you guys remember that time? Because all of the rhetoric and the language around COVID and the way that it kind of started and all this kind of stuff, like it pinpointed those people outside of the world. And there were people here in America who had that kind of ethnicity and culture and heritage, and they were saying like how they just felt discriminated against in this place. Like it wasn't on them. And yet they were experiencing so much danger, so much violence, so many threats, so many slurs, so many different things. And this isn't just a thing that's accustomed to that culture, but we just have a history of this in America. See, we can name all the things that the world tries to break us apart from and tries to make a show of favoritism for. But what James is saying and what the Bible screams in concert with him is that as believers in Jesus, y'all in the church, this ought not be. That when the church comes together in faith, that we put all of those things aside, that the world may look like that, but the church doesn't look like that. And the world may be coming to you and knocking on your door and saying, hey, you should think about things and care about these things and raise these things up to ultimate value. But we need to be reminded as Christians that we serve a different kingdom. Amen. That we follow a different king, that we dance to a different drum. Like that's why at the end of even this verse, James says, as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. Or some translations say, Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. Here's why. It's because we are to be reminded that we are in tune to his glory, to God's glory through his son Jesus, not our own. And we're accustomed to our own. This is when we get into this place of bias and discrimination and favoritism. And yeah, we gotta be honest. Like, like this is hard. Like it's hard to not show favoritism. It's hard to not be biased and discriminate. And so for the rest of the morning, I want to just give us two reasons why we should. I want to kind of just appeal to us this morning. And we'll get to the first one after these next few verses. Look at verse two. James begins to tell this story, and he illustrates what he's saying about not showing favoritism. He says, For if a man wearing a gold ring in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, You sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down at my feet. Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? The first thing we have to know, the reason why we should be people who fight against favorites and the people call on Jesus is simply this reason right here. It's because people are bad judges. Like we're just bad judges of other people. Like we tend to look at the external and outward appearances of people, and we tend to judge off that. Like, what kind of clothes are you wearing? What kind of cologne or perfume do you have on? Do you smell good? What kind of car are you driving? Even what kind of accent do you speak with? And then we not only judge by that, but we treat people differently based on that. And the reason is because, hey, hear this. We are simply bad judges of the people around us. Now we need to know like nice and clean clothes, a nice car, the jewelry that we wear, all this kind of stuff. None of this equates to somebody being a good person or being holy, smelling good, all that kind of stuff, coming in right, like none of that equates to holiness, speaking the proper suburban Wisconsin dialect, okay? Like that doesn't equal being a holy person. It's bag, by the way, not beg, okay? Thank you. Yes, amen. Amen and amen. But none of that equates to holiness. But in our flesh, here's the truth. We want to judge, and when we do, we become judges with evil thoughts, James says. He says, we're just straight bad at it. But you might be thinking this room, okay. So what's the deal? What's the such the big deal about me judging like this? Here's the big deal. Because judgment primarily belongs to God, and God doesn't look at the external, he looks at the internal. There's a passage in your Bibles in the Old Testament, 1 Samuel chapter 16, where David, King David, uh, he wasn't King David quite yet. He was just a little shepherd boy, okay? And he's about to be anointed to be the king of Israel. Listen, this isn't like a one-to-one comparison about what we're talking about today, but I think this kind of gets at this idea of favoritism because it gets at the heart of God. And so what happened back in that day is that when people were going to be anointed king, there was a prophet that was sent to say, hey, hey, this is going to be the king of Israel. And at that time, there was a different king. His name was King Saul. Some of you might maybe know this kind of history. And King Saul was a tall dude. King Saul was a strong dude. He was dark-skinned, right? Tall, dark, and handsome. Y'all know somebody like that, okay? But uh he was he was this kind of a dude. And he was the obvious choice for who was going to be the king of Israel. But there was about to be a second king, okay? King Saul was tripping, all right? That's not like a prompting of myself, okay? Like that. You don't want to be King Saul, amen. But there's about to be a second king now, and Samuel the prophet has been sent on a journey. Hey, go to Bethlehem and find this next king. And he goes to this house, he goes to this house of Jesse. And Jesse was the father of David. And when Samuel arrives to Jesse's house, here's what happens. Jesse's got all these sons. And he lines them up. They come into the home, and Samuel is looking at all the sons, and he sees the first one come up, and he's like, Man, this dude gotta be it. Look at him. He looks just like Saul. Strong, handsome, right? Big, tall, all this kind of stuff. It's gotta be him. But the spirit of God never rested on him. He said, No, no, no, that's not him. The next one comes up. Just a little bit smaller, less strong than the first one. But this has got to be it, right? Nope, not him either. Not the third one, not the fourth one, not the fifth one, and so on. And it got to a point where Samuel was like, Jesse, is there anybody else? Like, this has to be the place. This is the town. This is the house. Is there anybody else? And Jesse's like, well, yeah, there's David. But he's out in the field, and he's for sure not who you was you've been sent here to come and see. He goes, Well, go get him. Go get him and let's see. And David comes in, little shepherd boy, gown on and all, tied up, dusty, musty, nasty looking, right? Probably sweaty. He they probably let him come into the door first until Samuel's like, he's clean enough. Bring him in. Bring him in. And he gets there. And the Lord is like, this is it. Dude was tore up from the floor, smelling probably like sheep poop and all the things. And God is like, that's the one. He's the one. Not as big, not as impressive, not as strong, not as tall, completely unexpected, but completely chosen by God. Why? Because he had something inside that the others didn't have. Like we tend to look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. And y'all thank God for that. Because some of us in here, even this room, we would be in bad trouble if that wasn't true, okay? But God doesn't look for the favorites, He looks for the faithful. And you can't tell that by outward appearances. And that's why James is warning against this. And I was reading this text and I was feeling convicted in my heart because I can feel him saying this not only to his own audience, but even to Ambassador Church right now. Like he's letting us know, hey, when those people that walk in, when your eyes kind of pop up and bulge, I'll be like, eh, here's the one. Like when they come in here, he says, don't you dare treat them any different. Or when the poor people come in here, hey, don't you dare treat them any different. Don't do it. And I wonder if he'd be saying that to us also in our personal lives. About the people in our neighborhoods, about the people we allow to come in and sit in our living rooms, about the people we share our dinning room tables with, about the people we say, hey, would you want to come on vacation with me? About the people that we kind of stray away from in this city. I wonder if he would say that to us now. But you see, the issue, it doesn't hinge on whether you treat someone well. I think it's important to notice that too. It's not a matter of if we break out all the hospitality stops for the rich people that's coming into this place who come in, bling down all the rings, pull up in the Cadillac Escalade on 22s, right in the non-existent parking lot that we have. It's not about if you treat them well. Like it's not about if you say, hey, hey, do you want some coffee? Can I get you some water? Hey, come check out this seat for you. I saved this for you. It's not a matter of if we do it. It's a matter of if we only do it for them.

unknown 20:14

Right?

SPEAKER_01 20:14

James is saying, hey, he's not saying don't care about nobody. He's saying care well for everybody. He's saying, church, whatever you do for one, it is actually your duty to do for all. And not only that, but it's actually foolish. It's foolish to make these kind of distinctions among people and show favoritism based on how much money they have. And James is gonna continue. Look at verse five. He says, Listen, my dear brothers and sisters, didn't God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who loved him? He says, It's foolish to do this, y'all. Because there's a certain place, a specific place, a special place that the poor have in the heart of God. And I was wrestling with this pastors this week because I was continually wrestling with this question hey, does God favor the poor? Which would like kind of fly in the face of all the things we're talking about right now, right? You look at this chapter and you're like, da-da-da-da, don't show favoritism, don't do this, da-da-da, the rich. But then God's like, but he's chosen the poor to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him.

unknown 21:31

Right?

SPEAKER_01 21:31

So does God favor the poor? Here's what we need to know. See, God doesn't discriminate between the rich rich and the poor, but the poor do have a spiritual advantage. Why? Because they aren't like special enough their own selves. But here's what's true their spirits are in a place where they can easily recognize their need for the only one who can save them. God is near to the brokenhearted. He is near to the poor in spirit. Like, how many of you have ever gone without before? How many of you wondered if your life would ever be the same? How many of you had something and maybe lost it and wondered, like, what am I gonna do now? And how many of you in that moment felt the nearness of God, even more near than you ever experienced Him in your entire life? Like that's what this is talking about. When your spirit is crushed, when you're going without, when you don't have your spirit becomes sensitive. You have a spiritual advantage, and then you are now able to receive what only God can give. Like those of us know this. Like when you cried out, you felt God respond to you. I love what Paul even says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, 26 through 29. He says this to the church. He says, brothers and sisters, consider your calling. He's saying, consider what you were like before you were called. He says, not many were from a human were wise from a human perspective, not many were powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world, what is viewed as nothing to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one may boast in his presence. Now, is this anybody's testimony in this room? Because this is mine. Like I don't know about you, but in my greatest moment of need, when I felt like I was at my lowest, when I thought I had nothing, it was God who stood by me. When I felt low and when nobody else was around, when I felt betrayed and shameful, it was God who was with me when nobody else saw it, when nobody else cared. Guess who did? He did. He did. God does his best work in the lowly. He does it in the insignificant, in those who may not be materially poor, but for sure in those who are poor in spirit. See, the rich are models of people who have all they need and don't believe they need anything at all. In fact, they use all they have to even bully other people and even take from and take advantage of the people who have nothing. Look at verses six and seven. He's saying this about honoring the poor, but he says, Hey, you have dishonored the poor. He even says this, hey, don't the rich oppress you and drag you into court? Don't they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you? You see, in context, uh, the rich at this time, they were basically forcing the poor from their land and exacting all kinds of interest on their loan payments and using money to influence the court system, doing all these different kinds of things. And he's even going as far to say they were blaspheming the name of God. Now we have to know like, hey, all rich people aren't ungodly, okay? Like this is just what's true. Not all people are like that. Like wealth isn't the problem. There are a lot of wealthy people in the scriptures that God kind of upholds. You can count countless ones in the Old Testament. You can count Joseph Arimathea, right? The tomb that they borrowed for Jesus to actually bury him in, right? Like to have something like that, you had to have some sort of wealth. You can look at the many women in the New Testament who literally footed the bill for a lot of Jesus' ministry when he was walking. Like, hey, wealth, money, like this, this isn't the problem. There are so many wealthy and faithful people in the Bible. But what James is doing is he's shooting a hole in the logic of the church to show favoritism towards the rich. Because, yes, although that can also be true of the rich, don't we also know, we don't have to look too far, that people with a lot of status, a lot of wealth, a lot of money tend to try to play monopoly and just push things all over the board. And he's saying, hey, don't lower your standards and compromise who you're called to be in God's glory by placating for people with deep pockets just so you can get something from them. He's saying it's not worth it. And in fact, like we have not when we do this, it not only dishonors the poor, but it also dehumanizes the rich. Like the rich are just people too. Like, yes, it makes the poor feel left out, but it also makes us see the rich as people who aren't even people. Like they don't need counseling like the rest of us, like they don't need rest and peace and joy and hope like everybody else. Like when we put this lean and weight on the people who have, like we literally dehumanize them. And so this passage isn't just about like, hey, don't dishonor the poor, but we could even conclude that it's also about, hey, don't dehumanize the rich. Like, don't just see them and smooth them and use them for what they have, when in reality, like we should be treating them like people. Like, I'm convinced more and more, day by day, that y'all, we're just bad at judging people. And we should leave it up to God so we can kill favoritism. Amen. And the second reason, the last reason we should fight against favoritism is this is because it spits in the face of God. We should fight against favoritism because people are bad judges. And secondly, favoritism spits in the face of God. Look at verse 8. James continues, he says, indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in Scripture, love your neighbor as yourself, he says, You are doing well. If, however, you show favoritism, underline this, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the entire law and yet stumbles at one point is guilty of breaking it all. For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you are a lawbreaker. Wow. Okay, this is a harsh word because this hits people and it flies in the face of us, those of us who want to say, like, hey, um, yeah, I may do these things, but at least I'm not like that. Like I may sin this way, but they've but they've done this. Like the royal law, James' talking about this kind of love your neighbor as yourself. I love that it's called the royal law here in the text because it means like it spans not just here in the New Testament, but it spans even back into the Old Testament. So this is a law that does less, it is kingly, it is royal, and something that we should hold on to even now, even into our day. That we should love our neighbor as ourself. And he even goes as far as saying, but if you don't do that and you show favoritism, he says you're not just being a mean person, you're not just like placating to your own preferences and all this different kind of stuff. He says you're actually committing sin. Church, are we willing to call favoritism a sin in 2026 America? Are we willing to say we're acting sinful when we show favoritism to the rich or show favoritism to the poor? Or we argue and yell about so many different things and pick and choose sides, and we just bicker back and forth over one another, and we say this is right, this is wrong, how can you be a Christian if are we willing to call that stuff sin? And what James is saying is that like if you've done one thing against God, you've done all against God. Sometimes I hop on YouTube and I watch some videos that pop up. Some I should probably just click next on, but some are actually really good, okay? And one of them that I continuously watch are the ones of like the street evangelists. You guys ever watch street evangelists on YouTube? And they're going around and they're asking these people on the street like these questions, and they ask them questions to kind of get them into this spot, okay? Love it or not, it's a pretty good evangelistic tactic, okay? But they're trying to get them into this space to say, like, like, how good do you think you are? And he would ask them, like, an evangelist would ask him, Hey, have you ever committed a murder before? And they'd be like, Well, no. And he goes, Well, have you ever like hated somebody? Have you ever heard like harbored harsh resentment and hatred in your heart towards somebody? And they'd be like, Well, well, yeah. Like, well, but then you've murdered somebody. Or have you ever committed adultery? Like, well, well, no. But have you ever looked at somebody with lust before, lusted after them? Well, well, yeah, well, but hasn't everybody? Well, well, yeah, then then you've also done the other thing. You see, we get into a place where we begin to show favoritism, where we look at the thing that we do as just this little thing that I do. And when we look at other people as if, like, oh, you've committed the greatest atrocity known to mankind. It doesn't even have to be that big, it can just be different than yours. Just different. And James is saying, Hey, this should not be. Like when we do this, he says, like, we're actually denying something that God so freely gives. And we see this. Look at verse 12. James kind of ends this part of the the chapter, and he gives us this kind of prescription. He said, Hey, this is how you kind of guard against this. He said, Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. You want the antidote to favoritism? It's mercy. Be a person who shows mercy. This is what James is saying. He's saying, God is a merciful God, and his people should be a merciful people. The law of freedom is one and such that says, hey, you are no longer bound to the worst thing that you've ever done. That you are no longer bound to the worst mistake that defines you, that you are no longer bound to what you did last night. You are no longer bound to what you struggled with this past week. But the law of freedom gives you mercy and actually enables you to abide by that and give other people mercy too. And so, as a way of application, and I'm gonna close with this for the morning, I want to ask the question what could it look like for you right here in your seats to begin to fight favoritism? And the first thing is this is that we should kill the discrimination in our lives. Like maybe this week is a good week for you to take inventory and check, like, hey, am I biased towards anything? Maybe you can even invite people into your life. Trust the people that you know and love who have a who have a seat at your table who you already know love you, and ask, hey, what are you, what are you seeing in me? Like part of fighting favoritism is taking a self-assessment of who we are. And what's true about us is that we're really good at assessing other people, but we're not very good at assessing ourselves. So if we want to be people who kill the discrimination in our lives, we should be people who ask others to speak into our lives and give us feedback and say, hey, where am I missing it? What if this was a bold step that you took this week to say, hey, friend, as a friend, can you show me where I'm missing it? Can you show me where I'm giving into this sin of favoritism? And what if you weren't dismissive when you heard that? And yet you actually listened, you received that, practice active listening skills. Like if we want to be people who fight favoritism, it starts with this. Secondly, the thing we can do is fix your eyes on heaven. You can look at God. Like when you have your things, your eyes on the things above, here's what's true: you actually start to lose desire and even lose the capacity to set your eyes on the things here below. Like when you focus on the kingdom of God, you focus on Jesus and all he's done for you. Like, I can't wait for Good Friday, y'all. I can't wait for that. That when we look to the cross and we see this body that was broken and torn for us and the blood that poured out for us, and we keep our eyes on him and what he had done for a people who don't deserve it. When we see that and we keep our eyes focused on the glory that is now ahead of us, who call on his name, that actually helps us not keep our eyes on the things down here below where we are tempted to divide over, where we are tempted to show bias and discrimination over, where we are tempted to show favoritism over. I love a hymn called Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. You guys ever heard this hymn before? That hymn begins. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in light of his glory and grace. And when you fix your eyes on Jesus, this is what's true. And when we fix our eyes on him, oh yes, the goodness in here, we get to enjoy. But all the sin and the evil and the things even inside you, that wars against the Spirit of God in you, oh, you can watch it start to fade too. Fix your eyes on Jesus. I want to talk to the non-believers in the room really quick. Because as you listen to a message like this, the thing that you can just jump to, like, okay, how can I now begin to show favoritism or not to show favoritism in my life? Okay. Like, you could start to kill discrimination in your life, and that might be good for your life right now, but it won't do anything for you in the sake of eternity. And you could try to fix your eyes on Jesus, but if you don't know him as your Lord and Savior, it would mean nothing for you to actually look at him, and he's actually looking at you not the same way you're looking at him, he's looking at you with wrath and fury. And so your step today is not to try to muster up in yourself to fight the favoritism that you show and fight the discrimination bias in your life. And it's not even to begin to be like, Jesus, I need, Jesus, I need, Jesus, I need. But it is to simply humble yourself before a holy God and say, God, this is who I am. A sinner, someone who is in need of grace, someone who is in need of mercy. God, would you rain down your richness of mercy on me? God, I confess of all I've done. I confess of who I am, the ways that I have gone against you. God, I desire nothing more than for you to fill me with your spirit, and for your son to be the Lord and the Savior of my life. And I desire nothing more than to follow him with all that I have until the day that I die. This is your first response. And out of that listen, y'all, I trust and believe that yes, our faith should have action behind it. But for you who don't know Jesus, your first step is simply to humble yourself, open your heart, and say, God, would you do a work that I cannot do? Would you bridge the gap? I cannot close it. And would you give me your love through your son? I pray that this is your prayer this morning. If you need someone to walk you through that, you can find me after service, and I would love to pray with you. But you need to recognize that although you may be able to fulfill even fighting against the favoritism and bias in your life, you need even more than that. You need a savior, not just good behavior. And the promise is that God is willing to give it. Today we're gonna respond with communion. We always respond with communion, and communion is a time for us to remember that this fact about God is true always and forever. That he gave us a gift, the greatest gift that any of us can receive, and it is his son to pay the cost for what it meant for us to now be in right relationship with him. And so when we do communion, y'all, what we're doing is we're saying, thank you, God, for not being discriminatory towards me. Thank you, God, for not showing a bias and that you were so high and uppity to forget about me. But no, the communion tells us that God is anti-favoritism, that he comes for anybody and everybody, for the poor and the rich, for the Republic and the Democrat, for the urban and the suburban, for the black and the white, and everybody in between. He says, I've come for all. And he broke his body on the cross for us, and he shed his blood, and he says, This is the way, this is the only way. And communion lets us remember that that his body broken and his blood shed was for us, and we get to take the bread and we get to drink the juice as a reminder of all that he's done. So, believer, we're gonna pray in just a moment, we're gonna sing a couple songs. But before that, would you just take a moment in your seat and would you reflect on that? What God has done for you. And non-believer, would you maybe take a moment? Like maybe this is your time. Don't muster it up if it's not true, but maybe this is your time, and the spirit is provoking you and invoking on you. Hey, would you open your heart to receive me? And listen, when we do communion here, commune is for believers only. And it's not because we want to withhold anything good from you, but it's because this wouldn't mean anything to you. Like if this is for believers to remember what Jesus Christ has done, that means it's not for non-believers who don't know what Jesus has done for them. But the benefit is this is that that can happen at any moment. You don't have to come up here and have me lay hands on you. You don't have to come to the altar and pray. You can actually do it right there in your seat. And hear this. If you do that, it doesn't take seven days, seven business days for it to happen to you. It doesn't take Amazon Prime overnight. It doesn't even take super, super Amazon Prime in four hours, okay? It is immediate. And what you have now is an opportunity to actually get up in this time and share communion with your newfound brothers and sisters. Amen. So we have four stations in this room. There's two up here in the front, there's two back there in the back. I'm gonna pray, we're gonna sing a couple songs, and any time in these two songs, you can feel free to get up and take communion. Father, we love you, and we're grateful for this morning, and I'm grateful for all you've done. I'm grateful for your son, and that you sent him even when we didn't deserve it. That the greatest truth about humanity is that we are consistently running away from you, and yet you are consistently pursuing us, and that you are no respecter of persons that you come after, one of us you come after, all of us alike. And Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit come on this room and you cause us to turn to you to realize that truth. Say, Father, here I am. Would you do with me what you will? Would you do with me what you will? Would you encourage my heart? Would you convict me of sin? Would you show in me ways that I have shown bias and discrimination? Would you show me in ways I have shown favoritism in my life? And would you wreck my heart with the mercy that only you have so that I can become a more merciful person? Father, you can do the miracle. You can do beyond that. And I pray you can do even this. So we ask this in your son Jesus' name.

unknown 42:50

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

Thanks for listening to the Ambassador Church Podcast. To learn more, visit ambassadormke.org or follow us on Instagram at AmbassadorMKE. If you're in the Milwaukee area, we'd love to see you this Sunday at 10 a.m. at 2308 East Bellevue Place. Grace and peace.