WEBVTT 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:09.119 I'd like to ask you to turn to the book of James this morning. 00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:10.800 The book of James. 00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:30.800 We're beginning uh an in-depth verse-by-verse study of this fascinating, practical, hard-hitting, in-your-face word of God for us. 00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:33.600 I love the book of James. 00:00:34.159 --> 00:00:36.399 No, I hate the book of James. 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:47.119 I just love what God does through his word to us and for us, for his glory and for our good. 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:54.960 The book of James is probably the very first book of the New Testament to have been written. 00:00:55.280 --> 00:01:02.719 The book of James reminds us often of the book of Proverbs, in many ways, actually. 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:12.400 The book of James is as timeless as the book of Proverbs and as contemporary as an internet blog. 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:26.239 And just as this book in some way reminds us of the book of Proverbs, if you're into the blogosphere, Christian blogosphere, there's some phenomenal stuff out there, and this reminds me of a lot of that as well. 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:27.920 It is God's Word. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:35.519 It was written long ago, and it was written to believers in a different situation, but God uses it in our lives. 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:49.920 It is living, it is active, it is powerful, it is sharper than a two-edged sword, and it penetrates in here, in my life and heart, and I trust in your life and heart as well. 00:01:52.079 --> 00:01:57.519 I'd like us to read the first chapter of the book of James. 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:02.560 We're only going to work on the first little nugget in this chapter. 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:08.960 And if the second service is like the first service was, this will be part one of the first nugget. 00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:15.759 James is not a book that you can hurry through. 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:20.080 It's not a book we ought to hurry through. 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:31.120 What James says, what God says to us, we need to cogitate on, ruminate on, allow it to impact the way we think, the way we function. 00:02:31.280 --> 00:02:35.439 And that doesn't happen quickly. 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:40.080 So we're going to take our time going through the book of James. 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:48.400 Each week we're going to read the chapter of the section that we're in. 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:59.039 Patrick and I have talked a little bit a little bit about the fact we'd actually like to involve some of you folks in the public reading of God's Word here. 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:10.080 In my own heart and mind, God's given me a desire to have the Word of God, the chapter that we're in, be read for us as part of our morning worship. 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:17.439 And I'd love to hear some female voices reading God's word in our presence. 00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:24.639 So we're looking for a pool of men and women who will help us. 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:36.240 And so if you're interested in a very simple way with your own fumbling, stumbling voice, to just bless us by reading the scriptures with us every once in a while. 00:03:36.479 --> 00:03:42.879 Get a hold of Patrick or get a hold of me, and we'd like to have that element be a part of what we're doing. 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:45.599 So, but for this morning, you're stuck with me. 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:48.400 But this is God's word. 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:50.479 It's not Walt's words. 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:53.360 So I'm going to read the first chapter. 00:03:53.599 --> 00:04:00.159 If you have your Bible with you, and I hope you do, I would ask you to turn to that, James chapter 1. 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:05.919 If you don't have a Bible with you, you're welcome to use the Bible in the pew in front of you. 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:09.520 If you don't have a Bible, then please take that Bible. 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:11.039 That's what it's there for. 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:12.639 So you're welcome. 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:16.720 If it's not one, if you don't have a Bible, take the one that's in the pew in front of you. 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:26.800 If you forgot or were too lazy or no way, to bring your own Bible, then take the Bible and read it, but leave it in the pew. 00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:27.680 Alright? 00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:28.639 Okay. 00:04:29.199 --> 00:04:32.240 Page 1011 in the pew Bible. 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:35.279 Listen to the word of God. 00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:43.759 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:44.879 Greetings. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:52.240 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. 00:04:52.959 --> 00:04:57.199 How interesting that we're thinking about the persecuted church. 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:14.720 Count it all joy, brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete in lacking nothing. 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:23.439 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given. 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:26.480 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting. 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:35.920 For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind, for that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. 00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:39.839 He's a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways. 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:45.600 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation. 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:54.879 And the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away. 00:05:55.120 --> 00:06:07.120 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass, the flower fails, and its beauty perishes, so also the rich man will fade away in the midst of his pursuits. 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:12.319 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:19.040 For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God promised to those who love him. 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:29.839 Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 00:06:30.399 --> 00:06:36.720 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:44.800 Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth life. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:48.399 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 00:06:48.720 --> 00:07:00.000 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:11.920 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:14.720 Know this, my beloved brethren. 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:26.079 Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:35.439 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:40.720 Be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:53.519 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he looks like, what he was like. 00:07:53.920 --> 00:08:07.279 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:17.920 If anyone thinks he is religious and doesn't bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:31.839 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:33.440 Well, have you had enough? 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:36.559 Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:40.080 Or if you haven't felt that, you haven't read it well. 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:43.120 You haven't read it well. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:47.679 These are not words that we just hear and allow them to bounce off. 00:08:47.759 --> 00:09:03.279 These are words that are designed by God, who inspired through his Holy Spirit an inerrant and infallible and living word, words that are designed to penetrate and beat us up a little bit because sometimes we need beating up. 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:09.120 Now, we also need the embracing, gracious arms of God that envelop us. 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:10.559 It's both and. 00:09:57.120 --> 00:09:58.799 That's what he does. 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:28.720 And it's my deep prayer that in the weeks and months ahead, we, I and you, will allow the words of God, not the words of Walt, the words of God, to penetrate into our souls, change the glasses with which we view the world, cause us to ask the right kinds of questions, and by God's grace, cause us to have a faith that works, a faith that really works. 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:36.080 Well, I am calling this series of messages faith that works. 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:38.639 I thought of all kinds of other titles. 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:51.039 But when I thought about what the main message of this book is, it is simply that a faith that doesn't work is no faith at all. 00:10:51.279 --> 00:10:53.759 And we'll explore what that means. 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:56.320 That could be easily misunderstood. 00:10:56.639 --> 00:10:59.919 But at a minimum, it means that our faith is to work. 00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:02.320 Not just here. 00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:04.720 That's really not the point. 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:13.919 But out there, in our homes, in our marriages, in our work, at school, at Starbucks, at the hockey game. 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:16.799 I've never once been to, well, once I've been to a hockey game. 00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:18.480 I'm looking forward to that. 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:22.480 But if it doesn't work at the hockey game, what are we talking about? 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:24.320 That's what James would say. 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:27.519 Does it or does it not really work out there? 00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:29.279 That's the question. 00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:42.799 The point of the book of James is that if our Christianity doesn't work in the details and the contours of our daily life, then it doesn't work. 00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:48.240 It's just as simple and as penetrating as that. 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:57.200 If our Christianity doesn't work in the details of our daily life, then what are we doing? 00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:04.240 We are not doing what God wants to be doing in our hearts and through us in our world. 00:12:05.679 --> 00:12:12.559 How does it affect, how does your Christianity, these are the kinds of questions that James forces us to ask. 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:15.840 He just kind of smacks us with these questions. 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:17.519 How are your lips doing? 00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:23.360 And I don't mean do you have lipstick on today, ladies, but how about our words? 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:25.679 How about our words? 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:30.799 The way we talk in the privacy of our own home? 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:37.519 The way we we talk at the office, the way we talk interactions with other people. 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:42.000 Are we still setting forest fires aflame with gossip? 00:12:42.159 --> 00:12:42.639 Are you? 00:12:42.879 --> 00:12:43.440 Am I? 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:44.879 Are we as a church? 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:54.639 Are we still playing around with fire and creating creating forest fires through gossip? 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:57.600 That's not faith that's working. 00:12:59.200 --> 00:13:02.720 So what's your faith doing with your lips? 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:05.759 That's the kind of question that uh the Job asks. 00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:07.600 How do you view people? 00:13:07.759 --> 00:13:10.240 How does your faith impact how you view people? 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:17.600 Do you just view people, especially those who are like you and who look good and smell good? 00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:20.320 Those are the ones that you want to be around? 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:28.639 Or does our faith cause us to see people that are very different from us, or people that smell differently from us? 00:13:29.519 --> 00:13:39.039 Causing us to see them as people and the love of Christ impacting how we are and what our attitude is about people? 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:42.399 Are we just impressed with the rich and the famous? 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:49.600 Or do we have compassion on the broken and the discouraged and the destroyed? 00:13:49.840 --> 00:13:57.600 Those are the kinds of things that Jabe, Job, Job, well, Job asks us some of those things, that James asks us to consider. 00:13:57.679 --> 00:14:03.039 Because if our faith doesn't impact us in areas like that, it's not real faith. 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:04.320 We could go on. 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:09.600 Does our faith affect the way we we view what we're going to do this week? 00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:18.720 Or are we, and we'll see the example, are we the kind of people that say, well, on Thursday I'm going to this or that city and I'm going to do this or that thing? 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:26.159 And James says, You fool, you don't even know what's going to happen this afternoon, much less next week. 00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:29.200 No, he's not saying we don't ever have any plans. 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:34.879 He's saying we don't act as though we're in control of our lives, do we? 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:36.799 Or do we? 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:43.039 That's really the kind of question that James forces us to deal with. 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:52.639 And more pertinent to our section that we're going to be looking at is what about when things fall apart in your life? 00:14:52.879 --> 00:15:05.840 Now, to look at you, you've done a pretty good job of getting dressed this morning and doing your face or whatever it is, putting on decent clothes, and you've got a wonderful church smile. 00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:10.080 And there's nothing inherently wrong with that, but I know better. 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:12.799 Because I look at the guy in the mirror. 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:26.080 When that stuff that you are facing, those problems, those trials, how, what do you do with those? 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:28.240 That's the question of faith. 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:38.879 Faith that doesn't work when a relationship falls apart is not faith. 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:45.679 Faith that only works when everything's going well, when our kids are following the Lord and everything's great. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:47.759 That's not the nature of faith. 00:15:47.919 --> 00:15:49.679 What happens when your world falls apart? 00:15:49.840 --> 00:15:51.120 People disappoint you. 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:54.159 When you get attacked, when you get misunderstood. 00:15:54.639 --> 00:16:03.840 That's when the reality of faith lives itself out in the most practical and truest way. 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:09.600 Because who we are under pressure and in trials is who we are. 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:18.000 Who we are in pressure and trials and disappointments is who we are. 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:24.480 What happens when we go to the doctor and we get a positive lab result? 00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:30.159 Funny thing about the medical world: a positive lab result is always negative. 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:32.879 You don't want a positive lab result. 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:40.240 So when you get a positive lab result, yes, you do have fill in the blank. 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:43.279 And no, there may not be a cure for it. 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:45.840 That's the question that James would ask. 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:48.639 So how's your faith then, my friends? 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:57.440 That is the reality of the transformation, that fundamental change that comes as we come to know Christ. 00:16:57.600 --> 00:16:58.639 Are we perfect in it? 00:16:58.799 --> 00:17:00.000 No, absolutely not. 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:03.200 Are we always stirring examples of faith? 00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:03.759 No. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:09.920 But the point is, if it doesn't work then, then it doesn't work. 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:19.680 And if it doesn't work then, don't tell me that when you were six years old at camp, you raised your hand and your life has been transformed. 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:22.000 That may very well be true. 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:24.240 I'm very appreciative of that. 00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:26.960 But the question is not what happened back then. 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:30.559 The question is what's going on in your life now? 00:17:31.359 --> 00:17:37.200 And the reality of faith is how we deal with life at the present time. 00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:42.799 For example, James chapter 2, verse 14 and following. 00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:47.920 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:49.839 Can that faith save him? 00:17:50.079 --> 00:18:01.519 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warm, be filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, is that good? 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:02.960 What is that? 00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:08.079 So also faith by itself, if it doesn't have works, is dead. 00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:13.039 That's not some liberal do-gooder, that's the word of God. 00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:18.480 So get ready. 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:25.359 Get ready for this book as we unpack it. 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:38.720 You know, the strong emphasis on faith living itself out is very problematic for us, and it comes nowhere more strongly than in this book. 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:46.640 And this book has had a sordid history in the church because this book says things that we don't feel really comfortable with. 00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:52.319 Actually, no less than Martin Luther had a problem with this book. 00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:55.279 He said at one point, it's an epistle of straw. 00:18:55.359 --> 00:18:57.279 It has nothing to do with the gospel. 00:18:57.759 --> 00:19:08.720 No, he was wrong, but he saw works of faith being played out and against works of God and justification of what God does for us. 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:15.279 As though Paul is the real gospel and James is this epistle of straw. 00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:22.720 If he could have, and he didn't, he would have excised it from the canon of the New Testament. 00:19:23.519 --> 00:19:32.480 Now we'll deal with that when we come to it, because faith and uh and works go absolutely together. 00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:38.640 The works are the fruit of our faith that we receive as we trust Christ. 00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:44.400 One is the root, the other is the fruit, but one without the other is not real. 00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:46.640 Have you got both? 00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:51.359 That's the kind of question that James asks us. 00:19:51.920 --> 00:20:15.119 I remember as a new believer with all of the wisdom and experience of a believer who was a few months old in Christ, an arrogant, young, obnoxious college kid who, by God's grace and the work of crew, came to faith my sophomore year in college, but by the end of my sophomore year, I was refusing to read the book of James. 00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:17.680 Isn't that wonderful? 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:20.480 What an arrogant jerk. 00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:23.519 It didn't agree with me. 00:20:24.559 --> 00:20:25.200 What? 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:29.359 So I only listen to God's word when it agrees with me. 00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:34.559 Foolish, immature, ridiculous, sinful. 00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:42.480 But we're going to struggle with some of those things as we walk through here. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:50.480 It works in Starbucks, it works at the doctor's office, it works as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. 00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:54.079 And if it doesn't, it's not real faith. 00:20:54.960 --> 00:20:58.640 It's that simple and that painful. 00:21:00.400 --> 00:21:04.160 We're going to look at the first part of James 1, 1 through 4. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:06.720 This morning. 00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:14.880 We'll do part two next week, unless God gives a miracle and I get done this time with everything that I want to say. 00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:22.720 The focus in these verses are what we will call spiritual resilience. 00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:24.559 Let me read that again. 00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:26.319 James, a servant of God. 00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:32.000 We're just going to walk through this and try to bring it to light and try to apply it in our lives. 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:39.680 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings. 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:45.759 Count it all joy, my brothers. 00:21:47.599 --> 00:21:53.839 If he had been politically correct, he would have said, brothers and sisters, if he was talking today. 00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:55.920 Count it all joy, people. 00:21:56.880 --> 00:21:59.440 When you meet trials of various kinds. 00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:02.559 For you know something. 00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:11.440 You know that the testing of your faith produces something steadfastness, spiritual resilience. 00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:18.400 And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:20.720 All right. 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:28.960 Verse 1 is uh introductory, but it's not to be skipped over as though it's, oh yes, just uh uh an introduction. 00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:31.839 There are some important things for us to see here. 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:38.319 The the book of James is one of what we call the general epistles. 00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:46.880 An epistle, we don't tend to use that term very much anymore, but an epistle is simply a letter, not just any letter. 00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:56.880 It's typically it's it's a letter that that really has a message of significance intended by the author for the readers. 00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:07.519 I got thinking about this, and uh I don't know uh how many of you who have uh fathers who have kids who have gone off to college. 00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:15.440 I know a number of us, somewhere in the first month or two at college, we we wrote a letter to our kids. 00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:17.519 And it wasn't just, hey, how are you doing? 00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:19.200 Are you enjoying the season? 00:23:19.359 --> 00:23:23.839 It was a letter with a message of whatever would be appropriate. 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:28.720 Maybe you've received letters like that from somebody who loves you and cares for you deeply. 00:23:28.880 --> 00:23:30.880 That's the nature of an epistle. 00:23:31.119 --> 00:23:47.839 It's called a general epistle because it's not written specifically to a given local church, the church in Ephesus or the church in Rome or the church in Corinth or the church in Philippi, like many, but not all of Paul's letters, epistles were written to. 00:23:48.079 --> 00:24:05.759 But this, together with 1st and 2 Peter, 1, 2nd, and 3 John and Jude, at least these books were written to a group of believers in a group of churches, but not in one particular geographical area. 00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:08.559 So that's really all that that is saying. 00:24:08.880 --> 00:24:15.440 In this case, he was writing to believers who were scattered. 00:24:15.680 --> 00:24:21.920 They weren't in the mother church in Jerusalem where James had been the leading figure. 00:24:22.079 --> 00:24:30.319 They were scattered, they were in the dispersion, they were living as strangers and aliens out there among the Gentile world. 00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:39.039 The twelve tribes of Israel, it's writing to the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve tribes of Israel were no longer in the land. 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:45.920 They were no longer easily identified in the particular areas of the Holy Land as they had been. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:25:01.200 They were dispersed, they were strewn, they were, the term is diaspora or diaspora, spora for seed, uh, dia for through, as though the seeds had been thrown out in the field, and that came as a result of persecution. 00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:08.720 Church founded in the day of Pentecost, almost all or all Jewish believers at that point. 00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:12.079 Continued on, great preaching, great growth. 00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:19.119 And then there was the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts chapter 7, and that led to a persecution. 00:25:19.359 --> 00:25:24.559 A persecution which God allowed or gave. 00:25:30.720 --> 00:25:40.799 So God at least allowed the persecution to come, and he scattered the believers that had been in Jerusalem out into the Gentile nations. 00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:47.680 God uses bad things for good purposes. 00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:59.440 The persecution of those believers was not in and of itself a good thing, but God used it for good, both in their lives and for the blessing of the church and the glory of God. 00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:02.880 Just as we saw in that video. 00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:05.440 I so appreciate that video. 00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:11.599 A year and a half ago, I was up in that area in northern India in some very remote villages. 00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:18.640 I was part of a group that I was trying to figure out whether we were going to send missionaries to that part. 00:26:19.119 --> 00:26:26.319 And that village and that church scene of them sitting around the floor and so forth is exactly what I saw. 00:26:26.720 --> 00:26:29.200 And that kind of opposition. 00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:33.680 And God uses that for good and for his purposes. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:47.440 And the believers that I have seen over the years in various parts of the world who are in very difficult circumstances, they don't ask us to feel sorry for them. 00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:55.200 They actually, if you really would get a number of them talking, they would feel sorry for us. 00:26:55.519 --> 00:27:05.839 Because we've got it so good, and we don't value and appreciate what we have, and it doesn't produce within us steadfastness in the same way they have. 00:27:06.079 --> 00:27:10.079 So, yes, we should pray for the persecuted church, absolutely. 00:27:10.880 --> 00:27:26.720 When we pray, we should also ask that we might have, as James says, is a sign of faith that works, the same kind of steadfastness in the issues that we face in our lives. 00:27:27.759 --> 00:27:32.720 The pressures and trials in their lives produced something good. 00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:38.400 The pressures and trials in our lives are to produce something good. 00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:43.039 They were scattered in a hostile environment. 00:27:43.279 --> 00:27:58.240 They were out of their comfort zone and the warmth of the believers of the church in Jerusalem, and they were out in society that was opposed to them, that didn't underscore and support their values that was hostile to them. 00:27:58.400 --> 00:27:59.759 And we are as well. 00:27:59.920 --> 00:28:01.839 I don't know if you've noticed that. 00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:10.079 Our society has fundamentally changed, and it is not likely to change back. 00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:21.759 There was a time in which the values of believers, of the Christian worldview at least, were supported in schools and civic organizations. 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:24.240 That day is gone, my friends. 00:28:24.480 --> 00:28:26.160 I don't know if you've noticed it. 00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:29.599 I don't know if you've realized it's come to North Dakota. 00:28:29.839 --> 00:28:36.400 I know some of you had because we've had some conversations about this with a couple of you this past week. 00:28:36.640 --> 00:28:40.960 Well, get used to it and embrace it. 00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:50.400 Don't moan and groan about things aren't the way they used to, and we used to be able to have prayer in schools, and we used to be able to do this, and we used to be able to do that. 00:28:50.640 --> 00:28:56.400 I grieve those things myself, but that must not be the dominant reaction. 00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:13.920 We have before us in our society, we scattered now among the heathen nations, the Gentiles, the unbelievers, those who don't share our worldview and don't value us, in fact, quite the contrary. 00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:16.160 We have an opportunity. 00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:23.519 We have an opportunity to be salt and light, and we have an opportunity to be vibrant and strong. 00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:36.000 You look at the history of the Christian church, and you will find, I dare you to study this in church history, you will find that the church has never been vibrant and strong when it's wealthy and accepted by society. 00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:42.880 It is vibrant and strong when there is opposition and people have to take a stand for Christ. 00:29:43.279 --> 00:29:46.559 We are not helped by what we have had. 00:29:46.799 --> 00:30:01.279 And all of the Christian bookstores and all of the Christian radio stations and all of the Christian dentists and all of the things that we we think are so wonderful, and I'm not opposed to any of that, my friends, but has that made us as a church vibrant? 00:30:02.559 --> 00:30:11.440 Has that made us to demonstrate practically the reality of a faith that's alive, the way James talks about it? 00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:16.960 I think we have great opportunities ahead of us. 00:30:17.119 --> 00:30:18.079 I really do. 00:30:19.440 --> 00:30:24.880 I think the word of God is all the more powerful in dark days. 00:30:25.039 --> 00:30:39.839 I think the light of the gospel and the light of believers, as imperfect as we are, will shine far greater if we will allow it in a dark culture that is rushing towards the abyss. 00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:44.400 We have opportunities while it's still day. 00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:51.359 So let's not get all wrapped up feeling sorry for ourselves. 00:30:52.240 --> 00:30:55.279 God doesn't feel the least bit sorry for you in that regard. 00:30:56.720 --> 00:31:05.359 In fact, I rather suspect that God, in his goodness and grace, is allowing the American church, and it's only just begun. 00:31:05.440 --> 00:31:07.599 And I'm not conspiratorial. 00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:21.279 I just think that there have been fundamental shifts in the tectonic plates that aren't going to be moved back, and we better just embrace it and be the people of God in the time and place that God has placed us. 00:31:21.440 --> 00:31:24.559 That is faith that is alive. 00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:29.200 Gee, I can't figure out why I didn't finish my message this morning. 00:31:30.319 --> 00:31:31.599 The writer. 00:31:38.799 --> 00:31:40.319 Now that's that's true. 00:31:40.559 --> 00:31:44.000 But do you realize what he could have said about himself? 00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:46.799 How he could have introduced himself? 00:31:47.200 --> 00:31:48.319 I'm James. 00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:50.640 Do you know who my big brother is? 00:31:53.359 --> 00:31:57.519 Let me just read a real brief overview of James' life. 00:31:57.680 --> 00:32:01.839 James was none other than a blood brother, a half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:32:02.079 --> 00:32:03.759 Same mother, different father. 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:07.920 The Gospels mentioned this fact, Matthew, Mark, text references. 00:32:08.160 --> 00:32:14.960 Apparently at first he was an unbeliever, John 7.5, for even his own brothers did not believe him. 00:32:15.119 --> 00:32:25.200 However, during the 40-day period between Jesus' resurrection and his ascension, Jesus, quote, appeared to James and to all the apostles. 00:32:26.400 --> 00:32:30.319 1 Corinthians 15, 7, and James believed. 00:32:31.279 --> 00:32:46.000 James is mentioned as being in the upper room in Jerusalem, praying with his mother and the rest of the disciples in Acts 1, was presumably present on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given, and the church was, as we know it, was born. 00:32:47.599 --> 00:32:58.240 James, when Peter was imprisoned and then released from prison, became the leader of the church in Jerusalem. 00:32:58.480 --> 00:33:09.039 And James became the leader of the Council of Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15, which dealt with some of the earliest theological issues that we know of. 00:33:09.200 --> 00:33:10.400 This is James. 00:33:11.440 --> 00:33:16.720 The writer says, James was a late bloomer, but he flowered well. 00:33:17.440 --> 00:33:18.799 I think it's a great expression. 00:33:18.960 --> 00:33:20.720 He was a late bloomer, but he flowered well. 00:33:20.799 --> 00:33:23.119 I hope that's true for us. 00:33:23.519 --> 00:33:30.079 And when he truly came to know Christ, this boyhood background of his was not wasted. 00:33:30.240 --> 00:33:35.519 He became known as James the Just, a man of immense piety. 00:33:37.440 --> 00:33:38.400 That's James. 00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:43.680 And I just find it so instructive that he doesn't go into any of that when he presents himself. 00:33:43.839 --> 00:33:45.440 He doesn't pull out his resume. 00:33:45.680 --> 00:33:47.359 Well, actually he does. 00:33:47.680 --> 00:33:52.559 He pulls out the only point of note on his resume. 00:33:53.200 --> 00:33:59.440 I am a doulos, a slave of God and of Jesus Christ. 00:33:59.599 --> 00:34:01.440 What do we do with our resumes? 00:34:01.680 --> 00:34:04.160 How do we present ourselves? 00:34:06.319 --> 00:34:09.199 Resumes are strange and awkward things. 00:34:11.119 --> 00:34:17.840 But I find that if we're not careful, we present ourselves in all of the wrong ways. 00:34:18.800 --> 00:34:19.679 I'm Dr. 00:34:19.840 --> 00:34:20.960 Walt Barrett. 00:34:21.519 --> 00:34:22.880 Are you impressed? 00:34:23.119 --> 00:34:25.519 I want you to be deeply impressed. 00:34:25.840 --> 00:34:33.440 All a doctorate means is you've been willing to play the academic game and do the jump through the hoops that are necessary. 00:34:33.599 --> 00:34:35.280 That's really all it means. 00:34:36.159 --> 00:34:43.679 I have a friend, a dear friend, who uh was a dentist. 00:34:44.239 --> 00:34:46.960 And he would always introduce himself. 00:34:47.440 --> 00:34:48.239 I'm Dr. 00:34:48.480 --> 00:34:48.800 John. 00:34:49.360 --> 00:34:50.000 I'm Dr. 00:34:50.159 --> 00:34:50.480 John. 00:34:50.800 --> 00:34:51.280 I'm Dr. 00:34:51.360 --> 00:34:51.599 John. 00:34:51.679 --> 00:34:53.360 I'm teaching the Sunday school class. 00:34:54.320 --> 00:34:55.599 What was that all about? 00:34:56.559 --> 00:34:58.000 What was that all about? 00:34:58.480 --> 00:35:00.320 Are we trying to impress each other? 00:35:00.559 --> 00:35:05.119 You want to be impressive, be a slave to God and to Jesus Christ. 00:35:05.360 --> 00:35:08.400 That's the only thing on your resume that counts. 00:35:08.480 --> 00:35:12.320 And if it's not there, then you don't have much to boast about. 00:35:15.280 --> 00:35:26.800 I personal preference, I'll get my licks in. 00:35:27.119 --> 00:35:30.079 My personal preference is that you just call me Walt. 00:35:31.039 --> 00:35:35.280 Why do you insist on calling me Pastor Barrett or Pastor Walt? 00:35:35.440 --> 00:35:41.679 Now I understand for many of you that's an expression of love and respect, and I cherish that. 00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:51.280 But it doesn't help me to be made into a third sex as though I'm fundamentally different from anyone else around here. 00:35:51.360 --> 00:35:52.320 That's baloney. 00:35:52.480 --> 00:35:55.519 That doesn't help me, and frankly, it doesn't help you. 00:35:56.400 --> 00:36:00.559 So I would just say, let's be careful how we present ourselves. 00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:10.480 It's very interesting that James the Just presented himself as James the humble, the non-pretentious. 00:36:11.599 --> 00:36:13.920 Just a doulos. 00:36:15.440 --> 00:36:17.920 Just a bondservant. 00:36:19.679 --> 00:36:29.920 All he really wanted people to know is that he was enslaved to God and to his son Jesus Christ. 00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:33.760 Now, this is the term doulos here. 00:36:33.840 --> 00:36:35.119 It's a bondservant. 00:36:35.199 --> 00:36:42.559 This is not like in Downton Abbey where you've got this whole, you know, the upstairs help and the downstairs help and all of that. 00:36:42.719 --> 00:36:43.039 No. 00:36:43.360 --> 00:36:46.159 This is a slave, pure and simple. 00:36:46.559 --> 00:36:52.239 Had no opportunity or no rights to exercise his own will. 00:36:52.400 --> 00:36:56.719 The only will that matters is the will of the master of the slave. 00:36:57.679 --> 00:37:00.639 Has no concern for his own rights. 00:37:00.880 --> 00:37:06.320 In fact, a slave doesn't really have any rights, and neither do we. 00:37:06.400 --> 00:37:07.519 I'm sorry, America. 00:37:07.679 --> 00:37:08.960 Inalienable rights. 00:37:09.119 --> 00:37:14.480 The only right you have is what God chooses in his goodness and grace to give you. 00:37:14.639 --> 00:37:21.920 You do not have a right to happiness, you do not have a right to wealth, you do not have a right to good health. 00:37:22.239 --> 00:37:25.360 All you have a right to, you don't want. 00:37:25.679 --> 00:37:28.000 What we deserve, we don't want. 00:37:28.239 --> 00:37:31.679 What we've earned, we don't want, and that is hell. 00:37:32.239 --> 00:37:37.440 Our only rights have been received from the hands of a gracious God. 00:37:38.239 --> 00:37:42.960 So I know I don't make a very good American, that's because I lived overseas for 30 years, I guess. 00:37:43.119 --> 00:37:44.639 But we always talk about our rights. 00:37:44.719 --> 00:37:46.960 Why don't we talk about our obligations? 00:37:47.199 --> 00:37:50.400 Is there something fundamentally ungodly about that? 00:37:50.880 --> 00:37:51.840 No way. 00:37:52.639 --> 00:37:55.199 That is a fundamental stance. 00:37:56.719 --> 00:37:58.480 And being a slave? 00:37:59.440 --> 00:38:06.079 A slave to the God of glory and the universe, there is no higher calling. 00:38:06.719 --> 00:38:12.159 And how we see ourselves and present ourselves does matter. 00:38:21.039 --> 00:38:24.559 I don't think I want to make three weeks out of this, but I am going to stop at this point. 00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:26.480 Let me say a couple of things. 00:38:27.920 --> 00:38:36.000 Today is Sunday, November 8th, 2015. 00:38:36.719 --> 00:38:39.599 And God is still on the throne. 00:38:41.679 --> 00:38:46.000 He was on the throne in the lives of these people to whom this was written. 00:38:46.159 --> 00:38:53.599 He was good and gracious and kind, fulfilling his good purposes, always and only good to them. 00:38:54.800 --> 00:39:04.239 He is good and kind to those people in northern India, always and only good to them, using bad things for good purposes. 00:39:04.400 --> 00:39:06.639 That's what God specializes in. 00:39:07.199 --> 00:39:08.960 Others may mean it for evil. 00:39:09.199 --> 00:39:11.039 God uses it for good. 00:39:12.320 --> 00:39:17.599 God is still in your life with whatever it is that you are facing. 00:39:18.639 --> 00:39:26.400 Whatever hurts, whatever disappointment, whatever struggles, whatever deep despair, whatever pain. 00:39:26.960 --> 00:39:29.760 And I'm not making light of any of that. 00:39:29.920 --> 00:39:32.400 You have no idea what my pain is. 00:39:33.199 --> 00:39:37.840 I don't know much about yours, and we don't always have to undress in front of everybody. 00:39:38.159 --> 00:39:48.159 I just know that there's issues in your life, but what I also know is that God reigns, God is alive, God cares, God is involved. 00:39:48.320 --> 00:40:05.119 It's not the devil that's in the details, it's God that's in the details, and we find him there and we trust him there, and he is gracious and good and sufficient for the readers here, for the people in India, and for you and me. 00:40:06.639 --> 00:40:11.039