WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:01.280 David. 00:00:02.959 --> 00:00:04.160 Good morning. 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:10.560 My voice is a little bit weak this morning. 00:00:10.960 --> 00:00:13.679 You'll have to blame that on Mike Dolin. 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:21.600 Mike took Jane and myself down to uh the bison game last night. 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:30.559 And and and uh what what's it you know uh and we kind of screamed our heads off, and I screamed my voice away, and they won. 00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:33.200 So uh who knows if there's a connection. 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:42.000 Um last year we had the opportunity to go to uh a UND hockey game, and that was like entering into another world. 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:49.679 Uh and so we're getting another part of uh this wonderful culture of where God has brought us. 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:57.200 Um so if my voice uh does that a lot, then you'll have to forgive me, and you'll have to forgive Mike. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:19.599 Today is Sunday, the uh the 28th of August, 2016, and as I love to remind myself and you, God is still on the throne. 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:21.280 He was all week long. 00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:23.439 I don't know what happened in your life this week. 00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:25.840 Might have been wonderful, it might have been awful. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:27.840 That doesn't change who God is. 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:32.799 God is still good and he is still with us, and he still rules and he reigns. 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:36.079 And God is on the throne today, is here with us. 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:40.799 He speaks to us through his word, he speaks to us through his spirit. 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:47.840 He's involved, he's here, he's trustworthy, and he will be on the throne all week long. 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:53.840 And for that I am incredibly grateful, and I trust you are too. 00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:57.359 We come as needy, simple people. 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:01.200 Just needy, simple people. 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:08.240 We act like we have it all together, and we don't fool ourselves, and we don't fool God. 00:02:08.719 --> 00:02:13.520 Um, we are needy people, and we need our God. 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:14.960 That's just what we sang. 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:21.520 Lord, I need you, and we need a God who rules and reigns. 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:26.479 A God whose name is great and whose heart is kind. 00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:29.199 And that's the kind of God that we have. 00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:38.080 For all his goodness, we will keep on singing 10,000 reasons for our hearts to find. 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:45.759 What a joy to gather together as God's messed up people in this place. 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:51.520 We are messed up people and we serve this wonderful and this mighty God. 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:53.439 Would you pray with me, please? 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:59.360 Heavenly Father, we want to leave all pretension aside. 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:09.199 We want to stop trying to be frantically someone we're not, or trying frantically to please you we cannot. 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:24.879 You have sent a Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who died for the mess that we are and the mess that we're in, and all that which separates us from you has been placed on the cross. 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:32.159 And the righteousness of Christ has been given to us as we come to you by faith. 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:43.599 So we come needy and we come small, and we come, Father, with a desire to hear and to listen and to obey. 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:45.120 Help us, Lord. 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:48.879 Help us, I pray, in Jesus' name. 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:49.840 Amen. 00:03:52.560 --> 00:04:04.800 Well, this is the twenty-sixth time that I have uh stood here and together with you on a Sunday morning looked at the book of James. 00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:07.919 I'll bet you you thought we would never finish it, right? 00:04:09.039 --> 00:04:36.000 Um probably thought, I wish I would be done with this, because when God speaks to us, and He does, and especially in a writing like the book of James, um, God speaks to us and it is penetrating and it is forceful, it's in our face, it's practical, and it's often somewhat disconcerting. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:39.839 That's just the nature of who God is. 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:42.319 God doesn't leave us alone. 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:48.000 He's not someone who is just there saying, oh, everything's wonderful and you're wonderful. 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:56.160 He's not saying he is he loves us too much to not get involved. 00:04:56.480 --> 00:05:01.040 And he got involved on the cross and he continues to get involved in our lives. 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:02.399 And we need him. 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:04.319 How we need him. 00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:08.959 Um it's never take it or leave it with God. 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:20.800 As though when God speaks and when God speaks to you personally, in the quietness of your heart, um, it's not as though that can be a take it or leaving it. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:24.319 Taking it has consequences, leaving it has consequences. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:30.959 That's just the nature of us before our God. 00:05:32.800 --> 00:05:46.319 Um, I have sought week after week after week after week after week to simply take a portion of this book of James and in the first place to ask myself, Lord, what are you saying here? 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:51.360 And to try to bring that to light here in our midst, to expose that. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:53.120 Lord, what are you saying? 00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:55.680 What are you meaning by what are you saying? 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:58.800 And what in the world am I to do with it? 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:10.319 And to help you, that's the question I ask myself, and by God's grace, perhaps to help you reflect on some of those questions yourself. 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:14.959 Today we uh we come to the final section. 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:25.759 We'll be looking at verses 16 through 20 of James chapter 5, really focusing primarily on the last couple of verses. 00:06:26.879 --> 00:06:40.480 And in this passage, um James makes it clear that we have an assignment as we leave here to restore the wandering. 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:47.519 And that can be in our own hearts, it can be in our own families, it can be in others around here. 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:51.600 Almost every Sunday I finish with a benediction. 00:06:51.759 --> 00:06:53.920 Now go into the world in peace. 00:06:54.240 --> 00:07:04.480 And the benediction is intended to remind us kind of as we're going, what kinds of things should we be keeping in mind? 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:25.360 So go into the world in peace, have courage, hold on to that which is good, and honor all men, strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, help the suffering, comfort the grieving, and restore the wandering. 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:39.759 And this is a fitting conclusion to James' book, James' writing, how God led James to communicate to the first century church and to communicate to us. 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:56.720 I have used that benediction in various settings for a good number of years, and at one point, as I was meditating on this closing part of the book of James, I said, I've got to add, restore the wandering. 00:07:57.439 --> 00:08:01.279 Because that is part of what God wants us to be involved in. 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:04.480 It's part of what we need because we wander. 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:11.519 And it's part of what we're to be doing with and for one another. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:14.959 So it is a very fitting ending. 00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:21.600 Um let me read for you and please follow along in your Bible, James chapter 5. 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:25.199 Uh let me begin with the middle of verse 16. 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:36.799 Uh, James, and we saw last week, is talking about prayer, and um he gives a number numerous applications, and here is one of the applications. 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:38.559 The middle of verse 16. 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:44.320 The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 00:08:44.559 --> 00:08:53.360 Um as a new believer, I learned that one, not many of them in the King James, most of them in the New American Standard, but that one, for some reason, in the King James. 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:58.639 The fervent and effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:04.320 I don't suppose I've ever used the term availeth other than in that verse. 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:10.000 The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:13.200 And then he gives an illustration of that application of prayer. 00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:24.639 He says, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain. 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:32.080 Then he prayed again, and heaven, the heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:36.159 Um, where we really want to go is the next two verses. 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:47.360 So let me read those now, but I want to come back briefly and share some thoughts about uh this matter of a man like us who prayed and then all kinds of things happened. 00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:51.600 And what is this when it doesn't happen in our lives? 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:53.279 How are we to understand that? 00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:57.759 But where I would really like to spend most of our time is verses 19 and 20. 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:25.279 My brothers, friends, family members here at Faith, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know, the one who brings another back, that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:28.159 Restore the wandering. 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:39.919 Well, let's just for a moment, since uh I didn't get there last week, uh the clock ran out before James, no, actually, the clock ran out before Walt did. 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:52.399 Um this matter of uh of prayer, and what he has been talking about is that it's always time to pray. 00:10:52.559 --> 00:10:54.720 When troubles come, pray. 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:59.679 And who among us is not at some level in some way in trouble? 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:01.039 I sure am. 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:03.039 Aren't you? 00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:14.320 Aren't there things in your life that hold us down and bind us and somehow or another it just doesn't seem like it ought to be this way? 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:30.799 Now there's times where we don't experience that, but despite despite, despite our smiling faces, and it's not wrong to smile, um, there's issues in your life where you desperately need help or you're in trouble. 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:35.600 And if there aren't today, this is a new week. 00:11:38.720 --> 00:11:41.759 And when troubles come, we're supposed to pray. 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:45.200 Not as a last resort, but as a first resort. 00:11:45.679 --> 00:11:49.039 It's always time to pray. 00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:54.320 Um, now that's the main point, and we saw that last week. 00:11:54.480 --> 00:12:28.799 But then James takes this and he gives various examples, and we looked at one of those, and that is when we are weary and burdened and not able to move forward, whether it be physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally, he says, if you are sick, and it's a very general, uh very general term, when we are sick, uh one of the options, one of the applications of always pray is we can call the elders and have them come. 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:31.519 And we talked about that last week. 00:12:31.679 --> 00:12:34.559 That was one example of prayer. 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:46.639 And he then gives a couple more, and then he makes this statement the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:53.279 So the examples given are when we pray, God answers prayer. 00:12:53.840 --> 00:13:17.039 It's what it said about when the elders gather together and with a soothing touch, picturing the touch of God, the presence of God, the compassion of God, uh, rubbing gently and compassionately on the fevered forehead, whether it's a physical fever or not, that God will answer. 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:19.919 And and yet sometimes he doesn't. 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:22.159 What's that? 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:30.960 And then he gives an example of um, well, he says the prayer of a righteous person has great power and it's working. 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:37.360 Well, what what what's that because my prayers don't often don't always work? 00:13:38.240 --> 00:13:39.679 How about yours? 00:13:40.960 --> 00:14:02.559 Now, without getting distracted too much by this question, I'd like to just give some thoughts very briefly without all of the detail, and it has to do with what happens when prayer doesn't work, and I'm kind of putting that between quotation marks, when prayer doesn't work. 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:14.159 Let's say you have a friend who's wrestling with something, a major issue, and wrestling and wrestling and wrestling, and he prays or she prays and you pray, and nothing happens. 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:22.879 What do we how do we bring this uh in line with what God says? 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:31.120 Well, what God says is that the prayer of a righteous person is very powerful. 00:14:31.279 --> 00:14:45.600 Now, what happens for most of us when we pray, and pray for something really important, and it doesn't seem to work, we begin to say, what's the problem? 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:57.600 And we're too, hopefully, too disinclined to accuse God of having failed, although, if you're honest, some of those questions come up in our minds. 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:01.279 But we would normally say, Well, I just didn't have enough faith. 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:03.600 I just didn't have enough faith. 00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:32.320 That's not what James is talking about here, as though the quantity of our faith, as though faith is all about us being really strong in faith and having enough faith that we can get God to do what we want, and if we just pray enough and really pray and pray with enough faith, then God will accomplish that which we're asking for. 00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:34.960 Now that's a very human way of thinking. 00:15:35.120 --> 00:15:40.720 That is not the way the scriptures really approach it. 00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:44.879 Let me suggest some simple things here. 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:53.919 God answers prayer that is aligned with his will, his ways, and his purposes. 00:15:54.879 --> 00:15:59.200 And maybe a good way to think about this is with the Lord's Prayer. 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:03.600 Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:04.720 We begin with God. 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:09.200 Your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. 00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:12.639 We begin to align ourselves with who God is. 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:14.799 That's where prayer begins. 00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:23.519 And once we're really aligned with who God is, his will, and his ways, we begin to pray differently. 00:16:23.759 --> 00:16:26.559 We don't just say, I want this. 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:30.240 We begin to realize that we have other wants. 00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:37.679 We may really want this, but that may not really be what God is doing at this particular moment. 00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:45.679 And so we learn to align ourselves with His will, His way, and His purposes. 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:52.720 James already touched on this in chapter 4, verse 2. 00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:55.440 Just take a look at it here. 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:56.559 James 4, 2. 00:16:56.639 --> 00:16:59.039 Just turn over, turn the other side of the page. 00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:01.919 You desire and you do not have. 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:04.799 I'm sorry, verse 3. 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:07.119 You ask and do not receive. 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:07.519 Okay? 00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:08.079 Got it? 00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:10.640 You're asking in prayer and you don't receive. 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:16.799 You ask and you ask and do not receive because you pray wrongly. 00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:23.599 And in this case, it apparently was a prayer for material resources. 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:32.559 And James says, sometimes we don't get what we pray for because we're praying with the wrong motive or toward the wrong end. 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:48.160 And he said in this case, and he apparently knew the situation, they were praying because they just wanted to have something, and what they got they just wanted to use for themselves or just to have a good time, or uh we don't know the details, but there was a wrong motive in prayer. 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:58.400 So it's not just, Lord, I want, I want, I want, but are our wants aligned with what God wants? 00:17:58.640 --> 00:18:01.759 And a lot of times we're not 100% sure what God wants. 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:08.880 We know pretty well what we want, but prayer is not just saying, God, I want this. 00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:17.920 It really boils down to saying, Lord, I want what you want far more than I just want this. 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:37.359 I want to align myself with who you are, with your character, your purposes, and your ways are not my ways, and I'm not going to sit here and demand, God, that you do what I want as though you're some kind of a genie, and I just rub the bottle the right way, and I can say, well, this is my desire and this is what I want. 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:48.079 It's possible that unanswered prayer, even if we're praying for good things, it's possible that sometimes it has to do with how we're approaching it. 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:58.400 The righteous person here, and we need just a thought, the right, the fervent and effectual prayer of a righteous man. 00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:00.160 What's a righteous man? 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:05.440 All right, that term has wide, wide usage in the scripture. 00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:15.599 Sometimes it's what we would call forensic righteousness, where the righteousness of Christ is credited to your account as your sins are credited to his account. 00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:21.519 It's a way of understanding one of the most solidly biblical ways of understanding the cross. 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:26.400 The righteousness of God is given to us because of what Christ had done. 00:19:26.640 --> 00:19:29.039 That is a major theme of righteousness. 00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:42.000 But particularly in the Old Testament, and James is thinking largely in Old Testament terms, righteousness is a righteous man, is a man after God's heart. 00:19:42.319 --> 00:19:45.519 A man whose heart is right. 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:56.559 A man who loves God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, to use that New Testament terminology. 00:19:56.880 --> 00:20:02.880 And James is not talking about perfect people get prayers answered. 00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:13.119 And if our prayers aren't answered, then our faith is deficient, even though Jesus also said faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains. 00:20:13.359 --> 00:20:23.759 Jesus didn't approach it, that it's the quantity of our faith and the strength of our faith, it's who God is and our alignment with God. 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:38.640 But he is saying that a person whose heart is increasingly, as we walk on this sod, aligned with God, we're living Godward, we're being changed. 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:42.880 And our desires and our values are being changed. 00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:52.000 And we begin to pray more and more in line with who God is and what we're beginning to understand of God's purposes. 00:20:52.319 --> 00:21:00.799 And so we don't demand, we express our wishes, but we also recognize that God wishes many things. 00:21:01.039 --> 00:21:09.920 And it may not be for me to be healed of this particular situation, whether it be an illness or a circumstance right now. 00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:14.880 There's many more things God is doing that we have to keep in mind. 00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:22.640 The righteous person gets what he wants in prayer because he wants what God wants. 00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:27.279 I could take a lot more time to go into that. 00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:34.079 I don't really want to, except maybe perhaps to point you to Psalm 37, 4. 00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:37.680 Delight yourselves in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:39.200 Now, what does that mean? 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:47.200 Well, I desire a new car, therefore, if I pray, and if I pray real fervently, God will give me a new car. 00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:54.400 Delight yourself, have your desires be the desires of the Lord. 00:21:54.640 --> 00:22:00.960 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of Your heart. 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:08.559 And what happens as we grow in Christ, and that, my friends, is a lifelong process. 00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:11.039 It doesn't just happen overnight. 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:34.559 As we grow in Christ and our understanding of God begins to change from a God who is there to serve me to me who is here to serve him, a God who knows what he's doing and I don't know what I'm doing, a God who can do all things and I can only do all things through Christ who gives me the strength, as our understanding of who God is, our prayers begin to change. 00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:51.839 And I just want to suggest that the prayer of a person whose heart is increasingly aligned with God accomplishes a great deal, and he gives the example of Elijah, and Elijah was a super saint in the Old Testament. 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:58.240 We barely know where the story of Elijah in the Old Testament is found, but to James readers, that was kind of the Apostle Paul. 00:22:58.400 --> 00:22:59.440 That was the big guy. 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:04.400 He was the one, and Elijah, but that's not what James says about Elijah. 00:23:04.559 --> 00:23:08.319 James says, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. 00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:10.559 He's just like us. 00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:14.720 But he prayed and God gave answers to prayer. 00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:21.680 And it's pretty clear that God's prayer, or that Elijah's prayer was aligned with what God wanted to do. 00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:23.119 So it's an illustration. 00:23:23.359 --> 00:23:26.559 Now there's a lot more I could say about unanswered prayers. 00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:27.920 It is not this simple. 00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:33.680 This is just what James leads us to see and say about it. 00:23:34.319 --> 00:23:34.960 All right. 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:41.920 Restore the wandering, verses 19 and 20. 00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:58.000 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. 00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:11.440 So when I say each week, go into the world, this and this and this and this, and restore the wandering, this is what we're talking about. 00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:17.039 And it is expressed in this way, in this verse, and expressed other ways in other contexts. 00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:20.400 But it's part of what God is calling us to. 00:24:20.480 --> 00:24:24.720 It's part of what faith alive accomplishes in our lives. 00:24:24.880 --> 00:24:27.759 It's part of what a faith that works works. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:33.759 It's just part of who God helps us and sends us to be. 00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:41.279 So three very simple things in these two verses that I want to focus on. 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:48.480 Spiritual truth is not simply to be believed, it's to be walked, it's to be lived. 00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:56.480 Second of all, people, people in our midst, and sometimes that's you, and sometimes that's me. 00:24:56.880 --> 00:25:02.000 People in our midst are at risk of wandering off the right path. 00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:09.200 And as we get off of the right path, we get ourselves into mortal danger. 00:25:09.599 --> 00:25:11.599 That's the second point that he makes. 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:18.480 And thirdly, we're called, we're called to restore and rescue. 00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:20.240 What an incredible privilege. 00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:27.440 People in need of restoration, restoring people in need of restoration, people in need of help helping people in need of help. 00:25:27.599 --> 00:25:30.640 That's just the way the body of Christ functions. 00:25:32.079 --> 00:25:38.160 So let me try as simply and as quickly as possible to move through this first point. 00:25:38.319 --> 00:25:45.599 Spiritual truth is not simply to believe, be believed, but it is to be walked. 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:49.440 We already saw this in James chapter 2, 26. 00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:54.960 If anyone, um, sorry, that was 126, that says it as well. 00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:59.200 If anyone thinks he's religious and doesn't bridle his tongue, he doesn't know what he's talking about. 00:25:59.440 --> 00:26:07.359 But chapter 2, uh, verse 26 makes it very clear. 00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:16.000 Except I have the wrong reference, so it's not very clear. 00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:27.039 Well, let's move right along. 00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:30.960 I hope that was an edifying moment for you. 00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:33.039 It was not for me. 00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:41.759 Um faith is not something that we just intellectually believe. 00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:48.160 Faith is not primarily a set of things to appropriate intellectually. 00:26:48.319 --> 00:26:50.240 It's not just a set of doctrines. 00:26:50.400 --> 00:26:52.240 There is intellectual truth to it. 00:26:52.480 --> 00:26:57.839 It's not just something philosophical, it's not just something abstract. 00:26:58.079 --> 00:27:08.000 Faith, real faith, living faith, is practical, it's existential, it deals with our being, and it's moral. 00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:12.400 It affects and it finds its center in the way we live. 00:27:12.640 --> 00:27:22.319 And you can approach faith intellectually, and you can approach faith philosophically, and you can approach faith abstractly. 00:27:22.880 --> 00:27:26.160 But that is not what the Bible does. 00:27:26.480 --> 00:27:37.839 The Bible helps us approach faith very, very practically with our lives and says it is something that we walk in, something that we live out. 00:27:39.039 --> 00:27:45.759 1 John chapter 1, verse 6 makes it very clear, I hope. 00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:53.440 Boy, boy. 00:27:54.640 --> 00:28:07.839 If we walk in the light as he is in the light, chapter 1, verse 6, 1 John, if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:09.039 Did you hear that? 00:28:09.359 --> 00:28:19.119 If we say we are related to God and are good with God and have fellowship with God and don't practice the truth, we lie. 00:28:19.839 --> 00:28:25.200 If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. 00:28:26.480 --> 00:28:32.319 But we can't say that we're rightly related to God if we just believe certain things. 00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:37.680 Faith is not just believing, faith involves walking in the truth. 00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:42.559 It's a spiritual journey. 00:28:42.799 --> 00:29:05.200 The first term that was used in the New Testament to describe Christians when Saul, who became the Apostle Paul later, Saul was out to destroy those pesky followers of Christ, he talked about those who are of the way. 00:29:06.079 --> 00:29:06.720 The way. 00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:16.400 We're changing, we're being transformed, we're more and more beginning to understand who God is and who we are, and our lives begin to change. 00:30:16.480 --> 00:30:18.400 That's what faith does. 00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:31.200 Don't talk about faith as, well, in ought for I raised my hand in a meeting, or at my mother's knee I made a decision, or I came forward. 00:30:31.519 --> 00:30:34.799 Those are very likely real things that happen. 00:30:35.039 --> 00:30:39.920 I'm not putting those down, but is that what your faith is based upon? 00:30:40.240 --> 00:30:44.559 Is our faith based upon a decision we made long ago? 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:52.480 What James says is our faith, the way we know it's real, is that we're being changed. 00:30:52.720 --> 00:30:53.759 We're being changed. 00:30:53.839 --> 00:30:56.799 We're learning and changing and growing and developing. 00:30:57.039 --> 00:31:07.359 One of the many reasons why next week we're going to have just a time to share is we want to be encouraged by what God is teaching us together. 00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:11.359 Not just from James, but in life and in the world. 00:31:13.039 --> 00:31:28.799 If God isn't saying something to you and changing you and causing lights to go on and causing you to say, oh, I wow, I could hardly put it into words. 00:31:29.200 --> 00:31:35.359 If that's not happening, then you don't have the faith that the Bible talks about. 00:31:35.519 --> 00:31:40.640 Certainly not the faith as James portrays it. 00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:46.319 It's not simply to be believed, uh, but it's to be lived out and walked. 00:31:47.759 --> 00:31:51.759 The reality is that people in our midst. 00:31:54.160 --> 00:31:55.680 Are you in our midst? 00:31:56.079 --> 00:31:56.480 Duh. 00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:03.839 Just read again what he actually says in verse 19. 00:32:04.079 --> 00:32:15.119 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, now he's talking about individuals here. 00:32:16.319 --> 00:32:24.319 He's talking about individuals within the gathering of the church. 00:32:25.119 --> 00:32:32.880 Um he's saying that we, we are at risk of wandering off. 00:32:33.440 --> 00:32:35.039 That's clearly what he's talking about. 00:32:35.119 --> 00:32:39.279 He's not talking about them out there, he's talking about us in here. 00:32:41.759 --> 00:32:55.680 There was a um a writing, an early set of writings for the early church, 30, 40, 50 years after the New Testament called the Didake, or the Instruction of Believers. 00:32:55.839 --> 00:33:00.559 And it opens with this biblically informed statement. 00:33:00.720 --> 00:33:05.039 There are two ways, one of life and one of death. 00:33:05.680 --> 00:33:12.240 And there is a great difference between the two. 00:33:12.880 --> 00:33:22.640 James has already told us that the way of the world and the way of God are mutually exclusive. 00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:24.880 James 4, verse 4. 00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:30.880 Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity towards God? 00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:35.359 We don't use the word enmity, basically hostility or hatred towards God. 00:33:36.880 --> 00:33:48.720 Fellowship with the world, living the way the world lives, is living in opposition to God and his ways for us. 00:33:49.519 --> 00:34:03.440 Jesus said, there is a the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it, the gate is small, the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. 00:34:06.559 --> 00:34:08.480 These are matters of life and death. 00:34:08.639 --> 00:34:11.440 They're not just, and it's an either-or. 00:34:13.039 --> 00:34:16.960 We don't like either-or things in our culture anymore. 00:34:17.119 --> 00:34:21.199 We want we want to find a little bit, we we want everybody to be happy. 00:34:21.360 --> 00:34:24.159 We want everybody who participates to get an award. 00:34:25.199 --> 00:34:31.760 And we really want everybody's view of God and life and everything to have a measure of truth to it. 00:34:32.079 --> 00:34:34.320 That's not the way the scriptures approach it. 00:34:34.400 --> 00:34:36.320 It's black and white, it's either or. 00:34:36.480 --> 00:34:37.840 It's life, it's death. 00:34:38.079 --> 00:34:40.719 There's following God or following the world. 00:34:40.880 --> 00:34:47.599 The one brings life, the other brings mortal danger, death, destruction, despair. 00:34:49.039 --> 00:34:53.519 We don't want binary options, either or. 00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:55.760 We want tolerance. 00:34:56.800 --> 00:35:05.440 You can barely in a public venue anymore say anything definitive about right and wrong without getting in trouble. 00:35:07.039 --> 00:35:10.639 Well, that's not the way God talks. 00:35:11.440 --> 00:35:13.599 And who do you suppose is right? 00:35:13.840 --> 00:35:15.599 The way we talk or the way God talks? 00:35:15.840 --> 00:35:18.880 The way our society views things or the way God views things? 00:35:19.039 --> 00:35:20.639 That's a fair question. 00:35:20.880 --> 00:35:27.599 But if you name the name of Christ, then in essence you've already decided. 00:35:28.239 --> 00:35:31.360 I have decided to follow Jesus. 00:35:31.679 --> 00:35:34.320 There is the way, the truth, and the life. 00:35:34.559 --> 00:35:38.000 Back in the 70s when my hair was dark and a little bit longer. 00:35:38.239 --> 00:35:40.960 One way, Jesus! One way, Jesus. 00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:43.840 Should have seen me then. 00:35:44.559 --> 00:35:45.679 Wasn't a pretty sight. 00:35:45.760 --> 00:35:46.960 Not that this is. 00:35:47.760 --> 00:35:51.039 But there was a time in which we said, there's one way. 00:35:51.519 --> 00:35:54.800 There is a way, a truth, a life. 00:35:55.440 --> 00:35:57.599 And that way is Jesus. 00:35:59.760 --> 00:36:06.000 And we are running the risk of wanting it both ways. 00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:20.079 Those who wander off the path get themselves onto an alternative path, and the paths are diverging, they are not crossing. 00:36:22.880 --> 00:36:25.599 Friendship with the world is enmity towards God. 00:36:25.920 --> 00:36:31.360 The word wander that is used here calls up to our mind a different image. 00:36:31.519 --> 00:36:40.400 It's just kind of bumbling around, like I wake up in the morning and I'm trying to get the sleep out of my eyes, and I'm trying to find exactly where the coffee pot is. 00:36:40.639 --> 00:36:42.159 Actually, for me, it never works. 00:36:42.320 --> 00:36:45.440 I always know exactly where the coffee pot is. 00:36:45.599 --> 00:36:47.360 So that's maybe a bad illustration. 00:36:47.440 --> 00:36:54.880 But the idea of wandering means we're just kind of aimlessly moving around without point or purpose or direction. 00:36:55.119 --> 00:36:59.280 The word that is used here means to deviate from the path. 00:36:59.440 --> 00:37:08.320 It's a deviant path, it's a diverging path, it's going astray, it's getting derailed, it's going off course. 00:37:08.559 --> 00:37:30.559 And he's saying, if, and the specific wording that he uses doesn't come across real well in most of our English translations, he says, if, and it's true, there are those among you who are wandering, and if, and it's true, some one of you goes to them, then this will. 00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:38.559 So this he's assuming, he's assuming that we have a danger of wandering. 00:37:39.039 --> 00:37:41.280 Not those out there, but us in here. 00:37:41.440 --> 00:37:48.800 And he makes it very clear that we are to restore and rescue him. 00:37:49.360 --> 00:37:58.480 He assumes that some in our midst will wander, and that some in our midst will go and help them. 00:37:59.199 --> 00:38:11.840 And the interesting reality is sometimes you may be wandering and someone comes and helps you, and other times someone else, maybe the one who was wandering, you're able to go and help them. 00:38:12.079 --> 00:38:16.880 We don't stand above, we don't stand in judgmental with judgmentalism. 00:38:17.519 --> 00:38:24.000 We are people in need of restoration, helping restore people who are in need of restoration. 00:38:24.239 --> 00:38:26.239 That's just the body of Christ. 00:38:26.400 --> 00:38:29.280 That's the way it is portrayed. 00:38:29.920 --> 00:38:33.840 To restore is to turn or to bring back. 00:38:34.320 --> 00:38:47.679 We are not supposed to just be aware of people who are getting themselves into trouble and wandering off into places that they shouldn't go and just passively say, oh my goodness, that's really too bad, isn't it? 00:38:49.440 --> 00:39:06.800 As though we have no responsibility to lovingly and gently and come alongside and help them, not standing above and looking down, but standing next to and loving and embracing and saying, let's talk, let's talk. 00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:20.800 And the assumption is we don't simply we don't simply accept the way they're going and say, oh well, that's just not a very good choice they're making. 00:39:25.199 --> 00:39:27.360 It's not just a bad choice. 00:39:27.519 --> 00:39:31.119 It's a choice that leads to death, danger, and destruction. 00:39:31.280 --> 00:39:34.960 It's not just an alternative, it's a wrong direction. 00:39:35.360 --> 00:39:39.599 But in our culture, in our culture, we're afraid to say that. 00:39:39.760 --> 00:39:48.480 And we're also afraid if we go to someone lovingly, with compassion, caring, that they're going to turn to us and say, well, you're not so great either. 00:39:48.800 --> 00:39:50.079 And we're not. 00:39:50.639 --> 00:39:56.880 It's not that I'm so much better than you, it's that we're all in need of our Savior. 00:39:57.119 --> 00:40:03.440 And we're all in need of being brought back and kept together on the path. 00:40:04.079 --> 00:40:11.920 Um we're not to be silent, we're not to simply accept, we're not to simply shrink back out of fear of what they might think. 00:40:12.159 --> 00:40:17.679 It's one of the many one-another passages that are given to us. 00:40:18.559 --> 00:40:22.480 Uh Galatians 6.1, let me uh read that for you. 00:40:22.639 --> 00:40:24.800 Galatians 6.1, brothers. 00:40:25.199 --> 00:40:51.760 Uh if anyone is caught in any transgression, and that's happening, you who are spiritual, not you who are perfect, but you who have God's Spirit and are growing and developing in the faith, you who are righteous, you whose hearts are increasingly aligned with God's will and God's purposes, not perfect. 00:40:51.920 --> 00:40:52.960 You are not perfect. 00:40:53.039 --> 00:40:54.800 It doesn't require perfection. 00:40:54.960 --> 00:40:56.079 It's not what he's talking about. 00:40:56.239 --> 00:41:09.920 If anyone is spiritual in that sense, should rescue the other in a spirit of gentleness, keeping watch on yourself lest you yourself be tempted, bear one another's burdens, and fulfill the law of Christ. 00:41:10.079 --> 00:41:15.199 If anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 00:41:18.079 --> 00:41:20.400 So much more I would like to say. 00:41:21.280 --> 00:41:33.679 What I I simply want to do as we wrap up this message and this series on James is I want to just I wanna I want to ask. 00:41:37.119 --> 00:41:39.599 Does your faith really work? 00:41:40.159 --> 00:41:40.719 Really? 00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:43.679 And I'm not saying it doesn't. 00:41:43.760 --> 00:41:47.599 I'm just saying that that's a question that we have to ask. 00:41:49.119 --> 00:41:50.880 Is your faith alive? 00:41:51.679 --> 00:41:52.320 Really? 00:41:52.639 --> 00:41:53.920 Really alive? 00:41:55.039 --> 00:42:02.719 And I don't say that and raise those questions to make you feel guilty or to be condemning any more than God does. 00:42:02.960 --> 00:42:12.880 God approaches us and he gets in our face because he loves us and he cares about us enough to say some things that challenge us. 00:42:14.000 --> 00:42:28.320 And we cannot and must not spend 26 messages looking at the book of James of all books of the Bible, and not ask ourselves the question, how's it going with my faith? 00:42:29.280 --> 00:42:30.880 Am I changing? 00:42:31.199 --> 00:42:32.559 Am I growing? 00:42:32.880 --> 00:42:35.840 Is God really working in my life? 00:42:37.119 --> 00:42:45.199 Um, I have one great fear that I will probably awake with in the middle of the night this week. 00:42:45.840 --> 00:42:48.880 We're gonna have a sharing service next week. 00:42:49.679 --> 00:42:51.440 And what if no one? 00:42:52.559 --> 00:42:58.719 What if no one has seen God doing anything in their lives that's worth talking about? 00:42:59.039 --> 00:43:06.400 What if no one has been being instructed by God, being being helped to see some things, being challenged? 00:43:06.480 --> 00:43:12.000 What if no one is seeing God working in their lives, helping them in particular situations? 00:43:14.960 --> 00:43:23.119 So it's with a matter of fear and trepidation that we just throw it open and say, Lord, what are you doing in our lives? 00:43:23.920 --> 00:43:24.880 What are we doing? 00:43:25.599 --> 00:43:27.360 What are we doing, folks? 00:43:27.840 --> 00:43:29.199 What are we doing? 00:43:32.320 --> 00:43:35.199 A faith that is alive works. 00:43:36.159 --> 00:43:40.880 We are not saved by works, we are saved by grace through faith. 00:43:41.199 --> 00:43:43.280 But saving grace makes a difference. 00:43:43.440 --> 00:43:47.280 Saving grace works, saving grace changes us. 00:43:49.840 --> 00:43:51.440 Are you changing? 00:43:52.639 --> 00:43:53.679 Are we changing? 00:43:53.840 --> 00:43:55.360 Am I changing? 00:43:56.639 --> 00:44:01.199 Just this week I found myself in deep weeds. 00:44:02.719 --> 00:44:05.760 And I came home and I talked to Jane about it, and I said, I'm in trouble. 00:44:05.840 --> 00:44:08.000 I really screwed up badly here. 00:44:09.039 --> 00:44:18.960 And Jane patiently listened to me and then came and said, Well, what was this about that I heard about uh when you're in trouble, pray? 00:44:21.119 --> 00:44:21.760 Beautiful. 00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:23.840 I needed, I needed that. 00:44:24.719 --> 00:44:27.039 And I'm changing and growing as well. 00:44:27.199 --> 00:44:27.840 Are you? 00:44:30.400 --> 00:44:32.400