How does faith work with people you don’t like?

[Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hello everyone welcome to real faith live i'm ashley chase the director of real faith and i'm so happy that you've decided to join us for church online today my dad pastor mark will be up in just a few minutes with a super relevant sermon in the book of james on how faith works in the midst of conflict even with people that you don't like this will be interesting so stay tuned and while you're at it invite someone who needs to hear the gospel today trust me they need to hear the good news of jesus today you can do that by hitting that share button giving this sermon a thumbs up and commenting down below where you are viewing from i know last weekend we had a few people from australia and brazil and from all over the united states or maybe you even live next door to trinity church here in scottsdale arizona anyways let us know in the chat down below we have a team of individuals who want to meet you and welcome you to church online today this month of october receive a physical copy of my dad pastor mark's newest book called christian theology versus critical theory it is a deep dive study into the counterfeit of christian theology known as critical theory it is a spiritual virus that has spread much more quickly than any physical virus can and it has infected and affected academia government and social media platforms as well as unfortunately many pulpits and pastors for your gift of any amount in this month of october receive a copy of this new book christian theology first critical theory i promise it'll be beneficial to you you can receive this resource by texting donate to 99383 that's donate to 99383 or you can give at realface.com you can give stock bitcoin and all sorts of other awesome things on realfeast.com go and check it out here is a sneak peek of what this content will look like this is an ask pastor mark that we recently recorded about critical theory howdy my name is pastor mark kristol i've been teaching god's word primarily book by book burst by verse for about 25 years and uh and this issue of critical theory is really the subject that i'm focusing on for the month of october at real faith ministries and just introduce it you've probably heard about critical race theory that is one aspect of critical theory critical theory is an overarching worldview like the storyline of the bible and it's actually a counterfeit because everything that god creates satan counterfeits and we know that god is about building he's about building individuals marriage family culture satan is all about steal kill and destroy that's all he's ever doing so his hope goal constantly is to break whatever god has built now critical theory is demonic critical theory is anti-biblical critical theory is anti-jesus uh critical theory behind it all is actually the critic satan himself and he started his critique of god in heaven we read in revelation 12 and he didn't think that god was doing it right and he thought that he could do it better and so he attacked god and there was a war in heaven and the bible says then he was cast down to the earth and then he goes after adam and eve and he is the critic and so ultimately what is happening in our generation is a mass generational apostasy and it is a series of counterfeits that i'm dealing with in a talk and a book special this month through real faith ministries on christian theology versus critical theory in christian theology we believe that you should repent of your sin in critical theory you repent of someone else's sin in critical theory you crucify someone for what they said or did in christian theology we trust in jesus who was crucified for our sin in christianity you need to be born again well in critical theory uh you need to become one who is now woke meaning that is the counterfeit of being born again and christianity we get our baptism and critical theory it's coming out of the closet everything god creates satan counterfeits and let me say this i love pastors and i love ministry leaders and i know it's been a beat down for the last 18 months or so but what is happening is a younger generation that is largely biblically illiterate really concerned about social media fads trends and fans and not so much about doctrine theology and clarity is really getting swept up in a massive generational tide and so uh what i would tell you is critical race theory is the most compelling part of critical theory but it is it is inclusive of gender marriage family sexuality spirituality and once you let it in it's like a demon it's going to wreck ruin steal kill destroy everything and if you don't believe me look at the liberal mainline denominations that have absolutely aligned themselves with the spirit of the age and they have lost the spirit of god and the spirit of god is no longer anointing those works and all they are they're just propped up by political theory by by social justice which is not biblical justice and they're held and duct taped together by a lot of causes uh but not christ and so i know all of that's offensive it's only the beginning you can find the rest with a one-hour talk or a free copy of my 35 000 word book which i hope by god's grace is a nice stiff jab to the jaw and you can find it all at realfaith.com and if you don't know what critical theory is and i'd say especially for those of you that are college students or pastors or leaders you need to inform yourself if you are a parent you need to know that this is the brainwashing it is literally the brainwashing that is being driven into the mind of your child in school and if you're unaware of it you're going to be deceived by it you're going to be led astray through it and you're going to be accountable to god for it you can visit realfaith.com critical theory to receive a full talk based on the subject along with the new book and even more content that's realfaith.com critical theory now grab your instruments and microphones and get ready to worship with us hey guys my name is isaac bradford i'm a pastor in calvary chapel in payson arizona and i'm going to share a song with you guys it's called living hope it's a personal song it's dear to my heart it was in a time that there was a lot of difficult things going on in my family so it's kind of a dark time just turning to jesus and and putting my trust and my hope in him so the song is called living hope and hopefully it'll bless you i hope it ministers to your heart and grabs a hold of you like it does me i woke up this morning the bitter truth was setting in i lost everything i had like a gambler to the wind broken and hopeless with nowhere left to run my back's against the ropes and all the fighting [Music] i need words of life they can resurrect my soul i need to say oh save me from myself oh i need you jesus to be my ever-present hell [Music] as the days were passing i'm at the bottom once again lord i need a handle and i sure could use a friend you're closer than a brother so lord i give my heart to you i take my worries and my burdens and i cast my cares on you and what i need is a living hope i need a world life that can resurrect my soul i need a savior [Music] and i will run to you when my world is crashing down and i will run to you you never let me down [Music] and what i need is a living hole i need a word of life that can resurrect my soul [Music] save me from myself oh i need you jesus to be my ever-present hell [Music] my soul [Music] [Applause] save me from myself oh i need you jesus to be my ever-present hell oh i need you jesus to be my ever-present head oh i need you jesus to be my ever-present hell [Music] open your bibles and get ready for pastor mark [Music] so [Music] all right we're in uh james chapter two if you've got a bible you can go to james chapter 2 and if you haven't gotten it yet we've got a study guide for you just help you learn the book of james some things that you can pray through and think through during the week and it'll help to you up for uh life groups and if you're watching online it's free at realfaith.com and the big idea with james is faith works and oftentimes we think of bible teachers religious leaders kind of spiritual overseers there's people who are sort of very pious they come from institutions they usually wear sensible shoes and uh and they're sort of buttoned up and got their degree james is a guy who was raised in a small town to a peasant family his mom and dad were mary and joseph his big brother was jesus uh he didn't have an opportunity to go away to the university he had to go to work with his dad in that day you would help generate revenue by working with your dad in whatever it was that he did and so james is a guy who grew up in a carpenter family and you tend not to think of you know bible scholars and great leaders coming from construction worker homes but that's exactly what happens with jesus and james and i was thinking about this more my upbringing my grandpa george was a diesel mechanic my dad was a construction worker a union drywaller one of my first jobs i was a longshoreman and so that's kind of my background i can take a punch i can lift a load and and i know what to do with the hammer and that's kind of the big idea in james is that sometimes a really good mature christian isn't someone who can just win an argument but someone knows how to live a life and a lot of times it's not just what you say but it's what you do that really demonstrates that you have a faith-filled relationship with god and so what we're dealing with today and what james is addressing for us today is how does your faith work how do you take your faith and put it to work with people you don't like okay can we just all agree there are people you don't like amen okay and if you're here together i mean we're gonna heal you right now it's going to be great so then you can have date night so the way this works is as urine like they're just people that we just don't like we don't get along with we don't enjoy and sometimes it can be an entire group or kind or type of people and when this happens james calls this uh partiality is what he indeed calls it so think of it in this way chapter one he talked about our relationship with god chapter two he's gonna talk about our relationship with one another think of a time when you were the outsider when there was a group and you were out not in maybe you transferred into school mid-year and you're like yep those kids all get along and i'm out you start a new job and there's kind of a click at work everybody's got their roles in relationships and responsibilities and you're the one that didn't get the chair when the music ended and kind of musical chairs you were the one who was left out we've all been that person who we've been on the out it feels a little rejected a little dejected feels like in some ways we're not really loved and there's not an opportunity for us to enter in now think of it conversely who feels that way about you we've all been on the outside and then there are times that we're on the inside and there are others who feel on the outside i can't get into that group i'm not accepted i'm not welcome they really don't want me and i'm really not welcome there and we do this categorically sometimes we do this with our politics i'll just throw that out there there is the hypothetical possibility that democrats and republicans don't necessarily enjoy one another's company we're talking about certain issues uh sometimes this can be people that are rural versus people that are urban this can be older generations younger generations this to be racial groups cultural groups religious groups we've all got the people that we feel a little more comfortable with and then other people that we feel a little more frustrated by well the way it worked in the early church to which james is writing is his family's jewish his brother jesus is god and jewish and james grows up learning the old testament going to synagogue being very jewish it's all jewish and then all of a sudden the holy spirit descends and now there's lots of non-jewish gentiles being saved and loved by jesus so they're like what do we do now i guess we gotta we gotta go to the synagogue which is now the church so now you've got rich and poor people who weren't friends and they're in church together now you've got jews and gentiles and they weren't friends and now they're in church together you got slave and free they weren't friends now they're together what do we do now what god did through jesus he created a new category called christianity paul calls it the new man i call it team jesus whatever your alliances were when you meet jesus your priorities shift and all of a sudden you start to understand yourself and others less in terms of the categories that exist in culture and whether or not you have a relationship with christ and so where he's going to deal with it in this uh occasion is really really practical because right now the christian church is the most diverse movement of any sort of kind in the history of the world more nations more cultures more races than any other movement in the history of the world and how do we have unity and diversity sometimes when we're annoying one another so we're going to start with this he he says first of all don't look down on them look up to him and what happens when there are people that we don't like this can be an individual but oftentimes it's a group of people we're a kind of people we look down on them we stereotype them he says my brothers so if you belong to god then jesus is your big brother and we're all brothers we're all family show no partiality that's preference or favoritism as you hold to the faith in our lord jesus christ the lord of glory that's the big idea for if a man wearing a gold ring so he's talking about like a church service right now there's somebody here with the gold ring going uh-oh they're picking on me and fine clothing okay so he's got like name brand underwear he's a real fancy guy comes into your assembly or meeting and a poor man a college kid with flip-flops somehow wore his pajamas to church they do that i know not why also comes in and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say you sit over here in a good place while you say to the poor man stand over there and this one's even worse sit down at my feet like i do need a coffee table welcome uh that's that's that's that's that's interesting have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts so he says sometimes in uh in that day if you would go to synagogue which was their version of hebrew church uh the people who made the most and gave the most got the best seats if you grew up jewish to this day many synagogues you pay for your seat now imagine imagine like you had to go onto ticketmaster and pay for your seat how many of you love those movie theaters where you get to pre-select your seat and then you can skip the one hour and 47 minutes of commercials that they make you endure and so you get to show up in your seat and what happens in that day and in our day in the synagogue was you pre-purchase your seat so that when the holidays or the holy days come and everybody comes to the assembly you were guaranteed to have a good seat you didn't have to show up early and you could just go right to your preferred seat and so church in that day for the jewish people it ran a lot like concerts like sporting events like uh movies do in our day the more you pay the better seats you get and if you can't afford it well then you're you're up in the nosebleed section or maybe you're standing in the back or maybe there's not really room for you and what he says is the way the world works and it's not necessarily wrong or bad but truth be told you give what you pay for how many of you have learned that all right i'll tell you a funny story i was uh in dallas this week and i got to go see some friends and go to a conference and i got to do some teaching for some pastors at cowboys stadium got to go down to the 50-yard line let me just say i don't want to hear anyone complain about the size of a church ever again uh that i'll tell you that the dallas cowboys are the biggest cult i've ever seen their screen is bigger than our building nonetheless um i wanted to get back on wednesday night to teach at real men and i had a flight that was a little close so i thought well we got done a little early i'm going to go to the airport and see if i can get an earlier flight and they said well we have standby and so you can just wait and see and if a seat comes available we'll give it to you so that sounds great and then they called me up they're like you get you know one of the last seats on the plane is like do you have a what's the first seat you want you want an aisle because if these people are driving you crazy you can you can go okay or and if you can't get an aisle what do you want a window so you could sleep what you don't want is the middle you don't want the middle you do not want the middle and if you want the middle you our prayer team will be up in just a little bit we need to pray for you they said no it's a middle seat i was like ah okay so i get in the middle seat the two people next to me they're bigger than me we're a little squished um i'm not gonna say much grace said you can't see much okay so i'm in the middle seat just connect with me and i can't i can't i got i got no i got nothing okay i got another i can't move and so i decide and i feel a little cramped and i made a i made a strategic error i put my bag with my laptop under my feet now i got nowhere for my feet i can't move i'm stuck i'm trapped and then we're half hour delay and i'm like oh lord i'm freaking out man i'm having a panic attack i'm feeling a little claustrophobic i'm like i'ma go to sleep because when you turn 50 god gives you a super power to nap so it's a superpower that god doesn't give young people because it's too powerful you got to know how to manage this so at 50 you get a superpower now i'm like lord i'm going to tap into my superpower and i'm going to nap so i start napping and then i get woke up by a horrible sound and a horrible smell this person is snoring in my ear they're just like this and this dude snuck on the flight a bucket of chili i kid you not homemade chill homemade chili homemade chili i was like dude you really got to be committed to your chili when you're like i'm go i'm going to sneak this in to tsa he's got a big bucket of chili with us with a a fake spoon a plastic spoon and it it smells terrible i mean i thought i thought we had a situation to my right like it so i don't remember a baby being over there that's a big man i i'm scared to check out what's happening so i wake up i got this gal snoring on my ear i got this dude eating chili i just look at him he's like i like chili i was like i know bro that's a bucket of homemade chili on a flight and i'm in the middle and i kid i can't now i'm trapped now we're in the air and i'm like okay i'll see i'm going to go get my laptop and i'm going to start working on the sermon because i hadn't even touched this sermon yet and i guess so i got it i'm doing the t-rex bible study i'm getting my laptop now now you open it so i'm doing my t-rex bible study and up up comes this verse that people that don't make money get bad seats i kid you not that was my bible study on the flight with the snoring gal and the chili guy okay that's right and i thought oh lord now's a good time for the rapture i would like an upgrade to the kingdom how many of you have you've not been able to afford at some point the seat that you want and it's it's just kind of a little bit frustrating and what he says is that we live in this world where everybody gets to kind of demonstrate their status by where their seats are by where their seats are and what he's saying is in church it shouldn't be like that okay now imagine in that day rich guy walks in vip vip like let's say we had recliners up front right and chicken wings and somebody to rub your feet and then you guys are standing in the back you're like how do you get up there when the bucket comes around you make that happen what that would be is that would be something that maybe those who are affluent could afford but those who are poor could not and what he's saying is in the church because we're a family in a family let's say you all get together for thanksgiving or christmas dinner you don't sit according to income and if you do you have a horrible dad okay all right you know your family you all sit at the same table because it doesn't matter what you make your family what he says when we get together for church we're family and what he says is there shouldn't be any partiality and partiality is judging outwardly not just looking inwardly leviticus 19 15 says do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great and proverbs 28 21 says to show partiality is not good now partiality can go both ways let's say it's democrats or republicans they can dislike each other rich and poor male and female young and old black and white urban suburban the partiality goes both ways either way we tend to think that the people that are like us are probably the good people and the people that are not like us are probably the bad people and so we all have to check our heart for partiality the problem with partiality is this it's a counterfeit of discernment because what discernment does discernment looks at the heart of someone and the motive and the character and what happens when we're partial we're just judging the outward we're just looking at oh what watch do they wear you know do they get it at walmart or is it a rolex you know what shoes are they wearing are they wearing you know skechers or retro jordans you know what what kind of clothes are they wearing is it name brand or or did they they get it at costco right what car did they drive oh that's a nice car oh that's terrible and what we do we tend to look at the outward which tend to run to evaluations we can do this by their appearance their style their hair color you could even have a bias against a preacher and a hat as a hypothetical possibility and so this is just the religious person detector by the way this just helps me find the religious people so nonetheless thank you for joining us the complaint box is in the back you can send an email we'd love to delete it we got a whole team just waiting to do that so what happens when we have partiality all we're judging is what we can see and the truth is there's a lot we can't see the bible says that man looks at the hour god looks at the heart how many of us in our life we've pre-judged someone partiality and then we got to know them and they were totally different than we'd previously judged them like they actually really love the lord they're actually a really sweet person they're actually you know they they like some dudes look really tough and they're just big teddy bears with beards there are some people that look very rebellious and they're just already and creative and so what he's saying is that partiality doesn't lead to the best judgment and so what he says is that partiality causes us to be judges with evil thoughts rushing to conclusions because the point is you can judge someone but the best way is to really get to know someone you just look and you're like i see you and of i know who you are no you need to get to know them because sometimes people will surprise us like for example if you would have met james brother he was a 30 year old virgin homeless unemployed seems like a bit of an underachiever right so where do you work well i kind of an itinerant floating ministry thing how old are you early 30s you married no kids no where do you live i couch surf and i'm god and so you could have really rushed to a conclusion about jesus long hair sandals right i'm just hanging out with these guys all day i mean you could have rushed to conclusions the point is you don't really know someone until you get to know someone and so what he says is we spend a lot of time looking down on others and let me just say that social media allows this all the time and we peer into people's lives and then we make snarky comments about them and the key to not doing that is to stop looking down on them and start looking up to him that's what he's telling us and when he says that jesus christ is the lord of glory what he's saying is it doesn't really matter where we sit the main thing we need to pay attention to is where he says and he's telling us to look up now when we think of the lord jesus we tend to think of him while he was on the earth in poverty today he is in the unseen realm in glory if you were to see jesus today he would appear a lot different than he did when he was on the earth right now jesus is alive he's seated in the unseen realm in heaven the bible says in um 45 occasions in the new testament that he seated on a throne 17 of the 22 chapters of revelation about worship in the end talk about jesus on his throne that means he's a king and he's ruling and reigning and jesus throne is over all creation over all of human history he has all authority and the scenes in revelation are that all authority and command and decree come from jesus on his throne and that ultimately all worship and obedience and and and honor go to jesus seated on his throne and what he's saying is we tend to really think a lot about ourselves then we look down on people and we'll really think rightly about ourselves if we look up to him amen i'll say like well i was really impressed with myself until i looked at jesus i was really impressed with my seat in the company or my place in the organization or my zip code or my square footage or my income i was feeling pretty good until i looked up and then i realized he's in a different category he's the lord of glory and when the bible's talking about jesus christ in glory you need to know when we worship we're worshiping jesus in glory when we pray we're praying to jesus in glory you're not just going to see on the return of christ a humble marginalized galilean peasant you're going to see the king of kings the lord of lords ruling and reigning in all glory he's going to come to the earth he's going to rise the dead he is going to rule the nations he will judge all sinners he will reward all saints and the center of creation and the place of highest authority in all of eternity is going to be the throne of jesus christ and it's going to come to planet earth and it's going to fix our problems it's going to heal our hurts it is going to eradicate our differences and it is going to usher in his kingdom and so he's saying is just get this picture of him in glory and when you look up to him you don't have time to look down to them and when you look down on them because you're feeling pretty good about yourself you get a better perspective of yourself when you look up to him and so this word glory it appears about 275 times in your english bible splendor beauty magnificence radiance heaviness weightiness prominence preeminence luminescence splendor majesty holiness purity worthiness it's just hard to get the words but here's what it sounds like wow that's what it sounds like and so if you're at a concert and the band comes out for the encore and everybody's like wow that's glory on the wedding day when the door opens and then the bride comes out wearing white and fiancee's up on the stage and he wow you and i need to know that the more that we see jesus in glory the more we see everything that's happening on planet earth within its proper perspective the more that you and i are impressed by who jesus is we won't be so impressed by who we are or who they are and what he's saying is that seeing jesus in glory gives perspective to everyone and everything now let me say this this will be super encouraging now if you don't want to be encouraged cover your ears okay if you don't want to be encouraged cover your ears and just take a minute to check the news if you do want to be encouraged hear this jesus says this in matthew 19. in the new world when jesus comes back the son of man will sit on his glorious throne see james is like everybody's fighting over where they get to sit there's only one seat that really matters you who have followed me will sit also on thrones upon the resurrection of the dead in the return of jesus christ there will be rewards for faithful saints here's the good news there's a throne waiting for you so who cares where you're at in the org chart when it's all done you're going to get promoted right who cares whether your car is from germany or korea when all is said and done you're going to be in a chariot driving on streets lined with gold the point is this that if you are faithful now he will be faithful to reward you then so don't just look at the outward look at the n word don't just look at the immediate but consider the eternal and he goes on to say how we qualify for these thrones everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or lance for my sake will receive a hundred fold and will inherit eternal life many who were first will be last and last will be first what jesus says is there are some people that have given up everything or lost a lot because they love me they lost their house they lost their job they lost their income because they weren't willing to do something that was unethical or ungodly there are people whose families have disowned them and cut them out of the inheritance because they're faithful to the lord jesus and in this life if you look at them you would look down on them because they don't have much but jesus says they can't take it with them but they can store up their treasures in heaven and i am keeping full account and they will be fully rewarded and there are people who are lowly in this world and they'll be ruling and reigning forever in the kingdom there are people who can't make ends meet right now and they will have an abundance forever and this is the hope of the believer that ultimately when jesus is done things will be different and how we live now determines what degree of reward we receive then so what he says is stop looking down on them just look up to him the next thing he's going to say is don't look only at the outward look at also the n word james 2 539 listen my beloved brothers god loves you and the reason he's telling us these things is he wants us to be a loving healthy church family and to love other brothers and sisters in christ my beloved brothers has god not chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom what i was just explaining to you which he has promised to those who love him but you have dishonored the poor man are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called if you really fulfill the royal law according to scripture he's going to quote his big brother jesus you shall love your neighbor as yourself you are doing well but if you show partiality you are committing sin and convicted by the law as its transgressors what he's talking about here is we live in a world that looks primarily at the outward so let's just do this when people are judging or evaluating one another what are the things that we tend to look for externally what do we tend to look for beauty we have facebook we don't have soul book because we care more about their face than their soul amen okay let me say if you're going to marry somebody you better check the soul okay what else do we look at what's that their career what do you do where are you out in the org oh oh c-e-o-c-f-o-j-a-n-i-t-o-r where are you in the org chart and it's a big deal right it's a big deal where's your office is it the big office is it the corner office is it the view office you know where where are you career-wise what else do we evaluate externally where do you live scottsdale right apache junction right we we judge [Laughter] hey the housing market is tight i'm gonna move it's just temporary like all of a sudden we got a lot of reasons right we feel like we the little lawyer in us tries to defend you know but where you live it's a big deal are you in south scottsdale are you in north scottsdale because north is closer to the lord right so what are the things additionally that we look at externally when we seek to evaluate or judge someone what do you drive what do you drive and okay so i'll just tell you i think the lord's trying to teach me humility i ordered the bronco my bronco got kovid it's this it must be very catchy for a poor bronco to get it i can't wait to get it but it is true man a lot of what we drive says a lot about who we are it says a lot about who we are and so what do you drive oh my gosh that's a german car oh my gosh you went to the barrett-jackson auto auction and you got that i mean your kids can't go to college but that's amazing and oftentimes what happens is we go into debt to give an impression that we're at a place that we're not and so the result is that we are lying [Laughter] through financing okay one person thought it was good okay you know that's a woman whose husband just bought a new car okay i'm here to help sister i'm here to help so we tend to judge people by the outside but what really matters is the heart the character the intel who are you because when let's i'll just be honest when when we die your body goes into the ground your stuff goes on to craigslist and your soul goes before the lord so it seems like that's the thing that matters most okay i mean at the end of the day i don't care if you live in a big house i don't care if you're driving i don't care what i do care about is how how how are you who are you because what you have is not who you are and who you are matters more than what you have okay and what he's talking about here is there are those who are poor in finances but they're rich in faith you look at me go well they're poor uh depends on what economics you're running as far as character love for god filled with the spirit oh they're rich in faith yeah they're just poor in finances and or wealth and what he's distinguishing here is four kinds of people now i hit this earlier in james we tend to think because we most of us went to a semi-marxist socialistic university that's all about class warfare and the oppressor and the oppressed and okay so the bible has four categories not two not two so these are the four categories there's the godly poor and the godly rich they're the ungodly poor and the ungodly rich the question is not are you rich or poor the question is are you are you godly and when it comes to your finances your wealth your possessions how did you get it did you work hard did you invest smart you know did you conduct yourself with integrity take good care of your customers and clients in addition you pay your taxes to pay your tithe to the lord off the top are you generous toward people do you pay your bills how do you get your money what do you do with your money how do you get your money what do you do with your money james family was category one they were godly and poor and he doesn't dismiss or discount the godly and rich two guys in the bible that are godly and rich one is abraham the other is job he's gonna mention one in james chapter two he's gonna mention the other one in james chapter five so he promotes categories one and two so does god the ungodly poor those who are lazy they're always trying to get rich quick they're trying to just freeload off of others and the ungodly rich well the way they get their money is ungodly means and what they do with it is ungodly ways and what he's talking about here is he's talking about the ungodly rich and the godly poor that's what he's talking about and what he's saying is hey if you're a christian and you're all in church together it's not so much about what you make but who you are and if you're going to esteem people make it based upon character fruit of the spirit love for god not just income level in addition he says you know these ungodly rich people they've got a lot of lawyers and they keep taking advantage of you and enriching themselves through your suffering and injustice and the big idea is this not everyone is rich in wealth but everyone can be rich in love okay and even some of you some of you are very wealthy if you're godly that's great some of you are very poor if you're godly that's great jesus when he was on the earth he was godly and poor today he's godly and rich so you can be like jesus and be rich or poor it doesn't really matter this is where the whole class warfare oppressor oppressed sort of marxist movement in our culture i just find reprehensible to the bible well rich people are bad some poor people are good some we need to think biblically not just culturally and what he's saying here is whether you're rich or poor the one thing you want to be is rich in faith and rich in love that you have a deep relationship with god that spills and pours over so that others feel loved by you and he quotes his big brother jesus so there's 613 commands in the old testament the first five books of the bible are called the books of the lord the pentateuch which means the book in five parts written by moses so there's 613 laws therein they come up to jesus and they're like okay that's a lot 613 a lot we tried to put it on the fridge it doesn't even fit that's a long list so could you tweet that for us he's like yeah love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength love your neighbor as yourself what he says is love god that's james chapter one love people that's james chapter 2. jesus is like if you just love the rest will figure itself out and what we tend to do we tend to live in a world that is very concerned about watching our money which is fine need to be good stewards but we need to be equally passionate about watching our love for people am i taking god's love investing god's love stewarding god's love and loving others especially those i don't like i am so glad that the bible doesn't say like everyone have you met everyone everyone includes some terrible people but the bible says we can love we can even love our enemies not because they're lovable but because he has loved us when we were his enemies and so what he's talking about here is we tend to get so caught up in what do you make how beautiful are you where do you live what do you drive what do you have who are you and he says if for god's people we should be looking for do you have rich faith and are you wealthy in love if so let me just say these are the people to pick as your friends if they're rich or poor great doesn't matter do they have faith in love if you want to marry someone don't just marry someone because they have a lot of assets and opportunities they better have deep faith and be a loving person that the character of christ is flowing through them i'll just tell you this you can marry and have a lot of money but if you don't have a mutual shared faith and love your home is a poor place to be now see grace and i started in college we were just flat broke but we were together we were rich in faith and love we knew that god was for us and we knew that god would help us to love one another and it's it's i'll just tell you this about life it's less about who you have and it's more about who you are and who you're with the most precious things are loving relationships and so when he's talking about loving relationships it is uh you are my priority i'm going to sacrifice some things that i would want so that i could find my joy in your joy this is where the bible says to consider others more highly than yourself see selfishness is this is what i want love is what do you want because oftentimes our joy is not found in getting what we want but providing what they want if you're a parent you've experienced this you do something that blesses your kid and that's your best day of the week there's a guy named gary thomas he wrote a book called the five love languages and just a simple concept most of you are probably familiar with it but what he says is that different people give and receive love in different ways it's almost like different languages and that to really love it's almost like you need to become bilingual because oftentimes your kids or your spouse or your friend or you know a co-worker the way they give and receive love is different than you so he talks about the five love languages are words of affirmation this can be a word a spoken word a text an email a call a letter a note just i you know encouragement this could even be a prayer i love you i'm proud of you i'm excited for you i believe in you you know i i want to encourage you words of affirmation some it's acts of service hey how can i help what can i do how can i serve where can i where can i do something super practical i don't care just tell me how i can help they jump right in they're willing to lift a burden the third is gifts this can be a small gift or a big gift um this can be something little or this can be something massive there's a uh a couple that i know he always wakes up before her and he makes her her favorite cup of tea with honey and then every day when she wakes up he comes in and he starts his day with a gift that she really appreciates it doesn't take a lot of time or energy but it takes a lot of love and intentionality gifts quality time turn the phone off turn the game off stop thinking about work let's just do face to face we've done enough shoulder to shoulder getting our projects done let's do face to face let's go out to date night let's go out to dinner all right let's go do something let's let's spend some time together and then the last category he says is touch hey you know if you're married let's snuggle right if you're a parent it's like let's hold hands and go for a walk and it's just appropriate touch now grace and i what what happens is oftentimes the person that you're supposed to love and the bible says to love your neighbor who's your nearest neighbor your spouse and your kids your nearest neighbor so grace and i when we first got married we realized that we did love each other but we spoke different languages we needed to learn to be a bit bilingual i needed to love in her language and he loved my lunch hers was acts of service so my wife will get stuff done like laundry dishes groceries i mean she just she is always getting stuff done mine is touch i will fake an injury for a back rub i've done it i've done it in marriage she's like how you doing oh my gosh i i i really wrecked my back it's killing me and she said do you want me to rub it oh and my neck i mean it's it's it's shooting pain now it's it's i like to snot when we drive in the car i hold her hand i love to go for walks and hold her hand i like to snuggle with her i like ministry of presence i like having her around now when we first got married she keeps doing things and i want her to sit down she's like what do you want me to do nothing that's what she's like nothing i gotta i love you i gotta do something do nothing that's my something okay and then she couldn't wonder she was wondering like why doesn't why does he do nothing well that's my love language i do nothing so she's wondering why i don't gass up her car and vacuum it out i'm like i'm sitting here i'm gonna sit on my lap you know so she's like you need to get up and do something well you need to sit down do nothing so we had to figure this out then you had five kids and she's like you better do something like so well i'm gonna do something okay i got it okay but she had to learn hey sometimes i just gotta sit with mark and i had to learn hey sometimes i gotta take the garbage out and shut up and gas up the car she feels loved by that the other day i kid you not i came home i said i gassed up your car she ran and gave me a big hug we both won all right and so when it talks about loving here's the point do you need to know someone to judge them you can answer no do you need to know someone to really love them yeah because you need to know what love is for them and so what he's saying is don't spend all your time looking down on them look up to him don't spend your time judging them figure out the people that god has put in front of you and called you to love and don't just pick your friends and your family and your closest relationships by what you see outside get to know people and look at the character the heart the integrity inside and then his last big idea is the world runs on judgment and so the church should run on mercy and i would say that god's timeless word is in our day really timely true or false our world just is a judgy world i mean i mean social media blogs everything is motivated to get you angry fearful and judge and attack and criticize that's our whole world so the church needs to be the place where we have sort of a counter-cultural kingdom set of values and we really value faith and love and mercy james 2 10-13 forever keeps the whole law but fails in one point see we tend to think of god's word as a past fail he doesn't if you miss one question you fail the test goes on to say has become guilty of all for he who said i like how he says that just dawned on me yeah one time this guy said uh don't murder a commit adulterer who was that guy his brother named jesus he's like i i mean i would have been a little braggy about it like when i was hanging out with my brother god he was sort of just thinking out loud helping me learn nobody else was there just me i'll share it with you though you're welcome he who said do not commit adultery also said do not mitter murder i just forgot how to read if you do not matter hey don't judge me give me mercy okay here we go if you do not commit adultery but do murder you have become a transgressor of the law so speak and act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty for judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy and i highlighted this underlying this mercy triumphs over judgment here's what he's saying we tend to look at our world and say there's good people and bad people and we tend to think well the good people are like me and the bad people are unlike me so we judge them we don't even get to know them we stereotype them we have partiality my political party my race my nation my culture my income even my brand or form or teamwork tribe of christianity we're these kind of christians they're those kind of christians i don't even need to talk to them or get to know them i just sort of judge them and and don't need to get to know them because i know that they're the bad people and we're the good people god's perspective from jesus thrown in heaven see we look at each other he looks down on all of us and when we look out we tend to think oh there's good people and bad people and obviously i'm one of the good people and then we always pull out someone who's worse than us so here he's like you know even if you didn't you know murder but you committed adultery that's still important this is what we always do we always find somebody that we think is worse than us and we make them the standard and you know that you're a bad person when you get to hitler that's just how you know you're a bad person that's everybody who's bad you're like what you did that you said they're like not hitler it's like oh yeah you're in second place i mean that you know what and we tend to find people that have done something worse than we are doing or have done and then what we do is we compare ourselves and we hope that they join us in judging them rather than really evaluating us when jesus looks down from his throne he doesn't see good and bad people he sees perfect people and imperfect people that's what he says see god is perfect being heaven is perfect place the word of god is the perfect standard god is the perfect judge he judges us by his word and we are found guilty so it's not good and bad people it's perfect and imperfect people i'll give you a line in matthew 5 that jesus says that just is profoundly troubling be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect that's the standard now even people even if you're here and you're not a christian even if you don't believe you're a bad person or a sinner you still know you're not perfect and if you don't ask your spouse but you know you're not perfect and we even have a statement where we say well nobody's nobody's perfect yeah there was one guy and we killed him that shows how bad we are and how good he is so the standard is perfection now what is silly in our world is people through self-righteous social causes or religious works will try and make themselves better which is a total waste of time because the standard is perfect and it's already too late that's why i think like all these social justice warriors and all these sort of religious devotees are like well we're gonna do better well it's too late it's perfect and imperfect and if you blew it once it's over whatever you do now it's already too late and so what the question becomes is well then what hope is there for us because what he's saying is that god not only judges the outward he judges the n word when he quotes his big brother jesus here on don't murder and don't commit adultery jesus added in that section don't commit murder of the heart or adultery of the heart not just the hands outward but the heart inward murder of the heart is i don't like them i wish evil for them i'm going to talk trash about them i'm not going to lay hands on them but i'm going to lay words about them and adultery of the heart is well i didn't commit adultery well did you lost did you look at pornography were you fantasizing well yeah i was but i didn't do anything with my hands god's like i also see your heart and it's not just the letter of the law it's the spirit of the law that god judges us by and what happens is we tend to judge other people by the outward and god tends to also judge everyone by the n word but i love this line i want to give you hope mercy triumphs over judgment and his name is jesus christ and if you are here and you don't know jesus christ you need to know that ultimately you are going to be judged by the objective perfect standard of god's law and if you have been imperfect in thought word deed motive commission you did a bad thing omission you didn't do the right thing whether it was external with your hands or internal with your heart then god needs to rightly judge you and you can't go to heaven you can't be with god you got to go to hell unless someone who was perfect came down and lived perfectly and loved you so much that he would substitute himself for you and put you in his place and then he would take your place so that he would get the judgment of death and that you would get the mercy of grace that's exactly what jesus did on the cross at the cross he took the judgment gave you the mercy so all you need to do is just agree with god i'm a sinner i'm not perfect i deserve judgment i've been judging others i forgot god's going to judge me all you need is to give your sin to jesus and he gives his mercy to you he rose from the dead to conquer satan sin death held the wrath of god if you've never heard this or you've never made this decision here's why you're here there is a god his name is jesus he loves you and you are living on a path that ends in judgment and he wants to forgive you and he wants to put you on another path that leads to mercy and if you'll just tell jesus even in the silence of your heart because he knows what's going on in here i'm a sinner you're my savior please save me thank you for going to the cross and being judged for me and thank you for rising from the grave to give me mercy there's never anyone who turns to jesus that he would turn them away mercy triumphs over judgment how many of us as christians every day we're still just sort of mesmerized by that i mean we live in a world god forbid you say or do something wrong judgment go to god mercy thank you lord thank you that you're perfect so i don't need to be thank you you were punished so you don't have to punish me thank you that you conquered death and so you give me new life and if you love receiving mercy from god what he's saying is we need to be people who give mercy to others because our world has got plenty of judgment it has too little mercy now let me do something here james writes about 2 000 years ago james makes a statement in james chapter 1 that if you will do or hear and obey the word of god god will bless you there will be blessing to those who don't only hear the word but do what it says what he tells us here in james chapter 2 is that if we live according to the principles of the bible then the christians will be the people who bring equality they bring justice they bring love and they bring mercy to the world it's a big statement he writes 2 000 years ago the question is was it true because james was giving us a thesis that now in history we get to evaluate so i want to tell you about christianity and i want to tell you about the impact and effect of the most significant person who has ever walked on planet earth jesus christ i want to tell you why he is the most preeminent leader in the history of the world why billions of people worship him today and why without the church of jesus christ this planet would simply not be the same and why everyone who is seeking equality and fairness and mercy and justice ultimately is in a fool's errand unless they start with jesus christ because you don't get anything right until you start with jesus christ because he's the one who makes right all that we've made wrong so i'm going to brag on jesus for a while i'm going to brag on his work through the church i'm going to invite the band up i need a little background music we're going to end up singing and throwing a little party afterwards because at the end of the day everything that james said has come true so if any of you are still not yet christians let me just tell you that the way you live your life is according to something called a worldview that is how you see the world and who you are and your place in it and if you do not believe in christianity there are some other leading contenders i'm going to give you chapter seven wrote a book it's free you get what you pay for lower your expectations but you can go to realfaith.com and it's christian theology versus critical theory the big spirit at work in our world is we need equality we need justice we need racial groups and people groups and cultural groups to care for one another we need there to be mercy and love and generosity well the counterfeit is that we can have that without jesus christ so i'm going to summarize chapter seven from this book for you your first option is karma you heard of hinduism karma right you you you you have a debt that you owe because there's some ledger in the unseen realm when you do a good thing you get a deposit when you do a bad thing you get a withdrawal and according to karma and hinduism we're all upside down so we gotta die we got to reincarnate we got to suffer we got to pay back our karmic debt the result is you can't love and help people because you'll be hindering their ability to repay their karmic debt they need to suffer to pay back the debt jesus didn't suffer for them they need to suffer for them jesus didn't pay their debt they need to pay their debt this is why if you go into a hindu or karmic society you don't see love equality justice and generosity you see what james calls partiality that is a caste system those who are untouchables and those who are near godlike if you're looking for impartiality and you move into the second category and that is islam it does not treat people impartially if you are a christian or a jew they call you a monkey or a pig if you are a woman you are not equal to a man you don't get to vote you don't get to drive a car you don't get to go to school the overarching demonic sharia law of islam it does not allow liberty he calls the bible the law of liberty it doesn't lead to more love because it's not about jesus it's about jihad it's about we win you lose it's about we judge you and we punish you not he judges us and he was punished for us the third option that you've got from a worldview perspective of how you're going to live is atheism which is increasingly more popular atheism is there is no god i'm my own standard i'm my own authority i determine right and wrong there is no such thing as a law that is over me that i am ultimately subject to or a god who will ultimately be my judge in the end atheists likes to say oh the worst thing that happened to the planet was religion and most of the relig most of the world religions are contributing to war and most of the wars are caused and compelled by religions not true i believe in jesus and math and in the 20th century alone 170 million people were killed by other human beings of those 130 million were killed by atheists this includes stalin who killed 40 million hitler who killed 15 to 16 million mao who murdered 70 million chinese and i didn't even throw in the number of abortion we live in a world and james here is talking about partiality and the greatest partiality in our nation is toward the unborn and if you have had an abortion god can love you he can forgive you he can heal you he can even have a place for your child in heaven but let's just be honest that we live in a world that is incredibly partial toward the unborn we're in this day when we're well suddenly we all became pro-life oh we need to do anything we can to preserve human life well what about unborn life well we need to follow the science what about the science that says that life begins at conception why is it that there is no justice or love until you are born why is it that we need to shut down our economy and everybody's got to wear a mask and get a vaccine because human life is suddenly so precious unless it's little and then we terminate it and call it justice when it's cosmic treason now what happens within an atheistic philosophy if i'm made by no one i'm here for no reason i'm judged by nothing and i'm going nowhere then i just get to do literally whatever i want and then the break is removed from the depravity of the human heart and knowing this even the atheists can't tenably live with it and so what happens is i'll give you a few quotes briefly the atheist the atheist frederick nietzsche he went crazy at the end of his life and so his christian mother tended to him and gave him mercy and love and kindness but what he said was uh in the will to power another concept is passed even more deeply into the tissue of modernity the concept of the equality of souls before god says the only reason that we think we should treat people fairly is because we stole that idea from christianity we really don't have it it seemed like a good idea because we're made with a conscience even though we don't believe in god we're going to borrow it so there is a more modern atheist his name is richard rorty and he says the idea of universal human rights was a completely novel concept in history resting on the biblical teaching that all human beings were created in the image of god he calls himself a freeloading atheist atheists are like we need justice people matter we should take better care of people why i don't know we stole that idea from the bible because we don't have it your additional option that is an outgrowth of atheism is evolution that we were all animals and that we evolved and there is this continuum where some of us are more evolved than others this was postulated by charles darwin you may have heard of his book and it was on the origin of the species but here's the second half of the original title by means of natural selection or the preservation of favored races and the struggle for life what he said was people aren't equal there are animals and people and people evolve from animals so there is a continuum some people are less human and more animalistic in our tragic nation's history there there was almost around 100 years where people who were non-white were considered three-fifths human you don't get there from the bible we're made in the image and likeness of god we're each bestowed with a conscience in his soul and dignity and value and worth in the sight of god if you trace the family tree all the way back we got one mom one dad there aren't a bunch of races there's one race the human race the human race that was made by god that is loved by god that is redeemed by god and ultimately belongs to the lord jesus christ and what comes out of this outgrowth of atheism and evolutionary worldview and idolatry and ideology is ultimately we need to get rid of those people who are less fit so historically there was a philosopher named thomas mouthfields thomas malthus came out with the concept that we need to get rid of the less fit races so they created an experiment called nazi germany where they take those who deemed to be less fit and it was the first tremendous effort at social justice all the jewish people have too much money we need to take that they have too much education we need to change that they don't need too many businesses we need to we need to redistribute the wealth and the power and while we're at it let's make some ovens and put some jews in it hear me in this this is a failed historical experiment and what happens as a result is that all of a sudden the world goes into world war and says this must stop and so what happens is we still want to get rid of those who are less fit according to evolutionary theology and philosophy and so we go from big concentration camps to little clinics and there's a gal named margaret sanger who believes in the same teaching as thomas malthus that we're not made by god we're not loved by god we're not saved by god we don't give an account to god we're not under the law of god and so she has instead of big concentration camps she has little clinics and she puts them in poor neighborhoods and to this day there's a disproportionate taking of the life of black and hispanic unborn children that's why you won't find one in scottsdale but you'll find these places where poor people are it is racial cleansing it is economic reorientation it is demonic and it is done in the name of justice and in the sight of god it is tremendous injustice ultimately here's how you get justice i got three more pages but we got to sing so let me just summarize there is a god his name is jesus christ you are not the highest authority your group is not the highest authority your culture is not the highest authority your nation is not the highest authority his throne is the highest authority he rules and reigns from his perfect word it doesn't matter what your race is it doesn't matter what your culture is it doesn't matter what your income is it doesn't matter what your beauty is it doesn't matter what your zip code is you are judged by him you are a guilty sinner but he came down and he fulfilled all of his law and he died for you because he loves you and he rose to give you mercy he is coming again to judge the living and the dead and i say let god be true and every man a liar there is no justice without the word of god and the god of the word there is no liberty without the word of god and the god of the word and there is no life without the spirit-filled life of jesus christ living in and through you i don't know what they're doing out there but we're going to do a little worshipping in here [Applause] what an amazing sermon today an awesome kickoff to this month and an awesome kickoff to our week thank you so much dad for just eliminating that passage of scripture and just speaking truly what the holy spirit had you say we are so grateful for your gifting and preaching the word and i would love to pray for all of you that have been watching dear lord i thank you so much just that you are the judge of our lives that you're in control that we are not to judge each other lord but that you have the ultimate standard that you sent your son to die and live a perfect life and forgive all of our sins lord and that we can come to you in repentance of whatever it is that is our stumbling block block or the bait that satan tries to put in our hooks lord that we can bring that to you we can repent to you and you will forgive us and you will love us lord and you will just relieve from us any sense of stress or burden to perform lord that you love us no matter what we do or what mistakes we make because you're a loving father and that is such a blessing and just a burden lifted off of our lives lord so i pray that we would remember that this week and that we would not extend judgment to those around us no matter how different they are from us lord that we would remember that you judge the heart and it's not up to us to judge people's appearances but that we are just here to proclaim your word and to love people with the truth and i pray that we'd be able to do that in the way that glorifies you this week thank you so much lord for your love and your grace on our lives amen if this sermon was convicting to you or really hit a nerve we would love to pray for you you can chat down below and let us know if you have any prayer requests where you can message us privately on social media or email us at hellorealfaith.com we would love to pray for you and we would encourage you also to share this sermon to share the good news of jesus so make sure to share it with a friend give it a thumbs up and follow us on social media to stay connected now it's time for some good news stewart recently wrote into our inbox with some encouragement he said i want to thank you for preaching the scriptures with truth and humility my wife and i and our family really enjoy it in fact during lockdowns and isolation over this last year of the pandemic when we couldn't go to our local church for months or weeks at a time we jump into our car with the kids and go for a drive over a few hours and tune into your series at trinity church on a weekly basis our family has been blessed to hear the word thought with strength love and focus i also know enough to know it can hurt a ministry when a public christian community turns on one of their own just don't stop there are a few generals left who have the clarity of mission to preach the bible as it is kind regards stewart stewart thank you so much for that encouragement it's amazing to hear that your family has grown as a result of listening to these sermons and we're so thankful for technology and for those of you that partner with us financially to help get this show out and just allow people like stewart to hear it around the world so thank you so much stuart we'll be praying for you and your family that you continue to grow and that it sounds like now you can go to your local church which is awesome and we super encourage that and we're so glad that you've been able to go again if like stewart you have a story that you'd like to share with us a prayer request or a testimony you can email us at hello realfaith.com and maybe even be featured in next week's show well that just about wraps up our show for today but we want to invite you to join us on wednesday nights at 6 30 pacific time for real men either in person at trinity church or online here at real faith.com i personally listen to the real men's sermons because i really enjoy them so they're not just for men although it sounds like they are they're just super helpful leadership coaching lessons from my dad so we hope that you join us for that on wednesday nights and we'll see you all next week [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

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Length: 78min 58sec (4738 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 02 2021