Put Feet on Your Faith (James 1:17-27) - Pastor Daniel Fusco

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] it's so hard to speak after that introduction it's like i just like we need to like set up like a zip line or something and i just like zip line in something you know what i mean i once heard of this pastor who motorcycled down the in the sanctuary they would never let me they never put me behind a motorcycle because i would definitely crash it it'd be ugly anyway what was i going to say i forgot anyway sometimes we need to take the advice that we'd give to somebody else am i the only person who does that like someone tells you what's going on in their life and then you know they're telling you all the situations and then you like you tell them it's like what do you think and you're like give them some great advice and you think to yourself i should probably do that myself am i the only one who does that because there's something about when you're in the middle of your own life it's like you're stuck in the middle of everything that's going on but then if you're talking to someone else when it's not your life you're not in the middle of all of it you can see things really clearly and so much of life is learning how to walk out the very truths that we ourselves believe i'm sure for each one of you right now there are things in your life where you're like if i would just do this thing that i know i'm supposed to do things would get better i would be able that relationship could could take a turn my finances my marriage my job see so often the struggle that we have in life is the fact that we know what we ought to do but we just don't have the faith or the will to choose to do it in that moment and i think that so much of the transformation of what god wants to do in each one of our lives is actually us simply starting to walk out the truths that we already know see it's it's interesting i was talking to someone recently uh you know standing online at a you know at a coffee shop and started talking to this guy and and you know it's so funny because like you know i'm always fast i'm such a social person and not open secret right like so like i just i think people are fascinating so start talking so this guy says to me he's like so you know oh so what do you do for a living that's my favorite question that i ever get asked because my my new favorite response to that is well what do you think i do for a living because then we really get out what's going on in this whole thing so i'm like so what do you think i do for a living he's like well i don't want to say it in case there's law enforcement present i'm like it's no i'm like so i always think that i kind of giggle and i'm like well i'm a pastor and then most people's like jaws hit the floor because like i don't know what they expected faster to look like but i'm definitely not it so i'm like oh i'm a pastor and like you're a pastor i'm like yeah and and then it's so cool because this guy said so fascinating he said you know what i don't understand about christians i'm like what there's always such a focus on heaven like why is it all about heaven for christians and i was like well that's an interesting question and i'm like well let me ask you a question i'm like are you thinking about retirement he's like in his late 50s probably he's like yeah i am and i'm like smart right he's like yeah it's like it's coming soon i'm like you got to take care of those 30 years don't you and he's like yeah i'm like eternity's a lot longer i i it was but he was like he was like that's a very good point you know and so i'm like but i'm like but what's interesting i'm like yes there are a lot of christians who are like man you need to believe in jesus because when you die you want to be in heaven with jesus and listen you do when you die want to be in heaven which is i'm like but i don't follow jesus just for the long-term benefits i'm like i actually follow jesus because i want to walk in the spirit with jesus now and i'm like it's christianity is not only about what happens after you die christianity is like what does it look like to live now and i'm like the apostle paul a guy who wrote in the bible i'm like he said it this way when there when he was wondering am i gonna die and go be with jesus so i'm gonna be here he said for me to live is christ and to die is gain he's saying look while i'm here i get to experience jesus and i get to walk in the purpose for which god created me and when i die it's going to get really really awesome and i'm like so for me i don't want you to think that you should follow jesus just for the eternal benefits i think you want to follow jesus because of the in real time rubber meets the road benefits of what it means to walk with jesus now and the guy was so funny he was like you're really good at this i was like well thank you very much you should come join us at crossroads so if you're here right now that was a good conversation we had but but but seriously so much of what faith in jesus it's not only about the hereafter i mean there is a component of that but it's actually about what does god want to do in my life right here right now where we live and one of the reasons i'm so excited about studying the book of james together is because the book of james is actually geared to be practical it's like what does it look like for us to walk in this world in real time in the name of jesus and so we started unpacking the book of james together last week in our last message so let's continue on today so open your bibles james chapter one we're gonna take verses 17 to 27 together so if you brought your bible open it to the book of james if you didn't bring a bible with you there's bibles on the seats in front of you pull that thing out the book of james is easy to find it's between the book of hebrews and first peter towards the end of your bible and if for some reason you're against paper or you just don't like touching the paper pull out your phone pull out your device go to your favorite bible app browser window you go to the free crossroads mobile app go to book james james one colon 17-27 i want you to be able to read along and today we are going to learn some very practical foundational real world things that you want to know and you want to be able to apply to your life right as it is so picking up in verse 17 james chapter one james says this every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning verse 18 of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures now if you were with us as we took the first half of this chapter james ended with this idea that god does not tempt anybody because the question was is that you know in where the river meets the road in life temptation is something that's common to all of us and people can make the mistake of saying oh i'm tempted by god and james like no no no no god does not tempt anybody right and and then we unpacked what is temptation how does it work and we saw that in the last message and if you weren't there i'd encourage you to go on our website go on our app and and re-watch that message because we unpacked this is what it looks like and then james then says god does not tempt us but god gives us every good and perfect gift and so really as a principle you and i we need to remember the gift giver because every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights now i notice i said that we need to remember the gift-giver because the mistake that we always are prone to make as humans is we want to remember the gift now i remember growing up so i'm an all-italian kid from new jersey the reason i'm not an all italian kid from new york is because my parents have i have an older sister and then i have a twin sister so they went from one child to three children and they couldn't afford to buy a house in brooklyn or long island or definitely not manhattan so they moved out to new jersey back when it was the garden state i mean it's still the garden state but back then it looked like the garden state right and so i'm from new jersey right and so what that means is that i grew up in with that really big family right like like i had two sisters but it's like there was just a huge extended family everybody was an aunt an uncle and a cousin there was a bunch of people who we called aunts and uncles that they actually weren't but i still think they're my aunts and uncles there's in-laws outlaws it's like it was crazy you know neighbors everybody was family right but i remember that what that meant is when christmas time happened we got like 20 000 gifts how many of you have ever got like the ugly sweater from your aunt yeah i got like 30 of them like that's why whenever it's like an ugly sweater party i just won't show because like i like live my life like every like but it was funny growing up my mom was a tough lady that before you opened a present you had to read who's it from and my mom had like a legal patch i'm like it says it's from aunt dottie okay aunt dottie and you'd open it up and guess what it was an ugly sweater open up the next one who's it from it's from aunt georgine uncle tony i like 87 uncle tony's you know open up a pair of knickers nobody was wearing knickers but they gave you knickers you know what i mean i got knickers from uncle tony you know what i mean but like and the reason you had to write all this down is because it wasn't enough to get the gifts you had to actually write a thank you card to all of them my mom was a good mom except for the fact that she wouldn't let us write the same thing to everybody because you know you know the italian they they put that thank you card on the refrigerator and then at the next family party when all ninety seven thousand of them were there they say oh look at little danny wrote the exact same thing to everybody so we had to write different things to help different people i'm like what am i going down tony thank you for the knickers i'm going to send them back i want to see a picture of you and them i didn't write that but like you don't even like you had to write all these cards but they were teaching us something that it wasn't about the sweater it was about the people who gave you the sweater and the big mistake that we make as humans is we want the gifts we want to forget the gift giver and so james is like hey listen you want to get practical in life remember the gift giver every good gift and every perfect gift is from above it comes from heaven and it comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning see james doesn't want to talk about the gifts he wants to talk about the gift giver he says god is the father of lights and this idea that god is light that god brings illumination he brings what is the revealing this is all through the scriptures when it says that god is like where there is no variation or shadow of turning they're saying there's no shadiness with god there's no shadings with god it's not like how many of you remember when kids are little when they realize that the shadow on the ground they don't realize it's them how many of you watched a kid like run away from their own shadow it's just so much fun it's like watching a cat chase it's tail or the little laser pointer you know what i mean but at some point like oh no no the light is being reflected and my body's in the way and so it leaves a shadow that may be true in the physical world but god there is no shadiness with god there's no shadow and the apostle john said it this way first john chapter 1 verses 5 to 7 it says this is the message that we heard from him and we declare it to you that god is light and in him is no darkness at all and if we say that we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of jesus christ his son cleanses us from all sin see so james is saying don't forget the gift giver because the gift giver is light and there's no shadiness within him and then john says hey listen god is right then god has no darkness at all and he's saying if you say you have fellowship with god who is light and you walk in darkness you're lying that's not the truth but if you walk in the light as he is in the light we get to have fellowship together and and the blood of jesus christ the son cleanses us from all unrighteousness see how practical john gets god is light this should change your life james remember the gift giver it should change your life and that's what we're going to see in this chapter but as he's talking about the the gift giver god who is light he says of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth notice that if you're here today and you're a follower of jesus you are a follower of jesus because it was in the will of god to birth you by the word of truth the word of god god has taken his word and he has chosen you and he's brought you to him that's what he wanted to do it was his plan to do this so that notice what it says that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures it's an interesting thing what james says he says if we remember the gift giver who is light he birthed us by his spirit because of the word that we might be a kind of first fruits and what that means is the first fruit was an offering that the children of israel would give to god as this is the beginning of the harvest and the idea is we give the offering from the first fruits trusting that god is going to bring a greater harvest it was an act of faith now here's what i want to tell you james is saying that we are the fir a type of first fruits and i just want to tell you you are a first fruit of the work that god wants to do god has done a work in your life so that he can do a work in your family he can do a work in your school he can do a work on your job in your neighborhood you know we don't think of ourselves as a first fruits we like being god's done to work in my life no listen god has done a work in you so he can do a work through you and one of the ways that god moves us forward is when we realize god has saved me so that i might be a positive influence on my sphere of influence i remember i learned this really early on because you know when i first got saved i was playing music as a career right and i remember i get saved and i'm still like my career is music so i'm going playing in restaurants and clubs and bars and i remember i'd go to church and they'd have these little gospels of john and i'd be like hey can i take some of those like yeah how many do you want them like all of them and they're like no don't take all of them like no i'm going to give them out i'd put these gospels of john in my music bag so i'd have like you know bag with all my cables and stomp boxes and all this stuff and i'd have all these gospels with john and so sure and i've been planning these restaurants and these bars you know and then people were like man you are so happy can i get some of what you got i don't know why everyone thinks i look so nefarious but that's what they say and i'm like you want some of what i got and they're like yeah i'm like i believe in jesus and then they normally use jesus's name in vain and i'm like no seriously i'm like i believe in jesus like i believe in jesus i really believe in jesus i'm like you just let me give you a gospel of john and i'm like listen read this we'll talk about i'll be i'll be playing next friday come on we'll talk about it and like i realized that like god did a work in me not just for me because he wanted to do a work in other people's lives i'm here to tell you all of you all of you have a sphere of influence people you know people who god you're working alongside you just got that new job yeah you're stoked for the new job god wanted a missionary there you're starting a new thing guess what god has people he wants you to read because you are a type of first fruits the beginning of the harvest of what god wants to do when i look at crossroads i see all that god is doing in this season and i see what god is birthing i see our community in our world and i say crossroads is the first fruits of what god wants to do this is the beginning in this cultural moment because the gift-giver has his eyes on revival and harvest not just on what he wants to do in our lives that's a good word right it's right here in our scripture so good so moving on from there remember i said we remember the gift giver he is light he wants to change our lives well james gets uber practical look what it says james chapter 1 verse 19. so then you see that word so then that's the conclusion right because of what just so then my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak and slow to wrath for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of god now i would call this three simple truths these three and it's so funny james was inspired by the spirit like 2000 years ago and if there was ever like we need these three simple truths right now in our culture it's right now as timely as ever three simple truths what are they be quick to listen slow to speak slow to get angry look at the person that you say be quick to listen don't talk so much don't get angry does it get more practical than that in our day and age because we live in a day and age where everyone has something to say nobody wants to listen and everybody is triggered everyone's aggro people are flipping out how many of you in the last week were in a conversation with someone where they weren't listening to you they were just waiting to talk go ahead raise your hands okay everyone keep your hands up the other person thought the same thing about you you see i did that that's true ouch right but listen because god is the father of lights and there's no shadiness in him he's like listen because of that take your time and listen to people listening my friends is spiritual hospitality listening is listening to spiritual hospitality and because you're listening you're not talking so much and of course i always think of proverbs chapter 10 verse 19. where it says in a multitude of words sin is not lacking but he who restrains his lips is wise isn't that a nasty bible verse my bride lin's like daniel that is your life verse she didn't really say that but she's thinking that deep in her heart right because the idea is that when we talk so much sin is there and actually the wise person is the person who's like i'm just not gonna talk this much so we have to learn and of course we you know kids hear this all the time little kids you know you've been given two ears and one mouth so you can listen twice as much as you speak but none of us growed up kids actually practice that and i think we need to we need to so we need to be quick to listen and we need to be slow to speak and then it says we need to be slow to anger now what's amazing is if you look at the character definitions of god all through the scriptures over and over and over again in the scriptures it says that god is slow to anger and he's abounding in mercy so the slow to anger the slow to wrath personality is someone who is taking on the characteristics the personality characteristics of god but there's a reason that james gives why being angry or wrathful isn't wise look at what it says for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of god so here's what i want to tell you if you're a person of faith you believe in jesus your anger is not going to produce what you actually want which is that person to be righteous because what's making you angry is you as your perceptions of their unrighteousness but your anger actually does not make that person unrighteous you might say well fusco what does i'm so happy you asked paul in romans chapter 2 verse 4 said or do you despise the riches of his goodness forbearance and longsuffering not knowing that it is the goodness of god that leads you to repentance so it is not your anger at the situation that changes anyone's life it is at best your ability to be a vehicle for god's goodness to come into that situation and i'm here to tell you when you are angry you are not a vehicle for god's goodness his forbearance his grace or his longsuffering so our anger and our frustration at things is actually counterproductive to the very thing that we want so when you have a habit that is counterproductive to your goal what should you do build a new habit peoples these simple tr like listen i love the fact that the bible is prophetic and i love the fact that god but if there's three simple truths that you're like this could fix all the ills american society it's actually these three right here if people were to stop talking over each other but listen to each other and stop being angry with one another maybe we can get somewhere as a culture now here's the deal i do not expect people who do not believe in jesus to get this because when you don't believe in jesus you don't have the spirit of god checking you so that you're not in the flesh but i absolutely believe that the people of god need to get this right but if you're here today like i'm a follower of jesus then listen be quick to listen slow to speak slow to wrath because you know that your frustration your anger your wrath is it does not look at it it's like verse 20 the wrath of man does not it's so definitive it will not even a little bit and it's i i say this in a world right now where believers i watch christians not here at crossroads i watch christians in our community they are raging right now and i'm just like somebody get a bible and read james chapter one please and just so you know to be really honest because confession is good for the soul bad for the reputation i have to repeat these verses to myself too because sometimes i get frustrated but i'm constantly reminded this does not get the job done there's a whole other way when you remember the gift giver who is light in him is no darkness at all you're like god has a whole other way of dealing with these things and what we're doing as the church is we are losing our witness in the name of i am angry i am frustrated i do not like it and i'm like ah we just need to read the word you know i said that look what happens next verse 21 therefore okay when you see the word therefore crossroads what do you say what's it there for so good you see that you got we've been teaching you guys the good stuff here it's another conclusion therefore lay aside all filthiness and the overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man observing his natural face in the mirror for he observes himself goes away and immediately forgets what kind of a man he was now i love this because princesses you and i we need to not only hear the word we need to do the word we need to do the word see when i look at what's going on with be quick to listen slow to speak slow to wrath and i look at what's going on i'm like people are not applying the scriptures that they believe at street level where the rubber meets the road in real time in their lives and james is really saying because you remember the gift giver he's light there's no darkness at all because god is light he should change our lives and because god is changing our lives james says because of all of this lay aside all the filthiness lay aside the overflow of wickedness lay aside the abundance of wickedness that could happen in our culture and receive with meekness that strength under control the implanted word which will be able to save your souls because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god so receive the word but then he says but don't only hear the word do the words put feet on your faith take the scriptures and let god do the work of empowering us to walk it out he says but be doers of the word and not hear us only deceiving yourself i don't want you to miss that because we saw in verse 16 james says that we deceive ourselves when we think that god is tempting us so that's the first deception that temptation comes from guys like no no temptation comes from when you're drawn away by your desires and that that gets drawn away and then you start having sin babies so to speak you know read it excellent biology you're drawn away and also gives birth to sin and then all of a sudden you have grown up sin babies which is called death that's what that's what james said that's pretty i didn't think of that last week but i'm really happy i just thought of that right now for you all so don't have sin babies that's what it really means but now the deception is you hear the word and you think that that's enough you hear it but you don't put feed on it in real time now he says the word is able to save your soul but god doesn't only want to save our souls he wants to change our lives as well so a a soul that is saved leads to a life that has changed and the change happens when we don't just hear what the scripture says but we do them we live it out and he said the person who hears the word but doesn't do it is like someone who looks in the mirror checks himself out and forgets what he looks like now isn't that an odd picture can you imagine if you forgot what you look like something you're like i wish i could that's how i feel in the morning look in the mirror my gosh almighty jesus but really what he's saying is like there's absolutely no awareness of who you really are if you hear the word and you don't do it now what's amazing is is in matthew chapter 7 verses 21 to 28 jesus tells a story of the person who built their house on the rock versus the sand you guys remember the story one one house gets built on the sand one house gets built on a rock which is a strong foundation in both cases all sorts of things come up rain floods all these natural occurrences happen and in one case the house that's built on the sand when all that stuff comes everything falls down which would make sense you build a house without a foundation you get wind you get weather you get water and before you know it falls down the house that's built on the on the on the foundation even though the weather happens it stands strong it stays it's still weather beaten but it doesn't collapse and jesus said those who hear these sayings of mine and does them is the person who built their house on the rock and the person who built their house on center those who hear these sayings of mine and does not do them so jesus uses the same picture as james that it's not enough just to hear the word it's about what you do with what you hear now here's what i want to tell you for all of us right now what do you know you're supposed to be doing because god has told it to us in his word that you're not doing that right there is where god wants to transform your life right there because i think all of us have that stuff right like you know it says that you should love your enemies but you really don't love them you know that you should forgive but you really don't want to right you know that jesus said the greatest in the kingdom is a servant of all and you're like thanks anyway i want them to serve me now don't get me wrong because i realize we live in a culture a trauma culture we live in a victim culture that we start talking about forgiving and loving your enemies that for unfortunately for many people they've had like abuse and and we're not taught that's an extreme case that is not the principle i'm trying to get at here does that make sense so i don't want to make sure i got to make sure things get taken out of context well is it didn't say we should serve everyone we should love everybody and my husband's abusing me no no listen if you're in abusive situation that's different okay but in the end of the day as a principle as followers of jesus forgiveness love grace all these things are real but for many of us we're like yeah i don't really want to do this and right there it's we know what the truth is we just don't want to do it now here's what i want to tell you the reason it's challenging is because none of us like to take steps of faith we like walking by sight like you like knowing how the thing's going to work out but here's what i'll tell you nine out of every 10 times when god's word encourages me to do something that i don't want to do 10 out of 10 times i don't want to do it every single time i do it i realize god is way smarter than i am and i'm happy i did it but almost every time i'm scared to do it and that has been true for me following jesus for 20-something years and it still exists to this day there are all sorts of times as a pastor as a follower of jesus 20 years in where there's things that god wants me to do and i know it and i don't really want to do it and at best i take the step of faith that god i don't really want to do this i'm going to trust you and once i take this step of faith i'm like i'm so happy god is smarter than i am i'm sorry that god's ways are better than my ways so i don't want you to feel like oh man i'm screwing everything up because i'm listen you haven't been doing you need to start doing the word what does god's word because i realize all of us if you're even a little bit sensitive to the spirit of god you know that there's things that god has been wanting to do in your life that you've been dragging your feet on putting into practice incorporating into real life your homework is to simply say god i believe help my unbelief i'm gonna take a step i'm gonna take a step and then watch to see what god's gonna do because what i have learned is that god meets us on the step of faith he doesn't give us i wish that god would give me the faith in advance to do most things but actually the faith actually shows up and the empowering shows up on the step of faith not before it's like god didn't part the red sea wouldn't have been cool for moses and the children of israel if the red sea was already parted when they showed up that would have been cool right they're like man my moses were going right to the red sea and i was like don't worry man god already put up the damn we're good to go but no they get there and it's still there and people are freaking out and moe's like stand and see the salvation of god and then it parts so for each one of us the the gift is on the step of faith not before it i wish it was before but then you wouldn't have to walk by faith you could walk by and babe man i'm empowered to do this in some ways i i feel grateful for my personality not always but i'm kind of like a ready shoot aim kind of a guy actually i'm probably more like a shoot aim ready kind of a guy like i just do it and then i'm like oh like i'm grateful for that because god does things but i realize that after it's over i'm like i shouldn't have done that that's crazy what no i know some of you are like well i'm not that person i'm like ready aim get ready again third readies aim aim aim hold now and then you finally jump if you ever jump and everyone's got different personalities that way that was a good reference to braveheart if you didn't know the movie reference it was in there a couple of the dudes like i heard that braveheart reference anyway but here's the deal don't just hear the word now i mean and here's what i want to say just because you heard the word at church does not mean that you're living a biblical life you just hurt like i love the fact that we're a bible church like we teach the word always the bible gets open we teach the word lots of churches do that right now some people think my church is cool in your church because my church teaches my pastor teaches the word this way and your passage of the word that way listen you can go to church teach the bible you don't have to live a biblical life at all you just heard the word your life becomes a biblical life when you take that word that you're hearing and you put feed on it and you start to walk it out but the person who doesn't doesn't even know who they are but what happens to the person who does put feet on the word that's what it says verse 25. but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this one will be blessed in what he does if anyone among you thinks he is religious but does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart this one's religion is useless pure and undefiled religion before god the father is this to visit widows and orphans in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world now i would say this way that you and i we want to be religious in the best sense now i say that because in our day and age being religious quote unquote or religion has kind of a pejorative meaning it's got a negative meaning right if someone says oh you're so religious that normally means they don't like you right and and many times as christians people say well it's not a religion it's a relationship have you ever heard that phrase yeah that's true but the bible's using the word what religion so i always say we don't want to give these words up but we want to make sure we define them the right way so james is using the word religion and religious and we want to make sure we embody this in the best possible way now how do we do that notice because he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it i love that what a great definition of the word of god the perfect law of liberty it's perfect because it's from god it's the law because god is speaking in commandments but when we follow the perfect law of liberty it leads us to freedom real freedom real liberty right and it says when you do that and you continue in it see that which means that you're applying you're not just hearing the word you're doing it right and it says and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this one is blessed in all that they do so when you are religious in the best possible sense of the word you're a doer of the word it says that you're blessed now notice this verse 26 if anyone among you thinks he is religious but does not bridle his tongue he deceives his own heart and that one's religion is useless now you see how james just tied in being religious in the best sense to what we saw back in verse 19 be quick to listen and slow to speak so he's saying listen if you say that you're religious but you don't catch your tongue you don't watch your mouth then that religion is useless you're totally missing the mark right and then james by the spirit explains to us what religion really is what god's definition of being religious actually is pure and undefiled religion before god the father is us now don't miss that real religion is before god the father not before people jesus uses the idea of being religious in the negative sense when it was the pharisees because really they wanted people to see them so i mean i tell you don't try and impress the person sitting next to you with your religion don't try and impress your neighbor with your religion don't try and impress some pastor with how religious you are because pure and undefiled religion is before god the father it's it's a vertical thing it's about god and you not you and the person next to you because we all know what it's like like you want to impress somebody with your religion you get the biggest bible you can find or my favorite thing people get tattoos of bible verses now if you do i'm not knocking i know some of you have it i'm not knocking you i was just telling my kids this i'm like it's way easier to get a bible verse tattooed on your arm than it is to get god's word tattooed on your heart it's way easier to get a cross tattooed on your arm than to deny yourself and take up your cross daily and follow him i'm not knocking the tats okay i know you got everyone like you got your style we love your style and you love your style and praise god for your style it's all good style away people but here's the deal it's a lot harder to have god's word tattooed on your heart it's a lot harder to take up your cross and follow jesus and let your heart be cruciform shape right so so he's saying it's before god it's what you do for god it's how god sees who you are and the intentions by which you're living and then it says it's this and there we have two definitions of pure undefiled religion first you visit orphans and widows in their trouble and second you keep yourself unspotted from the world the first category it speaks about compassion it speaks about justice it speaks about the desire to meet people who are vulnerable in their vulnerability to help them widows and orphans in biblical times were the people who were the most vulnerable within the roman empire because this was before women worked outside the home they had access to all these they had no protection so orphans had no parents widows had no covering to be able to provide women without husbands or adult sons were completely impoverished and at the mercy of the culture it's not true that way today necessarily but it was true in biblical times widows and orphans were symbolic of those who within the structures of that day were the most vulnerable and jesus says pure and undefiled religion the best type of religion is a faith that works that sees the world and people in places of pain and chooses to meet them there and serve them on the behalf of the lord now what's amazing is this is so simple but we live in a day and age where because of the political climate churches are literally firing pastors because pastors think that we should help people on the margins now it doesn't happen at crossroads because we teach you guys the word but in politically polarized world this is like a big thing within the church i'm like hello pure and undefiled religion is the visit the vulnerable right where they are and that's why as a church we are so committed to reaching people locally through love now and globally through love now we like we are constantly like how can we engage the people who are vulnerable in our culture how can we help kids who are vulnerable how can we have women who are vulnerable how do we have people of different ethnicities who are vulnerable right now with what's going on in afghanistan we are already prepared for refugees coming in how our church could serve them why because we realize when people are fleeing oppression and they're landing in our community there's nothing more vulnerable than getting someone you don't know the language you don't know how everything works you don't have any friends so we're already ready for that why because it's pure undefiled religion it's what it means to follow the father who sent the son to die on a cross for our sins but it's not only the mission of justice and compassion it's also to keep oneself what unspotted from the world this speaks of consecration if visiting widows and orphans is an outward activity us serving in the community in the world and in our world to keeping oneself unspotted that's a personal thing and a and a congregational thing why because god is light and there's no darkness in him there's no variation in him you and i live in a world that is full of all sorts of garbage but we keep ourselves unspotted we say we are in this world but we are not going to blend in the word that i've been using a lot lately and i'm going to keep using it is as people of god we should be distinctly christian because what we have right now is we have christianity that is now being mixed with all sorts of things right now in america politics is the big thing they're talking about nationalism i think there's a difference between patriotism and nationalism but when you go to a church and the church is a political rally for a certain political party i'm like that is not distinctly christian it's not it can't be it's impossible for it to be but what you have is you have the church allowing itself to be spotted which goes completely against what pure and undefiled religion is one says listen you live in a busted up world people cheat they lie they steal but because we're distinctly christian we do not we realize people do it we don't allow people to do it but we don't cheat because they cheat we don't lie because they lie because we live in a polarized world where everyone's gonna pick a side we live in this world we're aware of it but do we pick a side yes we pick jesus aside which it says there's something more important than who wins the next election there's the kingdom of god that supersedes all elections and we keep ourselves unspotted from the present we're aware of what happens but we're not driven by what happens because we have a greater agenda the agenda of the god who is light where there's no shadow of turning [Music] and what happens is when you start to marry consecration i keep myself set apart for jesus like that fine china that some of you have you don't bring that out for the kid's birthday party right no it's set apart for a specific purpose you and i were set apart by god not common unique and we're set apart and then we engage in the world and all the places that there's vulnerability all the places that there's issues all the places that there's pain but even as we engage in it we keep ourselves unspotted from it and that's being religious in the best possible sense we're saying god i'm set apart for you but i know that you want to do a work and do my life now here's the thing i'm going to bring this message to a close right now i realize that in probably all of us you're hearing what i'm saying and you're like fusco that is great i agree maybe not all of you something like i don't agree that's okay i'll talk about it later no problem no problemo dude but you're thinking yourself but the issues are too big like foosco like how like like like you're like i have a heart for kids and there's just so many kids right now who are in a tough spot or my heart is for people in like in this area and there's people across the globe there's people across the street and there's people you know who just had these calamities go on and there's all these things where do i start here's what i want to tell you don't worry about fixing everything your job is simply to get engaged take the step right where you know god wants you to be your job is not to fix everything and neither is mine our job is to engage and do what he's asking us to do and what you're going to find if you take the step and start to engage is that you'll meet other people who are like we got to fix this and before you know there's a whole bunch of people doing small things and a whole bunch of people doing small things become big things and then you meet other people and then they get involved and they get involved and the thing is is that i believe that not one of us can fix everything but if all of us engaged not only all of us here at crossroads but all the people of god all the people of goodwill who want to see these things if we all get engaged and you put it all together and then god's kingdom starts happening like i realize as a church there are things that we believe in that we don't engage in as profoundly as other churches in our community do because they're uniquely good and we want to support them in doing it but we don't have to do what they're doing because they're doing it and we're like man there's other things that we're called to do and i mean like man what you guys do over there like we're not calling but we know you're doing it and when all the people of god and people of good will get together and it all starts happening before you know it things start changing for the better so don't get stuck saying i can't fix it off you can't none of us can the idea is just get involved take that step let god do what he wants to do and when god starts to do that work you're going to find other people of goodwill who are going to join you in that and there's going to be a crew of you doing this crew are you doing that crew are you doing that and before you know it all these different areas are getting touched and rather than thinking my area is the only area you say no all of these areas are necessary because the world is broken [Music] but jesus is in the redemption and restoration business and i'm gonna join him in that amen and then the world starts to change [Applause] so brother and sisters let's not hear the word let's do it amen let's put our heads in our hearts so we pray together father i want to thank you so much for james i thank you for this book i think how practical it is i'm so grateful for what you're doing and god we don't want to just be focused on the gifts lord we want to remember you the gift giver lord thank you that you're light and lord help us to by your spirit to be quick to listen slow to speak slow to wrath lord it's completely backwards to the way our culture works today and lord we want to be doers of the world but we don't just want to hear it and not do it but lord we want to hear it and do it that we can live out this pure and undefiled religion we can look into that perfect law of liberty and continue on in it and that lord our our lives would be blessed by your presence lord that that we would apply our faith to our speech and that we would be both set apart unspotted from the world but also on mission visiting those who are the most vulnerable and helping them father i ask that you would do all that you want to do in each one of us in me lord lead us and lord give us the simple faith of children to take that step of faith in those scary places those places where we know what your word says but we're not walking it out lord we believe help our unbelief lead us forward

Channel: Crossroads Community Church

Views: 39

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Crossroads

Id: LFqOVmjmaR0

Length: 49min 32sec (2972 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021