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Sep 01, 2024

No Favoritism | Faith in Action

No Favoritism | Faith in Action

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: Faith in Action

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: worship, faith, god, praise, sermon, bible, christ, gospel, sermons, jesus christ, spiritual growth, bible study, discrimination, favoritism, study the bible, bible teaching, worship songs, christian motivation, church hope, faith communities, church livestream, burnt hickory, burnt hickory worship, burnt hickory baptist church live stream, james 2 bible study, judging others christian, music and the spoken word, showing favoritism

Love your neighbor as yourself. But how do we truly embrace this calling when differences arise? What if we find ourselves prioritizing or brushing off others, whether a coworker or even a family member, because of how we view them? This morning, as we continue our journey through the book of James, we invite you to reflect with us on the theme of favoritism. Together, we’ll uncover how favoritism can challenge our understanding of love and community and how it can steer us away from the grace we are called to embody. Join us in this exploration as we seek to align our hearts with God's vision of love, mercy, and justice for everyone. Let's walk boldly in our faith, celebrating diversity and unity without bias.

Well, good morning church. If you've got a copy of scripture this morning, go ahead and turn it over or click on James chapter two. That's where we're gonna be today. As you're finding that, let me just say a big old happy Labor Day to all of you guys that are in the room as well as all of you that are at the beach. We wanna welcome you guys in this morning as well. I know the room feels a little bit different today. Let me tell you why. About 400 of our students from Burnt Hickory from Radiate Students are in Ocoee, Tennessee. They're up on the mountain at Ocoee Ridge Camp this weekend. They left yesterday morning. They'll be back tomorrow afternoon. And let me ask if you would please pray for these next 24 hours in their lives.

Yes, they're having a lot of fun. Yes, they're rafting, they're doing all the cool stuff there is to do at camp, but also, the gospel is being shared, and they are being challenged. And let's just pray just for an Elijah moment on top of that mountain in all of our students' lives because God is good, and he wants to speak into their lives. So please pray between now and tomorrow that God will move in them. I can tell you one thing: the internet is much faster this morning than without them at church. Well, look, if you haven't been here in the last couple of weeks, we are in a series that we're just calling Faith in Action, Faith in Action, where we're walking through this little letter in the New Testament called James.

It's called James because James wrote it. It's pretty similar to many other books, but James, the half-brother of Jesus and the leader of the Church of Jerusalem wrote this letter to encourage a culture that, in many ways, looks a lot like ours. They were persecuting Christians, and they were pushing Christians out of the limelight. There was harshness to people who grabbed hold of Christ and his complete holiness, and there were some troubles in many of the early churches, along with this feeling of looking at these people who followed Jesus. The culture asked them, why can't you just morph into where everybody else is and blend in? Sounds a little bit familiar, doesn't it? James is writing this letter as a battle cry, as an encouragement, or as a message of hope, as well as a way for them to move in a direction to honor God with their lives.

Chapter one, which we've looked at over a couple of weeks, told us that in times of persecution, in times of trouble, in times of even temptation, we can grab hold of the life and the love and the gospel of Jesus and it can push us forward, the end of chapter one, to live in this freedom. To live in this blessing and this hope that God gives. You know, church, I don't think we talk about the hope of Jesus enough, and I don't think we talk enough about the blessing that comes from being a true follower of Jesus, but it's offered to us. We saw all that in James's chapter one. Well, today, James will flip the page and change modes a little bit. Now lemme tell you a little bit about James and when he's writing this, when James is writing this book, he's not writing this book out of any sense of anger.

He's not writing this book out of any sense of I'm about to give up on you, or I'm about to walk out of you. James is writing this book out of pastoral care for these people, a deep love, a deep care, and not this feeling of I'm about to give up on you. Your parents know what I'm talking about. You know exactly where James is writing this from. Where he sees some things happening. He's seeing some warnings that need to be had, and he knows that when he says those things, he's putting his relationship and closeness on the line. But he knows these things need to be said. He knows he needs to encourage them. He knows that they need to be set straight, and they need to be pointed to Jesus. Chapter two starts with one of these significant fatherly rebukes that were needed because of some terrible practices in the church at that time, as well as some terrible practices that some Christians have today.

So, let's jump right in this morning. We're gonna be in James chapter two. We'll start in the first verse, and let's just see what James is saying to them and us. Here we go, James, two verse one. It'll be on the screens if you don't have a copy. Here's what he, he says, he says, "My brothers and sisters." all right, he's writing this out of love, right? He says, "Believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ." In other words, he's talking to believers here. He's talking to people who have given their lives to Jesus. "My Brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ," watch this "must not show favoritism." Now, I want you to circle that word favoritism or highlight this whole verse on your app. The compound word "favoritism" here, which we get from the Greek means without respect to face.

Without respect to face. Or without respect to facial features. Or you could even take it to say without respect to external characteristics. That's what James is saying here. So James looks at all of these churches, and he says, don't judge someone according to the external, according to the facial or what you see first. And this is kind of cool, and here's why. Because this particular word that James uses here in Greek is not even a word. It's not even a word. We can't find this word anywhere in any other Greek literature, and the way it's used here is not used anywhere else in scripture. It's almost like James took pieces from three different words to to place together this word propo. You got that? I knew you knew that. I just wanted to remind you, right? And what he did was he looked around the language of the day, and he decided that was what he was about to teach and what he's about to remind us of and what he's about to press into who we are, was so far away from where Greek or Jewish life was of the day.

That there was no single word that described this Godly attribute that we were calling to live by. So, what did he do? He made up a word. He made up a word that described what he was trying to say. Now, I know none of you have ever gotten a heated moment and done this before, right? Have you ever got into a situation where you got flustered around your words a little bit, and you kind of put three words together, and then all of a sudden you made some noises, and then you just kind of came out with this word that described what you were talking about? That's what James did right here. James comes up with this word to remind us how to live. So what does James do? James commands us not to show favoritism. He says, "Hey, listen, because of what Christ has done for you and because of the gospel in your life, because of the Jesus love that that has consumed you and because of the place that God made you into now and brought you out of," James says, "Hey, listen, how dare we live with favoritism."

Or, how dare we live with a discriminatory mindset. Why? How dare we? Because it completely goes against the gospel. That's what he's saying. I want you to write this first point down. We're gonna flush it out more, but it'll kind of keep us on track. Here's what James is saying. Number one, he's looking at you and me and them, and he's saying, if we show favoritism, we are living inconsistently with the gospel. Alright? Not only with the gospel but watch this, with the gospel that saved us when we were at our worst. That's what James is saying. Please, please, please remember this. The gospel is that God looked onto us when we were dead when we were sinners, when we were separated from him, when there was nothing that we could do to get back with him, when we were completely separated, when we were enemies of God, when we were D destitute and when we were poor spiritually.

And God, what did he do? He saw us. He loved us. He felt compassion for us. He offered us life. He offered us redemption. From what? From ourselves and from the poor place spiritually we were in. And now James is looking at me, and he's looking at you, and he's flipping the script, and he's going, "Hey, believers, because of what Christ has done for you, our role is now to live this kind of compassion on everybody. On everybody. Without favorites, without discrimination, without prejudice." is what he's saying without any respect to what? The face is what he's saying. Now, James is an incredible Bible teacher. Do you know why? Because James just doesn't give us this command and moves on to another command. James gives us an example to get our minds in the right spot. So watch what he does in verse two. After the command, James clears it up.

He says this in verse two. He says, "Suppose a man comes into your meeting." Now, that meeting that he's talking about is a church meeting. It's a worship service; it's a prayer meeting. But the but the principle is transferrable. It can mean come into your family, come into your school, come into your group, come into your work, whatever it is. "Suppose A man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes and a poor and filthy" wait "and fine clothes. And a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in." Verse three. "If You show special attention to the man wearing the fine clothes and say, here is a good seat for you, but you say to the poor man, you stand there or sit on the floor by my feet," verse four, here it is. "Have You not discriminated amongst yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?"

So, what's going on in the example? Here, we have this situation of the two guys, right? On this side, we have the rich guy, right? We've got the rich guy who pulled up his BMW camel to the front door. He made his way around the back lobby, where the greeters got all giddy because this guy was here. He's got gold fingers, not literally, but rings all over his fingers. He's got on fine clothing. Not the clothing he'd been in all week, but the clothing that he had gotten a bath in; he had spiced himself up. He had made his way into the church, and when he came in, all the red carpet was rolled out. They marched him right down the center aisle. They put him in that row, right? Do you know that row at the church with the family name on it that nobody else sits in?

They put him in that spot on the front row and gave him the seat of honor. The best seat in the house–on the front row. Then this poor guy comes in. This poor guy. This poor guy comes in in his only robe. That's literally what the text means, in his only robe. And he is not spiced up, but he's spicy. Amen. He is stinky. He does not smell well, right? He's in filthy old clothes 'cause they are his only clothes. He works in 'em, he sleeps in 'em, he comes to church in them. He does everything in them. And what is he told? He's told to stand. Or if you want to, you can just go sit on the floor by that guy's feet. I know this is hard for us to understand because in most churches today, the back row is the coveted row, and the front row is like, "Don't put me there."

but you get the point, right? You get it. These churches or these believers were giving honor or privilege based on worldly views, worldly wealth, success, status, or how someone's face looked. And James says what? James says, verse four, "If you do this, you have discriminated amongst yourselves, and you have become judges with evil thoughts." With evil thoughts. Church, don't miss this. You know, because we don't talk about it a lot. But James is making us because we just walked through the text. The sin of favoritism, the sin of partiality, the sin of discrimination or prejudice at its core is categorizing people based on things that don't matter to God. That's what this text is about. That's what this whole text is about: categorizing people based on unbiblical criteria that has nothing to do with scripture. It's...how did we say it in elementary school?

It's judging a book by its cover. And it's a way bigger deal than we give it credit for. It's a way bigger deal than you think. You see, as we read this, it becomes obvious to you if you study the Bible that James wasn't writing this because it was like a one-off situation. He wasn't writing this because one guy in one church was doing this. No, he's writing this because this was happening, and this was a big deal. People were treating people differently, basically, about things that don't matter to God. Some of you think, "Well, Matt, I like this message," right? "I Like this message because that's not us anymore. Man, I like this message. No usher treated me with a seat at the front or a seat in the back.

I like this message. Nobody sized me up for my income level or my non-wealth or whatever. There's no greeter here today who looked at me to determine where I needed to sit" unless I came in late, of course. But then there's nobody like that that kind of, kind of did that in my life. But here's what I wanna do. Before you get puffed up, I wanna pump the brakes and say, listen, that might not be the thing for you, but there are some things for you. Let's think about how our culture today, even in some churches, pre-judge or pre-discriminate against people. Some of you, I'm just gonna be honest, it's gonna get a little heavy. Some of you do, as James says. You tend to look down on the poor.

You, you have this, now, you would never say that out loud, but you have this tendency. And you assume, for some reason, that the only way to be poor in the United States is to be lazy. I've heard people say this before. And, you look at people who are having a hard time, and you might even look at them and say, "Man, how could they be so lazy? They need to get to work." Some of you, you have that mindset. Without even meeting a person. But some of you, you're on the other side of that fence. You look at rich people, and you prejudge the rich. You discriminate against the rich, and you think things like, "Well, now, they have never worked a full day in their life." Right? "They have never done anything. They've always had a golden spoon in their mouth.

They're so entitled. They don't know what real life is like. And I bet their kids are entitled." You might be on that side. Some of you, you look down upon the out-of-shape. Even though round is a shape. You, pre-decide looking at the overweight by going, "Man, why can't they just have some self-control? Why can't they just get their act together." On the other side, before you're mad at me. This side over here, they look at the people in shape and say, "Well, they must not have anything to do." Right? "They Must be so vain to care about themselves that much." Some of you despise people who are passionate worshipers. You're like, "Man, what is their problem?" Right? "They're jumping up and down. Their hands are all over the place. I would be concerned if they had a tambourine." Right? You're looking at them asking that. But for others, you look at people standing there with their hands in their pockets and say, "Do they even know Jesus?" You see what I'm talking about here, right? It goes all ways. Some of you pre-judge divorced people. You look at them and don't say this out loud, but you look at their hearts, and you go, "Well, they must not have taken the same commitment that I took."

Some of you who are divorced judge people in good marriages and say, "Well, they don't have it as hard as we had it." Are we feeling uncomfortable yet? Let me keep going. There's a couple more. Some of you look at people of other races who aren't like you, and you think one of two things. Either A, you look at them, and you say, "They make everything about race. What's their problem?" Or B, you look at them and say, "Well, they're just privileged people." You see how this is working, right? Or, don't get me started about homeschooling versus public school versus private school, right? At all. I'm not even going into that one. Or politics. You look at somebody who doesn't vote like you, and you're like, "Well, how could they even be a person?"

No, I've heard y'all say it. That's what James is talking about. James is pressing into this idea that there is so much prejudice, there are so many lifestyles of favoritism. There are so many things that are constantly working in our hearts that are not pointing at the gospel. And why do we feel we need to be in this spot to pre-decide these things and cast people into categories? It's the gospel that sets us free. I love what Paul says about it in Romans 15. He says, "Accept one another then just as Christ has accepted you, to bring praise to God." Do you see that? I love that. What is he saying? He said, listen, you were at your worst. You were nothing. You were separated, but Christ dived into your life and redeemed you from your worst. And now it's our role to live this in other people's life.

This is a distinct Christian attitude, and James says prejudice or favoritism is not from God. You can't hold on to the gospel and the Christian faith in your left hand and try to stay in favoritism, pre-judgemental attitudes, and discrimination in the right hand. That's what James is saying. We can't look at things that don't matter to God. Number one, If we show favoritism, we're living inconsistent with the gospel that saved us. But here's number two: it gets a little more specific, but it pushes down in it. Number two, he builds this case. He says this: not only are we living inconsistent, number two, we're living at odds with the creator of the universe who has chosen the poor. That has chosen the hurting. Think about it. It's so obvious, right? There's no way to read the Bible and come away, not seeing that God has a special place in his heart. For who?

For the poor, the outcast, and the down and out. You can't read the Bible, even a cursory reading, anywhere in the Bible to see that that's where God's heart is. I mean, just think about Jesus. How did he come to this earth? He left royalty. Was born in a borrowed barn to parents who could only barely pay the right sacrifice at the temple. Grew up in a town called Nazareth, which was defined as a place where nothing good could come out. And ran around with a ragtag group of people in Acts chapter two that the leaders described as uneducated, untrained, unsophisticated, and uncultured. Think about Jesus's ministry for a minute of who he dealt with most of the time. Who was that? It was the people that were hurting. It was the people that were poor. It was the people that needed things. That had nothing to offer him back.

Just a couple of scriptures that came to mind this week. Psalm 41, verse one. It says, "Blessed are those who have regard for the weak. For the Lord delivers them in times of trouble. The Lord protects and preserves them. They're counted among the blessed in the land." Proverbs 21:13 says, "Whoever shuts their ears so the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered." Proverbs 29:7 says, "The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern." "Well, Matt, all of those are Old Testament. We're in New Testament times now." Well, great. Let's look at what James says in our text today. Look back at verse five. He says, "Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor.

Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? And are they not the ones that are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones that are blaspheming, the noble name of him of whom you belong?" James says, look, look, I love you, but you've gotta know there's nothing wrong with being rich. In many ways, it's those that are rich that are missing the spiritual blessings and are not walking with Jesus. And they would've gotten this. Do you know why? Because during this time period, history tells us that, really and truly, the church was made up of the poor, the despised, and the needy. There weren't many people with means. Some even pagan historians describe Christianity in its first hundred years as nothing but a "ragtag group of poor people" who seemed to have grabbed hold of this Messiah. You see the poor; they saw the deliverance that Jesus offered, and what did they do?

They held onto it. The rich many times resisted and were the ones who were persecuting the poor. And in many ways, this has continued throughout the ages where James is saying, "Hey, listen, you need to know this before you treat them badly." God has a special place because when the poor turn to Jesus, they turn with open arms, saying, "There is nothing else that can deliver me." There's nothing else. I want you to remember during Jesus' time, who were the two groups or two people that turned away from God? It was the rich young ruler when Jesus offered him forgiveness. And it was the Pharisees who held their position in their riches above who Jesus was. Who were? Who was it that bowed at Jesus' feet? It was the poor, the despised, those in need, and those who had nothing. "Why Is that, Matt? Is it that God hates the rich?"

No. It's that God looks at the heart, and God wants glory when someone comes to the end of theirselves and realizes that only he can deliver them. I love Paul in First Corinthians One, verse 26. Paul says this, "Brothers and sisters," to prove this point, "think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards:" Amen. "Not many of you were influential. Not any of you, many of you, were of noble birth, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the strong, and God has chosen the chosen the lowly things of the world just to, and the despised things, the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him." Listen, God has a heart for the poor and the poor in spirit because he knows when they turn to him, they become all locked into him because they have nowhere else to turn.

And if we show favoritism, what are we doing? We're living inconsistent with the gospel that saved us, and we're living at odds with the creator of the universe who has chosen the poor to give him glory when he redeems them. But it doesn't stop there. That's not enough. James keeps going to prove this point. Look at it, number three. He keeps building it, and he says, if we show favoritism or prejudice, "We're also violating God's supreme and royal law." His supreme and royal law. Now, those are heavy words. But I want you to notice in point two, leave it, leave it out there for a second. Point two, we're at odds with God's character when we do this. Point three, we're at odds with his command. Alright? With his command. In other words, when we show favoritism or prejudice, if that's part of our heart, we are flat-out disobeying the great commandment of God.

Look at verse eight. Watch what he says about it. He says, "If you really keep the royal law found in scripture, love your neighbors yourself, you are doing right." Remember who your neighbor is and the story of the good Samaritan. It's anyone who is in need. Anyone you come in contact with, anyone who is destitute and can't help themselves, that is your neighbor. What did he say? He says, "If any one of you keep the royal law in scripture, love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers." Now, let me piece this together to show you why it's so important. Showing no partiality and showing no prejudice is the lifeblood of us living together in the great commandment and the great commission. In Matthew chapter 22, there were some people who came up to Jesus and said, "Hey, Jesus, there are so many laws, there's so much stuff that is out there.

What is the greatest law?" And here's how Jesus answered this in Matthew 22:37: "Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself." Verse 40: "All the law and the prophets, hang on, these two commands." In other words, these two commands are the heart of where all of us should live, where all of us should point, and where all of us should stake our lives. And when we treat someone differently, James says by how they look, by how they, what they have, by how they think, what culture they are, or what skin tone they may have. First, we are breaking one of the two royal laws. This is a big deal. But secondly, we are then disqualifying or taking away any chance that we could ever reach this person in the name of Jesus.

Believer, listen, this is much bigger. Showing preference, showing racism, and showing any kind of prejudice is much bigger than just a preference. It's bigger than the fact that I had a bad experience, so now I just choose to stay away. Showing prejudice breaks the royal law, and there are only two of them. And, when we catch ourselves slipping into this, we should immediately fall down, examine our hearts, and ask ourselves, "Is Christ really the king of my heart?" "But Matt, it can't be that big of a deal." Okay? Okay, let's see what James says. Lemme read it to you in verse 10. Kind of goes for the knockout punch here. He says, "For whoever keeps the whole law," all of it, "but yet stumbles at just one point," you might wanna, you might wanna circle that one point "is guilty of breaking all of it." He's guilty of breaking all of it. In context,

he's pointing right back up to favoritism, but it also transfers to any law of God. Let me read it again. "For Whoever keeps the whole law,' in other words, you are 99% good, but yet you failed at this one, "stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said," I love this, "You shall not commit adultery also said, you should not murder." I love those two examples, right? But, "If you commit adultery but do not murder, you have become a lawbreaker." Write this fourth one down. Number four: If we show favoritism, we're guilty of shattering the whole law of God, and we're considered a sinner. We're considered a sinner. Here's what that means. The idea that for some reason we've adopted of, "Hey, as long as the big sin stuff that's out there is not happening in my life, the little sins that God's not gonna pay attention to." man, that's straight from hell.

That is not from the Lord. "But Matt, come on. Come on, Matt. I haven't committed adultery. I've never committed murder. Man, I get that. Touche, good for you in those two things, right? But what about the two laws that Jesus just gave us that sum up all of the laws when it comes to representing others and treating them how God has called us to? What about the fact, that it was one sin that separated us from God? From murder to adultery, to looking down on anyone for any kind of reason or treating someone because of any kind of status, race, or background? Listen to me; it is sin. And what does it do? It drives a wedge between a holy God and a sinful man. That wedge is more than just a little chip in the windshield that you can deal with; that sin shatters the whole relationship.

It does. That's what James is saying. And Jesus is saying, by the way, if you break one of the laws, you are guilty believers. We have an obligation to all the laws. Thanks be to God for forgiving us and loving us. And then he walks beside us, and he offers us redemption and grace and forgiveness. But when we break one law, we separate ourselves as believers from his power. I love how Jesus said it in Matthew five 19. He says, therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. In other words, there's no like, "Hey, I'm bowling, and I only knocked a couple of the pens of sin down, and the rest are standing, and we're all good.

No, he's saying, listen, sin is like taking a window in your hand and hitting any point in that window with a hammer. It crashes all of it and shatters it. So there's no room for any justifying talk. Like, well, I didn't murder, I didn't commit adultery. I didn't steal. I only committed the so-called little prejudice, sin or favoritism, sin or indifference to the poor sin. No. When we hit the window of sin, it separates us. It cuts God's power from our lives, no matter how big or saw or small it is. So we can't walk around with this posture of, well, at least I didn't do that, or at least that's not where I am. The posture needs to be, God, I'm, I'm a sinner in need of a savior, and thank you for redeeming me and restoring me back to your church. That's the posture.

The posture is that God, if you know Jesus, God has redeemed you and all he's looking for out of you when you shatter the power, this is gonna, God, I blew it, so forgive me, I blew it. Make me right. Wash my sin away, save me, restore me. I am a lawbreaker. Make me whole. So how do we do that? I love it. Told you, James is a great teacher. Look at the next verse. He gives us the walkaway. He says this: how do we make sure we're doing this? He says to speak and act as those who will be judged by the law that gives freedom. What is the law that gives freedom? Is the law that Christ has set you free, that Christ has covered your sins, that Christ offers you forgiveness. And now we live towards that law. Let me read it again.

Speak and act as those who will be judged by the law that gives freedom because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful for mercy. Triumphs over judgment. Boy, I wish the church for ages could hear this. Mercy triumphs over judgment. So here's the walkaway. It's so simple and profound, but I wanted it for your notes. Here's the walkaway in all things: believers speak and act as those who will be judged. Wait a minute, I didn't think I was gonna be judged. I'm already a believer in Jesus. Listen, you're not going to be judged for your salvation, but listen, you will be judged for what you do and do not do on this earth for the kingdom of God. It doesn't get any clearer than this. James wraps it all back around to the gospel, and he says, Hey, listen, remember where you were?

Remember what God did? Remember that when you gave your life to Jesus, you were at your worst. You have put your hope in his mercy. You have trusted him and experienced his gospel. And that means you realize you are a poor sinner in need of need, in need of grace and forgiveness and hope. And there's nothing about you that could have earned him at that moment, but God gave it to you as a gift, and it was God who rescued you. You poor sinner. Now, our role is to look into other people's lives and offer the same forgiveness. And here's what James says: that forgiveness that we offer to other people, respect, and love that we offer to others are the evidence that he has set you free church. If you've received God's mercy, there's no way that you can help but show it to others.

It's impossible. James says that to have any true trust in the gospel, any belief that you'll be judged for the mercy you show, yet still live with favoritism and prejudice. That's what he says. It's impossible. It's impossible. So James wraps it all around to the fact that we're all sinners in need of a savior, and we are set free to represent him. Now, I wanna close the message in a way that I don't know if I've ever closed one in before, so I want you to do something for me. I want you to close down your apps for a minute, close down Candy Crush, whatever game you're watching, whatever that is, just for a moment. All right, close it down. I want you to close your notebooks for a minute, and you're like, Matt, now you're in my space. No, no, no–I want you to close down your notebooks for a minute. I want you to let go of the hand of the person beside you, and I want you to get into just a space where it's just you and God for a minute, just you and God, because I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions. I want you to process it for a second this morning before we jump into our invitation.

I want you just to bow your heads, and I want you just to get into a space with God, and I want you to ask yourself a couple of these questions. Here's the first one I want you to ask yourself this morning that can kind of drive this message home and give you a little self-examination moment. Number one, I want you to ask God this: God is, is my first thought when I meet someone who is not like me, just to avoid them. I want you to ask yourself that question this morning. Is that your first thought? When you meet somebody who's not like you, they don't look like you. They're not necessarily in your circle, is your first thought, not to hate 'em, but to avoid them. And if it is, lemme just say you're already stepping on the slippery slope of prejudice. Why don't you ask God today: God change my heart. Let me see them through the lens of who you see them as. Is that you today? If it is, man, why don't you just do business with God just for a minute with it? Here's the second question today,

Do you look at those who are possibly having a hard time and automatically say, I wonder what wrong or bad decision they made to get them into this situation? Or do you look at them and say, Man, as a believer in Jesus, what could I do to step into their lives? I don't know which one you're on, but I just want you to think about it for a minute.

Which one is it, Lord? Which one, if it's you automatically assume, then man I, I think it's time to repent and say, man, Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you for pointing this out so that I can walk with you closer. Here's one; this one's a little more complicated. Is there a longstanding prejudice in your heart that you have kept a secret? Hey, maybe even your spouse doesn't know about it; you're just really good at hiding it. Is there a long-standing pre-judgmental dispo disposition that is possibly pushing you away from God, that you just need God to forgive, that you need to repent of today? Maybe it's that you even just look at people that don't know God, and you just judge 'em. Maybe it's you. Look at people that don't have the same skin tone as you, and you prejudge 'em. Maybe it's you. Look at people that live a certain way. I can guarantee you it's driving a wedge between you and God.

Ask God to take that. How about this one? How quickly do you reach out to disconnected people you know are struggling? How quickly do you need to

Do you need to be better at that? Here's the last one. Do you need to just ask God for a fresh start in the whole category of favoritism and prejudice? Maybe you walked in here today and you never even thought you had a problem, but man, it has been brewing, and you just need to ask God to shine a light on your heart so that you can see people through the lens of other sons and daughters of the king and treat them as his kids. Church. This is our calling. Our calling to live the gospel is to accept people and point them to the gospel. I'm not saying we excuse sin,

But I'm saying we live out the salvation that God has so richly shown us. Because we are so glad God did it for us.

Follow Along with the Message

No Favoritism

September 1, 2024

James 2:1
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.
If We Show Favoritism…

1. We are living with the Gospel that saved us when we were at our worst.

James 2:2–4
2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Romans 15:7
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

2. We are at with the Creator God of the universe that has chosen the poor.

Psalm 41:1–2
1 Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble. 2 The Lord protects and preserves them — they are counted among the blessed in the land.
Proverbs 21:13
Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered.
Proverbs 29:7
The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.
James 2:5–7
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
1 Corinthians 1:26–29
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.

3. We are God’s supreme and royal law.

James 2:8–9
8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.
Matthew 22:37–40
37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
James 2:10–11
10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

4. We are of shattering the whole law of God and are considered a sinner.

Matthew 5:19
Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
James 2:12–13
12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

WALKAWAY: In all things, speak and as those who will be judged.

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