 What's up Radiant Church? Good to be with you here at the Richland campus and many are watching online, wanna give a extra shout out to you. We are all the church together as we gather, portage, wanna welcome you as well and just say how honored and excited I am to be speaking today, sharing the word of God with you two weeks in a row. So hopefully you're mentally prepared for that. It's gonna be good. So my name's John, if you don't know me, I'm the campus pastor here in Richland. Also one of the teaching pastors and again, just so excited about what God's doing as pastors act said in the midst of this global pandemic, we are seeing so many people engage and our eight a.m. morning prayer. We're seeing thousands of people from all over really the globe, but the country in particular tune in for our online messages. So God is still using this season to be so impactful in the body of Christ and in Radiant in particular. So thank you so much for your faithfulness in every arena. It means so much to us as leadership and Pastor Lee and Jane are still taking a few weeks to kind of reboot and recharge. And I know when he comes back, he's gonna be full of vision and full of the word and we'll probably need like three hours to teach or something like that. So come back for that. But if you brought your Bibles today, turn to two scriptures, the book of James chapter two after Hebrews before Peter and then back up a little bit and go to Romans chapter three. So those two scriptures are where we'll start and we're in a series called revolutionary faith where we're looking at the book of James and we're kind of going through it and highlighting some of the things that James is admonishing us to do as Christians. And as I said last week, James is the brother of Jesus. He was not a believer until after the resurrection. He didn't see his brother Jesus as the Messiah until after the resurrection. And then now he finds himself as the pastor, the leader of one of the most influential churches in the world, in Jerusalem. And he has a mandate from God to pastor these people. So when you read James, he's not, as I said, as eloquent. His sentence structure isn't as beautifully laid out as the apostle Paul's are and let's say Romans or Corinthians. He's much more blunt and much more to the point but his epistle is still so powerful and the things we learn from it are still so applicable for us as Christians today. So we're going through that piece by piece. And I wanna read chapter two, 12 verses 14 through 26. So you can follow along on the screen if you didn't bring your Bible. But if you did, I'm gonna be reading out of the ESV. And let's just see what James says in the second part of chapter two. He says, what good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but doesn't have works, can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one, you do well, even the demons believe and shudder. Do you wanna be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar. You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works. And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab, the prostitute justified by works. When she received the messengers and sent them out by another way. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. I don't know how many of you have read through the book of James or read this scripture, but this portion of scripture is somewhat controversial. You might even say highly controversial. As I said, James doesn't pull any punches. He's very direct. And this in particular is a scripture that a lot of theologians, a lot of people have had issue with. They've sort of picked it apart. They've wondered about it. And I know many Christians even are not sure exactly what is James saying? It seems in some ways to contradict what some of the rest of the Bible says. In particular, what the apostle Paul says. So we're gonna look at that in a moment, but I wasn't aware that Martin Luther himself, the German monk theologian from 500 years ago was not a fan of the book of James to begin with he called it a gospel of straw, which I guess 500 years ago was rough to say to somebody. I think James shot back on Twitter and said something like your wig looks terrible and your monastery has secret dancing or something like that. I don't know, but he was confronted by Martin Luther because again, it seems like there's this sort of tension between what James is saying and what Paul is saying. So we're gonna look at Romans chapter three, but first I wanna read verse 24 and highlight this in your Bible. This is the word that James used. So you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Now turn to Romans chapter three. You guys are already there probably and I'm not, Genesis, Exodus, Romans. Okay, Romans three. And I'm gonna start I think in verse 24. I would read more, but we don't have a lot of time. So Paul is speaking here about the justification through faith. And so he says in verse 24, and they are all sin and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace. If you have your Bible in a pen, just underline how many times I read by faith in this one passage. Through the redemption as in Jesus Christ, verse 25, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. And it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded by what kind of law? By law of works? No, but by the law of faith. Verse 28, for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also. So we have James in verse 24 of chapter two saying you're justified by works and not just by faith. And then you have Paul saying in verse 28 of Romans three, we're not justified by works at all, but by faith alone. And so there seems to be a tension. And so I want to just, before we look specifically at what James is saying, I want to just kind of clear the air in regards to this tension that's happening because we want to know, A, that the Bible is reliable. And that it's something that we can look to in confidence. But also we want to know, well, which one is it? And so we're going to cover that. How are we supposed to apply faith versus work? So in short, let me just say this, that Paul and James are not actually contradicting each other. I know it sounds that way. I know it sounds like this could be a steel cage, MMA battle to the death between Paul and James. But it's not, the Bible is clear about that. In fact, you can read in Acts that they knew of each other. They knew of each other's ministry. They gave each other the right hand of fellowship. There was no animosity between Paul and between James in scripture, but they use that word justify each one differently. And I think that's what I want to just make sure we all understand is that words can have different meanings. And so they can mean different things even though they're the same word. So here's a great example of the word rock. It can mean a stone. It can mean a type of music. It can mean a description of someone, like, dude, you rock, right? It can mean something you do, a verb, like what you do in a rocking chair. It can even be a name, speaking of WWE. Do you smell what the rock is cooking, right? Dwayne Johnson. So there's five examples of rock. So when you see it in a sentence, how do you know what it means? And I'm gonna submit to you that we know what it means through context. And much of scripture has to be seen through context. What is the writer trying to communicate? What does he actually mean? And that's what I actually called the subtitle of this message. I went all Justin Bieber, you know? What do you mean? Pastor Lee quoted the Beatles. I'm quoting Justin Bieber, okay? When you nod your head, yes, but you wanna say, okay, let's stop there. What does he mean? Okay, so justify can mean two things. And I'm just gonna give this to you pretty quickly, but to justify something can mean to make right. Like if I have a debt and I owe someone and I pay that debt, I have justified that debt. I have made it right. And that's one sort of version of that word. Another word though is to prove that something is right or something is true. So if you make an assertion and I say, hey, I want you to justify that, I'm not asking you to make it true. I'm asking you to then prove that what you're saying is actually true. I'm asking you to vindicate what you said, the statement that you made as true. Like what do you have for evidence? What do you have for proof? So that's the two ways that this is being used in scripture. All is saying that you have been justified by God through Jesus Christ and his death burial and resurrection. It is a moment in time. It is an event that happened and it is solely done by God. All the work was done by God in Jesus Christ. You didn't have to add to it. You didn't have to continue it. You didn't earn it. You didn't deserve it. Still he gave himself away. Is someone writing this down? I feel like that could be a hit song, sorry. Concentrate, John. No, but seriously, that's justification. God does all the work. We add nothing to it. That's a justification work. But then the other meaning, so I'd submit that's what Paul is saying when he in Romans 3.28. But the other meaning is, okay, if then you've been justified, if then you've been saved, if then you have the spirit of God in you, it should lead to something that vindicates that, something that expresses that, something that proves that that, in fact, has happened. And that's what James is saying. He's not saying you have to do something in order to be saved. He's saying when you have Jesus Christ in your heart and in your life, it is going to naturally affect the way that you live, the way that you talk, the way that you see others, the way that you love God, the way that you love others. Everything about you changes and that is the justification that the faith you have is actually saving faith, is actually genuine faith. And as I said last week, that's the whole way that Paul, or excuse me, James argues in this book. Every single time he's like, this is who you are. So this should be the result of that. You should be, your attitude in trials should be good. You should consider it joy. Well, why would I do that, James? Because you know that God's your father and he loves you. And then it's gonna produce patience and perseverance. He always says, well, you shouldn't just be hearers of the word, you should be doers. Why? Because the word, when it's implanted in your soul and received meekly can save you and it can transform your heart. Every single time James is saying, this is who you are. And because of that, this is what should be happening in your life. And he always goes from the inside out. He goes from a place of being to a place of doing. He goes from a place of identity that then affects your activity. Does that make sense? So I tried to explain that last week terribly, apparently with a tour guide story. So I'll change it this week to a worse one. So I was in Meyer and or maybe it was Walmart. I can't remember. Anyway, there was a woman, a mom with her child, maybe like three years old and he didn't wanna be in the cart. He wanted to be walking alongside. And he wanted something, I think it was some sort of candy or it might have even been fruit snacks, but his mom wasn't gonna let him get it. And she said no. And he immediately, immediately went to like full meltdown mode. You all have seen that before, right? But this one was epic. I mean like knees went limp, like his whole body was like, but I want it. And he just started screaming, I need that, I want it. And for me, first of all, I was like, well, thank God I don't have the only children that sometimes do that. But I also, you feel bad if they're young enough, right? You're like, okay, they're young. They don't understand that that life is hard and fruit snacks aren't always a possibility. And someday he'll grow into that. But then I was thinking, and this is why my brain is somewhat warped. What if I went up and also grabbed the car and just started screaming that I want them to, you know? Like, but I want them to. I just started screaming and freaking out, right? What would happen? People would get their cameras out. I would be on the news. Authorities would probably be involved. Why? Because I'm six foot five and I'm 3,000 pounds and I'm 45 years old. And people would say, he's grown. He should not be acting that way because of who he is. That should not be a response that coincides with who he is and what he should already know. And that's literally what James is gonna argue here in this book is that who you are in Christ changes everything. Changes everything. And it's not instantaneous. Like Paul's saying, yes, there is a conversion moment and it happens. But then James is saying, you work out that faith through how you live, what you do, how you love, how you care for people. And he gives us examples in the book about this is what it needs to look like. And so it is challenging. It is difficult sometimes. And sometimes James isn't even super nice about it. And maybe that's cause Martin Luther was mean to him. I don't know, but we're gonna look at what then it was James talking about. So we established that there's no major hang up between Paul and James. There is not enough time to over preach the reality that you are saved by grace through faith. Ephesians two, eight and nine. And it is a gift from God. It is not by works, but it is a gift. So that no one can boast. That is the truth of the gospel. You encounter the goodness of God. You believe it by faith. You're saved, you're justified, you're transformed. So then what then is James actually trying to communicate if they both agree that's true and that's we're gonna spend some of our time. So what is James saying in regards to faith? So Paul says God justifies you in a moment through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. But James, and we're gonna look at this passage a little closer says this, and I wrote it down because I wanted to get it right. You are saved by faith alone agreeing with Paul, but that faith never stays alone. It is expressed through works, through love and through obedience. So you're not saved by what you do. That is called heresy in theological terms because it nullifies the work of Jesus. It says it wasn't enough. Now I have to do this. It's not Jesus plus anything equals salvation. It's not Jesus plus baptism. It's not Jesus plus church attendance. It's not Jesus plus giving alms or gifts to the poor. It's nothing plus anything. It's him saying you're saved by faith alone, but if it's true faith, if it's genuine faith, it never stays alone. It expresses itself, it vindicate, it justifies the faith that you now have through works, through love and through obedience. Works are not in addition to your faith. Works are an expression of your faith. That's what James is saying in chapter two, and it's so important because I'm telling you I've been in a ministry for 15 years and I get emails of people who genuinely feel like I'm not saved and sometimes reading James will make you feel that way, but they're like, am I doing enough? How do I know I'm right with God? How do I know God's not angry with me? How do I know I've done enough works or I'm walking in enough love or enough? And so I'm gonna try to ease our minds a little bit today and look at what is James really saying? What is the spirit of God saying? Because it's not a list. So some of you who are a list, people already have like your notebook out. Okay, John's gonna give us a list of things we have to add to our faith, and then I know I'm good with God. It's not gonna look like that at all. It's gonna be how is that faith that has saved me, redeemed me, and adopted me, expressing itself through faith, love, and obedience? So chapter two, we read through it. We're gonna look at it a little closer. Verse 14, so James says, what good is it if someone says he has faith but doesn't have works? Can that faith, notice it's not faith, it's that particular faith actually save him? And then he gives an example. If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So James is gonna give us two things that are indicators that you don't have genuine faith, and two things that are indicators that you do. The first thing he says is this, that faith without works is actually useless. If you just say you believe something, or you say something is important to you, but there's nothing that justifies or vindicates or expresses that, James is saying, look, that doesn't do anything. It's not helpful, it's not good, it's useless, it's actually dead, like it's lifeless. It might actually, like a dead body is still there, it's still a body, but how many of you know, there's no life, there's nothing that it can contribute. And that's what he's saying. So he gives an example, as he did last week in the first part of chapter two, he says, so if you see someone, a brother, a Christian, someone at church, someone you know who's without food, poorly clothed and lacking in daily food. Now, again, poorly clothed does not mean they had nights at the round table instead of polo, like I said last week. Doesn't mean, oh, that dude shops at Walmart, no. This literally means he has no ability to care for himself. Your translation might say he's naked, he's destitute. This person is on the brink of starvation, the brink of collapse, the brink of absolute inability to sustain themselves on any level, sustain their families, sustain their kids. I want you to think of, I want you to picture like the most destitute person. And then I want you to imagine that someone who claims to have faith in Christ goes up to them and says, go in peace, be warmed and filled. Hey, man, you know what I would do if I were you? I would first get pants and then get dinner. And that's, you know what you should do here? I'm gonna, here's what you should do. You should go eat and you should get warm and you should have a house to stay in and you should have something to take care of yourself. Maybe do your hair a little, some gel, something like, can you imagine if you said that to someone and then you walked away and said, well, you know, not everybody's as good a Christian as I am. God got a pretty good deal when I came in the kingdom. I said that before, right? It sounds ridiculous, but this is what James is saying. He's saying if you project faith without any action, without any love, without any obedience, it's not doing anyone any good. It's literally useless and it actually takes away from the ability for A, both accounts. So the person isn't being helped. The person who's destitute, he's not being ministered to. Everything is just vocal. We've all heard actions have to speak louder than words. It's a cliche, but it's true. So we're just saying that, we're not helping them. And at the same time, this person who has more resources, who has benefits himself is not ministering to someone and that's the primary way that God uses people. Pastor Zach just talked about, we're teaming up with the gospel mission. We're teaming up with Deacons Conference. Why? Because we wanna be an extension of the hand and love and goodness of God to the underprivileged, to people who don't have what we have. That's the beautiful part of the church is that we're all stronger together when we do that. And that is faith working itself out in expression, working itself out in actions. And that's what James is saying. If you don't do that, your faith is literally useless. It like doesn't do any good to them and it really doesn't do any good to you. God doesn't bless us so that we can have a bigger house, another boat and a larger 401K. And none of that stuff is wrong. But we can't just be reservoirs. We're supposed to be conduits. And sometimes we can get spiritually constipated. I'll just leave it at that. I won't exegesis that anymore, but we're not supposed to get all blocked up and just say, you know, feel good about it. Oh, look what I did and that was a part of it. No, no, no. There's something that has to express itself. So that's the first thing he says is that faith that doesn't work itself out is useless. Second thing he says is a little more intense. Look at verse 19. He says, you believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe and they shudder. James says, head knowledge of God is not the same as saving faith. And this is sobering because I feel like there is a large population of Christians, specifically probably in America, who confess of faith in God that is nothing more than mental ascent or head knowledge or really would be more accurate description of President Lincoln or something like that than a living God who wants to have relationship and wants to know them. And so I don't know what the percentage is. It's unfortunately going down, but it's still high and the 80% would say I believe in God and the majority of those people would then assume that they're Christians, that their eternity, their destiny is sealed in Jesus. And James is saying that is not necessarily true. That's what he's saying. And he gives a analogy again that is sobering. He says, even demons believe that God exists. Even demons have proper theology and you can read that in scripture. You read in Matthew chapter eight when Jesus approaches two demon possessed men. What do they say to him? What are you doing here, son of God? Are you here to torture us before our time? Like they literally have enough theology to call Jesus the son of God. It's better than some Christian's theology. And he says, well, if you're gonna cast us out, at least put us in the pigs. And so he does and they run off the cliff and the demons have a sense of theology. You read in Acts chapter 16. There's a girl who's demon possessed. They're making money off of her, the people who own her because she has the ability to sort of tell the future. And she's following Paul and she's following Simon and she says to them, you're servants of the most high God. You're here to tell people how to be safe from their sin. Like literally this demon is giving out theology that's accurate and that's good. And then Paul says in the name of Jesus come out of her and he delivers her and he gets thrown in prison for her. But here's what James is saying. There has to be more than just a mental or a cognizant ascent to, okay, I believe in God in order for it to be saving faith. And what that means is there's too many people who say, yeah, sure, I believe in God, but listen, listen, listen. It doesn't affect their lives in any way, shape or form. So yes, okay, I believe in God, but then I don't surrender. There's no obedience. There's no expression of that. I don't love God. I don't love people. I'm not growing in that. And that's what he says demons do. Demons have the right theology. Good theology isn't bad, but they don't love God obviously. They don't love his ways. They don't love his heart. They don't want to grow in relationship with him. And he's saying, if all you have is mental faith that hasn't connected to your heart, that hasn't connected to your spirit, James is saying, don't rest in an assurance that isn't yours. That's what he's saying. And that is scary sometimes. And I told you, I get emails about this. Like, what is that? And I'm trying to say it as lovingly as I can, but part of being a pastor is not just communicating what's fun and what feels good and verses, Jeremiah 21, God knows the plans he has for you. Those are great. There's nothing wrong with that, but there is also some tougher scriptures that have to be looked at, that have to be dealt with. And especially in our Western society, we have to come to a place where we say, God, what does that mean for me? And James is saying, it has to work itself out in love for God and in love for people. Remember what he said in James 1, 26, pure and undefiled religion or genuine faith is this, you visit orphans and widows in their time of need and you keep yourself unspotted from the world. There's something that represents a genuine faith, love for God and love for people. Look what it says in verse 18, but someone will say, you have faith and I have works. He says, someone, someone will say, I feel like James knows who that is in the church. And he's just kind of being passive aggressive right now. But Brad would say, no, I'm just kidding. Someone, he puts an antagonist in here, introduces someone who would say, no, no, no, we should separate those things. You have faith, or I have faith, but you have works and that's okay because we're different that way. And James is saying negative on that. You cannot separate the two. You don't add works to your faith, but if you have genuine faith, it will express itself in works. So he says, well, then show me. You say you have faith, show me. What does that mean? All of us are sitting in chairs, probably. There's a level of faith it takes to sit down in a chair. You look at it and you assume, okay, it's made of steel. It's gonna support me. I'm gonna sit down in it, right? We were just in Luddington on vacation and my wife bought beach chairs and bought the jankest beach chair ever for me. And I love you, Kendra, but hers was a little nicer. Just gonna say it here out loud. Anyways, and I read the back of it and it's only supposed to support 190 pounds, which is unfortunately half of what I currently weigh by faith. And so I'm like, Kendra, I can't even sit in this. Like, this might as well be like an antique or something. Like, I'm scared. I'm gonna look like an idiot on the beach and I'm gonna send lifeguards to like resuscitate me if I sit down in the chair. And so I literally was like, and I was afraid to sit back in it. But James is saying, look, if you say you have faith, then sit in the chair. If you say you trust the chair, then sit in the chair. Don't just talk about it. Don't just say, oh, I'm sure that chair can hold me. Well, then sit in it. Well, I don't know. I got burned by a chair once when I was a kid. So I'll just stand, but I believe it. No doubt in my mind. Well, if there's no doubt in your mind, then sit in it. And they're like, oh, well, maybe I'll just stand, actually, and it's ridiculous. He's saying, you can't do that. You can't extract works from faith. If you believe it, you will sit in the chair. You will do something. There will be an obedience and a love that follows saving faith. And so the last part, he says this, is saving faith works itself out in love and obedience. Look at verse 20. Says, do you want to be shown you foolish person? Brad, that faith apart from works is useless. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works. And in that, the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. It makes sense. First we read in Romans three, Paul alluded to Abraham. Now in James, he's alluding to Abraham. Why? Because they're talking to mostly Jewish people. And Abraham was the OJ, the original Jew, gangster of the day. Everybody loved Abraham. Everybody wanted to be like, yes, let's reference Abraham. He's amazing. And so it made sense. Like, okay, I'm gonna show you something about Abraham. And he unpacks this a little bit, but let me just help us in Genesis chapter 15. The Bible says God came to Abraham and he said, I'm going to give you a son and his name is going to be Isaac and he is going to be a son of promise. And through him, all of the generations of the world are going to come through. And the problem with that was that Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were barren. They couldn't have kids. And Abraham was like, but wait, wait, I'm old. And my wife has advanced in years. You know, Abraham was smart. He wasn't like, and she's old too. It's like, she's just advanced in years. And so they had gone through infertility. They had gone through this thing. And God makes a promise to him. And the Bible says in that moment, Abraham believed God. He didn't look at his old body. He didn't look at his advanced wife. He didn't look at the circumstances. He said, okay, God, I believe you. And it was accounted to him as righteousness. That's salvation. Jesus, I need you. How you hear the gospel, you hear that Jesus wants to save you. I believe that. I believe I can't save myself. I believe that I'm incapable of being good and I need the grace of God. In that moment, you're justified. And that's what happened to Abraham in Genesis chapter 15. And he's called the father of our faith. But there came a time where Abraham's faith had to be tested. And so you read in Genesis chapter 22, which is actually 30 years later. So three decades of believing God and here's my son. And he was born and we did name him Isaac. And he is a miracle. And then what does God say? I want you to sacrifice your son. Oh, God was not advocating child sacrifice, which was something that was unfortunately part of custom in that time. But he was testing Abraham's faith. Do you believe? Does your faith express itself in obey and obedience and trust and in love? And we know the story. Don't dehumanize this story. It's insane. Abraham gets a donkey, he puts some wood on it. He goes with his son Isaac up a mountain and halfway up Isaac goes, well, where's the lamb? Like, I see we have everything else, but we don't have the actual sacrifice. And Abraham's, like God will provide. And you know, he's getting ready to do it. And in his heart, he believes that even if I have to actually do this, God will have to just raise him from the dead because that's how you get insane faith and get called the father of faith is when it looks like that. But how many know God said, stop. And it was in that moment that God realized I have your heart. I know you will walk in obedience with me and for me. And so his faith was tested. But how many know that prior to that, Abraham had a lot of mess ups. Abraham didn't always get it right. He told Abimelech the king that his wife was only a sister and that he could have her just don't kill him. How many know that came up later in marriage for sure? That's a rough one, Abraham. Anyway, and other things, but at that moment, after that moment, you don't hear about that stuff anymore. He walks in a new fullness and a new identity of faith. I mean, and we sing songs, right? Father Abraham had many sons and many sons had Father Abraham. I'm one of them. So are you, nice job. So let's just praise the Lord, right? That's such an amazing way to end the song. What rhymes with that? Let's just praise the Lord, right? So he mentioned Abraham, but then look what he does next. This is insane. It says, and in the same way was not also Rahab, the prostitute justified by work. So now he just lost his Jewish audience pretty hardcore. It was like, all right, we're with you with Abraham, for sure, for Rahab. How many of you remember singing songs about Rahab, the prostitute in Sunday school? No, right? There weren't any. But yet she's mentioned here and what does she do? The story of Rahab is so insanely beautiful. She's a prostitute. She's a commodity. She's used and abused. Nobody wants to be a prostitute. Nobody grows up saying, this is my dream. It happens because of terrible circumstances and terrible abuse and demonic things that happen in her life. And the Bible, she's in Jericho. And remember, Joshua sends out spies and she sees them. And she knows, she has faith. Something's gonna happen. God's gonna do something here. And so I'm going to approach these men and she says, look, I'll let you guys in here, but when you come back, remember me and remember my family. And so she has faith in that moment, but then her faith gets tested because the king sends guards to the door and they're knocking and say, where are the men? We know they're here. And in that moment, she had to make a decision. Her faith was tested. Am I gonna say what I need to say? Am I, what if these men hurt me? What if they abuse me? And in that moment, she said a lie, but she said what she needed to say and she sent the men along. And in that moment, her faith was justified. That's what James is saying. Yes, you have faith, you believe in your heart, but then there's gonna come a time where God's gonna test your faith. God's gonna lead you to a place where you have to make a decision about your level of obedience, your level of love and your level of trust. And that happens through relationship. That's why he says, it can't just be had knowledge. It can't just be, I understand a little bit about God. It's, am I walking with the Lord? That's why Abraham was called a friend of God after that, after that obedience, after that expression of love and of trust. And so people will say to me, I've gotten emails before like, okay, what do I need to do? How do I know that I'm saved? Or I'll get emails like, I had a really bad week and I did something I shouldn't have and I said something I should have and I thought something I shouldn't have. And I just want to say to anyone who's struggling, God is not looking for perfection. God is not looking for complete adherence to anything. God is looking for your heart, for your love and for your obedience. And God is asking you to ask yourself, people say, what do I ask myself? Here's what I say, you want to know if your faith is genuine? Ask yourself, God, am I growing in my love for you and my love for others and in my obedience to your Word? Am I growing in that? Not am I perfect, not am I comparing myself to Abraham? Am I comparing myself to someone else? No, am I growing in relationship, love for God, others and obedience to the Lord? And that's how we measure ourselves. I don't want anyone to feel like I haven't done enough, I'm so nervous. No, it's not do more things and God will love you. It's love God more and he'll change you from the inside and your heart will be moved for other people. Your heart will be moved for the poor and the lost. Loving God happens first, not the other way around. You can't say I'm gonna love people more so that God knows I love him. No, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. That's what Jesus said. And so I want everybody who's watching to ask themselves, am I growing in those three arenas, my love for God, my love for others and in my obedience because sometimes it's easier for sure to just have kind of the head knowledge or lip service. So how does that translate for today? Well, I'm trusting God, I'm trusting God in my finances. I need a miracle in my, well, are you a giver? No, no, I can't, I don't have enough, I'm scared. And listen, I'm not saying you're not gonna go to heaven if you're not a giver, I'm saying if you're having faith for God to move in that arena, he's gonna eventually test your faith and say, do you trust me enough to give? Do you trust me enough to let go? Do you trust me? Are you going to be obedient in that way? If you're believing for a prodigal son or daughter to come back to the Lord and there's gonna come a time where God says, are you gonna trust me without worrying? Are you gonna go from worry to prayer to confession to belief? There's gonna come a time where God says, let's operate in a faith that expresses itself and he's gonna lead you gently and he's gonna guide you gently. He's not a task master that's gonna come down on you but I'm telling you, you're not gonna go through life without having some tests of your faith and of your obedience and that's how you know. That's how you know you're growing and I just wanna say this, there's something about growing especially in 2020 where we want everything to be instantaneous and growth is not instantaneous. It's not supposed to be. And so stop measuring yourself day by day or even week by week, like I had a bad week. I'm not saying that doesn't matter but I'm saying this, let the grace and power of God work from the inside out and recognize that's a process. The Bible calls it sanctification. You're saved in a moment for sure, a new creation in Christ Jesus, 2 Corinthians 5, 17 but then 2 Corinthians 4, 16 says, we don't lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, our inward man is being renewed day by day, every day. We're taking small steps of obedience, small steps of love and you're gonna notice if you keep doing that consistently that you've grown. How many of you had parents when you were little that would measure you like in the closet to see how much you grew? We did that with our kids but how many of you know, you can't do that every day. Okay, this is June 5th, now come back on June 6th. It's gonna be the same. Growth isn't instantaneous, growth is a process. Trusting God, loving God, obeying God is a process of growth that the Holy Spirit takes you on but you can't measure yourself every day. So ask yourself, am I praying more today than I did six months ago? Am I reading the Bible more than I did? Am I loving God? Am I growing in my relationship with God more than I did at this time? And that's how you measure growth. And the cool thing is like with my kids, they haven't seen one of their cousins or something in awhile and the aunt and uncle will say, man, you've gotten huge, not to me hopefully but to my children, you've grown so much and but Eric, my seven year old would be like, dude, I'm not as tall as you, I'm not as big. It's kind of an immature thing to think this has to happen right now and instantaneously but what's cool is someone who hasn't seen you in awhile would be like, wow, you've grown a ton and I'm telling you you're growing more than you think you are when you just stay consistent. Abraham had to do something huge but Rahab, she just had to hide some people like her obedience didn't look the same but had the same reward. She's literally mentioned in Matthew 1.5 and the lineage of Jesus Christ and she's a prostitute. It's incredible, the mercy and goodness of God. And so as I pray and as we close I wanna just highlight two things. If you're here and you know, if you're watching and you know I don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ that's saving faith. I've not given him my heart. I've not given my life to the Lord. I may have said something, I may have prayed a prayer a long time ago, I may have grown up in a home where my parents are like, you know, do you wanna go to heaven or hell, Johnny, you heaven. Okay, great, then that's your experience with God. All I'm saying is don't rest in an assurance that isn't yours to rest in. That's all I'm saying, like you can handle that in a moment. We'll pray and you can ask God to truly come and transform you and save you and redeem you and adopt you and justify you in a moment. And then we start this journey of growing in godliness and one day it'll lead to glorification where the very presence of sin is gone and God wipes every tear from our eye and we spend eternity in heaven. And you can know that you know that that is your future destiny. But don't assume it, pray it, believe it. And for the rest of us, grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't let the enemy tell you, you haven't done enough, you had a bad week. It's been every day, every day start your day saying, Holy Spirit, come, lead me. God, come into my heart right now before your feet even touch the floor. And when I'm in my bed, I say, Holy Spirit, today, I need you, I need your strength, I need your presence. I'm not enough on my own, but I wanna grow in my relationship with you so that I grow in love for others and I grow in obedience to the things that you're asking me to do. Let's pray together, let's bow our heads and close our eyes, Father in the name of Jesus. I just ask, Lord, that you would speak to every single heart right now, God, for those that need right now to give your heart to Jesus, to ask for a saving faith to enter into your heart, to ask for a redeeming love, to ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to wash you and cleanse you in the blood of Jesus, that you can do that right now. You can do that in a prayer, you can do that in a moment. And for those of us God that are on a journey of sanctification, a journey of growing in our love for you, God, I pray that, Father, we wouldn't be deceived into thinking it's a list, it's a law we have to keep, it's things we have to do, but instead there'd be a revelation that, God, as we love you more, you're working from the inside out so that we love others, so that we love those around us. Even the unlovable, even the hard to love God, break our hearts for what breaks yours. Father, we're living in tumultuous times, we're living in a season that is unprecedented in many ways, but we understand this, you are at work in us, both the will and due for your good pleasure, and God, we surrender to that, we walk in obedience, as Abraham did, as Rahab did, and every season of our life, just like we sang, we respond with love for you, and we're growing in godliness, we're growing in grace, and we're growing in the destiny, plans, and purposes you have for our lives, and we thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen.