WEBVTT 00:02.143 --> 00:02.963 [SPEAKER_00]: That was awesome. 00:03.303 --> 00:09.386 [SPEAKER_00]: Guys, it's a significant day for us as a church, and I want to say this really, really clearly from the outset. 00:10.006 --> 00:16.649 [SPEAKER_00]: Discovery Church Ringwood is not about transplanting Christians from one place to another place. 00:16.669 --> 00:20.170 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just not about growing discovery as a church. 00:20.210 --> 00:29.974 [SPEAKER_00]: This is about extending the kingdom of God so that people who've never heard the name of Jesus can come into the relationship with Jesus for the very first time. 00:30.034 --> 00:30.395 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen? 00:31.663 --> 00:32.003 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen. 00:32.023 --> 00:34.165 [SPEAKER_00]: It's about going from here to everywhere. 00:34.405 --> 00:45.173 [SPEAKER_00]: Earlier in the year, we talked about Acts 13, the church at Antioch, a church who at great cost to themselves are released and sent their very best. 00:46.243 --> 00:57.375 [SPEAKER_00]: And in Vin and Gabi Ghulei, who will be leading discovery church in wood, and in Tim and just into Lewis, we are indeed sending some of our very best. 00:58.136 --> 01:03.642 [SPEAKER_00]: And so can we encourage them as they have said yes and made themselves available? 01:03.662 --> 01:04.523 [SPEAKER_00]: Gabi's up here. 01:06.795 --> 01:08.995 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's very, very cool. 01:09.015 --> 01:12.096 [SPEAKER_00]: So over the next few months, guys, could we be praying, please? 01:13.016 --> 01:14.477 [SPEAKER_00]: Could we be praying together? 01:15.157 --> 01:17.857 [SPEAKER_00]: Pray for wringwood, pray for the leaders who will carry this. 01:18.597 --> 01:30.660 [SPEAKER_00]: Pray for the people walking down those streets right now, who in maybe a few months from now will be finding themselves inside a completely different story. 01:31.939 --> 01:32.940 [SPEAKER_00]: We'll be praying for that. 01:33.180 --> 01:36.642 [SPEAKER_00]: And some of you, I want you to do a little bit more than pray. 01:36.662 --> 01:42.044 [SPEAKER_00]: I want you to ask the Lord and say, Lord, maybe are you calling me to be involved? 01:42.825 --> 01:48.708 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're calling me to go and be part of this new experiment, this new project. 01:50.473 --> 01:54.297 [SPEAKER_00]: Our vision remains what it's always been, every heart found in Jesus' story. 01:54.337 --> 01:59.022 [SPEAKER_00]: And so we can now celebrate and look forward to all that God is doing. 01:59.042 --> 02:00.684 [SPEAKER_00]: Can we celebrate one more time, church? 02:01.445 --> 02:02.326 [SPEAKER_00]: This is all that's happening. 02:02.346 --> 02:02.606 [SPEAKER_00]: It's cool. 02:04.777 --> 02:10.721 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, here we go, we're going to jump into the text this morning, James chapter two, verse 1 to 13. 02:11.022 --> 02:15.065 [SPEAKER_00]: If you've got your Bible, I'd encourage you to open it to James chapter two. 02:16.025 --> 02:28.335 [SPEAKER_00]: If you have a device, or you've got your Bible app, anything like that, open it up, and we're going to begin and read together a message called playing favorites. 02:28.435 --> 02:32.197 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, my brothers and sisters show no partiality 02:34.459 --> 02:36.901 [SPEAKER_00]: in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord glory. 02:37.862 --> 02:43.486 [SPEAKER_00]: For if amen, we're wearing a gold ring and find clothing comes into your assembly. 02:44.186 --> 02:47.069 [SPEAKER_00]: And a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in. 02:47.769 --> 02:57.717 [SPEAKER_00]: And if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, you sit here in a good place while you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down at my feet. 02:58.845 --> 03:04.246 [SPEAKER_00]: Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 03:05.587 --> 03:16.189 [SPEAKER_00]: Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and as of the kingdom, which is promised to those who love him. 03:16.629 --> 03:23.571 [SPEAKER_00]: But you've disonored the poor man, not are not the rich the ones who oppress you and who drag you into court. 03:24.351 --> 03:26.191 [SPEAKER_00]: Are they not the ones who blaspheme 03:29.803 --> 03:36.207 [SPEAKER_00]: If you really fulfill the royal law according to Scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. 03:37.408 --> 03:44.933 [SPEAKER_00]: But if you show partiality, you are committing sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 03:46.594 --> 03:51.417 [SPEAKER_00]: For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 03:52.453 --> 03:54.234 [SPEAKER_00]: For he who said, do not commit adultery. 03:54.334 --> 03:55.856 [SPEAKER_00]: Also said, do not murder. 03:56.296 --> 04:01.260 [SPEAKER_00]: If you commit adultery, but you do murder, you've become a transgressor of the law. 04:02.100 --> 04:07.945 [SPEAKER_00]: So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 04:09.026 --> 04:18.333 [SPEAKER_00]: For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy, but mercy triumphs over judgment. 04:19.535 --> 04:21.378 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the word of Lord, amen. 04:21.658 --> 04:24.101 [SPEAKER_00]: What a passage of scripture. 04:24.121 --> 04:27.867 [SPEAKER_00]: Right, it's a bit of a, it's a tense one, isn't it? 04:28.648 --> 04:31.271 [SPEAKER_00]: Anyone feeling already a little bit challenged? 04:34.996 --> 04:36.498 [SPEAKER_00]: Weddings are wonderful things. 04:37.766 --> 04:42.571 [SPEAKER_00]: two people coming together to start a new life, to start a new family. 04:43.092 --> 04:51.280 [SPEAKER_00]: Two people committing to serve and love, one another for the rest of their lives, till death does them part. 04:52.194 --> 05:02.601 [SPEAKER_00]: The celebration of it, the joy of it, the beautiful occasion of it, the people gathered in their best to find clothes already to celebrate this new life. 05:02.982 --> 05:13.449 [SPEAKER_00]: But I'll tell you there is, there's probably a number of things, but there's one thing that I'm thinking about that will derail wedding plans faster, nearly than anything else, you know what it is? 05:14.690 --> 05:15.631 [SPEAKER_00]: The seating plan. 05:17.850 --> 05:28.807 [SPEAKER_00]: the seating plan any couple who is planned or wedding will know that the seating plan can take you from on track to off the rails in an instant. 05:29.359 --> 05:29.659 [SPEAKER_00]: Why? 05:30.099 --> 05:37.524 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, of course, there's people that you're inviting, you know, and they both ran a business together in 1962 and it didn't go well. 05:37.784 --> 05:41.306 [SPEAKER_00]: And so now they can't talk and they don't sit on the same table anymore. 05:41.666 --> 05:44.748 [SPEAKER_00]: And there's these group of siblings over here cousins. 05:44.948 --> 05:47.209 [SPEAKER_00]: They had a fight a couple of years back at Christmas. 05:47.429 --> 05:50.331 [SPEAKER_00]: They don't talk and you can't put them at the same table now either. 05:50.351 --> 05:51.392 [SPEAKER_00]: So you're going to split them up. 05:51.672 --> 05:55.134 [SPEAKER_00]: And then there are other people who are mad because they're seated too close to the kitchen. 05:55.354 --> 05:55.574 [SPEAKER_00]: It's too 05:57.095 --> 06:04.340 [SPEAKER_00]: Now there's other people who are upset because they're too far away from the bridal table and they can't see anything and then there's Uncle Gerald. 06:07.321 --> 06:08.222 [SPEAKER_00]: You know Uncle Gerald. 06:10.403 --> 06:14.866 [SPEAKER_00]: He's traveled 500 kilometers in a Toyota corona to be here. 06:18.108 --> 06:22.531 [SPEAKER_00]: He's, you know, looks a bit funny, smells a little bit funny. 06:23.592 --> 06:29.896 [SPEAKER_00]: And you look, Uncle Gerald's a great guy and everyone loves him, but no one wants to sit with him. 06:31.057 --> 06:36.220 [SPEAKER_00]: And so then you've got to figure out does he sit on the small table with the photographer and the videographer? 06:36.800 --> 06:41.463 [SPEAKER_00]: Or can you put him on a normal table and maybe put him with a pastor or something? 06:41.503 --> 06:43.445 [SPEAKER_00]: So they can sort him out, right? 06:44.505 --> 06:45.486 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I've been there. 06:45.846 --> 06:46.366 [SPEAKER_00]: I've been there. 06:46.747 --> 06:48.408 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just public sort of venting. 06:53.843 --> 07:01.310 [SPEAKER_00]: But the seeding plan is interesting because what that does is it brings all of this past into the now. 07:01.991 --> 07:03.853 [SPEAKER_00]: Seats tell stories, don't they? 07:05.394 --> 07:13.222 [SPEAKER_00]: Seats have history because we're making a seeding plan based on things that have happened before. 07:14.315 --> 07:29.167 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, Jody and I have been married for just over 25 years now, and when I think back to my wedding day, then I just talk about the past, but they talk about the present, because if Jody and I are getting married today, our seating plan would look very different to the seating plan that it was 25 years ago. 07:29.187 --> 07:37.654 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's not just because we've kind of fell out with people, but more it's an accurate representation of who are your people in that moment. 07:38.355 --> 07:49.019 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, if we got married today, of course, there would be family, life-long friends, but all of the tables would look vastly different as a statement on our current day on the present. 07:50.339 --> 07:52.000 [SPEAKER_00]: But it also speaks about the future. 07:53.581 --> 07:57.602 [SPEAKER_00]: What tables will you be invited to sit at in the future? 07:58.762 --> 08:02.844 [SPEAKER_00]: What tables will you invite people to sit at with you? 08:04.589 --> 08:13.478 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's this exact imagery and metaphor that James draws on here to bring us into chapter two. 08:16.221 --> 08:23.069 [SPEAKER_00]: Because there are some people here in the early Christian gatherings, people had decided apparently who gets the good seats. 08:24.293 --> 08:35.977 [SPEAKER_00]: There was a word trickling around in the churches that James is writing to, where some people got the best spots and other people got the spots on the floor by someone else's feet. 08:38.457 --> 08:45.459 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes there's something as ordinary as where we sit, reveals what we actually believe. 08:46.840 --> 08:50.701 [SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes something is ordinary as where we seat someone else 08:56.044 --> 08:59.944 [SPEAKER_00]: and sometimes our seat selection can become seen. 09:02.032 --> 09:04.473 [SPEAKER_00]: And so James begins with his thesis. 09:04.513 --> 09:09.534 [SPEAKER_00]: This is a great passage to preach from, because he tells us the big idea right at the beginning. 09:09.834 --> 09:20.616 [SPEAKER_00]: Of James chapter two, verse one, and he tells you everything that he's gonna tell you, much like a very good essay writer would do, you know what they say, say what you're gonna say, say it, and then you say what you said. 09:20.936 --> 09:22.836 [SPEAKER_00]: This is what James does right at the beginning. 09:23.116 --> 09:27.997 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, my brothers and sisters, show no partiality as you hold the faith 09:32.238 --> 09:36.760 [SPEAKER_00]: Because partiality in our world is very complex and layered. 09:37.580 --> 09:41.882 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure if you're aware, but we have very sophisticated systems for sorting people. 09:43.222 --> 09:54.787 [SPEAKER_00]: You have a filter system in your heart, and I have a filter system in mind by which we rank and filter and sort people through and figure out who gets close to us and who doesn't. 09:56.403 --> 10:03.247 [SPEAKER_00]: Our culture has dozens of little hierarchies that level people according to different things. 10:03.307 --> 10:06.549 [SPEAKER_00]: In our culture, we favor attractive people over awkward people. 10:07.409 --> 10:12.572 [SPEAKER_00]: In our culture, we favor articulate people over people who struggle to express themselves. 10:13.253 --> 10:16.214 [SPEAKER_00]: We favor successful people over those whose lives look messy. 10:16.555 --> 10:18.856 [SPEAKER_00]: We favor useful people over 80 people. 10:19.056 --> 10:21.958 [SPEAKER_00]: We favor interesting people over boring people. 10:26.927 --> 10:38.496 [SPEAKER_00]: We favor people with influence, followers, and networks, and maybe most importantly, we favor people who can give us something back. 10:41.859 --> 10:51.306 [SPEAKER_00]: And so James says holding faith in Jesus in one hand and holding favorites in the other is incompatible to the gospel. 10:53.845 --> 10:58.004 [SPEAKER_00]: It's incongruent to our faith because what we're really chasing is glory. 10:59.101 --> 11:09.784 [SPEAKER_00]: that glory, that this idea of being seen and known and loved and encapsulated and embraced were chasing glory. 11:10.104 --> 11:14.146 [SPEAKER_00]: And the glory that we're chasing is in the face of Jesus Christ. 11:14.846 --> 11:27.030 [SPEAKER_00]: And yet when we don't go to the face of Jesus Christ, we begin to sort and rank and move people around so that we can feel confident about our place in the world. 11:28.410 --> 11:36.818 [SPEAKER_00]: And what's scary, guys, is that sometimes religion or Christian faith gives us a really plausible excuse to do so. 11:37.959 --> 11:38.940 [SPEAKER_00]: And that should worry us. 11:40.622 --> 11:41.642 [SPEAKER_00]: It should scare us. 11:43.084 --> 11:44.185 [SPEAKER_00]: So what does James do? 11:44.545 --> 11:47.988 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, like a good preacher, he gives us his thesis and then he gives an example. 11:48.959 --> 11:53.201 [SPEAKER_00]: And he says, hey, let's just make up an idea. 11:53.281 --> 11:54.661 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's just make up a story. 11:54.721 --> 12:04.345 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, if a man with a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, a poor man with shabby clothing also comes in, you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing. 12:04.365 --> 12:07.587 [SPEAKER_00]: You say, yeah, sit in a beautiful place, sit in the corporate box. 12:07.787 --> 12:15.150 [SPEAKER_00]: And while you say to the poor man, you stand over there, stand behind that post behind that railing or just sit on the floor, sit on the concrete. 12:16.527 --> 12:23.363 [SPEAKER_00]: Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 12:25.228 --> 12:26.050 [SPEAKER_00]: Isn't this challenging? 12:29.456 --> 12:40.280 [SPEAKER_00]: Now in the ancient Greek world in this world where the Roman king, the Roman empire was expanding and moving all the way out, there was a culture of patronage. 12:41.341 --> 12:55.767 [SPEAKER_00]: patronage said this that if you were someone with means, maybe you did well in business or in politics or in government or maybe you were just born to the right family, you were well off you had means. 12:56.307 --> 13:05.333 [SPEAKER_00]: And what you were then able to do with those means was kind of give a little bit to a lot of people and guess what that meant, they all owe you one. 13:06.334 --> 13:14.739 [SPEAKER_00]: And the more people that you do a little solid too or give a little leg up to or twist the rules here bend that there, give that a little nudge. 13:15.000 --> 13:19.903 [SPEAKER_00]: It means that there could be a whole group of people as you walk through the street and they all owe you. 13:21.347 --> 13:27.369 [SPEAKER_00]: Which is very nice when you need something to be done back to you or you need something done on the other side, isn't it? 13:27.889 --> 13:29.050 [SPEAKER_00]: Because you're the patron. 13:29.950 --> 13:33.731 [SPEAKER_00]: You've helped a lot of people out and now they all owe you something. 13:34.092 --> 13:38.653 [SPEAKER_00]: And James says, I can see that trickling into the Christian assembly. 13:39.814 --> 13:43.995 [SPEAKER_00]: When now the patron walks in and everyone goes, whoo. 13:44.815 --> 13:48.897 [SPEAKER_00]: Quick, if I give him the best seat, maybe I'll get something back. 13:50.293 --> 13:53.775 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe there's something in this here, for me. 13:58.698 --> 14:01.679 [SPEAKER_00]: So the rich man in James chapter two has social utility. 14:01.719 --> 14:04.221 [SPEAKER_00]: His presence could potentially benefit the gathering. 14:04.401 --> 14:06.382 [SPEAKER_00]: The poor man apparently brings nothing. 14:07.703 --> 14:10.204 [SPEAKER_00]: And James says, look at what's just happened in your heart. 14:12.085 --> 14:14.226 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't just notice the difference between the people. 14:14.907 --> 14:16.748 [SPEAKER_00]: You just calculated their value. 14:18.277 --> 14:21.140 [SPEAKER_00]: You said one is more valuable than the other. 14:22.421 --> 14:28.046 [SPEAKER_00]: And so James makes it more confronting than just something simple like, oh, you should be nice to poor people. 14:28.286 --> 14:29.367 [SPEAKER_00]: He's not saying that. 14:31.549 --> 14:35.172 [SPEAKER_00]: Because sometimes we exclude people, don't we just based on arrogance. 14:35.968 --> 14:38.709 [SPEAKER_00]: You put your hand up and say, well, I just think I'm better than them. 14:39.170 --> 14:40.430 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just better, right? 14:40.550 --> 14:42.351 [SPEAKER_00]: And therefore, they're excluded. 14:42.851 --> 14:45.693 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm better in whatever way you rank it, you make it up. 14:45.973 --> 14:50.695 [SPEAKER_00]: They're just, you're just, but then there's something more sinister or deeper that goes on. 14:52.216 --> 14:54.717 [SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes that is part of your story. 14:55.557 --> 14:58.159 [SPEAKER_00]: We can exclude out of old wounds. 14:59.419 --> 15:00.500 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you got excluded. 15:01.466 --> 15:03.147 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you never thought like you fit in. 15:04.027 --> 15:14.630 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you felt like you were always on the outer and therefore, in order to justify your own ranking, you now choose who is in and who is out. 15:14.650 --> 15:15.530 [SPEAKER_00]: Does that make sense? 15:19.091 --> 15:25.293 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure I belong so else around myself with people who make me feel like I belong. 15:27.805 --> 15:38.526 [SPEAKER_00]: We build little tables where we're safe, the cool table, the successful table, the young family table, the theological, the dense and rich table, the creative table, the leadership table. 15:41.125 --> 15:45.206 [SPEAKER_00]: And our ranking of others is an attempt to reassure ourselves about our own ranking. 15:45.486 --> 15:47.527 [SPEAKER_00]: But look at what James does next. 15:48.467 --> 15:51.408 [SPEAKER_00]: He flips it over and he reverses the kingdom. 15:51.748 --> 15:58.950 [SPEAKER_00]: Listen, my beloved brothers, has God not chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and areas of the kingdom? 15:59.570 --> 16:02.892 [SPEAKER_00]: which he's promised to those who love him, but you've dishonored the poor man. 16:03.192 --> 16:11.576 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not the rich ones who oppress you, the ones who drag you into court, and they're not the ones who blasphemed the honorable name by which you were called. 16:11.857 --> 16:19.741 [SPEAKER_00]: You can imagine there's a patron walks in, and he's the best guy on earth, until you owe him some money and then the rents passed you. 16:21.242 --> 16:23.283 [SPEAKER_00]: And then are you as favored anymore? 16:24.305 --> 16:25.925 [SPEAKER_00]: He's the one dragon you into court. 16:26.245 --> 16:40.348 [SPEAKER_00]: So Paul says, you've got to flip it over and the poor on the other hand are the ones who have been, who have inherited the kingdom and are airs of this faith and righteousness in Christ and yet you've ascribed the wrong value to the wrong person. 16:41.549 --> 16:43.509 [SPEAKER_00]: Imagine if Christ played favorites. 16:44.789 --> 16:47.270 [SPEAKER_00]: Imagine if Jesus had favorites in His church. 16:48.676 --> 16:52.438 [SPEAKER_00]: I can guarantee you, and this is no word of a lie, I would not make it. 16:53.178 --> 16:55.459 [SPEAKER_00]: I would be out, and guess what, so would you. 16:55.799 --> 17:05.584 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure that any of us would make it into the spiritual elite category that Jesus would choose if he hypothetically had favorites. 17:07.565 --> 17:10.146 [SPEAKER_00]: If Jesus had favorites, what do you think James would say? 17:10.226 --> 17:12.767 [SPEAKER_00]: I think he'd say bluntly, no gospel. 17:15.561 --> 17:23.069 [SPEAKER_00]: If Jesus had favored the impressive, the connected, the morally polished, then the poor and the messy would be left out, except what do we see in the gospels? 17:25.372 --> 17:25.932 [SPEAKER_00]: What do we see? 17:26.433 --> 17:27.774 [SPEAKER_00]: Who are the ones that Jesus goes to? 17:29.178 --> 17:38.760 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, Mary Magdalene, blind bottom mayors, Zacchaeus, all of these ones who society had left Jesus goes to them. 17:39.841 --> 17:49.763 [SPEAKER_00]: And we're about to celebrate Christmas in a couple of months, and I love this on never get tired of talking about the incarnation, because it is the exact anti-favoritism of God. 17:50.683 --> 17:58.228 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, who fung the stars into place, set the earth on spinning because of his words comes down as a vulnerable baby. 17:58.528 --> 18:02.651 [SPEAKER_00]: It is the anti-favoritism of God where he makes himself nothing. 18:04.632 --> 18:04.993 [SPEAKER_00]: Nothing. 18:08.215 --> 18:11.457 [SPEAKER_00]: He moves downward, not upward. 18:14.359 --> 18:18.802 [SPEAKER_00]: And so if Christ had played favorites, I suspect you and I would be on the wrong side of the door. 18:20.658 --> 18:25.659 [SPEAKER_00]: and this realization is meant to melt our need for ranking people. 18:27.699 --> 18:32.180 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, the good news is coming, but not yet. 18:34.481 --> 18:39.642 [SPEAKER_00]: Verse A, if you really fulfill the royal law, I love that the royal law, the king's law. 18:40.542 --> 18:44.143 [SPEAKER_00]: According to scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you're doing well. 18:45.166 --> 18:51.372 [SPEAKER_00]: But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 18:51.872 --> 18:56.176 [SPEAKER_00]: For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has been guilty of all of it. 18:56.416 --> 18:58.078 [SPEAKER_00]: For he who said do not commit adultery? 18:58.838 --> 19:00.059 [SPEAKER_00]: Also said do not murder. 19:00.820 --> 19:05.003 [SPEAKER_00]: and if you do not commit adultery but do murder you've become a transgressor of the law. 19:05.403 --> 19:10.166 [SPEAKER_00]: Now we need to be careful with this because we're not saying that James ranks all sins the same. 19:10.626 --> 19:15.650 [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously there is a difference between murder and stealing somebody's seat. 19:15.850 --> 19:17.731 [SPEAKER_00]: The consequences can be different. 19:19.632 --> 19:22.454 [SPEAKER_00]: But listen to what James is saying. 19:23.828 --> 19:26.489 [SPEAKER_00]: James pulls together here, this royal law. 19:26.989 --> 19:41.076 [SPEAKER_00]: The law that gets brought out of Judahronomy and out of Leviticus that said, you should love the Lord, your God, with all your hearts on mine and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, which is exactly what Jesus quoted when he was asked about how to fulfill the law. 19:41.996 --> 19:50.640 [SPEAKER_00]: We spoke about this last week, but James is one of the, he quotes Jesus directly more than any other New Testament writer. 19:52.239 --> 19:55.822 [SPEAKER_00]: James is connected here with the words of Jesus. 19:59.305 --> 20:07.411 [SPEAKER_00]: And then James raises the stakes because he says, if you show partiality, you're committing sin. 20:07.591 --> 20:10.454 [SPEAKER_00]: And now that's stronger if we're honest than what we first thought. 20:11.815 --> 20:16.899 [SPEAKER_00]: Because if you show favoritism or you show partiality, we would say, oh, that's unfortunate. 20:18.220 --> 20:20.381 [SPEAKER_00]: Or either he, they're a little bit biased. 20:21.249 --> 20:23.231 [SPEAKER_00]: or are that something I need to work on? 20:24.192 --> 20:25.393 [SPEAKER_00]: But James doesn't say that. 20:26.113 --> 20:27.735 [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't use those soft words. 20:28.836 --> 20:30.177 [SPEAKER_00]: He uses the big S word. 20:31.478 --> 20:38.984 [SPEAKER_00]: Because partiality is not merely treating someone impolitely, it's a failure to love your neighbor. 20:42.747 --> 20:44.489 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a failure to love your neighbor. 20:45.625 --> 20:49.726 [SPEAKER_00]: because then he says, whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point. 20:49.766 --> 20:58.848 [SPEAKER_00]: This is not every sin is equally serious in consequences, but there are way dea matters of the law and there are a lot of matters of the law. 21:02.689 --> 21:04.449 [SPEAKER_00]: But it does matter when you're in the chip line. 21:06.989 --> 21:09.210 [SPEAKER_00]: And you've made a judgment before you even get there. 21:10.488 --> 21:16.711 [SPEAKER_00]: It does matter when you're in this room and you're sitting in your seat and someone different comes and sit next to you. 21:17.051 --> 21:17.891 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, who am I kidding? 21:18.152 --> 21:20.333 [SPEAKER_00]: We all sit in the same seat, so that never happens. 21:24.114 --> 21:33.079 [SPEAKER_00]: But it does matter when we think I, well, I haven't murdered anyone this week so I think I'm doing pretty good. 21:34.059 --> 21:36.020 [SPEAKER_00]: Last week, different story, this week, I'm good. 21:38.802 --> 21:39.943 [SPEAKER_00]: We're faithful Christians. 21:40.023 --> 21:42.304 [SPEAKER_00]: This is what the people are saying to James, come on, man. 21:42.605 --> 21:43.325 [SPEAKER_00]: We're faithful. 21:43.725 --> 21:44.686 [SPEAKER_00]: We haven't murdered anyone. 21:44.726 --> 21:45.447 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not adulterers. 21:45.467 --> 21:46.447 [SPEAKER_00]: We believe in Jesus. 21:46.747 --> 21:49.029 [SPEAKER_00]: But we just give the wealthy people a bit of a better seat. 21:49.069 --> 21:50.170 [SPEAKER_00]: What's so wrong with that? 21:51.030 --> 21:55.674 [SPEAKER_00]: And James is like, ah, ah, you can go, well, you, you didn't murder anyone great. 21:56.094 --> 21:57.635 [SPEAKER_00]: But you've judged someone in your heart. 21:57.675 --> 22:00.297 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's a failure to love your neighbor, which is part of the law. 22:02.558 --> 22:04.600 [SPEAKER_00]: So James is saying, don't minimize this. 22:09.697 --> 22:17.140 [SPEAKER_00]: This isn't what Jesus does this in the Great Commission where he says you've heard it said, but I say to you and then he deals with the issues of someone's heart. 22:19.521 --> 22:24.962 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, we have a remarkable way of ranking our own sins. 22:25.723 --> 22:26.143 [SPEAKER_00]: You and I. 22:27.610 --> 22:29.650 [SPEAKER_00]: And all the ones, weirdly, this is crazy. 22:30.251 --> 22:33.991 [SPEAKER_00]: Out of all the sins that you would rank in your life and say, oh, they're really bad. 22:34.251 --> 22:35.792 [SPEAKER_00]: These ones aren't so bad. 22:36.472 --> 22:39.512 [SPEAKER_00]: I guarantee you that all the ones you do are at the bottom of your list. 22:41.853 --> 22:46.694 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, sometimes people will come to me in the fire and say, Matt, you should preach on sin more. 22:47.594 --> 22:49.094 [SPEAKER_00]: And I say, well, that's cool. 22:49.134 --> 22:51.395 [SPEAKER_00]: Tell me your sins and we'll preach on those first. 22:52.886 --> 22:57.809 [SPEAKER_00]: and no one wants to do it, because they just want to hear preaching on other people's sins, not on their own. 22:58.450 --> 23:00.311 [SPEAKER_00]: So they can sit there feeling comfy. 23:01.091 --> 23:06.435 [SPEAKER_00]: But here's the thing, we have this remarkable way of ranking sins and always my sins aren't that bad. 23:06.615 --> 23:08.696 [SPEAKER_00]: While everyone else's are super bad. 23:14.140 --> 23:15.361 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm faithful to my spouse. 23:15.381 --> 23:18.823 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't steal, I don't murder, I serve, I give, I believe, the right things. 23:19.143 --> 23:21.785 [SPEAKER_00]: And James says, great, how do you treat people, though? 23:23.612 --> 23:26.353 [SPEAKER_00]: How do you treat the person who can't advance your career? 23:28.074 --> 23:30.495 [SPEAKER_00]: How do you respond to the social york wood person? 23:32.115 --> 23:36.157 [SPEAKER_00]: What happens when someone walks into the assembly and doesn't know the social codes? 23:39.398 --> 23:42.820 [SPEAKER_00]: James won't allow us to say, well, at least I'm not committing one of the big ones. 23:45.748 --> 23:50.170 [SPEAKER_00]: It's the royal law of King Jesus, which now leads to the good news. 23:51.470 --> 23:58.913 [SPEAKER_00]: So, speak and so act as those who would have be judged under the law of liberty. 23:58.933 --> 24:00.254 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the freedom of mercy. 24:00.814 --> 24:10.998 [SPEAKER_00]: For judgment without mercy to one, for judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy, but mercy triumphs over judgment. 24:12.384 --> 24:15.247 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, we exclude people because we feel excluded. 24:15.707 --> 24:18.390 [SPEAKER_00]: We push people away because we feel pushed away. 24:18.870 --> 24:22.654 [SPEAKER_00]: We move people aside because we feel we've been moved aside. 24:22.975 --> 24:25.837 [SPEAKER_00]: And what James here says is guess what? 24:26.138 --> 24:30.162 [SPEAKER_00]: The good news is that the law is a law of freedom and liberty. 24:30.522 --> 24:32.024 [SPEAKER_00]: And you have been accepted. 24:32.304 --> 24:34.846 [SPEAKER_00]: So therefore, you can now accept others. 24:35.667 --> 24:42.530 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the good news, is that there is a table, there is a seat at the table for you, and you got that for free. 24:42.890 --> 24:44.571 [SPEAKER_00]: It didn't come because of your shine. 24:44.791 --> 24:46.992 [SPEAKER_00]: It didn't put come because you were mega-impressive. 24:47.192 --> 24:49.093 [SPEAKER_00]: It didn't come because you knew the right people. 24:49.333 --> 24:51.234 [SPEAKER_00]: Why will I still see this Christ died for us? 24:51.514 --> 24:55.235 [SPEAKER_00]: He created a seat at the table for you for free. 24:56.056 --> 25:00.838 [SPEAKER_00]: And so now you can create seats at tables for others. 25:02.712 --> 25:03.053 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen? 25:04.114 --> 25:06.798 [SPEAKER_00]: So let's not just thinking about how do I be included? 25:06.858 --> 25:08.139 [SPEAKER_00]: How do I be included, Alvin? 25:08.420 --> 25:09.661 [SPEAKER_00]: You're already included. 25:09.862 --> 25:10.783 [SPEAKER_00]: You're in Christ. 25:11.724 --> 25:16.110 [SPEAKER_00]: Now go on, get out there and get busy making spaces at tables for others. 25:18.553 --> 25:19.315 [SPEAKER_00]: Bring people in. 25:21.032 --> 25:23.834 [SPEAKER_00]: This good news interrupts our old patterns. 25:24.335 --> 25:25.836 [SPEAKER_00]: Christ has welcomed us. 25:26.136 --> 25:32.341 [SPEAKER_00]: So let's, this is less about policing and more about participating in the good news. 25:33.862 --> 25:39.827 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is more than hey Christians, if it would be really great if you just try a little bit harder to include people. 25:40.087 --> 25:45.511 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, like you're talking to, you know, son or your daughter at the park, or be nice if you just played nicer with people. 25:45.851 --> 25:46.832 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, don't hit them. 25:47.252 --> 25:49.534 [SPEAKER_00]: Just, you know, give them a toy every now and then. 25:52.345 --> 25:56.486 [SPEAKER_00]: You say, you're in, you've been brought in, you've been welcomed in. 25:57.147 --> 26:10.851 [SPEAKER_00]: And so that should so, that should so bring you joy, and that should so capture your heart that you have received something that you did not work for, that you should then be able to fling the doors wide open to others who want the same. 26:16.673 --> 26:20.955 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't need proximity to impressive people to establish your worth. 26:23.533 --> 26:26.677 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't need to be invited to the right table. 26:28.019 --> 26:33.065 [SPEAKER_00]: You're already at the table, and Christ has already welcomed you. 26:36.049 --> 26:41.977 [SPEAKER_00]: So it frees us from all of this exhausting, social calculation. 26:43.421 --> 26:52.309 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay, give free from having a figure out who's worth my time and who's not, figure out who's gonna be valuable and who's not. 26:52.809 --> 26:58.254 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I can be free from all of that, just to love someone, just to care about someone. 26:58.995 --> 27:02.618 [SPEAKER_00]: Mercy triumphs over judgment. 27:05.861 --> 27:10.645 [SPEAKER_00]: You see, we judge to people and God could have judged us. 27:12.244 --> 27:16.705 [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, in Christ, mercy has triumphed. 27:20.166 --> 27:28.267 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I want you to think about who gave you your sea, who gave you your place. 27:29.988 --> 27:35.149 [SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to do that by coming and sharing around the Lord's table. 27:36.099 --> 27:37.400 [SPEAKER_00]: team, why don't you come and join me? 27:38.080 --> 27:46.123 [SPEAKER_00]: If you've got the elements, if you receive them on the way in, the bread in the cup, I'd like you to get those out now and you can start opening them. 27:48.244 --> 27:51.065 [SPEAKER_00]: Just get them ready and we're going to eat and drink together in just a moment. 27:56.167 --> 28:05.823 [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't have one or you didn't get on your way in, hand nice and high really tall in the middle so that our team can see you and they will come to get you the bread and the cup. 28:18.823 --> 28:31.912 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm going to read to this passage of Scripture Revelation 19 years, a couple over here as well, and I'll look back here, and over here, thank you, and over here, good job, guys. 28:32.592 --> 28:41.559 [SPEAKER_00]: Revelation 19, 6 to 9, then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters, 28:47.548 --> 28:51.710 [SPEAKER_00]: for the Lord, our God, the almighty reigns. 28:54.392 --> 29:03.836 [SPEAKER_00]: Let us rejoice and exalt and give him glory for the marriage of the Lamb his come and his bride has made herself ready. 29:05.737 --> 29:09.780 [SPEAKER_00]: It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. 29:10.840 --> 29:14.322 [SPEAKER_00]: For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. 29:16.820 --> 29:24.606 [SPEAKER_00]: And the angel said to me, right this, blessed or happy, are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. 29:30.370 --> 29:37.636 [SPEAKER_00]: So rather than the politics of the table, who sits where and who's included, let's glory in our own participation. 29:40.618 --> 29:45.963 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't exercise power over the table, but I'm just so happy to be there. 29:47.140 --> 29:48.902 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just so happy to be in the room. 29:51.024 --> 29:53.626 [SPEAKER_00]: We didn't know in our place that God's table. 29:56.008 --> 29:58.991 [SPEAKER_00]: Christ came for people who had no claim on the seat. 30:00.192 --> 30:08.119 [SPEAKER_00]: He bought out judgment, welcomed outside us, and through his death and resurrection brought us into the household into the family of God. 30:10.522 --> 30:17.366 [SPEAKER_00]: and mercy triumphs over judgment because ultimately, we're sitting in seats that mercy gave us. 30:20.648 --> 30:25.151 [SPEAKER_00]: So with that in mind, we're gonna take the elements, the bread which represents Jesus' body. 30:28.653 --> 30:36.998 [SPEAKER_00]: The cup which represents Jesus built blood for us and take it into ourselves as a way of participating with Christ's death 30:58.754 --> 31:17.119 [SPEAKER_00]: Our gracious loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for providing a place for us. 31:21.242 --> 31:25.863 [SPEAKER_00]: with a kindness and mercy of God is also the wisdom of God. 31:28.424 --> 31:34.126 [SPEAKER_00]: We thank you that you don't just tell us the right way to live, but you show us the right way to live. 31:35.466 --> 31:43.869 [SPEAKER_00]: And I pray by your grace and by the power of your spirit, would you enable us to live lives of wisdom? 31:48.049 --> 31:55.028 [SPEAKER_00]: that seek to create spaces for others in Jesus name, amen.