Jewels From James VI, IRS and Your Faith

Weekend, hope it wasn't too taxing on you, uh-huh, and many happy returns of the day. Friday morning as I had come in early to the office to kind of try and collect all my thoughts for the message today and bringing my tax returns with me, it was a rather sad and memorial day of the money I once had. I picked up the USA Today as I was walking through the door and when I got up to my office, I opened to the money section and right at the very top, I read this, most Americans spend over 24,000 hours in their lifetime earning money to pay taxes. Isn't that a great way to start off your day? 24,000 hours before you even break even. Well, as I was looking into this week and trying to get ready, I needed to find some humor here, so a funny thing struck me as I was filling out one of these. It's all familiar to you. It's the 1040 long form. Do you realize that on this section here where it says exemptions and you list your children, it says check if under age one, give their social security number. They don't give you enough room in this one box. It says dependent relationship to you. Well, for my one child, I wrote, well, he had a good week this week, but who knows about next. So the next kid I said, right now, our relationship is very tenuous. I'll tell you. And for the last kid that I put, I don't know where he came from. I guess he was switched at birth. Then only the government could come up with a line like this. And if you work for the IRS, there is great. Let me tell you line 33, a, see if this sounds funny to you. It did to me when I read it. Check. If you were 65 or older, is there a way to have been, but you're not now I don't get it. Well, right next to that, it pops it all off. It says, check your blind. Now I can see it. There's a guy in the IRS. His only job is to check line 33 a and he keeps Harry. I caught another one. Well, I had to get a little humor out of this week. Let me tell you, I want you to turn in your Bibles with you to James chapter two, as we take a look today at what it is that I think is a very timely message, both for the church universal across this great world. And for this church today, as we sit in this beautiful auditorium. So if you would turn with me to James chapter two, and just follow along with me, as I read from this portion of scripture from the NIV Bible, my brother has believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. Don't show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting, wearing a gold ring and fine clothes and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 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. Have you not discriminated among yourself and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich and safe and to inherit the kingdom? He promised those who love him, but you have insulted the poor. Is it not? Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong? If you really keep the royal law found 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 for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, do not commit adultery also said, do not murder. If you do not commit adultery, but you do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment. You know, as I read that verse of scripture, I must admit that it reminded me of an experience which happens many times in our house. As a matter of fact, it happened this morning as I was getting ready and getting myself ready. My oldest son came up to me and said, dad, have you seen my socks? Well, yeah, I've seen them. You mean recently? Yes, yes, yes. Recently. Well, the last time I saw them was, and that's often how we respond. We say they're in your room. Now, how many of you are just happy if your kid can find his room? So it wasn't long before that same kid came walking back and said, dad, they're not in my room. How many of you parents know they are in that room somewhere they're in that room. And what's the line we often say, if they had teeth, they bite you. Well, really probably what he did was he walked in the room and he opened the door and looked in and went, man, not here. Turned around and walked out, came back to me. You know what he's asking me don't you? Come find my socks for me and put them on me. But when your kid's 20, I don't know if that's a good idea. So you go through this process where you keep sending them back and each time you say, okay, look on your desk. Well, how many of you know that most kids' desks don't stay neat? And so what they do is they go in, they didn't find it, dad. So what do you wind up doing? You walk them back and you walk them in the room and you pick it up and you go, there they are right there. Oh, thanks dad. And that was the experience that I had as I looked at this passage of scripture. Because if you were all to look at it with me and we were to be in a smaller group in a Bible study and I were to say to you, what do you think this portion of scripture is about? Probably your first expression would be mine. Favoritism. That's point number one on your outline, by the way. Everybody get out your outline that's in your North Way notes there and follow along with me. The first major issue that I discovered in this passage of scripture was favoritism. Now, if I thought about this, I thought, you know, we all have our favorite things, don't we? How many of you have something that you like more than something else? Well, how about, I'm going to read this list to you. These are just a few of the things that I have realized are favorite in my life. I have favorite movies, favorite actors, favorite songs, favorite singers. I have favorite radio stations. I even have favorite pastors. Do you? No, I don't care. Favorite sermons, favorite places to sit in church. I have favorite meals, favorite desserts, favorite drinks, favorite vacation spots, favorite books, favorite authors, favorite sports, favorite athletes. I even have a favorite saying. I'm having a bad head day. You're slow, but you're with me. I appreciate that. I even have favorite ways of going to sleep. Now, if anybody ever saw how we all went to sleep, right? Some of us have to turn things on, fans on, lights on. You know, you can't go to sleep without the radio on or your blankie or whatever. And even times we do that in a physical way, when if you hurt one leg, sometimes you'll favor that leg, right? So, favoritism is something that's a very real part of our lives. As a matter of fact, it's an everyday part of our lives. And yet, for some reason, James has chosen to point a finger at this group of people and say, you guys are showing favoritism. Now, I thought about this and I thought, what would be different about these things, which I just read to you and the thing of which James is talking about? And you know what I discovered? There isn't much difference. So, I noted three things about favoritism, which if you're following on your outline, there are points A, B, and C. The first one is that most of these things are subtle things. As a matter of fact, if they're not subtle, they're called habits, people. If you're doing these things and they're just subtle little things that you're doing, they're just the favorite things that you do. Number two, oftentimes they're justifiable. You've gone to churches, haven't you, before where people, pastors have preached against movies and actors and all of those things. Well, most of the things which we do and show favoritism to and in are things that we can justify. Well, I really don't go to really bad movies. You understand the process, right? Well, the last thing that I realized was that a lot of those things become just old nature to us. They become a part of who we are so much so that we do them and we don't even think about them until you get to a sermon like this. I mean, probably yesterday you really didn't think about what your favorite drink was. You just probably got it when you went to the restaurant or you didn't think about who your favorite actor was when you went to the video store. You just kind of maybe saw that he had a movie out and you took it. And see those things, they just become so much a part of us that we just do them. And you know, that is what these people, I think, I think James was treating them a little unjustly. At least that was my first impression. The first time I went to my room to look for my son, it looked like what James was doing was bashing them and giving them something. And I'm kind of going, wait a minute, what are you doing? You know, at first I thought, well, I guess they deserve it. You know, they deserve to get that. But then as I took a closer look, I began to see something more. You see, I went back to my desk this time and started pushing papers around and took a little bit deeper look. And I have brought something that I which in one way represents a very favorite thing of mine, but it also will help to illustrate to you something of a bigger picture around favoritism. Oh, wait, wait, guys, it clashes with this. Can you put it over here? I just wanted you to feel like Vicki was telling you, like, move that picture, that couch. And it all winds up back where it was when it started. You should have seen the look on my kid's face when somebody came and picked this up yesterday. They were in the den watching TV and the guy, our head of maintenance here, came in and he just picked it up and walked. And they went, what's that guy doing there? It's for my sermon kids. And they went, what? This chair is almost six years old now, probably is about six, because the reason why I know that is because my daughter is almost six years old. I see this was a gift to my wife, being the concerned and loving husband that I was. I think this is where the music starts playing. Realizing that she was going to have many long and tiring nights with this new baby, rocking this child, I decided to get her something that was comfortable and that rocks too. And believe me, she got a lot of use out of that thing. But as the years have gone on now, this thing has taken on a new significance in our family. It's actually my favorite kid. The kids are grown up now. And so this is what I usually do after a long, hard day. But I usually have a remote control in my hand. And I have my iced tea right here. And I shout orders to the servants that are living with me. That's why we have kids, isn't it? But you see, this thing, although it's my favorite chair, it represents a little bit of something about our nature. You see, this chair started out with a purpose of which it did serve, but it wasn't long until the purpose of this chair took on new meaning. Well, you could say it became obsolete and everything else, but then remember point number two, you're justifying it. What happened was, is that this chair became something I could become comfortable in. Something that I could rest in and feel in control in. And I've realized that in my life, I have many chairs in my life that aren't these kind, but they're the ones that James is pointing to here and saying, wait a minute, you've fallen into something here. You started out with the right purpose and you knew what this was all about. But for some reason, you've lost sight of it. You see, he really wasn't pointing his finger and yelling at them and saying, you screwed up straight now. What he was pointing out to them was the very fact that they had so allowed this to become a part of their nature, that it was just something that they were very comfortable in doing. Much like my chair here. You see, what I realized is that favoritism isn't wrong because of the person I'm showing favor to. It's wrong because of the person I ignore in the process of showing the favor to the other person. That even happens to me in this chair. Sometimes I favor this chair so much, I ignore my family. And what I did was I sat down and I wrote out the things that I know in my life I have to deal with that I ignore in other people. You see, maybe you're not like me, but sometimes when people aren't the same color of skin as me, I have a hard time with them. It isn't that I don't like them. It's more than sometimes I feel awkward and I don't know what to say. So what do I do? I ignore. I ignore them. Sometimes I treat people who have money and prestige a little bit better than I really should because what I'm doing actually is ignoring those people who are really in need sometimes. And many times I overlook little children or people that are older because it takes so much time sometimes and I ignore them. You see, for each one of us we could talk about these kinds of things. Maybe it's monetary with you, maybe it's a personality, maybe some kind of a personality of someone that you don't like. You see, it's very easy to ignore people and yet that's what James was saying. You guys got to cut this out of your sermon. It's not right. And I thought, well that's a great sermon right there. Isn't that great? Amen, let's take the offering and we'll all go home. No. You see, James was just using that as a launching point to really get across a message that he wanted these people to grasp because their old nature had taken over and they were sitting comfortably in their chairs and rather than just saying get out of them and don't go back in them again, he addressed it from a very unique way and I'd like to show you that. And that's point number two on your outline there. And it also answers the question which I have written on the top of my paper, so what? So we shouldn't be so mean to some people and we should be a lot nicer to other people. As a matter of fact, I had said in the first service that let's say that next week Pastor Scott calls you up and says can you usher at the 11 o'clock service and as you're back there ushering that day in walks the one person that you admire most in this world. That could be anyone, it could be that actor, it could be the president, it could be somebody famous that you know. And what would you do to that person as they walked in the room that day? Would you say oh I'm sorry sir you have a lot of money you got to sit in the back? No. You wouldn't even think about it, you just would honor them and you'd bring them down. So you see it's not so much the fact that you're honoring somebody, it's who you're ignoring. And this is where James turns the corner and says now this is what I want you to learn and I think it'll solve this problem that I'm seeing. And he calls it the royal law. Write that in, that's number two on your outline there. As a matter of fact, put up that scripture verse James 2, the second one there, and let's read that together because this talks about, this is where he actually addresses it. Let's read it together. If you really keep the royal law found in scripture, love your neighbors as yourself, you are doing right. Now if we were to go out on the street with a microphone and say to someone what's the royal law? What do you think they're responsible? What would yours be? Well mine probably would have been something like the ten commandments, I don't know. Something that Queen Elizabeth sets up, who knows. The royal law, what's that? Well I did a little looking into that and I found it. It's in Deuteronomy, I mean not Deuteronomy, Leviticus. I said it right this time. First service I went to Leviticus. And that is the Old Testament view of the royal law. See in Leviticus chapter 19 there was one message that was given and it was obey. As a matter of fact, let me read the first verse in chapter 19. The Lord said to Moses, speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them, be holy because I the Lord your God am holy. You see God even back then wanted people to be like him. He wanted us to be an imitator of who he was. He wanted us to obey. But there was something about God and we find it in verse or in chapter 20 of Leviticus or else. How many of you have tried that with your kids at home? And how many of you find it doesn't work? But listen to what chapter 20 says right after that. The Lord said to Moses, say to the Israelites, any Israelite or alien living in Israel who gives any of his children to Moloch must be put to death. You see people obeyed God back then because if they didn't, it meant whack. So what is it, James? Tell me what is it that you're trying to get across to us? Well, see what James was saying was the way in which Jesus in Matthew 22 in the New Testament approached the same thing. Let me read that for you first. Jesus replied, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commands. You see Jesus came and you know what he said? He said, I haven't come to do away with the law. I've come to add to it. You see he still wants us to obey. And in some ways that law, which James is reminding us of, don't show that favor to him, is an obedience to what God wants of all of us. But there's something different here and James is trying to get us to see it. And what is it? It's the motivation for obeying and it's found in verse 37. It's saying, because you love me. Do you see the difference? See what James is saying to these people is you've become comfortable. But rather than me just say to you, well, here's the rule. Walk in them. He's saying, wait a minute. What's your motivation? Where's your heart in this? You see, I want you to obey God that I want you to obey him because because you love him. You know, sometimes I think it's much easier to live by the law. How about you? Sometimes I wish that God would just tell me what I had to do for that person I really don't like too well. And I'd do it. I'd go clean their bathroom or do whatever I had to do just to get it over with, right? You mean I've got to love him too, God? Oh, come on. You see, when Jesus came and afforded us grace to forgive our sins and restore our relationship with God, he said it wasn't just important to obey, but it was important to obey because you loved him. And sometimes we get the mistaken idea that grace will actually spoil people, but it won't. God has his laws, but he has grace along with those laws. But you know what? Friday night as I was wrestling with this whole thought, I went home that evening and even though what I had found on my desk, going back to my analogy of my son, although I had found what I wanted, I still didn't know what it was or what it meant. I was saying inside myself as I went home, God, what do you want of me? What does this mean, this law that you're giving to me? I don't understand it, God. Can't I just do the rules, God? Can't I just go to church and do the things that I'm supposed to do? Why do I have to love you in that whole process? And that whole thing was going through my mind. And I read down and if you put up that third scripture verse, I read what James said, speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom. And that point number three on your outline, freedom. You see, that's what the message was of James chapter two in those first few verses. It wasn't really favoritism. What he was saying to these people is you're not free anymore. You've become bound. You've become comfortable in your sin. You're not free anymore. All you're doing is going through the motions and obeying the laws and doing the things in order that you might get by. Well, that evening as I went home, that thought was wrestling in my mind. And I was thinking, well, that's still great, God, but what does all of that mean to me? And then that night I couldn't sleep. It was about 1130 and I reached over next to my bed and I found this book that was there. My wife had been reading. It's called classic Christianity by Bob George. And as I picked it up and looking through it, it doesn't seem like the kind of thing you want to read late at night, but I was kind of hoping it would put me to sleep. And I looked at chapter 11 on the contents and it said living by a higher law. And I said, sounds like kind of what I'm wrestling with. So I opened the book up and this guy was talking specifically about what I was wrestling with. He says there are two major areas which determine if something is legalistic or not. First of all, the motive or the action. Why? Why are you here today? You ever think about it? Why do you go to home groups? Why do you try to read your Bible? Why do you try to obey the things that God has asked us to do? Is it you really think that if you do them, somehow you gain favor with God? Well, secondly, he says the second factor that makes something legalistic or not is the source of life. Law is the realm of self-effort. A life under grace is exemplified by the resurrected Christ living in and through you. There it is. There's the freedom. But then I read on and this is what really clinched it for me. And I'm not going to read that to you. I'm going to tell it to you. He tells a story about a young man who came up to him one day after a service when he preached on a message very similar to this one. And the young man came up to him. He said, you know what? I'm still not getting this. Is there anything else you can tell me that would really sink in that would turn a light bulb on for me? He said, well, let me tell you this story. One time there was a large house, a very large house with many rooms. And in that house lives many people. But there were two distinct differences amongst those people. The one was is that some of the people could hear and the rest of them could not. They were deaf. Now as you walk into this house with me, we look around at these people and by outward appearance, I can't tell who's deaf and who can hear. And so we happen to walk into one room and we open it up and there's a man who is kind of getting into it. He's going, oh yeah, oh yeah. And he's just kind of moving and something's happening with this guy. What's going on with this guy? Well, in walks a person who is deaf. And he walks in and he looks at that guy and he goes, what is he doing? And he walks over and he's watching him and he's going, what? He looks like he's enjoying himself. Let me try it. He goes, kind of like you all when we clap. Couldn't let that go by. And he watches him a little bit longer and, oh, I got to close this. And it isn't long before he's keeping up with this guy. You know, he's watching him, he's keeping up. He's going along. It isn't long before he is in the same rhythm that that guy is. Well, here we come. We walk into the room. What can you see? Are there a difference between these two people? They're both in rhythm. Let me read you what he says. Two men appearing, apparently doing the same thing, but there is a difference. Absolutely. All the difference in the world. The first man's actions are natural responses to the music that he hears. And the deaf man is only imitating those outward actions, even though he can't hear a note. That is the difference between real Christianity and legalism. You see, I have found myself many times imitating the things of Christianity and trying to please a God who doesn't even need it. I've been doing the things at times I find myself sitting in the comfortableness of my old nature sometimes and doing what I think is the Christian thing to do. And I'm not even hearing the music. And that's my question to you today. It's not to point fingers and say, come on people, let's treat everybody fairly. It's to say, what's your motive? Why are you here in this place? What are you about? Is it just simply to imitate what you think are the rules? Or are you hearing the music today? The music that Jesus is playing? And I want you to listen to some music now as Dave Fleming comes. He's going to sing a song. And I want you to just fold up your things that are in your hands right now and set them aside. I want you to just be quiet and listen to these words because they speak of this same heart and this need to examine our motivation. And are we really hearing this music?