- Well, good morning, good morning. My name is Seth Fagerland. I have the joy and privilege of serving as one of the pastors here at Rockpoint. It is so good to see you. Thank you for joining us and seeing you, and also seeing you online or you're seeing me, or if you're down in the warehouse or even if you're watching this service later, which is kind of crazy to think of a future moment, but I'm speaking to you now, if you're watching this later, thank you for joining us as well. This is a good place to be. And if you are new to Rockpoint, I know it's harder to connect and meet new people. Let us know you're here, let us know that you've joined us either in between services, there's the Next Moves section out in the gathering area, or if you are joining us online, enter into that chat bar. There is someone there right now who wants to talk with you, get to know you. We wanna know who you are as we seek to multiply disciples in a healthy church, and that's so good, so. Well, thank you again for joining us this morning. Well this, my wife and I just got back from a little getaway. We were able to squeeze in one more kind of a little vacation where everything got kind a little crazy, and I got to share this with the students actually this last Wednesday, so any students listening, you get to hear it again and that's awesome. But hey, now you can become the pro and tell your parents everything that I got to share with you on Wednesday. But what we talked about when we were on, on Wednesday night was when we go on these vacations, you're driving somewhere new, and so when you're driving somewhere new, you're paying what, you're paying more attention to a GPS, you're paying more attention to road signs, speed limit signs, toll ways, whatever it is, right, and so you're just more focused on where you are and where you're driving, and it never fails. Maybe it's just, maybe you're just more aware of it than ever before, but there's just some guy, or a girl, don't, like just, it's just blowin' past you like 100 miles an hour. And I'm not a slow driver, okay. I lived in Chicagoland for 10 years. I can keep up with the flow of traffic just fine, okay. So when someone blows by me like I'm standing still or swerving in between traffic, and I'm just like my hand, my hand just grips the wheel a little bit more, it just irks me. And I don't know if you're like me, I start to imagine and almost wish that down the road, I come upon this. And I wanna slow down, and I wanna wave. Ugh, there is a pleasure in us wanting to see somebody get what they got coming to 'em, right? Something that they deserve, something that, guilty, right? Serves you right. Now, I don't think I'm alone in this. Now, I'm not talkin' about driving now, right? I think all of us end up in many times in our life becoming judges of other people. We start to determine what we think other people deserve, and again, not talkin' about driving, right? We can look at other people and make a judgment that we are say, more beautiful than they are, or handsome, gentlemen right? We can look at our coworkers at our job or other students in our class and we can make a judgment that we are smarter than they are. We can look at the clothes a person wears or the kind of car that they drive, and we can make a judgment that we are better off than they are. We can even look at somebody's friend group and make a judgment that our reputation is better than theirs, and we don't want to associate with them. Or even within our own families, we can look at our kids or even our spouse, and we can make a judgment that what we want is more important than what they want. Why do we do this? Why do we make judgments about what we believe another person deserves? Why do we feel like we are in positions of determining another person's worth? I think this is so important for us to talk about, not just because of what's going on in our culture and our society, with all the restrictions and mandates, and not even a presidential election that is still sorting itself out. But I believe what James gets at in James chapter two speaks to the brokenness that you and I have as being human, and unless we talk about it, the lens with which we see the world, but also the lens in which we view ourselves, will be broken. So before we go into James chapter two, would you pray with me. Father, you have been a part of this service before we even woke up this morning. Father, you are here, not because we showed up, you are here because you said a place where your name has been set apart, a place where your people gather with the purpose of meeting with you, that is why you are here. So now Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, and I pray that your word does the pruning effect in all of our lives so that we can abide in you, that we may have your joy and our joy be full, that we can rest in your love for us. It's in the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen, amen. James chapter two, and if you need to find the outline for today's notes, you can go online and find that at rockpoint.church, and you can follow along there as well. James chapter two. "My brothers and sisters show no partiality "as you hold the faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ, "the Lord of glory. "For if a man wearing a gold ring "and of fine clothing comes into your assembly, "and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, "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,'" verse four, "have you not then "made distinctions among yourselves "and become judges with evil thoughts?" Now this book of the Bible, as we talked about, is written by a guy named James, hence it's called James, right, who was, he was the half-brother Jesus. Think about that for a second, right? So this guy spent a lot of time with Jesus, but even so much of what he writes in his letter here reflects what Jesus said and what Jesus did, especially even the Sermon on the Mount. You'll see that later in our passage this morning. But James writes his letter with, throughout his letter he talks a lot about patience while enduring trials and temptations, and what he ultimately encourages his readers, including us, because in God's sovereignty, we hold his Word in our hand, so God is speaking to us this morning, he encourages us to have a real faith in Jesus. He says, "Live out what you say you believe." As believers in Jesus Christ, James writes this letter, and says, "Live out what you say you believe." James draws his attention to what we just talked about, all right, in our examples. He says, "When you show partiality to other people," meaning when people are gathered together, you start doing this ranking game of who is, or who is not more important, or who is or who is not worthy or deserving of certain treatment in whatever way, he says when you do that, when you make those kind of distinctions, he says you become judges with evil thoughts. Wow, that word evil just stood out to me the last couple weeks as I was just spending time in this text and praying through it and trying to see what God had to say to us through it. Evil just stood out to me. I'm like, wow, that is a strong word. That is a category that we limit very few people to be put in, right? I mean, when we think of the evil, what do we think of? We think of the axis of evil, we think of terrorists, we think of every bad guy in every movie, especially like the really bad horror movies, we think of Satan himself, are in this category of evil. So how can that were be used to describe us and how we treat each other? He says, it's evil because when you become a judge like this, when you put yourself in a position to declare what someone else deserves, that is a certain category, and we're gonna get to that. Now, what I'm not saying, what I'm not saying is that people should not be held accountable to their actions, okay? So please, as you initially hear this, and an example of what I'm saying, I believe anybody who breaks the law or does wrong should be held to an account. That's not James is getting at here. What I believe he is getting at, and the examples that I listed is that without realizing it, we can begin to create categories of worth, and even elevate ourselves above other people, that based on qualities I possess or abilities I can do that makes me somehow more worthy than somebody else. And when we make a judgment like that, when we determine what another person is worthy of, we're basically deciding who is or who is not worthy to be loved. Well, James continues in verse five. He says, "Listen, my beloved brothers, "has not God chosen those who are poor in the world "to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, "which he has promised to those who love him? "But you have dishonored the poor man. "Are not the rich the ones who oppressed you "and the ones who drag you into court? "Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name "by which you were called?" James says, you dishonor one another. To honor somebody is to give regard with great respect, so why is it a dishonor when you do this to someone else? He says because the honor that they deserve is not because of something that they earned or have it inherent, something that they achieved. He says, they, you dishonor the name by which they have been called, he says in verse seven. Because we've been made in the image of God, there is an honor, there is something bigger than us that dictates how we treat one another, and it is nothing to do with someone has earned by merit-based standard. It is inherently given being made human in the image of God. Verse eight, "For if you really fulfill the royal law "according to the scripture "that 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' "you are doing well. "But if you show partiality, "you are committing sin "and you are convicted by the law as transgressors. "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point "has become guilty of 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 murder, "you have become a transgressor of the law." So now James starts talking about transgressors, and I don't wanna lose anybody here, because there are many who still come to church on a regular basis who think that Christianity is still about a list of rules. You know, don't be mad, don't be bad, be a good person, good moral person, right, and then God will be happy with you. That is not Christianity at all. In fact, that is a secular belief system now known as moralistic therapeutic deism, and I encourage you to check that out later, because I believe that really explains the cultural moment that we live in, in an ever increasing post-Christian society that we are living in, that we're growing up in. But when he says the law here, James is referring to the Old Testament list of commands that God gave his people to distinguish them from the nations around them. Here's why that was significant, because the nations around them had no such laws like that. In fact, they were governed by the age old law that says, you do whatever you think is right. Now, that may sound initially good to some of you, like, hey, that, I kind of like that. I wanna do what I wanna do. My eight-year-old son to this day says, "Hey, dad, I just wanna do what I want to do." "Yeah, buddy, so do I," right? Initially, it sounds like a good thing, that, oh, well, shouldn't it be great to do whatever you want? Isn't that what freedom is? Isn't that what freedom, the ability to do whatever you wanna do? Now pause and think about that for a moment. Initially yes, that sounds like a good idea, but imagine living in a whole community or a culture or society where it is governed by, everyone did what was right in their own eyes, whatever one they thought they wanted to do, or whatever someone thought they deserved. That is not somewhere you wanna live in. In fact, the places in this world today where that is the case and that is the governing rule of the land, those are the very places people are fleeing for their lives, at great cost to themselves. That is not a place that you wanna be. So not only does God give the law to show his people that there was a different way to live life, God also gave a lot of show the people the kind of life that they were created for, a life without sin, what life with God really looks like. Not because of who we are, but because of who God is, that God is holy and with, and he is without sin, and sin cannot be in the presence of God. So why did God give us the law? Was it so that we could attain perfection by following a list of rules? Or was it for something else? Again, look at verse 10. "Whoever keeps the whole law but fails at one point "has become guilty of all of it." God gave the law so that we could realize our need for him. God gave the law so that we could realize our need for him. James writes, "Even if it were possible "to keep every single law your entire life," which it's not, I mean, James is just dripping with sarcasm here, right? He says, "Okay, imagine you could keep every law, every day, "every moment, your entire life, "but you mess up once, at one moment." He says that moment, a transgressor of one point of the law is a transgressor of the entire law. Jesus made this real to life in his famous message on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew five. Again, James is the half-brother of Jesus, so a lot of what he writes echoes a lot of Jesus' teachings when Jesus walked the earth. So in the Sermon on the Mount, you'll see this show up in here. Here's what Jesus basically said. Let me paraphrase, it says, "Oh, you've heard it say, 'Do not murder anybody? "Have you murdered anybody? "Oh good, I'm glad you haven't killed somebody. "But I tell you, if you harbor a grudge in your heart, "you've murdered that person in your heart. "Have any of you had an affair? "Oh good, well I'm glad you haven't had an affair, "but I tell you, if you sexually lust after someone else "in the fantasy of your mind, "you are having an affair with them in your heart." What was Jesus doing? He was not ranking sin. He was calling sin sin, and if you are guilty of one point, you're guilty of all of the points before God. This is why it brings us back to this, why we make judgments about what we think another person deserves, why we feel like we are in positions to declare the worthiness of someone else. It's a concept known as deflecting, okay, deflecting. Deflecting is a psychological defense mechanism that we all use to take the blame off of ourselves, right? We wanna feel less bad for our wrongdoings, all right, deflecting, and this is classic narcissism if you've ever heard of that before, which I'm assuming all of you have, and it's something you should understand in case, I love you, you are narcissistic yourself, okay, which we all have a tendency of doing. Otherwise you have a family member, a friend, a coworker, who operates this way. We deflect because we wanna take the attention off of us. Again, we don't have to be taught to do this, we don't have to be trained to do this. I'm right in that season, I have an eight-year-old and a five-year-old, so grabbing my son's head, and I love him, because he messed up on something and I wanna talk to him, you see his eyes just looking around the room like, "Dad, look at that drawing I made last week," right? Or, "Do you know what my sister did?" "That's not what I'm talkin' about, buddy. "I'm talkin' about what you just did. "Let's talk about that," right? Why do we make judgments about why we, what another person deserves? Why do we feel like we can declare the worthiness of another person? It's because deep down we know we are messed up too. Deep down, we know if the cosmic scales were brought out and our good deeds were weighed against our bad deeds, which is not the way it works, by the way, even then we know we wouldn't make the cut. Deep down we know we are not worthy ourselves, and we deflect by making judgements against other people, because we subconsciously believed the lie that if we can find somebody who is worse than us, who is more messed up than us, who is less than us, than somehow we're okay. That's why we do it. That's why we feel like we are able to do that, 'cause in a merit-based achievement society like we live in today, you get what you deserve, at least what you think you deserve, and we make judgments all the time about who is or who is not worthy, because we desperately wanna elevate ourselves. Because if we can elevate ourselves in an achievement society of you get what you deserve, then somebody owes me if I can prove that I'm better than somebody else. Somebody owes me a good life, or somebody owes me this, that, the other thing. But oh, don't look at my bad stuff. James basically calls out that kind of thinking. He says, "Okay, you want your day in court "where you wanna make a judgment against somebody else? "Sounds good. It's on. "But before that person takes the stand, you go first, "you get on the stand, "and the degree to which the legitimacy of your perfect life "will be what will condemn the guiltiness "of the other person." Remember why we wanna talk about this or what I think James is getting at, is this comes down to the brokenness of what it means for you and I to be human, and the broken lens with which we have in which we not only view the world and our circumstances and other people, but especially how we view ourselves. James concludes in verse 12, he says, "So speak and so act as those who are to be judged "under the law of liberty, "for judgment is without mercy "to one who has shown no mercy. "Mercy triumphs over judgment." James says, no, but you are different, not so with you. He calls them what? Brothers and sisters. It's a family term describing anybody who has placed their hope and trust in Jesus and who are brought into the family of God permanently because of what Jesus Christ has done for them. He reminds them of who they are. James says, "So speak and so act "as those who are gonna be judged "under the law of liberty." a couple of words I wanna emphasize: speak and act, powerful words that has everything to do on your effect on other people's lives. Your words and your actions are not just yours. They have a direct impact on this world, especially those closest to you, your family, your friends, where you live, where you work, where you play, and everywhere in between. Every single word that comes out of your mouth and gets texted through your device, every physical action that you do in person or in the digital space, all of those things, your words and your actions, directly communicate to the people in your life what you really believe and what they are worthy of to be loved. Not what you say, not just what you say you believe. Again, sometimes it's tongue-in-cheek of saying the right things, but you know it's totally the opposite meaning. Your words and your actions directly communicate to the people in your life what you really believe on whether or not they're worthy to be loved. The other word I wanna emphasize is the word liberty, liberty. As believers and followers of Jesus, you are now no longer under the law of the commandments, you are under the law of liberty. What does that word mean, liberty? You know this. Freedom, right, free, freedom, that when you place your faith and trust in Jesus, that's who James is writing to. He says remember that moment that you placed your faith and trust in Jesus, you are believing that every single one of your sins, and the brokenness that is messed up about you, every single one of them past, present, and future have been paid for, and in the court of God's law you are declared free. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Mercy means not getting what you do deserve. We know, we know if we were to stand before God on our own ability to live a perfect sinless life, we would not make the cut, and we know that even if we could live a perfect life and mess up once, inherently in our human souls made in the image of God, we know that is enough to disqualify us from not being in the presence of God. That is why Adam and Eve hid. They had one sin. They hid because they knew they were not worthy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. God's mercy is greater than your sin. Remember what he said in verse 10, your sin, it means you're guilty of all sin. God's mercy is greater than that. In fact, there's only one unforgivable sin in the Bible. Have you ever seen that? Have you ever heard that? When they say there's only one sin that God will not forgive, and it's called blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which is basically unbelief. It's basically saying what Jesus said and what Jesus did is not true, and if that is where you are, if that is, and you are, you are entitled to your belief system, but if that is what you believe, that what Jesus said and what Jesus did is not true, then you are still under the law of the commandments, and you will be judged on your ability to live a perfect, sinless life. Mercy makes us worthy. I've been doing this a long time now, right? I am definitely in that category of being an old youth pastor, right? So 18 years of doing this, and I look at my seniors in high school and they, some of them are 18, I'm like, oh my goodness, I've been here as long time, right. But it has never failed. I can't tell you how many times a young person says, "Yeah, but you don't know what I've done." It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. I mean, I'm thankful that they are still convicted of this, they know what is in them is not okay, is not good. They know that it, what is in them disqualifies them from earning a spot. But it doesn't matter 'cause God says his mercy is greater than any sin. There is nothing you could ever do to make God love you any less, and if that is true, then there is nothing you can do to ever make God love you any more. It is not what you deserve, that's what makes it an unearned gift. God loves you because he loves you, because he says so. He wants to rescue you, he made you, and he wants to spend eternity with you. Mercy makes you worthy. The only quality that you possess that makes you worthy is that you are greatly loved by God, that's it. There's nothing you could do or not do. The only thing that makes you worthy is that God's mercy is greater than your sin. God's mercy is greater than your judgment. His mercy makes you worthy, that you are greatly loved by God, because he says so. So what does this mean in your life? Well, when we judge other people, again, when we put our, when we deflect and try put ourselves in that position, it's actually those same areas that we feel so much in a position to judge others, it actually is revealing the deeper need in us. Remember, we're deflecting because we don't feel okay inside of ourselves ourselves. So each of those arenas in which we judge other people is revealing a deeper need in us. So when we make a judgment that we are more beautiful than someone, deep down, we don't feel like we possess the quality of being beautiful enough, and therefore we fear that we won't be chosen. God's mercy makes us worthy, and we are beautiful and we are chosen and greatly loved by God, not because of a physical ability or quality that we possess. When we make a judgment that we are smarter than someone, deep down, we want to be affirmed and we long to be successful. God's mercy makes us worthy and we are truly successful because God already declares that he greatly loves us. When we make a judgment that we are better off than somebody else, deep down, we don't feel like we have enough, and therefore we are anxious and fearful that we're not gonna be okay. God's mercy makes us worthy, and we are truly secure because we are greatly loved by God. When we make a judgment that our reputation is better than someone else, we desperately want to belong, we desperately want to be included. God's mercy makes us worthy, and we permanently, eternally belong to the people of God who are greatly loved by him. Even in our own families, when we make a judgment that we are more important than somebody else, even our spouses, our kids, what is that deeper need? We all want to be heard and to be understood, but there is an ache in the human soul to be blessed, to have a blessed life, and in the words of Jesus himself, "Now this is eternal life, "that they may know you, the only true God "in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." How now will we live? Well James is, I love how clear James is. He gives it to us. "So speak and so act as those are to be judged "under the law of liberty." You have been set free. Mercy triumphs over your judgment, mercy makes you worthy. So God says, "Let your words and your actions "reflect the reality of being set free by the love of God, "that you are greatly loved by God. "You did nothin' to deserve it." But what else did James say? He says, "If you love your neighbor as you love yourself, "you are doing well." You are basically saying that you, they are just as worthy as you are. They are just as worthy of being greatly loved by God as you are. How you view yourself reflects how you view other people. The truest evidence of your salvation in you not getting what you deserve, is your ability to treat others not in what they deserve, but in what they're worth. Mercy makes you worthy, mercy makes others worthy to be loved by God. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your Word. Lord Jesus, thank you that you fulfilled the promise from the beginning of time, that God, that one day you would fix what got broken, and that moment of Adam and Eve hiding from you out of relationship with you, God, that's why you kicked them out of the garden of Eden, so that they would not eternally spend separation from you, and you made a promise at great cost to yourself that one day you would fix what got broken. Lord, in a room this size there are those who are very aware of not feeling worthy enough, and God, I pray through your love and by your Spirit, you meet them in such a deep place that they are greatly loved by you because you say so. God proved his love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. For those in the room who still struggle with feeling like, man, God, you owe me, Lord, in the gentleness of your heart, in the gentleness of who you are, prune us in our hearts. Bring to conviction those areas where I feel like I am more worthy than somebody else. Hope, living hope, a confident expectation of what is to come, hope does have a name, and his name is Jesus My Savior on that cross has made this sinner free. It's in your name we pray, amen.