Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Hi, everybody. Good morning.
[00:00:08] So glad you chose to spend your Sunday morning with us here at Westside. We're in James, Chapter one. Today we're gonna start a new series, just for a few weeks here in our summer, looking at the Epistle of James, the letter that James wrote.
[00:00:22] Chronologically, it's one of the earliest New Testament letters. So before the Gospels are written down, before Paul writes his letters, we have James, who is both the brother of Jesus, the half brother of Jesus, and the leader of the Jerusalem Church. He writes his letter to the scattered church all across the Roman Empire from his position as the leader of the Jerusalem Church. And he writes this. What has become kind of like the proverbs of the New Testament, it's very practical, doesn't get into a lot of heady theology.
[00:00:57] Whereas Paul is always talking about theologically, how all this works together. At the highest, James, as a pastor, is concerned with the practicality of a faith that has to work in the real world and at ground level.
[00:01:14] And I know for me, this is a real danger in my spirituality, in my faith, and maybe this is true for you. But I run a real risk that I spend so much time trying to get my head wrapped around my faith, discussing and wrestling with theology and what scripture teaches and how that works. And as a pastor, my role alongside Pastor Ben and our staff to help make accessible the teaching of scripture, we can get in the spot. And I see the risk in my own life to where I become a really professional Christian.
[00:01:58] But when I'm off the stage or I'm not leading a meeting, I can actually act like a functional atheist.
[00:02:08] And this is a real risk, is that the head knowledge about this Christian life never actually works itself into a life that is lived in the presence of Jesus and that walks out what Jesus has taught.
[00:02:26] And one example of this is in prayer. If we have encountered something of the real presence of Jesus alive in the world, that we should have this draw that calls us to go to that place of prayer and to pour out our hearts every single day before the Lord. And oftentimes I can look and say, man, I've had a lot of great conversations about the Bible this week.
[00:02:52] I've had a lot of fascinating ideas about what God wants to do through our church. But have I actually gone to that place of prayer personally?
[00:03:02] And so I don't want a faith that only exists up in this theoretical or intellectual space. I want a faith that actually is put into practice in my life. And Jesus talks about this in Matthew chapter seven at the end of his sermon on the Mount, where he says, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rains came down and the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock.
[00:03:36] But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice. So both groups are hearing.
[00:03:42] Both groups are attending the Bible study.
[00:03:45] That's not the question.
[00:03:47] The question is what they do with it. Because everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.
[00:04:03] Jesus is making the whole point of this parable and so many others not. And come back next week to hear me talk again about, no, his point is not. You need to listen more. It's now that you have heard, put into practice all that I have commanded you.
[00:04:23] And to us who I'm so glad you come to church. I'm so glad you sign up for our classes. I'm so glad you're attending things and learning, hopefully as we're teaching and diving in every single week. But if it stops in this room, we have missed the point of our faith, that to build our faith on the rock, that is Christ, is not only to hear and to understand, but then to put into practice all that he has taught.
[00:04:50] And so this is a risk for me. Maybe it's a risk for you. We don't want professional religious people. We don't want professional Christians. We want people who are discipled in the way of Jesus and who are following him and experiencing his real presence in the real world. Amen.
[00:05:07] So here we are, and we're gonna get into James. James, chapter one, starting in verse 22.
[00:05:15] James, as I said, is the half brother of Jesus. We see in the Gospels where all of Jesus brothers and his family, when he goes back to Nazareth, they reject him as a prophet. They reject him as the son of God, which I understand that I have some brothers. If my brother Brent, after service catches me, he's like, hey, man, I just need to let you know I'm the son of God.
[00:05:37] I would say, no, you're the son of dad and mom, and I'm sorry, but you can't work here anymore at Westside. That would be how that conversation would go, you know.
[00:05:48] But here's James and he's grown up with Jesus, right? They've like shared the way back of their station wagon. And here is James and he's hearing as Jesus is teaching and he's watching these miracles from a distance and. And yet he just can't believe.
[00:06:06] But then Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that after the resurrection, Jesus makes a point after he raises from the dead to visit his brother James. And that encounter changes everything for James.
[00:06:19] And he goes from a skeptic for good reason to the leader of the Jerusalem church, who begins his letter with these words. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:06:31] And by the way, if that's me, I would say a servant of God and the brother of Jesus. So listen to what I have to say.
[00:06:38] And yet with great humility, James sees himself as no greater than a simple servant of Jesus. It is one of the most maybe compelling apologetics for the reality of who Jesus claimed to be, that he actually was in that his brother believes it too. James 1, 22.
[00:06:58] We hear James encouragement. He says this. Don't just listen to God's word, you must do what it says.
[00:07:06] Otherwise you are only fooling yourselves. If you listen to the word and don't obey, it's like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself walk away and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you just like you look in a mirror before you go out and you face the world. James would encourage us look in the mirror of God's word. That will tell you if you are in line with those things that will cause your life to flourish.
[00:07:40] And just like we look in the mirror and some of us have a better experience than others doing that.
[00:07:47] Maybe today you looked in the mirror, like, all right, things are. Things are going well for me. All right, that anti aging cream is doing its best work, right?
[00:07:56] Other of us, we look in the mirror like it's rough, but we got to deal with it, we got to work with it. But what you do is you try to align your expectations to what you see. And James is saying, like, don't be the people that look in the mirror of God's instruction.
[00:08:11] And then ignore what you've seen and walk away. But stay long enough.
[00:08:17] Consider the way of God long enough to where it causes you to respond in a way to where you find alignment with what he says.
[00:08:27] Skipping to James 2:14, he says, what good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don't show it by your actions?
[00:08:36] Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, goodbye and have a good day. Stay warm and eat well.
[00:08:44] But then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
[00:08:48] So you see, faith by itself isn't enough.
[00:08:51] Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
[00:08:58] If you studied with us through any of Paul's letters, you might hear what James is saying and say, but I thought it was like God's grace alone that matters.
[00:09:08] I thought Paul said that we are saved by grace, not by works, lest anyone should boast. And then James is saying that if your faith has no works, functionally dead. Are these guys in competition?
[00:09:20] This is some of the wrestling that early church leaders really wrestle with. I mean, Martin Luther, the great reformer himself, thought that James actually should just be an appendix to the Bible, not in the Bible itself. He called it an epistle of straw because it seemed to be fighting with Paul's core theme, which is that we are not saved by our works, but we're saved by grace alone. And so are Paul and James in competition? Well, no, because what Paul is concerned with when he talks about the work of grace is what makes us acceptable to God.
[00:09:52] And it is not our striving or our efforts or our morality or our good works that get us on God's good side. It is the finished work of Christ. And when we put our trust in that, it's not what we've done, it's what he's done that makes us right with God.
[00:10:05] What James is then concerned with is now that we have been made right with God, how then will we live?
[00:10:12] What will that grace that has transformed us and changed us, what will that encounter with the risen Jesus actually produce in our lives? Because if it produces nothing, we have to question whether we've encountered Jesus or not.
[00:10:27] Because a living faith that is set alight by the presence and the salvation of Jesus will create good deeds in us. As Jesus said in another portion of the Sermon on the Mount that we will let our light shine and they will see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. That something comes from a life that's transformed, formed, that looks like doing stuff. It looks like moving and living and running after the way of Jesus in a way that puts feet to the Message. I remember about four years ago, three years ago, my wife and kids went over to the Valley and picked up our new puppy, Sadie. And they brought Sadie home to the house, and Sadie just sat there, and she's about 8 weeks old, and she's sitting on the floor, and we're playing with the dog, and she's moving around a little bit. And then we tried to take her for a walk, and no matter what we would do, Sadie would just not move. And so we kind of drag her by the leash and kind of physically move her, as it's not a fun walk, by the way, and she would just refuse to move. We took her to the park, took her off the leash even, and sat her in the middle of the lawn and tried to coax her to run after us, and she would not move. So we're like, oh, no, something's likely wrong with her. And so we took her to the vet and we said, we think something's wrong with her legs.
[00:11:51] She's not moving. She's not running, she's not playing. What's wrong with this dog?
[00:11:57] And so the vet examines her and moves her legs, and then she looks at me and she says, so the good news is there's nothing wrong with Sadie. She's just terrified of you.
[00:12:12] Turns out Sadie was so scared of her new environment that she was paralyzed with fear.
[00:12:19] And so she settles in, and within a week or two, that dog cannot stop running because she feels at home. And here's what I want to tell you, that if you and your view of who God is is that he's angry at you and he's disappointed with you and he'll never be happy with you, that you will live in a state of fear that causes you to be paralyzed in the kind of life of faith that Jesus has made way for.
[00:12:46] But when we come to that place where we are at home in Christ, when we are at rest in his work, like Paul would tell us, then James would say, what flows out of that is a life that runs towards good works, a life that runs towards allowing the life of Jesus not to just sit with us up here in our minds, but to live through us in the way that we move and live and are in relationship and where we go, that to be at home in Christ is the starting point for a life of faith that is not dead, it is not stagnant, but it is alive.
[00:13:25] If Jesus did not set up his church to be a gathering of professional hearers or a gathering of pro Christians who know all the right things or have all the right worldviews, what did he call us to be? I believe he called us to be his body, the body of Christ in the world.
[00:13:44] And what did Jesus physically do in the Gospels when he moved from town to town? Matthew 9:35, it says Jesus went to every town and village and he taught in their synagogues, and he preached the good news about God's kingdom. And Jesus also healed every kind of disease and sickness.
[00:14:01] We get this picture that when Jesus was physically walking around Judea in the first century, he was doing some very specific things.
[00:14:12] He was announcing good news and he was healing and redeeming and restoring along the way.
[00:14:18] And if we are called not to just be professional Bible studiers or professional Christians that sit in churchy rooms and we are called to be the body of Christ in the world today, that means we bear the same calling that Jesus himself walked in, which is to announce good news and to heal and to redeem and to restore everywhere we go that every encounter we have in the world would be good for those that we encounter.
[00:14:45] I refuse to allow us to become a bad news kind of people.
[00:14:50] I mean, how sad if we believe and we actually walk in the power and the mercy of God that is so perfectly expressed in the sacrifice of Jesus and we believe that he died, but was risen back to life. This all sounds like really good news.
[00:15:06] And far be it from us that we would ever be bad news Christians, that when we walk in the room, the mood just kind of sinks, right?
[00:15:13] You're not that kind of person, are you?
[00:15:16] Go to a dinner party and people kind of collectively groan, don't be that person.
[00:15:21] But something about the real presence of God that stirs up joy in us, joy in every circumstance. We don't ignore the trouble that people face. Instead, we enter into it and we allow the presence of Jesus who has gone before us to create joy in every circumstance that we might be good news people who announce that God has come near and there is hope even when it seems hopeless, we are good news people with the body of Christ at work in the world.
[00:15:52] And so this requires that everything that we have, even as Jesus was so willing to give of himself and give of his resources to meet hurting people, that we would also be conduits for what God puts in our hands.
[00:16:08] We went to Scout Lake last summer, and it's up above Suttle, and there's no inlet and there's no outlet.
[00:16:15] And so I assume that means rainwater, right?
[00:16:18] Any geologists here? So rainwater fills this little caldera but the water just stays put. And so there's signs everywhere that say, no dogs. No dogs. Why? Because when the dogs do their thing in that water, that is not going anywhere. There's no outlet.
[00:16:35] And instead of these pools that try to carry and hold the presence of God in our lives, I think God calls us to be more like rivers and streams of his mercy, that we are conduits for his work. So we're not gathering here to just hoard the goodness of God for ourselves, but we're looking for outlets to see that the mercy of God is flowing out from this place, that our resources, through our generosity, are constantly flowing out from our hands. And what will that leave us with? It'll leave us with a lack of right. If you give away all your stuff and all your resources and all your time and all your effort and all your compassion, you're gonna have a lack of those things. And so what is the answer? You go back to Jesus, and every day you say, lord, I've given everything you gave me. I've given it away. I need more from you, Lord.
[00:17:26] My shelves are feeling empty. So, Lord, give me the daily bread. Because I know that there are gonna be those I encounter today where I Earwicker. Where my kids go to school, that need your mercy. And so, Lord, fill me again. It causes us to go every day back to the presence of Jesus for our daily bread.
[00:17:43] This is the calling of those who live not as calderas that hold the presence of God for ourselves, but as streams and rivers of his presence to a thirsty world.
[00:17:55] And this will help us for becoming stagnant in our faith. And I'll tell you what, the those that are stagnant in their faith will be the grumpiest in the group.
[00:18:05] They'll be those that can't let go of resentment, that harbor unforgiveness because there's no outlet to the faith.
[00:18:11] So we are constantly saying, lord, let what you've given us flow through us to those around.
[00:18:18] And we've been asking this question for, I don't know, five or six years. We actually printed magnets back in the day. Maybe we'll bring those back. But we printed magnets, magnets that had this phrase on them. And for a long time, we'd see these magnets show up just everywhere, kind of as a prank. I would get, like 30 of these magnets stuck on my door here at the church. But the magnet said this. It says, what does love require?
[00:18:40] What does love require? We believe that this is the heart of Jesus, that he lived by during his ministry that we see in the Gospels that Jesus was never asking, what's the minimum I can do to be on God's good side? Jesus was always asking, what does love require of me?
[00:18:56] And he was always asking his disciples to consider that, what does love require of you in the world that I've placed you in?
[00:19:03] We can do the bare minimum. We can minimally love our neighbor. We can minimally exist in a world that oftentimes is filled with tension and try to avoid the worst of it. Or we can ask, what does love require? Where would love send me? Where would love encourage me to be? The hands and the feet of Jesus?
[00:19:25] About a year ago, we installed three of these micro homes on our property. Maybe you saw them today as you came up the hill.
[00:19:34] We had an empty lot sitting there and really felt when this opportunity came that this would be a wonderful use of property that we were not using at the time.
[00:19:46] And so I had questions as we set out to set up this site as micro homes shelters for those experiencing homelessness.
[00:19:55] And the questions were, you know, how are the neighbors going to feel about this? And will the church rally around this? Or feel like it's a misuse of resources?
[00:20:06] But you guys were so generous in your response. The neighbors were so cool. Thank you, neighbors. If you're in here or you're listening, you're so cool.
[00:20:15] And so we set up these micro shelters.
[00:20:19] And about a month ago, I received this email from the case management group, Mountain View Community Development, great organization that manages this site, about a woman who had lived in one of our micro shelters named Christy. I want to read her story from this email said Christy had become disabled and was homeless for 14 years.
[00:20:43] In 2012, Christy tore her shoulder in three places at the hospital where she was working. And shortly after, she left her husband and moved back to central Oregon with her youngest daughter to be near her son and grandson.
[00:20:54] And it took seven years after that to qualify for disability. Despite the injury and having rheumatoid arthritis and a number of other ailments, she lived with family for a while. But eventually she found herself living in her car.
[00:21:10] And during the first nights, she would Google safe place to park near me.
[00:21:16] One night early on, she hunkered down as someone with a flashlight walked around her vehicle. She said, this was terrifying to me and I was sobbing.
[00:21:25] She was getting her mail at a church downtown when someone there told her about Mountain View Community Developments program and the micro shelters here at Westside.
[00:21:35] And so when a spot opened up, she applied and she moved in. It was such a relief. I'm so grateful, she said. My old body's not doing so great. So sleeping in a bed was really helpful to me.
[00:21:47] Having the bed and the four walls and security is such a blessing.
[00:21:51] But even so, permanent housing was elusive. She'd applied for more than 20 low income apartments, but was told it could be as many as five years on the wait list.
[00:22:02] I've been praying and praying, trying to get my life back in order, she said. And then she got a call from her case manager. An anonymous donor heard she was living here at Westside.
[00:22:13] And this donor had an ADU he wanted to offer to Christy at no cost.
[00:22:18] She's planning to add a vegetable garden and a small yard for her grandkids to play in. And she says, it's so peaceful. And I have flowers.
[00:22:28] You know, growing up in the church and being a churchy kid with churchy friends, oftentimes, especially in high school, we would gather and we would pray for revival in central Oregon.
[00:22:41] And for us at that time, I think we had a very, very specific vision of what revival would look like if God really showed up in central Oregon, what that would look like. And oftentimes it looked like long worship services and full rooms at churches where we would just sing and worship and pray for hours on end in spaces like this.
[00:23:05] And that's wonderful. And I believe God shows up in ways that cause people to gather together and spend extended times in prayer and worship. Of course, that's wonderful. But I have to Wonder today, now, 20, 25 years later, could it be that revival in our day also looks like a grandma who is sobbing in her car in March, planting flowers in her yard in June?
[00:23:32] Could it be that the move of God and the hand of God moving in our community and in our cities actually looks like healing and restoration and hope in the real world?
[00:23:46] And so I'm praying for revival.
[00:23:50] My vision of it has changed.
[00:23:53] I hope we are stirred to worship. I hope we are stirred to prayer. I hope we are stirred to come into places like this to plead with the Father, Lord, give us your daily bread.
[00:24:06] But I hope that we have eyes to see that when God comes close, when God moves into a community, people on the outside become insiders, people who are broken and hurting find hope and healing.
[00:24:22] And the way he does this is through us.
[00:24:26] When what we know and what we believe and what we've wrapped our minds around, the theology that we've learned works its way from here, into here, into these, into these, and we Begin to move out into God's good world with the hope of Jesus. That doesn't just look like a goodbye, be well fed, have a nice day. But it looks like here's the keys to your adu and here's a meal and here's some hope. And we're gonna trust God with the outcomes. And we're not gonna get into such a comfortable place that we are unaware of the needs of the world around us because of faith that is alive, faith that moves out. Amen.
[00:25:08] And so I want to pray for us as a church. I want to pray that we would have a kind of faith like Jesus encourages us today, not built on the shifting sands of what's comfortable, but built on the rock of Jesus.
[00:25:26] So, Lord, I pray that we would put into practice all that we have heard and hear each and every week, that it would not stop at an understanding or an interesting thought.
[00:25:41] It would not end with agreement, but instead it would move into how we live. That we would even be stirred with new imagination and innovation of how to express and extend your life and your love to the world around us in tangible ways.
[00:26:01] I pray, Lord, stir up those ideas even now as I pray in this room. Lord, what would you have us do that love requires far beyond the minimum, sacrificially loving and living in the world in which you've placed us.
[00:26:16] Let it be so. Lord, we love you. We thank you for the grace that has made us right with God, that has brought us home in Christ, so that we can live in this fullness. And I pray for any of those that feel far from God or are still on the skeptical side about all this.
[00:26:38] Lo, would you just reveal yourself to them? But I pray for those that feel like God is mad at them, that you are angry, that you are disappointed today, that they would understand and know that based on the work of Jesus, they've been made right with you.
[00:26:53] And the invitation stands to experience freedom and forgiveness through Jesus. Today, I pray this in your name. Amen. Amen.
[00:27:03] Amen.
