Faith, lived out

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It's a good and gracious God that knows when we are in the storm, and He knows how to minister to us in that. Amen. Amen. Well, everyone's gone to sleep. As Pastor Dave shared, we're going to be starting our little mini-series, I suppose, on the book of James. I suppose the unique way of looking at it is the way we've sort of gleaned out and prayed through it in preparation for it today. The series title for one of a better word is going to be Faith Lived Out. Faith lived out as James' really, the crux of his message through the five chapters is about how you walk with your talk. Not just the words you use, but your interaction with each other in the community. And so that's what we're going to be aiming at today. So we might just pray before we open God's word. Heavenly Father, we thank You, Lord, that not only do You meet us in our storms of life, but, Lord, You show us the light through that storm. And Father, we thank You, Father, that when we come into Your Word, Lord, that sometimes the words we read are troubling because they're quite confronting. Father, sometimes, Lord, sit in such a way that we struggle. But, Father, I ask that through Your Spirit today, that when we encounter Your Word, whether it's affirmation or correction, Father, whether it's lifting us up or just calling us to account that, Lord, You will be consistent through that because when notes from Your love and grace, these words are written. And, Father, I pray the words of speak of Your Word is not mine. In Your name, amen. So the approach we're going to take with James, as we look through the book of James, and if you read through James, there's lots of little chapters in each, sorry, lots of little passages in each chapter that talk about all the various aspects of life. There's living, listening, there's faith and deeds, there's trials and temptations, and that's just the start of James. And so how do you get your head around that? Well, one of the things that I've come across, which I found quite helpful and I'm probably helpful to you too, is about accountability. It's called biblical accountability. And he has these accountabilities written into James. And so James, because we understand roughly that James, it looks like, was the brother of Jesus. And so for him to write this letter, this epistle, to encourage, he would have had to have written it pretty close because to Jesus' death, because he was martyred in around 60 AD. So these words come from a person who's not only seen what his brother's been up to, seeing God as a brother, but also seen his ministry and witnessed what's happened there. And one of the things he wants us to do, I believe, is not to settle. It's not to just say, hey, this is me, I'm a Christian, I can tick the box. So I come from a ministry area in the last 13 years. A lot of people have different understanding of faith. And I was talking to a pastor in one of the churches one day and he said, you know, he said, really, I struggle with is the people in my church think if they do these certain things in religious observance, they're good to go. And sometimes I never see them from the age of 14 until hopefully they have families of their own. They bring their families back. He said, sometimes they don't because the disconnect is there. And we know that through ministry of the chaplains and the school RE teachers, you would have heard it shared recently that only one school in our district in our region has RE. One school, one class. And that, you know, breaks your heart because that's the only place that unchurch people or people who don't know much about God can hear about him. And so it's up to us to not to settle for who we are where we are. Thank you. I've got a lovely air conditioned church. You know, the air conditioning here is interesting and compared to Gatton because Gatton has a low roof. If I was standing on the stage now in Gatton, I'd be like this. Okay. And so I used to get there at eight o'clock in the morning and cranker and she'd be settling down. You'd sort of see snowflakes after a while. It was nice and just beautiful. People would come in and they'd say, oh, it's the air conditioning is too cold. And I'd say, well, okay, adjust the air conditioning. Then the air conditioning was too hot. So adjust the air conditioning. People couldn't settle. They couldn't say, well, I'm going to put up a bit discomfort because some of the people are struggling. Folks, there's people in the world struggling and we've got to prepare to be uncomfortable. And so when we look at the accountability, see, I'm going to go through biblical accountability and bear with me. Just let these sink over in your head because when they come back to something a bit more profound later. So first of all, the Greek word used here in accountability, giving a count to one another that comes across in New Testament is logosemia. And it actually means to a reckoning or written record. So in Revelation, when it says you will call before the Father and give a count, it's going to be, well, where is your life like? Let me just flip through and just see what's written down about things that have happened in your life and how you've served God, how you've got out of your comfort zone, how you've made it apparent to people around you that Jesus is alive and well and they need to hear the gospel. Have you spoken correctly in front of people? Have you acted a certain way? And, you know, I don't know whether it's going to happen or not, but I'm wondering if you'll flip through and say, oh, Doug. So the intersection of Grant and Torrance Road, you got cut off. What was your biblical response to that? You give what I'm getting at? So the accountability is about what's written. And so when we understand biblical accountability, it says we almost give an account. So it happens in three ways. One is direct relationship with God. Every individual stands directly responsible before God. So first of all, it's about a relationship with God. So remember the R. The R stands for relationship. The R stands for relationship. So it's the first part of biblical accountability. The second one is the consequences of our choices. Our decisions have spiritual and practical implications. One of the great joys I had of being ministering in a little town like Gatton is the church was across the road from the courthouse. And so being the chaplain of the footy club, and I promise to keep these illustrations down to one every six months, is that I'd get a knock on the door and this unit would come through the door. So, Dougie, you got a minute? What's the problem, man? Oh, I just really need to speak to you. I'm going, oh, beauty, I'll get to share the gospel. Yeah, please come and sit down. What's going on? I've got to go to court for punching a guy at the pub. Will you write me a letter? And so we wrote a letter to the magistrate. I think the magistrate must know me so well out there. He rotates around, I'm sure. But one of the things I talk to them about is that, OK, what have you done? And do you realize there's going to be consequences here? Because if you're expecting to get off scot-free, I've got news for you, pal, it's not happening. You tell me everything you've done and we're going to write it in the letter. And the first time that happened, they went a bit sort of white and clammy, thinking this is it, I'm going away to jail. But what we did was it helped the magistrate to see this person is owning up. So the choices they've made had consequences and they realized that. The choices we make before God have consequences, they have practical implications. It's not sometimes as easy as just getting the tick off, but it's about how we are inactoring with each other and in the world. The third one is opportunity for redemption. It's not all doom and gloom. There's an opportunity there for accountability. It's not about condemnation, but about restoration. Every time we're called into account, every time God taps you on the shoulder, every time the Holy Spirit says, do you think you should be doing that? That is God saying, turn around and look at me because I need you to concentrate on me because your consequence, your actions are going to end this way. Even though you're a believer, you love me, you're a child of God, there's still consequences. But if you are willing to be reconciled with me, you're willing to be contrite and come under my love and grace, then you will be redeemed. You will be in restoration with me. So the three things, R, C and O. Remember those as we go through the message and please remember as we go through this series about learning from the letters of James, Living Out Faith, because this is what it's about. It joins us all together. Now who's excited to go ahead? I'm sorry. Oh, well done. Okay. Because it's written in the book of Hebrews and if we have that, I haven't got the verse up there, I'm going to read to you. So if you want to open up and follow me through, can I just say this? I've never said this yet, but when I'm quoting scripture and I'm talking through messages, please read through your scriptures that I talk about. And if you have an issue with me, come and talk to me about it. I want to see what God's revelation to you is. So don't just say, oh, Pastor Doug's just writing anything up on the wall. I just hope it's there. Make sure it's right. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him whom we must give account. This is the accountability we're looking about in James. Okay. So this is what we're going to do. We're going to discover. So in James is five chapters and there's five accountability. There's accountability to God's word, which we're going to look at today. There's accountability to active works, which we're going to look at speaking next week. Is that you, Pastor Dave? Dylan, Pastor Dylan, that's right. Activity to one's words, activity to transforming worship and, and sorry, accountability to each other. So the five accountability is through the whole of the book. So there's many, many parts in the chapters, but there's sort of like a central theme at each part, each chapter that draws it together. And so when we look at chapter one, the central theme is accountability to God's word. What does God's word teach us? What does God's challenges? And what does God's word get us to do when we come into, we're coming into relationship with him? So we lived out faith is James, lived out faith. I'm just going to read a short passage of James, not the whole thing. So you will hope, anyone hoping to hear about other things in James or do apologize, perhaps you can read it yourself when you're ready for your message, bring it to me and we'll let you preach. There's some gifted people in this church right here. So that's awesome. My dear brothers, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to become angry. For man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and evil that is prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror. Now, if the look at it in himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does. If he only considers himself religious and he does not keep the light, tight rain on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Can you see the RCO coming through there? You can see through as we read through. There's that relationship with God, the consequences and there's redemption. And so there's an understanding when we read through this passage and we're looking at this accountability in this little short section, it helps us to understand that a bit better. And I pray it is for you too. I also encourage you to take notes. Growing up in this church, a long time ago, I used to sit and take notes of all the pastors that started. And back in the early days, I want to encourage you with this note-taking thing, that when Pastor Dave first came here, as in Dave Loder, he used to do this thing like a clothes activity. So he used to give you the bulletin with the first word and a line of the title of the section and then he'd have dot points in the first word. We used to sit there and try and guess them. And so me and the other young people would be going, okay, it's about abominations and trust. And then Dave would put it up on the screen, ah, we used to go through. That's how Dave knew we were taking notes. He might have realized that at the time, but it had a profound effect on me. And I pray that as God is teaching you things, write it down. Type it on your phone. Please do not type on Facebook or Instagram or those things during the service, but certainly write something down. R-C-O. Relationship with God. Consequences and reconciliation or redemption. Okay, let's get into it, shall we? Being accountable to God's word in this passage takes in three sections. Some of them overlap, but some of them don't. But I'm praying that as you go through, you'll be able to say, oh yeah, that one really speaks to me or that one, yeah, it's okay, it fits in this way. So the first one is hearing the word of God in 1.19.20. So what gets in your way of your relationship with God? Because the first part of this little passage speaks about those things. And James is quite adamant and quite specific about the things that will keep you from hearing from God. So if we're going to be accountable to God, we need to be able to hear God. Also if we're going to be accountable to God, we need to receive the word of God. And that's roughly 1.21-22. And that's about holding on to it and keeping it close to you. About writing it on the doorpost of your frame and teaching your children over meals. It's about letting people know that, yeah, I'm a Christian. When I was teaching years ago, I used to have in the back of my room Bible verses on bits of cardboard I wrote up and stuck to the wall. I don't think it was actually allowed to be happened and called to government rules, but I got away with it for years. And kids would come into my room and they'd look up and they'd read a Bible verse and they'd sit down. And right in the middle east have this big word, pray. And so they come in, they see, pray. And after a while they'd say, sir, what does that mean? What's pray mean? I said, oh, that's so I pray that I don't kill you. And they'd go, I beg your pardon, sir. I'm not joking. I pray they won't find the body. No, what I'm talking about is that when we write stuff down, we put it in places, it has an impact. I've got a piece of board in my place and it's got a Jeteronomy 6.4 on it, which is love the Lord, your God, all your heart and all your soul and all your strength. And when you're right, and I've got that to hang up and I've had it on my house for years, but let's people know when they come, hang on, this person here has got some weird thing happening. And the really tough one for really one I love is when you look through the curtains or the blinds and you see the J-Dubs come and knock on the door. And they knock on the door and they knock on the door and they look over and read the sight and the knocking face down. And when they open the door, say, we'd like to talk to you about, yes, come on in. Let's talk about Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior. When we write it down, it has an impact. I encourage you to do that. And when then the last one, the third one is obeying the word. It's about actually putting it into action. It's about saying, yes, Lord, I will do what you ask me to do. To the best of the ability you've given me, the strengths and gifts you've given me, I will obey your word. Whether it's serving you first hand or whether it's serving in the church or it's serving in the community, I will obey your word, what you've called me to do. So when we hear the word, we have an opportunity then to say, well, what can get in place of that word? Paul starts off, he says, take note of this. Now, when he says that, he is, sorry, Peter, James is saying this, I'm used to the epistles, James says, take note of this. That means the first importance. So when he says at the start of it, he says, my dear brothers and sisters, take note of this, everyone should. He's saying this is really important. This is not just about ticking the box for a Sunday. This is about application for my life. So what gets in the way? Well, failing to heed gets in the way of taking note of this. Failing to actually listen what God is teaching you. I had a lady one day sat through the service and I spoke about a particular topic and then my wife was talking to somebody later, that person later and that person was complaining about this and this and she said, didn't you hear what Doug just said in the message? She said, oh, I don't come to church to listen to the sermon. I come to do this or that. And I thought, wow, I'm going to lift my game. That's why I used to invent things to get people's attention. I used to sort of subtly weave in what it means to work with sheep and how you get sheep's attention and what it means to be on the oval clearing kids off at the end of play. I won't do it today. What gets in the way of hearing God's word effectively is unrighteousness. That's the self important anger, unrighteous anger where I have a demand to do this. This is me and I'm like this and you better get out of my way. There is no place for that in the kingdom of heaven, none whatsoever. So when you're shining a light in the community, I encourage you with all empathy, please, I implore you, keep a check on your anger. Keep a check on the thing that's going to be your weak point. Satan loves to find a chink in our armor and he'll make sure that is something that he prods when we're in the company of others, no matter what age you are. And unrighteous anger, self important anger is one of them. And then it's caused us self righteousness. And we're not called to be self righteous, we're called to be humble. We're called to come in and understand what God is doing. It's a yes Lord, I'm going to have a crack at that. Yes Lord, with your strength I can do that. Because this remember is faith lived out. This is R, C, O, relationship, consequences, and choices, and redemption, and reconciliation. So what can stop you from hearing when verse 21 says these words, therefore get rid of all filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly. Accept the word planted in you which can save you. Get rid of it all. Get rid of it, get rid of it. So how do you get rid of it? You confess. One John 1.9 says if you confess your sins he is merciful and just restore you into righteousness. You call that keeping short accounts to God. You can, people have knee jerk reactions. Something happens to you and you go straight away. And then you go oh man what to do that for? If you could try it in the heart and say Lord please forgive me and please Lord I pray this hasn't affected my witness, God says thank you for being submissive and thank you for being humble and spirit and thank you for coming to me and confessing that. Keep short accounts with God. When you live out your works your faith lived out and you're keeping short accounts with God your witness is strong. We have a saying in sports it says never settle. When we never settle what we're saying is that what we're doing now is okay but I know it can be better. In rugby league we used to say if you can make 10 tackles in a quarter then you can make 15 tackles. If you can hit the ball up 10 times then you can hit the ball up 12 times. And so when we have that understanding of not to settle we can say in our faith just because I'm sitting here in lovely plush seats in an air conditioned church in 21st century first world church doesn't mean we need to settle. It means we need to think God what can we do better? What can I do better to serve you Lord? I was wondering about church membership when I was writing this and thinking about how many people are a church members and how many people are sitting on the fringe of membership and are not committed to the life of God. They're committed to the life of God but perhaps not formally committed to church. Perhaps there's something you can think about if you're not a member. If you're not baptized what's holding you back from being baptized? It's about not settling. It's about saying how can I serve deeper? How can I lift my game for God? When you never settle and you're saying Lord teach me it's R-C-O. We have to accept we are a work in progress to, it's Ephesians 2.10 says, but we are God's workmanship, handy work created in Christ Jesus to do good works for which God prepared in advance for us to do. God doesn't waste his time on junk. God is preparing you for some wonderful work and you may be thinking it now and can tick the box. I'm doing this and I used to say this thing, I've got a Paul Hogan head wobble. You know what that is? Who knows what Paul Hogan is? Oh my gosh, sorry. Took about unrelatable. Paul Hogan was a character in the 70s and admittedly his content was questionable but as a young man who wasn't a Christian I found him hilarious. But he had something that I think transcends that and that is the Paul Hogan head wobble. He used to walk along going, get out of here and he'd say I'm pretty good. So when you have the Paul Hogan head wobble you're saying I'm pretty good, I've got everything happening for me. We don't need the Paul Hogan head wobble, we need to understand that God has got something purpose for us to do. So if our faith is lived out, we're saying Lord I'm a person of faith, how can I be more effective for you? We have to allow ourselves to be shaped in Romans 9, 21. Does not the potter have the right to make out the same lump of clay, some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? You've heard it said that we have different gifts. There's about 22 gifts in the New Testament they talk about. One of them is the gift of hospitality. That is people who just make you feel so comfortable, they say come on in, nothing's ever a problem and they sit you down, you feel like you've just been just so smothered in love. I love those people. I believe I have the gift of visiting. I just love to go to those places and just connect with people and things like that. But when you're shaped, God uses your shape. Some people wonder about their shape. Is this appropriate or how do I make my shape fit into the box? God is saying he's got something prepared for you. Today I believe that God is speaking to hearts and minds. There are folk here today that I believe that when we sing the last song, they're going to do business with God. I'm not predicting some prophetic thing, I'm just saying that when the Holy Spirit is speaking, he gives us little taps on the shoulder. Let me just give you an example of a firm belief that people have known me for a long time, many years, have come across. When we do something and we have two reactions, we either have a feeling of guilt or a feeling of conviction. Now I believe that the feeling of guilt comes from Satan, he's the accuser, says that in the word. And he says, how could you do that? You're supposed to be a Christian. That is terrible. You're the worst Christian in the world. How can you hold your head up in your Bible study? How can you come to church and sing those words when you've just done this? But if we're convicted by the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit taps you on the shoulder, the outcome of that is love. Because God is saying, do you really think you should be doing that? You know that I want better for you. I know that I want you to come back here, pull your head in a bit. So the accuser is guilt, conviction is love. So when the Holy Spirit taps you on the shoulder, he's not trying to make you feel guilty for not doing something or saying something or not doing something properly. The Holy Spirit is saying, hang on a second, you need to get this right with my Heavenly Father because we need to be together in this. I want to encourage you with that. The other thing that can be holding us back is access to the last room. And in this slide here, we'll have just a basic drawing of a house. And in this thing, it can stop us from hearing because what we say is Jesus comes through the front door. That's supposed to be that block. I do a lot of things with shape. I don't know how to use Canva or anything else. And he comes through there and you can access any room in the house, but just don't go back there, Jesus, because that's the stuff I haven't dealt with. I don't really want to deal with it because I like being angry from time to time. Jesus, I like being able to swear from time to time. Jesus, I just like to have my own way from time to time. Don't let me, don't go on the back door. We can have the rest of the house. It's all yours. Feel free. Folks, we've got to unlock that door. You've got to say, Jesus, come on in. Deal with this thing in the back door because I know it's holding me back from living my faith out for you. R-C-O. Relationship, consequences, and choices, relationship, and redemption, sorry, redemption and reconciliation. So if you've got a back door, about a back room that's given you problems, can I say now, do business with God? Can I challenge you to that today? God's spoken to you. He said, yeah, you need to work this one out because it's holding you back, man. Number two is receiving the word. When we receive God's word, it says in verse 22, things start to happen for us. It says, do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourself, but do what it actually says. Sometimes we're good at twisting the Bible. I had a young man in youth group years and years ago, and he said, oh, I love the Bible. It's really good stuff, Douglas. Oh, really? I said, yeah. He said, I love reading through it so I can tell people where they're going wrong. And I said, really? I said, do you understand what the Bible's about? He said, you don't read that past, you think, oh, my gosh, I need to do something about this. He said, no, no, no. He said, don't read that. So I know, yes, you're doing this and you're doing this and you're doing this. And it was just, he got it around the wrong way. We didn't understand that when we see it, we need to do what it says. We need to hold that close to our hearts. It's really discipleship training plus action. And you've been on a discipleship journey for the last couple of years. Edmund came and spoke a couple of years ago and did a seminar, which I heard was very good, great stuff. And then we've been doing integrated study on it soon. We're looking at these book has been going through the church and about growing in faith. It's all, these things are happening. So let's keep building on that. Let's think, okay, how can we make this dynamic for God? How can we give it power? How can we see the kingdom changed and the kingdom impacted through the stuff that we've learned? Read the word, see the word and do what it says. In Colossians two, six, it says this. So then just as you receive Christ, Jesus's Lord, continue to live your lives out in him. So basically it's about what happens when we consider ourselves to application of knowledge. Always live in your life out for Jesus. Teaching and training is in 2 Timothy 3 16 to 17. All scripture is God breathed and is useful sometimes for teaching, sometimes for rebuking, sometimes for correcting and sometimes for training and righteousness. So that sometimes the servant of God may be perhaps equipped for good works. Is that what it says? Oh no, not sometimes. No, it doesn't say that at all. There's no sometimes in it. This is what it says. Got to find it again. My eyes are all blurry. All scriptures God breathed is used for teaching and for rebuking and for correcting and for training and righteousness. The first three of those words are uncomfortable words. And sometimes we like to twist them around and be like, yeah, perhaps not. Can I challenge you to actually read that past your scripture? Pray into it and say, okay Lord, what's in it for me here? What is this about? How can I RCO here? What are some of the things I need to do? And the third one is obeying the word. When we obey the word, then we have a different understanding as well. There's an expression that says copy that. Copy that. I've heard it on TV shows, particularly people in the military. And I hope I've got the definition right to all the ex-military people here. Is that when you say copy that, say, I understand I will do. I have heard you loud and clear and I can follow that. Copy that. So when God says, I need you to do this, you go copy that Lord. But if you can't copy that, you go, okay, how can I copy that? What's something I need to do here? Is my attitude to my heart need to change? Is there something I need to bring into place with Him? Is there something that's stopping me and blocking me? Because when we obey the word, that's when we see fruit of the kingdom of God. Not a fleeting glance to take a good hard look at yourself. It says there, look at the mirror, but don't just have a good hard look at yourself. If you have any experience in the world, every now and then this expression comes up. It comes up because people want you to be honest about yourself. They want you to look at yourself and say, do you really think you, I think the Brisbane Broncos need to have a good hard look at themselves. I don't know how they walk into the dressing shed after the game and look in the mirror and go, gee, I played a good game tonight because it didn't look like it to me. But then again, I'm not out there running around. Certainly not with this body. You see, when we take the fleeting glance, we look at all aspects of fleeting glances and sometimes our fleeting glance can be just church on Sunday. I remember hearing this in church on Sunday and therefore it's great and then you get home Monday morning and forget all about it. It's not just that as well. And as we move through Ephesians 4 once, worthy in practice, unity, as the prisoner of the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of your calling that you have received. Live your life a worthy life. Live out your faith in action. And lastly, obedience is found in our love for God because that's where it all comes from. It doesn't come from our works. John 14, 23 says, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My father will love them and he, sorry, and we will come to them and make a home with them. Couldn't you imagine any more greater tap on the shoulder? Then God's saying, well done, good and faithful servant. You've done a great job because you've obeyed me. You've lived your faith out. The kingdom has changed. People's lives are affected and people understand who Jesus is. I've heard the gospel. Your actions, your specific actions in the last 10 minutes have made an impact as much as your actions 20 years ago or 30 years ago. So James is going to keep us accountable for the next few weeks. I pray you sign up for it. I pray you tell your friends about it. Say, hey, listen, you need to come along and hear this. If you can't hear it in person, please come along, watch it on TV, watch it online because Jesus is talking about accountability here. We need to understand this better as a church family. We need to say we need to keep each other accountable. We need to be accountable for God, R-C-O. We need to have God in our lives. So we need to hear the word and to get rid of the outside noises, the other noises. We need to receive the word, surrender to it. We need to obey the word to walk the talk. If you'd like to come up, I'm going to pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, that you wish that none would perish, but all would come to know who you are, the Lord and Savior. Father, we know that you don't want us to be static in our faith as well. You want us to grow in that. Lord, we thank you for the teaching we've had in the past while. Lord, it gives us the tools. Lord, help us to put those into practice. Lord, give us eyes to see what you see. So Father, the kingdom of heaven will grow, but people who don't know you as Lord and Savior will come to a closer understanding and surrender to you. I thank you for the hands and feet in this congregation, for your faithful servants who desire to see your will done on heaven and on earth. And Father, I pray as we go into this coming week that won't be a case of, well, that was great, but Lord, what can we do? Lord, how can we be motivated? Help us, Lord, to understand what it means, Lord, to have a relationship with you. Father, to understand what our consequences and our choices are, and Father, to understand and to share what it means to be redeemed and reconciled with you. Father, you are a loving God. Walk, as we pray, in your name, amen.