James Week 4

Sermon Transcript:

I want to add my welcome. So good to see you guys say welcome to those of y'all that are online or they're listening later on podcast. We are in the middle of a series on the book of James and real excited about today, because we really get to the main point of the whole book of James. And it's his phrase that faith without works is dead, you may have heard that before that, that faith without deeds is non existent or dead. So we're gonna see what that's all about. And we're gonna continue again, our series in the book of James. So we're gonna start out in chapter two, beginning in verse 14, this morning, and here's what it says, says this, what good is it? Dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith, but you don't show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or a sister who has no food or clothing and you say, goodbye, have a good day, stay warm and eat well, but you don't give that person any food or clothing? What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn't enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue some people have faith, others have good deeds. But I say how can you show me your faith, if you don't have good deeds, I will show you my faith by my good deeds. So again, it's that phrase that again, even among culture, you may understand this or know this, that faith without good deeds is dead. I have a couple of images I'm going to show us this morning, I want to go ahead and put up that first one. It's just this whole idea that we come in, we understand that we have come and we have gathered to worship, we worship through song, through prayer, through gathering and community. And so that's, that's real. But the way that we know it's real, is that we have then from that good deeds that our life now lives and we walk by faith. So what I've shown here is that worship, with no action, no walking, no steps of obedience, and what God has for us is, quite frankly, it's dead. And so this is meant to be an image that we can think about as we move forward in the book of James to say, man, let us not be fooled this morning, and throughout the rest of our time here on Earth, to think that we're okay with Jesus, just because we we believe we worship, but yet it hasn't turned in to any sort of walking by faith and obedience. Jesus talked about this with the Sermon on the Mount, he sort of address this issue of how do we know what are we supposed to do? So when the mount is in the book of Matthew 567, and he Jesus, he talks about a tree and its fruit. And here's what he says, Beware of false prophets, who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit, a good tree can't produce bad fruit. And a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit. So you can identify people by their actions. So it's the same idea here that Jesus is talking about, he gives this image that we're gonna come back to and reference a couple times in our talk this morning. And that is of the tree garden, what you bring them on water, I'm sorry, the the tree is that whole idea of that we have the fruit that we can know. And so we understand that there's the roots of anybody that we can't see, but we can see the fruit. This is important because right from the get go. In our individualistic society, we feel a little bit a little bit squeamish in trying to sort of what we would call judging other people or noticing about other people and making comments or thinking about the validity of someone's faith. Because we're taught you you can't, you can't go there. That anybody's individual, or individual identity is their personal faith, or identity. But we've come to see that individualism in hypermobile leads to some of the identity crisis's that we're facing on our day. It's not the only reason that we're facing identity crisis, but it's a part of it right? Because anytime that we as an individual are able to define for ourselves, who we are and what is good. We will run into trouble whether you're in a Christian culture or another culture. Why? Because it is the people it is the community of people that when you rub up against one another, that you are honed that people sort of say and we'll tell you and we'll be straight with you and telling you who you are and what they see or observe in your life. So when it comes to the Christian community, we can quite regularly say, Listen, I can't see hearts. In other words, like, there's no way for anybody, myself or anyone in this room or anyone on Earth didn't really be certain of someone's spiritual condition. In other words, I, you can't cut me open, I can't cut you open and see the inner you, the inner man, the inner woman, we can just see flesh, but we see and experience someone's life, their faith, or lack thereof, their fruit, or lack thereof, or their obedience, or lack thereof. That's what this is all about this whole idea of faith and works. Now again, with works oftentimes, or deeds, we think of those things that are typical. In Christian charity organizations. There's nothing wrong with that. So we think of work in deeds in terms of, you know, going to the soup kitchen or helping out, you know, maybe an orphanage or, or helping out the homeless or something like that. And yes, that's tied up into that. And that does flow from the charity groups, even from the church. But what we're mostly talking about is walking by faith that leads to those kinds of actions and all sorts of other things of obedience in our life. So let's look at just basic definition of faith. This is Webster's Dictionary, what is faith, it's complete trust or confidence in someone or something. Faith is complete trust or competence in someone or something. So you and I, we can know where our faith really lies based on what we trust or believing. It's not what we say, that's that that is maybe a start, or that maybe gives an indication. But the proofs in the pudding is what we used to say, the truth is in what we walk out, so we may say we value in love, whatever, a spouse, or a car, or our church. But if other things don't follow in terms of finances, and time and obedience, then we can say, well, that's not really true faith, because what you really trusted in itself, or something else that you've made up or crafted over here. So that's kind of a generic version of faith, which we all know is true. The very understanding of faith is to step out into the unknown. It's believing God to do what he said, he's going to do, in spite of with our eyes, not being so sure confident in it, right? We walk by faith, not by sight, Hebrews 11, one gives us a biblical definition of faith. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen. One of the things that we're going to learn this morning through this talk is that we're going to see that the more we're in a culture that either struggles with Christianity or straight up rejects Christianity, the more we're going to have to be people of faith, that are going to be okay with looking a little bit odd to everyone around us. Because we're holding the line of faith and obedience, we can only do that we can only walk by faith, if we understand that we have some assurance of things hoped for, and we have some conviction of the life and things to come. And he said another way, Faith without action is no faith at all. Faith without action is no faith at all. He got the illustration here in the book of James, where he talks about that fact that what good is it for you and I to to come to somebody and say, hey, you know, be well pat them on the head and send them on, but don't do anything for them. Because we do the same thing. We do the same thing. When we you ever joined a gym, and you have a gym membership? You're like I believe in working out I am for it. Everybody in here is for everybody believes that if we eat right and workout, well, we'll have a better healthier lives better bought or whatever. But what happens is we just we just drove right by that we're gonna lose. That's all we got boys. I'm good, right? We think that somehow is that making a skinnier? You tell me, is it? No, it's just an acknowledgement. We know. That's right. But unless we actually go in there and work out it doesn't do us like a good. It's like having a license. A lot of young people today don't get licenses at 16. I don't quite understand that. But that was a rite of passage. But that's just talk for another day. But but when you get that license, why would I put that license in my back pocket or in my purse?

What do you do? What are you doing gonna do with that license? You're gonna do what you're gonna drive? What? Why would you have a license that you never then engage in a vehicle, you never put it in drive and go down the road? It's pointless. And that's what he's trying to get us to understand here is that our faith without action is no faith at all. This is a different kind of doctrine. It's called the perseverance of the saints. So the idea that we will go to the end, but we used to say that a faith that fails before the finish had a flaw from the first that's a lot of words in there. But But if that if that resonates with you, I think you understand, because it goes back to that tree goes back to that tree that Jesus was referencing that we know people and we know our own hearts if we're honest with ourselves by what it's producing. Well, James goes on. And he continues in this frame of thought. He goes into verse 19. And he says this, he says, You say you have faith, good. You believe that there is one God good for you. Even the demons believe this and they tremble in terror. How foolish in other words, how foolish to bank on just a outward belief or orthodoxy that you think you're okay with God can't you see that faith without good deeds is useless. Now, again, some of us who have been around the Bible or been around the gospel for a long time, our antennas are starting to go up more say, Wait a second, I thought were saved by faith alone, through grace alone, that sort of the sort of the great Protestant sort of what came out of the Reformation some 500 years ago. And isn't that true, it is true. But we're going to see how that coincides or works alongside with James message. But let's just be real clear about how most of us think about faith and works in our culture, and maybe many of you that we sort of think, Okay, I've got my faith, and I've got things that I'm supposed to do, whether it's do nice things for my family, for strangers for all these things. And I think that I'll take my faith, I believe in Jesus, I'm taking my works that I'm doing on this earth, and I sort of sort of, you know, stir them up in a blender, or, or in a soup or in a pot, and then hopefully, whatever I've done when I, when I die was sort of tipped the scales to where I'll be led into heaven. And that's what many sorts of religions sort of thing. But that's not Christianity. It's very important. And here's what Biblical Christianity or, or the Gospel says this, this whole idea that faith leads to salvation, which leads to works. Faith leads to salvation, which leads to works, I have a screen of that. And so this is important, because how do we come to faith? Well, all of us whether we were brought up as a little child, maybe at eight years old, because of your family. And because of your parents, you said, Okay, I believe I see that. And I understand that Jesus says, I see my own sin, and I repent, and I trust in Christ, or for others of us, you came as an adult, you came to the end of the rope, you came to the end of the line, and you just said, I'm done. I'm out, I'm tapping out no more about me anymore. I turned to Christ. And so at that moment, your faith, that's the gift from God anyways, but your faith, what did it look, do? It led you to salvation, that you couldn't help but to cry out to God, and God saved you. But it necessarily leads to works, this is so important, because that can't just be a well, it'll be nice if I get around to the works. what James is saying that is if is if you think you had a faith that led to salvation, but it doesn't also lead to works, then you don't have the faith and salvation that you think you do. So that's where he's going with all this now has to be real careful. Because we have to understand that the gospel and how we view works are so important of whether we view works. So that are because of what I mean by that. If you and I view works that, okay, I'm gonna do this for God, and I'm gonna do this for God, I'll do this for God, so that maybe he'll accept me at the end. So I'll get in on the curve kind of thing. You remember that in school that I'll squeaked by, you will make a wreck of your life and you're making a wreck of the gospel. But if you and I walked by faith, because of what he's done for me, because he set my feet upon a rock, and because he saved me, I love Him because He first loved me. And then out of that heart of worship, flows, all this life of faith that leads to all kinds of good for self and others. There, we've got the gospel. We do not view works so that God will accept us. We walk by faith in the works that he's laid out for us, because of what he's done. This made me become more clear as we look at a couple of more passages from a or not, I love the story of the forest soils. And Jesus talks about how he talks in parables. It's almost like code for those of us that are believers are coming to grips with our faith. Matthew 13, verses three and falling says this. Jesus told this parable He said, Look, a farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field. Some seeds fell on a footpath and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock, the seeds sprouted quickly, because the soil was the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun. And since they didn't have any deep roots, what happened they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was 3060 and even 100 times as much as had been planted. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. And so his disciples, His followers, when they got together later on, they begin to ask themselves like what does this mean and why do you always speak parables in Jesus is real clear. So those who need to hear and understand can hear and understand. And those that don't want anything to do with God will be further hardened in their own hearts. So, in the following verses, Jesus gives this explanation about the parable of the farmer planting seeds. He said, The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the kingdom and don't understand it the evil and comes and snatches away that seed that was planted in their hearts. Because this happens, this even happened to me this week, I was talking with someone, and the spirit can be quenched by someone else that they don't know if there being an instrument of Satan, because it doesn't able to get inside able to penetrate either because of the person's resistance or understanding, or because of circumstances in that moment. And so what happens is that people will hear and it's snatched away quickly by the evil one, others, according to verse 20, and follow the seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don't have deep roots, they don't last long. They fall away. As soon as they have problems, or are persecuted for believing God's word. I think about this in our day and age. And it's not just our church churches in our city and our community and across the American landscape, that when we came out of COVID, we looked around, and we just saw that there were fewer people with us, as believers in church community than when we first started this whole pandemic. And we asked ourselves why I thought he or she was with us, I thought they were worshipping right alongside us, they seem to have received the word with joy, right alongside me, they were baptized, the same week I was or the week after what was happening here. And the Scriptures tell us, sadly, they have fallen on the rocky soul to hear the message and immediately receive a joy. But since they don't have roots doesn't last long. And when there's something a trial that comes, they fall away, then the seed that fell among the thorns represent those who hear God's word. But all too quickly, the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, and the lore of wealth. So no fruit is produced. This is scary. This is where many of us find ourselves. And we maybe can be confession around this room. And we found ourselves for long seasons, not walking by faith, and we know it. Because we were so concerned what others thought we were so concerned about getting our kids maybe in that school, or in that sports program, or that we were so concerned about looking a certain way or getting that job that we just decided, now I'm going to go after this, and I'm going to put God in what he wants for me on the back burner, I'm going to be so concerned and care about worries of this world. It's just it's just going to choke out what it's gonna check out you and eyes opportunity to walk by faith, to walk by faith and no fruit can be produced. So how does this happen? It's the whole image of that we can be alive in our bodies, but we can be spiritually dead, you understand this, you've heard that term, dead man or dead woman walking, like you're,

I mean, you know, you're still around. But guess what, you're spiritually dead inside, because there's no fruit being produced. Because why? Because you and I, we're not walking by faith. We're trusting in what we can do. Or we're concerned about what others can do, or all these kinds of things. But the good news is, the seed that fell on the good soul represents those who truly hear, understand God's word and produce a harvest of 3060, even 100 times as much as they have planted. That's the dream isn't a church, as I hold up that tree, and you think about the roots that can go deep. And you and I understand that, that we can start a new family tree, even the families only a family of one or just you and a child or just you and a cousin or whoever it is that you understand that God by His grace, can write a new narrative, a new story for you and for me. And so what ends up happening here is that we understand that who's doing the work here, it's God, as we walk in obedience to Him. That's the dream. We all want to be said, at the end of our life, that boy, they were a cool breeze that you could come and find sanctuary and shelter under their shade, and that you could enjoy the fruit that was of their lives in their household. None of us in this room want to grow up to be bitter old men and women doing none of us knows when to be cranky and want to be those people who no one else wants to be around. We want to be strong men and women of faith who still believe God in our old age. But how's it gonna happen? He's gonna tell us some stories here that we can really really resonate with, I think this morning, beginning of verse 21. Continuing the same chapter, he says, James, don't you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar. You see his faith and his actions work together. His actions made his faith complete. And so it happened just as the scripture say, Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith. He was even called the friend of God. So you see, we are shown to be right with God, by what we do not by faith alone. Rahab the prostitute is another example. She was shown to me right was God by her actions when she hid the messengers and sent them safely away by a different road, just as the body is dead without breath, what an image there. So also faith is dead without good works. Now, I'm not going to assume we all know the story of Abraham in the testing. But I want to tell us that again, it's come from the book of Genesis chapter 22. And God he calls Abraham. And Abraham says, Yes, I am. Here I am. And this is what God tells Abraham says, Take your son, your only son, yes, Isaac, whom you love. So very much. This is the promise child. You remember, he and Sarah had Isaac in their old age and go to the land more, go and sacrifice him as a burnt offerings on one of the mountains, which I will show you. Next morning. Abraham got up early, he sold his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son Isaac did he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and sent off for the place God had told him. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. Stay here with the donkey. Abraham told the servants, the boy and I will travel a little further, we will worship there and then we will come right back. So Abraham place the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac shoulders while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together. Isaac turned to Abraham said, Father, yes, my son, Abraham replied, We have fire and we have wood. The boy said, but where's the sheet for the burnt offering? God will provide a sheet for the burnt offering my son Abraham answered, and they both walked on together. When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arrange the wood on it. Then he tied his son Isaac laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. At that moment, the angels Lord called him from heaven, Abraham, Abraham, yes, Abraham reply, here I am, Don't lay a hand on the boy angel said, Do not hurt him in any way. For now I know that you truly fear God, you have not withheld from me, even your son, your only son than Abraham looked up, saw ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So he took the ram sacrifice on the burnt offering in place of his son, Abraham named the place The LORD Will Provide church that's so important The LORD Will Provide to this day people still use that name as a proverb on the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided the angel called Abraham from heaven. This is what the Lord says, because you've obeyed me and not withheld your son, you only son, I swear that by my own name, I will bless you, I will multiply your descendants beyond the number like the stars in the sky in the stands on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of your enemies and through your descendants, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Because you have obeyed me. That's just a fascinating passage there. And you may be familiar with that it's even somewhat familiar in our culture, I get that. But think about what's going on there. And that is that he had to walk through those steps of obedience, all of us would just be like, Hey, God, I get out, this is gonna go you're all powerful. You gave me this promise child, you've already given me the promise that through him, all the nations will be blessed. So how can we just give them a hard pass? How about you just understand that my heart is with you, God, and don't make me walk through this steps of obedience, because even though I believe in I trust you, God, and we know from Hebrews that he believed that somehow God would bring his son back from the dead if he had to go through with the sacrifice. You and I might be like, everyone be like, Hey, let's let's let's find easier way for me to prove my faith in obedience. And you got but that's not what happened. He was blessed in following through with what God said. And what's interesting is, if you put back up those verses there, where it's talking about Abraham, what's interesting is that what do we come to see this as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteous because of his work because of his faith? He said, No, I thought it was all about his obedience, of course, in his obedience flows from what his faith so important. Well, there's another story, very, very dissimilar from Abraham. And we'll talk about the contrasting here in a minute. And that's about Rahab, the prostitute. Another great famous story, you may be familiar with it the walls of Jericho. Were going to come down because of Joshua, in the book of Joshua, but before that happened, Joshua was sent out to spies to survey the land. And these two spies came to the house of Rahab and they stay there for a night. And then the king of Jericho he found out about this. And so they sent their men to rehabs house and they said this bring up the men who have come into your house for they have come here to spy out the whole land. Rahab hit the two men, she replied. Yes, the men were here earlier, but I didn't know who they are. Where are where they were from? They left town at dusk as the gates were about to close, I don't know where they went. If you hurry, you can probably catch up with them. And in Scripture say actually, she had taken them into the roof and hid them beneath bundles of flax she had laid down. So the king's men went out looking for the spies along the road leading to the shallow crossings of the Jordan River. And as the king's men left, the gate of Jericho was shut. What's the point of this story? This woman took great risks to her own life. Think about this. She's not a woman of high stature. They come to her she lies, to what to the king's guards. And she does this as an act of faith. How do we know that? says this right here before the spies went to sleep that night, Rahm went up to the roof to talk to them. She says, I know that the Lord has given you this land. We're all afraid of you, everyone that lay in his living in terror. Why? Because we've heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt.

We know what happened in these two other cities that were completely destroyed. No wonder our hearts melted in fear. No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the Lord your God is the supreme god of the heavens above and the earth below. And so then she asked them, Hey, can you be give me some certainty that if and when because she knows what's gonna happen? You come and destroy the city that my household will be saved, not just me, but my whole family. And they said we will. As long as you uphold your end of the bargain. She said, Okay, wait three days, for these men who went out looking for you to come back. And then y'all y'all sneak on back out. And so that's exactly what happened. And they returned back to Joshua. And here's what they say to Joshua, at the end of this chapter in Joshua, chapter two, the Lord has given us the whole land they sold him. For all the people in the land are terrified of us. You see what's going on here? It's just everyday mundane things, that they're walking by faith that have huge, what huge repercussions for their lives. Right. There's no big cameras going on here. There's no big fanfare. It's just obedience from these two individuals who are very different. I'm going to point out some of their differences, that allows them to be what mothers and fathers of the faith let's think about Abraham, he was the father of the Hebrews, head or father of three main world religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. He's a man of power, money and respect. He was the who's who of his day in 2000 BC, well documented. He was a recipient of God's promise, he say, Well, of course, Abraham had faith, he literally had God talking to him and and RA told him that all the nations will be blessed through his own child. Okay, well, that's one end of the spectrum. The other end of spectrum is Rahab. Rahab is a Gentile prostitute, not even a Jewish one. So one who is outside of the family and faith in the Old Testament, her status is not high in society, right? We understand that. And she's a breaker of the moral laws of that day, in our day as well. But what does God do? He chooses to use these people, and all of us in between, because we find ourselves this morning, somewhere in between that, right? Somewhere in between, of guilt ridden in crazy sexual stuff, and high society or somewhere in between. And God wants to use all of us as we walk out in obedience to faith. He said, Wait a second, I thought it was faith alone. grace alone, again, already brought it up the Protestant Reformation. What's going on here? How does James sort of fit with what I know about faith alone and grace alone, the idea that we're justified by faith? That's really key in the book of Romans, chapter three, Paul, the apostle Paul, he writes that way and talks that way. James, he appears to say that we're justified by works, but here's the word, here's the word that we need to understand is that you and I can use the same terms, but use them in different ways. And I think that's exactly what's going on here. Paul, when he says we're justified by faith, he means that we're declared righteous from God's perspective, going back to what we talked about what the gospel that when you and I come to faith, we bend the name, and bow the heart, God declares us righteous. Here's the good righteous judge, he says, bone, when I look at you, I now see my son, he he paid the penalty for your sin and mine. So we're justified were declared righteous by faith, from God's perspective, James is talking about something else. He means that we're justified by faith means that we're proved righteous in the sight of others and how we walk that out. That's what that means. It means we're justified by faith or the idea that Paul is telling us how we can go from darkness to light, right? That we just understand that like, just like him, who met Christ on the road to Damascus, whether we were a little child or we were older, when we met Christ boom, we understood in our spiritual eyes that we went from darkness to light. James is teaching us how to walk in the light. Very different, but same idea. Paul is talking about the root of salvation. If you want to put up that image of the tree again, we could see, Paul, he's talking about the roots. This is our salvation. This is what you and I can't see. But that occurred in all of us who are men and women of faith. James is talking about what the fruit, the fruit of our salvation, what people can see, and what can be picked from and what can be provided for shade and nourishment. Paul is talking about an inward disposition, right, which is so important. The inner life we talked about that was prayer and scripture in taking all kinds of ways in which we commune with the Father. James is talking about our outward actions, what it actually means for us to walk out our faith, which we know is so important, and we have a dead faith. All this leads to the last point I wants to think about this morning. And that is expect great things from God, and attempt great things for God. This is not original with me. It's a missionary, William Carey about two years ago in England. But I think the point remains, that we are a people who expect God to do great things. God needs to do great things corporately, in the life of life, church, everything from the song we sang, or listen to, or Chris's prayer, or this message, the scriptures. And now this quote, We are people who are expectant, for God to move. I think about James, we chose this image intentionally of the Borderlands show. This is our home. When you and I walk out these doors, we are a people who think man, God is gonna do some with me today, he's gonna use me in the borderline today. God, I don't know what you're gonna do. But I am ready. The second thing is, we got to attempt great things for God. The other thing I would just say is risk is right. If it's for God and his glory. Risk is right. I think about Esther, when they when her back was against the wall. And she was told, listen, your people are going to die and you're not going to escape this as well. And she says fast for three days. And I'm gonna go to the king. And if I perish, I perish. Now, I'm not talking about stupidity, okay, I'm not leading you into stupidity church for myself, or y'all. But what I am talking about is risk is right for faith, that if we want to see God do great things, and I want to see God do great things in my life. And in the life of Life Church, we have got to step out by faith, but the very nature of what faith is, is how we walk. And if you and I are waiting, until it's all panned out until I can see it all until I just know that everything's sort of safe and stable in my world. We're never gonna get there. We're gonna be like the rich young ruler, whom Jesus told him exactly what to do. And he couldn't handle it. And he walked away, because he felt like he had great wealth and he couldn't give it up. Guys, we're living in a day of transition, you feel it, right. As soon as you and I walked in this room, we understand that post COVID Throughout the history of the world, and we're in it right now. You're gonna look back and tell your grandkids or whatever. Post COVID was transition. And if you feel a little bit uncertain right now, if you feel like a man, the grounds not as solid as I remember it being it's because it is because you feel that which is around you. I feel it the church feels that we corporately feel it. What it's going to take for us to get through to the other side is some courageous men and women who raised step out on faith. This was gonna take church, I can't do it all for you. It's going to take all of us together to say, I'm gonna do it. I don't know what it means we all got different strongholds with y'all guys, little things that we believe we can't do. And we're missing out. We're missing out. We're just as we're just as like that. It says at the end here of these verses we're reading in the book of James. It says that. That it's like it's like a it's like a body without breath. So faith is dead without us acting in faith and good works. We all want someone someone you remember someone we talked about the tree we all want. We all want that tree that is so big and beautiful. And like I said, provides love and nourishment and shade for all who come up under our care. We all want to be people who when people know us to the day we go into the grave, we're known as someone who people want to be around that we have the what fragrance, the fragrance of life, the aroma of life as far as up to up to us we know that some people they'll think as us as the stench of death even we're trying to help them but we want to be that way. But what does it take? And so I'm one blessing as the one we all want to be blessed. I think I think I can have everybody's hands raised every man or woman says the I want that one blessing from God blesses the one who's not one Walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that centers take nor sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a what? Like a tree, like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its what fruit fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither whatever they do prospers. Now a lot of times, we want to stop right there. You know, the Scriptures do what they do. They tell us the negative if we don't step into it, and we said sometimes, is it just me? Like, I don't want to be told like how bad it's going to be an anyways. Oh, read up on someone. Not so with the wicked. They're like chaff, that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous, for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way the wicked leads to destruction, or may not be for us church,

may we be men and women who say, Okay, God, this is what it's always been about. I've been sitting on the sidelines too long, but this is what you always were calling me to do. And I'll do it a step out in faith. I'm gonna expect you to do great things, because you've done in the past, and I'm going to do it. I'm going to attempt great things for you. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank you for the examples of men and women who have gone before us. Help us Lord Jesus, we pray. I know in this room, there are people who hear the word of God and it gets snatched away quite quickly from the evil and I know there's others that the cares and concerns of the world are just too much just choking out choking out. And there's people in this room who the temptation to just walk away because it's getting tough and so strong. If other also trusted, there are hundreds in this room, and hundreds listening online, who say yes, yes, Lord Jesus, do it. Please do it, please, in my day and begin with me. I want to be a tree. I want that I want that. I want to be a tree that grows strong, deep root system, and I'll be known by my fruit. We ask this in Christ's name, Amen.