Well, we are talking in our series about love, What Does Love Look Like? Pastor Jerry kicked us off eloquently last week talking about the fact that love is thankful. This morning were talking about the fact that Love Is Verbal. I thought it would be good to back up a little bit and define love because in our culture we use the word love for a lot of things. We can say, I love the holidays. I love turkey. I love football. I love my country. I love my family. I love God. We use the word love for all the things that we love; yet we love them in different ways and to different degrees. Fellows, we dont love football to the same degree that we love our wives, right? Right, guys? Come on! Back me up on this! (Congregation laughing.) Man, Im telling you you guys are well, let me think. Calculate. Carry the four… Thats a no-brainer, guys. Yet, we use that same word love for all the things that we love.

In the Greek in the Bible, that word is much more specific. It uses specific words to talk about specific kinds of love that sometimes get lost in translation. This morning, were going to capture a little bit of that for you.

The word eros talks about passionate love-a man for a woman. Its a sensual, romantic love. Thats one kind of love.

Then theres phileo. You think of the name Phil and the word Leo; put them together to form one word, and thats phileo. It means an affection or brotherly love, a brotherly kind of affection. Phileo is a warm hug. Its an affection that we have for one another. It has to do with our friends, our families, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Then theres agape love. Thats a love were to have for the world. Thats a love were to have even for our enemies. That is the highest form of love. Agape love means this: to seek the highest and best for another. We do so unconditionally. To do so unconditionally means we seek the highest and best regardless of how they respond, regardless of whether or not they deserve it. Jesus said you can have agape even for your enemies. Chances are if your enemies get the highest and best in life, they wont be your enemies anymore. He said you need to agape even your enemies. Agape is referred to as the God kind-of-love. Why? Because God is agape. God is love. Thats what it says in 1 John 4:8. It doesnt say that agape love is something that God possesses, its a character trait that He has. No, its who He is. He is agape. Thats why John says when we love, we are being like our Father in Heaven because He is agape.

In 1 Corinthians 13:4 (page 1137 of pew Bibles), what does it say? It tells us what agape looks like with skin on. If youre living a life of agape, heres what it looks like, Agape is patient, agape is kind. Agape does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking… etc., etc. Thats what it looks like. This is what love looks like lived out. Its a description of agape; and of course, God models this for us.

Whats the most famous Verse in all of the New Testament? For God so… agaped the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not parish but have everlasting life, that God loves mankind, that He is crazy about us, that He is head over heels in love with us.

I think of the Passage in 2 Peter (3:9)that says, God is not slow in keeping His promise but is patient not wanting any to parish but for all to come to acknowledge the Truth.

I saw His love dramatically portrayed one time in my earlier years of our ministry here. This was in the days before Pastor Jerry Dean came on staff. In those days, I did all of our hospital calls, all of our weddings, all of our funerals. A couple of sisters in our church had a father that was dying. They said, Wed like you to go and visit our ailing father. He doesnt have long to live. I said, Sure, Ill do that. Actually, a few days went by, and I was a little bit concerned with myself thinking, I didnt jump on this like I should have. I hope he is still alive. I hope hes still there and I can talk to him. I hope hes coherent. I made it to the hospital. It was late at night. I remember the hospital being very quiet, the hallway dim. Id really only seen just a nurse at the station. I didnt really interact with a doctor or nurse. I went into his room and introduced myself. His daughters had told me he didnt really want anything to do with church. He didnt believe in God, didnt go to church. Theyd invited him, and he wouldnt go; so I went up there hoping to have an opportunity to share the Gospel with him. I greeted him and introduced myself. I said, Youve raised a couple of really nice daughters. We really like having them in our church.

Well, thank you very much. That's nice of you to say.

Im their pastor. Im Jeff from Faith Community Church. I wondered if I could just talk with you a little bit, so we talked a little bit. We had some casual talk, and then I said, Do you feel like youve made your peace with God? Is there anything that I can talk with you about or pray with you about? We talked about spiritual matters for a little bit, and then I prayed the Gospel with him. I said a prayer for him, but I tried to incorporate as much of the Gospel as I possibly could. I said, Amen, it was good to see you. Could I come up and visit you again? Is that okay?

He said, Yeah, Ive really enjoyed our visit today. You can come up any time and see me.

I said, Well, thats wonderful. I shook his hand, and I left. That was the last time I would talk to him. A couple days later, he would pass away.

A couple days after that was the funeral, and I remember going to the funeral home and talking with the sisters. I said, You know, I was up to see your dad. Im just grateful that your dad and I had an opportunity to talk. I was able to share a little bit about the Gospel with him and Gods love.

Their jaws dropped, and they said, You talked to our father?

I was kind of taken back. Yeah, I told you Id go up and see him.

You, you talked to our father? You had a conversation with our dad?

Yeah. I was kind of taken back. Was I not supposed to?

They said, Well, a couple of days after we talked to you, our dad slipped into a coma. Nobody had talked to him. Nurses couldnt talk to him; doctors couldnt talk to him; we couldnt talk to him. He didnt respond to anyone or anything. You talked to our dad?

Yeah. I told them the day. Apparently, hed gone into a coma two days before that and remained in one two days after my visit. I was the only person to talk to him for four days. Yet, when I was talking to him, it was a clear, coherent conversation. Boy, when it was time to give the funeral that day, I changed my funeral message a little bit. I wanted them to understand the love that God has for people. This man whod never set foot in a church, didnt even believe in God, was given one more chance to hear and to respond.

Friends, I dont know what your background is, but youre sitting in this church. Maybe youve been a Christian for a while, but maybe back in the day you werent. You were doing things you knew God didnt approve of; yet God loved you as much then as He does now while youre sitting in this church. Agape love is unconditional. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Thats the kind of love He wants us to live. That's the kind of love He wants us to model as the church.

Were going to talk about that in the next few weeks going up through the holidays, What Does Love or What Does Agape Look Like? That's the kind of love were talking about. Its not an ooey gooey kind of a love. Its often a very hard love. Its a love of the will; its a love of the decision. Its a sacrificial kind of love. Thats the kind of love that God has. He demonstrated that by offering His Son on the cross to die for our sins. He said, You and I are to be people of agape, and heres what agape looks like. He lived a life of agape.

In 1 Corinthians 13, it tells us what a life of agape looks like. Were talking this morning about the fact that love must be verbal. Love should be expressed through our words, and thats powerful.

There is a play called, Fiddler on the Roof. Have you ever seen that adaptation of the movie? There is a song in the Fiddler on the Roof that refers to a time back in the day when the Jewish marriages were arranged by the parents, so you might not have even known your spouse that well. The idea was that you trusted your parents to pick the right mate for you. Then you kind of came to love each other. You kind of grew to love each other.

[In the movie], this husband and wife, this Jewish couple, had been married for 25 years when all of the sudden, he started to get kinda romantic. It had been kind of a business partnership arranged by the parents. They married and had children and raised them. Were just going to do what married couples do. Itd been kind of methodical, etc. He simply wanted to know if she did in fact love him. Did what his mother say come true? Was it just a partnership, or was there something more than that? Was there in fact love there? So he asked the question, Do you love me? Were going to listen to that song right now. (The song is Do You Love Me? Here is the link to the lyrics: http://fiddler-on-the-roof-do-you-love-me--lyrics-mp3.kohit.net/_/126820)

I like that. He wants to hear the words, doesnt he? He says, Come on! Its indigestion! But he wants to hear the words, I love you. Why? Because when we speak the words, I love you, it demonstrates, speaks, and communicates worth to the person, doesnt it? If somebody tells you they love you, it means something to you. It communicates your value and your worth.

Why is it sometimes so difficult for us to say that? Well explore that a little bit today, but I remember a story back when I was a youth pastor about 25 years ago. A father and a daughter had their relationship broken down. I talked to them individually. The daughter came in first, and she said, My father doesnt love me.

I said, Why do you say that?

She said, Hes never home. Hes always at work, and Ive never actually heard him say he loves me. Never once has my father said the words, I love you. She said, I feel like my dad just doesnt love me, and she began to cry.

Well, after talking with her, I then talked to the dad. I explained to the dad how the daughter was feeling. He said, What does she mean I dont love her? I love her! I think the world of her. In fact, I work really hard long hours to buy her everything she wants. Everything she wants, I get for her. I bought her a car, and Im saving for college. All of this costs money, and Im giving and Im providing.

So he was communicating his love through provision, through what he gave for her, what he earned for her; but she needed to hear the words, I love you. So then my homework assignment was to have him go home and tell his daughter that he loved her. For her, [it was] to get her to understand that her dads been showing love the whole time.

Its important for us to say the words, I love you. Sometimes, that can be a difficult thing to do. There was one person it was very difficult for. There was a man named Peter. The song we heard, Do You Love Me? is a question that was asked of Peter. Some of you say, Well, I wasnt raised that way. It doesnt come natural to me to say that. Im kinda macho. I dont like to say those ooey gooey words like that. Peter was a fisherman; he was an outdoorsman. He made his living with his hands. He was a tough guy.

There was an awkward moment in Peters life when Jesus confronted him and said, Peter, do you love me? Lets take a look at it this morning in John 21. This is the third resurrection appearance of Christ. This is a miracle thats very similar to the miracle in Luke 5 when He called them to be His Disciples. Remember they were fishing at a lake, and they didnt catch anything. He tells them to put in their nets for a catch. He said, Well, because You say so, well do it because weve fished all night and caught nothing.

Then in comes this large catch of fish, and they realize something miraculous has happened. Peter says, Depart from me. Im a sinful man.

Jesus says, From now on, Peter, you will be a fisher of men. Remember that story? He calls him to be His Disciples. Now, at the conclusion of His ministry, again Peter says, Im going to go fishing, and by that he doesnt mean Im going to get some minnows, sit on the pier, and fish. He means, Im going back to commercial fishing. Im going back to making it a living. Our time with Jesus was wonderful, but now I have to support myself. I need to survive, so Im going back to fish, and the Disciples say, Well join you.

Like that story, they fish all night. They catch nothing, and then a man appears on the shore; and they dont know who it is. He tells them to put their net out on the other side of the boat; and a large catch of fish comes in-153 to be exact, John tells us. They realize its the Lord. By the time they get to shore, Jesus is cooking some fish. Hes made some bread, and they eat together. Then there is a private moment; and in that private moment, we are allowed to see a conversation between Jesus and Peter. Theres probably a little bit of doubt and hesitation with Peter. He knows that he talked a good game, but when the rubber met the road, he let the Lord down, didnt he? Ill die for You. Ill never deny You. Others might betray You; others might deny You, but I never will. Im willing to die for You, Jesus. But He didnt. He failed. He denied the Lord three times. Hes embarrassed, and hes ashamed, and theyre aware of that. Jesus is not going to bring that up directly, but theyre all aware of the tension. Theyre aware of the failures, so they have this conversation. Jesus looks him in the eye, and He asks him if he loves Him or not.

I dont know if youre ever had somebody that you were supposed to love and care about who looked you in the eye and asked, Do you love me? They questioned your love. Thats pretty dramatic stuff. That's pretty deep.

Jesus asked this question three times, and it seemed to be the same question each time, but it wasnt. There are three different questions, and were going to see-as we look into the original language-that when he asks the question, different words for love are used. Thats significant because it tells us something more about the conversation.

Verse 15 says (page 1075 of pew Bibles), When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you truly love Me more than these?

He said, Do you truly agape Me? Do you love me with the highest form of love? He said, Do you love Me more than these? At one time, I used to think He was talking about the fish and the boats. Im going to call you back to ministry. Do you love Me more than your old way of life? But Ive really come to understand that He really was referring to the other Disciples. Do you love Me more than they do? Why did He ask that? Because Peter had stated in pride and arrogance, Everybody else will deny you, but I never will. In other words, I love You the most. Im Your number one Disciple. I love You more than anybody. They might turn their back on You, but I never will. That was prideful. Jesus wants His servant to be humble.

So without bringing up the past, without specifically condemning Peter for what he had done, He simply asked him the question, Do you love Me more than these? Are you still willing to say that nobody loves Me more than you do, Peter?

Peter couldnt truthfully answer that question the same way anymore. He was humbled. He said, Yes, Lord, you know that I… phileo You. In our Bible, it says the same word, but in the Greek, its a different word.

He says, You know I have an affectionate love for You. Its a good kind of love, but it wasnt the highest kind of love.

Jesus asked him a second question, Simon, son of John, do you truly… agape Me? Now He doesnt ask him if loves him more than the other Disciples. He just simply asks him, Do you love Me?

Peter answers a second time, Yes, Lord, You know that I… phileo You. He still cant bring himself to say, I agape You. I love You with the highest form of love.

Then the third time, He said to him, Simon, Son of John, do you… phileo Me? He questions even that, and He says, Do you even love Me with a brotherly love, a brotherly affection?

Peter says, Lord, You know all things, and You know that I love You. You know that I… phileo You.

Jesus said, Feed My sheep.

When we express our love through words, its important that its unconditional. What Jesus is doing here is He is allowing Peter to express unconditional love. By asking the very question and reinstating Peter to ministry, Jesus is showing unconditional love. Hes saying, Look, you let Me down. You didnt live up to expectations. You didnt keep your word, but I want you to know I still love you. I still believe in you. I have not removed My call. When I called you to be a fisher of men, it is still there. Now I want you to feed My sheep. Im still trusting you, Peter.

Words of love never mean more to someone when theyre spoken after they have let us down. Its easy to say I love you to your child when they do something wonderful. When they bring home straight As on their report card, [its easy to say I love you]. Wow! Boy, youre great! You tell them how wonderful they are, but what about when your child has let you down?

I had one of my children-and I wont name names-who came home with a straight A report card. I praised them and told them how wonderful it was. Then in the near proximity to that, they came home crying because they had done something that had let down the principal and the teacher. They felt badly about it. I put my arm around my child, and I said, I want you to know something. I love you. Nothings going to change that. I love you just as much now as after you committed this mistake. That just broke their little heart and caused them to cry even more because they were receiving unconditional love. They knew that Dads love wasnt based on I love you because or I love you if. It was simply I love you. There is nothing you can do that will make me love you any less or any more than I do now.

Friends, its important that when we communicate love, we do so unconditionally. One of the reasons why you and I sometimes struggle with receiving the love of God is because we were raised with conditional love, many of us. Sometimes it was from a step-parent. We had to earn their love or maybe our natural parent [did that to us]. Maybe that was the message that was communicated through teachers and coaches who loved us when we performed well and didnt love us when we didnt perform well. We had special privileges and attention when we were doing what we were supposed to do; but we were scorned and reprimanded when we werent. We felt ostracized and unloved, so we learned this conditional love that I am loved and fully loved when I am doing this, when I am being what I am supposed to be. When I am not, love is withheld from me, so I learned that love is conditional. Therefore, I transfer that onto God; and I think that Gods love is conditional, and therefore I transfer that on to God. I think that Gods love is conditional, and its not.

God cant love me because Ive done this. Heres my attitude, etc., etc. Im not holy enough. Im not righteous enough. The truth of the matter is God loves you unconditionally. You have to learn to accept that, that Gods love is not like mans love. Gods love is different. Gods love is based on His essence. He is love, and He is always seeking your highest and your best regardless of your intentions towards Him, regardless of how you think, feel, or behave. Now there are, of course, rewards and consequences if we choose to go against His law because Hes made us. There are certain laws were to abide by. Now when we dont abide by those laws, we reap the consequences. There is no question about that. The prodigal son left the fathers home, and he reaped the consequences for his disobedience; but his father never stopped loving him and was there to restore him when he came home. Thats the love of God. Jesus said to the people, Thats what Gods love looks like. Hes the father in the story of the prodigal son. So our love, if were to be followers of Christ, it needs to be unconditional as well. It doesnt mean there arent consequences; it doesnt mean we dont have standards or boundaries, but our love is unconditional. We are going to seek the highest and best no matter what they have done or havent done. When you can get through your head that Gods love is unconditional, then youre able to receive it-the fact that God has your highest and best in His heart. That's a freeing thing; thats a wonderful thing when you can receive-not just know it intellectually but receive in your soul, God loves me.

When children receive unconditional love, they feel secure. They feel like they can rest, like they can trust because they know theyre loved no matter what. If you can have that understanding of your Heavenly Father, then you can enter into a spiritual rest-you dont have to jump through spiritual hoops for Him to love you.

We said it communicates worth. We said it must be unconditional. The third thing is it brings accountability. Saying I love you brings accountability. Notice when Peter says to Jesus, I love You, Jesus doesnt simply say back, Okay, well thats good to know. He doesnt simply just say like in the song, Well, after three years together, its nice to know. He gives Peter a job to do. If you love Me, youre going to feed My sheep. If you love Me, youre going to shepherd My sheep. Theres a job to do. There is a responsibility when we say the words I love you. Thats one of the other reasons why sometimes people are reluctant to say I love you because saying the words I love you has with it a commitment, doesnt it? If I say I love you to my wife, which I do every day, I think, that has a commitment to it, doesnt it? If I say I love you to my children, which I do every day, that has a commitment to it. Its saying you have a certain expectation of me. Thats why sometimes in couples, when you start to date and start to fall in love, its a big deal when the first one that says the magic words I love you takes that risk because that has a lot of meat to it. Its saying, Im committed to this relationship. Im committed to you. You can trust me. You can have a certain expectation of me.

When I say I love you to a friend, Im saying, You can count on me to have your back. You can count on me to be trustworthy to you. So saying I love you has with it a responsibility. When we say I love You to God, we are saying, God, there are certain expectations You can have of me.

Peter said, I love You, Lord.

Then, heres what you need to do.

Gods love is not conditional, but we are to demonstrate our love for Him through serving Him. He said to Peter, Peter, if you love Me, then youll feed My sheep.

So we see this awkward moment for Peter. We see this tense moment for Peter where he truthfully cant say to Jesus, I agape You, but its not always going to be that way.

Have I shared 1 Peter 1 with this service yet? No. Lets take a look at 1 Peter 1 together. This is later on now in Peters ministry. He is a leader in the church. I want you to see the freedom from which these words flow from his pen. He writes in Verse 8 of the Lord (page 1200 of pew Bibles), Though you have not seen Him, you… agape Him, and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Peter is now much older and much wiser with a greater freedom. Hes able to say to the church, We agape the Lord. We love the Lord with the highest form of love. Our goal is to love Him fully. You can just read the joy and exuberance of spirit which was so absent in Peter that day as he questioned his own love, he questioned his own faith, and now here he is this seasoned leader of the church. Hes able to freely express the fact that he agapes his Lord.

Might that be our church. Might we be a church where the words I love you are expressed, where words of love and actions in love as in 1 Corinthians 13 are commonplace. [Might we also] be affirming the worth and value of one another and that we are loving one another unconditionally. Love and words of love never mean more than when someone has let you down-to let them know that you still love them, that you still believe in them and can bring restoration to that relationship.

This love, this expression of love, was somewhat confrontational too, wasnt it? Maybe there are some people that in a loving way you may need to put some cards on the table and say, Here are some things we need to talk about. There are some things that have happened in our past. There are some things we didnt agree on. Ive let you down or youve let me down. We need to talk about it. Because we love each other, there is some air we need to clear here. Maybe some of you need to have those kinds of conversations.

Thats what Jesus and Peter had. This was an air-clearing conversation. This was okay, lets put the cards on the table. Lets talk about what happened. When it was all done, I bet you Peter felt like a million pounds were lifted off of his shoulders. He was like, I can put that in the past now. Yes, I failed the Lord, and I cant change that, but Jesus still loves me. Jesus still believes in me, and Jesus still has ministry for me to do. What a freeing and restoring thing when words of love are exchanged in this manner and were able to say what were really thinking, really feeling, and experience genuine friendship and community. There is genuine forgiveness and genuine love and restoration. Peter was a changed man from that point on. His growth was off the charts as he became a leader in the church and a man who would surrender his life for the Lord. That's powerful.

Lets pray together:

Father, we see in this text an expression of love and of grace. We see our Lord offering unconditional love to His friend. We see Peter being restored. Peter never thought hed see that day. Some of us have relationships with people that we love that we need to practice asking some of these open-ended questions to, getting honest and getting real, and expressing our love for them. Lord, if we will express our love unconditionally and not attack them but show them our love, its amazing what that can do, the nets that that can mend. Lord, I pray for that-that You would equip us and strengthen us to take action steps, to heal those relationships, to affirm that worth, to demonstrate unconditional love and to be willing to take on the accountability that words of love lead to-to say, Im committed to this relationship. Im committed to this friendship. There are expectations that you can have of me. May we be those kinds of Christians, Christians of agape love. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.

[It is] nice to be here on this spectacular day. Youre all thinking, Spectacular? Hey, any time its not snowing at this time of year in Wisconsin, its spectacular in my opinion. Its great to have you here, and as Pastor Jeff said, I get to kick off the series on What Does Love Look Like? We may not often think about it, but love and thankfulness certainly go together like ice cream and pie, (I have to put in a plug for the pie sale), the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Batman and Robin, or-my new revelation this week-like Clint Eastwood and prayer. Youre like, Huh? My wife and I on our Friday night date night, which weve celebrated for over 31 years now-its probably one of the huge reasons were still married, were out going somewhere, and weve become accustomed to listening to books on CD while were riding different places. We were listening to the story of Josh Burstein, who is an archaeologist, how he came to do that and how he got involved in the wilderness. He was sharing that his father had passed away when he was 15 years old. Shortly after that, he discovered Clint Eastwood. He became enamored with Clint Eastwood, and Clint Eastwood kind of became the father figure that he lost. He looked up to him and learned everything he could about him. He was a man of action, a man of few words, the strong, silent type. He said he really needed that at that time in his life. Were listening to this story and we started talking, so I shut it off for a bit. We were talking about that, and then Vicki asked me to pray with her about something. All of the sudden this brilliant thought crossed my mind as she was talking about Clint Eastwood coupled with prayer. I turned and looked at her and gave her my best steely-eyed stare and said, Go ahead, make me pray. (Congregation laughing.) Now Clint and prayer are forever linked, which I hope is a good combination.

Speaking of that, let us pray.

Father, thank You so much for the chance to come together and share about love, gratitude and thankfulness. Thank You so much for giving Your life, Lord Jesus, for us. I pray that Youd warm our hearts and challenge us with Your Word today, Father. Thank You again so much that we can pray because of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Well, love and thankfulness do go together like all of those things we mentioned. First of all, lets look at how those two things go together in Psalm 116. Were going to look at Verses 1, 2, and 17. The writer of the Psalm says in Verse 1 (page 605 of pew Bibles), I love the Lord. Notice he starts out talking about love. I love the Lord for He heard my voice. He heard my cry for mercy. In Verse 12, he says, How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness? Notice the response at the end of this Psalm. He says, I will sacrifice a thank offering to You and call on the name of the Lord. Love and giving thanks are linked together. The Psalmist says, I love the Lord, so what is my response? I will sacrifice a thanks offering in the name of the Lord.

As we think about love and thankfulness, I want to leave four pictures with you this morning about what thankfulness is and how its connected to love. The first thing I would say is that telling someone thank you is like giving away valuable jewels. You might not think thats such a big deal, but, friends, how many of you appreciate it when somebody tells you thank you? Almost every hand in the room [is up]. Sometimes we dont think thats so amazing to give it away, but we like it when we get it. Friends, its interesting that Solomon said in Proverbs that wisdom is like riches. Theyre jewels; theyre emeralds; theyre diamonds; theyre rubies; theyre necklaces around your neck; theyre a gold crown on your head. One of the wisest things you can do is compliment, encourage, congratulate, and tell someone thank you. Thats like giving away diamonds, like giving away rubies. The amazing thing is it wont bankrupt you for doing that. In fact, we reap what we sow. When you give away thanks, its like sticking a diamond, an emerald, a jewel, a ruby, or a sapphire in peoples pockets, and you get something back in return. You get a blessing in return, and you never exhaust the supply. How many of you at the end of the day of telling people thank you said, Whew! Man, Im flat broke. I cant tell anybody thank you anymore? I dont think any of us have ever had that experience? On the other hand, if you really set out to be thankful and share thanks, its amazing that your energy and your own storehouse of riches seem to increase.

How is that connected with love? Well, what do you find when you tell people thank you for what theyve done? They feel love; they feel cared for; they feel appreciated, right? When we have the opportunity to do that on a regular basis, friends, ask yourselves that: how good are you at enriching other people? Are you walking around every day passing out jewels of gratitude? Or, on the flip side, are you a world class jewel thief? Some people we meet are like that, right? Not only do they not have anything good to pass out, but they suck the life out of you. Instead of passing out diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, or rubies, they just rob the riches out of you. You can get up, have a great day and go on your way rejoicing, and then you meet these people and its like (Pastor Jerry is making a loud sucking sound to resemble one sucking the life out of you). You just feel like some wrinkled up, shriveled up prune after meeting them. They suck the gratitude and the joy of life out of you. They are like world-class jewel thieves.

Friends, God calls us as His children to be different. He says, in fact, that we are His jewels. Our responsibility is to shine and sparkle for Him. One of the greatest ways that you can do that is by sharing thanks. We know that in our world if you genuinely love somebody-I know we have holidays coming up in less than a week, and my wife and I get to celebrate the anniversary of our engagement-whats one of the best ways to show that…ladies? Jewelry, right? There are a lot of situations [where we give gifts to one another]. I chuckled this last week because one of the Los Angeles Lakers Sasha Pavlovic got engaged to Maria Sharapova, and I just chuckled at our culture because they were trying to decide if the $400,000 engagement ring that he had given her was too cheap because, after all, youre supposed to spend two months of your salary on an engagement ring. Because he made so many millions, the $400,000 didnt quite add up to that; so maybe poor Sasha was being a little cheap. I was like wow. Thats a different world than Im used to. That's for sure, but, friends, we have the opportunity to enrich the lives of people we love every single day. God calls us to do that.

As I sit here talking about it, I would challenge you, I would urge you, this week especially at Thanksgiving time to think about someone in your past-maybe a teacher; maybe a coach; maybe a boss who was really good to you, who helped you go forward, who changed your life and encouraged you in ways that nobody else did. Take the time to write them a letter. Give them a phone call; send them an email. Let them know what they mean to you. You can be a blessing to their life. Sometimes when you keep giving those things out, there are blessings and rewards that you get back without even meaning to when thats your regular habit.

Just last month, Vicki and I got back from vacation. She had always wanted to go to Savannah, Georgia. We went and had a great time. It was really enjoyable and very romantic. We were coming back on the last night of our vacation. We stopped about 20 miles outside of Nashville and decided to stay over there before we ended up driving for home on the last day. There was this group of four motels. We were getting down to the end, and we thought we would kind of save our money. We were drawn toward two of the places that advertised their price for a night as $29.95; and we thought, Well, that would be pretty cool if you could get a decent motel for less than $30. We stopped in and looked at a room, and we decided, I…dont think…were going to…stay there. We went and looked at a different motel, a Country Inn and Suites. It was just really nice. You walked into the lobby, and there was this smell of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies wafting through the lobby. Behind the counter there was this nice young lady about 25 years old. She was very warm, very cheerful, and very friendly. She said, Hi, how are you doing?

We said, Were doing well. Could we check out a room?

She said, Oh, sure.

So she gave us a key, and we went down to check out the room, and we said, Oh, this is pretty nice. We came back and asked how much it was.

She said, It is $90.

We thought well, after looking at $29.95 and $90, that was a little more… We were like, Well spend it if we have to, but wed rather not. We said to her, If you dont mind, were going to go check out prices at the one place that was left.

She said, Oh, fine. No problem. I understand. Take care, and have a nice day.

We left and went over to the last place. We found out that it was the same price. We looked at a room, and we actually liked the other one better. The lady was very professional and very sterile. When we told her we didnt really want the room, she was very cold and borderline discourteous. She was like, Well, you dont want to stay at our motel. I cant believe that. Its beyond my wildest comprehension.

We left and we were like, Wow. That was kind of wild. On the way back, we said, Man, that other young lady was so nice.

We went in there, and she said, Oh, youre back! Its nice to see you.

I said, Sure, well take a room, and she said okay.

Vicki said, Yeah, we actually liked this room better than the other one.

I said, Not only that, but we were talking about how warm and charming you were. You were really friendly. Compared to the other lady over there, you were like wow! It was nice talking to you.

She looked at us and said, Wow! Thats really nice of you to say! You just made my day! So you know what? (Pastor Jerry speaks in a very gruff voice here), Im going to make your day. She didnt really talk like that, but she did proceed to make our day.

She said, So instead of $90, Im going to give it to you for $50.

We were like, Wow! Just because we said thanked her and complimented her, she turned around and our lives were not only enriched spiritually and mentally, but actually our pocketbooks as well. Later on, we thought what a joy to get money back, but we talked about who knows what kind of a day she was having. Maybe shed had lots of people who were unkind to her or mistreated her that day. Maybe she got chewed out. For somebody to come and be kind or say something nice about her, it was like wow! You could watch her eyes sparkle and light up. Friends, God calls us to do that. Theres a world around you of hurting people. Your gratitude, your kindness, can make an impact and enrich people that you meet. So telling someone thank you, remember, is like giving them a valuable jewel.

The second thing I would say is that telling not just people but telling God thank you is light, warmth, and love thats drawn into your own souls. We think about romantic movies, and we think about warm and cozy fireplaces on cold Wisconsin nights. We think about romantic strolls through gas-lit lamps, and we think about candlelight dinners. There is always this association of light with love and romance. In fact, when Vicki and I were first dating, I actually walked down Frontier Street with her in the middle of a lightly falling snowfall. The street lights were glowing, and I turned to her and sang, Ive often walked down this street, the street before, but the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before. All at once am I several stories high knowing Im on the street where you live. She proceeded to vomit-no, Im just kidding. It was one of those really spectacular moments, and I still remember that.

Light and romance go hand and hand; well, so it is with God. Friends, as you go through life, when your heart is cold and dark because life has been rough or youve been hurt, how do you bring light, warmth, and love to your soul? Let me encourage you and challenge you that when you share light, love, and warmth with God, you get it back in return in spades. In fact, if you think about God looking down on a world thats dark and cold and Him seeing His children here and there in the middle of a dark world, and in the middle of that darkness, theyre singing, praising, and worshipping Him, what does God see? Hes like, Oh, theres a light there. Theyre sparkling over there. Theres a light there. I see them over there. Thats light to God; its love to God; its warmth to God. You have the opportunity to warm His heart, and what do you get back in return? Friends, when you make the decision to praise God and bless His name no matter what, its like lighting that cozy fire on a cold Wisconsin day or a cold Wisconsin evening. You snuggle up, and you sense His love, His presence, and His warmth.

I get so passionate about this because, friends, if you dont sense His love, if you dont feel His love, if youre not feeling the sense of His presence, I would challenge you to begin to praise God. Begin to thank Him; begin to bless Him and worship Him no matter what your circumstances are. This is the stuff of Psalms; this is the stuff of triumph; this is the stuff of light, warmth, and change. In fact, the opposite of that, if we look at Romans 1:20 (page 1112), God says that thankfulness is the Heavenly light switch. When you refuse to be grateful and you refuse to be thankful, that is the very first step into darkness. Listen to Romans 1:20. It says, For since the creation of the world, Gods invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God… Listen to this, …they neither glorified Him as God… nor-gave-Him-thanks. What is the first step after not giving God thanks? …their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Its a hop, skip, and a jump on a short step to the rest of the Chapter of Romans 1 where you see every kind of evil and abomination and filthy action that exists in the world. Where did it start? It started with an ungrateful heart. It started with an attitude of ingratitude.

Friends, I submit to you, that in gratitude, unthankfulness lies at the heart of every single sin that exists. Blaspheme God? Do you really shake your fist at God if youre incredibly grateful for all that Hes done for you? Honor your father and your mother. Do you tend to dishonor your parents if youre incredibly grateful for all that theyve done for you? Thou shall not murder. Do you murder people for whom you are amazingly thankful? I dont think so. Thou shall not commit adultery. Do you tend to have affairs, divorce, dishonor, and commit adultery against mates for whom you are spectacularly grateful? I dont think so. Do you tend to lie, cheat, steal, or covet? If you are unbelievably thankful for everything that you have, no. Gratitude is the foundational core of every single sin that exists. Likewise if you want to come back to God, you want to sense His warmth and light, thankfulness is the first step back. Its the first step toward the light; its the first step out of darkness; its the first step toward feeling again.

You know in the real estate world if you want to raise property values, one of the cool things you can put in the home is…a fireplace, especially in colder weather or colder climates. People are drawn to that; it adds value. Friends, thanks, praise, and gratitude adds value to you. God says youre His home. You are where He wants to live. If you want to up your market value to those around you in life, develop a place where you go connect with God and get a hold of His light and His fire. Itll warm you; itll keep you; itll change you.

Think of Moses coming down from Mt. Sinai having spent 40 days with God, and what is it about Moses thats different? His face is glowing. People can see that about you if youve been with God. It changes you. You have an impact on the world around you. Sometimes, dear friends, that prayer of praise, gratitude, and thankfulness can actually save your life.

Its become my habit every morning to start the day by telling God ten things that Im thankful for. If my heart isnt warmed after that, then sometimes I run through the entire alphabet, A through Z, thinking of something for which I can thank God for. Then I tend to launch into songs of praise and gratitude. Sometimes as you begin to thank God, you dont feel like it. You dont feel like praising Him. Thats why sometimes praise is called a sacrifice of praise-because its not easy. Sometimes its like starting a car on a cold Wisconsin morning. You turn the key after scraping the ice off the windows, and it does not want to start. Finally after a bit, it kicks in and turns over. Then you defrost the windows, and eventually you get to go to school, your job, or wherever youre going. Its warm and youre glad that youre riding in a car-even if its a beater-instead of the one-horse open sleigh going to Grandmothers house. No matter how romantic that sounds, its still freezing cold. Youre glad for that warmth.

Friends, praise is the same way. There are days that you get up, and you dont feel like praising God, but if you decide to make that sacrifice and begin to honor Him-even if you dont feel like it-I can tell you, its not long before your heart begins to warm. The ice begins to thaw, and the light comes into your soul. You become incredibly grateful for all He is and all that Hes done for you.

Sometimes that moves me to tears because, friends, Im sorry but Im standing here today because praise and gratitude literally saved my life. Its taken me almost 50 years to share some of the details about this, but when I was 15 and 16 years old, I had some hormonal problems. My body was really messed up. It started producing way more testosterone than it was supposed to. It started really messing with me, so my mother took me to the doctor and low and behold, that wonderful yahoo, guess what he did? He prescribed me oral anabolic steroids. This kid has too much testosterone in his body. Its messing with him. Lets give him more. Nobody said anything about the side effects. Nobody knew what would happen. I went from being a pretty mellow, happy-go-lucky kid to somebody who wanted to kill everybody he saw. Here I was the president of my youth group, and everybody on the outside thought I was wonderful; and inside I was dying. There was darkness, and it was cold. Id walk around thinking about people I hated, people I wanted to hurt, and people I wanted to kill. Most of all, I wanted to kill myself. All that testosterone and discovering girls got me into things that for which Im not proud of and that are ungodly, that only added to the problems. As my guilt compounded, I wanted to kill myself even more. Somehow in the middle of all of that, in the darkness, the heartache, and the pain, nobody knew what was going on; I felt isolated and all alone, I would come home from school and thank God for a grandmother that taught me how to play the piano and sing. I would sit down for hours and sing songs to God of worship and praise, What a friend we have in Jesus. Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? When you feel all alone, take it to the Lord in prayer. In the middle of my incredible darkness and pain-and today they would say I was manic depressive, bipolar, or certifiably depressed-Jesus Christ, and thanks and praise to Him, was the light that saved my soul. If it werent for that hope and that ability to thank Him and praise Him, I would have blown my brains out and killed myself long ago. Thanksgiving literally saved my life. Friends, you have no idea the impact that you can make on a world around you if youre willing to share praise and thanks. You have no idea the impact that thanks and praise has in your own life. That kind of leads us to the third thing because being thankful can make you the powerful hero in any love story.

I love romantic movies-dont let anybody know that. I love watching chick flicks with my wife, but I cant watch too many in a row. Then I have to watch an Arnold movie, a Clint movie, or Sylvester Stallone or somebody like that. Then I can watch another chick flick. Even the guy movies, the action movies, isnt there always some powerful hunk thats like falling in love with the gorgeous babe? We ask: what is it that draws us to that story? Friends, I think John Eldredge says it very well. Its the story of redemption. Why do we relate to that so much? Because its the story of what Jesus did for us. Hes the prince; Hes the captain; Hes the champion; Hes the hero who could have stayed home safe. Instead He left Heaven and came all the way down to planet earth to die and rescue us in pain and agony-to give us life, to save our souls, and to be our champion. We see that played out in stories and movies, and our hearts are drawn to that. Theyre drawn to the hero. Friends, when you lift up other people around you with gratitude and thanksgiving, you can be the hero in their lives. You can be the person who is lifting them up. You can be the person who is changing lives. You can be the person who is making a difference. Somebody can be burdened and carrying heavy loads, and a word of thanks, a word of gratitude, you have no idea the impact that that can make in their lives.

I often think of Jesus in John 11. Lets look at John 11:35 (page 1064). It is the shortest Verse in the Bible. Jesus wept. The background of this: Jesus has lost one of His very best friends. He comes to the tomb, and this Verse, this Passage, says, Jesus wept. The people around Him looked at Jesus and seen Him crying and they said, See how He loved him!

Sometimes we look at Jesus, and we think, Well, Hes God. He was here in the flesh. He knows Hes going to raise Lazarus in a few minutes, so it really doesnt impact Him. Hogwash! Jesus felt the pain. Jesus had just lost one of His very best friends. Its obvious. He is standing at the gravesite crying and weeping. Knowing that He can raise him from the dead doesnt lessen the pain. Everybody else sees it, and they were like, Wow! He really loved Lazarus!

Then Jesus does something amazing. Some of them said, Couldnt He who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?

You go through losses; you go through pain; you have heartaches; sometimes you have regrets.

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. Take away the stone, He said.

But, Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.

Then Jesus said, Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?

So they took away the stone. And get this, Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank You…

Friends; when youre going through loss; when you lose a job; when you lose a loved one; when you lose your dreams; when you suffer heartache, loss, and pain, what is Satan always whispering in your ear? He says, See, God doesnt care. Gods not listening. All those prayers you prayed, where was God? The Heavens are brass. Hes not listening to you. He has His hearing aids turned down. He doesnt care.

What does Jesus say in the face of death? Father, I thank You that You hear me. What an attitude! His own spirits are lifted with the recognition that God hears Him.

Listen to what He says next, I knew that You always heard Me.

Sometimes we need to repeat that in our minds. Father, yes, Im going through hard things. Yes, Im facing the losses. Yes, my dreams are crushed, but Father, I know that You always hear me.

We need to rehearse that. Thank You, Father. But our attitudes of gratitude impact not only ourselves, but the people around us.

Look what Jesus says, …I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me.

When He had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out!

The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to Him, Take off the grave clothes and let him go.

Friends, gratitude and thankfulness are powerful. Gratitude raises other people. Gratitude literally lifts people from the dead. You can breathe life into somebody who is dying a thousand deaths today just by telling them thank you. Maybe its a clerk at the store; maybe its somebody that youve never met before. There was a lady in the 8 oclock service that came today, and I was blown away because Vicki and I had stopped on Saturday night at a card shop and got talking to her, and she came to church this morning. You have no idea whose life you can impact with a word of kindness or gratitude. Be a light; share a smile; share a thank you. Lift somebody up. You might rescue them even from the dead. Be a hero to somebody today.

The last thing that I would say about thankfulness is that thankfulness is the tattoo or the mark of love. Now, I know some people might say, Tattoos, are those things in the Bible? Well, you can debate that back, Should I get a tattoo? Should I not get a tattoo? We debate cultures and all those types of things. I think its interesting that God says-even though I dont have tattoos-our names are literally engraved on the palm of His hand. How about that? Isnt that amazing? Gods not afraid to own us. Tattoos, in our culture, are often the mark of love; even in past cultures, youd see sailors, marines, and construction workers-guys like that [have tattoos]. You fall in love and get somebodys name tattooed sometimes, if you really love them, on your arm. Although you have to be careful. I always chuckle-when I coached at U-Rock, there was a sign in the boys locker room warning against the epidemic of AIDS. It has a picture of a guys arm, and then it had about six different names tattooed on it. There was Emily, and then that was crossed out; and then Ashley, and then Linda, Betty, and on down the line. One after the other was crossed out, and the caption at the bottom was unlike love, AIDS is forever, so be careful or be smart. The point is that sometimes people are so desperately in love, they mark their bodies with the name of their beloved.

Friends, how do people know that you belong to Jesus Christ? Whats the mark that you carry? The mark is this: youre thankful no matter what. One of the few things that God says expressly is His Will is give thanks in every situation. This is the Will of God.

Im going to ask you what you think the mark of the beast is. Youre looking at me now going, Is he on drugs? What does that have to do with thankfulness? You can get a big crowd talking about the mark of the beast and end times and all that kind of stuff. Sometimes, dear people, people cant see the forest for the trees. Ive heard lots of different things, Computer chips in our foreheads or the backs of our hands-thats the mark of the beast or the barcode on the back of your cereal box, thats the mark of the beast. God forbid, be careful about social security numbers. At one time, those were the mark of the beast.

My favorite, I was in a meeting in a rescue mission once, and they had a testimony time. This dear lady, God bless her heart, out of the blue when someone was asking for testimonies, she stood up and said, I know what the mark of the beast is. We were looking at her like… This was in the 80s. Its Ronald Wilson Reagan 666. We were all like wow! So lots of things are the mark of the beast, but sometimes we cant see the forest for the trees.

Lets look at Revelation 16 (page 1226). Im going to ask you as we read this to pay careful attention to what the mark of the beast is. God judges the beast and his kingdom, and it says, The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they… [what?] …cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to… change or repent and glorify Him.

The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony and… [what?] …cursed God…because of their pains and sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.

Friends, whats the mark of the beast? You go through adversity; you go through trials; you go through pain, and you shake your fists in the face of God and damn and curse His name. You damn and curse Jesus Christ. Gods so mean! Gods so cruel! Gods so vicious! How could He do this kind of stuff to me? I dont deserve this! The mark of the beast…

On the other hand, whats the mark of the followers of the Lamb? Lets look elsewhere in the Book. Whatever else the Book of Revelation may be, this may surprise you that its one of the most incredible hymn books in the Bible. There are songs of praise and thanksgiving all over the Book of Revelation from beginning to end. What is the mark of the followers of the Lamb? Lets look at Revelation 7:9 (page 1220), After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before their throne and worshiped God, saying: Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom…

Here I like [how it is worded in] the New King James …and Thanksgiving…

…and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!

Then one of the elders asked me, These in white robes-who are they, and where did they come from?

I answered, Sir, you know.

And he said, These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Friends, you see this through the Book of Revelation. What do the followers of the Lamb do when they are tortured, when they are slain, when they are beheaded, when they face tragedy, heartache, and pain? They fall on their faces and bless, glorify and worship God and say, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever and ever and ever.

What is the mark of the followers of the Lamb that they leave behind them everywhere they go? Like Job of Old, God looks down and says, You see My servant Job? Isnt anybody like him? God allows Satan to take away everything he has, and how does Job respond? He can kill me, and Ill still trust Him. Isnt that unbelievable? Thats the mark of the Lambs followers. They are so grateful; they are so thankful; they are so in love with the Captain of their salvation who went through hell to rescue them that they can suffer stress, heartache, pain, torture, and loss; and nothing can stop them from praising God.

Friends, in a few short days, were going to celebrate the 390th anniversary of Thanksgiving. Thats almost 400 years. We remember the Pilgrims, why? Because they were followers of the Lamb. In 1620, they arrived on the shores of Plymouth Rock and set up a colony-110 people. Over the first winter, they lost over half of their number, so there were fewer than 50 people. We live in absolute luxury compared to what they had; and they carved out a hole in the wilderness. Six months after losing half of their loved ones and half of their membership and seeing death on every hand, they have their first harvest; and they spend three days of thanks, gratitude, and praise to Almighty God. They cant stop worshipping Him, blessing Him, and thanking Him less than a year after half of them died. So powerful is that mark that 400 years later in our countrys history, what do we still remember? We still remember a group of people who in the middle of their heartache, in the middle of their pain, in the middle of their loss, in the middle of their adversity took time to thank, bless, and praise God. Thats the mark of the followers of the Lamb.

Dear friends, God put that same Spirit in your heart today. If youre one of His followers, share His love, share His gratitude. Youll make the world a better place.

Lets pray:

Father, I thank You so much for Your Word. I thank You for the example of Jesus Christ. I thank You for each one of these dear friends. I pray that You would bless them and encourage them. Help us to walk every day as followers of the Lamb in incredible gratitude for all that Youve done for us. I thank You that we can pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Well, lets open our Bibles up to the Book of Ephesians today. I think before we get into the message, Im going to give you just one last time to stand up and stretch. Lets stand together one more time. More importantly than standing up and stretching is asking the Lord to guide our time together today.

Father, we thank You for the body that Youve assembled here in Janesville. We recognize that we are a small part of what youre doing in the world, but we are a part. We play a role. You have a plan and a purpose for this body. You have a plan and a purpose for us as individuals. We pray that Your Holy Spirit will guide the things that are said. Teach us from Your Word. We recognize that You are the leader of this church. You are the only star here. You are the only One that is worthy of our admiration, praise and worship. We are all simply Your servants, but we too have a part to play; so I pray that today will be used in our lives to lead, guide and direct Your church and the purposes You called us to. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.

If I say to you, We are, what are you thinking? If I say, We are, how would you finish that? Im going to read to you several we are Scriptures this morning. Im going to talk this morning from the Word of God, and then half of the message is going to be practical, just talking about the plans and our roles and so forth. This is kind of a hybrid. Were going to spend some time in the Word, talking about our Mission because thats what its about. Its all about the Mission. Its not about the building; its about the Mission. Then well talk about some of the practical nuts and bolts of that.

There are several times in the New Testament where the phrase we are is used of the church. We: plurality, unity, oneness among many. We signifies that we cannot do it on our own. We cannot accomplish the mission and purpose individually. It is a collective group effort-we, in partnership with God and in partnership with one another. Together we work for a common cause.

Many of you know Im a basketball fan, and my favorite basketball team is the Chicago Bulls. I like the Bucks too, so dont get mad at me; but I like the Bulls. I grew up a Bulls fan, and especially when Michael Jordan came to town, I was so excited. I remember when he was drafted how excited I was back in 1984. When he came to the league, he went beyond expectations. He did dazzling things. He would score 40, 50, 60 points. The Bulls would make the playoffs, but usually theyd be eliminated early. They could never make it to the point of playing for a championship. Even though he led the league in scoring, even though he was recognized as the greatest player in the league-maybe the greatest player of all time, this young man-he wasnt reaching the top of the mountain until they hired a man by the name of Phil Jackson. Phil Jackson came in as the architect of that team. The first thing he did was he sat Michael down and said, We know youre great. We know youre the best player on the team, but you have to start thinking about team. Your number one job is going to be to trust your teammates and make them better. Youre going to take more shots and have more assists. Youre going to involve the other teammates, and youre going to make them better. When they get better, were going to win. After that first title, Michael bought in; and then they went on to win five more. Had he not played baseball for a couple years, he probably could have won at least eight; and thats no exaggeration. Its a team effort.

So thats what we conjures up in my mind. It conjures up a team work, a collectiveness, inner-dependence on one another. Secondly, it says, We are. The word are, the verb to be is what we are. Its our essence, not just something we have, something we hope to have, or might have; it is what we are now.

In the Book of Ephesians 2:10 (page 1157 of pew Bibles), For we are… Who? We, the church. We are what? …we are Gods… First and foremost, we are Gods. We belong to Him.

Theres a Passage in the Book of 2 Corinthians 5, and I recognize now how dependent we are on our Bibles in the pew in front of us. We always have them, and now we dont have that today; so its a little bit more difficult. (Service was held at the Pontiac Convention Center to rejoice in the progress of the next phase in the buildings addition at Faith Community Church.) In fact, Im so used to not bringing my Bible that even the pastor did not bring his Bible to church today. Im so used to just grabbing one of the church Bibles that we all read. I was like, I dont have a Bible, and I had to locate one.

In 2 Corinthians 5:15 (page 1145 of pew Bible), Paul writes and says, And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. Thats powerful, so if youre a believer this morning, you do not belong to yourself. You belong to the Lord. That influences the way you think, the way you speak, and the way you act. Its important for us to realize that. He says, We are Gods. Say that, I am His. I am His. We belong to God.

You have to understand that our lives are not our own. Weve been saved and redeemed for a purpose-to live for Christ. What a difference that makes if we truly understand that.

In Ephesians 2:10 (again, page 1157), …but we are Gods… what? Workmanship. Its an interesting word. Its the word we get poem from, the Greek word poema, that which has been made. It means to be made for a purpose, that God has put within you an ability and gift to accomplish His purpose. You are a part of the poem that God is writing. You are a part, a phrase, of that poem that He is writing for Janesville, He is writing for your life. You are a part of that. You are a unique expression of the creativity of God.

Have any of you ever been to the Safe House restaurant? Have you been there? Its a fun place to be. Ive been there a couple times. At the Safe House, you come in through this obscure alley. It doesnt even look like there should be a restaurant there. It looks like the kind of alley you might get mugged in rather than being a spot of a popular restaurant. There isnt any parking around there. You just go down this dark alley. There is this plain old brown door, and theres nothing on it. It doesnt say Safe House. It doesnt list the hours; it doesnt say open. Its just like a door to a factory or something. You open it and go inside, and you walk into this light kind of a room. Theres usually a host or hostess there to greet you, and they ask you for a password. Its a spy house. Its a safe place for spies to go who are involved in covert operations. So you come in, and they ask, Whats the password? Usually, you dont know. Then you dont have to be afraid that youre not going to get seated because they will make you do silly things to get admitted into the restaurant. They might say, Act like an elephant, or walk like a penguin, or act like a puppy dog or a bunny rabbit. If its not quite silly enough, then theyll encourage you. Theyll say, Well, Im not sure you can really get in. You need to be more of a penguin than you are right now. Then youll continue to act up, and after they put you through enough humiliation, theyll say, Okay, fine, and theyll open the secret passage way. Into the restaurant youll go. While youre doing these silly things, the people in the restaurant down below are watching you on TV (congregation laughing). When you come walking in, theyre like, Hey, nice penguin there, Bud. Its just embarrassing, so if youre new there, you dont even realize people are watching. Then you really get double humiliated when you realize the whole restaurant has been laughing at your expense. Then the fun part comes in because you get to sit down and then laugh at them. There are new people coming in, rookies. You get to say a few things to them when they walk through the door.

Sometimes people think when theyre coming to church, The church is going to make me be somebody Im not. Theyre going to try to shape me and force me into their mold, people who I really dont feel like I am.

Paul said, Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is in the church that we discover who we really are. Its in the church that we discover who God made us to be, what Hes intended us to do. Have you ever had those moments when youre in church, youre listening to a message or a teaching, or youre in a small group-maybe youre engaged in ministry-and theres like a light bulb that goes on in your head that says, This is why Im here. This is what I was created for. This is what Ive been called to do.

When youre serving the Lord and youre discovering those things, you just feel truly and completely alive. I hope youve experienced that. If you havent, I hope that you will. I experience that all the time. Ill leave our church on a weekend or leave our staff meeting, and Ill just say, This is my purpose. This is why God put me here. Im His workmanship. He is working in and through my life.

So Paul says, We are Gods workmanship… Listen to what he says in the next part of that verse, We are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus. What kind of creation is he talking about here? Do you know? Hes not talking about our physical creation. Hes talking about our spiritual creation. Were what the Bible calls the new birth.

Lets turn to 2 Corinthians 5:17. Paul writes and says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, and the new has come. That is the creation that Paul is talking about here. Hes talking about the new creation. God has a plan for you. Its not a generic plan. Theres nothing worse than when your spouse goes to the grocery store and brings home generic food. I remember coming home one time with a bottle that just said ketchup on it. Wheres the Heinz ketchup? I dont want this!

Well, thats $0.50 cheaper!

I dont care if its a dollar cheaper! Get real ketchup! Or if you get some pop that says soda on it, Orange soda.

I wanted Crush or whatever it is. God did not design a generic plan for you. There is a specific plan. It has detail. Part of being a part of a church is about God unfolding that plan to us-collectively and individually-and we walk together in that plan; but we are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, to do good works. It didnt say were saved by good works. It said, Were created to do good works. That is our purpose.

Think about what he just said. We are created in Christ Jesus to do good works or for good works. Paul is saying that is our reason for being. That is why God called you to Himself. That is why He redeemed you-for His purposes.

Sometimes you think church is just this its kinda if I have leftover time, Ill make some time for church. When things settle down, maybe Ill have time for the things of God. When life settles down… I have all these things going on, all these projects. Maybe someday, Ill get around to these matters of spirituality.

Actually, Paul says, That is our purpose. That is why He created us in Christ, to be the very center of our being-not an afterthought, not something for our leftovers. The church and Jesus Christ and accomplishing our purposes-and a mission in it-are to be central and integral to our very being. This is why He created us.

So often the church is used as a consumer mentality. Church becomes like a consumer mentality here. We say, Well, whats in it for me? Whats in it for me? We travel here and there because of this. Oh, they have great music, or thats a great message, or they have the greatest program here or there. I go, I consume, and I leave. Thats not a church. Thats not what its about. Its not for you. Its not about your consumption. Its where you come to serve. Its where you come to be equipped. Its where you come to work. Some of you come to Faith on Sunday, and youre working on your ministry. Others of you are coming here, and youre being equipped and taught so you can carry out the work God has called you to do. Consumer mentality has no place in the Church of Jesus Christ. This is where we roll up our sleeves and get to work for the Kingdom of God. We are Gods workmanship. Were going to have this memorized before were done.

…created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. It was not an afterthought. We were not an afterthought for God. He prepared them in advance for us to do, so the question is are we accomplishing that? Do you feel like you are in fact living out the poem that Hes written for you, that you are in fact a workmanship that God has called you to be?

The second we are Passage I want us to take a look at-and well not spend as much time on these next two-is in 2 Corinthians 5:17 (page 1145 of pew Bible). Well begin reading with Verse 17. Paul says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us… the church …the ministry of reconciliation… Hes going to further define what that means, …that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ… Then he makes reference to the cross. He says, …not counting mens sins against him. This is a clear referral to the crucifixion where God, the Son, bore the sin of mankind, that God was in him, the fullness of the deity dwelled in bodily form and that we were reconciled to Christ on that cross. He is committed to us. He has committed to us, the church, the message of reconciliation. We are… there it is again, …therefore Christs ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christs behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him… and here-this is probably the most concise (this is in John 3:16) verse of the Gospel.

It says, God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. What we learned in that Passage is that salvation is a gift that is given to us, and an exchange was made; Christ took our sinfulness and offered us in exchange His righteousness, His partner of grace. Thats a powerful message, and thats what God has called this church to deliver first and foremost. Thats the number one priority we have-to deliver the message of the Gospel, to reach the people of Rock County. That is our number one priority-to reach the people of our community.

I want you to notice what he says youre to be here. Youre to be an ambassador. You know what an ambassador is. An ambassador is a representative. An ambassador is set out as an envoy and represents a country or a company. We are Christs ambassadors to the sick.

Im going to ask for a raise of hands, and I want you to leave it up. How many of you came to this church because you were invited by a friend? Hold your hand up and keep it high. You have to look around. Look at all those hands up because somebody invited you. Thank you. You can put your hands down now. Somebody was an ambassador to you. Somebody took some time to come and talk to you. Thats what our church does. We equip ambassadors. When Im giving a message, when one of the pastors is giving a message, when youre going to classes, when youre in your small group, when youre learning and discovering your ministry, we are equipping you to be an ambassador for Christ-that youll go out and win the world for Christ. We wont win the world for Christ-we wont win our community for Christ if were scolding them. Some people think thats how you win non-believers in the kingdom. You just scold them. You just go out and make them feel bad. No. Theyll know we are Christians by our love. We reach out to them with a message of love, hope, and truth. Through our words and through our example, we are ambassadors of the Kingdom, and we seek to draw them in to the hope that we have in Christ, teaching them of Gods love and plan of salvation that He has for them. We are ambassadors.

Thirdly, in the same Book, Verse 16 of Chapter 6 (page 1145), Paul is writing and he says, …for we are the temple of the living God. We are the temple of the living God. We are a temple. We recognize that the church building is not the church; we are. We brought the church to this building. We rented this for one week. Next week, we go back to the normal. Some of the folks who have worked so hard are saying, Thank goodness for that! We brought the church here-just like in our homes, our house is not our family. Our family is made up of individuals, so wherever we go, thats where home is. A house is just a structure we live in. The building is just a tool that we use, a place where we meet, but its an important place.

I dont know if you grew up in a house where there were a lot of children and maybe you just ran out of space. Thats kind of what we are doing at Faith, and Im going to start transitioning that. We have run out of space, but the problem is its not just that were building for who we already are. If you just simply look around you this morning, youll recognize that we wouldnt all fit in our box over there on Lucerne. Just this morning, I am looking out, Where is so-and-so? Where is so-and-so? This is not all of us, but its a good representative sample of who we are. The problem is our house is full. Were out of space, and we are planning on having many, many more children because were called to bring people to faith. How many of you-and this is the most important question Ive asked this morning-would say here today that Faith Community Church had an influence in your giving your life to Jesus Christ? Hold it up; look around you. Isnt that wonderful that God has used us? Its humbling to see that, so thats what this is about. This is about commission. This is about touching more lives, making more ambassadors, more disciples of Christ. That is what we are called to do.

Lets pray together.

Father, I thank You for the challenge that youve given us. To live as You lived is a tall order. What You cared more about than anything else is people. The Word says that the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost, so thats our first priority. Secondly, its to make disciples. Its to teach them the Word of God, teach them how to grow in their walk, provide opportunities to them to serve and to use their gifts. Not only have You called us for a purpose, Youve equipped us for that purpose. Youve given talents, gifts, and passions. Together, we work to accomplish those things. We thank You for that purpose. We thank You for that call. In Jesus name. (22:18)

Well, lets open our Bibles up this morning to James 5. Can you believe that we are finishing this series that we have been on for weeks, months, and were finally coming to an end of this Book? I hope that this is not the end of your study of James. I hope that you will continue studying it, and then when you do refer back to it, it will mean more to you than it ever did before we started this series.

When I was a new believer, I was 17 years old, in our newly-formed church in Rockford, I had a Sunday School teacher named Roger. He had come out of the hippie movement. He had been a drug addict and had had a dramatic conversion to the Lord. He was one of those cool guys, cool teachers. Some of the teachers could be kind of dry and boring, but not Roger. He was hip; he was cool. He could speak our lingo, so we really enjoyed our class. We really learned a lot from Roger. In fact, because we had mutual friends, I would spend some time with Roger from time to time. I really enjoyed his company. One particular day, there was a church service going on in the house across the street from my sister, and it was really loud. It was a hyper-Pentecostal kind of a church; so he was like, Lets go check it out.

I was like, No, no, no. Im not going in there.

He said, Come on! Lets go check it out. Ill go with you.

So we went in there, and it was like nothing Id ever seen before. They called people forward for prayer for the sick. Apparently everybody was sick because if you were in the room, you were coming forward for prayer; so everybody lined the walls and had to come around. The pastor occasionally would start hopping across the stage on one leg with his tambourine. His face was red, and he was shouting and screaming. People were on the floor convulsing and shaking. Im thinking, What is this? What is this? Next thing you know, Im in line, and Im like, I dont want to do that. I really dont. You brought me here, but I want to leave. So we came to an exit near a side wall, and right when we got to that exit, we cut out. We left the building. We got outside, and it was like, Oh, man! That was crazy.

He said, You know, thats just another expression of the Body of Christ. Theres nothing wrong with what they did. Its just that we all worship God in different ways, and thats how they choose to worship the Lord, so I got a nice lesson on how the church operates.

But we walked out of the church, and that was very symbolic because shortly after that, Roger walked away from Christ. He went back to a life of drugs. Years later, from what I knew, he was not serving Christ, not serving the Lord. How does that happen?

The Bible talks about the fact that sometimes within the Body of Christ, there are believers who we think are believers, but theyre really not. They have confessed to Christ, but they dont possess Christ. Their conversion experience for whatever reason really wasnt real, really wasnt true. They really didnt have the Holy Spirit inside of them empowering them to live a Godly life.

The Bible talks about this. Jesus says in the Parable, The Wheat and the Tares, in Matthew 13, Sometimes within the church, there are wheat and tares. A tare looks just like wheat, and it grows with the wheat. Its not separated until harvest time. Jesus explained the Parable later on, and He said, Thats the way it is. The tares grow amongst the wheat, and then at harvest time, God will separate the real from the fake, the true from the counterfeit.

In fact, at the judgment, Jesus once said to people who professed Him and called Him Lord, And Lord, in Your name, did we not do miracles? In Your name, did we not cast out demons?

He said, Depart from Me, I never knew you, not I knew you at one time and dont anymore, but I never at any point knew you. Never at any point did you belong to Me as a follower, as a child of God.

Counterfeit Christians, theyre amongst us today. There are tares here today. They come to church every Sunday. They look like us; they talk like us, but there has not been-and God knows this-a true bringing to faith. They do not have the Holy Spirit residing within. If they did, they would stay in the church. They would stay with the believers, but the faith is not a true faith. John talks about this in 1 John 2:19 (page 1208 of pew Bibles). Id like for us to read that together. The Apostle John is talking about people who went apostate. They were in the church, and then they left the church. He said, They went out from us... Theyre not worshipping with us anymore. …they did not really belong to us. For if they had really belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

The fact that they went AWOL and they were not living for Christ is proof and evidence of the fact that they really didnt belong to us. They were simply going through the motions. How many of you know of people who once professed Christ and no longer do? Maybe they went to church with you and no longer do. Let me see your hands. All around this room, weve known people like that.

Thats what James is going to talk about. Really, these are controversial verses, but they shouldnt be. Once you understand the target audience-who James is writing to-theyre not difficult to understand. In fact, this whole Book has been about a test of faith, hasnt it? You say, Heres the test: if you are a true believer, this is how you respond to trials. If you are a true believer, heres how you respond to temptations. If you are a true believer, here are the words you speak out of your mouth. If you are a true believer, here is how you react to a promise.

In fact, in Chapter 4, he gives an appeal to conversion. He says, Repent. Come to Christ. Remember that Passage. He challenges them to come to Christ. Why? Because James knew that some of the people he was writing to did not know the Lord. They may have professed they knew the Lord or seemed to know the Lord, but they really didnt truly know Christ. James says, I know youre there, and Im telling you right now, Come to Christ. Repent of your sins. Belong to Him.

Now hes not going to talk to the tares. Hes not going to be talking to those who are not truly believers. Hes going to talk to believers. This is what he says in Verse 19 (page 1199), My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

Now when you first read that in Verse 19, he says, My brothers, if one of you should wander… So right away we think-and heres where the misunderstanding comes in-that hes talking about backsliding Christians, apostate Christians; but hes not. We know that from the words he uses in Verse 20, and there are many of them. First of all, he says, Whoever turns… This is the word that means convert. You dont convert the converted. You dont turn those who are already followers of Christ. This word is always used in Scripture-every single time-as a reference to people who dont believe in Christ coming to Christ. It used by the Lord when He talks to Paul on the road to Damascus. He said, You are to turn the people from darkness to light, from the kingdom of Satan to God. The word turn is used there. It means to change your direction.

Secondly, he uses the word sinner. The word sinner is never used of professing believers. Now we are sinners; its true. We do sin; thats true, but every time you look up the word sinner, this word in the Bible, While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, it always refers to people who dont know the Lord, who dont truly know the Lord. They may know about the Lord, but they dont truly know the Lord.

Thirdly is the word save. You dont save those who are already saved. He said, Were going to save them, and we know were not talking about a deliverance from physical death, but deliverance from spiritual death because he says the word soul here. Deliver their soul from death. In the Greek, the word soul is present; so what are we talking about? Were talking about spiritual death. Were talking about salvation, and that is for the loss. That is for people who are apart from God.

Then he talks about the fact that it covers a multitude of sins. That simply means that God is going to forgive their sins. Gods grace covers their sins, so theres no sin that cannot be forgiven. There is no quantity of sin that cannot be atoned for. His grace will cover their sin, so what were talking about is those within the church. Maybe there has been a tare amongst you. All of the sudden they have now departed from the church. Theyre not coming anymore. The hopes are that theyll come and get it. Theyll finally get it. Theyll catch on to the program and realize that they need to serve and follow Christ. He says, Youre to go after them. Youre to pursue them. Youre to bring them back to the way of the Truth.

I was careless this week. I was carrying a heavy box of books down to the basement. Rather than turn on the light switch, I thought the ambient light coming in from the surrounding areas was going to be sufficient to see the stairs. I was too lazy to put the box down and flip the switch, and I paid the price. I got to the bottom of the steps; I tripped on the last step and fell forward onto the concrete basement floor. Writhing in pain, Oh, did that hurt! I landed on my knee and hurt my neck. I was down there a little bit in shock and was trying to figure out what was wrong. I thought Id really damaged my knee. I was down there just moaning, groaning, and writhing in pain. My dog, Penny, came to see what the commotion was about. She came to the top of the steps. She wasnt coming down. I dont know if she was afraid of me or was trying to figure out what the new game was that Dad was trying to play. She was looking at me from a distance; from the top of the steps, she was looking down at me in agony. She was studying me; her ears were up, and her head was tilted like, Whats going on? Why are you doing that?

I was like, Oh, Penny! Im hurt! I dont know what I was expecting, but I can tell you this: there is no St. Bernard in my dog. I thought, You know, shes at least going to come down and give me a courtesy lick on the face to say, Listen, Id like to help ya, but Im a dog. I cant do anything for ya. I love ya. Im sorry youre in this condition. Im pulling for you to make it, and do your best. Thats what that would have demonstrated to me. Just come down and check on me, make sure Im okay. Give me the courtesy lick on the forehead and then Im good. Rather than doing that, my dog simply turns-while Im in pain, writhing in agony-and leaves and goes back to the couch! Nothing more I can do here. Hope you make it, big guy. Good luck to you. Im out of here. I have squirrels to watch, so off Penny went. I lay there for a long time, assessing my damage. I finally got up, went upstairs, and there she was just watching birds and squirrels out the bay window.

When we think about these folks who have fallen-we think about these folks who are no longer living for the Lord and are in darkness-I wonder when you raised your hand and thought about that person, did you go after that person? Did you pursue them? Did you dare take a step down into the darkness with them and find out what was going on? Now, dont lick them on the head. Im not asking you to do that like my dog, but did you find out, Whats going on with you? How did you get here? Do you want to stay here? Why are you here? Can I give you a hand? Can I help you out of this darkness? Can I help you up? Can we go back up to where you were before? Thats what James is telling us to do. Hes saying, Go into the darkness. Find them. Reach down to them. Love on them. Dont lecture them! Dont yell at them! Whats wrong with you?!? Lift them up and say, Im here for you. Lets talk about how you ended up here. Lets talk about how we bring you back to where you used to be. That's what James is saying.

James is saying, Take responsibility to bring that person who has wondered away from the church and finally, finally help them to cross the line of faith for real, and really give their life to Christ, really become a true believer and a true follower of Jesus Christ. Thats what hes saying, My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone… Who? Someone. Are you a someone today? He doesnt say, And the Apostles will bring him back to faith, or the elders will, or the pastors will bring him back to the faith. He says, Someone, anyone, if you love that person, realize what is at stake. Youre going to save their soul from death. The stakes are as high as they can possibly be. If you truly love somebody, you wont simply look at them in that fallen condition in the darkness and go, Tis, tis, too bad. Well, I have to get back to what Im supposed to do.

Maybe Im afraid. I remember not talking to Roger, truthfully, when I was 17 when I heard that news because I was afraid. He was a tough guy before he became a Christian. Maybe he is that tough guy again. Maybe he wont like me. Besides, Im a kid. What am I going to do? What am I going to say to an adult? I was afraid. Probably my dog didnt come down those steps because she was afraid because I was acting funny. I was making a lot of strange noises, and she didnt know what was going on.

James says, Take that risk. Make that walk. Descend to where theyre at. Help them up.

Now there are two ways that we stray. I want to talk about both of them. The first way we can stray is doctrinally. If you stray doctrinally, probably morally/ethically, youre still going to be living an upright life. In fact, thats one of the reasons why we cant identify them because theyre fine citizens, right? Theyre good people, but they stray doctrinally. Theyve received some wrong information that caused them to depart from the truth of the Gospel. This happened time and time again. In fact, much of the New Testament is written to combat error. Paul would write or John would write, and they would correct wrong thinking, wrong information. Remember Paul said, Earnestly contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. Gods Word, His revelation, is done. Its complete. You cant add to it or take away from it, but there are people who will twist and distort it. That happened in the First Century Church, and it happens today. Were to go after them and give them the right information.

I went to go visit one of our members named Kilcha. Some of you know Kilcha. Shes Korean. She usually comes to the 11 oclock service and sits over here. Kilcha had a headache, and her friend encouraged her to go to the hospital. It turned out it was a brain aneurism. They caught it just in time. She had brain surgery that Sunday I found out about it. I preached the sermon first, and then I took off to try to find Kilcha at 11 oclock. She was at the UW Hospital in Madison recovering from brain surgery by the time I made it there. UW Madison is a big place, so I wanted to make sure that I knew exactly where my car was parked and exactly how to find her room. It worked out with my memory device because she was in the K Wing, and her name is Kilcha. So I went, This is a piece of cake. Im in the K Wing. Ill be able to find this, no problem. So I was given directions to the room, K423. You take the K elevator, and you go up to the fourth floor. No problem. I walked to the K elevator and went up to the fourth floor. I got up there, and it was a ghost town. There were no people, no patients, no doctors or nurses-nobody. There was nobody around. I was walking around thinking, Well, these are more administrative offices and laboratories. There are no patients here. She must be in another K Wing, so I went to another K Wing. I couldnt find it. I was walking around for 20 minutes up and down the same hallways going, Well, it says K. This has to be it. This is it. This is the only place the elevator would take me. Finally, I see a young man in blue jeans and a T-shirt walking around. I didnt know if he was the custodian or what his role was there. I said, Sir, could you help me? Im trying to find this.

He said, Okay. Hmm, thats strange. Well, lets look. So we walked around for another 15 minutes in the same corroders.

I wanted to tell him, You know, I can tell you right now this isnt going to do any good.

Finally he started asking questions. He said, Hmm, I wonder if this is the correct information. Can you tell me what she had done?

I said, Well, she had brain surgery done.

Then he goes, Oh, yeah. I used to do that. Okay, so what did… He said it just like that, just kind of casually. It turned out before he came to UW Madison, he was a brain surgeon in California.

I said, Whyd you stop?

He said, I got tired of working 110-hour weeks. Now I only work 80-hour weeks. He said it just like that, Oh, I used to do that.

You and I would be like, I have a Honda.

I used to drive one of those.

She had brain surgery.

I used to do that. Okay, now lets look…

We couldnt find her. When he couldnt find the room, I wanted to say so badly, Doctor, this isnt brain surgery… (Congregation laughing). But I thought, Im not going to do that.

As soon as he found out it was brain surgery, he said, Were in the wrong place. We walked over to the elevator, and he said, Heres where they usually recover from brain surgery, so lets go to that floor and that wing even though its different from whats on the paper. He took me there. He got on the elevator; he walked me to that unit, and we found Kilcha.

I was like, Wow, Doc, that was really nice of you. You took all that time. You got on the elevator with me. You took me to the unit. You figured it out. Thats awesome. Thanks. Thats what James is telling us to do. There are people who get wrong information, doctrinally-wrong information. They are wandering. Theyre lost. Theyre no longer in contact with the truth as it was delivered to the saints-the Gospel, the pure Gospel, theyve departed from that. Maybe theyre denying the deity of Christ. Maybe theyre denying the work on the cross or His Resurrection. It could happen to anybody.

A friend of mine who was a pastor in Rockford started teaching in the 80s what was called the JDS or the Jesus Died Spiritually Doctrine. Have you heard of that? The way it goes is Christ died on the cross and then His Spirit descended into hell where he was tormented by Satan and demons for three days. He became a sinner in Hell. He took on all of our sin, and then finally He Himself had to be born again; and thats why Colossians said He is the first born of the dead. Then He was resurrected. He was teaching this, and I said, Thats heresy.

Oh, but Pastor so-and-so says that its in this book, and hes really famous.

I said, Thats heresy. Youre teaching that when Jesus says, It was finished, it wasnt finished. Youre teaching that the cross was not enough, that His blood was not sufficient to atone for my sins. He had to further descent into Hell and further experience more torment and be born again just like a man. Im telling you thats heresy. Around and around we went. I dont know if hes still teaching that today or not, but I do know that hes a friend. I care for him. I care for the people who are going to hear what he is teaching, so I challenged that.

Remember when we shared about a pastor who came to Janesville, a Universalist pastor? He used to be one of the most dynamic pastors Id ever listened to in my life. Hes now traveling around the country. I showed you a picture of his mug months ago-a literal mug, not his face-a coffee mug. It had the Ten Commandments with a slash through it. Do you remember that? He was teaching, You dont need to worry about the Ten Commandments. You live any way you want to live because every single person on this planet is going to be saved and go to Heaven. It didnt matter what kind of life you lived. You could be a mass murderer and die shaking your fists at God, and you would go to Heaven. Thats what he taught.

I wonder-I dont know that guy personally-but I wondered if anybody confronted him. Did anybody take him to the Scriptures and say, Listen to what youre teaching. Listen to how youre leading people astray. Paul would do that. Even Paul once went astray, and Paul confronted Peter. Friends, there are a lot of people with the wrong information. If thats the case, James says, We go to them and say, Listen, youve departed from the truth.

Paul did this with the Galatians when he said, You are following a different Gospel. This is not the Gospel I taught you. This is not the true Gospel.

Paul said, If I were to come back and teach a different Gospel or an angel from Heaven were to come to you and preach a different Gospel from the one youve heard, let him be accursed. Sometimes people will err doctrinally.

The second way they err is morally. They wander away from the faith morally. Theyre living a lifestyle that no longer honors God. Im not talking about our sin, our struggle with sin. We all struggle with sin. Were all sinners. Youre being taught this morning by a sinner. I hope you understand that. We are all sinners in this place in need of grace, in need of a Savior. Were all in the same boat. Im talking about a person who in defiance-in defiance-is living a lifestyle that he or she knows does not honor and please God. They know its contrary to the Word of God, and theyre there. Thats a false believer. James says, You go after that person and try to be used of God to make them become a true believer.

I was driving home after an adventurous week, I guess. I dropped my son off at UW-Milwaukee, and I was heading home on the interstate. I was going 65 MPH, the speed limit. There was really nobody in front of me. There was a gap where there were no cars in front of me, and there were some cars behind me. A deer came out of the woods. Id never hit a deer before, but Ive heard many stories about what its like. Immediately, my anxiety level went up. He walked to the edge of the interstate and stood there. I was like, Oh, please, just go back in the woods. Go back where its safe. Dont come this way. Then he slowly started to walk on the interstate. He was on the right lane-actually physically standing on the interstate. I went into the left lane. I couldnt stop-you understand that-because there were cars behind me coming 70 MPH. I had to move forward, so I went into the left lane, and when I got close, I sped up because I was trying to get around him. That speeding up may have saved my life. I think the slower you go, if you hit your brakes, the more apt they are to roll right into your car through the windshield. If you can drive through them, which I didnt want to do and you dont want to do, but if your lifes on the line, you do what you have to. If you go through them, then its less likely for that to happen; so I hit the gas, and as soon as I did that, this deer ran right in front of the car. I hit that deer full on, a full-on collision. I propelled it like 30 feet off into the meridians. I knew there was no way [it would live]. It was probably instant death for that deer. My car was in bad shape. I could tell. I drove really slowly, and as it got dark, I had a really good view of the treetops on my left with my headlights. It wasnt such a good view of the road. I knew I was leaking fluids, and I had no heat. Finally, I made it home. If you remember seeing me in a Toyota Prius, you wont see me in that Prius anymore. Thats gone. I had to call my sister and say, Can I have my Lincoln Town Car back? I went from a Prius to a Lincoln. Its a 2001, so now Im driving that again. What a contrast of cars. Ill now get 15 miles to the gallon when I used to get 45. The car is gone.

There are sometimes when people we know leave the safe area. Theyre in the church; but theyre not truly following Christ, but theyre in the church. Thats a good place to be, and they wander away. They head to that danger zone. They head where life is not safe. They wander away from the Commandments of God. They put themselves in harms way. How long do they do that before we intervene? Is it as they start walking out of the woods and toward that direction? Is it when they get on the highway, or is it when they start to come into traffic and put themselves in harms way where their lives could literally be on the line?

I had a friend who I thought was a moral guy, a good guy. He occasionally went to church and seemed to profess Christ; but at a certain point, he just completely walked away from what hed been taught. He was living a destructive lifestyle, so I and a couple of other friends went to him and said, You have to change. You need the Lord. You need Christ. He wouldnt listen. He got angry at us instead. We went there in love and said, We love you. Were afraid for you. He lost his car; he lost his girlfriend; he lost his job; he lost his house and became addicted to cocaine and created other problems in his life. He was totally living an un-Godly life. Im so happy to say that God has worked in his life, and today he has a job. Hes a productive member of society again. He seems to be doing really well with his life, but we did an intervention with him.

Maybe there are some folks that you need to do an intervention for. In fact, that's one of my goals this morning is that we can be catalysts. If you know somebody who used to live an upright life and has totally turned their backs on the things of God, how far do you let them wander before you say, You know what? I love you. I care about you. Im concerned for the way youre living your life. Im concerned that your life is going to end up destroyed because of the decisions that youre making.

If you truly love somebody, you wouldnt let them walk onto the interstate, would you-if it was in your power to grab them, stop them and pull them back, and say, Go back to the place of safety. Go back where youre loved and supported? Would you not do that?

Yet, sometimes there are people that we know, and we simply allow them to go under harms way without lifting a finger to try to stop them. James makes an appeal to those who are true believers. He says, If somebody wanders from your faith, doctrinally, morally, you have a responsibility to pursue them. They may not listen to you. They may become angry with you, but what if they dont? What if they listen? What if God uses you to bring them to repentance?

James says, Youll know that God has used you to save their souls-cover a multitude of sins.

Lets pray together.

Father, we want to pray right now for the message that we have heard. Lord, in our minds eye, some of us can see people. We know who they are. We know their situation. We want to pray for those who have departed from the faith doctrinally and morally, with wrong information. Theyre lost. Theyre meandering and wandering away from the Truth. There are some who have morally turned their backs on what Your Word says. Theyre living on dangerous ground because theyre operating and living a lifestyle that is contrary to what the Creator, the Designer, has said. Its only a matter of time before they reap what they have sown. We who love them should be concerned about them, so I want to pray for them. I want you, in your minds eye right now, to think about that person. Name their name. Say, Father, I pray for… and name their name. Pray that they will come to faith in Christ. Pray that they will repent and change directions. Pray that they can be saved. Pray that they can know that You love them, that Christ died for them. Pray that they could truly enter in to a genuine experience where they put their hope and trust in Jesus Christ. I pray this morning-if youre here this morning and youre listening to this, and youre thinking, Im not sure Ive truly given my life to Christ, I pray this morning youll say, Lord Jesus, I give You my heart and life. Forgive my sins. I ask Your Holy Spirit to come inside of me, to empower me, to cleanse me and make me a new person. Lord, I want to live for You all the days of my life. Because of Your Resurrection, I have the hope of eternal life because I belong to You. Receive me as Your son, as Your daughter this morning. I pray that youd pray that pray in sincerity of heart. I pray that youd go through the motions and become a true follower of Christ. Father, I pray that those we identify, that we will actually go after them. Well make some phone calls. Well knock on some doors. Well send some emails and say, Can we get together? Can we talk? I pray we will have the courage and the insight to tell them we love them and help them to go down to the darkness, pick them up, and bring them the restoration. I pray we bring them the right information in place of wrong. Father, equip us for that, empower us for that. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.

[Congregation just finished watching drama.] I think if we took a show of hands this morning, many hands would go up if we asked the question, How many of you have felt like the couple in our skit this morning? Maybe it wasnt specifically with the issue of infertility. Maybe it was an illness or was just at a general time of trouble or hardship that youve been through. I think the point is that we can all identify. We can all sense their frustration. We can all hear the hurt and the pain in their voices. We recognize that weve been there too, and weve prayed that God would bring relief, that He would bring an end to the time of trouble in our lives; and sometimes those times continue on.

This morning as we continue and actually begin to wrap up our series in James, were talking about When You Pray. We remember that James writes this Passage in the greater context of his letter. At the time, he probably sat down and wrote it in one sitting. Those that heard the letter would have heard it read together in one sitting, so they would remember the subjects and the topics that weve already talked about as James gets to the section on prayer. We know that James has had some pretty strong words for the church. We know that the church has been through difficult times. Theyve been through times of suffering and trials. Some of them had to relocate because of the persecution they had been under. Now, after facing struggle from outside the church, as they gather together in their faith family, theyre experiencing turmoil, trouble, and suffering even inside the church. When we get to our section on prayer today, James is trying to change the tone. Like I said, he has given some strong warnings. Hes given some strong exhortations, and now he wants to give the community of faith a vision for how the church should be living together, should be operating together. What he does is he uses the topic of prayer to reinforce this idea of unity and community.

Were going to read our section from James this morning. Its from James 5, and well pick it up in Verse 13 (page 1199 of pew Bibles). Were going to just read through our Passage this morning and then go back and talk about some of the different parts that James talks about. Picking up with Verse 13, James says, Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

The first question that James answers for us is the question of when do we pray. He makes some very simple statements. Really, the answer to the question is you pray in all circumstances. It sounds very much like when Paul was writing in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. He said, Pray continuously. We can understand that. Its a very simple instruction.

James goes through a few different scenarios though to reinforce the point, and he says, Is any of you in trouble? Trouble being a very general term-it doesnt apply to a specific kind of trouble, a specific time of persecution or trial. Its just a general time of difficulty. James knows that when we go through times of trouble, sort of like our couple in the skit this morning, it raises questions in our hearts. We ask, Is God aware of what Im going through? Does God care what Im going through? Even if He does, does God have any power to affect change in the situation Im going through? Those questions so often lead us to a time of praying less. James says, In those times, its just the opposite. You need to pray more. In times of trouble, you need to pray. Thats the exact time to pray.

Then he addresses the other side of the spectrum. He said, If any of you are happy, rejoicing, or celebrating… Again, a general term-it can apply to many different types of situations of peace, content, and joy. James knows that sometimes when things are going well, what happens to us? We get complacent in our prayer life. When we dont have that sense of urgency to come before God, sometimes we pray less. James says, No, no, no. In times of happiness, thats the time to pray more. Sing songs of praise. Address God. Be grateful for the good things in your lives. Be thankful. Let Him know how much you appreciate this time.

Then he goes into a third example. He asks, Is anyone sick? Because James knows that when we get sick, we feel discouraged. When we get sick, we feel weak. We feel helpless. That helplessness sometimes can lead to a sense of hopelessness. James is telling us, Helplessness does not equal hopelessness. In fact, sometimes our helplessness is our best prayer because when we realize that we need God, when we depend on Him every day, thats the attitude with which God loves us to come to Him-how much we need Him.

The answer to our first question this morning is very simple. When do we pray? All the time. We pray in every circumstance. We address our Creator. We pour our hearts out to Him. We focus our minds on Him.

Next James goes into some phrases that tell us how we should pray. He gives us some instruction, some guidelines, and the first thing he says is you should call the elders of the church to pray over you. Just that expression of calling the elders, thats an expression of faith; and were going to talk about faith a little bit more in a little bit, so Im not going to really get into that now except for just to mention that at the beginning of James-when James was talking about someone praying for wisdom-he mentions faith as a necessary condition of our prayers. Calling is an expression of faith, and the fact that James says to call the elders reinforces his point that the family of faith, the community of faith, is supposed to be just that-a community. Its within the context of our community that we share our struggles with each other-he specifically mentions the elders, teachers. Some churches might call them deacons-those people that have been given special trust for the spiritual interest and spiritual guidance shepherding the church. James point is make your requests known because what happens so many times when were going through a struggle is we hesitate to let people know. We hesitate to let them know of the difficulties that were facing. We try and cover it up. We try to put on that happy face so that people think that everythings going well. James says, Uh-ah. Thats not how the family of faith is supposed to operate. Were supposed to let each other know when were going through times of trouble. I think a significant point here is that James makes no mention of the specific spiritual gift of healing. Paul mentions that in his letters. He includes the gift of healing as a specific spiritual gift, but what James has in mind here is a power through prayer thats available to all of the church as members submit their lives to God. Come together in humility and weakness and pray for each others struggles.

He says, Make your requests known. I want to use this as an opportunity to remind you that we have a ministry whose whole focus is on praying for the needs of people in our church. Its called, The Branch of the Lord Ministry. This is a group of people who are committed to praying for all kinds of situations, for praying and giving praise to God in all of those types of situations we just mentioned. Were trying to figure out ways to make their ministry more accessible to you specifically so that you can turn in requests, and then they can be praying for you as well. Make your requests known. Call the elders; be a family of faith together.

The second instruction James gives us is he says, You need to pray in the name of the Lord. I know a lot of us use that as a phrase at the end of our prayer, but maybe we seldom give it much thought. What does that mean to pray in the name of the Lord? We kind of act as if thats just a tagline that we add on; if we really want our prayer to be effective, then we are sure to pray in the name of the Lord. Then somehow God is obligated to fulfill that. Really, when we do that, were reflecting attitude that prayer is really more like a wish. Can you imagine if prayers were wishes- if we could just pray for anything and say, In the name of the Lord, it would happen? I know one thing that would happen (Pastor Jesse shows a picture of a sign at a gas station with an error on it. It had the price of $0.009 on it). I have it here on the screen. This is the actual gas station down from my house. I saw that sign and I thought, Whoa! I took a picture. For some reason though, they wouldnt fulfill that obligation when I went in and said, $0.009, thats a good deal. They said, No, that's just a mistake. Sorry. The point is that praying in the name of the Lord reflects an attitude that we have. It means that we pray in union with Christ. It means that we pray by the authority or direction of the Lord or as an act in accordance with His Will and something that will meet His approval.

Jesus gave us this model when He gave us the model of prayer. When we talk about the Lords Prayer, in the beginning of His prayer-not at the end, He said, Lord, Your Kingdom come. Your Will be done. That's an example of the attitude were to have in prayer when we pray in the name of the Lord.

Along with this phrase just before it, you have the phrase to anoint the person with oil. Honestly, you can do a lot of reading because there is a lot of discussion about what exactly does James mean here? Is he referring to some exercise of that spiritual gift of healing where anointing someone with oil is often used? There are examples of the Disciples doing that. You can look in Mark 16. You can see the Disciples doing that. In the ancient east and even now today, oil had medical and therapeutic uses; and it was very common for people to use oil to treat ailments and to be therapeutic. An example of that would be in the Verses where Jesus was speaking about the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 (page 1028 in pew Bibles). It says, When the Samaritan came upon the man who was beaten and bruised and left for dead, he had pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He was giving him first aid. Were not necessarily going to settle the debate about exactly what James means because his main point in this Passage isnt on the power of the oil, but its on the power of praying in the name of the Lord. The oil doesnt contain the power; the power comes from Christ Himself as we pray in submission to His Will and as we call on His authority.

Jesus gave His Disciples that specific instruction-that they should pray in His name. Now you can read it. Ill give you a little homework this morning. You can read John 14-16 (starting on page 1067). Jesus makes remarkable statements about what the Disciples would be able to accomplish as they prayed with this attitude, as they prayed in the name of the Lord.

Number three, it says the prayer should be offered in faith, so we are to pray in faith. What does that mean? Remember we said this was read as a letter, as a whole, so the people who heard the letter would have remembered in the beginning (in Chapter 1) when James was talking about if anybody lacks wisdom, what should he do? He should pray. In James 1:6 (page 1196), James says, But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

I think sometimes we put extra strain and unnecessary stress on ourselves because when difficult times come and when we question Gods purpose-when we cry out in sincere frustration and just [have] a sense of not knowing what God is doing, wondering if this is really a good plan-those questions are raised in our souls. James is not talking about the fact that we have those types of questions. Weve heard in the last few weeks of examples of Prophets and of Job who expressed freely their emotion before God. Thats not what it means when it says that he should not doubt. He calls him a double-minded man, and we could better understand that if we just changed one word and said a double-souled person, someone who at their heart level hasnt yet decided whether or not theyre going to submit their life, whether they believe in the God of the universe, that He loves them and Hes paid the price for their sin, and that theyre going to give Him control of their lives. Thats the tension that James is talking about, and if we pray with the absence of that faith in God-that God exists, that He loves us, that Hes paid the ultimate price for us, that we find forgiveness and strength through Him-James says our prayers will be ineffective; so were to pray with that understanding and that faith that comes from believing in God.

Fourthly, James gets into that area of confession, and he says, Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other. At the end of Verse 15 in our Passage, James mentions the possibility that sin has an impact on the persons wellbeing. It said, If the person has sinned, he will be forgiven. What that means is that there is a connection between sin and illness and that its possible there may be sin, but its not necessary in every case. When there is sin, that prevents God from hearing our prayers. God first wants us to acknowledge whether or not we are living obediently to Him because if were not willing to trust Him completely and live obediently to Him, then why would we be coming and asking for Him to work on our behalf; so James mentions the possibility of sin, and he does it in the context of community. He wants us to understand that healing-both physical and spiritual-is available when we enter into this type of relationship with each other. He says, Confess your sins to each other, and pray for each other that you may be healed.

We talked about the fact that James is writing to a group of people who had been through a time of persecution, a time of trouble and struggles and what happens to our relationships when we go through very stressful times. Oftentimes our relationships are put under great strain as well. James knows that the people hes writing to have struggled first in their relationship with God. Theyve questioned Gods authority. Theyve been tempted to not be obedient to God and seek their own means of protection. Hes calling them back to a stance of faith through confession. Hes also acknowledging that their relationships with each other have suffered. If you were to look back at Chapter 2, he talks to them about playing favorites with each other in the church. In Chapter 3, he talks about them verbally attacking each other in the church. In Chapter 4, he talks about them fighting with each other, slandering each other, and judging each other in the church. He says, Brothers and sisters, this is not how the church is supposed to operate. We all must come to God from the same standpoint, and that is that we need Gods forgiveness. He is the one who offers us forgiveness, so together, lets confess our sins to each other. Lets be honest and humble with each other and pray for each other so that through those prayers, through those confessions, God can raise us up and can strengthen us-not only strengthen our relationship with Him, but as we share each others burdens, as we lovingly intercede for each other in prayer, our relationships in this community of faith will be strengthened and will grow deeper as well.

What James is saying is that instead of judging, confess to each other. Instead of heaping guilt on each other, he wants us to forgive each other. Instead of moving to criticize, he says intercede for each other. So James is casting a vision before the early church saying, Your church has had some trouble. Its had infighting; its had conflict; and that does not demonstrate the type of unity [God desires]. You are interfering with the power that God wants to release in your worship time. Instead, hes painting a picture, and he said, Imagine what church would be like. Imagine what your meetings would be like as leaders gather together leading with the authority of Christ in worship. As Christians were praising joyfully for the good things in their lives. Also, as they were confessing their sins openly and praying for each other lovingly, the church together would experience healing in every aspect-physical, relational, spiritual healing. He said, This is what the church should be like, and its within Gods power to accomplish this in your church, in our church, as we live out these instructions on prayer. James goes on to answer the question about why we should pray.

I was kind of presented with what I thought was a pretty good illustration of why we should pray this week. Towards the end of the week, Joy brought these two bamboos-are they plants or are they trees? Thats outside of my expertise. Weve had these for about four years. We got them at the same time, and you can see when we bought them-heres the top of both plants-they were the same size when we got them. I guarantee over the last four years, they have received the same amount of attention. They have received the same amount of water, but there has been one significant difference. This bamboo plant has been sitting in a place where for a good share of the day it receives direct sunlight; and this plant has been sitting somewhere where it receives no direct sunlight. Dont judge; were not that great with plants sometimes (congregation laughing). The point that God really was helping me understand is these two plants are pictures of believers in how their prayer life is reflected. This plant reflects a believer who is spending regular time in Gods presence, and thats what prayer is: its relationship. Its talking; its listening; its crying out; its laughing with the Creator. As this person has spent time praying and going through difficult times, but taking those thoughts and those cries to God, God has brought growth, health

and vitality. This person hasnt been as regular in their prayer. They havent spent that time in Gods presence, and because of that, their growth has been minimal. Theyre not healthy; theyre not growing vitally. Theyre struggling. Thats a picture of prayer.

So why do we pray? James says we pray because God promises to work through His prayers. He turns our prayers from something thats a cry from our heart or words from our mouth and He turns them into a powerful force through which He accomplishes incredible things in our lives. Just think about the claims that James is making in this Passage. He says that their prayers will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise Him up, restore his strength. He said, Forgiveness will happen between you and God and also between brothers and sisters in Christ. That forgiveness will bring unity and a sense of community and a vision, an excitement, and a passion within the church; you will be healed. Thats what James says.

Then he shares a verse, the end of Verse 16, that powerful verse that says, The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. I am not a Greek scholar, so I rely on those who are. As I read different commentaries about picking apart the words of this sentence, its just amazing to see the amount of energy and the amount of expectation that is expressed with these five simple Greek words. What James is saying is that God dynamically acts through the prayers of His children. Dont get hung up on that word righteous. Sometimes when we read that word righteous, we think, Well, I struggle. Im weak. I make mistakes. Someday I hope to attain that. Remember in the beginning of Verse 16, James has laid out the process of becoming righteous. He said, Confess your sin. When were right with God, when we have asked God to reveal those things in our hearts that dont honor Him and we say, God, Im through with that. Give me the strength to live for You, thats what it means to be righteous. Were putting our full faith and trust in God. Were right with God.

James says, The prayers of His children who are right with Him are powerful and effective. We could sum up what weve read so far or restate it to say something like this: In your trials, you dont need the power gained by money, favoritism, selfishness, fighting, or swearing big and boisterous promises. Instead rely on God through prayer for which you need only to be right with Him. Commit yourself to doing what is right without compromise. Then you may rely on God in prayer for all of your needs. Then James gives us an example, and he uses the Prophet Elijah for a couple reasons. One of them is Elijah was like one of the super Prophets of the Old Testament. People were familiar with the acts of faith that Elijah prayed for and the divine answers to those prayers that he saw. He saw food miraculously multiply as they used each day what they thought was their last portion of food. God renewed that provision. The widow he had been staying with, her son had died, and Elijah prayed in faith that God would raise him from the dead; and God raised her son from the dead. The climax of the account was when Elijah faced off against the 450 prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel because Baal worship had become so prevalent in the land at that time. Elijah told them, You go ahead. You pick your bull. You get your idol set up. They were praying, chanting and doing everything. Elijah sat back, and he just started trash talking to them. He said, Oh, Im sure Baals a god, but maybe hes busy now. Maybe hes asleep. Maybe hes on vacation. Pray louder! Call louder! The prophets got themselves all worked up into a fervor, and nothing happened. Elijah prayed a simple prayer of faith. Fire from Heaven fell, and even though his altar had been doused with water several times, God consumed the altar, consumed the bull, and consumed the water. In an instant it was gone. Then the miracle specifically that James referenced here that kind of serves as a bookend to these accounts is when God asked Elijah to pray that the rain would stop, and it stopped. After this account on Mt. Carmel, God reminded Elijah that it was time to pray for the rain to come, and the rain came.

One of the reasons James uses Elijah is because it draws to peoples minds these things that happened that were unarguably outside of the realm of human possibility-that only God could accomplish these things. Another reason-and this is what James specifically mentions in Verse 17-is when he says Elijah was a man just like us. You see, James doesnt want us to think that God answers the prayers of Elijah because he was like Super Prophet. He was like the man. What was also well known about Elijah, right after this tremendous victory on Mt. Carmel, he just saw God work in this amazing way-destroying the prophets of Baal-he got scared for his own life and took off. He fled. During that time, he got depressed. He became worn down. He questioned Gods purpose. He questioned God allowing certain things, and people knew that about Elijah; so James reminds them, Elijah wasnt perfect. He was like us, but he believed in a perfect God, and he was willing to pray prayers of faith based on what God had revealed to him and had encouraged him to do.

Before I was preparing for this message because I knew that this weekend was coming, I looked ahead to the section of Scripture that I would cover and saw it was on the idea of healing prayer. I kind of shook my head and said, Well, God this fits into what our friend, Pastor Gary, who has come and taught different times, calls God is a hoot theology. I thought, God, Im the guy on staff who has a chronic illness. I have Crohns disease. Ive had it for about 15 years, and Ive prayed that it would go away; and it hasnt. Now you want me to talk about healing prayer. Okay. Its not that I havent experienced Gods healing in my experience. I have. There have been a number of times Ive experienced God really reaching down and just changing things in an instant. I can share different examples, but one of them I think shows the point best. One of the things that can happen with Crohns disease is you get abscesses that develop in the core of your abdomen. An abscess is just a collection of fluid, and they can be big or small; but whether big or small, theyre painful. They can become very dangerous because they can leak into your blood stream, and they can give you blood poisoning. There was a period in my life where I had about five or six of these abscesses that Id collected in about a three month period, so a short amount of time. The solution for the abscesses when they got to that point and didnt respond to medication was they had to be aspirated. Doesnt that sound like a nice polite word-aspiration? Aspire, but no, its not a nice word. To aspirate, that means they stink a big honking needle into your abdomen, into the abscess, as youre lying on basically a CAT Scan table so they can see where theyre going, and its a very painful process. They dont put you out for that kind of thing because they call it a procedure. I would like to argue what the definition of a procedure should be, I think, because its painful. Like I mentioned, I already had five or six of these things in the last two or three months; and it was to the point where I just couldnt take anymore. When the doctor told me that as I sat in his office, inside I just felt a sense of turmoil, anxiety, and fear. I just said, God, I cant do this again. Its too much. I cant do it. As we left the doctors office, God just spoke to my spirit, and he said, You know what, Jesse? I want you to pray that this abscess goes away, and I said, Oh, thank You! Good, I will pray, and I believe it will happen.

God said, And I want you to tell some people that thats what were going to pray for.

I thought, Oh, God, cant this just be our little secret? Cant I just pray that You just do it, and then itll be good?

God said, No, I want you to tell somebody, so I told my family, and I told some close friends. We prayed for the week that God would heal that. The time came, and I got all gowned up in the hospital. I lay back on the CAT Scan table, and they sent me through. They sent me through and took the first initial scans, and I could see the doctor and the techs in the other room through the window. I could see them kind of looking at the screen and calling the other people over. They would look at it, and then theyd look out at me like, Who are you?

I was like, Whats going on? I dont know.

Pretty soon the doctor came walking back out, and he came up as I was lying on the CAT Scan table. He looked down and said, Well, I dont know how this happened, but the abscess is gone, so were not going to have to do anything. You can go home now, (congregation clapping). Yeah, and thats basically the reaction that I had except for it wasnt quite as manly because all that anxiety and all that energy had been building up inside my heart. When the doctor said that, it was like a release of that emotion. It all just happened to come through my vocal chords at the same time, and I sounded like a ten year old girl giggling uncontrollably. The doctor just kind of looked at me like, Okay…go home now.

I have experienced Gods healing, but Ive also prayed that God would take away Crohns all together, and He hasnt done that. Why? Maybe youve prayed about something in your life-a hardship, a struggle-maybe its been an illness or disease, and God hasnt taken that away.

The million dollar question this morning is, is James guaranteeing that as we pray for the sick, a prayer of faith, that He will bring healing? The answer to that, I think, keeping in mind everything I just shared with you, is it qualified? Yes. Gods desire is to bring good things into our lives. God delights when Hes able to remove obstacles and remove suffering from our life; and we give Him the glory. He enjoys that; He loves that. He doesnt enjoy our pain. He doesnt enjoy our suffering, so why then does He not always act as we pray and take away the time of suffering?

Keeping verses like this in context with the rest of Scripture is very important as we study this. Scripture gives us answers to the question why. Although in specific cases-in my specific case and maybe in your specific case-perhaps the specific reason God is allowing this is a mystery that is contained within the heart and mind of God alone; but Scripture does give us some ways to understand why He doesnt always bring healing and health.

James has already mentioned one. Remember he talked about the connection that there may be sin in a persons life. We said that was a possibility but not a necessity in every case, so when were going through a difficult time, we search our hearts. We search our minds, and we ask God, Is there a choice that Im making thats dishonoring to You? Are you trying to get my attention, and if so, God, show me what it is. God is not one who likes to hide things like that from us. He will show you what it is so that you can confess and receive the healing that James has talked about, so there may be sin involved in a persons heart; but thats not the only reason.

I think we can find another reason as we look into the account of Elijah in 1 Kings 18:41-45. Right after that big amazing showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, Elijah knows that God is going to bring this time of drought to an end, Elijah said to Ahab, Go eat and drink for there is the sound of a heavy rain. There was no sound at that point. Elijah was speaking in faith, so Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Mt. Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. That is a prayer posture, and Elijah prayed; though were not explicitly told that, we know thats what he did.

Go and look toward the sea, he told his servant, and he went out and looked.

There is nothing there, he said.

Seven times Elijah said, Go back.

The seventh time, the servant reported, A cloud as small as a mans hand is rising from the sea.

So Elijah said, Go and tell Ahab, Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.

Seven times Elijah prayed. Why didnt God answer the first time? What about the second time? Youd think maybe the third time, surely, if that was something God wanted to do, He would have answered. Were told Elijah prayed seven times. Why? Really only God knows the reason, but what we can learn from that is that the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth time, it wasnt the right time. Elijah knew God had told him the rain would come when he asked, so he continued. He persevered in prayer. He waited for the answer that God had already promised him would come.

Maybe in our lives when we pray that God would remove the suffering, maybe its not the right time. Dont lose heart. Dont give up. Continue to come before God in faith.

Theres a third reason though. Maybe initially if you find yourself in the midst of a difficult situation right now, an illness or some other hardship, maybe initially this doesnt sound very comforting, but as you meditate on this-as you let this truth sink into your heart, and I can say in my own life and experience this principle has brought tremendous encouragement to me, even joy in the midst of suffering-its this: God sometimes doesnt bring an end to our difficulty because theres a greater work that He wants to do for His Kingdom. Theres a greater work He wants to do in our lives, something greater than even the healing itself would be. I know when youre in the middle of pain, when youre suffering, when youre sick, your mind tells you that there would be nothing greater than if God would just take this pain away from you. I know that; Ive felt that. The truth is that if God allows a difficult situation to continue, its because theres a greater glory that He will bring about through it.

Thats what Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. Were not going to read that whole part, but theres an amazing Passage of encouragement that someone gave me when Id been in the hospital for what ended up being about three months at a time. When he gave me the Passage, honestly at first, I didnt like it because in that Passage, Paul said, For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. I thought, This is not light. This is not momentary. This feels like its going to last forever, and it feels very intense. Paul, in that Passage, is not denying the intensity of our suffering, but what hes saying is when you compare it to the glory, to the work that God will bring because of this experience in your life, if you were to put those two things on a scale, even as immense and difficult as your experience with this is, what God will do as a result of it is far greater than this. That gives me encouragement because if what Ive gone through doesnt even compare to the scale of glory that God will bring from that experience, then I can endure it with His help, and I can give Him glory for it.

Another example I want to bring out to you this morning in the few moments we have left is Jesus Himself. In Hebrews 5:7, it tells us that during the days of Jesus life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. I like Marks accounting of it in the Gospels, in Mark 14:33-36, Jesus prays in the Garden. What does He pray? He said, Abba, Father, You can do all things. Would You make this day pass? Would you take this cup of suffering from Me? Thats what He prayed. Then He said, Not My will, Lord, but Yours be done. He prayed that prayer three times.

Now Hebrews tells us that Jesus prayer was answered. Did God remove that suffering that Jesus was looking ahead to-dying on the cross for our sin? No, He didnt. Why not? Because there was something greater that God was accomplishing through that suffering. Its amazing when you look at it. Jesus, one moment, is so overcome with grief. Hes so overcome with sorrow; Hes so distressed that He falls to the ground. Hes sweating drops of blood, and Hes asking, God, take this away. If theres a way, take this suffering away from Me.

Yet after He prays and after we read in Lukes account that same time period, it said, God sends angels to comfort and minister to Jesus. Just a few minutes later, He walks out to greet the crowd of people that are coming to arrest Him-soldiers armed to the tee. Jesus speaks with such confidence and such authority that when He says His name, the soldiers fall back in fear. Think about that amazing change that happened. Jesus distressed crying out in sorrow, grief, and distress, and then after praying and after being ministered to by the angels, Jesus speaks with such authority, and it causes those around Him to fall in fear.

You say, Yeah, but, Jesse, thats Jesus, and were not Jesus. I would agree with you-were not Jesus, but doesnt that sound like the promise that God offers us in Philippians 4:6-7 (page 1163)? It says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. You see, sometimes Gods answer in the midst of our prayer for healing and relief isnt to lighten our load, but its to strengthen our hearts-to give us the encouragement and the power to endure the hardship that were going through for His glory and for His namesake.

You see, our prayers dont obligate God. Our prayers are an opportunity that we ask God to do a work in our lives, and through our prayers, He guides us, He directs us, and He reveals His Will; and should He let a difficult situation continue, its because He has a greater work in mind than what removing it would be.

God, through His Word, gives us those promises like in Romans 8:28, That in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him who are called according to His purpose.

So in those times of trouble when weve prayed, we know that our hearts are right with Him, weve confessed, and God chooses to allow something to remain, we fall back to these promises of faith. We say, Okay, God, I can go through this with Your strength, and I look forward to what youre going to do because of this experience for Your Kingdom and in my life.

Would you pray with me this morning?

Father God, we thank You so much that You give us such encouraging words knowing that we face such difficult times. As we focus on the idea of healing this morning, God, I pray that You would help us to remember that our hope ultimately is not in physically being restored only to one day again pass away; but God, we want a complete healing of our souls, of our spirits, of our emotions, so that we can give You glory. Lord, I pray that You would help my brothers and sisters this morning to learn what You have taught me-that though I have Crohns disease, Crohns disease does not have me. You are more powerful, and You can continue to work in my life even through this difficult experience. God, I pray that You would just let that nugget of truth grow deeply in our hearts and bring great fruit forth as we walk with You. In Your name, we pray, Amen.

Well, it is political season. Campaigns are in full swing, and TV ads are abounding. They come on, they make their promises, and every year we get more skeptical, right? Because every year they are the same promises. Were going to balance the budget. Were going to lower your taxes, etc., etc. Im going to finally keep my promises from the first campaign. This time I really mean it, and Im going to get it done.

We just think, I dont want to hear it anymore, because if somebody promises you something time and time again and never delivers, basically its just lip service. It doesnt matter anymore. So sometimes we question the integrity of politicians when we see what they do once they get in office. We say, Where are the promises? and it speaks to their integrity; so thats what this verse is about this morning-Chapter 5:12. Its the only one were going to read.

(Page 1199), James says, Above all, my brothers, do not swear-not by Heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your Yes be yes, and your No, no, or you will be condemned. I just want to pick this verse apart a little bit. Number one, he says above all [do not swear-not by Heaven or by earth or by anything else]. That means especially. Hes saying, In light of what I just said, its really important that you pay close heed to what Im about to say. He had just talked about the fact that there were people who were exploiting the poor, making promises they couldnt keep, not paying a fair wage-the wage they had promised to pay.

I was at a missions conference all week at Elmbrook Church this week-the Cape Town Missions Conference-and spent hours and hours there listening to speaker after speaker. There were missionaries from all over the world. One session was about human trafficking and how they lure people through these promises. If you come, youll have this job. Theyll pay you this much money. When they actually get involved, they find out that they have been sold to a sweatshop or some other kind of labor. Theyre basically slaves. They made the point-which was astounding to me-there are more slaves in the world today than at any point in history. Its many, many times more human slaves in the world today than ever in the history of the world [because of] people who exploit, people who use people for their advantage. They misuse their power and authority, and this is what James is talking about. Hes saying, Listen, in light of the people that are around you, you should not resemble them. You should not be like them. You should be a people that when you say something, it sticks. When you make a promise, it counts. Your yes is yes; your no is no.

He says, Dont swear not by Heaven or earth or anything else. When he says swear there, he doesnt mean a cuss word. Hes talking about making an oath. It was very common-if you really wanted to drive home a point emphatically, you would make a promise. You would say, I swear to you by Heavens that Im going to do such and such or do thus and so. That was a common practice. You swear by an authority or power thats greater than yourself. He says, You dont need to do that. You dont need to go through all that drama. Simply do what you say youre going to do. Make your yes be yes and your no be no.

By the way, thats important. He says, We can say no too. This isnt a message on boundaries. This would be a good sermon for another time, but its okay sometimes to say no. You can say no. He didnt just say have yes be yes, but you can say no and let your no be no as well. Hes saying, Keep your promises. You dont have to do all this elaborate drama. Just do what you say youre going to do and follow through. Be consistent. He says, …or you will be condemned. Thats not a reference to salvation at all. Hes not saying if you break a promise, youre going to go to hell. What hes saying is you will be brought into judgment. You are going to be held accountable for what you say. If you made a promise-and nobody twisted your arm and make your promise-youre going to be held accountable for that promise, and youre going to be judged if you break that promise. Ananias and Sapphira-nobody put a gun to their head and said, Sell your land and give all the money to the church. They did so out of the kindness of their hearts; they made that promise, but when they didnt follow through with that promise and kept a portion and gave some to the church and said it was all, they were held accountable for that promise they made. Thats what James is simply saying. Youll be condemned because if you speak it out, you will be held accountable to that promise.

What weve been trying to do in this series in James is go back and find a Biblical example of what James is talking about. This morning, were going to look at Peter. I want you to turn to Matthew 26:31 (page 985 of pew Bibles). This is the aftermath of the Last Supper. They had just received the news that one of them would betray them-who was Judas-and Jesus had explained further about the cross and what His death would signify, what it would mean. They sang a hymn, they left the upper room, and they went to the Mount of Olives. Verse 31 says Jesus is going to tell them some more rather distributing news. He said to them, This very night, you will all fall away on account of Me, for it is written… And He quotes Zechariah, …I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

This was something they could not believe. Youre telling us that every one of us is going to desert you? Every one of us is going to fall away tonight? It seemed unfathomable, especially after the gathering they just had, the meal, the closeness, the intimacy, the love they felt for their Lord. To think now that they were going to scatter and leave Him in the time that He needed them the most, it just did not seem like that would happen.

Verse 32, But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee. You know, its amazing, were going to see some promises in this Passage, but the only promise thats going to be kept is that one. That's quite a promise. You may have made some bold, audacious promises in your life; but youve never said to somebody, You know, after I die, Im going to come back to life; and you and I, were going to get together. Were going to go over to this city here. Were going to get together, and were going to have some coffee. Were going to talk, me and you, after I rise from the dead. Youve never made a promise like that. If you would, you couldnt keep it. The only promise made is the one that after I rise from the dead, I will meet you in Galilee. That promise was kept. These other promises would not be kept.

Peter replied, Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will. Thats promise number one. I never will. I dont care. What hes saying isnt so much, Jesus, Youre lying. Its, Jesus, Youre wrong, and Im going to correct You. This is not the first time that hes brought correction to Jesus. When Jesus first announced that He was going to the cross, Peter said, Oh, this will never happen to You. No way! Ill make sure that doesnt happen to you.

So here he is a second time correcting Jesus. Now, Ive seen You walk on water. Ive seen You calm the sea. Ive seen You feed thousands with a few fish and a few loaves of bread. Ive even watched You raise a man who was four days dead from the grave, but Youre wrong on this one. Im going to correct You here.

Jesus is going to correct him. Hes not only going to say emphatically that what He said is correct-He is going to give Peter explicit details about that event. He said, I tell you the truth, Jesus answered, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown Me three times.

He lays out all the specifics-tonight, before morning, before you hear a rooster crow, Youre going to deny Me, and youre going to do that three times. Talk about specific detail. He said, All these things are going to happen, and theyre going to happen tonight.

That will correct Peter, right? Peter will say, Okay, well, if Youre that sure about it-You know all those details, then I must be wrong, but we all know Peter. But Peter declared, Even if I have to die with You, I will never disown You. And all the other Disciples said the same.

He made another promise. I will never disown You. I will die for You, and that promise he would keep. He would die for Christ, but not that night-not that time.

All the Disciples, they mean well and their intentions are good, but they said the same thing. Yeah, were with Peter on this one. We will not do what You say.

Do you realize that Peter just made a promise he couldnt keep? Every time you sin, you deny Jesus. Did you know that? Every time you and I make a decision to go contrary to the Will of God, we are disowning Christ. Were saying, For this moment, at this time, Im not living with You as my Lord. That's what sin does. Sin denies the Lordship of Christ. Every single person in this room has denied Christ many times by the things that weve done in our lives. You cannot make a promise that you will never sin again. If you try to make that promise, the only way thats going to get fulfilled is if you get killed right away when you leave the church because the longer you live, and sooner rather than later, that promise gets broken. Peter could not make this promise not to deny Christ because he was a fallen human being. Sin denies the Lordship of Christ.

One of the key principles in keeping promises that I want to share with you today from Gods Word is not making promises we cant keep will help us to keep the promises that we make. Ill say it another time because it might take a second for that to really hit home. Not making promises we cannot keep will help us to keep the promises we make. Dont make promises you cant keep. Its foolish. Sometimes we overestimate our abilities. We give ourselves a little bit too much credit. We bite off more than we can chew. Those of you whove said youve broken promises, I guarantee you some of you have made promises-its not that you didnt have an intention to keep them. You fully well intended to keep it. You werent trying to deliberately deceive. You meant what you said, but your promise was too grandiose. It wasnt realistic, so the end result is the same. You broke the promise; it was a loss of integrity.

Im not saying dont make promises. James isnt saying that. Hes saying make promises, but when you make promises, make sure you can follow through.

If you are married today, you made a promise. If you are a Christian today, youve made a promise. At some point in time, you received Christ and said, I promise to live for You. We make promises all the time. Im not saying, Dont make a promise, but make promises that you can keep. Dont make grandiose promises that you have no chance of keeping.

Thats somewhat similar to the next point. Peter is caught up in the emotion of the moment. This has been an up and down day. Were going to deny. Somebody is going to betray you. Were all going to leave and abandon you, so Peter was caught up in the moment when he made this emotional promise. Dont make promises based on your emotions. If you make promises based on emotion, theres a really good chance youre not going to be able to follow through. Usually those are spontaneous. Theyre passionate, but theyre spontaneous, and youve not thought it through. Youve not thought through the consequences. Somebody is weeping and crying. They come to you for help. Before you even hear what theyre crying about-youre caught up in the emotion-and they say, Promise you wont tell this to anybody. You say, Okay, I promise, because youre caught up in the emotion. Then they tell you something that you definitely need to tell somebody. If somebody has broken the law, you cant keep that a secret.

I had a family member send me a text that said, I have to tell you something bad that happened. Do you promise you wont tell anybody?

Its like, Oh, no. What happened?

We didnt have the conversation on the text by the way. It was just trying to set up a time to call, and I said, Do you understand I cant make that promise until I know what it is that youre about to tell me? We get caught up in emotion.

These are the Zacchaeus kinds of promises. The Lord comes to Zacchaeus house. Zacchaeus is a tax collector who rips people off. He comes to Christ. He has a change of heart. He stands up and announces to anybody, If I have wronged anybody of anything, I will pay back… It would have been enough to say everything Ive wronged them. That would have been sufficient or to say, I will pay them back twice as much.

Everybody would have said, Wow, Zacchaeus, thats really generous, but Zacchaeus gets caught up in the emotion. He said, I will pay back four times what Ive taken. Nobody made him say that, but now that hes said it, he is accountable to that promise; and its in emotion. You and I have done that. Weve been caught up in emotion and made promises; so that our yes is not yes, and our no is not no because we made a promise in a moment of an emotional frenzy.

It was my first day on the job when I was a youth pastor, and I was fresh out of school. The ink on my degree was still wet. I was giving my first official sermon to my youth group. I had given a lot of freebees, but this was the real deal. I was going to get paid for this one. I was on the clock. I was officially full-time at this church; and among other things, I had to be the pastor to this group of teenagers. It was my first official sermon, and I wanted to make it a good one. I was basically going to unload everything Id learned, or try to, in one session. These teenagers gathered down in the basement, and I dont remember exactly what my sermon was, but you were probably there, Im guessing. I stood up and I said to them in sincerity and genuineness while holding up a list of their names, I will pray for you guys by name every single day. That is how committed I am to this youth group. That is how committed I am to being your pastor. I am going to name you by name every single day. Im going to pray for you personally every day.

They had to be thinking, Wow, this guy really loves us! Thats really something! It was a good thing nobody ever asked me about that promise because I think I kept it like one day.

Its not that I didnt pray for our youth group; its not that I didnt pray for kids along the way, but getting out that list and going through every name… I just felt kinda guilty, Oh, I didnt do that today. I have to do that tomorrow because I said I would. I made that promise. Nobody made me. Nobody forced me to, but now I was accountable. Its amazing how many times the Lord-not in a condemning way-reminds me about that promise that I broke.

Somebody will say, Pastor, would you pray for this?

Oh, yeah. Ill pray for that.

Anybody here ever had somebody say, Pray for this. Pray for that? You said yes, and you didnt [do it]. Okay. I have. I learned through that. Its like, I better pray now. If I say Im going to pray, lets pray now. So Ill either pray with them on the spot or try to pray as Im walking away.

A friend of mine who lives out in New Jersey, we trash talk football all weekend-for college and pros. I just trash talk him a little bit and tease him, Why dont you come and be a Badger fan and like a real football team for a change? and things like that.

He said, Seriously, now, I was at the Rutgers game. There was a young man who broke his neck or had a spinal injury and is paralyzed. Would you pray for him? Would you ask your congregation to pray for him?

I said, Yeah, yeah, Tom. Ill do that. As soon as I sent that text, I stopped and I prayed. I prayed for him. I prayed for his family. I prayed for the one who had caused the injury, if it was another player. I didnt know, but I just prayed for that situation.

He texted me back and said, His name is Eric LeGrand. Im going to donate to the fund set up in his name.

I was able to say back, Yeah, Tom, thanks. I already prayed for him, and Ill mention that to the congregation tomorrow. So you can pray for Eric LeGrand, the young man who is now paralyzed from the football game. We have to follow through with what we say.

Lets see what happens to Peter. He makes this grandiose promise. He is caught up in the emotion of the moment. What will happen? Of course we know whats going to happen. In Lukes Gospel 22:54 (page 1045 of pew Bibles), were going to read a couple more principles that will help our yes to be yes and our no to be no. It will help us to keep our promises. Then seizing Him… Jesus. …they led Him away and took Him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. When they kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated in the firelight. She looked closely at him, studied him and probably made him uncomfortable. She probably made him a little fidgety like, She looks like she recognizes me. She looks like she knows who I am. He was trying to look away. He was trying to avoid eye contact with her.

She says, This man was with Him.

Peter heard it. He denied it. Woman, I dont know Him, he said.

A little later someone else saw him and said, You also are one of them.

Man, I am not! Peter replied.

About an hour later, another asserted, Certainly this fellow was with Him, for he is a Galilean. How did he know that? From his accent. Galileans had a strong accent. If youre with somebody from Boston, you know youre with somebody from Boston. If its New York, you know youre with somebody from New York. Chicago? Those hardliners that live downtown, they really do talk like that (Pastor Jeff is throwing some Chicago Bears words out with the Chicago accent here). They seriously talk like that. If youre with somebody from the South, Yall, yah. Good to see yall. Good to see ye. Yup, yup. So he picked up on Peters accent. He said, Hes a Galilean. Hes with Jesus.

Peter replied, Man, I dont know what youre talking about! Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: Before the rooster crows today, you will disown Me three times. And he went outside and wept bitterly.

I bet you the look Jesus gave was not an I told you so look. I bet it was not a condemning look. I think it was a look of hurt. I think it was similar to the look that Levi gave Pastor Jesse when he told that story about forgetting his blanket. Well get back to that in a minute. It was a how could you? These people around Me, theyre My enemies. They hate Me. They want to destroy Me, but you are My friend. Youve been the most vocal about partnering with Me in life and in death. How could you of all people? I bet it was a look of hurt.

You and I have experienced that when we broke a promise to somebody we loved. Weve seen the pain in their eyes, the remorse that we feel, and the shame that we feel in that moment. Imagine if you did that to your Savior, to His face. Like I said, weve all done it-but to His face… Peter weeps. Theres an important principle here, and that is that we should regard our small promises as important as our big promises because there are no small promises. You ask what I mean by that. Im not connecting the dots between what you just said and the story we just read.

I want you to hark back to what Peter said in Matthew. In Matthew, Peter said, I am willing to die for You right now. Whats he talking about? Hes talking about going to the high priest, testifying before the high priest, testifying before Herod, testifying before Pilot, and if necessary, he will die with Jesus. Hes saying, I will stand before governors, I will stand before kings, I will stand before high priests and testify to You. Though it cost me my life, if I have to stand before the big dogs, You can count on me. I will not disown You. He is prepared to stand up before the big dogs, but he stumbled when it came to the little servant girl. She didnt count; she was just a little servant girl. I dont have to keep my promise to her.

See all three people that he denies Christ to-in Peters mind, they dont count. Hes probably not even thinking about what Jesus said. Hes not even thinking about disowning Christ because theyre nobody. We dont know their names. Theyre insignificant. She was either common labor-probably very young, probably a teenage girl. What does she matter? These other guys, we dont know who they are. Theyre not important people. Peter didnt have to keep his promise to them. All promises big and small reflect on your character. In fact if you break enough small promises, theres a greater chance you will break bigger promises. So guess what? There are no small promises.

Pastor Jesse, you know his sons blanket-in the scheme of things, that's not that big of a deal, right? Its a little boy and his blanket. Lets all just scowl at Jesse right now. No, as parents weve all done that. Ive done my share of letting down my kids, and Ill continue doing that because were human beings. That was a small promise, but it wasnt small to him, right? There are no such things as small promises.

He looked at them and said, Theyre insignificant. Ill stand before kings and testify, but in front of this little slave girl, it doesnt matter. It mattered to Jesus, didnt it? Jesus says, One, two, three. That counts. The rooster crows. Eye contact was made, and the message hit home.

Be a people-if you name the name of Christ-to keep your integrity. Keep the small things too, and remember there are no small things.

Number four, this is important: Be careful the company you keep because they influence your character. Be careful who you hang around with. Be careful who you spend time with. If you spend time with the wrong people, and they are not people of a high moral standard, its going to rub off on you. Who was Peter with at this time? Look at Verse 55, But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. Who is the they that kindled the fire? Who is the them that he sat down with? The enemies of Jesus. These are the people who were trying to destroy his Savior.

Now you say, Well, you know, hes not agreeing with them. Hes not chiming in with them. Hes not siding with them, but he is cut off from Jesus. He is cut off from the other Disciples. Theyre not there. He is isolated from fellowship. Hes with people who are enemies of Christ, and it doesnt take long before his morals start to decline.

In fact, Matthews Gospel tells us that when that third guy comes up to him and says, Youre one of them, Peter swears, and that time it did mean swear and cuss.

Peter says, Oh, you think Im a follower of Jesus, ha? Would a follow of Jesus say this, I blankety blank dont know Him! So blankety blank, dont say I do, blankety blank!

Well, you must not be him then. If youre going to cuss like that, then you must not be whom we think you are because we thought followers of Jesus were pretty squeaky clean; and, boy, with a mouth like that, we must have the wrong guy.

So hes not apart from Jesus and the other Disciples for very long, and hes already compromising with the words that come out of his mouth, and hes already breaking the promises that he said to the Lord. Be careful who you spend time with.

Now we have to balance that. We know were to reach out to people who dont know the Lord. We know were not to just be friends with people who are in the church. You understand that; this is common sense. What Im talking about is if you are spending much of your time with people who dont know the Lord, you have to be careful in what rubs off of you, the environment that you find yourself in. Make sure that you dont isolate yourself from your Christian brothers and sisters in Christ, that youre spending time with your brothers and sisters in Christ because theyre going to set an example for you. They can hold you accountable.

I want to share a story about how sometimes this can cost us something. There was a young man who just had gotten out of college. Hed sent out his resumes but hadnt yet gotten a job. He finally found a job; it wasnt in his field, but he found a job in electronics. The job promised to pay well. There was a base salary, but then there was a commission. According to the boss, you could make a lot of money, so he took the job. He showed up for work and training began. The boss began telling him some of the tricks of the trade. He taught him about the bait and switch. Were advertising this; were going to sell them that.

He talked about making promises that he couldnt keep. If we think were going to make a sale, and its not here, even if its going to come in a month-its on backorder for a month-tell them it will come in this week. Make the sale.

He talked about even switching some components from time to time. What he was basically saying is your yes shouldnt be yes, and your no shouldnt be no. In other words, lie, deceive, or tell half truths. Do whatever you have to do to make the sale.

He said, I have a problem with that. That's really hard for me to do.

He said, Listen, thats how youre going to survive. Im not trying to cut down electronic salesman, Im sure youre a fine electronic salesperson; but this particular guy was corrupt. The company was corrupt. He said, Thats what everybody does. If you want to survive, you want to make the commission… Do you know what so-and-so made last week? He made this amount of money!

Wow!

You could make that amount of money too! Maybe youll even make more, but you know youre competing against not only the other electronic stores, but everybody in this room is a salesman too. If you dont do it, they will, and youre not going to make enough money to survive! You think about what Im saying to you!

He said, Okay, I will. He goes home that night, and he thinks about it. He prays about it, and he says, No. No, Im a Christian, and I have to guard my integrity. Its not for sale. Im not going to tell people lies! If I say yes, if I say this is true, Im going to stand behind it. Im not going to let the dollar sign buy my integrity. Im going to be a truthful person. Im going to live consistently with my faith. So he told that to his boss.

Do you know what the boss said? Get out of my store! Youre fired! Listen, I dont need choir boys working for me! Why dont you go be a preacher or something! Why dont you just leave here and go to seminary or something? Youre in the wrong business, pal!

The bell went off, and he said, I might just do that, and so he did. He went to seminary in Minnesota. He got a job as a youth pastor in Rockford and became one of my best friends in youth ministry, Pastor Jeff from Temple Baptist Church. Ill never forget that story he shared with me. He said, Thats how I got in the ministry. I got fired from a job because I wouldnt lie.

The guy said, You know, you should just be a preacher!

Maybe I should! and he did. And he still is somewhere. We lost touch since I moved away. He is a senior pastor somewhere in America. But he had to be careful. He said, You know, if I start to hang around here… It cost him his job, but he said, My integrity is worth more.

Normally when you and I see a skit with skit guys in it, its funny. We laugh. This time, were going to watch a skit from the skit guys, and its a serious one with a serious message about what weve talked about today. http://skitguys.com/videos/item/identity/ Lets take a listen to it.

Father, all of us in this room have compromised our faith from time to time. Weve all done and said things that weve regretted. Weve broken promises. Weve had to make amends. Weve tried to. In tarnishing our reputation, weve tarnished Yours. We ask for Your forgiveness this morning. Were not here making some bold, outlandish promise that well never sin again. Father, help us to make a commitment to integrity, to make a commitment to prevention; and, Father, we strive to be a people whose yes is yes and whose no is no, who keep our promises-even the difficult ones, even when circumstances are hard. Even when circumstances change, we honor what weve said. We need Your strength and Your Holy Spirit to equip us, enable us and empower us to be people who keep promises. We thank You, Lord, that Youve kept Your promise to us, that You promised to never leave us nor forsake us. For those of us today who are racked with guilt, feeling sorry for or remorseful about what weve done, things in our past, God, Youre a God of restoration. You offer forgiveness, a new start, and a new life in Christ. By faith, I pray theyd receive that forgiveness today, that grace today to know that You love them just the same-just like You restored Peter, just like You gave him another opportunity to serve, and this time hed keep it. Peter finally would surrender his life. He would refuse to bow before Emperor Nero to deny his Lord and Master. History tells us he would be crucified upside down because he did not deem himself worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord. So, today, I pray for the one who may be struggling with guilt right now and saying they failed You. Lord, their story wont end that way. Youve give them another opportunity for redemption so Your grace will prevail in their lives. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Well, this morning were talking about when you suffer. How many of you today would admit publicly that from time to time you have a problem with patience? Let me see your hands. Come on! Get them up! I dont have all day! Lets go! (Congregation laughing.) Sure, all of us would say there are times we struggle with patience; and when life is difficult, we struggle all the more. We might get irritated on the way home in traffic when somebody pulls in front of us or we get in the wrong line at the grocery store or the bank. When were running late, it seems like we hit every traffic light. I understand those occasions of impatience. Were patient with our spouse, with our children, or with ourselves, but we know when life really gets difficult, when something happens and we are suffering emotionally, physically, in some other way, it just seems like relief doesnt come. Thats when we really struggle with patience. Lord, how long is this going to last? Lord, when will this end? When will I be delivered? When will I be justified? Whatever the question is, when the heat goes up and we are suffering in our lives, thats when we become increasingly impatient. We are waiting on God for an answer. Were waiting on God to keep His promise, and weve all been there. Maybe you are there right now. If I were to take another poll, which Im not going to do, and say how many of you are there right now, youd be surprised by the amount of hands that would go up. James is going to deal with that very subject today of patience and of suffering. We have found James to be intensely practical, havent we, as he deals with these life issues head-on?

In Verse 7 of Chapter 5 (page 1199), he gives us this directive. He says, Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lords coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. Thank God for a wonderful crop this year for our farmers. He uses them as an example of Biblical patience.

When a farmer is waiting for his crop, is he idle? No. There are things that he needs to do. He has to fertilize the crop, and he has to water the crop. There are all kinds of tasks that go on while he is waiting. That is Biblical patience. Its not just pacing the floor, being idle, and twiddling our thumbs and waiting for God to move in and act. It is a patience that involves steadfastness and working towards the goal while we wait. What is the valuable crop in this context that he wants us to wait for? We just talked about the people that were bullying. Remember this is written to Christians who were scattered abroad and who were persecuted. Many of them were poor; many of them were abused by their bosses. They were paid cheap labor. They were not receiving the wages that were due them. They were persecuted for their faith. The crop that they are to wait for is justice. Its deliverance. Its for life to become better, so hes going to give them the encouragement to say the Judge is at the door. Justice is coming. Be patient. The Lord is near. Dont take matters into your own hands. Dont take vengeance into your own hands.

Last week, we talked about those who would exploit people, those who would bully people; and now hes talking to the bullied. Hes talking to the suffering. Hes saying, Listen, trust the Lord. Wait for Him. Dont take vengeance into your own hands.

There was a truck driver I heard about. He went into a truck stop, and he was eating. These three bikers came in. Now they were mean bikers. There are good bikers; we have a lot of good bikers in our church. Im not knocking bikers, but these guys were the bad kind. They came in looking for trouble. They went and picked on this truck driver. They took his cheeseburger and started to eat it. They took his fries and started eating them. Another took his drink and started drinking it. They were making fun of him and were laughing. They were just bullying him. They ate all of his food, and he didnt say anything. He didnt do anything. He just got up, went to the waitress, paid his check, gave her a tip, and calmly walked out of the restaurant. She looked out the window as he got in his truck and drove away. She comes back to the bikers, and they said, That guy wasnt much of a man, was he? He didnt even stand up for himself. He let us eat all of his food.

The waitress said, Well, I cant attest to what kind of a man he was, but he sure wasnt much of a truck driver. He just ran over three motorcycles in the parking lot on his way out. (Congregation laughing.) You like that one? I have another one.

This guy was bitten by a rodent. He developed rabies. The doctor said, You have rabies, and you have a really bad case. I have to tell you straight up were going to treat this, but this could be fatal. You could die.

Really? said the man. Wow, I didnt know rabies could be so deadly. Immediately he got out a paper and started writing.

The doctor said, Oh, you must be writing a list of all the names of people you want to call and tell the news to, ha?

He said, No, Im just making a list of people I want to bite. Im done. I have no more. Thats it. We need to get back [to the Word].

He said, You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lords coming is near. Gods going to come, and Hes going to deliver you. Dont grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! That is a reference not to them for judging one another. That is a reference back again to waiting for this valuable crop, this justice, this one who will come and deliver you from your suffering. That was what he meant by the Judge is at the door. God keeps books, and Hes aware, though delay does not mean denial. Deliverance is coming.

Brothers, as an example of patience and suffering, take the Prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. In other words, you want to see what Im talking about. You want to see this patience thats active while it waits. Its the Chilean miners. Theyre underground. They hear the drills; they know rescue is coming, but they are patient to wait. In other words, there are things to do. While they are waiting for that drill to break through, they had to survive. They had to exercise; they had to organize. They had to ration. They had to live in a 500 square foot space for over two months-all those guys; so while they waited for that light to break through, while they waited for deliverance, they must be busy. They must be diligent. Thats the kind of waiting hes talking about. He said, You want to see an example of that? Consider the Prophets.

He said, As you know, we consider blessed those who persevered. You have heard of Jobs perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. Look to Job 2.

Were going to follow James advice. Were going to do that this morning, but the interesting thing is the Prophets-and Job was not a Prophet, but he was a man who suffered greatly-they are the poster boys for complaining. If you want to read some good complaining, read Job. If you want to read some good grumbling, read the Prophets. They grumble and complain a lot. They really do. They were very sensitive, emotional guys. Many times their words were not received, and they were persecuted because of their prophesies; and they grumble and complain. Its interesting that James says, Look at these.

He says, Dont grumble and complain. Consider the Prophets, and consider Job. He is going to talk about how we are to vent our emotions and frustrations because if were going through suffering, we are going to have frustrations. Were going to be angry. Were going to be confused. Were going to be frustrated, and were going to need to release that. What is a healthy way [of doing so]? He says attacking one another and blaming one another is not the way to do it. He says, Be like the Prophets.

So when you think of the Prophets, the two main Prophets that stand out are probably Isaiah and Jeremiah. They were two major Prophets in the Bible. Were going to first look at Jeremiah, so turn to Jeremiah 20. Jeremiah has been faithful to do what God has said to do. God said to Jeremiah, Go to the potters house, watch him make a pot, and buy one. Take it back to the Temple gate, and do what I say. Youre going to take this pot, raise it in the air, and youre going to throw it down on the ground and smash it into pieces that are beyond repair. Then youre going to say, This is what God will do to this nation unless they repent of their sins. He will break you and He will scatter you upon repair. Israel was involved in Pagan rituals. At this point, there were religions that used to practice child sacrifice. They were starting to get involved with those religions that have those practices. God was disgusted and appalled by their behavior. He said, You need to clean up your act. You need to turn from those gods, and you need to follow after Me. Otherwise judgment is going to come.

So Jeremiah does exactly what God says to do. He breaks the pot, he delivers that message, and they say, Were not listening to you. Youre a nutcase. Youre not a man of God. What do you mean our nation is going to fall? Were the securest nation there is. We dont have an enemy. Were not a threat to be taken captive. What are you talking about? Youre a crazy man, and they beat Jeremiah. They put him in stocks, and they put him out in front of the gate so that everybody walking by Jeremiah looked at him and called him a fool. They beat him and they spit on him, so there he was-bloody, embarrassed and ashamed; and his only crime was he faithfully carried out what God called him to do. He was suffering. When he was finally let out of the stocks, he had some harsh words for his captures. Then he turns to God. Listen to what the Prophet-this man of God-says to the Lord in Verse 7 (page 770), O Lord, You deceived me, and I was deceived… Hes questioning the character of God. He is saying, You duped me. You scammed me. You set me up! I did exactly what You said, and look what happened to me!

…You overpowered me and prevailed. You bullied me. You picked on me because you could. Youre stronger than I, and I fell for it. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the Word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long.

I did what You told me to do, and look what happened to me! Look at my reward. Maybe Id be better off not following you. Maybe Id be better off not listening to you or preaching Your Word. He considers that. He considers retiring from the Prophet business. It doesnt pay that well. The benefits arent that great. Maybe Ill bag it. Maybe Ill just do something different with my life.

He said in Verse 9, But if I say, I will not mention him or speak any more in His name, His Word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed I cannot.

He said thats what Youve made me to be. So here he is suffering, and while he is suffering, while he is waiting for deliverance, he says, I have to still persevere. I have to keep on keeping on because my faith is still strong in my God.

Look at Verse 14. It goes from bad to worse. I dont know if youve ever had a day this bad; maybe you have, but he says, Cursed be the day I was born. May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! He doesnt like his birthday anymore. Look how hard he is on the guy who brings the news to the family. This is just a family friend.

He said, Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, A child is born to you-a son. May that man be like the towns the Lord overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon. Wow. For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever. Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?

Tell us what youre really thinking, Jeremiah. Stop holding back. Take off the gloves and tell us what youre going through. Nowhere in this passage does God condemn Jeremiah for expressing his point of view.

You see, James, when he says, Dont grumble and complain to one another, is not saying, Dont be real. Hes not saying, Be a robot. Be inauthentic. Keep all your feelings and stuff them inside. Jeremiah expressed his feelings to the Lord. He said, Heres what Im going through. His faith was real and authentic.

God wants to have a relationship with you. In a relationship, if somebody is taking you to task, if somebody has dealt unfairly with you in your opinion, you have every right to say that! Heres what I think about what you did. Heres what Im feeling about how youve treated me. You have every right to do that in a healthy relationship. Jeremiah wants to have a healthy relationship with his God, and if hes going to continue to serve Him faithfully, [he would say], Here are some things I have to get off my chest. Im suffering right now, and he says, God, Im blaming You for the suffering that Im going through.

Now you may not be blaming God for what youre going through; maybe you are, but the point is if your faith is to be real, then what you are feeling and thinking has to be expressed when you suffer. You have to do that.

What about Job? Job is one of the most righteous men that ever walked the face of the earth. We know the story of Job. We know he was a righteous man upright, and yet he gets used-using that word poster boy again for suffering-thats Job. He loses his children; he loses his livestock; his servants; and his properties. Then he loses his health. All he is left with is a wife who nags and complains and friends who are nosey and judgmental. That becomes Jobs live. Of course, we know the famous verse. Its found in Job 13:15 (page 506) where he says, Though He slay me yet will I hope in Him… [Thats a] famous verse. Though He slay me, yet I will put my trust in Him, says Job. In other words, Im going to keep on keeping on; even though I suffer, Im going to continue to serve the Lord-an example of patience.

But here is the rest of the Verse; heres the part thats not quoted nearly as much. Look what he says in the second part of Verse 15: Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him; I will surely defend my ways to His face. In other words, if Im going down, Im going down swinging. Gods going to know what Im thinking, what Im feeling, and what Im going through while I suffer; and boy, he did that.

We could pick numerous passages, but Ive chosen Chapter 10. I want you to turn to Chapter 10. Remember, James told us to do this. James said, Consider Job when you suffer, so thats what were going to do. I want you to notice how parallel this is to Jeremiah. Lets be honest-you and I have had some of these days, right? These are doozies! But if were going through difficult suffering, we can have these days.

Verse 1 of Job 10 (page 503), I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint… He said therefore, Im gonna let it fly. Im going to let it all hang out. …and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.

Thats healthy friends. When youre suffering, its healthy to let it all hang out, but you want to do it to the one who is safe, the people who are safe, not to everybody. Not everybody needs to know your problems or your griefs and concerns, but your Lord does. The people who love and care about you the most should.

He said, I will say to God: Do not condemn me, but tell me what charges you have against me. In other words, what have I done thats so wrong that Im suffering so greatly? Does it please You to oppress me, to spurn the work of Your hands, while You smile on the schemes of the wicked? He said, I look around me, and evil men are prospering, and here I am a man who is trying to do right, and Im suffering.

Again, like Jeremiah, he accuses God of being a bully. He accuses God of being sadistic, Does it please You to oppress me? You like picking on me? You like bullying me because You can? He tries to get God to see things from his point of view.

He says in Verse 4, Do You have eyes of flesh? Do You see as a mortal sees? Are Your days like those of a mortal or Your years like those of a man… Put Yourself in my position, God. What would You be thinking and feeling if the roles were reversed, and I was God and You were me?

Look at Verse 18. This sounds exactly like Jeremiah. Why then did You bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me. If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave! Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moments joy before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and deep shadow, to the land of deepest night of deep shadow and disorder where even the light is like darkness.

Remember in the Bible, there is progressive revelation. In the Old Testament, the afterlife is Sheol. Its a place of darkness and gloom. The Lord and the Prophets come on the scene, and they start telling us about what Heaven is and the presence of God and light; but that has not yet been revealed at this point. Remember Job is the oldest Book in the Bible chronologically. It was the oldest written book-just like James is the oldest written Book of the New Testament. This is the oldest Book written in the Old Testament.

James understanding of the afterlife was not what we understand. You talk about a depressing point of view. He was like, Im going to die pretty soon anyway. Can you just stop tormenting me and just let me have a moments pleasure before I go into an eternity of darkness and gloom? Wow. I wish Id never been born. For Job, this is what hes thinking and feeling. You and I have never suffered loss like this man suffered, so we cannot judge him. Youve never lost all of your children, all of your possessions, and all of your health in one fell swoop. Everything was gone in a moments notice without warning. Until we face that-and God forbid we ever do-youll never know what this man was going through.

His relationship to God was real, and yet he did not lose his faith, and he persevered. God eventually delivered Job and blessed his life. Thats what James reminds us of in this Passage in James 5. He reminds us of the end of the story. He says, The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Jeremiahs story didnt end there. Jobs story didnt end there. They didnt stay in that darkness and gloom. God brought about their deliverance from their suffering. Brighter days were ahead, and they finished their ministry and their lives strong for the Lord.

He says remember that through these trials and through this suffering, God was able to teach them about life and about themselves.

One of my favorite Verses in all the Bible is found in the Book of 1 Peter 5:10 (page 1203). Listen to what it says, And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will make sure that you, his child, never goes through a day of suffering. Oh, wait a second. Thats the I wish this is what I said translation.

Heres what it really says, The God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself personally restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To Him be the power for ever and ever. Amen because you and I are never listening more intently than when were suffering. Were never more aware of His presence and what He needs to teach us than when were going through pain. There is a lesson to learn. Were going to be listening. Our ears are open; we want to hear because it hurts. We want it to end.

My wife and I went to Hhffrrrggh recently, the Hhffrrrggh restaurant. I had ordered a dish called the Jambalaya Chicken pasta. It was very hot but very good. She has an aversion to hot things. In fact, things that are just mildly or remotely hot, she will think they are really hot; so when she actually eats something that is really hot, she has like a near-death experience. She is just really miserable and hates it. So were at the restaurant, and she asked, Is it good?

I said, Yeah, its really good.

She said, It looks good. Is it hot?

I said, Yeah, its really good, but its really hot. Now I eat hot things more than she does, so Im a little bit acclimated to it, but it was hot. It was good. I was like, Yeah, its really good. We finished our meal; she was done first, and I was still working on mine. She spontaneously without any kind of forethought-or thought at all-reached out and grabbed a noodle and put it in her mouth. It happened so fast, I was like, Wait! That, thats hot!! Before I could even say that, she swallowed it. I was like oh, no. Then you just kinda sit back and watch the show (congregation laughing). You watch the face, and I cant even duplicate what I saw; but she was suffering. She was grabbing the water. She was sucking down the water and more and more water. After she had suffered for a little while, I said, What are you doing? Dont you remember I told you that this was hot and that you hate hot things? Why are you grabbing it after I told you?

She has a love for pasta, and it looked really good. She couldnt resist it, so she grabbed it and ate it. She forgot my warning. She thought, Maybe it wont be that bad, so she was hurting for quite a while.

After shed suffered for a little while, I had some things to say. She was in a state of mind, and she was ready to listen. I said, Before you grab something off my plate, make sure you ask me about it. Make sure you say, Is this hot? or Should I have some of this? because I eat different foods than you. If you would have just said something to me, I could have stopped you from doing that. So next time were at a restaurant and you want to grab something thats mine, you need to ask that first. Dont just spontaneously grab it like that. She was listening, right?

Now sometimes suffering isnt our fault, but sometimes it is. We reach out and grab what we shouldnt, and we partake of it. We take it in, and it hurts. When we want it, thats not the time when God gets our attention because when we want it, we want it. We go for it. Its after we partake of it that we start to feel the effects of it. It starts to make us uncomfortable and starts hurting. After we suffer for a little while, God says, Now, can I have your attention? I warned you that would hurt. I warned you that would be hard, but you forgot. Before you make a decision like that, before you take a step like that, seek My Word, seek Counsel.

In those times, friends, you and I learn and we grow. As Peter says, we become established and firm in our faith.

There is a Verse Id like us to put up on the wall. Weve already read it. Its from Job 10. I want to draw your attention to Verse 4 of that chapter, if you would please. God has asked a question of Job, and Job says, Do You have eyes of flesh? Do You see as a mortal sees? Thats a very interesting question, isnt it? The answer at that point in time in history-God, if He were to audibly answer that question-would have to say, No. I dont have eyes of flesh. Im not a man, but there would come a day where if Job were to ask that question, the answer would change. There was a time when the Immortal took on flesh. There was a time when God became a Man and saw through eyes just like you and me. He walked this earth in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. If Job were to say, Do You have eyes like a man? Do you have eyes of flesh?

Jesus would say, I do. I do, and I have seen the world through your eyes. He suffered like no one has ever suffered upon the cross. He suffered all the indignities-rejection, pain, and hardship that you and I could ever suffer. He was bearing the weight of the cross and bearing the sin on the cross.

That is why the author of the Book of Hebrews says this in Chapter 4:15 (page 1186), For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, suffered in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. When we are suffering, when we are hurting, we have a God who understands because Hes been there before.

Lets pray to Him:

Father, the Word says we can come before Your throne with confidence, and the reason we can have that confidence is because You lived here. Youve had eyes of flesh. Youve seen the world literally through our eyes, and You know what its like to encounter hardship. You know what its like to have friends betray You, people misunderstand You. You know what its like to physically suffer, to hit Your thumb with a hammer. You know what its like to be tired, to go without sleep, or to be hungry. You know what its like to endure temptation. You know what its like to endure rejection. You know what its like to physically and spiritually suffer because You suffered more than well understand or know. So we cannot look at You and say, God, its unfair that I suffer because You dont know what its like, just like Job said-because You do. In fact, the truth of the matter is we will never understand the suffering that Youve endured, much less the suffering of a loving heart that continues to love a people who continue to spurn You and reject You. Father, we thank You that we can come to You with our pain, with our hurt and with our suffering. We can be real with what were thinking and going through. We can voice those frustrations. We can express that anger to You. We can be real with You about our suffering. That is the patience Your Word describes. Might that be the patience that we share this morning in Christ. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.

How many of you have buttons that people can press to make you angry, things that will be said or done that you might otherwise be cool, calm, or collected; but if they press the right buttons, then watch out. When I was a little boy, it was if someone said something about my mama. That would press my buttons, and I’d turn into a raging animal.

But we have things that make us angry, and a lot of times there is just cause for that. Does God have some buttons that we can press? When you read His Word, are there things that you found that made God angry? The Passage we’re going to read this morning is an angry Passage. God is communicating through James, and he’s communicating anger. If you read the Prophets, if you read the Gospels, there were times Jesus was angry.

What are some of the things that God gets angry about? Do you know what I found God gets angry at? God gets angry at those who exploit the innocent. He gets angry at bullies, people who discriminate, take advantage of the poor, the handicap. God gets really angry when he sees people misuse their authority and their power. Judgment is brought on those people. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. Have you ever been exploited in your life? Has that ever happened to you? Somebody has exploited you at some point-maybe a parent, maybe an employer, maybe a teacher or a coach.

I can remember when I was about 11 or 12 years old. I wanted to earn money to buy my mom [a gift for] Mother’s Day. I asked the man at a local antique shop, “Can I come and work for you?”

He said, “Yeah, you do this and you’ll get $20.”

It was going to take me maybe an hour or so, and I thought, “Wow! That’s a lot of money,” especially in 1972. So I took the job, but he just abused me. He made me work hours and hours and hours. It was hard manual labor-labor that a 12-year old had no business doing. I remember how much my hands hurt and my back hurt. Sometimes I was afraid that I would drop the loads on my foot or fall down the steps. I just remember basically crying and thinking, “Boy, this is really hard.” Then I didn’t collect my money. I went back week after week after week until finally one day he said, “I have 10 bucks for you at the house,” and that’s not the price we had agreed to. It wasn’t the job we’d agreed to. It wasn’t the duration we’d agreed to, and I just felt exploited and used.

It makes you feel bad. It makes you feel terrible inside, yet around our world we know that elderly are exploited. We know people with disabilities are exploited. People are exploited because of raise. The poor can be taken advantage of. Basically anybody can be exploited in one way or another. Sometimes even famous and wealthy people can be exploited by a manager or somebody else.

So, really, exploitation is when you use your power, use your authority and influence, to take advantage of a situation; to take advantage of a person; to manipulate them; to get your way; to profit yourself at their expense. That’s exploitation-to take advantage of the vulnerable, to take advantage of the weak.

Before we get into James this morning, I want us to turn our attention to a Passage in the Old Testament. [We’re going to] look at a man in Chapter 12 by the name of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was a king who was in succession from Solomon and David. He was the grandson of David. He was the son of Solomon. If you studied ancient Israeli history, you would know that those were two of the most successful kings Israel ever had. Those two: David brought the capital of Jerusalem; David started the Temple; David led them into a time of peace and prosperity. He was a man of God, and he was followed by his son, Solomon. Solomon finished the Temple and finished the palace. Solomon led them into a time of even greater peace and even greater prosperity.

So here comes Rehoboam. He is stepping into some big shoes. Now, expectations are high, but the people really didn’t know what kind of a man he was. He was just about ready to lead. This was pretty much his inauguration, and it was in a city called Checkum. Israel sent a representative crew; a man by the name of Jeroboam was there as well who is a leader. Then others from the community stepped forward, and a large contingency of the Israelis went to this new king; and they were going to ask for help.

Let’s take a look at Chapter 12:4 of 1 Kings (page 342 of pew Bibles). “‘Your father…’” That would be Solomon. “‘…put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.’”

Now it almost like slavery is going on here, but that’s not the case. The heavy yoke is taxation. The heavy work is the amount of work they must do to pay the taxes they owe because Solomon lived a lavish lifestyle. How do you think his 1,000 wives and concubines were paid for? How do you think his palace was paid for? All of his ships and his horses? And all of the children he had to have with those 1,000 wives and concubines? How did Solomon afford this very lavish, extravagant lifestyle? He afforded it through taxation of his people, and that taxation was high. They had to work long and hard, so they went to the son and said, “Look, could you lighten our load a little bit? Could you lower our taxes?”

Remember there was no two-party system or multi-party system. There wasn’t anybody campaigning against Rehoboam who was saying, “I’ll lower your taxes! Solomon was way too hard on you! I’ll be easier on you in this administration!” That’s not there. This is a monarchy. He is king, and what he says is law; so they just fall on his mercy.

They’re asking nicely. They’re not coming demanding [these things]. They’re saying, “Please? Pretty please with sugar on top? Could you lower this demand? Can we have some more money to take care of our houses for a change instead of the palace? What do you say, King?”

So here’s what the king does. The king says, “‘Go away for three days and then come back to me.’ So the people went away.

“Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. ‘How would you advise me to answer these people?’ he asked.”

So he goes to the elders. He goes to the guys who had been with his dad, the old timers, the veterans of public life. He says, “You guys are the elders. You advised my father. What do you advise me? What should I do when they say this to me?”

Verse 7, “They replied, ‘If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.’”

In other words, listen to them. “If you’ll listen to the people, if you’ll lighten their load, they will be loyal subjects. They will serve you. They’ll do anything for you, but listen to them. Don’t disparage them. Listen to what they have to say. Serve them.” That was a key word. “Use your power and use your authority to serve the people,” not the other way around.

What did Jesus say? He said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.” The One who had the most power and the most authority of all came to be a Servant of all. If anybody could have abused His power, God could, but He did not. He came as a sSrvant. He came humbly. He says, “Be the servant to the people. Help the people.”

So Rehoboam thanks them for their advice, but he doesn’t listen to it. He doesn’t like what he hears, and he’s going to get a second opinion. Sometimes we receive good advice, but we don’t like it; so we keep asking advice until somebody tells us what we want to hear-not you guys, but the 11 o’clock service. They do that all the time. You just keep asking around until somebody agrees with you. Then you listen to them. That's not really seeking advice, is it?

Who does he go to next? It says in Verse 8 that Rehoboam “rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with and were serving him.” He consulted his entourage, his peeps, his posse. Notice they were around him, so they were living large too. Rehoboam is the son of the wealthiest man to ever live, so he’s living large. He has quite an extravagant lifestyle himself, and if you were in his entourage, you were doing all right too. These guys know if the tax base is lessened, if you have to tighten the belt a little bit, that’s going to cramp their lifestyle too. They don’t like it. In fact, they want more money-not less, more taxation-not less. They want [to know] “what’s in it for me? What’s in it for me is if he prospers, we prosper,” so here was their advice.

Verse 10, “The young men he had grown up with replied, ‘Tell these people who have said to you, “Your father put a yoke on us-make our yoke lighter”-tell them, “My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist.”’”

Now that sounds pretty weird to us. You’ve never said that to anybody in your life. You never got into an argument when you were a little kid and said, “Oh, yeah? My litter finger is bigger than your waist.” But you have said things like “I have more intelligence in my little finger than you have in your whole body!” We have an expression like that. Think of it like that.

“He has more strength in his little finger than you have in your whole body.” That's in essence what he’s saying. “Tell them you are tougher than your father. Tell them you make their father look like he’s soft. Tell them if they think they’ve seen tough, they haven’t seen anything yet.”

Then the advice gets worse, “‘My father laid on you a heavy yoke. I will make it heavier. My father scourged you with whips. I will scourge you with scorpions.’”

Now, don’t take that literally. Again, this is figurative speech. They weren’t slaves. They weren’t whipped. He doesn’t mean to literally attack them with scorpions. This is the equivalent of you having a tough teacher or a tough coach and you saying, “Boy, Coach really cracked the whip today!” What does that mean? He just really cracked down on you. There’s no messing around. It’s serious business. He really made it hard.

He said, “You think my father cracked the whip? I’m a dangerous man! I’m going to come at you with deadly force like a scorpion. You think life was hard? It’s only going to get harder,” and that’s the advice he listens to. How discouraging.

They come back three days later hoping for good news, hoping that he’ll lighten their load, and they’re just shocked, dismayed, and crushed at his reply because he basically says verbatim what his friends told him to say. He says, “My little finger…” and all of that. “Yoke is heavier. My father scourged you with a whip. I will scourge you with scorpions,” so the king did not listen to the people.

Look at the response in Verse 16, “When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: ‘What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!’”

We’re going to look after ourselves. Now what that meant by David-it was not any disloyalty to King David. It meant a disloyalty to Judah, a disloyalty to Jerusalem, to the palace, to the king who ruled over them. They said, “You keep your palace. You keep your capital. We’re starting anew,” and that’s what happened. David and Solomon had reigned over United Kingdom, and the kingdom would now be divided between north and south, between Israel and Judah. Twelve tribes made up the nation of Israel; 11 of those tribes were going to choose, Jeroboam, his rival, to be their king; and only one tribe-the Tribe of Judah in Jerusalem-would be their king. So now you’ve taken your revenue, and instead of increasing your revenue, he now has 1/12 the revenue that he had before. Instead of increasing his power, he has now diminished his power because his army is 1/12 of what it was before. His wealth is going to begin decreasing. The advice of his pose backfired miserably. He could have used this as a defining moment for people to just love him and serve him. He could have used his power and authority to benefit his kingdom, but instead he became greedy and wanted to exploit them even more. As a result, he lost the power.

Guess what happens next? Have you ever heard of Shaq in the NBA? Before there was Shaq in the NBA, there was King Shishak of the East. I want you to turn to Chapter 14:25. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. It was a slam dunk. He took everything. It says (page 345), “He carried off the treasures of the temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything.” Everything-everything, all the gold-everything gone. Everything Solomon had made was gone.

It’s ironic, isn’t it? He wanted to increase his power by exploiting people, and he lost his power. He wanted to increase his wealth through heavier taxation, and he lost everything. There’s a lesson there. He was all about himself-nothing about God, nothing about his people. The lesson is if you put your trust in things and live for things instead of the Lord, those things can be taken away from you. What’s more? If you live for things instead of living for what counts, you too will perish. The chapter says he died right there. He accomplished nothing except to lead Israel astray, lead Israel into temple prostitution, and to lead Israel into idol-worshipping. He was an awful, terrible king, and he blew a golden opportunity because he became greedy and wanted to use people to advance his own comfort.

James is going to talk about that. Let’s turn to James 5 (page 1198). We’re in Chapter 5 which is something. It means we’re nearing an end which you may think is good. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re enjoyed the Book. I don’t know, but again, James is going to be a straight-shooter with us-as he always has been. Chapter 5:1, he says, “Now listen…” Remember we talked about this word a couple weeks ago. It can be translated as come on! He’s saying, “Come on! Come on now!”

Come on now “you rich, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you.” Now before we read the rest of the passage, understand-you’ll see this once we’re done. He’s not talking about people with money. He’s talking about people who have money who exploit others. They have resources, but their only goal is to increase their own bank account; and they do it on the backs [of the poor]-like the children that we saw who are breaking their backs busting rocks every day, so somebody else can be a fat cat. They are exploiting those families. That’s the visual I want you to think of. I want you to think of these innocent people who are working hard and getting paid nothing so somebody else can get rich. He’s talking about the abuse of wealth, the abuse of power-not simply having money itself.

“Your wealth has rotted…” You don’t use it for the right reasons. “…moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in these last days.”

He’s saying is it just all for you? It’s all about you. It’s all about yourself. You don’t think about the kingdom. You don’t think about people. It’s all about you.

“Look, the wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.” You’re a bully! You are bullies! You’re bullying these people. You’re exploiting and manipulating these people. You think you’re getting away with it, but you’re not. A day of reckoning is coming. A day of judgment is coming, and you will answer for your actions. What you have and what you’ve lived for is going to be taken away from you. That’s the lesson of James.

“You have used on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.”

The anger of God is against these bullies-against these manipulators, against these exploiters-and is being communicated through James; and it’s still being communicated. If you’re listening to this, and you are exploiting someone-it could be a child; it could be somebody you work with; it could be a spouse; it could be somebody else-if you’re misusing power, misusing authority for your own advantage at the expense of another, James is talking to you. He’s telling you that pushes God’s buttons. You’ll answer to that. You’ll give an account for that. Change your ways. It’s a warning to us.

So that is number one. If you are an exploiter, he’s saying you better stop that [behavior]. You have another defining moment here. Use your power and authority to serve people, to lighten their load, to help humanity. Don’t exploit people. Don’t be a bully.

Secondly, I think the Christian response is we’re called to do what Jesus did. How did Jesus treat people who exploited? How did He deal with those who were exploited?

There is a Verse that I mentioned to you last week, I believe, when the missionary was here. I talked about John 17:18 (page 1071). Jesus says, “As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” As the Father sent the Son to the world-how did He send the Son in the world? With purpose. “As God has sent Me into the world with a mission and a purpose, I have sent you into the world.” He sent us into the world with a mission and purpose.

Now Jesus talks about mission and purpose when He begins His public ministry in Luke 4. He comes into His hometown of Nazareth. He comes into the synagogue to teach. They hand him the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah, and He begins to read from Isaiah 61. Jesus says these words from the Prophet (page 1018), “‘The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me…’” The Anointed One is the word for Christ, so this was understood to be about the Christ, to be about the Messiah when He comes. He has anointed me, and I want you to notice who the target audience of the Messiah is going to be. Listen carefully. “‘He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners…’” Not just literal prisoners, but anybody who was held captive by sin, who was held captive by deceit, by a bully. He came to set them free. “‘…and recover of sight for the blind…’” Not just the physically blind, but the spiritually blind. “‘…and to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’” The oppressed are the bullied. The oppressed are the exploited, the manipulated. “‘Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him, and He began by saying to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”’”

I have come to live this out. I am the One of whom Isaiah writes, and I have come with a mission. My mission is going to be to the oppressed. I’m coming to help the weak, the vulnerable, and the oppressed. That’s what we’re called to do. [It’s] one of the aspects of being a Christian. We’re not called to be wimps. We’re called to stand up against abuse.

When I was a youth pastor, we had a bully in our youth group in our school. We had a private Christian school there as well. His name was Ed, and Ed had been a thorn in my side since the day I started on staff-from the time he was in fifth grade until he was a senior in high school. He was one week away from his 18th birthday. When you looked at him, basically it was like looking at a full-grown man. He was a big guy-big broad shoulders, barrel-chested. He was a football player, a tough guy. He was the top of the food chain at the school. He could pick on anybody, and he did; and the kids were all afraid of Ed because of his size and because of his demeanor. He showed no respect to teachers, to pastors, and he certainly didn’t show respect to me. He would give me a hard time when I was preaching. He’d pass notes or giggle. He wouldn’t listen to me when I tried coaching him in football or basketball. He was just a very difficult person to deal with. One day, it reached a climax on a hayride. He was bullying one of the kids, another high school boy, and he pushed him off the hay wagon head first. I said, “Ed, I told you before we started, no rough-housing. That kid could break his neck. What’s wrong with you? Don’t ever do that again.” A little later in the trip, he started to do it again. I confronted him and said, “Ed, don’t do that! Ed, don’t!” and over the side the kid went. He pushed him off the wagon again head first. I was angry. I stood up and I said, “Ed, you go over there and sit down.” He didn’t listen to me. “When we get back to the church, I’m going to deal with you.”

So Ed stands up and he gets in my face. He says, “Yeah, what are you going to do? Huh? What are you going to do?”

I said, “Go sit down, Ed.”

“Come on! Tell me-what are you going to do?”

I said, “Ed, sit down.”

“Come on! What are you going to do?”

The hayride stops. Sixty teenagers turn and witness their youth pastor being bullied by the bully. What would I do? What was I going to do? I didn’t even know what I was going to do. So he was yelling at me, and it was a little bit intimidating. He was a big guy. Then he kind of crossed the line. He got to the point of making physical contact with me. He came and he kind of bumped me with his chest. He changed his tone from saying, “Come on! What are you going to do?” to a direct order. He said, “Come on! Do something! Come on! Do something!” He pressed a button that would not come back up, and I didn’t premeditate this, but I just poof (making the sound of a punch)! With everything I had, I pushed him. He lifted off the ground. His feet went flying; he went flying. He landed on his back and tumbled a good ways. He stood up in the cornfield and started cussing at me. Then he was saying, “I’m a minor! I’m a minor! I’m going to sue you! I’m a minor!” He was one week away from being 18.

So I jumped off the hay wagon. I ran down to him and said, “Get on the hay wagon right now.” I said, “You’re just digging a hole for yourself. You’re digging it deeper all the time. Get on the hay wagon, shut your mouth, and I’ll deal with you when we get back.” When I got back to the school, everybody was waiting for their parents to come. We came around the corner, and they were all sitting there waiting by the entrance. They didn’t see me, but I could hear them. Guess what the talk is? “It was a great hayride, wasn’t it?” Nope. The talk was about, “Did you see what Pastor Jeff did? He pushed Eddie in the cornfield! That was awesome!” It was this ding dong, the witch is dead kind of mentality because nobody ever stood up to Eddie before.

I was feeling bad about it. It was like, “This isn’t good.” But when Eddie came back to school-and I’ll just finish the story just so you know-he was a changed man. He came in and said, “How are you today, Pastor Jeff? It’s good to see you today, Pastor Jeff. How are you?” If I had something on my collar, he’d wipe it off. If I made a call at basketball practice and we were having a scrimmage and somebody would say go, “Aw, come on, Pastor Jeff, they didn’t fowl him!”

He’d go, “Shhh shh shhh! Good call! Good call, Pastor Jeff!” He treated me with such respect the rest of the year. At the end of the year, he took me out for lunch. Actually he graduated and came back and took me out to lunch to say thank you for the influence I’d made in his life. I just noticed the level of respect for him and how he treated everybody because somebody had stood up for the bullied.

There are Eddies in this world. There are bullies that misuse their power, that intimidate people who prey on the weak. You know some Eddies. Maybe sometimes it even involves you literally confronting someone about their exploitation. Turning the other way and watching it go on-that’s not what Jesus would have done; so sometimes it’s literally. It could be to a spouse; it could be to someone in your family; or it could be to an employer or somebody else. They are exploiting people, and you confront that.

Other times the bullies look different. The bullies can be poverty; the bullies can be institutions that discriminate. Some of them show prejudice and prey on somebody because of a disability or whatever it is. They take advantage of the elderly. Sometimes the bullies we stand up to were doing it by getting behind people who were doing the job.

Todd Powers-have you ever met a missionary who got more done for the Kingdom than that guy? He was showing us, “Here’s my Bible college. Here is me training 400 pastors. Here’s my missionary in Thailand where I’m rescuing children from human trafficking. Here’s my orphanage in Myanmar where we rescue children whose parents died in the cyclone. Here they are.” This guy has stuff going on all over. Last week, we sent him a love offering for $2,500. We were saying, “We’re behind you. You’re standing up to the bullies in the world. You’re helping the weak. You’re helping the helpless.” He said when he goes to Pakistan, he has to have armed guards that take him to the different venues. Every time he goes to a venue, if he’s going to the same place, they have to take a different route to get to the venue because of the threats that are against him. When he’s preaching, there are armed guards inside and outside of the building. As he’s telling me this, his parents are going (Pastor is covering his ears), “La, la, la, la, la, la.” He said, “You know, you’re welcome to come with me sometime if you’d like to.”

I said, “I am busy that day. Besides that, my wife won’t let me go,” and that’s the truth. She said I can’t go.

But we get behind somebody like that. That’s why we support Pastor Jean so much in Haiti or the Haitian pastor in the Dominican. I’ve never seen such blatant discrimination as that of the Haitians. They’re not allowed to legally own land there. They’re not allowed to send their children to school there. They’re not allowed to receive medical care. They live in the worst possible conditions, the worst jobs for the lowest pay that you can have. It is extreme! That's why our church pays for them to have a place of worship and pays for the mission to run a school there. We pay for that building where they can have a school and a place of worship every Sunday. We don’t take it out of the general. We just have an offering here or there, a fundraiser here or there. God meets the need, and we get behind Him.

Remember last year we rallied around the Care House. The Care House comes along and helps children and their families who’ve been sexually abused. It records their testimony so they don’t have to come into a court of law and look at their abuser, the one who exploited them, in the face. They can do it in a safe, friendly environment. We spent about $12,000 and bought them all new recording devices that are now being used by the Care House. So what are we going to do this year? They lost so much funding when GM shut down... I just let the cat out of the bag a little bit. Come November-how many of you like cheeseburgers and French fries? You’ve heard of Fuddruckers before? There is a rumor in town that I go to restaurants sometimes. I don’t know who started that rumor (congregation laughing), but occasionally I go to Fuddruckers and have gotten to know the owner. You would not believe what he’s going to do for us. We are sponsoring an event there, our church is. A Tuesday in November, if you come in from the time that business opens until the time they close and get a cheeseburger, fries and a drink, all of the money is going to go to the Care House-100 percent. Not 10 percent, 100 percent, everything! It’s going to be free, so if your family is poor, it’s going to help the poor too. If your family is poor, they literally can come in and get a free meal or they can say, “Here’s ten bucks” for a family of five. That $10 goes in the kitty for the Care House. For some of us it will be the most expensive cheeseburger we will ever eat in our lives because some of us are going to give some big gifts for that cheeseburger. We’re going to give all that money to the Care House because we’re standing up for people in this community who are exploited. That’s why our church gets behind these causes. That’s why we’re involved. We roll up our sleeves, and we help these folks. This is part of the mission of the church. It’s just as much a part of the Gospel as sharing what Jesus did on the cross because Jesus said, “I’ve come here, and here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to go out, and I’m going to preach the good news to the poor. I’m going to help the oppressed. I’m going to deliver those who are captive.” So that is the mission of the church as well. That's, I think, one of the most important things we take away from this Passage from James. We need to be difference makers for the Kingdom. Make sure we’re using our resources, not hoarding them, but using them for God’s glory and to help people. We need to take care of our needs as well, but make a difference in our world.

Mission Ambition

Lets open our Bibles up to James 4 (page 1198 of pew Bibles). This is our last time in Chapter 4, and were going to hit Chapter 5 next time we are in James together. Its good to know we will finally be in Chapter 5. Well finish Chapter 5 sometimes around that first weekend in November. Then-Im just going to let the cat out of the bag a little bit-were going to have a special service on November 14th. Somewhere in our city, maybe at Craig High School or maybe at Pontiac Convention Center, but somewhere in our city, were going to have one service that Sunday to kick off Phase 4, and thats exciting. Well be a part of history that Sunday. All four services will combine in one facility, and were nailing down where that is going to be this week; so thats going to be fun. Every time we do that, its a good time.

In James 4, were going to begin reading with Verse 13. James begins by saying, Now listen… Were going to stop right there for a second. I really want you to understand what James is communicating here because we miss a little bit of it. This is the only Passage in the entire Bible-this phrase, this verbiage-appears, and its an idiom. Its an expression. The way it is most accurately translated would be, Come on! Thats why I say wed understand it best if it was translated as, Oh, come on! Come on now! If somebody is really thinking a crazy way or doing something ridiculous and you are listening to this person and trying to respond to what theyre doing or thinking, and its so out there that you begin your reply with, Come on! Are you serious? Have you thought this thing through? Come on now! Get real! That is in essence what James is saying. Hes going to talk to a group of people who look at tomorrow as an entitlement, who see tomorrow as something that is guaranteed. Theyre making plans for their future, and theyre excluding God from those plans. James is like, You cant be serious! Come on now! Lets think a little bit here, okay? So understand this phrase is said and understood with an exclamation point, Now listen, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.

Just as a person makes plans, Well, were going to go here, were going to do this, were going to stay this long, and heres what the result is going to be. James says, Come on! Hes going to first talk about the unpredictability of life. We can make plans, but often the outcome of those plans-where those plans themselves will come to fruition-is in question, isnt it? Its very uncertain. You cant plan anything with that degree of certainty because James says, You dont have tomorrow as a promise. Its not a guarantee.

I am taking up the sport of golf for the sake of my son. I have played now eight or nine times, and I still dont like it; but Im out there. I have flashes of average. Im normally just terrible, and then occasionally, Ill do something average. When youre that bad at something, of course, you look forward to the company and being outside; but its often a very frustrating sport because I have a plan of hitting this ball toward the green. Often, it does the exact opposite of what Im telling it to do. I dont know if youve ever played golf, but its extremely frustrating. There are so many variables that come with that ball going into the air and going straight, and seldom do they come together for me. You have the variables of the wind. You have to consider what the condition of the grass is; the lie of the ball, what trees are around you-I find those; how you hit that ball; the speed of the club when you hit that ball; what angle your club is facing. Are you trying to chip it into the ground and knock it up? Are you driving? What are you trying to do, and how does the place of that club make contact with that ball? So Ill be trying to hit it one way, and the ball will literally go the opposite way. It defies the laws of physics. I mean I dont know how to get it over there. Im trying to, yet I manage to do that; [its not that Im] trying to. The ball just goes in a lot of places. I think, Whats on the face of my club? Is there some dirt or grass on the face of my club thats throwing it off? Whats the position? Where am I distributing my weight on my legs? All of these things, Am I swinging? Am I keeping that left arm straight? Am I keeping my eye on that ball? There are so many things that are inside of my control and some that are out, but seldom does that ball go where I want it to. Sometimes I find life is like a golf ball. Ill plan something, but it doesnt work out the way I planned it to.

When I was a young man, I became a Christian at the age of 17, and I began to plan out my life. I was going to be a psychologist. As a Christian counselor, Id be able to help people and guide them with issues of life, and it seemed like that would be a good fit for me. I also would tell anybody who would listen that I wasnt going to get married for a long time. I was going to stay single until late in my 20s because I wanted to focus on my education and on my career. Then I picked out a school which I thought would be good for this career. Then when I turned 18, the school said, We dont want you, so I had to find another school. I met and fell in love with a young lady whom I married. I met her at age 18, and I was married by age 21. Then I prayed one day when I was having a frozen yogurt in the parking lot of a business. I remember reading my devotions, praying to God, and saying, Lord, Ill do anything You want me to do. Ill be anything You want me to be. Just dont ask me to be a pastor. Dont call me to be a pastor because pastors dont make any money. Im not going to comment on that one, but I thought Id live in the poor house if I were a pastor. Then God began calling me into the ministry, so God has a sense of humor, right?

Then I went off to school, and I found out I was going to get a job at my home church. I made a decision that I was going to stay in Rockford for the rest of my life. That was where I wanted to be. I wanted to be doing youth ministry, and I wanted to live in Rockford forever. At that time, we were a young married couple, and we werent going to have any children until later on in our marriage. We wanted to enjoy being a young couple and enjoy our freedom. Children-that was something for the distance future. Right then, we just wanted to be young and enjoy our freedom before we were tied down with children. A year and four days later, our first child was born. Then about six years after, God called us to move to Wisconsin-to the land of the Green Bay Packers (congregation cheering)-our mortal enemy.

My point is that youve made similar life plans that you thought were set, and something altered that-a variable altered that. We have all received news. It happens in a moment, a blink of an eye, a phone call, an event that happens that rocks your world; and all of the sudden what you thought was so sure, what you thought was so certain, is gone. Its no longer on the radar. Its no longer possible. Someone dies; someone gets sick; someone gets a divorce; something happens to you-you lose your job. Somebody says no-they reject you. Whatever the plan was, its gone, and everybody in this room has had major life plans altered and changed that we thought were so sure. Thats what James is saying. Hes saying life is unpredictable. Therefore, do not live with an entitlement mentality. Do not live with a certainty of tomorrow. He says, Because you dont have tomorrow.

Remember the theme of this chapter is humility. James is trying to drive home, Submit to God. Humble yourselves before God. Hes trying to drive home what a humble life looks like. In this chapter, he said, A humble life is not a selfish life. Its not driven by the things of this world. A selfish life does not judge others, and a selfish life does not take tomorrow as a guarantee. This will help us to make wise decisions. Hes also going to talk about the sovereignty of God, that we incorporate God-not that we dont plan-but that we incorporate the Lord into our plans.

Because He wants us to be humbled, he is going to use an analogy. Hes going to create a word picture that really makes you humbled. Look at the next Verse. He says, What is your life? That is a cosmic reality question, an ultimate reality question. Religions try to answer this; philosophy tries to answer this. Almost every thinking person has asked this question, What is my life? One of the things he wants to point out to us is the brevity of life, so he says, You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. The word mist is the word atmis, from which we get the word atmosphere. You think about a fog that comes up and dissipates and is gone. That, he says, is our life. Our life on this planet is brief for all of us.

I wish I would have brought it from home, but I think about these little egg timers that you use for Scrabble or something. When you start to play Scrabble, and you tip that, it seems like you have all day to come up with your word, doesnt it? It just seems like even though you can see the grains of sand are moving, it seems like it never goes down-especially if thats your opponent. It seems like, Man, when is that sand going to go down? It seems like its taking forever! When were born, it just seems like life is so long.

I heard a comedian, and one of his lines he was saying proudly to his audience, I was once the youngest baby in the world. Think about that; so were you…for a millisecond, a microsecond. You were the youngest human being on the face of the planet. Now, you arent now. You need to understand that, but there was a moment in historys past when you-for just a brief passing moment-were the youngest human being on planet earth. Isnt that a weird thought?

Then when you grow up, it just seems like life moves by so slowly, doesnt it? It seems like, Boy, I cant wait until Im age 10. Im age 10; I have two digits…I cant wait until Im 11. Then you cant hold my age on two fingers anymore…I cant wait until Im 13 because then Im a teenager…I cant wait till Im 16. I dont know why, but I cant! Then comes 18, Then I can vote…Then Im 21, and it just seems like life goes so slow. We always want to get older, and at some point, that changes, doesnt it?

I mean there was a time when we were shaking that sand clock, tapping it, and trying to get that sand to move faster. At some point, we changed to how does it slow down? How do you get this to slow down? It just seems like at a certain point when there is more sand in the bottom of that hour glass than at the top of that hour glass, then it starts going faster and faster, doesnt it? For me it was like late 20s, 30, when life just kind of took off. Ill be 50 next month-50 years old! Isnt that old? Yeah (congregation laughing). I just cant believe how fast life has gone by. It just seems like now that hour glass is just going really fast!

Theres a very common article I read in the news quite often. The headlines go like this, Oldest person in the world dies. I read that all the time-oldest person… There was a time I read that article like three times in a row, three weeks in a row, because the oldest person kept dying.

James is saying, Even the oldest person, even if youre around 100 plus years, in light of eternity, you are a mist. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and is gone. So the end result of that is we number our days.

Thinking of ultimate reality-because Im not trying to be a bummer to you this morning; Im really not-but thinking about ultimate reality questions how we live our lives. It changes our priorities. It changes our actions, how we treat people, what we think is important, and what we value.

There is a song thats playing on the radio right now. Its getting air time both on Christian radio station and on secular radio stations. I happen to like the song. The problem with the song is its sung so fast, often times I cant catch what theyre saying. I wanted to use the song this morning, but I wanted us just to get the lyrics. I didnt want images, video, or anything like that. I just wanted us to read it because some of you have heard this song before, and youre going to go, Oh, I didnt realize thats what he was saying. This is a song by a young artist, a Christian young man by the name of Kris Allen who happened to win American Idol a couple season ago. The song has a very pertinent message, especially in light of the topic were addressing this morning. The song is called, Live Like Youre Dying. I want us to listen to the song and pay close attention to the words of the song, the meaning of the song, and well come back and talk about it (link to video and lyrics can be found here: http://lyricsmusicvideo.blogspot.com/2009/09/kris-allen-live-like-were-dying-lyrics.html). Theres a good message to that song. How many of you have heard that song and heard some new words that you thought, Oh, thats what hes saying there. Yeah, me too.

But you know theres an article that came out in the news this week about an atheist who has cancer. Hes an author, and his name is either Hutchins or Hitchens. Ive not read any of his books; I do sometimes read some of the books like Dawkins or [books from] other atheists. I want to hear where theyre coming from. Im not afraid of those books, so Ill read them-God-delusion and other books. Ive not read this gentlemans books at all, but there was a friendship that he formed in his debate with a Christian pastor. Even though they were at odds theologically, through these series of debates, they became friends. So he organized a prayer time, Lets pray for this atheist author who attacks Christianity and religion as a whole. Lets pray for him and that God would heal him and that God would save him.

He was asked how he felt about that. He said, Well, you know, if youre praying because you love me and you care for me, thats okay if it makes you feel better. Of course, your prayer wont do any good. Im not going to receive Jesus, and Im not going to be healed; but if it makes you feel better, go ahead and pray.

He said, But when you mention that Im dying, so are you. So are you. Im dying faster. I have cancer, but youre dying too. Every one of us is aging, the grains of sand are falling through. For some of us, it seems like its going faster and faster, but the reality is that time hasnt gone any faster for any of us; but it does go.

Im not trying to be a doom and gloomer today. Im trying to get you to think about questions of ultimate reality because when we do that, it brings about life change. When we start doing that, we get on the stick.

I was listening to a sermon, and the pastor said, Procrastination only works when you know the deadline. Think about that. You and I dont know what the deadline is, so act on it while there is time. Act on it before its too late.

There was a gentleman I wanted to call and thank. His name was Dr. Steinhauser. He is a Christian professor, and he really had shared some good things when I was starting off in college in Rockford. I wanted to call and thank him, so I looked up his number. I made the phone call and left a voice mail. Then I got a call back, and it said Steinhauser on my phone. I was a little nervous, Is he going to remember me? What will he say? Sadly, I think it was his son-in-law that said, Harold passed away, but we appreciate your phone call. He would have loved to have heard from you. I was too late.

We have all been too late, havent we? Weve procrastinated. Weve thought about things that we should do, we wanted to do, and we didnt do.

That's one of the side notes of this message. Because life is uncertain and because life is brief, its important we act, and its important we act now. Its important we make life count.

James is not teaching, Dont make plans. Thats not what hes saying. Hes not saying that at all. Hes telling us how we should make plans. Look at the next Verse. He says, Instead… instead of leaving God out of the equation when we make plans, Instead… you ought to say, If it is the Lords Will, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesnt do it, sins. He misses the mark. In other words, you might naively be making plans. Youre excited and enthusiastic about the future, so you dont include God kind of in an innocent way-almost in a child-like way, but he says, Now you can see that thats wrong. Because you see that thats wrong, from now on, if you make assumptions about tomorrow, thats sin. That's missing the mark.

Its not we make a plan and then take that plan to God and say, God, bless this. Its us saying, God, what is Your plan that I can walk in it? I know I have His blessing if its in His Will.

We have a big game Monday night. What if hypothetically those quarterbacks, Jay Cutler, and whats his name? (Congregation laughing.) Aaron Rodgers, yeah. Im just teasing you, giving you a hard time. In case youre new to the church, Im from Illinois, so okay… What if those respective quarterbacks bypass their coaches and go to their teammates and say, Heres the game plan for today. Here are the plays were going to run on our first series. Here is how were going to attack the defense. Heres what were going to do.

The coach gets wind of that, and the coach says, What? They have a game plan? Well, thats not the game plan we have. Thats not the game plan weve talked about. The coach-if hes worth a grain of salt-is going to go to that quarterback and say, Thats not how it works. Thats not your job. Your job is to execute the game plan that I and the coaching staff come up with. Your job is to do what I and the coordinators tell you to do. You are a player. You are a position player. You have a role, and you are to do the plays we tell you to do and run them in the way we tell you to run them. You call the plays that I send in and execute the game plan that I give you. I am the coach; and if you dont do it this way, Im going to pull you off the field, and Im going to put in the next string guy to do what I want to do.

Thats what hes saying. If you take and put the game plan in your own hands and bypass authority, usurp authority, that's arrogance. James says, Dont be arrogant. He says, Understand that we say, God, what is Your plan? He says, We learn from this.

Its like if I say to my child, Honey, can you get Daddy a glass of water? This is hypothetical. I dont know if this has ever happened, but my child comes and hes carrying the glass like this (with his fingers in the glass), and he has his dirty little fingers in the glass. I say, No, honey, can you go get Daddy another cup of water? This time carry it like this because when you put your fingers in the water, all of the stuff thats been on your fingers gets in Daddys water; so can you bring it to me this time like this? That way Ive corrected him.

Later on in life-when they now know better, when theyre a teenager-and I say, Honey, can you get Daddy a glass of water, and they come back like this (carrying it with fingers in the glass), I know thats defiance not childish irresponsibility. Theyre trying to send a statement to me.

James says, Now that Ive taught you, understand that if you continue to plan without God in those plans and acknowledging the sovereignty of God in those plans, that's defiance. That's sin. Its not irresponsibility. He says, Heres how you plan instead.

Now lets take a look at the Apostle Paul. He was a guy that was always making plans, right? He was traveling around the world, spreading the Gospel. Certainly you have to make plans. You dont do that haphazardly, but lets look at a couple Passages on the screen here. This is Paul in the Book of Acts 18:21 (page 1099 of pew Bible), and he says, As he left, he promised, I will be back if it is Gods Will. Then he set sail from Ephesus. [What he was saying was], If God allows it, I will come back and see you.

Lets look at Corinthians together, just the first part of Chapter 4:19 (page 1130). It says, But I will come to you very soon if the Lord is willing. Hes saying, I would love to come and see you. Id love to spend time with you.

From the same Book, the same church in Corinth in Chapter 16:5 (page 1141), he writes what follows. At first when we read this, it seems like a contradiction to what James has told us in Chapter 4. Paul says, After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you for I will be going through Macedonia. Perhaps I will stay with you a while or even spend the winter so that you can help me on my journey wherever I go. It sounds like hes just making all these plans, right? I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit. I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits. Notice everything Paul does-every plan he makes-is tentative. Its all tentative. Its based on the sovereignty of God, so its okay to plan; but if youre a Christian, then that means God is sovereign in your life.

I had plans as a young man, and God changed almost every one of those plans. See, understanding the sovereignty of God means He is in control and not you. Thats what it means to be a Christian. Being a Christian doesnt simply mean I ascribe to a set of doctrines and say, Okay, because this, this, and this is what the church believes, I believe that. Therefore I am a Christian. That's not how it works.

There was a heresy in the early church called Gnosticism. Gnosticism was based on the Greek word for knowledge, and it was based on salvation on knowledge. You could live any way you wanted to live as long as you had the right beliefs, knew the right secrets of salvation. It was a knowledge-based salvation. Friends, if you are trusting your salvation to be based on an intellectual set of beliefs that you ascribe to, that is a form of Gnosticism because Biblical Christianity means that Christ is not only your Savior, but Hes your Lord. Hes your Master. Hes at the core. You want to do what He commands you to do, what His Will is. You want to discover what His Will is. Do not let this Passage diminish your value and significance because you might read that at surface value and say, Oh, Im just a mist. Im just a vapor.

No, no, no, youre missing the point. James is saying, Look, if youre making a plan for your life, make that plan and make sure the attitude of your heart is if God permits. If God allows because what James is teaching us is God in His sovereignty has a plan for you individually-not just for the church or not just for human beings, but for you as a person. There is a will; there is a purpose; there is a destiny for you to fulfill, and you should want nothing more than to discover and fulfill what that plan is because its the best plan, because its the right plan.

So examine your life today and just say, How am I living my life? The grains of sand are ticking. Time is going faster. What are my priorities? What are my plans? Am I seeking to establish the Will of God when I make those plans? Am I making those plans knowing that they are tentative, knowing that God can change those plans; and when He changes those plans, what is my response? Do I submit to Him or do I resist Him? If you are saying, Well, Im resisting or Im not even including, then James words ring true to you. He says, Come on! Come on! Wake up! Life is a vapor. Youre here for a moment, and its gone.

Lets pray together:

Father, we thank You for the frankness of James. He is in our face in this text. This is a wake-up call to each and every one of us here because weve all treated this planet like its our forever home instead of the fact that were just passing through, that its just the blink of an eye in the light of eternity. Lord, weve all made plans and not consulted You or sought Your Will. Lord, help us to be people like Paul, who make our plans at the same time though were acknowledging that Youre in control and were yielding to Your Lordship. Father, I pray for each and every one of us here today, that we can live out these words, these principles in our walk. We will make the most of the days weve been given because life is fleeting. Time slows down for none of us. Help us to make it count. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.