text based sermons

James 1

Greetings everyone.  Before I begin I would like to open with a prayer.  

Father, I just pray that you use me completely, to only utter that which you will.  I pray for discernment in the minds of the listeners that they may know that which is truth and that which is not, for anything I say or anything else that they hear.  I ask you to forgive us of our sins, Lord as we strive to learn more about you.  In the mighty name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.

A long time ago, an old manager of mine sent me a message from James to encourage me after I had to leave my job to move to Hot Springs Village.  I told him, metaphorically, that I felt my first sermon coming on.  Nearly 5 years later, I finally moved on that word.  So here we go.

Ask yourself when reading James, what jumps off the page at you?  It could be anything, there is a lot of powerful scripture in this opening chapter of James.  Personally, it was the final verse, number 27.  Reading from the New King James it is:  

27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

That sounds like fairly common sense, so we should deconstruct it further to get to the meat and potatoes, so to speak, of what exactly this verse is saying.  Other than trouble, what do orphans and widows have in common?  

They have both lost something.  Don't you hate losing items?  Drives me absolutely nuts.  Before pastors taught me to have the peace of the Lord in all things, I used to walk around the house, turning things over, yelling about people moving my stuff around without asking, in general terrifying everyone around.  My wife has told me that I look like a monster sometimes when I get angry, and even though I have never once been violent, it is still very disturbing.  

Don't you like the sound of pure religion?  Who wants unpure religion or a defiled religion?  That sounds nasty and ungodly.  James did not pull any punches and he certainly wasn't going to win any popularity contests at the time or even today.  People only want to be affirmed that everything they do is all hunkey dorey with God and you can just go right on living your life and loving whomever you want and sleeping with whomever you want and telling people and yourself whatever you want.  For the Christian, it isn't about what we want, it is and always should be about what God wants.  I'm going to keep this in James and related material, so I'm about to reel it back in, but God defines truth.  Not you.  Not influencers, not your college professors, not even your mom or dad.  These influences upon your life are supposed to anchor you in realistic truth that has been established over the course of time.  The Word of God is a centuries old source of truth that can be trusted.  Anyone who tells you that you can define your own truth is lying to you because they need the world to accept them.  Forget the world, you want God to accept you.  

Chapter 4 verse 4. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  

Don't you love these repeating numbers?  So often the best scriptures are 2:2, or 14:14, or in this case, 4:4.  If you look for patterns enough, you are bound to see them.  There are so many powerful truths in the Bible, that you could draw a conclusion about the numbers related to them, whatever your Godwink may be, as I have heard it called.  

Getting back to chapter 1 with the orphans and widows, this is a common theme in the Bible.  I have recently spent a large amount of time in the book of Job and found some parallels.  

Job chapter 29 starting in verse 7

7 “When I went out to the gate by the city,

When I took my seat in the open square,

8 The young men saw me and hid,

And the aged arose and stood;

9 The princes refrained from talking,

And put their hand on their mouth;

10 The voice of nobles was hushed,

And their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

11 When the ear heard, then it blessed me,

And when the eye saw, then it approved me;

And what, exactly, does this have to do with orphans and widows you may have started to ask.  Trust the process.  Job is giving his summary defense against his friends who have assumed that all these bad things happened to him because he is secretly a sinner behind closed doors since only the wicked suffer.  These verses are the introduction to what he will say next, princes covered their mouth, which is something Job says to God later in response to all his own complaints.  The big time talkers aren't talking because nobody has a case against Job since he was described by Almighty God Himself in Job chapter 1 verse 8:  

“Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”

Wow.  So moving forward in verse 12 we have:

12 Because I delivered the poor who cried out,

The fatherless and the one who had no helper.

13 The blessing of a perishing man came upon me,

And I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;

My justice was like a robe and a turban.

15 I was eyes to the blind,

And I was feet to the lame.

16 I was a father to the poor,

And I searched out the case that I did not know.

An upright and blameless man helps those who have lost their money, their father, their will to live, their spouse, their sight, their ability to stand.  And again, the poor.  You know, when the Bible repeats itself it's because what it being said is extremely important.  The poor again, the needy.  And Job searched out the case for that which he did not know.  To me that says, instead of taking everything at face value, he gives people the benefit of the doubt and strives to figure out the root cause of everything.  There is a difference between someone who is poor due to a series of unfortunate events and someone who is poor because they lost all their money in a casino and spends every extra dollar they have on nips at the liquor store.  

Getting back to James 1.  Orphans and widows.  How do we help orphans and widows exactly?  By visiting them, according to the word of God.  To be there to provide empathy, support, and friendship.  Look no further than this very body of believers, begin here.  Search out the case that you do not know.  "I do not know anything about this woman except that she is always alone."  Start with a hello and a peace be with you.  That's a Lutheran thing, and it may sound weird.  I was pulled from the pit of my own destruction by a Lutheran congregation.  You have to believe that the Lord is wherever two or more are gathered in His Name, not just here with you and your closest friends.  So if you hear it, it's just a recognition of the fact that the Lord's peace is powerful enough that it should be mentioned several times a day.  

Wherever you go, and whatever you do, when you depart say....

Peace be with you.  Isn't that fun?

I know there are people among of us that have taken in orphans, through adoption or foster care.  This is pure religion that is undefiled.  Yes!  These are literal Biblical heroes according to the book of James.  Honor them, strive to be like them.  It is not easy, and they don't just give children to whomever wants them. You have to make them yourself in that case.  The vetting process is hard, but is also why it is frowned upon by some.  But that isn't the point I was trying to make, the point is that Pure religion that is undefiled is to visit orphans and widows in their trouble..

AND

Yes, there is a second part to verse 27, only part A has been covered so far.  And to keep oneself unspotted from the world.  Easy peasy, right?  

How do we do that?  Stay off social media.  What?  In this day and age, that is an almost completely unreasonable and even unhinged expectation.  Stay off social media, pssh, how is my former best friend from elementary school who lives in Saskatchewan going to see what I made my toddler for lunch today??  Okay, jokes aside, a lot of people handle social media with grace much better than I do.  Pray for me.  I have problems in that I am extremely intolerant of what I consider to be willful ignorance and will go after it in the most devastating and brutal manner than I can think of.  I have been told by one of my old friends, Brian, you're mean.  I can be, yes.  And I don't want to dwell on this too long, but you can shake someone to their very core with nothing but words.  When you can look at people and deconstruct their beliefs and opinions, because they've made their opinions and allegiances public, you can smack every single exposed nail right on the head with nearly fatal precision.  But, what good does it do?  Most people aren't going to change their mind because of "what some crazy unhinged so called Christian had to s...how dare he talk to me like that?  You are the one going to hell, you can't judge me, you have no idea...you have no right."  And they aren't wrong, not entirely.  This is my own confession, and I am also asking for prayer.  I cannot attempt to get a ministry off the ground and abstain from social media.  This is my test and I need help.  If I could get someone else to do this for me I would.  And yes, there is also the aspect of nosiness to it. I like to know what is going on.  But lately, there is nothing good going on.  I feel as if I might be better living locally, in my own world, like how people did for centuries before the internet became a thing.  Men of God in the bible called out iniquity and wickedness, that is true, but they did it where they lived.  They didn't send scrolls on lightning bolts to the other side of the world decrying the behaviors and beliefs of people they never met.  That's what they wrote down in faith.  And with God, over time, because faith takes time, wink wink, the Word made it to the hearts and ears of the people meant to receive it. 

You need the fruit of the Spirit and it needs to be apparent and glaringly obvious in your life for the realization of others that walking with Jesus Christ is the only way to live.  To truly worship.  For pure and undefiled religion.  

I think before the close of this sermon, I should backtrack things just 1 verse.  Now, mentioning this verse in a more liberal biblical discussion group is exactly how you will get removed from it.  Ask me how I know.  Verse 26:

26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.

That is a very condemning statement, even to me, especially in light of my confession.  Is my religion useless?  Perhaps it is.  I tell myself so often, people aren't going to want to listen to you regardless.  Maybe that's just the enemy, or maybe it is common sense. These voices that you will hear, if you do not turn a deaf ear, you have to pray for discernment.  I am not, nor have I ever claimed to be perfect. That probably bodes the same for anyone who has read or listened thus far.  But if people already aren't going to want to listen to a fellow who just rose up out of nowhere without any sort of seminary or religious education, how much less are they going to want to listen to a mean person who goes around calling out lies and unreasonable behavior.  I suppose the defining factor would be, is what I am saying righteous, is what I am saying backed up by scripture?  I have written this down, is there a clear disconnect between what I have said and scripture?  Even so, my mother would tell me that to condemn others isn't a way to bring in the lost.  

Whenever you have troubles, ask your mother to pray for you.  God honors the prayers of mothers for their children highly.  So the orphans need you, they need spiritual mothers and brothers and sisters to pray for them.  Widows need you, these people who have lost the things that meant the most to them in the world.  Because life isn't fair.  Job teaches that sometimes, the righteous do suffer.  But Job also teaches that nothing and no one can stand before the awesome might and majesty of the Lord God Almighty.  And whatever suffering comes our way, whatever trials and hardships we must face:  

I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38-39

In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  Romans 8:37

Father I thank you, thank you so much for allowing me to share this message with the world.  I just pray that if I should ever start to say something untrue or whatever was against Your will, that I would be silenced.  Abba, I pray for those who are lost and that have lost something.  I pray that we could be the light unto those who are wandering about in the darkness.  And I ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.