In James 2, the message centers on faith, favoritism, mercy, and works. Explore James 2 and discover what Scripture teaches about favoritism, mercy, faith, and why genuine belief is demonstrated through action. Rather than treating the passage as abstract theology, the sermon traces what these truths reveal about God, the gospel, and the way followers of Jesus are called to live.
The message presses toward an active response to the gospel. Faith is presented as something that reshapes priorities, decisions, character, and obedience, not simply something we affirm intellectually. Listeners are challenged to examine whether their lives are increasingly aligned with what they say they believe and to respond to God's grace with courage, humility, and faithful action.
Along the way, the message engages themes including James 2, faith, favoritism, mercy. These ideas help place the primary passage within the larger story of Scripture and show how its theology speaks to real spiritual formation. At its heart, the sermon helps answer questions such as: What does James 2 teach about faith, favoritism, mercy, and works? It also considers how should faith, favoritism, mercy, and works shape the way Christians live?
For someone studying this passage, exploring the Christian faith, or looking for practical biblical teaching, this sermon offers a clear path from the text to everyday discipleship. The invitation is to hear what Scripture says, receive it with humility, and take the next faithful step in following Jesus.
What does James 2 teach about faith, favoritism, mercy, and works? | How should faith, favoritism, mercy, and works shape the way Christians live? | How can believers apply James 2 in everyday life?
James 2, faith, favoritism, mercy, and works, james 2 scripture teaches favoritism
-
We are in James chapter 2. And I'm going to warn you right now from now until like Palm Sunday, I'm going to hit a different chapter, a whole chapter of James every single Sunday. So today's two, next week's three, four, then five, and then we're getting into Easter. But we are in James chapter 2. And as we approach James today, I want to remind you that this is full of wisdom and an incredible incredible amount of wisdom. And so many times we can we can hear a lot of like deep spiritual teachings about the gifts of the spirit and being spiritual and and bearing fruit, but James really helps us put it into practice. So it's no longer this ethereal idea out here in in the spirit, but it becomes practical. It gives us the attitudes and the practices that we should be engaged in as believers. How we act as believers is often even more important than what you know, right? And I I've read my Bible many times and I've read books about the Bible. I've had holy encounters with God, experienced miracles, signs, and wonders. I've got history with the Holy Spirit. Can anybody else attest to that? You got history with Jesus. But what good is all of that if it doesn't change our actions? What what good is all of that if it doesn't change our behaviors and how we operate in the world? If we want to live worthy of the gospel, we need to know the word and have relationship with Jesus. Yes. But can I tell you, we need the Holy Spirit as we engage in this text today so that this will become action because we've we've really seen I was talking with a pastor this last week over coffee. We've really seen this great divide over the years within the church where one church is all about the spirit and then we got other churches that are all about the word, right? and and and you know, we're all about the gifts of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit, the the prophetic and all these different things, and then you're all about the word and almost ignoring the Holy Spirit and even becoming cessationists and not believing that the spirit of God still moves. These are these are the extremes here, but I I truly believe and I and I see this happening. We need to be 100% in the spirit and 100% in the word. Yeah, >> this isn't like a 50/50 thing where we're just like swinging on this this spectrum, you know, pendulum constantly. We need to be all about the word because it's the truth. It's God speaking to us, right? >> But then we need to be all in the spirit as well and allowing him to do what he wants to do and and see it become action into our lives. Amen. >> Amen. >> James gives us practical wisdom in how we let the Holy Spirit be active in transforming our lives with action. So again, as we read this today, we're going to hit a lot of scripture. It's going to feel like a really weird commentary if you've ever read commentary before where it's just reference after reference after reference. That's what James doing. But but he's making this this overarching point that I want us to to engage with today. Again, we zoom in so much on on one scripture. I want you to zoom out today. Can you ask the Holy Spirit to do that right now? Let me just pray. Let me pray. God, would your Holy Spirit be here today? Would you allow us to see all that you're saying, not just a singular thing or one side of the spectrum? But God, let us engage with everything that you have for us today in Jesus name. Amen. My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Favoritism. Everybody say favoritism. >> Favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes and a poor man and filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing the fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you." But to the poor man, you say, "You stand over there or you sit on the floor by my feet." Have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers and sisters, has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him. But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheing the noble name of him to whom you belong? If you really keep the royal law found in scripture, love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawb breakakers. James is repeating his big brother Jesus, the golden rule, right? >> Love your neighbor as yourself. And so if you if you're taking notes today, which I hope you are, if you're not taking notes, you're only going to get 8 to 9% of what I'm saying. Uh if you take notes today, you're going to get 40 to 50%. All right? And if you start saying amen and clapping back at me, you're going to get up in the 90s. Somebody, let's go. All right? So, let's get a little Pentecostal. Yep. Somebody, let's go. You don't have to clap at me, but like yell at me a little bit. All right. Say, say, preach it. Preach it, preacher. Okay. Something write this down. Love every neighbor fully and equally. Love every neighbor fully and equally. In Jerusalem, where James is writing this, it's a very diverse place. You've got you've got Jews and you've got Christians. You've got Greeks and Romans. You've got merchants from all of these different nations and many different cultures and they all live together, but many times that their culture divides them. We see this in America. We see this in other nations where where we choose culture over people. And James is pointing out we can't show favoritism to how someone looks. Rich or poor, black or white or brown, it doesn't matter. We're to love everyone. Someone say, "Love everyone." and and and and I'm going to talk more about this in a couple of weeks. Like James definitely goes after the rich and I'm not I'm not knocking you if you if you're wealthy and you're rich today, but he's not attacking them and saying that you should see them as less. You know, he he he many times we can we can read a text and go, "Oh, I should hate the rich and love the poor." No, this is a both and. love every neighbor fully and equally. And again, this is really to contrast how we treat people by the world's standards. This is how the world treats people. We see someone that that looks a certain way or they're a part of a a a tribe in our minds or a culture in our minds and so we automatically assume things about them. >> We automatically assume by the way that they look or the way they talk or the way they carry themselves that they're going to be a certain way. And James is is coming against all of this. We judge by looks or status or what we might gain from them. And that's the evil thought that he's even speaking to. When you start to look at someone for what you can gain from them, whether it's money or status or cultural influence, that's when we start engaging in sin. When we show favoritism in this way. many many years ago. I've I've uh I' I've been like at different influencer events and networking events. I was actually in Las Vegas. I know it's okay. All right. I wasn't gambling. All right. I was actually at a at a camera expo and uh it was this huge huge conference room with with all these different camera companies everywhere trying to like sell to all of the different filmmakers. And I got invited to it. You know, I'm I'm not that up there. This was years ago. Um, and I but I got invited to an afterparty. All right. It was great. It was fun. Um, there was like this amazing view overlooking the city and and all the things. And I wasn't drinking. I wasn't doing anything weird. I was just there to connect with people and network. Okay. I promise. Scouts Honor. Okay. There was incredible food. And there were like tons and tons of these indie filmmakers and photographers that I knew who all these guys were just by just by seeing them and looking at their face. Um, it was it was awesome. I was like rubbing shoulders with some of my heroes, you know, with with guys who've produced movies and they've they've worked for all these worldrenowned companies and I'm just like, this is awesome. I wasn't at all in my mind. I wasn't thinking like, I'm going to be just like them. It was just like, oh my gosh, I get to be around these guys. Like, this is so cool, right? But it was really hurtful when I started talking to people and then they realized that I was a nobody. You ever been in like a conversation like that before where someone's talking to you and then they realize like who you are or they're like, "Oh, I don't even know. I don't know who you are." And then they just kind of push you off, right? It doesn't happen here at our church, right? No, it doesn't. No. Praise God. But it's so interesting like I wasn't a somebody. I was just some kid who made YouTube videos. and they and they would try to leave the conversation as quickly as possible to find someone else of influence or to find somebody else of status or somebody else who they knew who they were. They were looking for all these other people so looking really for what they could gain from someone else. >> Yeah. >> And this is a terrible feeling on the other end of the spectrum when you experience this when you experience favoritism. When you experience partiality, when you're disqualified by someone because you're not at a status level that they desire you to be at. When we treat people this way, when we show favoritism, James is saying, "This isn't loving our neighbor. This is sin." And it's calling us to examine our hearts. Again, God looks at the inward while man looks at the outward. We know we see this in 1st Samuel when when when the prophet Samuel is talking about David in verse 6:6 it says but the Lord said to Samuel do not consider his appearance or his height for I have rejected him. This is David's one of David's brothers. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart. Aren't you grateful today >> that he looks at your heart >> that that God doesn't require you to be at some type of cultural status in the world, but he sees your heart. So James again, he's he's giving an invitation here for us to see people with God's eyes, to see people's hearts, see people how God sees them. Because God doesn't disqualify anyone. I need an amen for that. God doesn't disqualify anyone in this church. >> Like when you read your Bible, it's filled with messed up people. >> Like I have a hard time reading scripture sometimes where I'm just like, "God, why are you still patient with this dude? Why are you still allowing all of this to happen?" Like, because God doesn't disqualify. >> The Bible's filled with messed up people, messed up families, messed up situation. God loves them and he uses them even in their mess. even in my mess. >> And James doubles down on this. He says, "If you're not fully loving everyone without favoritism, it's not fulfilling the true law of loving your neighbor." He says this in James 2:10, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." For he who said, "You shall not commit adultery also said, you shall not commit murder." If you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a lawb breakaker. Right? >> Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom. >> Here's what he's saying. Not only is this saying like don't show favoritism with people, but don't show favoritism with sin. >> Exactly. >> You you you back back away from the text a little bit and just see what he's saying here. Don't just show favoritism with people, but but on top of that, don't show favoritism with sin. But what does what does culture tell us to do? Again, we know sin is sin, but sometimes we think that murder is worse than adultery or lying is isn't as bad as coveting. Or again, many times we find ourselves in this place where we're comparing one sin to another. Like gossiping isn't better than sexually acting out. >> That's right. >> If you sin, whatever it is, it's sin. >> Amen. >> Again, in our government, we have different penalties for different sins, right? Like if you kill someone, you can get a lifetime sentence. But if you have a traffic violation, you can get a ticket or maybe a few nights in jail if you've been drinking. And so the world is conditioning us to compare one sin to another and holding one higher than the other. But this is the exact opposite of what the word of God is saying. >> That's right. >> That sin is sin. Again, we we see the world in this way. And so it it shapes how we then see people. But we think, oh, we look at addicts in one way and we look at rapists and pedophiles in another way. >> We look at murderers in one light, but again, we look at somebody who got a ticket in another way. Sometimes we can even justify certain sins based on people's upbringing and culture. >> Yeah. But I love this in verse 13, James goes on. He says, "Because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful." Mercy triumphs over judgment. >> If we can't show mercy, how can we expect to receive mercy? Again, this is this is a tough thing for us to to wrestle with because the world is the complete opposite of what this text is saying. And this is really where we have to let the Holy Spirit speak to us. If we have been shown great mercy and act unmercifully toward our neighbors, then we will be dealt with in a similar fashion. And this isn't just said in James. It's also said in Matthew 18 when Jesus was talking about the parable of the unforgiving steward. I don't have time to go into it. Go read it. And the principle even goes back to to Solomon in Proverbs 21:13. It says, "Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered." Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful." Why? For they will be shown mercy. >> Amen. >> We need to show mercy, >> right? >> As a church, as a people. Like if I can't show mercy to people in their sin, if I can't show love even when someone's sin may disgust me, why should I expect to be shown the same mercy? We need to lean into this. And Holy Spirit, we need you right now as we as we engage further in this text. Help us to not put ourselves as better than others right now. Help us to not show partial love and mercy. As we get into this next section of of scripture here in James 2, it's 14-26. He just ups the ante. All right, it's about to get really fun. But what I love about this text is it gives me like crazy clarity to live out my faith. It gives me a living faith, a faith in action, a real faith. Who wants real faith today? >> Come on. What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, "Go in peace. Keep warm and wellfed," but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. Now, I know you know some of y'all are greater theologians than me, so I'm about to about to clap at you a little bit. Okay? James is not contradicting Paul when he says this >> because Paul Paul said that we're not saved by works. Right? >> We are saved by grace through faith not by works but saving faith saving faith will have works that accompany it. >> Amen. As the saying goes, faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone. It has good works with it. And this is where many people again, we get twisted up inside because we just said God looks at the heart. God's not looking at the outward, he's looking at the heart. But don't you love that? That Jesus came to address the heart. >> Yeah. Jesus came to address the heart of the Pharisees who were following the law, but yet there was corruption in their heart. They had the the outward appearance of everything being holy and pure and doing all these things, but they were going and standing on street street corners fasting for everyone to see them and see how holy they were. And Jesus said, "No, you're a whitewashed tomb. >> Beautiful on the outside, but your heart is far from God." They did a lot of works, but their hearts were not in it. And so many Christians again and even coming from the the Jewish faith a as as Jews were coming to Christ in the time of James, they were almost anti-works. Again, the pendulum was swinging. Here are the Pharisees over here. They're all about works. Now, we need to be all about heart. We almost need to be anti-works and against works. And I'm here to say today, it's not about being on one side of the spectrum or the other. It's about being 100% in the word and 100% in the spirit. >> James 2:18 says, "But someone will say, you have faith, one side, and you have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds." You believe that there is one God. Good. Even the demons believe that. And shudder. Write this down. Number three. This is going to feel very like poignant. Accept all word and all spirit. We can think all I have to do is believe, right? But then James claps back and he says even the demons believe. The demons believe that Jesus exists, that he's real. When we separate our faith in spirit from our faith in action, we don't really have faith. And y'all are going to hate on me because I'm I'm going to use a different translation that I that I almost never use, but it's just so good. I want to reread this from the message. All right. Send the emails to kim at fulllifeag. Just just hear this, okay? Just don't don't rebuke it yet. Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that. But what good does it do them? Like, use your heads. Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hand? >> It's it's it's still death, right? Faith without works is death. >> But do can we really separate these two things? Can we really be, you know, all word or all spirit and expect not to have a a dead faith? One of the things like I I grew up hearing this from my parents all the time, especially my mama. She's sitting over there. It's great. But she said she would say this so often. I think this was Russ Moyer that maybe said it first, but we've been repeating it forever. If you're all in the word, you're going to dry up. And if you're all in the spirit, you're going to blow up. And this is why it's so important that we are 100% in both so that we can actually live a real faith and a real life in Christ. Like we can't neglect the practice of holiness and righteousness and obedience to God and his word, loving our neighbors and showing no favoritism. We need the Holy Spirit in our faith that our faith would live out loud. And this is where it gets so much so much more fun. I want you to just see this again in the context of of favoritism. Says in verse 20, "You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? Again, remember this is a Jewish Christian church in Jerusalem. They know who Abraham is. You see what his faith and his actions You see that his faith faith and actions were actually working together. And his faith was made complete by what he did. His faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. It was the faith in action that then released God to say in the moment, "He's my friend." Again, this brings us back to the beginning. Don't show favoritism. We say, "Hey, don't show favoritism in your faith walk. Don't be so fixated on the inward and the heart that you neglect to do the outward works of righteousness and holiness and following God's voice and his word. But this is where James gets really weird. He's talking about Abraham and all all the Jewish Christians, they know Abraham, but then James brings in somebody else into the picture. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. This this like this has to make waves to a Jewish audience >> because James is comparing the father of their faith to a prostitute. Don't show favoritism. >> The father of their faith, he's a man of covenant. He's a man of faith. And he brings a prostitute, a harlot. comparing to Abraham. Why? Why does God do this? Why does God do this? Because God sees everybody through grace. >> Amen. >> God sees everybody through grace. And just so so you get the full story here in in in Joshua 2, I'm not going to read that verse yet, but I'll get there. Rahab is used by the spies when they're conquering the land of Jericho. They're heading to take down the the city. It's a key city. And when they get there, the spies actually connected with Rahab. She hides them. She protects them. And she does that when she finds out that they're with God. And they even still call her Rahab the harlot. But she says something really incredible to the spies in Jericho. Put that verse up. Joshua 2:11, it says, "For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below." >> Is that not faith? >> Like, is that I've heard about your God, and he truly is the God above heaven and earth. I believe it. I know it. But what's so great is she doesn't stop at just believing and knowing, but it moves her into a place of action, saying again, your God is the real God. And in this whole moment, the action was, I'm going to protect God's people. >> And they said, you know what? Because you've done this, put a red cord out from your window so we know when we come in that we're going to keep you protected and safe when this attack goes down. But it's interesting. A harlot, a prostitute recognizes God as God and her faith moves her to action and in the process she gets saved quite literally from the destruction that ensues. She protects God's people. And can I let me just say this like against they call her Rahab the the prostitute. Rahab the harlot. But going back to favoritism, as a church, we cannot worry about the labels that people put on us, >> the labels that the world wants to put on you. Like, don't worry about how you're tagged. Don't worry about your past. Don't worry about your yesterday. God is bigger than all of that. Can we let his cup to overflow >> onto every part of our lives? Past, present, and future. Like, God is bigger than all of that. He's bigger than a label of shame that the enemy wants to put on you today. No matter what you're labeled, when your faith in God moves you into action, you will no longer be known by that label in the kingdom. >> Rahab, again, she's listed in the genealogy of Jesus. She's a part of the history. a prostitute is a part of the history of Jesus and shows up again in Hebrews chapter 11 in the hall of faith which funny is they still call her Rahab the harlot but what man labels you is is nothing when your when your name is written in the lamb's book of life and James just has the audacity to compare Abraham to Rahab Why? Because faith moved her to action and God's grace covered her. We may be friends to God or think ourselves better than another, but God sees the hearts of those who are willing to walk out their faith. This is why like I love I love I love new Christians. I love the old ones, too. I love I love all of you equally. Like I said in my first point, but there but there's something like there's something really fun about a Christian who has no fear. >> I know I know everyone in this room, you're you're all fearless, right? I know you're all jacked on Jesus and like it's it's real to you. But there's something just powerful about someone who it's not about how much they know. It's about what little they know and act upon. Well, the word of God says this, so I'm going to do it. That's a fun person to be around. >> If you can be a person of faith, no matter what's going on in your life, you would be a person of grace to others. God can use you no matter how many times you failed. And if it up if it were up to our works to save us, we'd all be in hot water. If if it was up to our works to save us with how often we fail, we would all be in a tough place. We're not saved by works. We're saved for works of righteousness. Again, Paul shares this, but even shares this with Titus, one of his spiritual sons in Titus 3:8. Worship team, you can come. This is a trustworthy saying and I want you to tr to stress these things so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. Doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. Again, there's no difference between what James and Paul are saying. All of us should want to live a life of faith. faith in action. It's a living faith. It's not just a faith that talks a big game, but it's a it's a faith that moves us. It's a faith that's alive, a faith that walks, not just a faith that is spiritual, but a faith that also serves others. James is again he's working with people like us that have the tendency to pick sides different views kind of kind of dealing with what's right and wrong like who's spiritual and who's not spiritual who's in the word and who's not in the word and James is saying if the family of God as a church if we are polarized in this way then the enemy is going to win and when the enemy wins los lost and hurting people are not going to experience all that God has for them. Like we again I think it's in our nature and I think it's even part of cultural conditioning where we play this game where we we go oh it's it's faith versus deeds or it's spiritual versus serving. It's no I'm all about holiness versus helping. It's prayer versus the practical. It's worship versus works. It's conviction versus compassion. It's it's belief versus behavior. Like, you know, which camp are you in? Are you in one of those faith movements? Or are you a church? Are you a people that's all about doing good deeds? Right? Are you all about holiness? Are you all about helping people? Because the world says you can't be both. You got to be really good at one of them or or really good at the other one. Like we play we play this this game in this in this spectrum and I'm done with it. We as a church need to be done with this. We we need to be all in the spirit and all in the word >> that we would live a faith that is in action. No matter the labels that anybody wants to put on you like, "Oh, you're a Pentecostal church, so you must be all about this." No, I'm about everything. Everything that God has for me, I want it. I want to walk in it. I want to live it. Everything that he has for me. I want to be a church that's allin with Jesus. >> Yeah. >> That my answer is yes. Like yes, I want the Holy Spirit. Yes, I want the word of God. Yes, I want deep truths. And yes, I want practical wisdom to live this thing out. I want it all. Can some somebody say yes in this house today? >> Yes. I want everything you have for me, Jesus. I want it all. Not my way, but his way, your way. Yes, Lord. Again, can we see the strategy? Just just zoom out for a second. The strategy of the world is to condition us into a place where we divide our thinking in our faith in how we live. It's Democrat and Republican. It's conservative or liberal. It's it's it's Baptist or Pentecostal. It's Nike or Adidas. It's Coke versus Pepsi. And then we play these games where we're like, you're a Coke person, right? Oh, you're you're a Pepsi person. We're in the South, you know. You gota you gota But don't we do that in our faith? >> Oh, you're one of you're one of those? >> Your your church is part of what fellowship? Your your pastor believes in miracles? Like like you read out of the message version on Sunday. Woo. Did I'll give you a list of every church in this area cuz I love I love them all. Wherever you want to go, wherever God has called you, it it doesn't matter to me. >> Yeah. >> As long as you're living faith and action. >> What are we doing if we're not, oh, this is just me. This is just my faith. No. God is calling us to to live faith and action >> in everything that we're doing. And again, James is is saying this. You need to change your attitude and your viewpoint when you're approaching people, when you're approaching sin, and when you're approaching your faith. We can't play favorites in all of these areas. We should say yes to all that God has for for us. I want the spiritual. I want the practical. I want faith to believe. And I want faith in action. It can't be either or because today people need a living faith. >> Yes. >> Now more than ever, we need to be a people of faith. Not just faith within our hearts, but faith on display for the world to see. We cannot be camouflaged Christians anymore. Like, I love hunting. I know you can't tell cuz I'm so hipster today, but I love getting in the woods. The best part of it for me, it's not going out. It's not killing stuff, you know, whatever. I love just wearing camo. I put that I put that camo jacket on and I transform into a different person. I'm an animal, you know? I get up in that tree and I know that deer can't see me. And it's the greatest feeling in the world. I see that thing walk up and I'm just like, I almost brought my camo jacket today, but you get the picture, right? But here's what's so fun about hunting. The deer can't see you when you are still. But the moment I move, it locks in on me. And I think as a church, as a people, we're not called to just stand still. We're not going to be seen if we're not moving. >> Yeah. >> We're not going to be seen if our faith isn't moving in in an action. Like, oh, no. They're going to ask me when they when they when they just see my heart. The world's not looking at your heart. They could care less about your heart. They they only care about your status. They only care about how much money you got or how much influence you have. But when you begin to live with faith and action, when you begin to testify of the goodness of God in your life, that's when Jesus is on display. That that's when he begins to move in those in those moments. And we have to be a church that's no longer camouflaged from the world. You might put some camo on, but start moving. >> Start moving. Start speaking. Tell your story of how God healed you. Start telling your story of what he's done in your life, in your marriage, in your relationships, how he's opened door after door after door. I I I can't explain it, but God is just good. What if we started just giving God the glory for every good thing because every good thing is from God. >> James 1. Spiritually, spirituality. Spirituality is not impressive because everyone is spiritual these days. A spirituality that impresses but doesn't influence a broken, hurting world is no good. So let's use our spirituality to improve our world through serving our community through loving those that are far from God to live a faith that worships God. Yes. Where we may have been labeled by the world in some way, but when we worship him, we're just inviting the grace of God to to cover our lives and we can embrace that life like God, here's my life. Here's my yesterdays. Would you overflow and touch those parts? Would you remind me that you were ever present in those moments? And God, here's my today. Here's my tomorrow. I worship you. And God, would you be with me in the works of my hands and my heart and my feet and my skill? God, would everything that we do be worshiped. This isn't like a I just want us to rest in this. I'm going to I'm going to read this verse and then our our worship team is going to lead us. Would would you just stand with me across this room? Something that that I'm I'm just going to be transparent. Something that's really just moved on my heart is I I I grew up in the I grew up in '90s church, early 2000's church, and everything was about the altar. You know, at the end of every service, there was an alta
