1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,120 It was great to come on campus yesterday and notice some people working out in our landscaping. 2 00:00:10,120 --> 00:00:15,800 I want to thank at least two life communities that were here yesterday working on some areas. 3 00:00:15,800 --> 00:00:19,840 We appreciate very much your labor of love and helping us in that way. 4 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:24,920 Let's give them a hand, indeed. 5 00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:31,040 This afternoon at 5 o'clock there is a praise service at Church on the Hill for what God 6 00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:32,600 did during the Harvest Crusade. 7 00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:36,200 I want to encourage you to come and be a part of that one hour session. 8 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:39,280 There will be some great stories shared as to what God did. 9 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:42,480 That's at 5 o'clock this afternoon. 10 00:00:42,480 --> 00:00:47,280 And then please remember that Thursday night at 7 is our prayer meeting that we call Body 11 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:48,280 Life Intercession. 12 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:53,760 We meet up in Fellowship Hall and it's going to be a great, great evening. 13 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:56,080 This Tuesday is the day to go out and vote. 14 00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:57,520 Now I don't know how you feel about it. 15 00:00:57,520 --> 00:00:59,360 You may feel like, well, what's the use? 16 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:03,160 A lot of people feel that way these days for some reason, but I want to tell you it's a 17 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:05,720 big use to it. 18 00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:12,560 There are some very important ballot initiatives on the ballot here in California, and I encourage 19 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:15,020 you to go and make your voice heard. 20 00:01:15,020 --> 00:01:19,360 If you don't vote, then somebody else is going to make their voice heard, and you may not 21 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:21,400 like what they have to say. 22 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:27,600 So let your voice be heard along with many others this Tuesday in voting. 23 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:32,680 Next Saturday we have our first class, which is an opportunity for those of you who may 24 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:37,640 be new to our church to find out more about the ministry of Los Gatos Christian Church. 25 00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:39,960 So please join us at 9 o'clock on Saturday morning. 26 00:01:39,960 --> 00:01:44,800 We just go straight for three hours, but it goes so fast you can't believe it. 27 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:48,120 We're going to be talking about some of the history of the church and the doctrines, what 28 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:52,760 we believe and how we operate here, and it lines you up for membership if you want to 29 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:55,280 take that step, and we hope you will. 30 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:59,720 But it's an opportunity also for me to get to know you as a newcomer more personally. 31 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:02,680 So please join us and let us know that you're coming. 32 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:06,080 The details about that are in the worship folder today. 33 00:02:06,080 --> 00:02:09,960 Well, oxymorons are a lot of fun to me. 34 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:12,000 I enjoy reading some of them. 35 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:13,120 I think you know what they are. 36 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:16,800 They are self-contradictory expressions. 37 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:21,480 For example, civil war. 38 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:22,960 A war that is civil? 39 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:24,800 Come on now. 40 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:31,120 I grew up in the Midwest, and in the state where I grew up there was a town called liberal 41 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:34,720 Kansas. 42 00:02:34,720 --> 00:02:38,600 Not a chance of that one fitting together, let me tell you. 43 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:43,000 We occasionally hear the term on the news these days, conservative Democrat. 44 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:45,000 Well, really. 45 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:51,080 But I know we have to have fair play, so let's think about another phrase we sometimes hear. 46 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:54,600 This was a Republican initiative. 47 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:59,940 Some of us have been waiting years for some initiative from the Republicans. 48 00:02:59,940 --> 00:03:04,360 We were out eating at a sandwich place this weekend. 49 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:09,000 My wife, we ordered one large sandwich and we cut it, right? 50 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:16,600 And so she said to the girl behind the counter, cut one half larger than the other. 51 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:25,600 No, no, it wasn't for her, it was for me. 52 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:28,320 But the point is larger half. 53 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:31,240 Really, okay? 54 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:34,480 We talk about deafening silence. 55 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:38,840 We may see somebody and we say, oh, they were pretty ugly. 56 00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:39,840 Okay? 57 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:43,120 And then of course there's accordion music. 58 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:51,240 No, really, I don't mind the accordion myself. 59 00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:52,240 Married life. 60 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:55,800 No, I'm sorry. 61 00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:59,400 I just threw that one in for free. 62 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:04,200 And then there's one of my favorite ones, organized religion. 63 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:07,120 I have yet to see religion be organized. 64 00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:09,120 Excuse me, in 35 years of ministry. 65 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:13,560 Well, that word religion is the one I want to key off on in our text today and I ask 66 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:20,000 you to open your Bible with me to James chapter 1, where we're going to look at verses 26 67 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:21,000 and 27. 68 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:24,680 James chapter 1, 26 and 27. 69 00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:32,560 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, 70 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:38,480 he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 71 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:46,040 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this, to look after orphans 72 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:56,400 and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. 73 00:04:56,400 --> 00:05:01,680 Religion is a word that doesn't resonate very well with most evangelicals. 74 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:11,520 It smacks to us of institutionalism or of some system of ethics rather than a real vital 75 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:13,020 faith. 76 00:05:13,020 --> 00:05:17,440 We say Christianity is not a religion, it's a what? 77 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:19,160 A relationship. 78 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:22,120 And that's true enough, isn't it? 79 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:23,880 Christianity is in fact a miracle. 80 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:28,160 It is a new birth into eternal life. 81 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:33,600 It is by grace through faith in the saving, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 82 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:41,680 And we understand that Christianity is not just a religion, it's a relationship that 83 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:42,680 we're brought into. 84 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:51,080 In fact, James talks a little bit about this in verse 18 when he says, God the Father chose 85 00:05:51,080 --> 00:05:57,880 to give us birth through the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of 86 00:05:57,880 --> 00:06:00,480 all he created. 87 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:05,200 James recognizes that it's a relationship, it's a birthing relationship. 88 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:15,040 In chapter 2 and verse 1 he says, my brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. 89 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:21,480 So Christianity is a belief system, but it's also a miraculous birth into the family of 90 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:22,480 God. 91 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:25,240 Have you been born again? 92 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:29,960 If you do know the meaning of what it means to be born again, you know that it's not just 93 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:32,480 religion. 94 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:38,480 But having said that, we have to deal with what James says in our text. 95 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:47,900 That having a relationship with Jesus, being born by the word of truth, there is inherent 96 00:06:47,900 --> 00:06:52,120 in that religion. 97 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:57,980 And he seems to say here, doesn't he, that religion can be worthless or religion can 98 00:06:57,980 --> 00:07:05,480 be, as he puts it, pure and faultless before God. 99 00:07:05,480 --> 00:07:11,640 The Greek word religion has to do with piety. 100 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:16,400 It's the outward expression of one's religious duty. 101 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:22,520 Finally it goes back to the idea of wailing, of wailing. 102 00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:23,520 And you say, well how's that? 103 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:30,560 Well because wailing was an outward expression of what one felt in his heart. 104 00:07:30,560 --> 00:07:36,240 The heart's invisible and the wailing was the expression of the sorrow and the grief. 105 00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:41,960 And so this word developed over time to mean that which is outward or ceremonial. 106 00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:45,160 It's what a worshiper performs. 107 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:47,840 And we talk of it as being piety. 108 00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:53,280 It's the religious duty of somebody who is a person of faith. 109 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:58,700 James' perspective as he writes these words is very Jewish. 110 00:07:58,700 --> 00:08:08,120 He wants to know what practical difference does your faith in Jesus Christ make. 111 00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:18,520 What is the religion, the piety that is seen in you because you are a person of faith? 112 00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:24,620 Your profession to be a person of faith, a follower of Jesus, James is saying, is validated 113 00:08:24,620 --> 00:08:29,480 by what it produces in your life. 114 00:08:29,480 --> 00:08:35,120 Sometimes James is thought to be in conflict with Paul and his teaching of justification 115 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:37,520 by faith. 116 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:39,520 That's thought because of what James says. 117 00:08:39,520 --> 00:08:45,280 For example in chapter 2 verse 24, let your eye drop down there. 118 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:55,560 James says you see that a person is justified by what he does, not by faith alone. 119 00:08:55,560 --> 00:09:00,320 Now if you take that verse right out of its context and you look at it you say, well absolutely 120 00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:04,240 Paul and James are on different pages. 121 00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:12,600 Because Paul said justification by faith alone, James is saying works, has to be involved. 122 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:17,280 How do you explain that? 123 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:21,800 Well the answer is that they're talking about two different things. 124 00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:29,320 James is talking here about one's profession of faith being justified. 125 00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:35,360 How can you justify your claim to be a person of faith if you don't have some works to 126 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:37,060 it? 127 00:09:37,060 --> 00:09:39,400 That's his point. 128 00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:45,400 James is telling us that real faith wears work shoes. 129 00:09:45,400 --> 00:09:50,040 It works itself out in observable and measurable ways. 130 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:56,840 For example in verse 14 of chapter 2 he says, what good is it my brothers if a man claims 131 00:09:56,840 --> 00:10:02,640 to have faith but has no deeds, has no works? 132 00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:07,520 He says can such faith save him? 133 00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:11,920 And the answer is no. 134 00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:14,880 It's a worthless faith. 135 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:21,160 In verse 17 he says in the same way faith by itself, if it's not accompanied by action, 136 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:24,040 is dead. 137 00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:27,160 It's dead, it's worthless. 138 00:10:27,160 --> 00:10:30,760 Real faith wears work shoes. 139 00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:34,760 In the text that we're looking at though, James says about religion that it must be 140 00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:35,760 pure and undefiled. 141 00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:39,360 What does that look like? 142 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:40,920 Well we find out. 143 00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:51,320 James gives us in this short text three practical, everyday, work shoe kinds of evidence that 144 00:10:51,320 --> 00:10:57,240 one's faith is real, that one's religion is real. 145 00:10:57,240 --> 00:11:02,920 First he says real religion is communication that is bridled. 146 00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:11,240 He says it this way, if anyone considers himself religious and does not keep a tight rein on 147 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:18,600 his tongue, literally he says does not bridle his tongue, he deceives himself. 148 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:21,200 His religion is worthless. 149 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:25,640 He says in the negative, the positive way of saying it is, that real religion is characterized 150 00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:30,360 by communication that is bridled. 151 00:11:30,360 --> 00:11:36,480 The tongue is the capacity that God has given you and me to communicate. 152 00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:42,240 It's the means by which we're able to articulate our thoughts so that we can give people a 153 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:44,280 piece of our mind. 154 00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:48,620 Hopefully we don't give away too many pieces over our lives. 155 00:11:48,620 --> 00:11:53,520 With God's good gift of speech we can communicate our thoughts and our feelings. 156 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:58,640 We can articulate that which is known only to us, ourselves, and to God. 157 00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:02,600 We can tell others what's inside of us. 158 00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:07,960 And James has a lot to say about the tongue in this brief epistle. 159 00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:14,280 He views how a Christian uses his tongue as evidence of faith, a measurement of one's 160 00:12:14,280 --> 00:12:16,880 spiritual walk. 161 00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:24,400 He says that one who has real religion has a bridle on his tongue. 162 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:27,760 I grew up around horses. 163 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:34,480 When I was just a young boy we bought a pony and we named him Comet. 164 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:37,040 I grew up with Comet. 165 00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:39,800 I rode Comet everywhere I went. 166 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:46,000 He was trigger, he was champion, he was all of those horses that the cowboys of that day 167 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:50,600 rode depending upon which cowboy I wanted to be that particular day. 168 00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:53,280 But his real name was Comet. 169 00:12:53,280 --> 00:12:55,320 He was pretty wild when we first got him. 170 00:12:55,320 --> 00:12:57,440 He hadn't been broken yet. 171 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:02,400 We had to train him to allow us to get on him. 172 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:05,720 That began by getting him used to what's called a halter. 173 00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:07,440 Are you familiar with that? 174 00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:15,520 It's a piece of leather and harness that goes around the horse's head. 175 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:17,120 It scares them at first. 176 00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:19,200 They're uncomfortable with it. 177 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:29,080 But you gradually get them to wear this piece that allows you to lead them and to hold them 178 00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:31,520 in place. 179 00:13:31,520 --> 00:13:36,280 Then after they're used to the halter you put the bridle on them. 180 00:13:36,280 --> 00:13:40,040 The bridle is likewise made of leather and it goes around their head. 181 00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:43,200 But the bridle has one additional feature. 182 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:45,860 It has a bit in it. 183 00:13:45,860 --> 00:13:50,480 That bit goes in the mouth. 184 00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:56,940 Horses don't naturally like that, just as you probably wouldn't. 185 00:13:56,940 --> 00:14:01,480 Sometimes they will clench their teeth so you can't put the bridle in. 186 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:06,600 So you try to patiently work with them to get their mouth open so they get used to having 187 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:13,520 that bridle that goes behind their teeth so that then with the reins which are attached 188 00:14:13,520 --> 00:14:21,840 to that bit, which are a part of that bridle, you're able to guide the horse to go where 189 00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:22,840 you want him to go. 190 00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:26,280 So you keep a tight rein on that horse. 191 00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:34,740 The idea is that you let the horse know that you're there, that you're in control. 192 00:14:34,740 --> 00:14:41,400 A bridle makes a horse tame and usable. 193 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:45,960 Likewise James says our tongues need to be bridled. 194 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:50,200 We need to exert control over our tongues. 195 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:55,400 And he says one who has real religion is somebody who has learned to do that. 196 00:14:55,400 --> 00:15:02,760 He says a wild tongue, an untamed tongue in a professing Christian is really saying two 197 00:15:02,760 --> 00:15:05,200 things. 198 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:10,840 It's saying that person is saying I am self-deceived. 199 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:17,760 If my tongue is wild and I claim to be a Christian, I am saying I am self-deceived. 200 00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:21,560 I am really not a Christian. 201 00:15:21,560 --> 00:15:24,760 I'm deceiving myself about it. 202 00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:31,840 Secondly he says one who has an untamed tongue is saying my religion is worthless. 203 00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:38,440 It's empty, it's useless, it's impotent, it's uncontrolled. 204 00:15:38,440 --> 00:15:41,680 That's what James is telling us here. 205 00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:44,640 I would call that fairly practical, wouldn't you? 206 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:51,240 I would say that's kind of down in work shoes to say that real religion is communication 207 00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:54,640 that is bridled. 208 00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:59,760 There's a tongue there that is tamed and under control. 209 00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:08,720 A reign is held on that tongue because one is a believer in Jesus Christ. 210 00:16:08,720 --> 00:16:12,440 Now we're going to skip to the third one because I want to focus more on the second one as 211 00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:14,440 I close. 212 00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:19,720 That is that real religion is character that is protected. 213 00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:26,320 James writes here of keeping oneself from being polluted by the world. 214 00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:32,360 You see real religion knows the necessity of a good defense. 215 00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:40,560 There's a threat that we live in the midst of and that threat is called the world. 216 00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:44,080 The word world is the word cosmos. 217 00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:46,920 It's the opposite of chaos. 218 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:51,440 When I think of those two words I think of two rooms or two places, two spaces in our 219 00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:52,440 house. 220 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:57,520 I think of the living room and I think of the garage. 221 00:16:57,520 --> 00:17:00,800 The living room is cosmos. 222 00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:02,720 Jeanette has decorated it. 223 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:03,720 It's organized. 224 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:05,160 It looks lovely. 225 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:07,520 Very happy with it. 226 00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:11,120 The garage is, that's right, chaos. 227 00:17:11,120 --> 00:17:16,040 I have to confess that's more my space. 228 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:20,800 Although I will say it's not all my problem, but it is my space. 229 00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:28,960 I store things there for children who refuse to come and get it. 230 00:17:28,960 --> 00:17:33,360 But I'm not going there because my tongue is bridled. 231 00:17:33,360 --> 00:17:37,480 All right, cosmos. 232 00:17:37,480 --> 00:17:38,480 You get the picture. 233 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:40,960 It's something that is ordered. 234 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:41,960 It's ordered. 235 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:52,000 Now James is telling us that we live in a world system, an ordered system around us. 236 00:17:52,000 --> 00:18:01,400 The world, he says, is a threat to us because of its organized system of thought and values 237 00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:05,360 and power and goals. 238 00:18:05,360 --> 00:18:13,480 The cosmos is ordered because it is arranged by Satan. 239 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:19,440 It is infused with his principles and his values. 240 00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:28,000 Even though the world presents itself very often as being cultured and refined, it presents 241 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:38,840 itself as being scientific and religious and tolerant and sensible, under the surface of 242 00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:43,880 all of this order is chaos. 243 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:54,080 Under the surface is the reality of lies, of politics, of decadence, of self-promotion 244 00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:56,960 and all that goes with it. 245 00:18:56,960 --> 00:19:05,280 In the context of James, he's thinking of the world in a particular way. 246 00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:13,560 It is the arrogance that comes with one's perceived status. 247 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:19,680 It's who I think I am because I'm a part of the world. 248 00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:23,200 Now that status may come from wealth. 249 00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:26,860 It may come from one's class. 250 00:19:26,860 --> 00:19:32,600 It may come from one's race. 251 00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:38,760 But whatever it comes from, it causes one to look down upon others, to think oneself 252 00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:41,680 better than others. 253 00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:47,620 It can be found in racism and bigotry against a group of people. 254 00:19:47,620 --> 00:19:56,260 It can be found in school cliques or in gangs or in a circle of people that exclude others 255 00:19:56,260 --> 00:20:00,640 because they're considered different. 256 00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:03,680 That is worldliness in James' view. 257 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:09,000 He goes on to talk about it in the second chapter. 258 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:14,600 It's a sort of elitism and snobbery that is never of God. 259 00:20:14,600 --> 00:20:17,640 It's really of the devil. 260 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:25,960 The devil has incorporated this idea of I'm better than you into the world system. 261 00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:32,960 And James says keep yourself unspotted from that. 262 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:39,960 By God's design we live in the midst of the world that has this kind of attitude. 263 00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:44,040 We are in the world but we must not be of the world, as we say. 264 00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:45,680 We must not be like it. 265 00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:47,040 What is the danger that we face? 266 00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:53,400 It is that you and I will compromise ourselves, that we will begin thinking of ourselves like 267 00:20:53,400 --> 00:21:02,760 the world thinks of itself, that we're better than others, and as a result of that our religion 268 00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:06,040 will be spotted. 269 00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:11,000 It will be impure. 270 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:17,480 The world will promise you anything and everything, but when it's done with you it will leave 271 00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:21,960 you with nothing. 272 00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,240 It will cause you to compromise your witness. 273 00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:31,000 The world will spoil what the good plan is that God has for you. 274 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:35,140 The world will waste your God-given gifts. 275 00:21:35,140 --> 00:21:41,520 The world will lure you into its den, and then it will chew you up and spit you out 276 00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:44,920 and leave you for dead. 277 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:46,720 That's the world. 278 00:21:46,720 --> 00:21:54,680 And James warns us by saying, be careful of the world. 279 00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:56,520 Be on guard against it. 280 00:21:56,520 --> 00:21:59,320 Keep yourself from it, unspotted by it. 281 00:21:59,320 --> 00:22:05,840 An authentic follower of Christ is careful to guard and to keep his character from being 282 00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:12,160 polluted by the world's toxic waste. 283 00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:17,960 John adds to the chorus when he says, the world is passing away and its sinful lusts 284 00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:20,800 with it. 285 00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:24,200 The world is passing away is a very strong term. 286 00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:31,500 He says the world is rotting is the word that was used in that day of a corpse that was 287 00:22:31,500 --> 00:22:35,260 beginning to decay. 288 00:22:35,260 --> 00:22:39,480 John is saying the world is decaying around us. 289 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:41,720 It is rotting away. 290 00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:47,680 You have nothing to do with it, lest you be contaminated and be diseased by it. 291 00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:54,440 But I want to get to the third point this morning because it is there that the thrust 292 00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:58,320 of this service leads us. 293 00:22:58,320 --> 00:22:59,920 And I apologize for my voice today. 294 00:22:59,920 --> 00:23:06,200 I'm still recovering from some bronchitis. 295 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:14,360 James tells us thirdly that real religion is compassion that is engaged. 296 00:23:14,360 --> 00:23:20,760 James points to those considered to be the needy, the neglected, and the nobodies in 297 00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:22,960 that culture. 298 00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:29,120 Those are the words, of course, that Doug Nichols used back on the 22nd of October in 299 00:23:29,120 --> 00:23:31,880 his amazing message. 300 00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:36,400 The needy, the neglected, the nobodies. 301 00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:41,680 James refers here to the orphans and the widows who were in need. 302 00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:49,240 And he tells us that religion that is pure, religion that is unblemished and faultless, 303 00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:55,880 is religion that looks after orphans and widows. 304 00:23:55,880 --> 00:24:01,960 That is, those who are the outcasts, those who are the overlooked, those who are the 305 00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:06,520 invisible in our culture. 306 00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:20,640 Doug told us about 800,000 prostitutes in Bangkok, ages 12 to 16. 307 00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:28,360 Almost as many of them in Bangkok as there are people in our city. 308 00:24:28,360 --> 00:24:32,280 Children selling themselves. 309 00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:39,360 Doug told us about 15,000 boys and girls, ages 9 to 12, who are sold into prostitution 310 00:24:39,360 --> 00:24:44,600 and who live on the streets of Manila. 311 00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:49,200 The unheard, the overlooked. 312 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:57,800 He told us about 240,000 children on the streets in Mexico City. 313 00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:06,500 He said that worldwide there are 160 million children who live on the streets. 314 00:25:06,500 --> 00:25:13,160 That there are 104 million orphans worldwide. 315 00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:20,400 He told us that 10%, one out of every 10 children in the country of Malawi has no mother or 316 00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:23,840 father. 317 00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:30,280 He told us that by the year 2010, which is what, four years away, it's projected that 318 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:45,080 in Africa alone, in Africa alone, there will be 40 million orphans. 319 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:56,400 He told us that there are 35,600 children worldwide who die every day from malnutrition 320 00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:00,960 and disease. 321 00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:09,360 Our press has been very concerned about the number of GIs killed in Iraq just since the 322 00:26:09,360 --> 00:26:10,840 first of November. 323 00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:18,200 It's been a horrific fall over there, and our hearts grieve for those young men and 324 00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:23,040 women who have fallen for their families. 325 00:26:23,040 --> 00:26:27,040 Each one of them is a person with a story. 326 00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:30,600 Many of them leave behind wives or husbands. 327 00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:35,320 They leave behind children. 328 00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:41,640 I think it's now something like six or seven US servicemen killed in Iraq since the first 329 00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:42,640 of November. 330 00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:49,120 But do you know that during that same time, the same five or six days, there have been 331 00:26:49,120 --> 00:26:55,560 almost 200,000 children who've died of malnutrition and disease in the world? 332 00:26:55,560 --> 00:26:59,560 Where's the media on that one? 333 00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:02,320 These kinds of numbers, to me, are almost overwhelming. 334 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,040 Do you feel that way? 335 00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:13,040 James speaks about these who are overlooked and neglected as being in affliction, that 336 00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:15,480 they have troubles. 337 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:25,480 This word that is translated distress in the New International Version comes from a word 338 00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:30,320 that means to be in a rut. 339 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:34,680 The idea is that you're in the rut, and because you're there, you're crowded. 340 00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:35,680 You're hemmed in. 341 00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:40,680 There's pressure that you feel because of that. 342 00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:42,680 You feel overwhelmed. 343 00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:48,560 You're in the need of extrication from that rut that you're in. 344 00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:55,960 It means to be devastated by the issues that you face in your life. 345 00:27:55,960 --> 00:28:01,560 Who are the neglected, the needy, the nobodies in our day? 346 00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:03,440 Well, we've talked about orphans. 347 00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:07,840 We've talked about the hungry. 348 00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:12,580 We could talk about widows. 349 00:28:12,580 --> 00:28:16,520 We could talk about single parents. 350 00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:24,600 I had a single parent come up to me on the patio last Sunday, and she said to me, Pastor, 351 00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:26,440 please pray for me. 352 00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:30,000 I'm exhausted. 353 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:31,200 I know what she means. 354 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:34,920 My mom was a single parent. 355 00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:40,280 You single parents out there, you understand what that exhaustion is about. 356 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:46,340 We could also talk about the disabled, especially children who are disabled. 357 00:28:46,340 --> 00:28:52,740 We could talk about those who do not have a proficiency in English and are the nobodies 358 00:28:52,740 --> 00:28:54,320 of our culture. 359 00:28:54,320 --> 00:29:00,880 We could talk about those who lack cultural skills because they are immigrants or because 360 00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:04,560 they are students who are studying in this country and they don't yet know how to fit 361 00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:05,960 in. 362 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:12,880 We could talk about the elderly, especially those elderly who are homebound or who are 363 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:15,880 in care facilities. 364 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:18,880 You look at all of this and say, what can I do? 365 00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:20,320 What can I do? 366 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:24,040 Well, the fact is you can't do everything. 367 00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:29,040 We don't want to be like the cowboy with a stick of dynamite in his pocket who jumped 368 00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:34,080 on his horse and went off in all directions. 369 00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:36,100 We can't afford that. 370 00:29:36,100 --> 00:29:37,680 What can we do? 371 00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:44,640 Well, as was said earlier, some of us may be able to adopt a child. 372 00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:49,360 We may be up to adopting a child with special needs. 373 00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:55,160 Perhaps you can come alongside a couple who are adopting in the system in some way. 374 00:29:55,160 --> 00:30:01,840 Perhaps you can volunteer with Young Life's Capernaum Project and holding babies in a 375 00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:06,080 loving babies that are disabled. 376 00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:12,200 You can support a widow or a single parent in your life community, encouraging them. 377 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:16,920 Or you can support a single parent perhaps in your school or your neighborhood by helping 378 00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:19,760 with the kids occasionally. 379 00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:25,240 You can volunteer with Helping Hands, which is our ministry to widows and to single parents 380 00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:28,540 who have practical needs around the house. 381 00:30:28,540 --> 00:30:33,200 You can send money to World Help or World Vision or Compassion International to underwrite 382 00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:40,400 the cost of caring for an orphan or an impoverished family in another part of the world. 383 00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:49,080 You can work with an organization helping spouses and children of those who are incarcerated 384 00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:52,000 in prisons and jails. 385 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:58,640 You can visit an elderly person or somebody who's in prison. 386 00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:02,460 I mean there are tons of things you can do. 387 00:31:02,460 --> 00:31:04,000 The point is, do something. 388 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,500 Isn't that what Doug said? 389 00:31:06,500 --> 00:31:07,940 You do something. 390 00:31:07,940 --> 00:31:10,580 What are you going to do? 391 00:31:10,580 --> 00:31:15,160 We can't do everything, but we can all do something. 392 00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:20,040 Warren Wiersby writes, true religion is not a matter of forums and ceremonies. 393 00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:27,700 It's a matter of a controlled tongue, sacrificial service, and a clean heart. 394 00:31:27,700 --> 00:31:33,560 Beautiful day is an opportunity for us to show some religion, some real religion in 395 00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:34,560 work shoes. 396 00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:39,540 You see, when you come right down to it, the most important question that we face this 397 00:31:39,540 --> 00:31:41,800 morning may well be this. 398 00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:51,320 Is my religion wear work shoes or just dress up shoes? 399 00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:56,140 James says if we have real religion, it's going to wear work shoes. 400 00:31:56,140 --> 00:32:01,480 It's going to get down to the practical things of life and the way that we talk and how we 401 00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:07,280 keep ourselves from the threatening world system around us trying to force us to conform 402 00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:08,280 to it. 403 00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:15,080 And we're going to be looking after the nobodies, the neglected and the needy, as God leads 404 00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:17,280 us, as God enables us. 405 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:21,320 We'll plug in and do something. 406 00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:26,200 What I want to encourage you this morning to do is to put on the work shoes. 407 00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:30,400 Put on the work shoes of your religion. 408 00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:34,000 I thank God for those of you who are already doing that. 409 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:35,720 I think of those who are in helping hands. 410 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:41,280 I think of those who are coming alongside one of our elderly persons to help her in 411 00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:46,640 very practical ways over the coming weeks with some challenges that she's facing. 412 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:52,120 I think of those of you who provide meals for those who have needs. 413 00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:55,800 There are so many of you involved in ways that it just amazes me. 414 00:32:55,800 --> 00:33:00,080 It makes me very proud of you as the children of God. 415 00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:05,240 This morning the appeal that I have is to all of us, roll up our sleeves, put on the 416 00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:08,920 work shoes and somewhere plug in to get involved. 417 00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:12,200 And we're thinking this morning especially about adoption. 418 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:19,820 And I want to come back to that just as I close because there are so many children, 419 00:33:19,820 --> 00:33:24,240 so many children who need a home. 420 00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:32,240 This last Friday night NBC television had a report from one of its reporters named John 421 00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:37,920 Larson, reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico. 422 00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:43,980 He was reporting on a woman by the name of Diane Granito, I think it is. 423 00:33:43,980 --> 00:33:49,080 She works with the New Mexico Adoption of Family Services. 424 00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:54,020 And she thought that the very least that she could do for the children that she was seeking 425 00:33:54,020 --> 00:33:59,920 to place was to make a decent picture of them. 426 00:33:59,920 --> 00:34:04,520 Not just have a snapshot, but to actually take a portrait of these children. 427 00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:06,880 And so she started doing that. 428 00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:14,000 And before she knew it, she had a room full of these beautiful portraits of children who 429 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:17,120 were looking to be adopted. 430 00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:23,560 And so she connected with somebody who owned an art shop. 431 00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:30,200 And this person agreed to put those beautiful portraits in her shop. 432 00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:35,040 They call it the Heart Gallery, the Heart Gallery. 433 00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:41,060 And as a result of that, the first three pictures put in there were three sisters. 434 00:34:41,060 --> 00:34:42,680 They were adopted within an hour. 435 00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:44,320 I mean the process was started. 436 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:46,960 Somebody said, I want them. 437 00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:51,080 And suddenly people saw the faces of the children. 438 00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:56,000 It wasn't just 105,000 of them. 439 00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:10,760 It was one precious little girl, one precious boy who was available and looking for a home. 440 00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:20,680 And the piece closed Friday night with a 16-year-old boy who's been waiting for years. 441 00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:24,040 Children who are of that age are very difficult to place. 442 00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:37,520 And the 16-year-old boy said, I'm still hoping someday to have a family. 443 00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:43,520 There's some child out there today perhaps who's waiting for you. 444 00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:48,200 Are you willing to think about it, pray about it, investigate it, explore it? 445 00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:50,200 I hope you will. 446 00:35:50,200 --> 00:35:57,800 Father, I pray that we will listen to what Your Word says this morning and that we'll 447 00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:00,520 put the work shoes on. 448 00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:09,000 We'll take off the slippers, lay aside the dress shoes of religion, and put on the work 449 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:12,800 shoes and serve You. 450 00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:19,840 Show us, I pray, each of us individually how we can respond to be obedient to Your Lordship 451 00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:20,840 in our lives. 452 00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:49,960 In Jesus' name I pray, amen.