Monday, April 4th, 2022 Evening Service - Guest Speaker Nick Staron on Not showing Favoritism
April 5, 2022 · Nick Stern · James
Scripture referenced 9 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Job 33:4 quoted during worship to celebrate God as giver of life through the Spirit
4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
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Keep this verse
James 1:26
recapped from last week about keeping a tight rein on the tongue and worthless religion
26 If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless.
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James 1:27
recapped from last week about pure religion caring for orphans and widows and staying unpolluted by the world
27 Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
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James 2:1-13
the main passage preached through, covering favoritism, the royal law, and mercy triumphing over judgment
1 My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality.
2 For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in;
3 and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing, and say, “Sit here in a good place”; and you tell the poor man, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool”;
4 haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?
7 Don’t they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?
8 However, if you fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well.
9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak, and so do, as men who are to be judged by a law of freedom.
13 For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
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Matthew 5:3-10
the Beatitudes read to color the theme of poverty in spirit and mercy
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
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Proverbs 17:5
quoted to show God's view of those who mock the poor
5 Whoever mocks the poor reproaches his Maker. He who is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished.
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Proverbs 19:17
quoted about being kind to the poor as lending to the Lord
17 He who has pity on the poor lends to Yahweh; he will reward him.
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Leviticus 19:15
quoted to balance the sermon, warning against showing partiality to poor or great but judging fairly
15 “‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor show favoritism to the great; but you shall judge your neighbor in righteousness.
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Matthew 8:5-13
referenced as the story of Jesus healing the centurion's servant, showing Jesus came for rich and poor alike
5 When he came into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking him,
6 and saying, “Lord, my servant lies in the house paralyzed, grievously tormented.”
7 Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
8 The centurion answered, “Lord, I’m not worthy for you to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
9 For I am also a man under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and tell another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and tell my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to those who followed, “Most certainly I tell you, I haven’t found so great a faith, not even in Israel.
11 I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven,
12 but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way. Let it be done for you as you have believed.” His servant was healed in that hour.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Nick walked the congregation through James 2:1-13, the next passage in First Baptist Jackson's ongoing study of James. The message centered on one simple command: do not show favoritism. Show mercy instead.
What was said
Nick opened by noting that the passage does not arrive out of nowhere. The previous week's teaching had already set the table, warning that religion without a controlled tongue is worthless, and calling believers to look after orphans and widows while keeping themselves unpolluted by the world. James 2 continues that same thread, now moving to how we treat people who walk through the door.
The text sets up a scene that is uncomfortable precisely because it is familiar: a well-dressed, wealthy man gets a good seat, and a poor man in filthy clothes gets told to stand or sit on the floor. Nick pointed out that James does not condemn the wealthy man for his wealth. The problem is the act of sorting people by status and then treating them accordingly, which James calls judging with evil thoughts.
Nick drew on the Beatitudes to fill out what God actually values. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers. He was honest that prosperity-gospel thinking, the idea that wealth signals God's favor, runs directly against this. He also shared that a missions trip to the Philippines left him struck by how much more present faith often is among people who have far less to distract them.
He was careful, though, not to let the sermon tip into romanticizing poverty or into a different kind of favoritism. A verse from Leviticus pulled him back: do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. He pointed to Jesus healing the centurion's servant as a reminder that Jesus met the wealthy and the powerful too, and called the centurion a man of great faith.
The passage's argument about the law surprised some people, Nick said, but in context it is straightforward. If you hold up one particular sin as disqualifying someone from grace while excusing your own, you are a lawbreaker just the same. No one gets to rank sins as a way of ranking people. We all need mercy equally.
Nick brought it back to First Baptist specifically. He described a moment in the church office where he had, by his own admission, tallied up what the church had given someone and measured them against it. He said he felt convicted in the moment, asked the man for forgiveness, and told him to come back whenever he needed. The point was not to celebrate himself for it, but to say that this is the kind of redirecting all of us need to keep doing, especially in a valley as divided by wealth as Jackson Hole.
The closing word was the verse Nick said he wanted the whole sermon to land on: mercy triumphs over judgment. He named that Christians have not always been known for that, and said the freedom the law gives us includes freedom from the burden of having to judge everyone who comes through the door.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Nick said that Christians today are better known for judging than for showing mercy, and that he is guilty of that himself. Where do you see that tendency in your own life, and what does it cost the people around you?
- The passage says God has chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith. Nick connected this to his time in the Philippines, where he noticed people with far less were significantly happier than he was. What do you think it is about hardship or poverty that can make it easier to hold on to faith?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 6,896 words
Speaker 3Yes, sir.
Speaker 2I'm sorry?
Speaker 3That was a good one. Right? She's feeling a little bit better. Thank you for asking. Yes.
In the grocery. Yes.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 3Just one song then?
Speaker 2One one song and then the announcements? Okay.
Speaker 3Hello, church. How are you tonight? Oh, I'm thankful to be here. I'm I'm happy, thankful, and my tummy feels great. Thank you, Felix and Guadalupe.
Thank you so much for the food. You guys are a blessing to to us as a church. We are a family in Christ. Amen? Will you please stand if you can?
And let's worship the Lord, And let's sing. And let's make this moment here precious because the Holy Spirit is here. Amen? And through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can worship our God, our savior, and we can receive something tonight. I am 100% that God has something specific for every single person that is here.
It is not a mistake that you are here. There is a purpose for you that you are here. Let's make it special. Amen? And actually, can we take just a few seconds?
I would say thirty seconds for, silence where we can invite the Holy Spirit to say speak to me something special. Our heavenly father, we thank you for the privilege we have to be here in this place together as a church gathering for the purpose to worship you, Lord. This is our main reason to be here. We wanna worship you, feel your presence in this place. And, would you please touch our hearts, our minds, and may we know more of you, more of your will, Lord.
We wanna serve you and be the the child of God that you want us to be. Lord, give us the strength, the desire to keep our eyes on you, and mostly important, our mind to focus on you, Lord. Thank you for the privilege we have to enjoy the fellowship, to have food on the table. Oh, God. We are so blessed.
Thank you for everything. In your precious name, pray. Amen. Amen. Your love is like radiant diamonds.
Let's sing this song with all our hearts. Amen.
Speaker 2Your love is like radiant diamonds bursting inside us. We cannot contain. Your love will surely can find us resting inside us. We cannot go and take. Thank you, Jesus.
Hallelujah. Your love will surely can find us like lakes in wildfire singing your name. And this hallelujah be multiplied.
Speaker 3Let's sing God of mercy.
Speaker 2God of mercy, sweet lavender mine. Have surrendered to your design. Amen.
Speaker 3Praise the Lord. Amen.
Nick SternAlright. It's time for some announcements. If anybody's interested, we're always looking for people to cook meals at the Monday night service. You can sign up on that bulletin board in the back. We will actually pay for it as the church.
If you'd be willing to prepare it and serve it and do the dishes, that's a huge blessing to us. Scott's helping out next week. He's a big blessing to all of us, but we could always use more people helping us out. The IF conference, was a big hit here when it was in Jackson a few weeks ago, and so they're gonna redo it down at the Bondurant, one of the ranches down there. If anybody has any questions, feel free to check our website too or go to this website here and they'll be able to help you out with that.
It's all for ladies and it's a great day of worship and a chance to gather, meet people, and connect. If you're at all interested in getting our church wide emails, there's a bunch of people who are going through the Bible, writing little Bible studies up and and reflecting on it. It's a great way to meet people at the church too. You can sign up at firstbjackson.org as well. Feel free to ask me if you have questions for that.
Same for connect hour. If anybody wants to sign up to help out with that, we'd love that. And here's a big one. The nursery will be closed during the 11:00 service because we have no one to man it. But we'd like to change that.
So if you know anybody or you are a capable person, let us know. We do have some classes. You have to go through some training, but we could really use the extra help. So thank you very much. And, we're gonna go back to Florin and that beautiful music.
Speaker 3Oh, thank you. The next song, wonderful, merciful savior. I like this line so much here. It says, counselor, comforter, keeper, spirit we long to embrace. You offer hope when our hearts have hopelessly lost away.
Oh, Jesus is always ready next to us in any moment of our lives. He is ready to whisper to say, don't worry. I'm always here next to you. You just trust me, Ask me to be with you, and I shall always be with you. It's it's a promise that he will always be with us.
Amen? Oh, let's sing this song with all our hearts. It's such a beautiful song. I'm not gonna rush through the lyrics. It's sweet and beautiful.
If you wanna close your eyes and just worship and invite the Holy Spirit to touch your heart, your mind. As I said, this moment here, it can be special, but requires our attention that we can put our minds into that mode when we say, Lord, I'm here to feel your presence. I'm here to hear the whisper. The whisper, Lord, speak something to me. Amen?
Speaker 2Are hopelessly lost the way oh we hopelessly lost the way You are the one that we praise. You are the one we adore. You give the healing and grace. Our hearts always hunger for oh our hearts always hunger for Almighty infinite father, faithfully loving your own. Here in our weakness you find us falling before your throne.
Oh, we're falling before your throne. Hallelujah. Amen. You are the hearts always hunger for. Oh, our hearts always hunger for.
Let's sing that one more time. You are the one that we praise.
Speaker 3Isn't that a beautiful song? I love the lyrics very, very much. You guys sing beautiful. Let's sing one more song. I was so thankful that yesterday I had the privilege to speak at Frisbee in English.
For the first time in so many, many years. Whoo. I was nervous. I I promise you. Normally, when my wife is next to me, I'm so confident and comfortable to say everything I want.
But in English, I have to think of every single phrase, what's next? What's next? But I'm thankful. And and I I today at Smiths, I had so many people stopping and say, thank you for the message. Thank you for preaching.
And I didn't deserve those comments because I just needed to to bring a message from the Lord. I I just wanna be an instrument. That's all. And, thank you, guys. Thank you to first b for being so good and kind to me.
I love you guys. I'm thankful to be part of this beautiful church and to have good friends like you, honestly. Amen. Great are you, Lord. Amen?
For in him, we live and move and have our being. And Job thirty three four says, for the spirit of God has made me and the breath of the almighty God the almighty gives me life. Amen?
Speaker 2You give life. You are love. You bring light to the darkness. You give hope. You restore every heart that is broken.
Great are you, Lord.
Speaker 3Let's sing that one more time.
Speaker 2You give life. You are love. You bring light to the darkness. You give hope. You restore every heart that is broken.
You give life. You give life. You are love. You bring light to the darkness. You give hope.
You restore every heart that is broken great our praise. We poured out our praise. You've surrendered in our lungs. So we poured out our praise to you all.
Speaker 3Thank you, Jesus.
Speaker 2All the earth will shout your praise our hearts will cry these bones will sing great are you lord Hallelujah. It's your breath in our lungs. So we pour out our praise.
Speaker 3Praise the Lord. Amen. Nick, will you please come, my friend?
Nick SternI feel bad messing up his microphone, but I practiced in this spot. And I'm like, know that microphone's for me, but I I I practiced over here, Florina. I'm sorry. But hey, everybody. My name is Nick Stern.
I am the, technology and communications director here at First Baptist Church with just this week means I'm the only staff member you'll see. Everybody else is away on vacation. Mike Demetrius is down in Hawaii. Ray is who knows where. Carl's down in Florida, and Diane's taking care of her folks.
So it is a blessing to be here, and, it's very sweet. I I really like just having just Florine on the guitar today. It's like this nice little moment of rest where we can just enjoy God and and and be a part of just the simplicity of the gospel. And I think that's one of the neat things about reading through James, and that's what we're doing. We're just progressively going through James week to week, is that a lot of these messages are really simple.
Like, today's message could be summarized completely in, don't show favoritism. Show mercy. And that would be it, and we could all go home. But, contractually, I'm obligated to do fifteen minutes, so bear with me here. It's it's a blessing to be here.
It really is. I've been going here for thirteen years, and you guys are, like, closer than family, and it's it's really been a blessing. And I I'm so glad we can share with some extra folks today too. I'm just gonna pray real quick. And, Lord God, thank you so much for who you are, that you love us, that you show us how we're supposed to live, that you show us how we're supposed to interact with each other, Lord, and interact with you, Lord.
And I just pray that you open up our hearts to receive your word today and, to get to know you better, to get to know each other better, and to, draw closer to the way you'd like us to to be, how you'd like us to treat each other, Lord. And, I just pray for your grace with me today, Lord, as I'm a little nervous. And, I just pray, Lord, that you'd help us to, to learn from you too, Lord, tonight in your holy name. Amen. And pastor Carl should be back next week.
Be do be praying for him and his family as they they get much, needed rest. But we're gonna go through James two one through 13. Oh, and now I can see why I'm the technology guy. There it goes. Okay.
I should be able to work with this one little thing. Okay. So last week, we we went through James, and I think it's good to ramp up through these, these verses. As you all probably know, the Bible wasn't written with chapter numbers and verses to to to separate things. So it's good to start a little bit further back and then kinda ramp into things to see where the flow was.
So last week, it said those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and the religion is worthless. This is pretty heavy stuff. Like, we already went through that last week, but that's that's pretty heavy stuff. And I think all of us can think of examples of people on TV or someplace like that or ourselves where we tend to lead with words and then work out the details later and instead of, like, being slow to listen oh, sorry. Quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, which was the message last week.
Religion that our God the father accepts as pure and faultless is this, to look after orphans and widows, and that can also be translated to visit widows and orphans. It depends on which version you use. In their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world. What I like here is in just in this short little bit, you can see some of the things that God wants us to avoid and some of the things that he expects us to do. So, like, he doesn't leave us in the dark.
Right? And we're gonna get a little bit more into that today too. So here's the the verses we're gonna work through today. It says, my brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious lord, Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose that a man comes to you into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes and a poor man in filthy old clothes, also comes in.
If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, here's a seat for you, but say to the poor man, you stand there or sit at my at the floor by my feet, have you not discriminated amongst yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen to your brother oh, listen to your brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and 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 blaspheming the holy name of him to who you 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 lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
For he was 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 lawbreaker. Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Powerful stuff, right?
It's really, really powerful stuff. I don't think Christians are known for that. I don't think Christians are known for being merciful over judging. I think right now, especially in America, we're really good at judging and pointing things out and not being a place where people are welcome. And I am guilty of this 100% of the way, but that's not that's not how God expects us to behave.
I think what I really like about these verses is that it shows that we're supposed to be different as believers. Right? That we're supposed to be set apart, and that God has a different set of ways for us to operate. And it's good for us to operate those ways cause our lives also go better. Right?
And we're a better witness to him. The Bible has a lot to say about poverty too, and it's something that's really on my heart. I used to work for Habitat for Humanity. I work here in the church, helping people out, anybody who walks in. I have a real heart for folks who are struggling.
And I think the Bible does too. And I'd like to start out with a little story from The Philippines. This is this is a picture from The Philippines. I got to visit places like this. It's a remarkable country with beautiful people, and I inadvertently ended up there one time, on a missions trip.
I'll show you the video of why I was there sometime. It's ridiculous and wonderful. But I ended up there on an accidental, missions trip, and I was in the dump. And I I remember, helping these folks do a medical mission. And, they're doing all the medical stuff, I'm playing with the kids.
And I I started to feel bad. And I felt bad for myself because those people were much happier than I am significantly. So you've probably seen this. You know, in this the verses we just read, it talks about God, like, it's essentially, like, it's easier for the for the poor people to have faith and what great faith they do have. And I think some of us who've been on mission ships kind of feel that, whereas, like, they don't have the distractions we do.
Florian talked about this a little bit yesterday. We get so consumed with all this stuff in the world and all of the kind of made up emergencies that we're supposed to the fires we're supposed to be worried about. Talked a little bit about that last week too. You know? When you turn on the news, their job is to keep you angry, and they're really good at it.
But we're supposed to be slow to anger as Christians. Quick to listen, slow to anger, slow to speak. We're supposed to be different than that. And I was just like, looking through that. So I I was also thinking through the beatitudes about this isn't necessarily about monetary being poor.
This is just about spiritual stuff too. But as I was reading through these verses, this just kept coming up. So I'd like to share it just to color things a little bit. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I love these verses. I go back to these all the time. In fact, I I was listening to us, like, a celebrity pastor who was talking kind of out of the wrong side of his mouth this week, and I was just like, I don't think that's right. I think I think Jesus looks at at this, and it's like, there there's beauty in in showing weakness.
You know, in in America, especially in a lot of American Christianity, if you're poor, you're stupid or God hasn't blessed you or or something's wrong with you. And I don't I don't think that's at all the message of the gospel. I don't think that's at all true that, you know, the prosperity gospel where God will bless you if if he's with you, that's not always the case that God will give you money. And and it's important to look at it that way, that that God can use people who are poor to be rich in his faith. And even if it's an emotional thing, like, struggle with this here at the church because I haven't had a lot of the training.
I went to school to make movies and things like that. And there are days when people walk in, like today, where people walk in and I'm like, gosh. I'm I'm the only person here, so I guess I'm dealing with this. But people just need to be shown mercy. They need to be shown love and grace and be given a safe place.
You you don't have to have the answers. I don't have to have all the answers except for Christ. Show people faith and and and enrich them in these ways. Anyway, it's a little off tangent, but it's we're gonna get back to to some of the the verses that talk about the poor. Proverbs seventeen five, whoever mocks the poor shows contempt for their maker.
Whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished. These are heavy words. Right? Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done. We see lots of examples of this throughout scripture.
Right? It's really important. But there's also some more to be balanced out too. Do not pervert justice. Do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
So here's where where this sermon starts to level back out again. So one of the things we talk about at First Baptist churches a lot of times is, you you know, you can get dogmatic or you can get into license, those two ditches on either side of the road, and you're supposed to be balanced out. And here's one of the ones that kinda balanced me out this week. It's like, really wanted to make this about rah rah, pay attention to the poor, but we're also supposed to just be showing mercy and fairness to everyone. Okay?
Like this one says, do not pervert justice. Do not show partiality to the poor. So that that levels us back out again or favoritism to the great. We're supposed to show everybody kindness. We're supposed to show every regardless of status.
And I think this is really, indicative. This is really shown in Jesus' ministry too. We can we can get caught up on him only showing grace and love to the poor. But he also remember the story of the centurion? Happy birthday to us.
It's a little centurion joke. So for those of you who don't know, the centenarian is the the 100 year old person, and centurion is the one on the left. Centurion, what a beautiful lady she is. Such such a sweet lady there. But if we remember back in Matthew eight eight five, Jesus heals the centurion's servant.
Okay? So here's a centurion who who is very wealthy. He has a servant, and he comes to Jesus, and Jesus heals this man's servant. Okay? So it's not Jesus that Jesus just came only for the poor.
He's there for he's available to everybody. He meets with the Pharisees. He he meets with the centurion, and he he doesn't berate the centurion for who he is. He calls him a man of great faith. Okay?
So just let's remember also balance that out. I know I started the sermon out a little bit heavy of focusing on the poor, but he's also there for the rich. And by the way, all of us are wealthy. We currently are in the wealthiest community in The United States, but we also have the greatest wage discrepancy of anywhere in The United States. The the wealthiest are wealthier than anywhere else, and the poorest are some of the poorest in America.
And there's a bigger gap between them than anywhere else in The United States. We live in a very unique place. And we probably have all of those stations in life represented in this very room right now. And God's here for all of you. So when he says, my brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Jesus Christ, must not show favoritism, he's talking to us.
Okay? That's everyone who believes in Christ. We're we're supposed to act differently, not show favoritism. We're not sorry. Not supposed we are supposed to act differently than the rest of the world.
So he says, brothers and sisters and believers in our lord glorious Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, here's a good seat for you, but say to the poor man, you stand there, sit at the on the floor by my feet. Have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? I think this is a really important word, judges, right there.
Just that one thing. Like, he didn't necessarily condemn the guy and say, like, you're gonna go to hell because you're poor or anything like He just differentiates the wealthy man giving him a high place and and the poor man giving him him him not a great place. And we need to remember, even in this situation, to show mercy. And we're gonna jump to the end of of the the the little the verses here. And it says, speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.
Mercy triumphs over judgment. So, again, let's let's try to pull judgment out of something that we we use to interact with people. He's gonna go on here. Listen, my dear friends 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 inherit the kingdom he has promised those who love him? I don't know about you guys, but I love economics.
Show of hands? Anybody else? I I love reading stories about economics. I get really obsessed with economics. And this last week, I was convicted by my distraction with economics, and I had to delete the app off of my phone that showed me my stock prices and stuff like that because I was so wrapped up in that because it was pulling me away from from my connection with Christ.
You know? I I was so focused on money. It was a draw away. Are are you able to do that in your life? It's one of those things that I've been really convicted of is to try to pull out those things.
I also deleted my YouTube app this week, which is is is is tough. It's but it's good. Have you have you 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 blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? We in America are really good at worshiping people who are successful and rich and who take advantage of us all the time. In Jackson, there's a lot of people who take advantage of each other here. If you wonder why your property taxes are so high, come talk to me. I'll tell you who's taking advantage of you.
It's something I really care about and passionate about. We lift everybody, you know, certain people up and and and kind of glorify a certain a certain side of the of the population, and that's that's not good for anybody. 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 lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
For he who has said, you shall not commit adultery also said, you shall not commit murder. If you do not commit adultery and do not commit murder, but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. Now this one kind of frustrates me sometimes because it can often be pulled out of context here, But let's let's think about this in the context of favoritism. When we think of ourselves as greater than somebody else, oh, this person has sinned in this way. Well, I don't do that.
I just sin in this way. Like, this this verse is telling us, like, no. We we all need God just as much as the other people. So if somebody comes in the door who who, looks different than you, but is is known for x, some sin that you hold up as the ultimate terrible thing and that your political party rallies against, and and they walk in their their that person. If you if you say, oh, they're worse than I am, you're a lawbreaker.
You're just as guilty as everybody else, and you're guilty of judging them for that thing. Okay? And I think that's what this verse is really trying to do is to show us that, like, none of us is higher than anybody else. That I'm sure the Pharisees and Sadducees were really good at this. It's like, well, you know, those people down there, they don't wash their hands.
They don't obey the Sabbath, those sorts of things. I'm better than them. Look how good I am. This is saying, like, we all need Christ, which is a beautiful thing. Right?
Because we can stop looking at somebody as is this ex, like, stamp thing. They're always gonna be this thing and see them as a child of God, somebody who has sinned, but somebody who is also worthy of God's mercy, and that we should help them find that mercy because we're also those people too. We also need God's mercy every single day. I know I do, that I need that new mercy every day. We dare not think of ourselves as less sinful than others.
That really helps me, especially in the church office, again, when certain people come in. You sometimes some days you're feeling really holy, and somebody walks in with a big steaming pile of something, and and you need to help them out. Like, I'm not nearly as as I'm not as I'm not any more holy than they are. Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom. We talked a little bit about the law that gives freedom.
Last week, I kinda wrestled with this a little bit. But think about with your own kids, those of you who have kids. If you draw boundaries for them, they know how to act and how to be safe, how to how to how to interact in in that little safe spot. Well, God does that with the law. Right?
You think of the 10 commandments and all those other laws, and there's a whole host of other laws that we need to get. But he does those so that we know where we're safe, where we know where we can grow. And that's that there's freedom in that of knowing what God expects of you and what and what you can do. There's there's freedom in that. And and without so speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.
Mercy triumphs over judgment. And what will happen when someone walks into First Baptist and looks different than we do? I have shed a lot of tears in my five months of working here, and the worst of those tears have come when we haven't met people where they were at. And it's really shameful, and I am guilty of it too. We had a guy who came back in today, one of my favorite people.
And a couple months ago, he came in, and I was trying to be like, well, the church has given you x amount of money, and you haven't lived up to these things. And then I just felt this ping in my heart. I was like, but what about what about you? What about me? What about next year?
Like, how many times have I been shown mercy? And I had asked that guy, thankfully, in the moment for forgiveness. I was like, you know, come back as much as you want. We will help you. Forgive me for that.
I'm I'm not acting in the way I have. I I should be. We're all we all struggle with this. When when somebody who comes in here who's different than we are, it could be different skin color, different political party, different whatever. And there's a lot of hot button issues out there where we feel like, oh, boy.
I am justified in drawing this line right now. That person doesn't need to be here. I even think of your comments of, like, being in Romania and church and everybody had to be dressed in a suit and a tie and and all those things. There there's a place for that too, but it's the opposite in Jackson. If somebody showed up to First Baptist dressed in a tuxedo, we'd all be looking at him like, what's wrong with that guy?
But look. I'm I'm really convicted by this that, like, Jesus tells us if if somebody's naked, we should clothe them. Somebody's hungry, we should feed them. We should go if somebody wants us to go one mile, go with them too. If somebody needs you know, we should give them our cloaks.
Like, I really think that's how the church needs to start redirecting. We've been so distracted over the last few years by hot button issues and things we want to get fired up about and hating our neighbor because of X, Y and Z. And you have those things. I have those things. Anytime you talk to your family members or your neighbors or something like that, then my role, let's work on getting better at showing mercy and realizing that those people need Jesus too just as much as we do, where they live in a much larger house, a much smaller house than you.
Whoever they are, let's let's open the door up and try to find people to listen to them. And part of that showing mercy too is I've realized is you don't have to have the answers, but if you're willing to be a listening ear, that is so beautiful. Carlos told me one of his favorite things to say in counseling is like, that must be really hard. That goes a long way. Just identifying with somebody who comes in and talks to you and saying, that must be really hard goes so long, so far to be able to identify with people and be there for them.
So that's that's a simple message today. It's a hard thing to implement, especially with all we've been through, all the divisions we're seeing. Try to be merciful to everyone and and and and go the extra mile to do that. We do something kinda different here where we have a gospel conversation where we pass around a microphone. If anybody feels, led to say something, to share something, if they wanna pray, feel free.
Now now is a good time. I'm I'm gonna pray real quick. But if if if you feel like the Lord's, you know, telling you to condemn me or say something against me or to share and add something or if you've been inspired or you just wanna pray, now's now's a good time. But let's let's pray. Lord God, thank you so much for who you are and that you are so much bigger than our problems, than our worries, than our our financial situation.
Lord God, that you don't you don't judge us for our standing, Lord God. And help us to not judge anybody else, Lord God, for their standing, whether they're rich or poor, the same as we are, whether they have different skin color, different religion, Lord, whatever the case may be, some hot button object. Lord, would you help us to see our neighbors and our coworkers and our and our friends and our enemies, Lord God, as you see them. Help us to see them as you would, Lord God, so that we can release this grip on anger and hate and judgment and condemnation that, unfortunately, we've become known for, Lord. Help us to show mercy and and to truly love and and to learn from people and be able to to see that we're no better than anybody else.
Lord, forgive us our our sin, Lord, as as we have done that, Lord God, as we've as we've objectified other people, as we've we've we've put them lower than us, Lord. And I pray, Lord God, would you help us to to to be the Christians you want us to be, Lord God, to accept that that freedom we have, to not even have to carry that burden anymore that we have to judge anybody or or put somebody into a box, Lord God. Would you give us the freedom of knowing that you've forgiven us, Lord, in your holy name. Amen. So, again, if anybody has something they'd like to share, we got a little microphone.
We'll we'll spin around. The microphone is mostly for we have a lot of people visiting with us online, and we just like it so everybody can hear your comments. If you want to share and don't use the microphone, I'm going to give you a free pass tonight to not do that, but we'd still love to hear your voice. If anybody's interested, take some time. But if you have something to share.
Amen. Exactly. Yeah. We do have a service. Mighty God.
And and for she commented a little bit about accents. Our pastor, who's not here right now, has a Georgian accent too. So yeah. We're used to accents as well. Well, no rush.
I do want you to know you are you are very welcome here. I like to pray for everybody again. It just feels like a nice tight knit family. For those of you who aren't here tonight, I I feel bad for you because it's just such a sweet thing to look out at over all your beautiful faces and and know that know that we're all family even though we're not related, and some of us don't even know each other. But I'm gonna go ahead and pray real quick.
Lord God, thank you again for who you are, Lord. Would you help us to carry your message of hope throughout? Lord, I pray for the churches in this valley and all the believers, Lord, that we would be a light to all the people who come through here, all the 5,000,000 people that come through. Would they would they know that they're welcome and and, have a place to go when they when they hit a low point or a high point? Help us to keep our doors open to to all people of all walks and not live in fear, Lord God, but live in the freedom that you give us through your grace and through your mercy.
In your holy name. Amen. Thanks, everybody. Really appreciate you. And Carl and Ray should be back next week.
If not, we'll see what happens. Who knows? It'll be the Florian and Nick show again. Thank
Speaker 3you, Nick. Thank you for speaking so beautiful. As always, you have the gift to stand in front of people, and I enjoy that. Thank you for the blessing. We have hope in Jesus.
Amen. Hallelujah. And may the Lord bless you as you travel, as you whatever God leads you, may he be with you in every step of the way. Amen. We're gonna sing not ashamed, not ashamed of the gospel.
Amen? How could I be ashamed of the gospel that saved me and gave me a place and made made me to be called children of God, the child of God. So not ashamed of the gospel. One second. Sorry.
Speaker 2You are the fullness of the beauty I see. You are. You are. You are the healer of the broken and weak. You are you are even though few may stand and proclaim your reigning is the life I want to live because I'm convinced to the stand and boldly say this is my life.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of Jesus Christ. I will stand and boldly least saying this is my life. You are the author of salvation and faith. You are.
You are. You are the victory that conquered the grave. You are you are even though few may stand and proclaim your great name is the life I want to live because I'm convinced there is you. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of Jesus Christ.
I will stand and boldly saying this is my life. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of Jesus Christ. I will stand and boldly say, this is my life.
Speaker 3Amen. May the Lord bless you, and may he give you a great week with him. Hallelujah. Amen. God bless you.
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