James 2:1-13 Don't Discriminate

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. Good morning, everyone.

Hi, I'm Rob Knold, and it's a privilege to bring God's Word to you today.

I am an elder here at Recast, and I have had a chance to preach on occasion, and this is one of those occasions in Dov's absence, and this is a big responsibility that I take really seriously.

I've just enjoyed digging into the passage we're going to cover today, and it's just been really edifying to me.

I hope it is as well to you. So today we'll be preaching from James, and it's

James chapter 2, and I wanted to give a little bit of an introduction to James chapter 2, and in doing that,

I'm going to go back and cover a little bit of background on the book right now, and we'll just take about five minutes now to do that, and then we'll break for announcements, and then

I'll be back up to preach the sermon, and then we'll do worship at the end as always.

So on James chapter 2, first off, this book has just been really, really impactful in my life, and there's a reason

I'm preaching from James. When I was younger, I started memorizing portions of Scripture, and this was one of the books that I tried to tackle, and I have to be honest,

James just hits you in the face. It's such a practical book. A lot of people will refer to James as the

Proverbs of the New Testament. It's a book of wisdom. It's also a letter written to the

Jews who had scattered following persecution. So it's kind of a letter, but it's also a wisdom book, and it just has incredible practical application in our lives, and I'm just really excited to preach from this this morning for those reasons, and I hope that you also enjoy it.

Some background on James. For those who haven't thought about this too deeply,

James was written by the brother of Jesus Christ. He is the half -brother, technically, but think about that for a second.

If you were James, the younger brother of Jesus, growing up in the house with Mary and Joseph and always in the shadow of perfect big brother

Jesus, like that must have been hard, right? I can't even imagine what that would have been like to have that comparison going on.

So this was the same James growing up with Jesus, and it's interesting in the

Gospels. In John chapter 5, it specifically says that Jesus' own brothers didn't believe in him.

This was during Jesus' earthly ministry in his 30s. So picture this. The brothers are in their 20s probably, and they don't believe in him, and yet just a short while later, after Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension, we see in Acts chapter 1, the

Pentecost, right before Pentecost, we see James, along with the disciples, praising

God, and he's worshiping this risen Lord, his own brother. Isn't that amazing?

So a transformation happens in James' life, and James goes on to lead the church in Jerusalem.

We see that when Paul comes back to Jerusalem, he meets with James and Peter as the leaders of the

Jerusalem church. So James is now a leader of the church, and then we fast forward another 14 years, and we see

Paul coming back to Jerusalem to interact with the church in Jerusalem over this critical question of, do

Gentiles need to be circumcised and follow the law? And what we see there is

Paul comes back and specifically speaks with James. This is James, the author of this book, the brother of Jesus.

So James has been a steadfast follower of Christ, a believer in Christ, and a leader of the church in Jerusalem, and I just think it's an amazing thing that James then introduces himself in chapter 1, verse 1, with James, a servant of God and of the

Lord Jesus Christ. He's the brother of Jesus, he's the leader of the church in Jerusalem, and he doesn't claim any of those titles or associations, that's not his priority.

He says, I'm just a servant, I'm just a servant. And that is the author of this book, an incredibly humble man who now writes for us a challenging and convicting book.

I want to summarize chapter 1 for you really quickly as we introduce the message. And this is just like my own version of the cliff notes of chapter 1, and you're welcome to skim through it on your own, it's a great chapter.

But what does James say in chapter 1? He says, accept suffering with joy.

Wow, that's tough. Ask God for wisdom. He says, take pride in humble circumstances.

He says, to recognize that every good gift comes from God, it comes from the heavenly

Father. He also says, get rid of all anger, get rid of all moral filth.

And then he says these most convicting words of all, he says, don't just listen to the word, do what it says, do what it says.

It's incredibly practical. He wraps up chapter 1 by explaining that real true religion is taking care of the needy and the oppressed in our society and to keep ourselves from being polluted from the world.

So just incredibly practical advice and teaching in James chapter 1. And as we get ready here to hear

James chapter 2 and I'm going to read verses 1 through 13, I want to ask us to just quiet our hearts and just take a moment now to pause and really listen and reflect on what

God's Word has to say to us. James described himself as a servant, and I would say that's the title that we should all aspire to as well, servants of God.

So let's just listen now to the Word of God. I'm going to read from the NIV translation, which is more familiar to me.

We often preach from ESV here, and I will be referring to the ESV as well. But just so you know, as you follow along in your translation of the

Word of God, I'll be reading from the NIV. James chapter 2 verses 1 through 13.

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.

Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes and a man in filthy 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 over there or sit on the floor by my feet, have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my 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 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 lawbreakers.

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 murder. If you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law of liberty because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.

Mercy triumphs over judgment. Let's pray right now and then we'll hear some announcements.

Lord God, I thank You for the chance to dig into Your Word this morning. I thank You for the author

James and the words he penned and wrote down for us that are preserved for us today.

God, what a privilege to see and read Your words. Father, may

You just bring conviction in our lives. May Your Holy Spirit do

Your work in us today as we dig into this passage. We pray this in Jesus' name,

Amen. Last week we introduced

Zach Lloyd as an elder candidate and we just wanted to remind you that those approval ballots are due next

Sunday, January 24th. If you have any questions, email office at recastchurch .com. I'm sure you've noticed that we've been doing some things differently here at Recast in terms of communication.

The eCast, our weekly email, has been super simplified and that's in order to direct you to the website recastchurch .com.

We want you guys to go there for any information that you're seeking at Recast because that's where we tend to keep the most up -to -date information about what's going on here.

So we've been trying to streamline it all to the website, recastchurch .com, but that being said, we will be getting an app shortly, within the next few months probably, specifically for Recast.

So when that happens and then when that's in use, we hope that you'll go there to that app for any information that you're seeking.

That'll be upcoming events, community group sign -ups, opportunities to serve, all kinds of stuff will all be right in that app for you, in that one place, and we're so excited for that.

We wanted to briefly highlight a ministry that we support here at Recast called Wings of God. Wings of God is a female transition home in Pawpaw who helps women leaving incarceration learn to follow

Christ and learn skills to help them get jobs. If you wanted to learn more about that ministry, you can look it up here at our recastchurch .com

website. You can go to recastchurch .com to find out more information. We also have a

YouTube channel, Recast Church. Make sure you subscribe and hit the bell for notifications. Super awesome to have video announcements.

I'm so glad I'm not having to read those announcements. They do such a good job of capturing the essential information in a fun way, and I appreciate all the volunteers that participate in that and hope for organizing and making that happen.

Also that new app they mentioned, that sounds pretty exciting, a new way to connect. So, I'm looking forward to that.

Well, this morning as we dig into the message today, it's a very simple outline that I've put together.

The passage is broken into two main chunks, so a two -part outline that I want to share with you.

First off, verses 1 through 7, don't discriminate...I'm

sorry, it's discrimination based on external appearance is wrong. Discrimination based on external appearance is wrong.

And then verses 8 through 13, the second portion of this passage, discrimination is wrong because it violates

God's law. So we'll be following that basic outline this morning.

And so as we dive into verse 1, we see right off the bat in chapter 2 verse 1 a very clear statement.

It says, as believers in Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. And it's interesting to me right off the bat here that these words are directed at believers.

He's not preaching to the world. He's not preaching to non -Christians. What is he doing? He's talking to the church.

He's talking to believers, people who have their faith in God. And I just want to talk really quickly about that for a moment.

We throw around this term believers a lot in church circles. And I don't know if you've ever questioned your own faith.

Am I a Christian? Am I truly a believer? And I just want to address that momentarily now as we get started on this message because this whole passage is directed at believers.

So who is a believer? Well, a believer, first off, I'm going to just make three simple points. A believer is someone who recognizes they're not perfect.

A believer admits that, and many people do. I think almost everyone would say, hey,

I'm human, I make mistakes, I admit it. So that's not surprising. But a believer goes on to recognize that they are sinners, that they've committed a sin against a holy

God. And as a result, they're deserving of death. Are you willing to humble yourself and admit that this morning?

That is fundamental to becoming a Christian, is we all have to admit that we've sinned and messed up and that we're in need of help.

We can't rescue ourselves. The second aspect that I want to point out is a believer is someone who believes.

That's pretty obvious, isn't it? But it's someone who puts their faith and trust in a particular thing.

In this case, the faith and trust is in Jesus Christ alone to save them. That's a believer.

They're not trusting in their own efforts. They're not trusting in their good works, charity, their kindness, what they've achieved or done.

A believer puts their faith and trust in what Jesus did on the cross to pay the penalty for you and me.

You know, He died in our place, and He offers us a new life and an eternal life. If we will simply believe in Him and accept

Him. And that's the third point I want to make is it's an acceptance. We must accept

Him, choose Him, make Him the Lord of our life. You know, later on in James 2, I think it's almost a comical statement that James makes.

He says, even the demons believe and they shudder when they think about it. They believe in God, right?

The demons believe in God. So do you believe in God? Good. The demons do too. So what's the difference?

Demons are not bowing the knee to God. They are not accepting

Him as their Lord. And so that is fundamental as well to being a Christian. A believer submits their life to God and they make

Him the Lord of their life. God's in charge. We are His servants. As we talked about James' introduction this morning,

James, a servant of Christ. We are servants as well of Christ. And I hope and pray that this morning as I share those fundamental truths that we're all believers, that we all trust in God, but I recognize that there may be some still wrestling with some portion of what

I just shared. Let me be honest with you. You can chase after a lot of things in this world and nothing is going to satisfy you apart from Christ, nothing.

There is just simply nothing there that will truly satisfy the longings in your heart.

So my hope is that you will accept Christ and follow Him. And that's the audience that James is talking to.

So now that we've gotten the audience clarified, I'd love to dig into this command here in verse 1.

It says, it talks about partiality or favoritism. And I next want to define what partiality or favoritism is.

Favoritism, let's define that word. It's the practice of giving unfair preferential treatment to one person or group at the expense of another.

Let me repeat that. It's unfair preferential treatment to one person or group at the expense of another.

And it's, I think, very similar to the concept of discrimination, which is the word we often use today in our society, and I wanted to tie that in.

So discrimination has a couple of definitions, and I'll just clarify really quickly. Discrimination is, in some ways, it just means...one

definition is it just means to decide between two things. In that sense, we discriminate every day.

We all make decisions every day, right? We have to choose one thing over another thing. Nothing wrong with that.

But there is another definition of discrimination, which is what we're familiar with, I think, which is the legal definition, and that is unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, sex, etc.

Discrimination like this is unlawful. So to be clear, as I'm using the words in the message today, discrimination, favoritism, partiality, what do

I mean? And I want to clarify this right now. I mean that when we treat one group or one individual better than another group or another individual for the wrong reasons.

That's what I'm getting at. And we're going to talk about what those wrong reasons are in a moment. But let me repeat that definition one more time.

When I talk about any of those words, discrimination, favoritism, partiality, what I mean is treating one group or person better than another group or individual for the wrong reasons.

So examples are always good to illustrate things, and fortunately for us this morning, James gives us an example, so we don't even have to make up our own examples here.

James 2, verse 2, gives us a hypothetical situation, and we have two people who walk into a gathering, and it could be a very similar to this, a worship gathering of people.

And two people walk in, one is super successful. He's well -dressed, polished, sharp -looking.

He's obviously got it together. And there's an implication here of wealth. He's got a ring on, so he's a very wealthy person.

And by the definition of wealth in that day and age, especially a lot of power, a lot of influence in society.

So here comes this guy into the worship gathering, super good -looking, polished, successful, wealthy.

And the other person comes in. Now this person is contrasted with the first. He's not well -off, not rich, not successful.

Perhaps his clothes are dirty, hasn't washed recently. He may not smell good. He's poor.

He's not respected. He really has nothing to offer. He comes in with nothing, no social standing.

Verses 3 and 4 get right at that preferential treatment that we're concerned about here. James asks his

New Testament early church audience if they pay special attention to the wealthy and influential person and basically ignore the poor person.

So why would they do that? You know, that's the question I've been wrestling with as I've been preparing this message.

You know, why would they treat them differently? And as I've dug into this, I think that there is a motive of self -interest involved here.

And let me explain. Wealthy people have power and influence. And when we associate or when we connect and do something, treat those people better, there's this long -term, like,

I think it could go well with me. This person may help me out down the road. There's a degree of self -interest involved in that.

And James is saying here that if they're showing partiality in how they treat people based on these external appearances, based on this wealth versus poor contrast, he is saying they have become judges with evil thoughts.

That is a pretty significant pronouncement. Judges with evil, wicked, simple thoughts.

Have you ever thought of showing partiality as making yourself a judge and having evil thoughts?

Strong condemnation from James. And next in verses 5 to 7, James gives us some reasons to support his position here.

So let's walk through them real quickly. Reason number one, God chose the poor to be rich in faith and inherit the kingdom.

So why would you discriminate against them and treat them poorly? You know, does God favor rich people over poor people?

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And I think we can all feel very confident in that answer because we examine

Scripture, we just have to look at Jesus' own life. He is not exclusively preaching in palaces and to wealthy people and ministering just to the elite of society.

No, He's preaching to everyone. You know, He went around the

Galilee and the Judean countryside preaching, teaching, really healing all sorts of people.

Who did He select as His disciples? He selected some poor fishermen. He also selected a wealthy tax collector.

So Jesus is not discriminating here. So one of the questions that I wanted to wrestle with is, does

God favor the poor? I see all these comments around God, it seems like leaning in the direction of the poor. But let me point out that it doesn't say only the poor will be rich in faith and inherit the kingdom.

So how do we handle this? James' audience is mostly…most likely is mostly constructed of poor people, people from a lower economic station.

He was writing to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations. Remember the dispersion that happened, the Jews left

Jerusalem and Christian Jews left and he's now writing a letter out to those outlying areas. So this letter is specifically addressed to those people and they are likely not wealthy people.

So for the most part, they are not wealthy. But the point here is that God does not show partiality based on external factors.

And I want to point back to an old testament passage, maybe you remember the story of when

God chooses David to be king of Israel. And I really love this account because Samuel the prophet shows up at Jesse's house,

David's father, and Jesse parades his sons in front of Samuel one by one.

And they're all impressive individuals, you know, strong and big, and he's sure one of these guys is going to be the next king.

And so one by one, God tells Samuel, nope, not that one, nope, not that one, nope, not that one.

And finally, there's no more. And then it turns out that Jesse has one more son, but he's the youngest and he's out in the fields working.

They didn't even bother to bring him in, didn't even think about it, completely overlooked. So they bring

David in and God tells Samuel, that's the one, that's the one. And it says a really powerful thing there, it says, man looks on the outward appearance,

God looks at the heart. We're going to come back to that later. Second reason, in verse 6, it says that if you treat the poor person poorly, it says you've dishonored the poor, that's another reason why it's wrong to show partiality.

You've dishonored the poor. And then it goes on to say very pragmatically, the rich are the ones who are oppressing you and dragging you into court, so why would you favor them?

So at first read, it might sound like this is just a pragmatic statement, like don't be nice to the rich because they don't deserve it.

But let me point out, James is not instructing Christians to treat the rich poorly. He is not instructing that.

He is simply saying don't discriminate or be biased or partial toward them. Treat both rich and poor equally and fairly.

Every person was created in the image of God and has value. Think about how many times

Jesus honored and respected and ministered to all sorts of people.

This included the poor, it included the mistreated, it included sick people and outcasts within society.

He did this over and over. The blind men He healed, the leper that He touched and healed, the wealthy tax collector who was also an outcast from society even though he was well off, he went and had dinner with them.

He even met with a Pharisee, a teacher of the law, Nicodemus.

So Christ treated all people with respect. And the third reason that I want to give is found in verse 7, and this is more of on the spiritual side.

It says the rich ones are the ones who are blaspheming God's name.

So again, all of these reasons that are adding up to James' argument around why are you showing partiality, and he's really challenging this first century church on this.

So I want to pause here as we just finish the first seven verses and ask a question.

Do you judge others based on their outward appearance and other externals and worldly things?

You know, when I first read this passage and thought about how to preach, honestly, I felt like we don't have special seats at Recast for rich people and we don't treat rich and poor differently, do we?

Like, where's the application here? I don't get it. And I struggled with this and wrestled with it, but I really want to think about this and I want to encourage you guys to think about this a little bit deeper and a little bit harder.

I think that we do in subtle ways often judge people and do so on external things, on worldly values.

And I want to explain some of this. The world values, what is the world value? Success, you know, power, people who are influential, successful, sports heroes, people who are super talented, entertainers.

You know, think about who's on the cover of magazines, beautiful people. Who do we praise and laud in our society and on social media?

Those are the world's values. That is how the world assigns value and treats people.

And I just want to ask the question, are you sliding into that? Are you falling into that? Do you find yourself sucked into that kind of mentality in the way you treat people?

Or are you concerned with the internal things, the things that God looks at, the things in the heart?

I think two passages that really illustrate this that I want to point to, one is the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians.

Obviously, when the Spirit of God enters our life, it brings about change and that change shows up in the fruit of the

Spirit. And we know this list. Maybe you've read this before and studied this, Galatians, Paul says, the fruit of the

Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control.

Those are the things that are in the inside that matter. I want to talk also about the

Sermon on the Mount and James' older brother Jesus preached in Matthew chapter 5, and he said, blessed are, and then he just listed off a whole list of people.

And it is not at all what the world would think are blessed, right? He says, blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Blessed are the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers. You know, what are the things that you value?

Are you valuing those worldly things or are you valuing the things that matter to God?

We'll come back to this later. I wanted to move on now to the second half of the passage in verses 8 through 13.

And this focuses on an additional reason why we should not discriminate based on external factors, and it says specifically here that it violates

God's law. And specifically, the law we're talking about is the law, love your neighbor as yourself.

Verses 8 and 9 work together and they tie back to this issue of favoritism. Verse 8 points out that we really follow the royal law found in Scripture, love your neighbor as yourself.

If we really do that, then you are doing the right things. You naturally follow the law when you love your neighbor as yourself.

It's interesting to me that Jesus Himself summed up the law and the prophets when He was challenged on what's the greatest law by the

Pharisees, He had a very simple answer. He said, love God, love others.

It was all boiled down to that, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, and the second command is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.

I mean, Jesus boiled it all down to those two things. And I want to point out that loving your neighbor is a practical expression or an outpouring of your love for God.

How do we show we love God? It's by loving our neighbor. That is how we do it.

So moving on to verse 9, it's very, very clear here. James says, if you show partiality or favoritism, then you are sinning and you are convicted by the law as a lawbreaker.

So clearly, discrimination and favoritism for the wrong reasons is sin. Verse 10 and 11 explains that if you break any part of the law, you're guilty of breaking all of it.

Now, at face value, you look at that statement and you're like, what? How is that possible? What does that mean?

And I don't know if you've ever struggled with that passage. So I want to explain that a little bit. The law was given by God, a holy

God wrote the law, and each law reflects an aspect of His character. So when we break one law, we are going against an aspect of the character of God.

So we can't just break one law and ignore that law and then just say, well,

I'm obeying all these other things, so I'm fine, right? No, you break one law, you have become a lawbreaker.

You've gone against God. So the example given in this passage is the example of committing adultery and murder.

He says, if you don't commit adultery, but you do murder, you're still breaking the law and you're convicted by the law as a lawbreaker.

So I want to apply this now to this issue of showing partiality or discriminating. You know, you may have walked in here thinking, you know, a little bit of partiality, not a big deal.

It's not like I'm murdering someone or committing adultery, right? But that is still going against God's law.

And this is one of the key points here. God cares how you treat people. He cares how you treat people.

This is a big deal to God. Verses 12 and 13 wrap up this section.

And James comes back to our responsibilities, how we speak and how we act. Such a practical book.

I just love the way James does this. He says, speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.

This ties into overall theme of James where he says, don't just listen to the word, but do do what it says, meaning act on it.

Let the Word of God change you and let your behavior follow your beliefs.

So the expression of law of liberty, I just want to camp out on this for a second. It does jump out at you. Why does he say the law of liberty?

Is the law freeing us somehow? What's going on? I don't know if you've ever felt like the law gave you freedom.

It seems a little weird, right? Like the law restricts us, right? It says what we can't do. Well, I want to dig into that because it's funny how when we do the things we want to do, our flesh wants to do, that we know are wrong, when we sin, and we're all sinners here, so I just need to ask you to reflect back a little bit, probably a few minutes ago.

No, probably a few days ago. I don't know for you. But reflect on your own struggles with sin.

What happens when we sin, when we do what we know is wrong? We find that it develops into a pattern, and it turns into bondage, and we get trapped by our own sin.

Our own sin becomes a trap and a snare for us. In contrast, when we obey God, when we do what we know is right, we find that we have a freedom.

We're free. In what way are we free? We're free to do good. We're free to please God. We're freed from that snare of sin and the trap.

So, it's ironic here that, in essence, obedience to God's law gives freedom, and that's that law of liberty.

So, verse 13 concludes this section by stating that, if we are not merciful to others, we should not expect mercy to be shown to us.

How does that strike you? Are you wondering if you've shown enough mercy in order to receive mercy?

Well, I have good news for you. It does not depend on that. God has chosen to show

His mercy to us through Jesus Christ. That is the good news of the gospel that we're talking about here.

And there is no greater news. Christ showed us the greatest mercy, and it's that firm foundation of Christ's mercy and salvation of us.

That's the basis that gives us the power by the Holy Spirit to live in that mercy and extend that mercy to other people.

So we then turn around and show mercy to others who have sinned against us. That is a beautiful picture, and that's how the power of the cross transforms us, and it really changes us from the inside out.

So as we close, I'd like to encourage us now to do some reflection and look at our own hearts.

It's not easy to do this. Ask God to show you where you might be having some partiality.

Do you assign worth to a person based on worldly standards? We talked about those world standards earlier.

It could be wealth. That's what James is talking about in this passage very clearly. Do you assign worth to someone based on wealth?

Or it could be status or title or appearance. It could be talent.

You just value talent and you assign worth based on that. It could be race or ethnicity.

What is it for you? What causes you to value one person or one group over another?

And then to treat people differently based on those things. Let's not do that.

James tells us that's sin. To treat people differently based on external things and wrong reasons is to become judges with evil thoughts.

And to assign people worth based on those things is just wrong. People have inherent worth because they are created in the image of God.

So this past year, let me just be honest, it's been a whirlwind, racial tension, it feels like our whole country is divided right now, whether that's politics or race or coronavirus or vaccines or mask use.

It just seems like there's a million things dividing us right now. So I want to ask you a hard question and ask us to reflect on this.

Do you look down on others who have different opinions on some of these things? Does it affect how you treat them?

Do you treat people differently? May God examine our hearts and convict us where we need to change and may

God help us treat other people the way He would treat them, with mercy and with patience, with grace, considering them better than ourselves.

Man looks on the outward appearance, God looks at the heart. So ask

God to grow in you the characteristics that matter to Him, things like humility, mercy, forgiveness, patience, love.

So we're going to come to communion here in a few minutes as we wrap up, and then we'll have the band come up to lead us in a song and worship.

But as we come to communion, I just want to take a minute to talk about that. We do communion every week here at Recast, and we do that for a reason.

We don't want to stray far from the centrality of what Christ has done for us on the cross.

The communion is an act of remembering. The cracker represents

His body, and the juice represents His blood. And if you don't have a packet, they're in the back here.

You can feel free to slip out and grab one. And we welcome every believer in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ to participate and to join in.

And this is a remembrance of a very serious thing, what Christ did by dying on the cross, but it's also a celebration.

And I don't know if you look at it that way, you know, growing up taking communion or what your practice has been, but it is a celebration.

It's a joy to think of what Christ has done and how that gives us freedom and hope for the future.

So I just welcome you to take communion as we listen to this next song and reflect on the amazing sacrifice that Jesus paid for your sin and for my sin.

Let's pray as the band comes. Heavenly Father, I just,

I thank You for Your Word. I thank You for the book of James that we could read and consider and apply this morning.

Lord, I thank You for the way Your Word just cuts deep into our heart. Father, we live in a broken world, in a divided world, and Lord, we are sinners.

We're all sinners. We admit that. We need You to change us. Because God, none of us is perfect, and we just pray,

Father, that You would bring to mind the areas where we're showing partiality or favoritism and bring conviction,

God, and then most importantly, help us to change. Lord, we know that You can change us by the power of Your Holy Spirit in our life, and I thank

You for the reality of that. Lord, and as we come to communion, we just want to thank

You for what Jesus did 2 ,000 years ago. We thank You for how He paid this ultimate price so that we could have a relationship with You through simple faith and trust and acceptance of what

You've done for us. Lord, thank You for that, and in that, we rejoice this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.