James 2:19-24 - 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless ? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.
24 You see that people are justified by what they do and not by faith alone.
Here’s the question I want you to ask yourself tonight: “DOES YOUR TALK MATCH YOUR WALK?”
Look at that scripture again... “So you believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that” - You see James knows that we need something more than just acknowledging we believe in God... OUR TALK MUST MATCH OUR WALK!
Faith and Work are should not be confused for one another, but neither can they be separated from each other. Abraham’s faith produced his actions, and his actions completed his faith, meaning they perfected it.
For James, faith alone is the shallow belief in an idea; no commitment or life change is involved. A person receives salvation by faith, not by works of obedience, but a saved person does works of obedience because of that faith.
We are great at starting things.. just not great at finishing them. Especially Guys right? We have home projects left unfinished. I'm definitely guilty of this. It took me 9 months to install flooring in my bathroom. I purchased all the material and let it sit for a couple months. Then took off all the trim in the bathroom and let it sit for a couple months. Finally removed the toilet and..... let it sit for a couple months. I think you get the point. WE ARE TERRIBLE AT FINISHING THINGS.
And we are always looking for the easy way to do things. We hate putting effort into anything. The “Easy Button”? The magic diet pill. The AB machine that you stick on your stomach and it contracts your muscles while you sit on your couch and watch TV... supposedly giving you a workout to result in 6 pack abs. You name it we want the easy way to do it.
Let me make something clear right now: THERE IS NOTHING EASY ABOUT WALKING FAITHFULLY WITH GOD.
Look at what it cost early followers of Christ:
- Peter was crucified upside down.
- James was beheaded by King Herod according to Acts 12:2.
- Matthew was martyred.
- Thomas was stabbed to death.
- James the Just(the brother of Jesus) was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple (over 100 feet). When they discovered he survived the fall, his enemies beat him to death with a club!
- Matthias was stoned then beheaded.
- Andrew was crucified, yet he continued to preach the Gospel to his tormentors for 2 days until his death.
- Paul, after surviving a stoning and 3 imprisonments, was killed by Emperor Nero.
- John faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death. John then exiled to the prison island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic book of Revelation on Patmos. The apostle John was later freed and returned to what is now modern-day Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.
It is not so important how the apostles died. What is important is the fact that they were all willing to die for their faith. If Jesus had not been resurrected, the disciples would have known it. People will not die for something they know to be a lie. The fact that all of the apostles were willing to die horrible deaths, refusing to renounce their faith in Christ, is tremendous evidence that they had truly witnessed the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
DOES YOUR TALK MATCH YOUR WALK?
FOUR CHALLENGES WE MUST OVERCOME:
1. CHALLENGE THE NATURAL FLOW OF LIFE TOWARD COMPLACENCY.
- Its easy to live life like “we’ve arrived”, but we haven’t.
- We know what its like the last week of school or work before vacation. Mentally we are already on vacation. Its hard to stay focused. We begin to slack off. But we CANNOT live our spiritual lives this way. We can’t be on cruise control. We have work to do here on earth. Look again at Andrew: “Crucified yet preached the gospel for 2 days till his death.” If anyone had an excuse to be in vacation mode it was Andrew. His end was definitely near. But he knew he could just say he believed in Jesus Christ.
- His Talk matched his walk.
Matthew 25:13-27 Parable of the Talents
The master gave each servant gifts equally according to his ability. Two of the servants went to work immediately with their gifts and doubled the master’s investment. However the third servant buried it under the ground. When the master returned he commended the two servants who doubled his investment. But the third servant wasn’t to lucky:
24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?
27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
James 2:19
19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
Its easier to give God your final breath than it is to give Him your every breath.
2. RESIST THE CONTINUAL PRESSURE OF THE WORLD TO CONFORMITY.
Judges 16:16 “The Voice of Delilah”
16 She kept at it day after day, nagging and tormenting him. Finally, he was fed up—he couldn’t take another minute of it.
Romans 12:2
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Refusing to conform to this world’s values must go even deeper than the level of behavior and customs; it must go to the transforming of the way we think. Transformation inside out.
We must be informed before we are transformed and thats through God’s Word.
Luke 23 “The Two Criminals”
One criminal chose the crowd, the other chose the cross.
3. OPPOSE THE POWERFUL ATTRACTION OF FLESH TO COMPROMISE.
The greatest temptations we face are not to some great magnificent sin, BUT some insignificant compromise... a little giving in until we realize that our ability to overcome, resist, say “no” has been taken from us as subtly as Samson’s hair was cut. “HE KNEW NOT HIS STRENGTH WAS GONE.”
And so we are to OPPOSE THE ATTRACTION TO COMPROMISE.
A moment of pleasure is not worth a lifetime of pain.
Psalm 1:1-2
1 Blessed are those
who do not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but who delight in the law of the Lord
and meditate on his law day and night.
4. COMBAT THE INSIDIOUS ABILITY OF SIN TO CONQUER.
We are to combat sin as if its a war. You must hate sin because you’ll never combat something you don’t hate.
Psalm 119:104 “Hate every wrong path”.
YOU’VE GOT TO LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT GOD TO HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT SIN.
We’ve got to have the “GIRL BFF” mentality. If you tick off one girl then you've just ticked off the whole clan. Why? Because the "GIRL BFF" mentality says this... "You may not have done anything wrong to me, but you have gone against my friend and I'm not going to stand by it!" Hate everything about sin because you love everything about God.
We can’t get mad at God when we are tempted by sin.
James 1:13-15
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each of you is tempted when you are dragged away by your own evil desire and enticed.
15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Its your desire that caused you to sin. You may be saying, "But I never planned on getting addicted to drugs. I never planned on having an affair. I never planned on losing my marriage. I never planned on ruining my life." You may not have planned to ruin it, but you never had a plan not to ruin it.
HOW CAN I COMBAT SIN?
Answer: Psalm 119:9-11
9 How can those who are young keep their way pure?
By living according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
Live according to God’s Word.
Fight the Good Fight against sin.
As Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:7-8
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
If you ever decide to actually finish something for a change, FINISH THE RACE. What good is it to “almost make it”. Imagine bragging to your friends: "I almost caught a fish THIS BIG..." (Did you catch it... NO!) "I almost dunked a basketball back in high school..." (Did you dunk it... NO!) You see, almost is just as good as not doing it at all because the results are the same.
Story of Derek Redmond and Video Link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nifq3Ke2Q30
Quotes from the Derek's father:
“But whatever happens he had to finish and I was there to help him finish. I intended to go over the line with him. We started this together and I think we should finish it together.”
Paul compared life with that of a race.
Hebrews 12:1
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us"
Finish the Race. You may be saying, "But I can't". Maybe you can't on your own, but your Heavenly Father is ready to help you cross the finish line. He started it together and He wants to finish it together.. WITH YOU.
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