Good morning. I'm Marla and I serve with the, uh, prayer team here at Venture Church. And our passage, passage this morning will be found in James two, one through six, said, 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 vine clothes, and a poor man in felt. The old clothes also comes in.

If you show special attention to the man wearing V clothes and say, here's a good seat for you, but say to the poor man, you stand there or sit on the floor by my feet. Have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers and sisters has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who he loved and loved him, but you have dishonor the poor. Let us, let us pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for the word that you've given us.

Lord, we thank you for the opportunity that you give us to come into worship, a living God. Lord, thank you for loving us. Thank you for Jesus who died on the cross for us. Lord, we just pray for this Scripture that, uh, you may embed it in our hearts. Just be with Craig as he leads us this morning in the passage.

And Lord, we love you and we praise you and as forgiveness of all of our failures, in Christ Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. And many men, well listen. I want you guys to know, man, I, uh, I I love this, um, this time of year in our church.

There's, there's so much going on. I wanna be sure you know the plan. Tonight, we get the chance to welcome all of our campuses and, uh, man, if you're a student watching today, seventh through 12th grade, actually sixth through 12th grade, we want you to come back tonight for Unite. You'll see the little stickers on everybody today, man. It's college Game day is the theme.

And so all of our campuses, you know, this, we're just one of, of five campuses and we're gonna bring all of our student ministries in tonight for Unite. Now, three weeks after that is Turning Point Weekend, TPW. And listen, it is one of the most special things that we do. And so if you haven't signed up for Turning Point, you don't wanna miss that. It's an incredible, incredible fall retreat for our students.

Right? On the heels of that is what we call the Christmas store. And listen, that's become one of my favorite things that we do because I'm already seeing you start to come into our campuses and every campus does the Christmas story, and you've got bags of things that you've already bought and prepared. And, and I want you to do this as a family. Stop by or go on the app and get that shopping list and you guys together go shop and then bring these things back because we've got some of the most special people that our schools, our local schools, have already connected us with these families that we get to have and host at our campus in December.

And man, we introduce them to our staff and we take 'em all through venture. Each campus does this. We get to pray with them, and then they get a chance to shop right here. I mean, it's just a great way for us to be a part of this community. So this season is exciting.

I just want you to know what I love getting to do ministry with you, like watching the way that you bring students and the way that you sponsor kids and the way that you get a part of this Christmas store. It's, it's an amazing, amazing time. It's really fun to get to be a part of. Don't miss it. Now, we're in a season on the book of James.

James is in the New Testament towards the end of the New Testament. And James, you know a lot about James already, if you've heard some of these messages. James was the half brother of Jesus. Uh, James was a pastor. And I'm gonna tell you, when you just read his letter, you can see his heart for his people.

His people were scattered. They've been persecuted. Now he's writing them this letter. And one of the things that stands out to me about James, and I don't know if you have somebody in your life like this, uh, James was a challenger. Maybe, maybe you, maybe you have, you know, you've got stories from a coach in your life, and man, he was a challenger.

Uh, maybe you've got a teacher right now, you're taking a class right now, and that, that teacher is a challenge. Maybe one of your parents is a challenger. James was like that. I mean, he steps on your toes all through this book. And, uh, the more you read, the more you recognize.

Like almost every verse kinda speaks to you. In James, it reads really fast. Some people say it's the proverbs of the New Testament. In fact, uh, Wednesday night at House Church, well, lemme tell you what we did. We, it was really simple.

We just opened up to the book of James, and together we read chapter one. Like I didn't ask a lot of questions. We just, we just read chapter one. And this is what's so cool about James, almost everybody in my house church focused on a different verse. James is like that, like, you know, you may read it, I may read it.

And there's gonna just be verses that pop out to you all through the book of James. There's so much wisdom and so much action that it reads like that. Now, we've made it to chapter two today, and in chapter two, uh, James does what he does all through the book. He, he, he steps on your toes again. And this time he's gonna get onto us when it comes to social norms.

Now let me give you a definition for a social norm, okay? This is an unwritten rule of behavior that a society or a group agrees upon. And it begins to guide what is considered typical, proper, and acceptable in a given context. Uh, let me give you an example. I, I was, uh, one of the things we did for fall break, we just got off of fall break and uh, we're in the national parks.

And so my family and I, we, we went out to a national park, we visited and then we flew back. And on the flight back we had somebody break the social norms and it happened to be a little boy. And he was sitting right behind us because you know this, on a, on a flight when it takes off, you put on your seatbelt, you put in your earbuds, and you just kinda sit. My man didn't get the memo. Soon as the sucker took off, he was on it.

He said, daddy, look at the clouds. Daddy, look out there, look at the little town. It's become so small. Then this is one that got me daddy, the fasten your seatbelt signs on. I mean, he just couldn't contain it.

Like he was so excited. He was breaking all of the social norms. And here's what I wanna talk about today is maybe there's some social norms that me and you have been following, that it's time for us to break. Here's the title of today's message. You ready?

Just because it's normal doesn't mean it's biblical. And here's what I think has happened, because this has happened in my life. We were raised a certain way, we were taught certain things, we picked up certain habits, and then we made a decision. And maybe you're one of the ones at our campuses, because listen, y'all, we've almost made it to 300 people who've been baptized this year. And maybe you've made a big decision in your life this year to follow Jesus.

Well, the things that used to be normal for you, the things that used to be acceptable for you, the things that used to be your way of life, your social norm, it begins to change because now you've made a decision to follow Jesus, not the culture. And so you're gonna see in this one today where you're gonna start to feel a little bit of tension for some of the things that have always just been normal. Now, let me give you some examples because this will just help you start thinking in the right way. Maybe it was always been normal for you to talk down to your mom or your sister, but now you've made a decision to follow Jesus. And so, so you look at people differently.

Maybe it's always been normal for you to think that one kinda school was the only right kinda school. I mean, right? Maybe you've always thought that you were to treat people differently based on how they looked. I mean, that's just the family that you grew up in. That's, that's what you saw.

That's what you knew. But now you're following Jesus and you're gonna see that these, these things are no longer gonna be normal for you. Uh, maybe you, you go to church and you look down on those who don't you ever been driving around on Sunday morning you went to church and you look over and go, oh, they're not in their Sunday clothes, huh? They practice on Wednesday night. They must not go to church.

Hmm, Uh, maybe you thought that you, you stay guarded to hide your heart and you call it strength. Now that one kind of got me because it's just the way that you grew up that was normal for you, right? Men don't cry, men don't share. And what we're gonna begin to discover today is maybe there's some of these norms that haven't been good for you and they really haven't been good for the people around you. And so today in James two, we're gonna discover a new thing, a new norm that me and you gotta follow if we're gonna be followers of Jesus.

So here we go, James. Two, open up with me. If you've got your app, you can jump on right there. It's a little bit easier. Uh, you know, Cal said this a couple weeks ago, it made me feel better.

You may need to go to the table of contents in the very front of the Bible, just tell you, there's no judgment there. 'Cause James is hard to find. It's in the back of the Bible. It's a small little book, but we're gonna be in chapter two. You can see the words on the screen, my brothers as believers in our glorious Jesus Christ.

Now this is kind of cool. Uh, Greg just told me this only two times in the book of James, do we see the name of Jesus? And maybe James was picking on his brother a little bit, I don't know. But in this reference, I love it the way he references Jesus, the glorious name of Jesus. That's the only first of two times, don't show favoritism.

Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes and another man comes in in shabby clothes. Now come on. You know, you got some shabby clothes at home. I wore a shabby shirt the other day and it had a little hole in the back and everybody made fun of me. 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 or sit on the floor by my feet, have you not discriminated amongst yourself and of judges with evil thoughts?

He says, listen, my dear brothers, has God not chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom? He promised those who love him, but you have insulted the poor. Skip over to verse eight. If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, love your neighbor as yourself. You're doing right.

But if you show favoritism, you sin and you're convicted by the law as lawbreakers, drop down to verse 12. Speak and act as those who are gonna be judged by the law that gives freedom because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. That's a pretty bold statement right there. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Now, here we go.

I want to give you a new social norm that me and you're gonna have to start living by. And it's pretty simple here. It is. The very first one. All people have value.

Now here's what's embarrassing about that. Like this seems like, um, everybody can agree on this. We're all on the same page. This is really simple. This is like 1 0 1, but this is convicting to me.

I have been in Target, I've been at a restaurant, I've been at Walmart and I've been standing in line and, and I've seen someone that walks up to the line next to me and I've watched her with her three, four kids all around. They look like they need to go through a car wash, just grimy looking children. And I've watched them begin to pick up candy bars and cokes and pull on their mom. And I've thought in my mind, what's wrong with her? I've had a thought sitting in that line when I looked over at her, what is she doing?

I'm gonna tell you, I've classified her. I put myself in a class over here because you know, like I was sitting there kind of well-behaved in line and I've put her and her situation in a class over here. I'm gonna tell you I'm embarrassed by that. I'm not proud of that. I'm just telling you that that was a thought that went through my mind like what has happened here And I've categorized and when we read this passage, this passage in Scripture, James is so clear, remember how he started out?

He said, there's the Lord Jesus Christ. He used that word glorious. He's like, there's the glorious Lord Jesus Christ. There is him and him alone. And then he says, there's people, but he doesn't say anything about A level people, B level people or C level people.

And this is the very first new norm for me in you because we can't help but begin to categorize people. And when we do that, this scenario begins to play out. We don't even know their story. Like I don't know anything about the lady at Target, I just talked about. I don't know if she was up all night, I don't know if she's been working all night, two jobs.

I don't know if those three kids that I just called grimy and need to go through the car wash aren't even hers. They may be her sister's kids that she's raising. And what I've begun to understand is when we begin to know them and understand them, all of a sudden our grace goes up and our judgment goes down. Here's a way to see it. When we begin to understand that people are the way they are for a reason, believe it or not, our grace for them, it, it begins to go up.

And this is a beautiful thing. I love it when people's grace for me goes up, feels so good. And our judgment begins to go down. I'll give you another way this, this may help you because this really helped me. I saw this illustration and it helped me understand the value of people.

I got $200 bills. Now these $200 bills look really different, right? This one, this one just came out the ATM, right? It is crisp and it looks really good. This one on the hand, this one right here is all nappy looking.

In fact, I'm, this is gonna hurt your feelings a little bit, but I'm gonna make it even worse looking. And I wanna ask you something though. Would you still take, I mean, are they still equal in value? Yes. So you mean even though you don't know the story behind this, like you don't know where I found this one?

Like this one could have been on Bourbon Street last night and this one's in church this morning. You mean even though this one is wrinkly old beat up and this one is crisp and clean, they still are both equal in value, even though you don't even know the story behind this one. Like this one could have been used to buy drugs on Bourbon Street yesterday, but it made itself in church this morning. And this one's just as pure as it can be. He's never seen drugs, they're still equal in value.

That's what I'm telling you. That's how the, we begin to classify. But God just sees people and they're of equal value. It doesn't matter their location, it doesn't matter their story here, here's a really good way for you to remember it. Listen, if Christ lives in them, then we accept them.

Y'all wonder what I'm gonna do with these a hundred dollars bills, aren't you? I'm tempted to put it in my back pocket, but I'm not. I'm gonna, I'm gonna put 'em right here so I don't, yeah, God, that's a good one. If Christ lives in them, we accept them. If Christ does not live in them, then we receive them because he died for them.

And that is a really different way to think. And I'm going to challenge you to think that way. And I, what, what's happened here I think is you may be listening today and you go, man, I I I relate to that a hundred dollars bill, and I feel what you're saying. Like I feel like I've been the one that's been beat up and I wonder how God sees me this morning. And part of the message is there's a little moment right here where we just kind of break everything and we say, if this is your first time here, if you're here every week, God sees you and loves you.

If you're at home today and you're recovering from an abortion or if you've never ever had sex, God sees you and loves you. If you are defeated and discouraged and depressed this morning, or if you are full of joy and peace, God sees you and he loves you. If you are so addicted today that you can't even get off a line because man, you're just, everything about it is drawing you in and you can't put the glass down and you can't stop the habit and you are full of shame or man, you've never even touched a harmful substance. God sees you and loves you. And there's a moment in this whole message where we say there's God, him on his throne.

There's Jesus, and he is on a different level than you and me. And then there's people, and there's this call right here to say, I want you to begin to break this social norm. I don't want you to be swayed because I, I died for them Romans five, eight. But yet, while you are still sinners, Christ died for us. It's his way of saying that no matter where you are in this journey, I love you and I'm for you.

Now, here's the real challenging that if we're gonna change these social norms, the second thing I wanna challenge you with today is that the change starts in the church. Now, this is really hard because I, I'm, I'm kind of a realist. There's a little part of me I wish sometimes I had like bigger faith and I I I just know that when you show up at the ballpark, man, there's a reality. As much as we want everybody to be viewed differently, I don't, it's just probably not gonna happen right off. When you show up at the bank and you walk in the bank and you walk in there next to someone who's got a big old bank statement and maybe your's a little more humble, you're probably not gonna be viewed equally When you cruise in the restaurant and you know, hey man, this, there's this, this person's got some swag and this person's got this job and this, and you're just not in that season, you're probably not gonna be viewed different, the same when you show up at school.

Like there's, there's, there's places that we cannot control, but this place, his house, this place has gotta be different. The change begins here, it starts in our hearts. It's not okay for there to be levels here. I want you to imagine, because this is what James does, he, he sets up this scenario in James two. Remember he says, just imagine that someone walked in the doors.

It's not hard to imagine at all of our campuses. Let's just say you were at check-in today. Let's say you were behind the coffee bar today. And I want you to imagine that there was a little camera right there and it watched the way that you picked your seat this morning and it watched the way that you received one family at check-in when you asked for their four digits in their last name, it watched you. Well, the way you watched one particular family that when they walked up to get that coffee this morning, they threw down that a hundred dollars bill and then it watched you the way you received another family that said, can anybody pay it forward?

And at closing your campus, pastor's gonna come out and he's gonna show that. And you're gonna get to watch and see how did we do as a church? Because I'm curious if team Jesus is really any different than the culture. Like when you walk in on Sunday morning or do these things, do you gravitate towards the popular people? I'm not gonna sit right there.

I'm going, come on over here. This is our seat. Sit right here. Do you, do you chase after connection with the wealthy? I get in this house, church.

No, no, no. I want you to join this one. This is the one to be in. Lemme tell you where they meet. That was pretty cool.

That was good, wasn't it? Do we quietly avoid the poor? You know how it is when you're just kind of walking through and, and, and you choose where you're gonna park and you choose where you're gonna sit. Here, here's, here's what James said really specifically about that. Listen, my dear brothers and sisters has not God chosen, who did he choose?

The wealthy, the popular? Who did he choose? He chose those who are poor in the eyes of the world. And what I'm curious is, as a church, if we don't be careful, we're gonna elevate the wrong people. The people that God chose, we're gonna end up putting in classes.

And that just doesn't seem biblical. That doesn't line at all with what James is saying. He says, if God chose them, how could we shift them into classes? God has this interesting way at, at looking at our hearts. I mean, you know this, sometimes it makes us feel really good when we have bad thoughts or we mess up.

We think, well God, you know, God looks at things differently. And the the point, the the place in Scripture where you see it, I think the clearest is when Samuel was replacing solace King. You remember the story. If you grew up in church, you heard this story because he had to pick the new king. And so he, he brings out all of Jesse's kids and he just lines 'em up like, alright, I've gotta pick someone from this line that's gonna be the new king.

And so come on, let's start up here with the best. The one that looks the strongest, the one that looks the smartest, surely the oldest, he's gonna be the one. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not the one. That's not the one.

And the prophet's like, God, what are you thinking? How could you not pick this best one? Surely we need to show favor to this one. This one's got the most money. This is the one he says, no, no, I don't even think the one that we're looking for is out here.

I I think maybe he's the one that's out there keeping the sheep. Look at, look at one Samuel 16, seven. But the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance or his height for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. Now.

That's the part that embarrasses me. What was I looking at when I was in target? What was I looking at when I was in Walmart? I was sizing that story up by the exterior. I didn't even make it to this.

People. Look at the outward appearance. Guilty, but the Lord looks at the heart, man, I'm gonna tell you, that is convicting to me and it's gotta start here. You, you there, there's a there, you know, we get excited about little, little phrases that we, that we repeat to you a lot of times because we, we just studied the life of Jesus and begin to think about, well, how did this look like? Like what, what did Jesus do with this?

Like if James the half brother, Jesus, he saw him do this, he wrote about it. He's convicting to me. But when I look at the ministry of Jesus, like is this a pattern that I see? I mean, what about the woman caught in adultery? What about the woman at the well?

What about Simon? Just the fishermen that Jesus chooses to say, you're gonna become Peter, the rock that I build my church on. What about Saul? Of all people saw the one that was killing Christians, the one that the early church. Now this, this, this part really scares me.

Don't miss this part because Saul, he tried to come into the church and the church said, we're not ready for you, Saul. The church was the one like you and me, like each campus, like, like your campus, my campus right here, this church, the church, the early church was the one that said, we are not ready for you to come in yet. It's like you don't look good enough on the outside, yet you've done too much in your past life. I know there's this whole story about the whole thing where you met Jesus and your life has changed, but we're not sure yet. We're gonna put up a wall.

And it was Barnabas that said, no, no, no, take him. No, no. I believe this is real. This is sincere. No, no, don't give up on him.

And I'm, I've gotta ask you, are you more like Barnabas or are you more like the early church? I don't know about that guy. I don't know. Here's the phrase we say a lot. Listen, we say this all the time.

We're church for the unchurched. And sometimes we say it because it's catchy and it kind of draws you in. And, and maybe if you grew up outside of church, you're like, I love that phrase, like this is a really cool phrase to me. But maybe if you grew up in church, this phrase almost rubs you a little bit weird. If, if, if that's the case.

Because sometimes it can mean, it just means we're a little bit uncomfortable with God's grace because God's grace is radical. And what we're saying as a church is we are for God's grace like the woman called no Dory, and the woman at the well and Simon and Saul, like those are the people that we're opening up seats for and we're creating more seats for. And we're bringing all of these students in together and we're gonna do everything we can to reach those that no one else is reaching because we believe there's a seat for you here. 'Cause we believe God's not done with you. And we know that that's not gonna happen in school and on your team and in the community, but in this place in his church has to happen.

That's why we're in this community. That's why we've been given the platform we've been given because it's the radical grace of God that we can't quit talking about here. Here's some Scripture. You always want Scripture so that you're sure that this is coming from God's word. It says the Lord is not slow in keeping his promises.

Some understands slowness. Instead he's patient with you not wanting anyone. That's all those examples I just went through not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance. Here's another one, says the same thing. It's a little simpler for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.

All people. Here's the hard thing. You ready? People who get that? Give that.

So if you're not given that, then maybe you haven't received that like in your heart because that's where it starts. But James says it really simple as believers, our glorious Lord Jesus Christ don't show favoritism. His grace is good for you and it's good for them. Here's the third thing. Now this one may scare you into obedience.

Here's the third one. You ready? We will be judged. You see what he said? I mean he said it really clearly.

Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. There's no other way to explain that. Mercy triumphs over judgment. It's like when you think about your response for today and what do you do with this? And I, you just have to put yourself in that place where you go, you know what?

I really believe that there's gonna be a day that I'm gonna stand in front of Jesus. And in that moment There's gonna be film, there's gonna be footage, and it's gonna be of me. And it's gonna be me. When I coveted something that my neighbor had, it's gonna be me when I really wish that my income was at a different level and I got jealous. It's gonna be me when I was dishonest.

It's gonna be me when I spoke down to someone. And when that film begins to roll, here's my response. Mercy. No, no, no. Wait, wait, wait.

Hey listen, you can stop the film because here's what I know. I accepted Jesus into my heart and man, Jesus did what I didn't do and he died for me. And when he died for me, he took on my sin and I took on his grace. I need it right now. God, it stop the video.

Mercy. I choose mercy and then I get to breathe deep and then I get to receive that all that's ahead of me. If we get that, then we gotta give that. I just wanna challenge you with that. Mercy, Please.

Now here's the thing. If you, if you read, if you read James, you can't read James and just kinda walk out and go get lunch. Like you, you have to have an action plan. James is all about action. All every chapter, every verse.

So, so I'm gonna just give you two things and then we're done. And this is the action plan. This is what me and you have to do after we read James. It's just not fair to you can't read James and not have action. Here's the first thing you would say.

Name the norms that you need to break. I, I would go through 'em, but I think they're different for everybody. I've noticed this in my wife and I, we have different tendencies. There's some things in her life that, that are normal for her that aren't that, that I, I it's not, I don't see it that way, but there's some things in my life that are unique to me. So you may even need to ask a really hard question, Hey, what are some of the norms you see in me that I need to break?

Because you were raised that way. I mean, you, you always go to the beach on vacation. That's what you do. That's normal. But there, there may be some more difficult things that have been normal that now it's time to break Because you're a follower of Jesus and you may need somebody to point that out to you.

Hey, listen, we give radically because we believe it all comes from God and I, I don't know if I see that in your life. Let's consider that. Hey, we give thanks. That's just what we do because we think it comes from God. Hey, we value other people that maybe they don't speak the same language as us and, and begins to break down.

Now here's the second one, alright, so we're gonna, we're gonna figure out what it is that we need to break and then we're gonna get close enough to care before you choose to judge. I know that about you. I've been here and done life with you long enough to know that if you knew the person in Target that I just mentioned, if you knew the one in Walmart, if you knew the one at the restaurant that you kinda looked sideways at, if you knew them, you would love them. You would, I'll watch you do it. If I can just tell you the story.

There's so many of you that I've said, Hey, lemme tell you the story about this kid that really wants to go to TPW. Do you mind helping them? You know what you do? You, it's, it's, it's like instantaneous. Yes.

Why? Because now you knew them. You knew just a little bit of their story. And before you judge, seek to understand first everybody's the way they are for a reason. And James is saying, man, I desire for my church to look different.

The revival starts here. Don't show favoritism. Seek first to move closer instead of pushing aside, instead of scooting back, instead of making that judgment statement, instead of doing what your daddy always did, instead of going by the norm, be like my little man on the airplane. Look at those clouds, look at that little town and that's what's gonna happen to you. Look at those black people.

Look at that white Karen, no idea she could be nice. Look at that kid. He speaks a different language. There's so much I can learn from him. Look at that old person had no idea they could bring so much value and joy to my life.

Look at that single mom. That's the hardest working woman I know. Look how much he's changed from the way he grew up. Look At all that God could still do in that person's life. Look at all that's ahead of them.

James says it really clearly. Do not show favoritism. Come on, let's pray together. 'Cause we need God's help in this. God.

This is who we want to be. We wanna be that church, the one that's known for who and what we're for, not for what we're against God. We believe it starts here. The revival, The way people from all different walks of life can walk into one place and not just even be in the same room, but they can be on the same row. Not even be on the same row, but eventually they could even find themselves in the same KXP classroom and God, then they could graduate up from that and they would be in the same student ministry together.

Yet they have nothing in common. They're raised in two totally different homes, but yet they're together every Sunday night and they're praying together and they're sharing meals together and all of a sudden they find themselves in homes together. Father, you showed no favoritism. You love us. You gave your life for us.

You moved closer to us. You left heaven to come here. You responded to us with nothing but grace and mercy. So God, help that be our response. Help us be a people that move closer, that doesn't push back.

Help us be a people that are full of grace and mercy and believe in what's ahead God, do more than we could ask or imagine. And may you start that work in our hearts today. Show us the things that have been normal. Show us the things that God, they've just caused us to push back. Help us have the courage to step into that and to be honest about that.

Help us move closer. God. Father, we love you and we worship you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.