Beacon Sunday Service: May 26th, 2024

Group uh from the fellowship here that came over to uh be with him and just have time and your parents on the far right there and then uh we had some people uh at the ballpark on uh for creating heritage tonight and and Abraham uh I understand your team won.

I love this picture of Stephen. He took a picture and then he this is the text he put underneath of it to me. I took a picture of all the non-Dodger fans. In other words, uh I guess there weren't many there. And then this is uh our people with uh 40,000 of their closest friends at the stadium having a good time. And then this past week we sent out for the first time uh kind of a video clip so that you could have some uh spiritual thoughts during the week. And so I'm gonna ask you to stand and greet each other with grace and peace, and then see if you can find somebody that got the video clip. If you didn't get the video clip during the week, then let us know so that we can put you on that as well and and have you keep in touch with uh one another.

Would you stand and greet each other with grace and peace? Would you say word of God speak? Would you pour down my brain? Washing my eyes to see your majesty to be still and you're in this place.

In your holiness, word of God speaking myself in the midst of him, beyond the music. Beyond the noise. All that I need is to be with you, and then the cry.

Heard a God speak. Would you pour down like your majesty to be still alone? But you're in this place.

Would you pour down my grave? Washing my to the beacon. It is so good to be with you all on this lovely Lord's Day. Um our uh call to worship comes from Abraham. There you go.

Our call to worship comes from the book of Ephesians. Um chapter one, verse 18 to 21. You read that for us. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance and the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great life? Amen. Uh that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and and power and and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

Is that our prayer today? As we gather uh week in and week out, uh that the Lord would open our hearts to him and to all the glorious things uh that are found in Christ. Um I pray that that would be our prayer as we gather here. That there would be an anticipation uh during the week. I just want to ask how many of us here actually anticipate the coming of the Lord today? Because this is not just some this is not just any other day. The Lord has made this day specifically for the church for us to be rejuvenated to be filled for the week to come. Life is hard and difficult and hardships come our way, temptations, what have you, and we the Lord grants us this time together as a church family. Under the authority of the word of God, uh the singing of the word of God to be filled again for the week to come.

So can we pray this as a prayer as we sing these songs? That the Lord would open the eyes of our hearts. We can just all stand together and we pray for us briefly before we begin. Father, we just um we ask earnestly and prayerfully that uh that you would truly open the eyes of our hearts this morning as we worship you as we sing you melodies, would you be honored and glorified, and in return would you fill us, Father? Would you open the eyes of our hearts so that we may see what we need to see for this week ahead? I pray that you would be with your servant as he preaches your word that your word would find root in our hearts and that we would bear much fruit this coming week for your glory.

We ask that this time would be uh uplifting and honoring to you know we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Open the eyes, open the eyes of my heart, Lord, open the eyes of all, oh I want to see I want to see you, open the eyes of my heart, Lord, open the eyes of my heart, oh I want to see you, I want to see you see you high and lifted up shining in the light of your glory pour out your power and love as we see holy holy holy open the eyes, open the eyes of my heart, Lord, open the eyes of my heart, oh I want to see now to see you open the eyes of my heart, Lord, open the eyes of my heart, who I want to see, oh I want to see how to see you high and lifted up shining in the light of glory for our power and love as we sing holy holy holy see you high and lifted up shining in the light of glory as we see holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy, oh, I want to see holy holy holy holy holy holy we sing holy holy holy oh I want to see you only holy holy holy we sing holy holy holy oh I want to see high see you high and lift it up shining in the light of your glory for our power and love as we see holy holy holy see you high lift it up shining in the light of your border for our power and love as we sing holy holy holy open the eyes open the eyes of our hearts open the eyes of our hearts oh I want to see you I want to see you open the eyes open the eyes of our hearts open the eyes of our hearts so I want to see Oh I want to see praise the Lord Praise the Lord His mercy is more stronger than darkness our sins they are many His mercy is more love can remember no wrongs we have done this and don't know we counts out their self thrown into a sea with our bottom more so many mercy is more patience away what patience will it has we can't be roll what Father so tender is calling us all He welcomes the weakest the violence of poor Our sins they are many His mercy is more praise the Lord Pray the Lord His mercy is more stronger than darkness you ever sin they are many in mercy What riches of kindness of kindness he lay stone us, his blood was a fame and his life was the custom we stood neat the dead.

We could never hold our sins, they are many, and mercy is more his mercy is more.

Amen. What a wonderful song. The more and more you grow in the knowledge of God, the more and more you grow in the knowledge of your sin, and the more and more you realize the depth and the riches of God's grace and mercy upon our lives, as the progression of our faith as Christians, that we would grow in the knowledge of our own sin, that we would grow and more grow more and more uh sensitive to the grieving of the Holy Spirit That we will live our lives in a way that is honoring to God shunning evil from our lives. Um our uh confession of faith comes from the New City Catechism, question number twenty-five. The question is, does Christ's death mean all of our sins can be forgiven and together?

Yes, because Christ's death on the cross fully paid the penalty for our sin. God graciously imputes Christ's righteousness to us as if it were our own, and we remember our sins no more. Amen.

That is why we set our hope on Jesus. He sang this uh about three weeks ago. It's a newer song, but this is our second time singing it. Uh whenever we uh come across the new song, my prayer is that even though you don't know the melody, that you would still sing along as loudly as you can, even if you're off key, it's okay. The Lord wants to hear you, joyful noise, amen to that. Let me sing you the chorus one more time. I send my hope on Jesus, my rock, my own trust, who set his heart upon me first. I said my hope on Jesus.

Let me sing that again.

Who set his heart upon me first? I send my hope on Jesus when this life of trials, when this life of trials tests my faith, I send my hope on Jesus when the questions come and doubt remain, I set my hope on Jesus for the deepest wounds at time won't heal. There's a joy that runs still deeper. There's a truth that's more than all I feel. I send my hope on Jesus.

I set my hope. I send my hope on Jesus. I'll my own trust to set his heart upon me first. I send my hope on Jesus.

Though I falter in this war with sin, I send my hope on Jesus. When I fail to fight and sink with it, I send my hope on Jesus. Though the shame, though the shame would drown me in its sea, and I dread the waves of justice.

I send my hope on Jesus. I send my hope.

Just resonate with us as we just pray together. And so let's pray.

Against you, you only have we sinned and done what is evil in your sight. You are justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, we were brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did our mothers conceive us. Purge us with Christ's blood, and we shall be clean. Wash us, and we shall be wider than snow. Amen. Please be seated. I invite you guys now just for a moment of individual prayer.

Church, would you receive the assurance of pardon? For the Lord takes delight in our broken spirits, a broken and a contrite heart, God will not despise. He offers free and full forgiveness to all who come to Him by faith. Amen. Church, as we just now have a time of corporate prayer, as I look around, I'm just reminded of how busy life is.

And I think Psalm chapter eight does such a wonderful job of just posturing our hearts and our spirits to just be reminded again that we worship the Creator of heaven and earth.

You've given him dominion over the works of your hands, and you have put all things under his feet. O Lord our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth. This morning, I just want to invite you to simply just pause and humble ourselves before our Lord, that we might be able to reflect upon God's glory and goodness in this world, even in the midst of just the busyness of life. And so, Church, would we just take a moment this morning just to pause and reflect on that?

And Lord, how you have continued to keep us day after day. Lord, how even as we see here in Psalm chapter eight, we're just reminded that you are mindful of man, this lowly being. God, you you desired a relationship with us, yet our forefathers took the bite of the fruit and sinned. And yet, God, you continue to pour out your grace and your mercy upon us, and ultimately would lead to the death of your only son Jesus Christ, that we might receive his righteousness. And so that, Father, we 2,000 years later can continue to sing of your grace and your mercy and your love that you continue to pour out upon your people, God. Father, it goes without saying that many of us are going through a season of life that is just filled with uncertainty.

That's filled with hard work.

And yet, Father, we know that you are providing for us day in and day out. And so, Father, as a church today, I pray that you would help us just posture our minds and our spirits. Help us cling to the cross and the truth of the of your word. Lord Jesus, that as we receive what you have in store for us today, that we might do so with joyful and cheerful hearts. We thank you, Lord, for this time. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. With that, we want to uh dismiss our children. Um, teacher Tiffany and teacher Lily will be helping us out today. So, kids, please go ahead and uh line up in the back and you're dismissed. Um, for everyone else, I just want to turn your attention to the screen today.

Just a just a few announcements. Uh, the first one, as you guys may or may not know, our brother Simon, he's got an art show going on this Saturday, June 1st, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Uh, it's at 501 Chateau Place, 160. Simon's gonna be there. Come support him. His artwork is awesome. If you guys follow him on Instagram, you already know that this is a very talented brother, and we're so excited that he gets to showcase some of his hard work. And so, if you guys do have a moment this afternoon, or this upcoming Saturday, uh, we should definitely go and support our brother Simon. Um, another sort of agenda item, it hasn't been finalized yet, uh, but wanted to kind of put it out there for you guys that there is another park day coming up in 2024.

So uh more details to come, but similar to the one that we had last year, uh I would say expect it to be kind of like a full morning uh slash afternoon of just hanging out, of eating food, of worshiping together, playing games. Um, there will likely be water balloons that John will help me transfer from point A to point B. Um, so it's gonna be a good time. Um, and so again, uh more details to come, but we'd love to make sure that you guys can all be in attendance, and that'd be really great. Um and lastly, when it comes to our offering, you that you see the options here listed above. Uh, but again, we just simply ask that you guys just give as the Lord leads. And if you're visiting with us this afternoon, uh please do not feel obligated to give.

And with that, I want to invite Pastor Madison up for today's sermon. Hey, we've been going through uh the book of James, and we're in chapter two. Let me just back up there. I want I want you to kind of see uh where we're headed in this. We talked last Sunday about being trapped, how there are times that Satan says, Oh, I know how to trap, I know how to trap believers, I know how to create difficulty in churches. And so uh in James chapter 2, verses uh 1 through 13, we looked at just a portion of it last week. Now let me go back there now and say, just so you know, Satan wanted to trap Jesus. And in John chapter 8, he does that with a woman that's caught in the act of adultery. Here's the passage.

It says, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives at dawn, he went to the temple complex again, and all the people were coming to him. He sat down and began to teach them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center. Teacher, they said to him, This woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say? They ask this to do what? To trap him. And so here's Jesus. If if people know, if Satan knows that he can attempt to trap Jesus, then why wouldn't he even want to trap us in some difficulty? Here are the 13 verses. It's really small. I know that. On the screen from James 1, uh James chapter 2, verses 1 through 13.

But what I want you to see is the focus. As they conclude these 13 verses, when we go to interpret a passage of scripture, we want to see where it's headed. And where it's headed is in verse 12. And that's the the second line from the bottom. And let me just slide it up so you can read it. He says, after he's given them all this instructions in verses 1 through 11, he says, speak and act as those who will be judged. That's where he's going with the text. I see this going on, this going on, this going on, this going on, and because of that, I want you in this church to speak and act as those who will be judged. So that's the sermon in a sentence. If you walked away and said, and they said, What did Pastor Madison talk about?

As believers, we need to speak and act in biblical ways toward others. James warns us of five traps. Let me use them as traps that Satan wants to use to divide churches and and hurt other people. Okay. The very first one that we looked at last week was showing favoritism. When you begin to get in a church service or in a building or other people, and you start to show favoritism. You treat some people really nicely, and you treat other people not so nicely, because they're not your favorites. Again, let me take you back to these 13 verses. The focus he ends with speak and act like those will be judged. But look at the screen. Here's the focus. What does he say? Three times in just these 13 verses.

What's his focus? Favoritism. But if you look with favor, if you show favoritism. So let me highlight it here. James 2 1. My brothers, do not show favoritism. Kind of right out there. Right in your face. He says it again in verse 9. But if you show favoritism, what do you do? You commit sin. I mean, he's not even, he's not even saying, you know, it's not such a good thing to do. He's coming right out and saying, showing favoritism, especially in the body of Christ, you commit sin. This is the Greek word that's used to say favoritism. It's only used five times in the New Testament. Let me say it's taken from two Greek words. They're often when we get to a Greek word, we can see our English word that comes from it.

There is no English word that comes from this Greek word. One of the words is uh prosopon, prosopon, and the other one is lambano. Those are the two Greek words that make up the Greek word for favoritism. Let me slide it up here. Prosopon is the Greek word for face. And lembano is the Greek word to receive. So how would you how would you interpret that then to get the word favoritism? Well, it means this to receive a person by face value. Let me highlight it this way. Favoritism seems to judge a book by its covers. I look at the face and I receive it based on what it looks like. And that's where I get favoritism. That's where God says, hey, don't go there. Don't treat other people by showing favoritism.

I almost ask that the kids stay here in some regards for this. Kids, kids understand when, oh, he's my favorite is she's oh she's my favorite. And they began to show favoritism at a little age. When I graduated in high school, uh back back in the Stone Age. When I graduated high school uh back in 1966, uh I I went to work at a factory at first in the summer months uh and and actually uh I ended up graduating from three three uh higher education universities but at the time when I graduated from high school I wasn't even gonna go on to college and that's what I want you to see that there are times that when people aren't ready to go right away sometimes um that year off or whatever before you go it might be just a thing to be with the parents the most critical time for your kids as they get that to that age is right when they graduate from high school and if they head out to off to college for the first time they have no adult supervision and they're exposed to a lot of times ungodly teaching and James Dobson would say most of the time that's when they meet their mate at a college away from home in a secular environment and not really so good so I I didn't go to college right away I didn't go I six I was six months before I went to college uh and during that six months I worked at a factory I worked in a factory where they made radiators for Chrysler Corporation I got talking to people about Jesus what would you expect and and so there was a guy in his 50s his name was Harry Hall H A L L Harry Hall and Harry shared this story with me he said you know something when I was a little guy he said I have a brother and my brother uh and I were out playing and we a pastor came across us and the pastor said hey would you would you guys like to come to Sunday school on Sunday and they the two of them got really excited as little kids how about going to Sunday school they talked about it with their parents Sunday morning came they were excited they're going to Sunday school for the first time dad gets five pennies out of his pocket to give them to put in the offering to give to the Lord dad looks and he says here here are five pennies and dad had a favorite so the pennies got divided three pennies went to the favorite son and two pennies went to Harry the guy I met when he was in his 50s he said you know we're talking about the Lord we're on on a break time uh and making radiators and he said you know those five pennies made all the difference in my life you want to know why he said because my dad gave the three pennies to to his favorite son and I got upset Harry said and I said here and I tossed the two pennies to the favorite son he said you can have all five pennies I'm not going to church his brother came to know the Lord walked with the Lord graduated from college became the dean of faculty at Houghton College which is a wonderful Christian school in in western New York State.

And his brother. Never went to church. Never came to know the Lord. And worked in a factory. I'm not saying working in a factory is bad. But what I am saying to you is because their dad showed what? Favoritism. And what does God's word teach us? That if we show favoritism, what do we do? Do you remember what James 2-9 says? We commit sin. So how does the dad re how if you were that dad, how would you resolve that? Well, probably the best way to resolve it is say, you know, rather than give you five cents, here's two cents for you, here's two cents for you, and I'll just keep this penny for now. To always treat your kids without showing that favoritism. I said to the congregation last week, and let me just reiterate it here because some of you weren't here last week.

Almost in every family, if there are more than if there's more than one child, if you ask the children, did your parents ever have a favorite in their family? Yeah the kids often uh will misread it, but kids will say, Yeah, yeah, my sister was the favorite, or my you know, oh yeah, he was the favorite. Now it's not always that that way, but many times in a family it's that way. Why is it? Why do kids think that their parents who love them all equally? I would say, as parents, we would say, Well, you know, yeah, I I love my kids equally. I don't, you know, I've never said I love this one and I don't love this one, I love this one more, I don't like you. No, we we treat our kids the same, so why do they perceive that you love the other one more?

And last week what I what I threw out there was a book that is not even it's not a Bible, it's not the Bible, but it just happened to be a book that a guy started to observe families and how people treated each other. Then he wrote a book called The Five Love Languages. And in those five love languages, he began to see that some people express love differently. And some people do it with talk, and they can come right out and say, This is this is this is one of my love languages. I can write out and say, hey, I love you, man. How you doing? Hey, and and I could say that uh and express it because in my family where I grew up, what did we do? We told each other we loved each other, and so it became a love language.

Where do you learn your love language? From your parents. And so I began to say, hey, I love you. And another one of my love languages is touch. So it's it's it's not difficult for me when I see somebody, hey, how you doing, brother? Like give him a hug. Because that's my love language. You know something? Neither one of those languages are my wife's.

She liked the fact that I talk, you know, and she would she didn't like to talk a lot, so she just listened, and so we got along really well. Offices are direct, right? And so here's the deal. My wife's love language is acts of service. So she just wants to serve, just wants to do things. And so what does she expect of me? Serve. Get that lawn mowed, you know, to keep the counter clean in the kitchen, you know, make it make it all nice. I when it came to mowing the lawn, I said, I can pay a guy to mow the lawn. Does he love you? Is that him saying he loves you? No. So, you know, we just kind of have fun with it. But listen to me, listen carefully here. Some people's love language talk, some touch, some gifts.

They go to a store and they say, Ah, I saw this in the store. And I just thought of you. I bought this here. I and they don't really, they don't want to say, I love you. But that's their way of saying what? I love you. Gifts. Some people can't say it. I one time I I my my father-in-law was dying. Uh, he had to have two uh valves replaced in his heart when he was 51. He didn't he didn't die until 93 had two valves replaced in his heart when he was dying and even in the hospital in in Milwaukee uh Wisconsin I said to my wife you need to call your dad and just let him know you're praying for him and that you love him and her family they didn't say I love you that's why my how do you learn your love language through your parents how did my wife she didn't want to say I love you because that was you know something you didn't say you just showed people her dad was acts of service I remember I said to my wife I tell you what uh I I I'd like you to call your dad and tell him you love him that was back in the days when there weren't cell phones and stuff she called him he's on the phone I get on the extension I'm listening she finally was just caught right here she just oh man just she's gonna have to get it out you know he's gonna have two valves replaced in his heart and this was back when they weren't doing those kind of things and she said uh uh uh uh I love you dad and then she said I got it out you know I love you dad he was talking and didn't hear what she said I'm on the phone I say did you did you hear what Audrey said he said no what she goes ah I have to say it again she said uh uh I I love you dad coming from a family now that doesn't say they love each other her mom and dad were married 70 years they love each other but they're learning love language and I'm saying to you as parents study your kids learn their love language because if you don't speak love in their language they're gonna feel one of your children may speak your language and they're gonna think they're your favorite do you understand that so when she got I love you what do you think his response was I I would think any dad would say I love you too sweetheart that would be my talk because that's my love language she said I love you dad he said me too do you hear the difference so some people words they can say to anybody I love you as a matter of fact my wife and I first got married uh we were on our honeymoon my wife said do you love me I said I sure do baby you know come here you know let's talk about that and and I wanted to do the hugs you know because my love language is touch and talk the reason and it took us we've been married 49 years yesterday it took us in our 40th 40th year or so we were out uh for things uh for uh uh uh Valentine's dinner and and she said I finally figured it out I said figured what out why I said when we were on our honeymoon why I kept saying do you love me I said why I when she kept saying that to me I thought this poor girl is just star for love so I'll just it's like I'm I'm just pouring it in it's like a sieve it's just going out and and I kept and I so I kept pouring it in I I love you you know let me.

But she said, I finally figured it out. I said, Tell me why. She said, I know now that you really love me. But since you could say it to other people, I wondered how you love me differently than you love them. When you can say you love them. And you tell me you love me. So sometimes I'm just saying to you, when you're a parent in the favoritisms, you know, when people start talking about that, what does he say? These five pennies destroyed a guy for whom Christ died. Because the parent was perceived as giving what? Favoritism. So as believers, we need to speak and act. Speak. I love you. That's so you study your kids and you know their love languages. And you study people in the church. There are guys in the church in Palmdale.

One guy, every time. I told you my my love language is talking touch. So I I gave him a bear hug. I gave this young, you know, 19-year-old a bear hug. And when I give him a bear hug, here's what he did. You're hugging me. Oh, why are you hugging me? The same guy comes from a family of nine. Nine kids. And he thought that his dad loved his brother, one of his brothers, more than he loved him. Because his dad gave hugs to him and not to the guy that went stiff all the time. Because dad was trying to learn the love language of what the kid needed. Listen, James warns us of five traps. What did we say? The first one was showing favoritism. Don't judge a book by its cover. Don't look at people and say, there's something wrong with them.

Don't show that favoritism. Secondly, focusing on appearance. Here's where the text says it. Okay, focusing on appearance. My brothers, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For example, a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor man dressed in dirty clothes comes in. If you look with favor on the man wearing the fine clothes, what is he warning them about? What's the trap that Satan wants to get you in? I would say to you, you know, if a lot of people from MacArthur Park said, Hey, let's all go down to the beacon this morning. And they just filled our sanctuary here.

You know, I just want to we focus on what? How they look. God has already saying, if you look with favor on the one wearing clothes and say, sit here in a good place, and yet you say to the poor man, stand over there. What is he trying to adjust here? But the Lord said to Samuel, remember in the Old Testament, when Samuel was looking to anoint the king of Israel. Saul was the king. And they were looking for a replacement. And the Lord said to Samuel, do not look. Samuel saw this sharp guy. He said, Oh, this is the one. This is the one God wants. The Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or his stature, because I have rejected him. Man does not see what the Lord sees. For man sees what is visible.

Do not look at his what? Appearance. What does James say? If a guy comes in, he has great clothes, and you say, sit over here, and the guy has dirty clothes, and you say, sit over here. He says, Don't look at his appearance. That's a trap. That may keep a person for whom Christ died from being open at that moment to the Lord. Do not look at his appearance. I've rejected him. Man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees what? The heart. God sees what's going on in my heart, what's going on in your heart. Jesus said it this way in John 7 24. Stop judging according to outward appearances. Rather, judge according to righteous judgment. Jesus already told him.

It's outward appearance. Let me uh talk about this. Okay. When's the last time you read Forbes magazine? Probably never. Okay. They had an article. You're judged by your appearance. This article goes back all the way to March 20th, 2013, 11 years ago. They gave six or seven things that people make more money. If, number one, tall people get paid more money. Here's the stats on it. Okay. Tall people get paid more money. 2004 study by Timothy Judge at the University of Florida found that for every inch of height, a tall worker can expect to earn an extra $789 per year.

That means two equally skilled co-workers would have a different, have a paid differential of nearly $5,000 per year simply because of a six-inch height differential, according to study. Now this goes back to 2004. That's 20 years ago. I can't imagine how you do a longitudinal study, you know, and come to the conclusion, but on based on study, tall people.

And he's starting to notice.

Man likes on the outward appearance, God likes where? On the heart. And he has a heart for God. But you want to teach them, you know, kids need the encouragement to know that God has them just the height he wants them. But what do we do? We look at outward appearance. Secondly, people who are overweight get paid less. Did you know that? Here's the study on that. Overweight workers, those who have a body mass index of more than 30 are paid less than lighter weight co-workers at the rate of $8,666 a year for women and $4,772 a year for men, according to a George Washington University study that cited data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth for 2004. What are they focusing on? What is height?

Your appearance. What is weight? Your appearance. Let me give you the third one. Because they gave you like six. Blondes get paid more. I thought, oh my goodness, you're really gonna go here at Forbes magazine. Here's what it says: a 2010 study from the Queensland University of Technology studied 13,000 Caucasian women and found blondes earn greater than 7% more than female employees with any other hair color. Come on. You get the idea. Look, workers who work out get paid more. Let me give you another one. Women who wear makeup make more. These are studies that have been done. Let me give you a sixth one. Handsome people are paid handsomely. Listen, let me drop this in because this is where it goes in the text.

Society focuses on what? Appearance. Satan, do you think Satan knows that? Sure he knows that. And so when it comes to a church, what does he want to do? He wants to trap people in looking at appearance. And God says, don't look at the appearance. Man looks at the outward appearance. God looks where? On the heart. Let me let me give you this picture. Okay? Here are some guys I want you to see. James, I'm gonna read this, okay? James McLaughlin walked into the Golden Corral restaurant in Keller, Texas. While eating breakfast, I noticed three rough-looking men a few tables away from me. These guys look like trouble. They have the kind of faces you want to remember so you can describe them to authorities.

One white, one Hispanic, one black, a shaved head here, a scraggly beard there, and each with a scowling air that was designed to intimidate. What am I doing? I was judging a book by its covers. I was judging them by their outward what? Appearance. What did James say? Don't do that. It's a trap. All of a sudden, the three guys leaned their heads together as if to whisper to each other, undoubtedly scheming their wicked plans for the upcoming weekend. Then they joined hands and began to pray.

When I think of a guy like that, I think of how often we judge people by their appearance. We focus in society focuses on appearance. You know, I I love my wife, and I've been married to her 49 years. There seems to be a thing that everybody is always worried about, you know, their looks and everything. I remember years back, I said to my wife, you know, I don't care if you end up weighing 300 pounds. Because I'm attracted to what's in here. I'm attracted out here, but I I love you because of who you are in here. And I wanted her to know that. And we want to let people know in our church that you know, if they have difficulty with something, that we still love them.

We often, I had a girl in our high school youth group, or when I was a youth pastor, who was uh mentally handicapped. Her name was Kathy, I won't give her last name here. Okay, her name was Kathy. And we we would have a hundred, a hundred and twenty-five in our high school youth group, and when we shared testimonies, Kathy, always wanted to share testimony, and Kathy would always be used by God to ignite as a spirit working within the group. She would she would have difficulty doing almost anything. But she'd get up there and say, you know, I love you guys. You guys love me, and she would just start crying on it because they loved her. And then kids would get up and start sharing how they, you know, were growing in the Lord and what was going on.

Fuck, stop focusing on that. As believers, we need to speak and act in biblical ways toward others. What are the traps that Satan uses? Well, he has a show favoritism, focus on appearance. Oh, looking down on the poor.

Again, if if we had the whole church filled this morning with MacArthur Park difficulty, people.

Here's what the text says. Well, let me drop this in first. You know this guy? I'm okay. I'm gonna put this on the screen. He's an Olympian. Did that help you at all? He was an Olympian in uh 1912. Here's his name. Jim Thorpe. And that still doesn't help any of you. Let me show you another picture of him. This is Jim Thorpe on uh he won two Olympic gold medals. He was an American Indian from Oklahoma. He was as poor as can be. The Olympics that summer were in Stockholm, Sweden. He set records that existed until 1948 from 1912 for the decathlon.

As a guy that had nothing, poor as can be.

One of the events, of course, was running. I want you to look down here. And let me blow that picture up so you can see it. He was so poor. And here's what happened. The day he was to run a major event in the Olympics. Somebody stole his shoes. He went to the trash can and found two old running cleats. You can see on the left foot some of the cleats that are going down to help gain traction in the running. The shoes were two different types of shoes. Even two different sizes. So he had to wear extra socks. And that's why the difference in his socks.

Oh, and and probably there were some people in there were Americans there cheering about, what on earth? Because what do we do? We look at outward appearance and how do we treat the poor. And God says, look, you know, the poor, you'll always have with you. We have four people everywhere. And how do we treat them? Well, this guy won and set records. Do you know what's interesting? As an American Indian. He played football. He played baseball. He did the track thing, won two gold medals. When he was playing baseball, he was paid pennies a day to play baseball. When the Olympic committee heard about it. Oh, wait a minute, you're not an amateur anymore. You were paid.

You were a paid athlete. And you remember for years you couldn't be a paid athlete and be an Olympian. So they took his gold medals away until just um in recent years. They gave it back to him. There's even a town in Pennsylvania called Jim Thorpe. That's the name of the town, named after him. I would say to you, poor people. God says, you know, these are the people that he wants us to receive and to welcome and to minister to. What did he say? Look, stop looking down the poor. Satan knows that he can get they really get wounded and hurt. And so when they come into our fellowship, let's make sure we welcome them. Do you think they want to be poor? Well, they don't want to be poor. They didn't choose to be poor.

I've said to you, you know what's interesting to me, I grew up in a very poor family. I uh the my parents bought a house in 1945 for $3500, $3,500. But that was in 1945. You know, that that's kind of doable. But it was just a shack of a house. They sold it in 1998 after living there all those years. They bought it for $3,500. They sold it for $4,500. A thousand more years and years and years later. Because it was just a shack of a house. And you know something? Because of that, when I became a pastor, what did I want to do? I want to help poor people. And in our church, we said, they don't feel any obligation to give. If you can't afford to go on this trip, let us know. We're gonna see that you get there.

Because, and that's what you want to do here. You want to see that people's needs are being met. Listen, if you look with favor on a man wearing fine clothes and say, sit here in a good place, and yet you say to the poor man, stand over there or sit here on the floor by my footstool. Haven't you done what? Discriminated. He said, Look, don't let Satan put you into those traps. Listen, my dear brothers, he goes on in James 2. Listen, my dear brothers, didn't God choose what kind of people? This is God's word. Listen, my dear brothers, didn't God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those that love him? Yet you dishonored that poor man.

He's just saying to you, you need to speak and act in what kind of way. As people who will be judged. So stop showing favoritism. Stop looking at outward appearance. Stop looking down on the poor. This is uh a picture of the Duke of Wellington. And let's see here. I'll read that as well. Once when the Duke of Wellington uh remained to take communion at his parish church, a very poor old man went up to the opposite aisle, went up the opposite aisle, and reaching the communion table, knelt down close by the side of the Duke immediately. Tension and commotion uh interrupted the silence of the church. Someone came and touched the poor man on the shoulder and whispered to him to move further away or to rise and wait until the Duke had received the bread and the wine.

The eagle eye and the quick ear of the great commander caught the meaning of that touch and that whisper. He grasped, he clasps the old man's hand and held him to prevent his writhing. In a reverential but distinct undertone, the Duke said, Do not move. We are equal here. Did you catch that? Do you understand what was being said there? Yeah, he in society. He was up for echelon. And the people in the church, they were concerned about that. But let me highlight it. Do not move. What are we? We're equal when it comes to the Lord. At the at the cross, the ground is what? Level. Absolutely level. So never look down someone unless you're helping them up.

It was uh Abraham Lincoln who said, God must really love the common people because he made so many of them. And yet, somehow, when it comes to church, we see poor people, we see different appearances. And God is saying, look, don't fall into this trap. Don't let Satan grab you in this trap. He wants to destroy your church. He wants to destroy your family. He wants to get your kids to think that you've shown favoritism. Just don't go there.

And that ability to share the Lord with some people in your neighborhood at your job in your church. Let's pray together, shall we? Heavenly Father, we're asking that in these moments you would really teach us.

That Satan has ways, traps.

And with our church, with our neighbors, that we'll stop looking at outward appearance. That we won't show favoritism.

That we'll stop looking down on the poor.

How to live, how to speak and act from the book of James. Father, James also says to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not. To him it is sin. Help us to live in a way that we're living lives, glorifying to you in Jesus' name. Amen. It's all stand together and sing this song. Hold Me Savior. And I apologize for singing another new song. But I want to introduce to you all these green songs that are coming out. Hold me, Savior.

Hold me, Savior, because we often can't hold me out of God.

It's a delusion this idea that we can hold on apart from God's favorite. Let's sing the song together. Pray that the Lord would hold us for all this difficult life that has called us to be faithful to heaven. Not showing favoritism, all looking down on folks that are less fortunate than us.

Every leg that leads to worship is a precious price.

This share me every show me marvels of your mercy wonders of your power by your streams of water lead me through this land. Joy awaits me on the way and hope is here only say now and your goodness and keep me your presence with me is my keep me safe, give me Savior to the thinners faithful till the end when I'll save that devil was a true and led a friend through the gates of glory lead me all the way, then my faith will turn to sight and prayer will turn to praise.

Hold me say now and your goodness go with me.

The Lord said, you know, we could take this as often as we want.

Can I even have the kids look at me for a second? We often forget things, you know. We often forget to do something, and or have you ever forgot it was mommy's birthday or daddy's birthday? And so sometimes you know what you know what older people have done in the past, sometimes they tie a string on their finger and to remind them of whatever they're hoping to uh there have been people that have tied a string on their finger, and then they look at the string and say, I don't remember what the string was there for. But you know, the Lord knows, the Lord knew that we would forget what he did on the cross, and so he wanted to give us a way to regularly go back and this do in remembrance of me, so that we would never forget that he went and died on the cross and shed his blood for us.

And he said, you know, you could you can take this as often as you want, but he gives us a warning. He says, Would you examine your hearts before you eat that bread and drink that cup? Would you just examine your hearts? That before the Lord, you've just confessed to whatever's going on, and you're you're wanting to just have a heart that's pure before him? I'm gonna ask that you bow your heads right now. You've confessed in our service earlier. Would you just examine your heart before the Lord right now and say, Lord, I want to just be what you want me to be as we take communion today. May I always remember that you gave your body and blood, Lord Jesus, so that I could have eternity with you in heaven.

Thank you for that. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

And to take and take us back to your seat in our fellowship. We hold the cup, hold the bread, and participate together. I would invite you to come now and receive communion.

God's word says on the night that he was betrayed. Jesus took the bread. And he blessed it. And then he said, This is my body, which is for you. Eat of it. God's word says in the same way, Jesus took the cup. And he and he gave thanks. He said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Drink you of it.

Once again, we can say, Lord, we have done as thou hast commanded. And yet there is room for others to come. God's word says, go out on the highways and the byways, and that's what you'll be doing this week. And just invite others to come. That they could have that same privilege that we have. Let's just close in prayer, shall we? Heavenly Father, we pray right now that your grace and peace would be on our congregation. Thank you for your word, which we heard today. Thank you for communion that we've celebrated. Thank you that someday in heaven we'll participate with you in that. And we want to give you all the glory and all the praise. We ask that you would cause your face to shine on us, and that this week we would glorify you.

We invite your return today or this week. Help us to be watching and ready. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Have a great week in the Lord.