The Call of James to Mercy

Thanks, Carlos. I also wanna just take a moment just to thank Carlos for leading the trip to Peru. He did a great job. we had a wonderful report on, on their, trip down there to, to minister to the Losings.

One of our goals is to make sure that the missionaries feel blessed and not happy that we're leaving and, all, thumbs up on that end, and those guys really worked hard. One thing that Carlos was saying is how that they felt. like such feeble workers can compare, when they compared themselves to the Peruvians. They're standing next to these 5-foot tall Peruvian men, this guy that's like 55 years old and he's like totally out lifting everybody on the team and But thanks, Carlos for your labor and leadership with the mission trip there.

So if you guys have a chance to talk with Carlos, thank him and For, for leading that team down there. Once you open up in your Bibles to James, chapter one, as we're gonna continue our series. If you've been with us, we're doing a series that we're calling A Call to Mercy. A call to mercy.

And I heard a quote recently. When asked what is the secret to happiness, Tennessee Williams responded, insensitivity. That was his secret to happiness. And really if you think about it, that can be, that can make your life very happy is if you just ignore or become hardened to the needs of others around you, you can go throughout any given day with a lot of glee and joy and happiness because you're not bothered by the problems that are all around us.

And if we're not careful, even as Christians, we can fall into that prediction that Christ gave in the all of it discourse where he said because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. We live in the last days where men are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And so we need to be exercised by the word of God, by His Holy Spirit, to keep a soft heart to the things that God cares about, lest we be like Tennessee Williams and finding our happiness in insensitivity.

Now, as an overview of the series, what we've talked about thus far is Pastor Milton started the series with the gospel call to mercy.

And then a few weeks ago, I talked about the call of Christ to mercy, and then Pastor Milton talked about the call of the early church to mercy and last week, Pastor Carlos did a great job in talking about the call of Paul to mercy, and I understand you had about 27 points. So we're not going to have that many points this morning, but, we're gonna continue this, what we've, what we've begun. Now you guys remember in the Old Testament, we see that God is a God of mercy. We've seen it in Christ, the early church and Paul, and you may remember the verse that we talked about in First John.

Pastor Milton will actually be getting to this passage next week, where John says, whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love one another in word or tongue only. But in deed and truth. So we're talking about gospel centeredness that expresses itself and is experienced in deed and truth.

At Cornerstone, we want to be centered on the gospel, and we want to experience the gospel and express the gospel, not just in truth and word, that's important, but also in deed. In our works. And so that brings us to this morning's subject, and that is the call of James to mercy. And if you excuse me, I'm Fighting a cold here, I'm gonna put a little lozenge in my mouth or a cough drop as Kitty likes to call them.

We have this little debate about whether they're lozenges or cough drops. The call of James to mercy. When you look at the big picture of the epistle of James, you get the impression right away that James is very concerned with genuine as opposed to counterfeit faith. He talks over and over about this idea of being doers of the word.

In fact, just look at verse 26 for a moment. We'll look at a couple of verses just by way of overview of the book. Chapter 1, verse 26, James says, and if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. This is one that thinks they're religious, but James is going to try to demonstrate that they're not.

Chapter 2, verse 14. What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Here's someone who says they believe in Christ. They say they're a Christian, but their works, defy them.

Chapter 2, verse 19. You believe that there is one God, you do well. Even the demons believe in Tremble. You can have orthodox belief, you can be monotheistic.

You can believe in the Trinity, you can believe in the incarnation. You can believe all the right facts about the gospel. And James says, even the devils believe that stuff. That doesn't give you genuine faith.

In chapter 1 verse 22, the crux of the matter is this, according to James. But be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. So genuine Christians will be doers of the word. Now, it's one thing to fight, and it's another thing to be called a soldier.

It's one thing to build a shed, and it's another thing to be called a builder. James does not just say do the word, but be a doer of the word. In other words, this is not just something that you do once in a while to appease your conscience. A doer of the word is someone whose lifestyle reflects Christ's teachings.

And so I asked you this morning and James would ask you this morning, are you an auditor of the Christian faith? Are you just someone who is sitting in class to hear the lectures? Or are you taking it for credit? Really, all of us are taking it for credit whether we realize it or not.

But some of us are just auditing. Some of us are just listening to the Christian message when James wants to compel us to be doers of the Christian message. James, throughout this book, Compels us to this conclusion, and that is Christian profession will have proof. Those who claim to be Christians, there will be proof and evidence of their faith.

James is concerned with much more than mere profession. Mere orthodoxy will not do. James teaches us that genuine faith is verified by 3 things. By 3 things by our speech.

As we see in verse 26 of chapter 1, anyone who does not bridle his tongue to see his own heart, by our sympathy for the suffering, as we're going to see in verse 27, and then he expands on that in chapter 2, and by our, separation from sin. As he'll say in verse 27, he expands on that in chapter 4. So there's 3 main proofs of genuine religion here in the book of James. Our speech will tell eventually whether we're genuinely saved.

Our sympathy for the suffering will be a sign, and our separation from sin, all three of these will be signs of genuine versus counterfeit faith. Now, as a reminder, Mercy, we've said in the past as we define mercy this morning is one of the components of genuine faith. Mercy is compassionate ministry to someone in dire need. And children, that would be where the first thing that you'd want to fill in on your sheet is, is mercy is compassionate ministry to someone in dire need.

And James is calling us to look at our lives this morning and consider whether mercy is one of the things in our lives that the Holy Spirit is working through us in order to demonstrate that we have genuine faith. Now we're not talking about salvation by works, and James is clear about that in chapter one, that it is God who has granted us this gift from heaven, and he is the one who gives birth to our lives, in our hearts. the, the, the church has always taught. That salvation is by faith alone, particularly since the Reformation, we see the reformers saying over and over again that salvation is by faith alone, but the reformers also said that faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is never alone.

Let me say that again. Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is never alone. And that's James's contention in this epistle is yes, faith saves, but the faith that saves is a faith that is always attached to certain actions, certain deeds. you could be someone who comes to Cornerstone and you could be the most upstanding church member here at Cornerstone.

You could be a member. You could come to all of the stated services. You could be an active part of a care group. You could be involved in Sunday school.

You could be involved in Ana. You could make sure that you could participate in the various parts of the covenant that we ask you to participate in. You come in modestly dressed. You give to the church, you could do all of the externals of religion, which are important, and yet totally miss genuine Christianity and genuine faith.

And so we're going to look at what is this faith that James talks about that is never alone. We're not talking again that you need to go out and do these works in order to be saved, but any true work of the Holy Spirit, any true faith that is being done in a person's heart will render forth certain actions. And we're going to give attention to two of those proofs of genuine faith this morning. Look with me at James 1:27.

James 1:27. This is going to be our spring born, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble. And to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Now here in verse 27, James illustrates what it means to be a doer of the word and which leads to chapter 2 and 4 respectively.

Now, he's not intending for this to be a comprehensive definition of Christianity. Calvin says, commenting on this passage that James does not define generally what religion is, but reminds us that religion without the things he mentions is nothing. However, this is a very good summary of what we ought to see in our lives if the Holy Spirit is at work. And so just look at the first part of that verse for a minute.

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this. We're talking about something that is pure and undefiled or pure and faultless. The idea is this is the positive and negative aspects of a religion that God accepts. What we're going to look at is what are, what is the type of faith, what is the type of religion, what is the type of worship that is acceptable.

To God that is acceptable to our Father. Now, religion these days, the word religion gets a bad rap. A lot of times you hear people say that, well, I have a relationship, but I'm not religious. And most of the time what they're talking about is, is that they don't just go through the externals of religion, they're really into the internal relationship and in that sense, it's a proper statement.

But religion is actually a historically a very positive term. Religion just merely means all of those things that you do as you come in awe before your God. And in our case, as we come in awe and worship before the true and living God, religion is a very positive term. And so what is it that is, what is a pure and undefiled religion before God?

What is it that God will accept this morning? What is it that God will accept on Judgment Day? What is it that our Father finds pleasing to himself as we come and seek to worship Him? Notice that this is not very different from what Micah is pointing to in Micah chapter 6, when he says, with what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high?

Shall I come to him with burnt offerings, with yearly calves, yearling calves? Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, in 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

What's the answer to that? Well, if it's that and that alone, Then no, the Lord does not accept that. Verse 8, he has told you, a man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. This is real religion.

You can, you could be an Old Testament saint and perform all the sacrificial system perfectly. And yet if you left the important weightier matters of the law undone, God would say it was useless, absolutely useless. Just think about that for a second. You do all of the things that God had commanded you to do in the Book of Leviticus, according to the sacrificial system.

And yet God calls it useless. We could come here this morning and hear the word preached, we could sing songs, we could raise our hands, we could be involved in all of the externals of our faith and religion, which are proper. And yet God could look at us and say that is useless religion. And so the question we want to ask this morning, here's the question, What are the marks of real religion?

And we're going to seek to find our answer in verse 27. What are the marks of real religion? And we're going to offer two answers, and that's these two. Real religion is marked By a merciful way of life.

And secondly, real religion is marked by a moral way of life, a merciful way of life and a moral way of life. Marks of a genuine worshiper is what we're talking about. Now, these, these are not, these are, these are, not only marks, but they are indispensable marks to the Christian faith. So let's look at the first one, real religion.

is marked by a merciful way of life. And that's what James says right there at the beginning of verse 27, pure and unified religion, real religion before God and the Father is this. To visit orphans. And widows in their trouble to visit orphans and widows.

In their trouble Ralph Waldo Emerson. Once said, Do not tell me, as a good man did today, of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? Ralph Waldo Emerson.

James this morning would have us to know that. The orphans and the widows are gods. And the orphans and the widows must be ours. He says, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble.

This is mercy, a merciful way of life. This is charity. This is sympathy with the suffering. And notice that James is pulling this out of a rich heritage of Old Testament teaching.

In Psalm 68:5, God has called a father to the fatherless, a defender of the widow. He is a God in His holy dwelling. In Psalm 146:9, the Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow. In Deuteronomy 10:18, he defends the cause of the of the fatherless and the widow and loves the alien.

And you could see all kinds of examples of this in the Old Testament. Now, when James focuses in on orphans and widows, particularly, these are types of those who find themselves hopeless in this world. It's not that all that James wants us to consider as far as ministry of mercy is just the orphans and just the widows. But in ancient times, the most destitute of people would have been orphans and widows.

Why? Well, a widow, somebody who had lost her husband, had no way in the ancient world to make money for herself, and orphans were often the most destitute of all people. In fact, many orphans in ancient times were orphaned because they were mentally ill or disabled, and they were just cast aside by their families and just left running around all by themselves because they were disdained for their disabilities. And so widows.

And orphans would have been the most poor of society. And so this represents all of the needy. But since James picks these two illustrations, we're gonna stick with these two illustrations this morning and focus in on orphans and widows. Now notice, we're told by James to visit orphans and widows in their trouble.

Now this visit is, is much more than a social call. the implication is coming to supply needs. This verb is in the present tense, which points more to than just periodic token assistance, but an ongoing practice, a way of life. And the idea of visit here is the same word that you see translated from the Old Testament where you see verses like Exodus 4:31, where it says, so the people believed, and when they heard the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he had looked upon their affliction, they bowed their heads.

God came and visited Israel. And then in Luke 1:68, Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people. You see, the idea is not just that God, Jehovah, and the Lord Jesus came and just paid a token social call. The idea is that God came and poured out his life and blessing on the people of Israel and upon the church.

This was a way of life for God. This is part of the whole purpose for his plan is to come and visit people with mercy. And so the idea of visiting orphans and, and widows is not just that it's some little sideline thing, but it's a way of life as we model our God in the way that he has treated us. So we are, let's look at, at, at the, the orphans, particularly here to visit orphans in their trouble.

It's interesting that James focuses on orphans here and in the previous phrase, he speaks of God as our Father. Right after speaking of God as our Father, he says, what is real religion to visit orphans? The Bible says that God is a father to the fatherless. What is James speaking of when he talks about orphans?

Well, this could be orphans by death, parents who have died and then their children have just been left to fend for themselves, or this could be those that have just been simply abandoned. Both were common cases, at the time that James would have been writing. You would have had people that had died and then also people had just left their children. It was not uncommon in the Roman Empire at all when a Roman family did not find, take pleasure in their child if they were expecting a boy and they got a girl or if they were expecting a healthy baby and they got a disabled baby.

Or they didn't want kids at all, just to expose the children, just to leave them out into the elements and let them die. In the Roman mindset, they didn't really believe that a child was truly human until they were 8 days old. Until the 8th day, you could leave a baby exposed and it was not a real life. And the practice of the early church was to go around and collect up these children and raise them as their own, whether they were girls, which were undesirable, disabled, which were undesirable.

And so It was a very common practice for the early church to literally take these orphans. And raise them As their own It's interesting. Yesterday in the, I don't know if anybody read the Press Enterprise yesterday in the very front article, the, I think A one article was about how that there's a rise in evangelical adoptions, which is great news. and they were focusing on particularly what's going on here in the Inland Empire.

the Grove has an incredible adoption ministry where they've been able to place children, 24 different children into homes within the Grove. There's a big movement in Orange County in the Inland Empire. a couple of the quotes from this particular article, Karen Warren, the wife of Rick Warren, said, we've gotten pretty good about talking about what we're against. And she happens to be the co-director of orphan Care Program at Saddleback.

Christianity is the most positive force in the world. We've painted it poorly with our words and lives. And what they're trying to do is to try to display, put on Christianity on a display as not just being something that's always speaking out against things but doing things in a positive way for society. Marc Andre, a Focus of the family, said Christians have been housing orphans for 2000 years.

In recent decades, many Christians in the US have assumed that the government was taking care of orphans. And that there was no need to get involved, he said they don't realize that more than 100,000 children nationwide are wanting to be adopted, said Andrea, the father of three adopted children. And that's true, really, since the time of FDR, since the time of Roosevelt, the government has taken, taken over a lot of the quote unquote social aspects of society. They've taken over things like ministry to the poor and to the orphans and, many of us Christians have abandoned, those types of activities and just assume the government's taking care of it.

And, more and more evangelicals are realizing in, in recent years that the government is not taking care of it. The government is not doing a very good job, that there are thousands of kids out there whose lives are being absolutely ravished and wrecked. And foster, secular governmental foster care is not helping. The problem And so evangelicals are rising to the cause and beginning to adopt more and more children in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, more than 10,000 children were in foster care systems as of July 31st.

More than 1400 were eligible to be adopted, meaning that parents lost legal custody of them and they don't have a permanent placement, in a home. Foot, our sister church, Foothill Bible Church, has over the past 4 years, they've begun a ministry called that they're terming the International Adoption Fund, where they receive monies into a particular fund. And they're trying to encourage folks in their church to adopt internationally because the needs actually in places like Brazil and Romania and other places are much greater and the church will spend up to $10,000 per couple to help them in the final costs of, of getting a child.

And, it's been, they've been able to place 4 children so far from different, different places and it's been wonderful to see their.

Their outreach that way and it's something that, that would be wonderful to see us model here as well. We've had families in this church that have adopted. It's been wonderful to see that, but how much more wonderful to see us adopt cross-racially, down in Brazil because of the sexual immorality down there, you've heard of the children, they're just the street children, the, the thousands upon thousands. I think the last estimate I heard is 500,000 street kids in Brazil.

And mostly this comes from, I forget the time of the year, it's around the time of Mardi Gras when people just go out and there's all kinds of sexual immorality and then they have these children and then they just leave them on the street. And just think about 500,000 street kids. I remember seeing a documentary of a, a 4 year old kid without a mother and a father sucking on this Coke can that was filled with glue just to get himself high. 4 years old No parents Romania is, is considered to be the worst in the world as far as the conditions.

Of the fatherless, the orphans. I think when we think of this issue of, of orphans, I think of spiritual orphans as well. I think of a ministry like we have here at Cornerstone with the Kumamoto's, how that they've brought in. dozens of people who don't have spiritual parents.

how many times have the Komodo's had people into their home who just, whose parents don't know Christ. And there they are every Wednesday night feeding kids and ministering to kids, giving them a safe place, talking to them about the gospel. That's a ministry to spiritual orphans. Yeah, I was one of those.

I got saved in a A home, both neither of my parents know Christ to this, to this day, or at least my stepmom who I was raised with and my real dad, and, and I had to go on the hunt looking for families to take me to church. I went up to some kid at school who I thought was a Christian and said, hey, can I go to church with you? And it turned out he wasn't really a believer, but his parents were, and they adopted me and took me to church, started taking me to church, and I had all kinds of spiritual parents as God watched out for me.

In my early years as a Christian.

the other way that we can think about this orphan issue is just through the, the huge problem of abortion., orphans are those who have been abandoned by their parents. Abortion is parents who actually want to kill their kids. And how many Millions of babies are being killed. Every year in this country, I'm convinced that, we, we're no different than, than Germany during World War II.

everybody looks back on Germany during World War II and says, how could that happen? Yet Germany was the most intellectual, most prom they were one of the most prominent nations at the time, very smart, and all kinds of doctors and professors, and yet they let the Holocaust happen. And here in the United States, at the height of our society and intellect and everything that we're doing, we're murdering thousands of babies a year. And most people just act like nothing's going on.

Historically, people will look back at this age and say, how did those people let that happen? How did they let that happen? The murder Of literally millions of people. Well, God cares.

God is a father to the fatherless, and he calls us, those of us in this room that are, the Holy Spirit is doing a genuine work in our lives. What happens is we may feel conviction about ways we've been falling short, but then there's this movement in our hearts like, yeah, that's true. I want to do that. And that's a sign of genuine faith that we want to repent, we want to get right, we wanna, we want to press on.

What James is concerned about is about the people that are like, hold it, Buster. I don't have to do that. That's a bad sign. That's a bad sign about our faith.

If we are not concerned. About orphans. the, the problem is, it can feel somewhat overwhelming, but I love this quote from Randy Alcorn. He says that the logic.

That says, I can't do everything, so I won't do anything is from the pit of hell. Are there, is abortion a huge issue? is adoption a huge issue? Not just in this country, but worldwide.

Yeah, it's overwhelming. But can we as a little local church here in Riverside, do something to make a dent in the problem? Yes, we can. Yes, we can if our priorities are after the priorities of our father.

Let's talk for a moment about widows. What is real religion? Real religion is marked by a merciful way of life as we visit orphans. And then the second illustration that James gives us is to visit widows in their trouble.

Visit widows and the trouble. What is a widow? A widow, the simple definition is a widow is someone who's lost her husband, right? And so we would want to have compassion as God has compassion over anyone who's lost their husband.

You want to provide emotional support. But again, visit here is, implies a lifestyle. And Paul gives us some definitions of those that are widows indeed. Like, there are those that are widows that need the emotional support, but how do we know who is it that really needs the financial support?

If you look at 1 Timothy chapter 5, I'll just read a couple of passes here. You could turn there. 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 3. Paul says honor widows who are really widows.

In other words, and he's not meaning to disparage those that have lost husbands but are doing well financially. He just wants to draw a line between those that are really in need and those that have lost their husbands that are doing OK. Who are those that are really widows? If anyone, if, in verse 4, if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and repay their parents, for this is good and acceptable before God.

Notice the same terminology, good and acceptable before God, pure and undefiled in the sight of God. So, one of the things, one of the principles here is, is if you have a widow in our church or a needy person in our church, but they've got family here, the family has the first obligation to take care of the needs. Does that make sense? And you see, say Joshua, my son grows up, he's a 21 year old guy and he's going to this church and he starts having financial need.

And if Katie and I won't help him out, the church doesn't have any obligation to help out my boy who's having financial troubles. Does that make sense? And the same thing would be true of, of widows. Verse 5, now she who is really a widow and left alone, this is the definition of a real widow in Paul's mind, trusts in God and continues in supplication prayers night and day.

And then he says this interesting thing in verse 8, but if anyone does not provide for his own implication for his own widow, especially for those of his own household, he's denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. So again, he's back to this idea that family needs to take care of family first. But then verse 16, if any believing man or woman has widows, let him relieve them and do not let the church be burdened. That would, that it may relieve those who are really widows.

So Paul's pretty plain here. Who are those that are really widows? They've been left alone. They don't have any family to help them out.

And so those are the types of people that the church is under obligation to take care of. Those that cannot provide for themselves. Now, in the context that James is writing in, a gal had lost her husband most of the time in Roman Empire, had very little opportunity to go out, if any opportunity to go out and supply her own needs. In today's society, praise God.

This is one of the things I think we can praise the Lord for the feminist movement about. There, it's not all bad, but a gal, if her husband dies, she can go out and get a job and provide for her kids, and, and take care of them and in that sense, that's good. But what do you do when you've got, there are legitimate cases where people just can't get out and provide for themselves, elderly people, and they just don't have anybody. It's the, it's our responsibility to, to, to be taking care of them, to be funding their needs, providing for them.

And so this is something that we need to, to be thinking about as a church. Now, beyond just orphans and widows, you can expand this just, just general needy people is that as a church. Real religion is marked by a merciful way of life and so we're looking for people in our body and outside of our body to whom we can express mercy. We can visit them and offer them emotional support.

We can help those that are. Needy indeed. Just as you have widows indeed, you also have those that are needy indeed. Randy Alcorn was telling a story about a family that they had found out was below poverty level.

They were having trouble, putting food on the table, and they went and bought all these groceries and they drove down to the address. They Googled it and went down to the address and drove up to one of the nicest houses you ever saw with two huge, nice looking trucks. And went up to bring food and, and the people that answered the door on their BlackBerry cell phone. This is not needy people.

These are people who are, have misplaced priorities. These are people that if they get rid of the cars and sell the house and move into a smaller house. could put food on the table. And stop using all their credit cards, right?

So, just like there's real widows, there's also real needy and Pastor Milton is hopefully going to tie up some of those loose ends in a couple of weeks here, but All that to say that what is real religion? Real religion is marked by not just mercy, but a merciful way of life. And let's be praying that God, not just as individuals, but as a church, that we would have more and more concern, particularly for the fatherless. And for widows, I love.

Again, I just love the ministry that Carl Sims heads up and I know many are involved in where they head out Sunday afternoons and go visit some of the, the elderly here at Plymouth Towers. They also go out on Thursdays and, and just minister to these people. And if you were looking for a way to minister to some elderly people, it'd be a great ministry to get involved in. If you wanted to minister to some spiritual orphans this week, you could get involved in our Iana soccer camp out here at North High School.

I know that we've got lots of volunteers, but, you could sign your kids up and just come on out Monday through Friday and no doubt you're gonna be dealing with lots and lots of spiritual orphans out here, Monday to Friday out here at North High School, and we've put it in the evening so that men could be involved, 6:00 to 8:30. And so that'd be one way that you could put this into practice. Now we've mentioned that the early church. has been doing this for 2000 years.

Let me just read you one quote from a Roman emperor. This was not a Christian man, and he spoke of, when he speaks of atheism, he's speaking of Christianity. Christianity used to be called atheism back in the Roman Empire because they didn't believe in multiple gods. But Emperor Julian says atheism is being specially advanced through the loving care devoted to strangers, through their care of the burial of the dead.

It is a scandal that there is not a single Jewish beggar, while these godless Galileans, whom some call Christians care not only for their own poor but for ours as well. And while those who belong to us look in vain for the service, we should render them. It's an emperor of the Roman Empire saying that the government. is not able to do the job.

In fact, people are coming to, to get their needs met from the government. We're not able to meet their needs, but the Christians are running around meeting everybody's needs. Would to God that there would be a swell across our country. Of evangelical churches that would just put welfare out of business.

That would just Meet the needs of the truly needy. Folks, this, if it's gonna be a lifestyle stuff, it means it can't be tokenism. So I want to ask you this question before we move on to the next point, and that is, where are the poor in my budget? This stuff doesn't happen if it's not planned.

Where are the poor? In my budget Martin Luther was known for being generous to a fault. Many times he was taken advantage of. One time he's quoted as saying that God divided the hand and the fingers so that money would slip through.

That was his attitude towards money. Randy Alcorn has this quote. He says, we need to examine our motives. It's becoming trendy for the middle and upper classes to help the poor.

It makes us feel good, soothes our consciences, to make us, to make a few token gestures to the poor in the return to our lives of materialism. The challenge is not to pat ourselves on the back for giving away a sack of groceries at Christmas. It's to integrate caring for the poor into our lifestyles. Paul says, if I give all to I possessed the poor.

But do not have love, I gain nothing. So it's mercy as a lifestyle. This is a On the staff level, we've heard lots of comments from people in the past couple of weeks, how this has just been a real challenge. I know for me and my family, it's been a real challenge.

we've been very merciful in the sense of tokenism. We go out and do this, do a little bit of that, feel good about this, feel good about that, but as far as like lifestyle, mercy, I have to say that boy, there's a lot of room for our family to grow. one of the things we tried to do here recently is on Thanksgiving. Before we get together with our families, we'll take the children down to the nursing home because hardly anybody wants to go to the nursing home on Thanksgiving and we'll just let the kids sit in all the grandma's laps.

And sing some songs and I'll teach a little Bible study. So Christmas morning, same thing. first thing kids want to do is get up and open their presents. We want to teach our kids not just to be materialistic.

We want to teach them to give. And so Carlos and his family and our family and I think one other family last Christmas, we went, all went down to the convalescent home and we just let the kids sit in all the grandma's laps, man. That's all you gotta do. Just get Anna in some lady's lap and she's as happy as a clam on Christmas.

And, and what does that teach the children? That going out and blessing an elderly person on Christmas morning is more important than that little gift that you're going to open. That's, that's fun to open that little gift. But this, Jesus says, blessed are those, more blessed are those who give than those who receive, right?

So you can teach your children those things. Let's talk about the 2nd. mark of religion. We'll take less time with this, and that is that real religion is marked by a moral way of life.

The first thing we said is real religion is marked by a merciful way of life. But you have to get the second part. Real religion is marked by a moral way of life. Notice what he says in the second last part of the verse.

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father's this, to visit orphans, widows, and the trouble, and, and it's not actually there in the text in the Greek, to keep oneself unspotted from the world. To keep oneself unspotted from the world, unstained, unpolluted. Over in chapter 4, James says friendship with the world is hatred towards God. What does he mean by the world?

Well, James here is commanding us to avoid thinking and acting in accordance with the value system of the society around us. One writer defines world as the world of the unredeemed humanity as alienated from God in rebellion to his will. We need to be unstained, untainted from worldliness. in 2 Timothy, Paul warns us, knowing that we are living in the last days, he says, but know this, in the last days, perilous times will come.

Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, they look like they're godly or they profess to be godly but denying its power and from such people turn away. Worldliness kills mercy. I don't have that on your notes, but you can write that down.

Worldliness will kill your desire for mercy. I know it's done that in my life. When I have given myself over to the desires of the world, when I've got myself Caught up in even lawful pleasures, things that there's no law against them, but I let my heart get consumed by things that will not last. It just seems to suck away my desire.

For the needy, my concern for the poor, the orphans, and the widows. Why is that? Why is it that worldliness takes away our longing to show mercy? Aren't they mutually exclusive?

Isn't it true that You've only got so much time and so if tonight I sit around and watch a movie, that means I'm not. Doing something else, right? If tonight, I go to a ball game, then I'm not doing something else. Does that mean it's wrong to go to a ballgame?

No. But if Monday night I go to a ballgame and Tuesday night, I watch a movie and, and Wednesday night, I'm just kinda out hanging with my friends, and Thursday night, we're out playing video games, and Friday night, I'm just kicking back reading some fiction that, that has no eternal value. Then where's Where's the time for mercy that's supposed to be important. This way of life, of mercy, where does that fit in to my busy schedule?

And when you really analyze the busy schedule, how busy is it really? Well, it's been busy with pleasures that will not last beyond this life. In The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, he pictures two children. One child is called Patience and the other child is called Passion, and Patience is sitting there waiting quietly and Patience is stomping his feet.

Passion is stomping his feet, and finally somebody comes and gives him a present and he rips open the present and plays with it real fast for, a few minutes and then it's broken and then he starts stomping again. And Pilgrim says to the interpreter, what does this mean? And he says patience represents those that are waiting for their heavenly reward, and they are content to have suffering in this life and do the bidding of their master, the Father. Passion is the one that wants all of his gifts now, and he will have suffering in the future.

And is that not true? Is that not what Jesus has promised, that those that want their fulfillment now and will not lose their lives? Those who lose their, lose their lives now will gain it, right? If you want your life now, you will lose it.

That's exactly what Christ has taught. Notice what JC Ryle says about even lawful pleasures. He says, better write poison on all earthly pleasures. The most lawful of them must be used with moderation.

All of them are soul destroying if you give your heart to them. one of the things that You'll find people talking a lot about in evangelical Christianity. Is our obsession with pleasure these days. The church in ages past had a very wary eye towards the most lawful of pleasures.

When you read writers, even from early this century, 1800s, 1700s, 1600s, they would talk very suspiciously about things that we just assume are OK today. Like card playing. What's wrong with card playing? Well, there's no Bible verse against card playing, and I guess you can play cards once in a while, it's not that big of a deal.

But you'll read pastors. guys like John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, Spurgeon. We're not talking about freaks here. We're talking about some really solid preachers.

That will warn of things about card playing. They'll warn about theater going. they didn't have movies back then, but they had theaters. They'll warn about worldly pleasures, not because these things were necessarily bad.

Calvin in his day, when, when the theater was full of morality plays, he said, well, they're harmless, they're OK. But once the theaters were full of other types of plays that appealed to the lust and the pleasures of men and women, then the warnings began to come. And, a guy like John Wesley, he doesn't out and out condemn the movie theater, but, or the theater, but he just says, It's a temporal pleasure. So how much time do you want to give to that was their attitude.

And historically, that's always been the approach towards pleasures that just aren't going to last. There's no Bible verse against it necessarily. But there are Bible verses about just giving ourselves over to things other than Christ, right? Is there anything wrong with my kid playing Super Smashing Brothers on Nintendo?

No. But if that becomes his idol, If that's what he wants to do when he wakes up in the morning and go to bed, then it's a problem. Is there anything wrong with my kids watching, a clean children's movie? No.

But if, if, if my, if my daughter wakes up in the morning and the first thing out of her mouth is says, can I watch a movie? And she's not being engineered. She's not being discipled to think about morality, to think about mercy. Then brothers and sisters, something's wrong.

And it's my contention, this is, I'm not just saying this on my behalf, I'm saying this on behalf of our staff conversations that one of the reasons why One of the reasons why we are finding that so many of our kids in the church across America are growing up so worldly. is because they're not growing up taking pleasure in mercy. They're growing up taking pleasure in satisfying the flesh, even with quote unquote lawful things. They wake up and they go throughout their day.

What are we going to do today, mom? When are we gonna go to McDonald's? Can I get that gum? And it's just one thing after the other to feed their flesh, and they have no desire.

It's, it's no, it's, it's, it's not Strange. That these kids don't have a desire for mercy. Now I'm just speaking off the top of my head here, but these are conversations we're having on a staff level. It's like, why don't we have kids that are concerned about mercy?

Well, our hearts are stuffed with other things. And brothers and sisters, if it's happened to our kids, it means that we're setting the example. And I, I've, Katie and I've been noticing in our own lives. Recently, we've started to make some changes around the house as far as just what do we do at dinner time and stuff and We've been watching Josh and Ann over the past 3 months.

It's like they're going through detox. Because we're not running to McDonald's as much and we're not giving Anna juice every time she wants a juice and, and we're not just throwing on a movie at dinner time and it's like the kids are just kinda freaking out. Trying to disciple them to take pleasure. In things of the Lord.

Again, am I saying that all these things are absolutely evil? No. But the Bible give us a clear warning against giving our hearts over things that will not last? Yeah.

Yeah. Carlos said last week, Mercy ministry is an effective antidote for sinful patterns of life. And it goes back, it, it, James is not putting these things together for no reason. A merciful way of life is complemented by morality and vice versa.

If we're giving ourselves over to mercy, and then we're going to find, you're going to find and your kids are going to find that they're, they're going to be walking close to the Lord and they're going to want to give their hearts to pure things. But if, if you don't have anything to do for God, then you're gonna, your tendency is to go give your heart to Things that don't really matter, because what else are you going to do, right? And vice versa., A statistic that you could find online, Movieuide.com, which is an excellent organization.

Ask the question, who teaches our children by the time they are 17?

And the statistics they came up with is by the time your children turn 17, they will have been influenced by 63,000 hours of media time. That's iPods, video games, movies, internet. The same children will have spent 11,000 hours in school, actual school time, 82% less than media. 2000 hours with parents, 96% less, and if they go to church one hour every Sunday until they're 17, they'll be in church 800 hours, 99% less.

It's interesting also to note that only 10% of children coming out of Christian homes are continuing in the faith of their parents. I wonder why. If our children are being discipled with 63,000 hours of media input, And they get 2000 hours with parents and 800 hours with the church. Is it any wonder that our kids are hard to think of God?

They couldn't care less about mercy. And so many of our kids, once they turn 18, they're just walking away from the faith. We've discipled him to do it. 63,000 hours.

You can't compete with that, folks. You cannot compete with 63,000 hours of media discipleship. It's too creative. It's too powerful.

Lots of money behind it. And if you don't think it influences people, then why are people out trading in their phones for these new iPhones? The media doesn't impact people. That's why people are all lined up to get their new iPhone.

Anyway, I think we're out of time. Let's look at the last. 2nd to last slide here. Hudson Taylor says, the less I spend on myself, the more I gave to others, the fuller of happiness and blessing did my soul become.

That's really the message we need to be teaching our kids is His children how you're gonna find real happiness is by giving it all away. If you clutch onto it, Your heart will be dissatisfied. But if you go out and just give your life for Christ, you give your time for Christ, you give your life to orphans, you give your time to widows, you give your money to the Lord, and you just say forget it, man. I'm gonna die anyway, it's all gonna burn.

that's when you find happy people. Happy people. Jeremiah 22:16 says, Josiah defended the cause of the poor and the needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me, declares the Lord.

It's one of the things that means. Let's pray Lord, we thank you for this time. In your word, And, Lord, we pray that you would help us. To have a lifestyle.

Of mercy Lord, we pray, Father, this has to be done by your grace. No amount of browbeating, no amount of Legalistic bashing will make people, make any of us change our hearts. But Lord, we need to be consumed with you. And as we, as we look at how you have visited us in our affliction, Lord, may your spirit move upon us to visit others in their affliction.

Lord, may we be moved to live a lifestyle of mercy. Lord, may we be moved to live a lifestyle of morality and that these two would complement one another, Lord, that Lord, we pray for our children that they would get excited about missions. They would get excited about helping people. We pray, Father, that we would be wary.

of worldly pleasures, even the most lawful of pleasures, Lord, that when they begin to take control of our hearts, however innocent they may be, Lord, may that give us caution, knowing the deadening effect that that can have on our hearts. Pray that your spirit would apply these things to each of us individually. Pray this in Christ's name. Amen.