October 9, 2025 • 27 mins
What if the quiet crisis in modern Christianity isn’t doubt, but distraction—a version of faith that sounds right and changes little? We go straight at the subtle Gnosticism that still haunts church culture today: the lure of secret knowledge, the shrug toward the physical world, and the fantasy of escape. Then we lay it beside Paul’s charge in Romans 12 to offer our bodies as living worship and James’s blunt verdict that faith without works isn’t weak—it’s dead. The result is a practical roadmap for moving from belief to embodiment, from thoughts and prayers to presence and action.
Together, we unpack how transformation begins with a renewed mind and shows up in ordinary choices: honest work, patient relationships, quiet generosity, and courage when comfort beckons. We talk about resisting conformity to hustle culture’s metrics—money, output, image—and embracing a life that makes no sense apart from God. Along the way, we share concrete next steps: start small and specific, see everyday tasks as altars, draw near to pain instead of outsourcing compassion, and let grace be the source of your doing so burnout doesn’t win. The heartbeat is simple: worship is not a playlist or a Sunday hour; it’s how we live.
Anchored in the incarnation—love with skin on—we remember that Jesus didn’t send a concept; he showed up. Communion becomes more than a ritual; it’s our reminder that grace is tangible and our invitation to become tangible too. If you’re ready to move beyond privatized belief and let the gospel be visible through your hands and feet, this conversation will meet you where you are and nudge you forward. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s hungry for a lived faith, and leave a review telling us one small act you’ll take this week.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to Madison Church Online.
I'm Stephen Feith, lead pastor.
Glad you're joining us for thisseries as Kyle led us into.
It's on Gnosticism.
Lots to say about that thismorning.
But I want to begin by saying Ibelieve in this room we all want
a faith that matters, that'stangible, that's meaningful,
(00:23):
that's engaging.
You want a faith that transformsyour life and not just your
life, but like it shapes yourrelationships, your career,
shows up in how you live everysingle day.
I don't think anyone in thisroom would be here in this room
if that wasn't true.
I don't think any of you arelooking to check off a box that
(00:45):
you went to church on Sundaymorning.
I think we're a little bitbeyond that era in which those
things mattered.
I think you're here todaybecause you are seeking God,
you're seeking community, andyou want to make an impact in
the city of Madison.
And all of that is because ofyour faith.
And that's why we're doing thisseries on Gnosticism, which
(01:05):
honestly is probably a word thatmost of you had never heard of
before the series, or you mighthave heard of agnosticism, which
is not what we're talking about,but Gnosticism.
And the reason that we've beendoing this, and the reason I
wanted to do this for a reallylong time, is because this is
what, out of all of thesituations and circumstances at
the early church, that thosefirst followers of Jesus, versus
(01:27):
disciples and the apostles andthose early church plans, the
thing that almost killed themwas not the Roman Empire.
The Roman Empire was oppressiveand it was a difficult thing for
them to get through.
But when you read the history ofthe church and its evolution and
the theology development,Gnosticism was the thing that
almost put us out.
(01:47):
And Gnosticism had three corebeliefs.
And the first one was thatsalvation came through a secret
knowledge.
And so it wasn't available oraccessible to everyone, just
someone's.
And if you were lucky, that wasyou.
And if you weren't lucky, well,it just sucks to suck.
The physical world, it didn'tmatter.
(02:09):
What this meant was you could dowhatever you wanted to do.
You're talking truly heinous,disgusting, terrible things that
would hurt other people.
But if you prayed and read yourBible, that was okay then.
Because your soul was separatethan your body.
And faith was about escaping theworld rather than engaging it.
(02:29):
I want faith, so when I die, Idon't go to hell.
Okay.
And the reason I've wanted to dothis series, and I probably
should have led with this onweek one, but the reason I
wanted to do this series isbecause I believe that
Gnosticism still permeates.
It exists within our faith rightnow.
I would say most of what I seeis it on social media with posts
(02:50):
or like the famous influentialpastors.
A lot of the theology is veryGnostic informed or Gnostic
influenced.
I mean, if you think about it,salvation comes through secret
knowledge.
You have to believe certainthings about God.
Well, what things?
Well, let me tell you whatthings matter.
And depending on what church orpastor you ask, it's going to be
(03:11):
different.
And in that way, it's kind ofsecretive.
And you might be here todaywondering am I believing the
right things?
Well, there's no secretknowledge.
As Kyle talked about last week,this is about relationship, and
the gospel is accessible andavailable to everyone.
God is seeking you as you seekhim.
We see things like the physicalworld doesn't matter in our
(03:32):
society.
Well, as long as you go tochurch on Sunday and you sing
the songs or you don't listen tothat kind of music and you don't
watch these kind of movies orwhatever, and and and you take
care of that, then it reallydoesn't matter like if you're
greedy or not, or if you lie oryou cheat at work or at school.
Well, I prayed and I asked forforgiveness on check, it's fine,
(03:55):
right?
Because I'm taking care of mysoul.
We see it when faith gets boileddown to escaping this world.
When we're talking or obsessedwith the rapture, and I'm sure
in the last few weeks you'veseen all of the graphs, right?
And we're still here today.
And that ties into theGnosticism, both secret
knowledge and also like the onlyreason we're here is to like
hunker down, hold down, and Ihope I don't get left behind.
(04:19):
All of these things are Gnostic,not Christ.
And that's why we're doing theseries.
We still have the same mindset,though.
It's the kind of Christianitythat scrolls through sermons on
YouTube or podcasts, but wedon't serve anyone in real life.
We don't talk about faith inreal life.
(04:39):
It's the kind of faith thatloves to go deep, but never out.
I can tell you everything aboutRevelation and all my theories.
And there's guys, there's likefive orthodox views of
Revelation.
Okay, so you're like one-fifthof the way there.
Okay, so there's like all ofthese acceptable views of
Revelation, and we're like, Igot it, but then we never go out
in the street and live likeJesus.
(05:01):
It's a faith that thoughts andprayers about the problems that
are going on or sharing thepost, but I'm not gonna get my
hands dirty.
I'm not gonna bring it up whenit challenges me, when it costs
me.
I'll go protest on a niceafternoon in Madison, but don't
ask me to get arrested on aThursday night.
(05:24):
It's a soft faith.
And if we're honest, I'm notpicking on you.
It's me too.
We are all susceptible to doingthis.
It happens to every single oneof us.
We know the gospel in theory, orour version of it, our theology
(05:44):
of the gospel, but that doesn'tnecessarily change how we treat
people.
We affirm our faith with ourlips, and yet no one can tell
any difference in us Mondaythrough Friday when we go to
work.
We can sing the songs on Sundayand live something completely
different on Monday.
(06:06):
I think it's serious because asJohn Ortberg once said, the
danger for us, for Christians,the danger for us is not that
we'll renounce our faith.
I think that's a lot of thefear, right?
When we talk aboutdeconstruction and people
deconstructing their faith,they're like, what if we get to
the end of it and we completelydon't have faith at all?
I don't know if that's the worstthing that can happen.
I think as Oortberg points out,though the danger is that we'll
(06:30):
become so distracted and sosuperficial that we settle for a
mediocre version of our faith.
A mediocre version of it.
And that's, I think, the warningof Gnosticism is that we say we
pray and I gotta pray a littlebit better or a little bit
deeper, or I read my Bible and Igotta do it a little bit more, a
little bit longer.
I go to church and I've gone 12weeks in a row, but I'm gonna go
(06:52):
for 13 now.
And and and we have all of thesethings that we're trying to do,
but it's mediocre.
As Kyle talked about, do we knowthe God who has sought us out
for relationship?
This is what was going on 2,000years ago.
I know the Bible is uh filledwith books that are very old,
and you're wondering, is itrelevant for you?
(07:13):
But this is exactly why it'srelevant.
They were dealing with the samething you and I deal with today.
Paul confronts it in Rome, Jamesconfronts it in the scattered
churches of the first century,and both remind us that a faith
that is believed but notembodied isn't a real faith.
Okay, faith that is believed butnot embodied is not real.
(07:37):
Paul pleads offer your bodies,not just your beliefs.
And James warns us faith withoutworks isn't weak, it's not
shallow, it's dead.
And because true discipleshipisn't an escape plan for heaven,
discipleship following Jesus isan embodied way of life here and
(08:00):
now.
Here and now.
And so if you want to followalong with me, I'm gonna go to 1
Romans chapter 12.
And by the time Paul gets tothis point in Romans, and for
you theology nerds, you knowthat this is kind of like the
gospel according to Paul, andhe's laying out a theology of
sin and why humans need Jesusand what Jesus did.
(08:21):
But he gets to this point atchapter 12, and he pivots and he
says, therefore, therefore, andin other words, because of
everything I've said to you,chapters 1 through 11,
everything I've built up aboutJesus and Adam and Israel has
led to this pivot point righthere.
(08:41):
He says, This is how you respondto the gospel, this is how you
ought to react to what I havejust told you.
And he says, give your bodies toGod, because of all he has done
for you.
Let them be a living and holysacrifice, the kind he will find
acceptable.
This is truly the way to worshiphim.
(09:03):
So there's the way to do it.
And then he's gonna say, forthose of you who are wondering,
don't copy the behavior andcustoms of this world.
Don't copy it.
Let God transform you into a newperson by changing the way you
think.
Then you will learn to knowGod's will for you, which is
good and pleasing and perfect.
(09:27):
What Paul says, a lot of whatPaul says is countercultural.
This is included in that.
In Rome, when we were going toworship, it meant bringing
something dead to the altar.
Here is this animal I sacrificedto appease this God.
Now, please don't be angry withme.
But Paul flips that.
(09:48):
We're not going to bringsomething dead to the altar
anymore.
You're going to bring yourself,your full life self.
True worship isn't what happensat the temple when we're
spilling blood.
True worship isn't a singleritual, it's not a weekly
ceremony, it's not just onSunday from 11 to 12.
(10:09):
True worship, Paul says, thekind of worship that we respond
to God's grace, love, andforgiveness is offering our
bodies, hands, feet, mind, everyday, breathing, and all the
things you do.
It's giving it to God.
And that includes every kind ofbody, strong or weak, young,
(10:37):
aging, disabled, neurodiverse,male, female, or somewhere in
between the categories the worldtries to force.
Everybody is sacred ground forGod's glory.
The diversity of our bodies isnot an obstacle to worship, it's
(10:58):
the very place worship begins.
In Greek, the word Paul uses forbody, it refers to the whole
person, not just your physicalform.
When he refers to the body, he'stalking mind, body, and spirit,
all of you, the total self.
He's not just saying, he'ssaying, don't just give God your
beliefs, your theologies, yourmind and your spirit.
(11:20):
He's saying, give God all ofyou.
Yes, your spirit, yes, your mindand your thoughts, but also your
body, your work, your habits,your relationships, and your
time.
Worship is not about what wethink.
It's not even about how we feel.
Worship, according to Paul, isabout how we live.
(11:43):
And Rome was constantly moldingpeople into its own image.
That was the whole point ofbeing of the Roman Empire.
You idolized honor, you idolizedpower, you idolized prestige.
And Paul says, don't beconformed to that, instead, be
transformed.
And this is the same word thatthey write when talking about
(12:03):
Jesus says transfiguration.
Be transformed in a deep,spirit-led way that begins with
the renewal of our minds andresults in a life that reflects
God's will.
We live in the United States,but the US, our world, our
(12:25):
culture is they try to shape usnonetheless.
We're told our value comes fromhow busy we are or how much
money we make or have saved, howmuch we consume.
The message in our society thatwe're being conformed to is that
more is better.
And it's completely possible tosay that we believe in Jesus.
(12:47):
That we believe in Jesus.
I check the box.
Yes, that's that's the God Ichoose, while still living by
the same values as everybodyelse, including those who say,
no, that's not the God I choose.
To talk about faith on Sunday,but to embody civilization
around us, their patterns therest of the week.
But Paul is calling you and I tosomething better, a life that no
(13:10):
longer makes sense apart fromGod.
Let's focus on that for asecond.
What Paul is saying is to live alife that no longer makes sense
apart from God.
Stanley Hauerwass puts it (13:24):
to be a Christian means to live in
such a way that your life wouldnot make sense if God did not
exist.
To live your life in such a waythat just would not make sense
if God did not exist.
So that's kind of the firstpart.
We're going to offer ourselvesas a living worship.
Now we're going to go to Jameschapter 2.
James is the brother of Jesus.
(13:45):
He's writing to churches thatare dispersed all over the
place, and he's confronting somedifferent issues.
But he begins in verse 14saying, What good is it, dear
brothers and sisters, if you sayyou have faith, but don't show
it by your actions?
Can that kind of faith saveanyone?
I mean, suppose you see abrother or sister who has no
food or clothing, and you saygoodbye and have a good day,
(14:09):
stay warm and eat well, but thenyou don't give that person any
food or clothing.
What good does that do?
So you see, faith by itselfisn't enough.
Unless it produces good deeds,it is dead and useless.
These churches that are readingthis from James, they're small
(14:31):
and they're strugglingcommunities that are facing
really bad poverty and a lot ofpressure.
For them, hunger and lack ofclothing wasn't an abstract
issue down the road at theshelter, those people elsewhere,
but it was them.
It would have been as Jameslooks out at the churches, he
sees it in the congregation.
(14:51):
So when James describes, hesays, you know, essentially you
can imagine James up here sayingthis to a group, when he says,
Don't ignore the brother orsister in need, he's talking to
the people sitting there, wellfed, fully clothed, sitting next
to those who are starving andneeding something to wear.
James warns it's possible toclaim that you have faith.
(15:14):
I have faith, but never toembody it.
But he asks a rhetoricalquestion: what good is it?
What good is it to check thebox, to say that you believe the
thing?
He's kind of going to theirJewish ancestry, their tradition
here, where mercy wasn'toptional, mercy was covenantal.
It was part of the deal.
(15:34):
If you were gonna have arelationship with God, then you
had to show mercy.
Offering pious words withoutpractical compassion wasn't just
lazy.
According to the old covenant,it was shameful.
He paints a vivid picture.
When someone says, stay warm, befilled, it sounds spiritual.
And if you think about it, whenyou have passed someone on the
(15:57):
street or when I've passedsomeone on the street, most of
the time, a lot of the time, weavoid making eye contact.
We walk faster.
We cross the street.
So James is already pointing outsomething that for a lot of us
would be an improvement.
You walk by someone, and insteadof avoiding them, you say, God
bless you today.
(16:18):
Well, that would be animprovement for me.
Okay.
I don't know about you.
It'd be an improvement for me.
But James is saying, even thatimprovement, Stephen, or you,
even that improvement, that'snot good enough.
It's empty.
It's betrayal of the gospel,it's a denial of the Jesus that
you claim to believe.
(16:40):
This is a hard-hitting message.
I mean, he's he's saying yourfaith without it is dead, not
struggling, not weak, notimmature, non-existent, dead.
For the early church, thatstripped away every single
excuse that they would have had.
(17:01):
Faith and actions weren't twocategories of spiritual life.
They were one of the same.
And again, we may not seenakedness in our gatherings, but
the needs around us today arejust as real.
The difference for us today isthat it's easier to look away,
(17:21):
you see, because the hungerisn't in front of us this
morning.
We live in a world that lets usoutsource compassion.
You're hungry.
Let me tell you where you canget a meal.
You need somewhere to eat.
Let me show you where theshelter is.
And look, systemic options helpfight systemic problems.
So don't mishear what I'msaying.
(17:44):
My warning to us is how many ofus double tap the post about
injustice, but we never act forjustice.
We say, in more words, staywarm, be filled, and we have
good intentions.
I know you have good intentions,but then we don't follow
through.
And isn't that the problem,wouldn't you say, with modern
(18:05):
Christianity?
A lot of thoughts and prayers, alot of sharing, but not enough
actions.
And James says it's that kind offaith, no matter how sincere it
sounds, is lifeless.
Not because God needs our works,God doesn't need your work, but
because our faith does.
(18:28):
So when you listen to Paul andyou listen to James together,
you can hear a single heartbeat.
These two are not contradictingeach other, they're not at odds
with each other.
Paul says worship is an embodiedsacrifice.
It's everything that I have, Ioffer to God, not just some sort
of abstract belief.
And James says faith withoutthat, without that embodied
(18:48):
worship, that action is dead.
Unalive.
Both confront the same danger.
A faith that appears spiritualbut never materializes in the
real life.
Together they remind us thatwithout embodiment, faith is not
worship.
(19:09):
And without works, it is notalive.
The believers wrote, thebelievers that they wrote to
were small, pressured, and oftenpoor.
And that meant for them tolisten to Paul or to listen to
James meant a visible differencein their lives.
Resisting the empire, breakingsocial barriers, caring for
(19:29):
those in need.
It was risky, it was costly, butas I reflect on it for us today,
living in Madison, it does costa lot less.
I mean, you're not going to bepersecuted for the post, you're
not going to be persecuted foryour faith like they were.
Okay.
(19:50):
But our comfort might cost ussome comfort.
Our danger today isn'tnecessarily oppression or being
oppressed because of our faith,but distraction.
We can believe without acting.
You can worship withoutsurrendering.
You can call yourself a followerof Jesus without following him
anywhere.
And that's the challenge of ourmoment.
(20:12):
It's to resist the drift to aprivatized faith,
compartmentalized belief system,and recover a faith that
actually looks like Jesus isLord of my life, visible in our
relationships, active in ourservice, and present in our
world.
We have to move beyond belief toembodiment.
(20:36):
Remember what Paul says?
It starts there.
It starts with belief, but fortoo many of us, it started there
and it's ended there, and that'swhere we currently are.
It's gotta get moving.
People whose faith is lived, notjust claimed.
The invitation is simple, yes,but not easy.
(20:58):
Simple, but not easy.
So choose one place of your lifethis week where your belief in
Jesus, what you claim to believeabout God, comes into practice.
Now let me say this with carebecause James is not telling you
today to do more for God.
Okay, that's how this Bibleverse gets kind of exploited and
(21:19):
used and abused.
James is inviting you to livefrom what God has already done
in you.
It's not do more, do more, domore.
It's look what God's alreadydone in you.
Just live that out.
For some of us, that meansstepping out and putting our
faith into motion.
That's where we're at.
(21:39):
It's time to give my faith somelegs and some hands.
For others, it means letting uhletting our doing slow down long
enough to let the spirit renewus.
For a lot of us, we're so busythat we we can't really open
ourselves up to God and whathe's saying.
And that's why we feel burnedout.
It's not because we're not doinggood things, it's not because we
don't have the right faith, it'snot because we don't love God
and it's not because we're nottrying, it's because we're not
(22:01):
slowing down to say, God, whatis it that I need to change up?
Because works born from grace donot, or I'm sorry, works born
from grace brings life.
When your works come from grace,it brings life.
But when you work to provesomething, your life will be
(22:22):
drained.
And for a lot of us who aredrained or burned out or some
kind of way worse, can weconsider today to rest in God's
grace?
It starts small, perhaps withjust your presence.
James's audience, they sawhunger firsthand.
For us, we see loneliness, wesee exhaustion, and we see quiet
(22:46):
grief.
It's easy to tell someone, Iwill pray for you, maybe even go
a little bit further and praywith them, right there on the
spot, but still not have to showup and walk with them.
And perhaps that walk will takeweeks, months, or years.
What if your first act of faiththis week was to simply be
present with someone you know issuffering, to sit with them in
(23:09):
their pain, to visit someone whois alone, and to listen without
offering solution or trying tofix.
For others, maybe it's we needto start treating small acts as
acts of worship.
We see areas of our life asinsignificant, but we're told by
Paul to offer everything, eventhe insignificant things, as
acts of worship.
(23:30):
So ordinary faithfulness issacred.
Perhaps you care for a childthis week.
You show patience at work tosomebody who really gets under
your skin.
You serve your neighbor withoutthem asking.
Have you considered that thoseare all acts of worship or acts
of not worship?
(23:51):
You can go in the otherdirection.
Ask yourself, where can I servein a small but meaningful way
this week that might seemmundane, but God considers holy.
For some of us, it's to make asacrificial choice that makes
the gospel visible.
Both Paul and James point us tocostly action.
To follow Jesus is to let ourfaith make us uncomfortable.
(24:14):
And maybe that means giving yourtime or your resources that you
would rather keep.
Perhaps it means forgivingsomeone who absolutely does not
deserve to be forgiven.
Maybe it means reconcilingwhat's been broken.
That is the path of discipleshipfaith, the kind of faith that
(24:35):
moves us from words, fromGnosticism to presence, from
convenience to surrender, frombelief to embodiment.
The call isn't today for you todo everything.
The call is to do something, todo something, to take one step
toward a faith that looks morelike Jesus, visible, tangible,
(25:00):
and alive.
We started this series out bytalking about John's words in
chapter one that the word becameflesh and made his dwelling
among us.
That's the incarnation.
God didn't send someone else toget the job done.
He didn't send ideas ortheories.
God physically came into thisworld.
(25:22):
Jesus touched the untouchable,he washed dirty feet, and he
broke bread with sinners.
He also carried a cross.
It shows that faith isn'tabstract.
His love wasn't a theory, thatGod was embodied, and so was his
(25:42):
love.
That's the model of discipleshipfor us to follow at Madison
Church.
Not earning grace, but living inthe same grace that took on
flesh for you and me.
And that's what we remember aswe come to the communion table.
Communion isn't just a ritualthat we do every week at Madison
Church, it's a reminder thatGod's love became tangible for
(26:04):
you and me.
And so when we take the breadand we take the cup, we remember
that his body was broken and hisblood poured out for you and me.
Not theoretically, but really.
So when you come to the tabletoday, slow down and don't rush.
Remember that Jesus gave hisbody for you, and now he invites
(26:25):
you to give your body back tohim, to offer your whole self as
an act of worship.
Because when you do that,something inside of you changes.
You begin to experience God'sactual presence, not just an
idea of God.
Your faith becomes alive, yourheart begins to soften, your
(26:50):
mind renews, and you start tosee purpose and peace in places
that today feel ordinary orempty.
You begin to live the life thatJesus promised, a life to its
fullest.
So let's go and offer ourselvesas worship.
(27:12):
Let belief become action, letfaith take shape in our hands,
in our feet.
Let the gospel be visiblethrough us.
And as we do, may the world seeJesus alive.
Welcome to Madison Church Online.
I'm Stephen Feith, lead pastor.
Glad you're joining us for thisseries as Kyle led us into.
It's on Gnosticism.
Lots to say about that thismorning.
But I want to begin by saying Ibelieve in this room we all want
a faith that matters, that'stangible, that's meaningful,
(00:23):
that's engaging.
You want a faith that transformsyour life and not just your
life, but like it shapes yourrelationships, your career,
shows up in how you live everysingle day.
I don't think anyone in thisroom would be here in this room
if that wasn't true.
I don't think any of you arelooking to check off a box that
(00:45):
you went to church on Sundaymorning.
I think we're a little bitbeyond that era in which those
things mattered.
I think you're here todaybecause you are seeking God,
you're seeking community, andyou want to make an impact in
the city of Madison.
And all of that is because ofyour faith.
And that's why we're doing thisseries on Gnosticism, which
(01:05):
honestly is probably a word thatmost of you had never heard of
before the series, or you mighthave heard of agnosticism, which
is not what we're talking about,but Gnosticism.
And the reason that we've beendoing this, and the reason I
wanted to do this for a reallylong time, is because this is
what, out of all of thesituations and circumstances at
the early church, that thosefirst followers of Jesus, versus
(01:27):
disciples and the apostles andthose early church plans, the
thing that almost killed themwas not the Roman Empire.
The Roman Empire was oppressiveand it was a difficult thing for
them to get through.
But when you read the history ofthe church and its evolution and
the theology development,Gnosticism was the thing that
almost put us out.
(01:47):
And Gnosticism had three corebeliefs.
And the first one was thatsalvation came through a secret
knowledge.
And so it wasn't available oraccessible to everyone, just
someone's.
And if you were lucky, that wasyou.
And if you weren't lucky, well,it just sucks to suck.
The physical world, it didn'tmatter.
(02:09):
What this meant was you could dowhatever you wanted to do.
You're talking truly heinous,disgusting, terrible things that
would hurt other people.
But if you prayed and read yourBible, that was okay then.
Because your soul was separatethan your body.
And faith was about escaping theworld rather than engaging it.
(02:29):
I want faith, so when I die, Idon't go to hell.
Okay.
And the reason I've wanted to dothis series, and I probably
should have led with this onweek one, but the reason I
wanted to do this series isbecause I believe that
Gnosticism still permeates.
It exists within our faith rightnow.
I would say most of what I seeis it on social media with posts
(02:50):
or like the famous influentialpastors.
A lot of the theology is veryGnostic informed or Gnostic
influenced.
I mean, if you think about it,salvation comes through secret
knowledge.
You have to believe certainthings about God.
Well, what things?
Well, let me tell you whatthings matter.
And depending on what church orpastor you ask, it's going to be
(03:11):
different.
And in that way, it's kind ofsecretive.
And you might be here todaywondering am I believing the
right things?
Well, there's no secretknowledge.
As Kyle talked about last week,this is about relationship, and
the gospel is accessible andavailable to everyone.
God is seeking you as you seekhim.
We see things like the physicalworld doesn't matter in our
(03:32):
society.
Well, as long as you go tochurch on Sunday and you sing
the songs or you don't listen tothat kind of music and you don't
watch these kind of movies orwhatever, and and and you take
care of that, then it reallydoesn't matter like if you're
greedy or not, or if you lie oryou cheat at work or at school.
Well, I prayed and I asked forforgiveness on check, it's fine,
(03:55):
right?
Because I'm taking care of mysoul.
We see it when faith gets boileddown to escaping this world.
When we're talking or obsessedwith the rapture, and I'm sure
in the last few weeks you'veseen all of the graphs, right?
And we're still here today.
And that ties into theGnosticism, both secret
knowledge and also like the onlyreason we're here is to like
hunker down, hold down, and Ihope I don't get left behind.
(04:19):
All of these things are Gnostic,not Christ.
And that's why we're doing theseries.
We still have the same mindset,though.
It's the kind of Christianitythat scrolls through sermons on
YouTube or podcasts, but wedon't serve anyone in real life.
We don't talk about faith inreal life.
(04:39):
It's the kind of faith thatloves to go deep, but never out.
I can tell you everything aboutRevelation and all my theories.
And there's guys, there's likefive orthodox views of
Revelation.
Okay, so you're like one-fifthof the way there.
Okay, so there's like all ofthese acceptable views of
Revelation, and we're like, Igot it, but then we never go out
in the street and live likeJesus.
(05:01):
It's a faith that thoughts andprayers about the problems that
are going on or sharing thepost, but I'm not gonna get my
hands dirty.
I'm not gonna bring it up whenit challenges me, when it costs
me.
I'll go protest on a niceafternoon in Madison, but don't
ask me to get arrested on aThursday night.
(05:24):
It's a soft faith.
And if we're honest, I'm notpicking on you.
It's me too.
We are all susceptible to doingthis.
It happens to every single oneof us.
We know the gospel in theory, orour version of it, our theology
(05:44):
of the gospel, but that doesn'tnecessarily change how we treat
people.
We affirm our faith with ourlips, and yet no one can tell
any difference in us Mondaythrough Friday when we go to
work.
We can sing the songs on Sundayand live something completely
different on Monday.
(06:06):
I think it's serious because asJohn Ortberg once said, the
danger for us, for Christians,the danger for us is not that
we'll renounce our faith.
I think that's a lot of thefear, right?
When we talk aboutdeconstruction and people
deconstructing their faith,they're like, what if we get to
the end of it and we completelydon't have faith at all?
I don't know if that's the worstthing that can happen.
I think as Oortberg points out,though the danger is that we'll
(06:30):
become so distracted and sosuperficial that we settle for a
mediocre version of our faith.
A mediocre version of it.
And that's, I think, the warningof Gnosticism is that we say we
pray and I gotta pray a littlebit better or a little bit
deeper, or I read my Bible and Igotta do it a little bit more, a
little bit longer.
I go to church and I've gone 12weeks in a row, but I'm gonna go
(06:52):
for 13 now.
And and and we have all of thesethings that we're trying to do,
but it's mediocre.
As Kyle talked about, do we knowthe God who has sought us out
for relationship?
This is what was going on 2,000years ago.
I know the Bible is uh filledwith books that are very old,
and you're wondering, is itrelevant for you?
(07:13):
But this is exactly why it'srelevant.
They were dealing with the samething you and I deal with today.
Paul confronts it in Rome, Jamesconfronts it in the scattered
churches of the first century,and both remind us that a faith
that is believed but notembodied isn't a real faith.
Okay, faith that is believed butnot embodied is not real.
(07:37):
Paul pleads offer your bodies,not just your beliefs.
And James warns us faith withoutworks isn't weak, it's not
shallow, it's dead.
And because true discipleshipisn't an escape plan for heaven,
discipleship following Jesus isan embodied way of life here and
(08:00):
now.
Here and now.
And so if you want to followalong with me, I'm gonna go to 1
Romans chapter 12.
And by the time Paul gets tothis point in Romans, and for
you theology nerds, you knowthat this is kind of like the
gospel according to Paul, andhe's laying out a theology of
sin and why humans need Jesusand what Jesus did.
(08:21):
But he gets to this point atchapter 12, and he pivots and he
says, therefore, therefore, andin other words, because of
everything I've said to you,chapters 1 through 11,
everything I've built up aboutJesus and Adam and Israel has
led to this pivot point righthere.
(08:41):
He says, This is how you respondto the gospel, this is how you
ought to react to what I havejust told you.
And he says, give your bodies toGod, because of all he has done
for you.
Let them be a living and holysacrifice, the kind he will find
acceptable.
This is truly the way to worshiphim.
(09:03):
So there's the way to do it.
And then he's gonna say, forthose of you who are wondering,
don't copy the behavior andcustoms of this world.
Don't copy it.
Let God transform you into a newperson by changing the way you
think.
Then you will learn to knowGod's will for you, which is
good and pleasing and perfect.
(09:27):
What Paul says, a lot of whatPaul says is countercultural.
This is included in that.
In Rome, when we were going toworship, it meant bringing
something dead to the altar.
Here is this animal I sacrificedto appease this God.
Now, please don't be angry withme.
But Paul flips that.
(09:48):
We're not going to bringsomething dead to the altar
anymore.
You're going to bring yourself,your full life self.
True worship isn't what happensat the temple when we're
spilling blood.
True worship isn't a singleritual, it's not a weekly
ceremony, it's not just onSunday from 11 to 12.
(10:09):
True worship, Paul says, thekind of worship that we respond
to God's grace, love, andforgiveness is offering our
bodies, hands, feet, mind, everyday, breathing, and all the
things you do.
It's giving it to God.
And that includes every kind ofbody, strong or weak, young,
(10:37):
aging, disabled, neurodiverse,male, female, or somewhere in
between the categories the worldtries to force.
Everybody is sacred ground forGod's glory.
The diversity of our bodies isnot an obstacle to worship, it's
(10:58):
the very place worship begins.
In Greek, the word Paul uses forbody, it refers to the whole
person, not just your physicalform.
When he refers to the body, he'stalking mind, body, and spirit,
all of you, the total self.
He's not just saying, he'ssaying, don't just give God your
beliefs, your theologies, yourmind and your spirit.
(11:20):
He's saying, give God all ofyou.
Yes, your spirit, yes, your mindand your thoughts, but also your
body, your work, your habits,your relationships, and your
time.
Worship is not about what wethink.
It's not even about how we feel.
Worship, according to Paul, isabout how we live.
(11:43):
And Rome was constantly moldingpeople into its own image.
That was the whole point ofbeing of the Roman Empire.
You idolized honor, you idolizedpower, you idolized prestige.
And Paul says, don't beconformed to that, instead, be
transformed.
And this is the same word thatthey write when talking about
(12:03):
Jesus says transfiguration.
Be transformed in a deep,spirit-led way that begins with
the renewal of our minds andresults in a life that reflects
God's will.
We live in the United States,but the US, our world, our
(12:25):
culture is they try to shape usnonetheless.
We're told our value comes fromhow busy we are or how much
money we make or have saved, howmuch we consume.
The message in our society thatwe're being conformed to is that
more is better.
And it's completely possible tosay that we believe in Jesus.
(12:47):
That we believe in Jesus.
I check the box.
Yes, that's that's the God Ichoose, while still living by
the same values as everybodyelse, including those who say,
no, that's not the God I choose.
To talk about faith on Sunday,but to embody civilization
around us, their patterns therest of the week.
But Paul is calling you and I tosomething better, a life that no
(13:10):
longer makes sense apart fromGod.
Let's focus on that for asecond.
What Paul is saying is to live alife that no longer makes sense
apart from God.
Stanley Hauerwass puts it (13:24):
to be a Christian means to live in
such a way that your life wouldnot make sense if God did not
exist.
To live your life in such a waythat just would not make sense
if God did not exist.
So that's kind of the firstpart.
We're going to offer ourselvesas a living worship.
Now we're going to go to Jameschapter 2.
James is the brother of Jesus.
(13:45):
He's writing to churches thatare dispersed all over the
place, and he's confronting somedifferent issues.
But he begins in verse 14saying, What good is it, dear
brothers and sisters, if you sayyou have faith, but don't show
it by your actions?
Can that kind of faith saveanyone?
I mean, suppose you see abrother or sister who has no
food or clothing, and you saygoodbye and have a good day,
(14:09):
stay warm and eat well, but thenyou don't give that person any
food or clothing.
What good does that do?
So you see, faith by itselfisn't enough.
Unless it produces good deeds,it is dead and useless.
These churches that are readingthis from James, they're small
(14:31):
and they're strugglingcommunities that are facing
really bad poverty and a lot ofpressure.
For them, hunger and lack ofclothing wasn't an abstract
issue down the road at theshelter, those people elsewhere,
but it was them.
It would have been as Jameslooks out at the churches, he
sees it in the congregation.
(14:51):
So when James describes, hesays, you know, essentially you
can imagine James up here sayingthis to a group, when he says,
Don't ignore the brother orsister in need, he's talking to
the people sitting there, wellfed, fully clothed, sitting next
to those who are starving andneeding something to wear.
James warns it's possible toclaim that you have faith.
(15:14):
I have faith, but never toembody it.
But he asks a rhetoricalquestion: what good is it?
What good is it to check thebox, to say that you believe the
thing?
He's kind of going to theirJewish ancestry, their tradition
here, where mercy wasn'toptional, mercy was covenantal.
It was part of the deal.
(15:34):
If you were gonna have arelationship with God, then you
had to show mercy.
Offering pious words withoutpractical compassion wasn't just
lazy.
According to the old covenant,it was shameful.
He paints a vivid picture.
When someone says, stay warm, befilled, it sounds spiritual.
And if you think about it, whenyou have passed someone on the
(15:57):
street or when I've passedsomeone on the street, most of
the time, a lot of the time, weavoid making eye contact.
We walk faster.
We cross the street.
So James is already pointing outsomething that for a lot of us
would be an improvement.
You walk by someone, and insteadof avoiding them, you say, God
bless you today.
(16:18):
Well, that would be animprovement for me.
Okay.
I don't know about you.
It'd be an improvement for me.
But James is saying, even thatimprovement, Stephen, or you,
even that improvement, that'snot good enough.
It's empty.
It's betrayal of the gospel,it's a denial of the Jesus that
you claim to believe.
(16:40):
This is a hard-hitting message.
I mean, he's he's saying yourfaith without it is dead, not
struggling, not weak, notimmature, non-existent, dead.
For the early church, thatstripped away every single
excuse that they would have had.
(17:01):
Faith and actions weren't twocategories of spiritual life.
They were one of the same.
And again, we may not seenakedness in our gatherings, but
the needs around us today arejust as real.
The difference for us today isthat it's easier to look away,
(17:21):
you see, because the hungerisn't in front of us this
morning.
We live in a world that lets usoutsource compassion.
You're hungry.
Let me tell you where you canget a meal.
You need somewhere to eat.
Let me show you where theshelter is.
And look, systemic options helpfight systemic problems.
So don't mishear what I'msaying.
(17:44):
My warning to us is how many ofus double tap the post about
injustice, but we never act forjustice.
We say, in more words, staywarm, be filled, and we have
good intentions.
I know you have good intentions,but then we don't follow
through.
And isn't that the problem,wouldn't you say, with modern
(18:05):
Christianity?
A lot of thoughts and prayers, alot of sharing, but not enough
actions.
And James says it's that kind offaith, no matter how sincere it
sounds, is lifeless.
Not because God needs our works,God doesn't need your work, but
because our faith does.
(18:28):
So when you listen to Paul andyou listen to James together,
you can hear a single heartbeat.
These two are not contradictingeach other, they're not at odds
with each other.
Paul says worship is an embodiedsacrifice.
It's everything that I have, Ioffer to God, not just some sort
of abstract belief.
And James says faith withoutthat, without that embodied
(18:48):
worship, that action is dead.
Unalive.
Both confront the same danger.
A faith that appears spiritualbut never materializes in the
real life.
Together they remind us thatwithout embodiment, faith is not
worship.
(19:09):
And without works, it is notalive.
The believers wrote, thebelievers that they wrote to
were small, pressured, and oftenpoor.
And that meant for them tolisten to Paul or to listen to
James meant a visible differencein their lives.
Resisting the empire, breakingsocial barriers, caring for
(19:29):
those in need.
It was risky, it was costly, butas I reflect on it for us today,
living in Madison, it does costa lot less.
I mean, you're not going to bepersecuted for the post, you're
not going to be persecuted foryour faith like they were.
Okay.
(19:50):
But our comfort might cost ussome comfort.
Our danger today isn'tnecessarily oppression or being
oppressed because of our faith,but distraction.
We can believe without acting.
You can worship withoutsurrendering.
You can call yourself a followerof Jesus without following him
anywhere.
And that's the challenge of ourmoment.
(20:12):
It's to resist the drift to aprivatized faith,
compartmentalized belief system,and recover a faith that
actually looks like Jesus isLord of my life, visible in our
relationships, active in ourservice, and present in our
world.
We have to move beyond belief toembodiment.
(20:36):
Remember what Paul says?
It starts there.
It starts with belief, but fortoo many of us, it started there
and it's ended there, and that'swhere we currently are.
It's gotta get moving.
People whose faith is lived, notjust claimed.
The invitation is simple, yes,but not easy.
(20:58):
Simple, but not easy.
So choose one place of your lifethis week where your belief in
Jesus, what you claim to believeabout God, comes into practice.
Now let me say this with carebecause James is not telling you
today to do more for God.
Okay, that's how this Bibleverse gets kind of exploited and
(21:19):
used and abused.
James is inviting you to livefrom what God has already done
in you.
It's not do more, do more, domore.
It's look what God's alreadydone in you.
Just live that out.
For some of us, that meansstepping out and putting our
faith into motion.
That's where we're at.
(21:39):
It's time to give my faith somelegs and some hands.
For others, it means letting uhletting our doing slow down long
enough to let the spirit renewus.
For a lot of us, we're so busythat we we can't really open
ourselves up to God and whathe's saying.
And that's why we feel burnedout.
It's not because we're not doinggood things, it's not because we
don't have the right faith, it'snot because we don't love God
and it's not because we're nottrying, it's because we're not
(22:01):
slowing down to say, God, whatis it that I need to change up?
Because works born from grace donot, or I'm sorry, works born
from grace brings life.
When your works come from grace,it brings life.
But when you work to provesomething, your life will be
(22:22):
drained.
And for a lot of us who aredrained or burned out or some
kind of way worse, can weconsider today to rest in God's
grace?
It starts small, perhaps withjust your presence.
James's audience, they sawhunger firsthand.
For us, we see loneliness, wesee exhaustion, and we see quiet
(22:46):
grief.
It's easy to tell someone, Iwill pray for you, maybe even go
a little bit further and praywith them, right there on the
spot, but still not have to showup and walk with them.
And perhaps that walk will takeweeks, months, or years.
What if your first act of faiththis week was to simply be
present with someone you know issuffering, to sit with them in
(23:09):
their pain, to visit someone whois alone, and to listen without
offering solution or trying tofix.
For others, maybe it's we needto start treating small acts as
acts of worship.
We see areas of our life asinsignificant, but we're told by
Paul to offer everything, eventhe insignificant things, as
acts of worship.
(23:30):
So ordinary faithfulness issacred.
Perhaps you care for a childthis week.
You show patience at work tosomebody who really gets under
your skin.
You serve your neighbor withoutthem asking.
Have you considered that thoseare all acts of worship or acts
of not worship?
(23:51):
You can go in the otherdirection.
Ask yourself, where can I servein a small but meaningful way
this week that might seemmundane, but God considers holy.
For some of us, it's to make asacrificial choice that makes
the gospel visible.
Both Paul and James point us tocostly action.
To follow Jesus is to let ourfaith make us uncomfortable.
(24:14):
And maybe that means giving yourtime or your resources that you
would rather keep.
Perhaps it means forgivingsomeone who absolutely does not
deserve to be forgiven.
Maybe it means reconcilingwhat's been broken.
That is the path of discipleshipfaith, the kind of faith that
(24:35):
moves us from words, fromGnosticism to presence, from
convenience to surrender, frombelief to embodiment.
The call isn't today for you todo everything.
The call is to do something, todo something, to take one step
toward a faith that looks morelike Jesus, visible, tangible,
(25:00):
and alive.
We started this series out bytalking about John's words in
chapter one that the word becameflesh and made his dwelling
among us.
That's the incarnation.
God didn't send someone else toget the job done.
He didn't send ideas ortheories.
God physically came into thisworld.
(25:22):
Jesus touched the untouchable,he washed dirty feet, and he
broke bread with sinners.
He also carried a cross.
It shows that faith isn'tabstract.
His love wasn't a theory, thatGod was embodied, and so was his
(25:42):
love.
That's the model of discipleshipfor us to follow at Madison
Church.
Not earning grace, but living inthe same grace that took on
flesh for you and me.
And that's what we remember aswe come to the communion table.
Communion isn't just a ritualthat we do every week at Madison
Church, it's a reminder thatGod's love became tangible for
(26:04):
you and me.
And so when we take the breadand we take the cup, we remember
that his body was broken and hisblood poured out for you and me.
Not theoretically, but really.
So when you come to the tabletoday, slow down and don't rush.
Remember that Jesus gave hisbody for you, and now he invites
(26:25):
you to give your body back tohim, to offer your whole self as
an act of worship.
Because when you do that,something inside of you changes.
You begin to experience God'sactual presence, not just an
idea of God.
Your faith becomes alive, yourheart begins to soften, your
(26:50):
mind renews, and you start tosee purpose and peace in places
that today feel ordinary orempty.
You begin to live the life thatJesus promised, a life to its
fullest.
So let's go and offer ourselvesas worship.
(27:12):
Let belief become action, letfaith take shape in our hands,
in our feet.
Let the gospel be visiblethrough us.
And as we do, may the world seeJesus alive.
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