September 12, 2024 • 48 mins
What does it mean to truly live out your faith? This episode of our podcast takes a deep dive into the Book of James, inviting you to explore the dynamic relationship between belief and action; highlighting the vital role of community in spiritual growth. Through reflections on nature, we uncover profound lessons about hope and renewal, emphasizing that genuine faith is shown through our actions, not just our words.
Together, we tackle the pressing issues of equality and mercy, challenging ourselves to live without favoritism and support those who are marginalized. Inspired by Jesus' example, we explore the biblical mandate to "love your neighbor as yourself," and discuss practical ways to break down societal barriers and practice infinite mercy and justice in our everyday lives.
This episode is a powerful reminder that true change and healing come from living out the kingdom of God with faith and action intertwined. Join us in this inspiring journey, and discover how you can make a difference in your community by living out the way of Jesus.
This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church you can donate at https://www.firstlovechurch.org/giving
In the service of LOVE,
Pastors Dennis and Heather Drake
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Heather Drake (00:01):
Welcome to the First Love Church Podcast.
This is a collection of Sundayteachings inspired by the
Revised Common Lectionary andrecorded weekly in Ocala,
florida, the book of James,which we happen to be hanging
out with for the next few weeks,and so I'm grateful for the
many ways that we receive thattruth that is engrafted in us,
(00:23):
according to the Apostle, thatcan save our souls, that can
change the way that we seethings.
I'm grateful this morning forthe babies that are here with us
and for the mothers who madethe efforts to actually dress
them, and maybe they may havedressed them two or three times
before they got here thismorning.
I just don't know what part ofthe baby, the age you are from.
So I appreciated that.
And this morning I sawbeautiful Abby at one side and
(00:47):
Sawyer was crawling under thepews and then Philip was at the
other side as the goalie, youknow, to keep the baby, and I
was thinking this brings me suchjoy because we're here this
morning and beautiful Sawyer isat the age where he's mobile and
he's walking around and he isin the house of God and he's on
Abby's hip when she comes up totake communion and his whole
(01:07):
life.
May this be, so that he knowsthat he is welcomed in the house
of God.
Elias doesn't walk yet, butthey're working on that with him
and I was going to say I don'tknow how much you want to rush
that, because from the time thatlittle people can walk, then
all you do is chase so but youknow they're first parents and
so you let them.
You let them have their ownexperience.
(01:28):
But I love that and I also lovethis morning that Bob is here.
He had the red beanie on, Bobis 94.
And I love the fact that he gothis friend to bring him to
church, or his friend broughthim to church, however that
worked out.
But I love for us in thecongregation that we have people
with us who are in their 90sand we have people with us who
(01:49):
are in their just early stages,even haven't had birthdays yet,
and everybody in the middle andall of us who are here
reflecting the goodness of Jesusand there's so much hope for us
in that.
I'm grateful all the time forthings that I'm observing now
and maybe it just happens withage, maybe it happens with
renewal and for all of us it'sexpected of us that our
following Jesus would mature andI am receiving lots of witness
(02:13):
from nature.
Recently, when I saw the guttershad plants growing out of them,
it just blessed me.
It's not effective from agutter, but I just want to tell
you that's something that haddied.
A tree had lost its leaf and abunch of leaves were together
and they turned into a beautifulcompost.
And some bird or some windbrought a seed and it grew.
And I want to remind you that indead things that is not the
(02:36):
final word there is resurrection, and so when we allow things to
die, as they often do differentseasons in our lives, different
relationships that we can trustthat there's a power of
resurrection, god's resurrectionin us.
Maybe the same thing won't grow.
Maybe in that compost this is acompletely different tree.
Maybe it was not a tree at all,maybe it was a weed or a flower
(02:58):
.
And really, what is a weed?
That's just a plant somebodysaid shouldn't grow here.
I mean, all plants are.
Sometimes they're mucky andpoisonous, but you know, maybe
not to everything.
So I just remind us in our lives, be mindful not to judge good
and bad.
This is a bad season.
This may be a season wherecompost is being formed and
something beautiful is comingout of it, and so I encourage us
(03:22):
this morning with the word oflife that Christ is among us.
We go to the book of James andwe invited last week I hope that
you would consider this that asa fellowship, as people who are
gathered together, and even forthose of you who are online, if
you would consider reading thebook of James with us and it's a
short book and you know, evenif you read a few verses every
(03:43):
day, or just the verses that weactually talked about on a
Sunday, it would really help usto put reset and kind of remind
ourselves what it looks like toreally follow the way of Jesus.
The way of Jesus is love, andwe must constantly be reminded
of that.
In fact, this is what thismorning we're looking at, where
(04:04):
James, the brother of Jesus, hasa lot to say about a living
faith.
In fact, at one point he saysit doesn't matter what you say
you believe if your actionsdon't line up with it.
So faith without works is dead.
Dennis Drake (04:20):
Last week he reminded us that everyone should
be quick to listen, slow tospeak, slow to get angry and to
allow, and oftentimes we referto that as our fate and I think
(04:49):
in modern times what you believeis the most important thing,
and it's been taught to me inthere, almost every church I
I've um went to, that belief isthe paramount and though
obviously without belief youwould not be here.
(05:13):
But sometimes belief and headknowledge get exalted and
there's a beautiful dance, abeautiful harmony that goes with
your walk, your life of faith.
That implies that if I believe,I take a step, do you see the
connection?
And I don't believe one is goodwithout the other, because we
(05:34):
know people that think that bytheir works they will receive,
uh, the righteousness of god,and so stepping out and doing
those things, as great as theyare, that's not what connects us
with God, but also just thatbelief without any corresponding
action to it, it's lifeless aswell.
(05:56):
So that is kind of the when wetalk about the way of Jesus.
Sometimes I need to follow thatway, sometimes I need to get out
of the way, and, and so I wantyou to kind of see that there's
that um, that that walk with God, and I think we can find it um,
(06:20):
with our connection with God inlike a flow, how we will just
follow when it's time to follow,and that it's not so much
everything that you believe oreverything that you do, but if
God is doing something, I canjust kind of connect with that.
(06:43):
Are you following what I'mtrying to say?
I think sometimes we struggleso hard with I better believe, I
better believe this, or, oh, Ibetter do more or do more, and
sometimes I think that throughall that struggle we miss the
just following or flowing withthe Spirit of God.
Heather Drake (06:59):
I remind us all that grace is not opposed to
effort, it is opposed to earning.
There is an effort thatrequires us all to be
grace-filled to the world aroundus.
It is effort to be kind.
But if you're kind because youthink that you have to earn the
love of God beloved, that's notthe reason at all.
You are kind because you areloved by God, because you know
(07:20):
that love is the source of this.
And James is saying dearbrothers and sisters, and please
hear the family language, dearbrothers and sisters, you're not
stepchildren here, you areloved.
And James is reminding us webelong in God's family.
My dear brothers and sisters,how can you claim to have the
faith in our glorious Lord JesusChrist and hear his language?
(07:43):
Here You're claiming to havefaith, not just faith in
anything, faith in the gloriousLord Jesus Christ, if you favor
some people over others.
For example, suppose someonecomes into your meeting dressed
in fancy clothes and expensivejewelry and other comes in who
is poor and dressed in dirtyclothes.
If you give special attentionand a good seat to the rich
(08:06):
person but you say to the poorone, you can stand over there or
sit on the floor.
Well, doesn't thisdiscrimination show that your
judgments are guided by evilmotives.
I mean, here James starts tomeddle and you do have to
appreciate James.
I mean he is talking to thecongregations there and he's
saying I know you're claiming tobe a part of the way of Jesus,
(08:28):
but if you follow practices ofdiscrimination, that has nothing
to do with the way of Jesus.
Dennis Drake (08:34):
You know, sometimes these verses are
considered a little harsh orhard on people, and I find it
real interesting that when, uh,I might be preaching to, uh
people who haven't heard themessage about love, believers
come along and tell me all thetime you better to to toughen up
(08:56):
on them and tell them aboutthey better quit doing this and
quit doing that.
And then when the believers getin the congregation and they
hear the message about justicehave changed, they go hey,
brother, what about grace?
You know.
And so the point is now askyourself if you want grace for
yourself but want judgment forother people, you know.
(09:19):
Ask yourself if, if really themessage of grace is great for
you, but you want to see otherpeople toe the mark or at least
do as well, if not better than,what you've done.
And so the point of sometimesthese difficult messages that we
preach isn't for you to runhome and tell somebody that
didn't make it to church today,or for you to think, well,
(09:41):
that's how I'm going to go reachthe people that are out there
in the world.
But this is really how usfollowers, we need to do some
housekeeping and so we teach agrace message around here.
So this might feel veryuncomfortable today, because
we're getting ready to rebukeyou.
Heather Drake (10:00):
That is not the case, beloved.
That is absolutely not the case, because anything that we ask,
it is not Anything that we askyou to do.
We are also required to do itin double measure, and so be
mindful that everything that weremind you of, we also first
remind ourselves of this.
This is not for you, and thenwe have a special exemption.
No one does.
(10:21):
My dear brothers and sisters,if any of you are playing
favorites in any way, thiscannot be, and I remind you, it
doesn't only have to do withpeople who are wealthy and
people who are poor, though.
I want to tell you that Jesusalways, always, always,
identified with the poor, and ifyou want to find where Jesus is
(10:41):
, find those places where thereis some kind of poverty, and not
just physical poverty, povertyin spirit, poverty in ideas that
have oppressed them.
Jesus came to bring us life.
Jesus is the great liberator.
In fact, jesus loves and iscommitted to your freedom.
And when the apostle brings usan adjustment and says to us hey
(11:06):
, pay attention to prejudice,because if that's happening,
that has no place in theglorious faith of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and not just prejudiceconcerning wealth and concerning
poverty, in fact, he'sreminding them.
You are part of the church ofJesus Christ.
In the very beginning of thechurch in Jesus Christ, in Acts,
(11:26):
chapter 2, verse 42, and itsaid everyone, everyone,
everyone devoted themselves tothe teaching of the apostles, to
the prayers and to the breakingof bread, to holy communion.
This is the church of JesusChrist when, together, we take
care of each other.
In fact, some of the mostmiraculous things that happened
in the book of Acts that arerecorded is that everybody
(11:49):
started caring for someone else.
No one was selfish.
In fact, it said, if someonehad something, they sold what
they had so that the goods couldbe distributed among them.
And so this distribution, thisgenerosity, this unclenching of
our fists into postures wherewe're open-handed, this is what
it looks like to follow Jesus.
(12:12):
Yes, indeed, it is good when youobey the royal law as found in
the scriptures love yourneighbor as yourself.
And this would have remindedthe people who were there,
because this is from the firstfive books of the Jewish
Testament, this is from theTorah.
This verse is reminding them ofwho they are.
(12:32):
This is the royal law of love,that you would love your
neighbor as yourself.
This is preeminent.
How do you want to be treatedFairly, I would assume right.
We all want justice, we wouldlike things to go and be even
and be peaceful, but in theworld that we live in, we see
(12:54):
that that's not so, and so theinvitation is how do we make it
so with us?
We may not be able to changeeveryone, but we can change
among us, in our heart.
We can say in here there willbe no prejudice.
We will recognize that eachperson is made in the image of
God, is made from the source ofGod, that every person is worthy
(13:16):
of dignity, that every personbears Christ.
Now, some of us have marred theimage and some of us have lived
in a world where other thingshave marred the image, and some
of us have lived in a worldwhere other things have marred
the image, but deep within us,the light of Christ, and when we
come, and when we come withexpectation that I am part of
the family, that we begin tolove your neighbor as yourself.
(13:42):
But if you favor some peopleover others, you are committing
a sin I'm just going to let thatsit and you are guilty of
breaking the law.
There will be no mercy forthose who have not shown mercy
to others, but if you have beenmerciful, god will be merciful
(14:06):
when he judges you.
Beloved, if this isn't a textalone in how we should live with
so much mercy, because when westand before God, when we stand
before love, when Jesus is faceto face with us, I want to tell
you how Jesus described GodInfinite mercy.
That means that we ourselvesneed to be people of infinite
(14:31):
mercy.
Now, it doesn't mean sufferingabuse, it doesn't mean that you
stay in situations that areunsafe, but it does cause us to
reorient ourselves and say, asfollowers of Jesus, we must be
people who show mercy.
In fact, the scripture tells usthis is one of the hallmarks of
(14:52):
our faith that we are amerciful people.
I hope that is always true andsaid of us Mercy.
Dennis Drake (15:01):
You know, this verse here is telling us that,
um, that we, uh, we claim christ, you know, and uh, and the
problem with their potentialproblem with that could be to
claim christ but reflect in noway the image of christ, you
(15:26):
know, and that's that'sdangerous because it sends a
mixed message, you know.
So that's the challenge, youknow, we're talking to believers
and saying we're here, we'rehere who claim Christ, so does
that, our behavior, the way thatwe treat people, does that
align with?
Is that the way Christ treatedpeople, you know?
(15:47):
Did he give preference to therich or no?
He was actually, you know,really shown to just really be
on the side of the poor.
That's that I wonder, if, ifthat's how I view things, am I,
am I always looking?
How can I be on the side of thepoor, you know?
Or?
Or I think one of my favoriteverses, uh is is in the bible,
where it talks about that inchrist there's neither male nor
(16:11):
female, jew, jew nor greek,slave or free.
That that, that that type of uh, non-dualism, uh is what that
is is presented by Christ, andwe all should probably admit
that that's a little bit foreignto us.
We're kind of trained to takecare of our family first, or
(16:35):
take care of us, or don't worryabout them, or, in fact, those
people are kind of weird overthere, so we're keeping them,
you know.
And there's us and them, andhe's saying, no, those kind of
things divide us.
So I want to challenge you thatwhen you and I say that we are
these followers of christ, orwe're choosing christ, then how
does that bear out in in ourday-to-day responses to people?
(16:59):
You know, do I now still havethe freedom to just be angry and
tell people off when they pushme far enough?
Or have I said no, I amidentifying with Christ, and so
I want to behave as Christ wouldin a situation of anger.
(17:23):
Because Christ got angry,believe it or not, but he didn't
fight the guy in the street.
He'd have to have his wifebailing him out of jail.
He didn't just treat people anyway that he chose.
(17:43):
There's that choice of love,and so that's the kind of thing
we're wanting us to considertoday.
In this, I call myself afollower.
Well, what does that mean forme then?
Heather Drake (17:55):
moving forward, I appreciate where you're
bringing us here in this life offollowing.
In fact, I was reading somereally ancient texts this
morning and it was they'reconsidered one of the first
baptismal liturgies, and it'sfrom early on in the Christian
faith and when they were goingto baptize someone, which is a
sacrament given to us by thechurch.
(18:15):
We see it even before Jesus.
Jesus was baptized into the wayof John the Baptist, and John
the Baptist had some reallyimpressive things to say.
He said to people, if you havetwo coats, one is yours and one
is the guy who has no coat.
And he said you know, let'stalk about justice here, let's
talk about real generosity,let's talk about taking care of
each other.
(18:36):
But one of the earliestbaptismal liturgies is this
portion that Dennis mentioned.
They would say to the peoplebefore they plunge them under
the water in Christ there is nodifference.
In Christ all the identifiersare gone.
In Christ we are one.
There is no Jew and Greek.
There is no nationality thatdivides us.
There is no ethnicity thatchanges here.
(18:56):
It is in Christ, and it is inChrist that the family of God is
built.
And so we are reminded of thesebeautiful things.
But I draw your attention hereto the fact that you have a
beautiful opportunity, as do I,to practice mercy.
We are to be people who aremerciful people.
(19:17):
What good is it, dear brothersand sisters, if you say you have
faith but don't show it by youractions?
Beloved here, james is reallylooking at us going.
We can say a lot of things anda lot of things have been said
to us, but how someone livesmatters.
The choices that we make matter, and James is saying this is
(19:39):
how you can look at your faithand go.
Is it real faith at all?
And is my faith just a personalfaith?
I just want to tell you thereis no such thing as a personal
faith.
It's not, it's not in thescripture and no one has a
personal faith.
How we live.
Our faith is actually towardthe world.
My faith in Jesus means that Ilive and choose a different way.
(20:00):
Your faith in Jesus means thatthe opportunity is for you to
take the narrow path, the narrowpath that seems like it might
be closing in, and Jesus issaying I'm going to tell you
something about the narrow path.
It is so expansive, it is soincredible, and mercy triumphs
over judgment.
This is what the scripture says.
(20:21):
But if you say you have faithand don't show it by your
actions, can that kind of faithsave anyone?
Can it save you to say that youbelieve something but don't
have the effort or the worksbehind it and there is an
invitation into a new way ofliving that we would be people
so loving that mercy would bethe first thing that came from
(20:45):
us.
In fact, I believe that's wherethat prayer comes, where Lord,
have mercy, christ have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
When I can't figure outanything what to do with this
situation, may mercy come firstand may that be the road that we
choose.
Mercy.
Suppose you see a brother orsister who has no food or
clothing and you say goodbye andhave a good day, stay warm, eat
(21:10):
well, and you don't give thatperson any food or clothing.
What good does that do?
I mean he's really asking us tolook at how we would be the
saving grace, how we would offerto ourselves, to look at how we
would be the saving grace, howwe would offer to ourselves, to
others that we would say what isit like to follow Jesus?
It's like Jesus would be in ourmidst.
(21:31):
If someone was hungry, jesuswould feed them.
And I know you're saying, well,I don't have the multiplication
Jesus had, but I remind youwhat Jesus did was say to his
friend Philip we happen to havea Philip here this morning so
you could talk with himafterwards hey, philip, what are
we going to do about the peoplehere?
There's a lot of them who arehungry and in the gathering
(21:56):
there's a lot of provision.
We may have to look for it, butthere is.
This church is going to be 24years old in November.
That's really exciting.
It's going to be our 21st yearas a congregation and there has
been much that has been donehere.
One of the things that we havedone here was very early in the
church history.
We decided that we would takeon five children around the
(22:19):
world internationally compassionchildren or world vision
children and we would supportthem every month.
And we have done that.
And I have a daughter who'sbeen raised in the faith and in
the church and she's veryreligious and in fact even this
morning she is filling in forthe children's church at the
American Church of Paris.
So she's doing children'schurch this morning.
(22:40):
But she wouldn't allow us justto give the money to take care
of the compassion kids.
She said you have to write theletters and you have to let the
people know that they're lovedand we're doing this because we
love them.
And so, okay, I could write aletter.
And then she said twice a yearyou're allowed to give presents,
and so I'll shop for thepresents and the list is very,
(23:03):
very clear with what you cangive.
It's very, very specific.
Like, you can't send rubberbands.
I don't know why One of thecountries in the world doesn't
want rubber bands for us it'sfine, but you can't send things.
There's a lot of things youcan't send, but Catherine had
narrowed down the list and whatwas not prohibited was kazoos.
So, okay, thank you for thelaughter.
(23:30):
So we sent kazoos and cutelittle hair ribbons and stuff to
children all over the worldwith our money, and then we'd
have letters.
And the letters don't comefrequently from their side.
We do send letters every monthand we encourage them.
And you know what is sobeautiful and I love that about
24 for us is there's alreadyfive children who have their
entire life been cared for bycompassion and world vision,
(23:52):
because together as a group, wesaid we're going to pay for that
.
Their entire life they'veactually aged out of the systems
and they sent us new ones.
We've got new guys and it'swonderful, but it's all around
the world.
But we got a letter one timefrom Myanmar, and this was about
10 years ago, and this littleperson that we had been
supporting and that we sent agift for said my parents and my
(24:13):
neighbors would like to thankyou for the razzmatazz that you
sent.
Now I just want to tell you theparents and the neighbors were
not happy that there was a kazoosent to them somewhere in the
jungle.
Imagine a child's joy to have akazoo.
And they didn't have the namekazoo, so they called it a
razzmatazz.
Thank you for the razzmatazz.
So I just want to tell you, asFirst Love Church, you're part
(24:35):
of the razzmatazz ministry,because not only will we send
resources, but we're going tosend some joy.
So somebody in some little paddyfield was out playing his kazoo
and I don't know if they saidwe're not thankful, and the
child changed that or the personwho was interpreting it did,
but he said his parents and theneighbors were grateful for the
razzmatazz.
And so I tell you that in whatwe can do, together is so much
(24:59):
greater.
And if together we would spreadmercy, if together we would
spread joy, if together we wouldtake people's needs and say I
don't know, I can't fixeverything, but what can we do,
philip?
What is there?
And then Philip didn't evenshow up with his own donation.
In the original scripture hegets a boy to bring his lunch,
(25:19):
or the boy offers it.
And I just want to tell you,the boy didn't make his lunch.
I just I'm going to tell thestory this way there was a
mother who knew that kid wasgoing and she packed the little
basket and she had probably madethe bread, or maybe the sister
did, and somebody, maybe the dad, brought the fish, but she sent
him with fish and with bread.
And Philip found that, talkedto that kid who said, yeah, I'll
(25:43):
give this.
And they put it in the hands ofJesus and Jesus gave thanks for
it and blessed it andmultiplied it and everyone was
fed.
So I remind you that your littleacts of mercy matter, matters
to the whole world, your acts ofgenerosity matter.
It matters to the whole world.
Your acts of generosity matter.
It matters to the whole world.
(26:03):
How we live as followers ofJesus is how the world sees the
love that is still here today.
We pause here for a moment tothank you for joining us today.
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, would you take a
moment to share it with a friend?
This podcast is made possiblethanks to the generosity of
(26:26):
people just like you.
If you would like to supportthe ongoing work of First Love
Church and the continued work ofour podcast, visit us online at
firstlovechurchorg, remindingyou to like, follow and
subscribe.
Dennis Drake (26:43):
After men's breakfast there was a guy here
and he was hanging around and hewanted work.
And so I let him work with usand gave him some money, and
then he wanted a ride.
And then, as he was riding, hewas talking to me and he said
Well, you know, for days anddays I've been needing to get a
ride downtown for some medicalthing or whatever.
And he said Then I was here atthe the church and there was a
guy in there and he wasvacuuming up the water, and
(27:04):
that's todd.
He does it every time it rainshe comes over here, otherwise
this church would stink so badthat none of us could come in
here.
But he takes his own time anduses his own carpet thing and
sucks up them gallons andgallons and gallons of water.
And so he was over here and hemet that man and todd drove.
Of course, no, ever know,except for this guy who just
starts telling me about some guythat was vacuuming up water
(27:25):
here at the church, like Ididn't know who that was, and
took him on this ride, you know,and then told him about the
breakfast that was happeningyesterday.
And so then yesterday he hadcome in and ate the breakfast
and we were able to feed him andhe was just so grateful and
listened to the preach together.
And then, all of a sudden,after work, I was going to have
(27:47):
him work right away and thenSean's like, well, no, I'm going
to take him down, get him someclothes and the other place to
get some more food.
And so this is what's going on.
I have no idea until late.
You know, sean's going down andgetting him, helping him.
You know, no one asked, no oneappointed sean, driver of people
(28:10):
down to get food and clothes.
He took it upon himself inresponse to seeing this need, as
todd did, you know.
And then, as I did, I'm drivinghim back to his house.
And then he was saying, yeah,I'm gonna take this little bit
of money and go buy some cookingoil.
And I thought, well, I justleft cooking oil in from you
know, it might even be good intwo months for the men's
breakfast to come back here.
And so I was able to take himhome and that was again.
(28:35):
It was resources that we'vepooled together as a church,
pooled together as a church.
It's not sweet buying the buyersome kid in the jungle,
although those kids are beingtaken care of because of the
giving and the effort that youmake towards this church, but it
happens through this church ona regular basis, here and then.
(28:55):
What I want to report to maybe,if you don't realize this, this
is happening in you and in thepeople around you.
You know all the time, becauseif we stopped right now and had
a testimony service of how manyof you have stopped and fed
somebody you know, and so I'mencouraged that that is getting
(29:18):
through and it's happening.
And then I I also want toremind you that the people in
the world are going to tell youyou're crazy and those people,
they're just going to use it fordrugs and they're going to, you
know, and they're going to tellyou all the reasons why not to
help, when, uh, jesus didn'ttell you to figure out their
motives, and if they are judgedby you as pure, then you shall
help.
(29:38):
It's like help those are, andlet God work on the hearts of
people.
Amen, you know.
But for you and I to look around, uh, the, the, when the
scripture talks about the fieldsare ripe for harvest, uh, uh,
some of us look at thatscripture and go, oh, that's a
promise that there's just abunch of stuff for me, or, or
maybe we should turn around andlook at that, as there's a lot
(29:59):
of people out there that canreally use the message that I
have and really use maybe that,that, maybe that five bucks
isn't a tipping point for you,but if it gets somebody a burger
, that's a huge deal, you know,and so I encourage you to look
for those opportunities andthank you for those that are
responding to them theinvitation is not just to the
(30:19):
physical, but the invitation isto actually see people, to see
them as beloved brothers andsisters.
Heather Drake (30:28):
Sometimes someone has plenty of resources, but
what they need is acompassionate witness.
What they need is someone tolisten to their pain, and so
those are things that we do also, and so we remind you.
This is why it is our not justpriority, but it is our
intention to be people ofdiscernment that we would know
(30:51):
the voice of Jesus, that wewould hear the voice of the good
shepherd, that in everysituation we could just be still
and listen and say what isneeded.
Here Now we are not Jesus, wedon't have every resources, but
we know we can be mat carriers.
You know the story I'mreferring to.
There was a man who isparalyzed, can do nothing for
himself, but his friends comeand they pick up a corner of the
(31:13):
mat and they bring the mat toJesus.
They bring the person to Jesusand Jesus heals them, and
sometimes beloved.
That is our highest vocation.
We are mat carriers.
We will bring someone to Jesusand then Jesus sorts out the
what, what, the things that theyhave need of, and I am so
reminded in this act of mercy ifyou would go with me in your
(31:36):
memories, cause you know thestory.
But love is being crucified.
Jesus is surrendering his lifebecause he has enemies, and the
enemies are people who do notlike the way of love.
The enemies are systems thathate the rule of love.
And again James is reminding usthat love is the way.
(32:00):
And we look at this love ofChrist.
And Jesus is on the cross,dying, accepting a punishment
that is not his.
And the person on the crossnext to him says remember me
when you come into your kingdom.
(32:21):
And Jesus didn't say well, it'sa little late, brother.
And Jesus didn't give a list ofanything that person had to do.
That person said to Jesusremember me.
And Jesus said today you willbe with me in paradise.
Infinite mercy.
It is the mercy of Christ.
(32:42):
In fact, it is the goodness ofGod that calls us all to
repentance.
It is the goodness of God thatwe are to be reflective of.
It is the goodness of God thatwe are invited to participate in
.
Dennis Drake (32:57):
Sometimes I wonder if I recognize just how gifted
my wife is at preaching and thethings that she says, because
sometimes you'll say somethingand you'll just blow past it and
I'm like, oh, you better stopand do an exhaustive study, and
I want to hear about that.
When she was just talking amoment about a know, a
(33:20):
compassionate witness, you know,I want us to just go back there
for a second, because this issomething that I learned from
her and, um, and there's, uh,there's this idea as a christian
that we need to be a witness,and and we're taught.
Well, that witness is that youbetter learn the romans road and
(33:42):
you better beat the bible oversomebody's head at some point.
You know, or that's oftentimeswhat it ends up being.
Uh, and and though I want youto learn the scriptures and I
want you to be able to sharethem with people, uh, when
they're open to them.
Uh, being a witness is uh, youknow, is not that you have to
prepare a big sermon.
(34:03):
Being a witness is observingwhat you saw.
If you're a witness in anaccident, you would say well,
that car came and hit that car.
You're just telling whathappened, and for us witnesses,
this is what Jesus did in mylife.
This is what God has done sinceI've surrendered, and,
furthermore, the idea of thecompassionate witness.
(34:23):
Somebody was over my house theother day and they were
financially uh fine, and theywere physically fine, but but
maybe emotionally andspiritually they were really
hurting.
And they began to talk and youknow me, I like to talk too a
lot and uh, and I wanted tochime in when they set a point
(34:49):
oh, I, I, I like that too, or,and I just was overwhelmed with
the idea that this person neededsomeone who would just listen
to their pain.
And that's a compassion, notcorrect them, not give them all
these scriptures and fix allthis stuff.
But what about understandingthe compassion that is and
(35:14):
that's priceless.
They're wealthy, they're doing,but yet they're without that
thing that we could provide forthem.
They're really hurting.
And so could you see yourselfbeing able to be a compassionate
witness?
Or have you been acompassionate witness your whole
life and not realized that thatwas a thing, because other
(35:36):
people might be the ones runningtheir yapper all the time and
you think, well, because I'm notdoing all that, maybe I'm not
effective, and maybe thatcompassionate witness, talk
about that a little bit, becauseit's been so life-changing for
me.
Heather Drake (35:53):
When I think about Jesus and I do often or
try to think about who Jesus isand imagine the life and look
for the witness of that, one ofthe things that I see over and
over again, and everyone else istelling, is how compassionate
Jesus was.
It's one of the things I wantus to be.
(36:13):
This is the 16th Sunday afterPentecost.
We're in ordinary time and Iwant us to be paying attention
to the sacredness that iseverywhere.
But, beloved, I tell you, I'malready headed toward Advent.
Oh, I'm already thinking aboutAdvent, and I know we're just
here in September, beloved, andAdvent is coming.
I just say that's good for yourhope, it's good for my hope,
(36:34):
and one of the things that wepractice in Advent is we allow
Jesus to give us eyes to reallysee, which I believe is very
much like what Jesus did Overand over again.
If you'll read through thegospels, it will say and Jesus
saw, and Jesus saw him, andJesus saw him.
And there's a mother on the wayto bury her only son and it
(36:58):
said and Jesus saw her, otherpeople saw her too, but Jesus
saw her.
And then it says and he lookedat her with compassion and then
the miraculous happened.
Beloved.
When we look at people withcompassion, compassion is an
outflow of mercy.
When we look at someone, not tojudge them right or wrong or
(37:18):
different than us, or us andthem, when we let go of all of
that and we receive from Jesus,we are loved, we're part of
God's family.
When mercy is the first thingthat comes from us, a byproduct
of that is compassion.
And so and here's the beauty ofit when you start to practice
it for other people, all of thesudden you will notice how not
(37:38):
compassionate you are ofyourself.
And when you start handing itaway, then all of a sudden
you'll start looking I need tobe compassionate with myself as
well, and so here's the hope forall of us.
In fact, the theologian DallasWillard reminds us of this you
live your way into rightthinking.
You don't think your way intoright living.
(37:58):
So it is this practice that does, that allows us this holiness
that God has called us to, butwe take the tools that are given
to us, and a tool is mercy andbeloved.
Mercy triumphs over judgment.
In the very end, we will allstand before infinite mercy.
We will stand before the Godwho created everything.
(38:19):
This is the hope for us.
If, for one minute, you thoughtstanding before God was in some
way a punishment, I want totell you that every correction
from God is restorative, notretributive, and God intends to
restore us to the holiness thathe put in us.
And mercy, this compassionatewitness, this compassionate
(38:41):
mercy for the world.
It does sometimes break ourhearts.
I think a result of beingcompassionate will require us to
weep.
That's why I also love theseries, the time of the year
that we have lent, because thenwe just get to do something with
all of our heartache.
Advent is coming, lent iscoming, but this, right now,
(39:01):
this is ordinary time and thisis the practice of recognizing
and joining with the sacred inevery little thing In the
planting of seeds, in thewatering of flowers and plants.
Recently, we don't have to dothat.
The skies opened up and wateredeverything.
It was a little heavy.
(39:22):
The other day it was comingdown so much.
I was like, please, the littletiny flowers are still out there
.
They seem to be fine the nextday.
And now we have a ton ofmushrooms I don't know if you do
, they're kind of everywhere butthe green moss that was in
these tiny cracks I love thisabout the resurrection moss and
ferns.
What appears dry is a couple ofdays of that kind of rain, and
(39:45):
there is life, it is greeningall around us.
What would it look like for usto be people who have
compassionate witness?
Dennis and I were together theother day and we have someone
that is not a friend of ours butis just a person that we visit
in a business and we don't knoweven each other's names.
(40:06):
But we recognize each other andwe talk to each other even
though we don't know eachother's names, and we can do
this with everyone.
And I said how was your week?
And she said horrible, justlike that.
And so I put my arm around her.
That's a little disarmingsometimes, but sometimes you can
do it.
And she said my mother justdied and I started crying.
(40:35):
My mother didn't die, but buthers did, and my sister is in
pain.
And she looked at me and shesaid why are you crying?
And I said because you're inpain.
And then she really startedcrying and I want to tell you
it's seeing someone's pain andjust naming it.
(40:57):
I want to tell you that namingpain is a direct path to God.
If you are headed there, I meanname that pain.
Christ is the healer we invitethat.
I can't do anything for thiswoman.
I cannot bring her mother back.
I cannot change anything thathappened in the past.
I cannot change anything in thefuture, but I can be a
compassionate witness right nowwhile she walks through the pain
.
And she said to me this isinappropriate because I am
(41:21):
taking your time.
You intended to come in hereand you didn't ask for my pain.
And I said to her but I honorthe fact that your pain is here
and I care about you.
And together we shared tears.
Nothing fixed, nothing changedexcept compassion.
(41:44):
And I want to tell youcompassion heals us, compassion
changes people.
And Jesus, if you look at him,was full of compassion, in fact,
through the prophet Isaiah thisis what Isaiah said he is a man
so full of compassion that heknows our grief, not only
acquainted with grief, but knowsour grief, beloved.
(42:07):
If you want to know Jesus, goto someone in their grief and
sit with them.
But when we look at Jesus andwhen we begin to see as people,
we see others' needs.
This is the compassionatewitness.
I cannot change something foryou, maybe, but I can let you
know you are not alone, and thisis the promise of God that we
(42:30):
are not alone.
And maybe you'll be like Philipwho, in the scripture, said hey
, there's a bunch of people thatare hungry and Jesus cares
about it.
Who's got a lunch?
I don't know, maybe he shookthe boy down, who knows?
I mean, we don't really knowthat Philip was this great guy.
But Philip is the one who saidhey, there's a boy here with a
lunch and brought it to Jesus.
And so maybe for us we have tobe the people who say, like Todd
(42:53):
did hey, there's a breakfasttomorrow.
Do you want to come?
Maybe we just give theinvitation and say, together,
there are people in the junglewho need a razzmatazz, and they
didn't know it, but we gottogether.
We sent him a little instrument.
So probably I don't knowthere's, you know, five families
(43:14):
who are just so full of joy.
Now I think they probablydestroyed them, but we sent the
metal ones because we thoughtthe plastic might not go through
the mail, so like a good metalkazoo.
So they got hair bows and funthings like that and a
razzmatazz.
I bring that up becausesometimes it is just in the joy
of giving, it is in the joy ofsaying this is what it looks
(43:35):
like if you see someone in needand you don't do anything about
it.
That's why, together, wepractice generous living.
Together, we practice feedingthe, the poor.
Together, we practice takingcare of each other and taking
care of people who are not oursbut who are ours because they're
the family of god.
That's it this is the hope forthe world.
This is how we change, that weexperience the compassion of
(43:57):
jesus and then we ourselves,full of god's compassion, go to
others and offer that samecompassion and I couldn't fully
explain to you what exactlyhappened.
Dennis Drake (44:08):
But I'm telling you what the presence of God was
in that restaurant when Heatherwas holding that woman and I
was weeping at the table and, uh, god did something.
She left that spot different.
And I believe that for you andI, that's all within us and I
(44:30):
think sometimes we want to tryhard or think maybe we don't
know enough or we've got to getsome more information, instead
of just following that flow,because it's God who's doing it
through us, you know.
So you don't have to.
You know, it's for him the willto do for his good pleasure.
You know, I think about when Iwas younger I wanted to go
(44:52):
boogie boarding and one of thekids in my youth group had done
it, lived by the coast and so hewas really good at it, and so I
went out there and I just hadwaves crashing on me and I'd
hustle up and I just couldn'tcatch it and and it was like you
know, and it was just like asurf movie or something.
He takes me out and he's likejust look at the waves and and
it's like meditating almost.
(45:13):
That's why I think a lot ofsurf people are can be very
spiritual, because you're juststopping all your figuring and
all your scheming and you'relike, well, I'm just going to
ride a wave.
That is so giant, you know, Imean one time a wave crashed on
me and I just held the boogieboard and just that little
square inches of pounds ofweight I mean I think it broke
(45:35):
my thumb and it was just.
I mean, there's such power inthat and I can't control that.
But if I just relax and justall of a sudden I was riding
that giant wave, that strengththat was so much greater and I
couldn't control it.
I just had to learn how to getout of its way and kind of ride
(45:56):
with it.
You know, and what anincredible metaphor, right For
us.
You know, god's not asking youto figure all this out or to
drum it up, but would you getout of the way and then just
ride when God wants to dosomething amazing for somebody
or wants to use you, that we canjust get in more of that calm,
(46:17):
meditative state where I canjust watch the waves and I can
see what's around.
And now I know it's time tomove, because I've taken the
time.
We spend that time in thepresence of God and spend the
time around followers who, whodo know the rhythm and all of a
sudden I can just take thatplunge and step in that thing
(46:38):
and sometimes you might miss it.
I missed that one.
Let's go back out and wait.
You know, the same thing withour walk with god.
There's just such a beautifulflow to that.
But do you see how the god ofthe universe so great in his
power and we're trying toproduce it.
But wouldn't it be better ifyou and I just got out of the
way and let you know god, showus what wonderful things god
(47:01):
wants to do?
Heather Drake (47:02):
The invitation is that we would participate in
the kingdom, that we could livelike Jesus lived while we were
here, that we could offer loveto ourselves and to the world.
And the invitation is to usethe faith that we have been
(47:24):
given not to keep people away,but to bring people into the
love of Christ.
Our faith is given to us as away of living and this faith, in
fact in verse 17, faith byitself isn't enough.
And he's not saying faith inChrist isn't enough.
(47:46):
He in fact is a follower.
But he's saying if you just sayyou're a person of faith and
you do not have correspondingactions, it's dead and it's
useless.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's sermon.
If you would like moreinformation about us, visit us
online at firstlovechurchorg.
Welcome to the First Love Church Podcast.
This is a collection of Sundayteachings inspired by the
Revised Common Lectionary andrecorded weekly in Ocala,
florida, the book of James,which we happen to be hanging
out with for the next few weeks,and so I'm grateful for the
many ways that we receive thattruth that is engrafted in us,
(00:23):
according to the Apostle, thatcan save our souls, that can
change the way that we seethings.
I'm grateful this morning forthe babies that are here with us
and for the mothers who madethe efforts to actually dress
them, and maybe they may havedressed them two or three times
before they got here thismorning.
I just don't know what part ofthe baby, the age you are from.
So I appreciated that.
And this morning I sawbeautiful Abby at one side and
(00:47):
Sawyer was crawling under thepews and then Philip was at the
other side as the goalie, youknow, to keep the baby, and I
was thinking this brings me suchjoy because we're here this
morning and beautiful Sawyer isat the age where he's mobile and
he's walking around and he isin the house of God and he's on
Abby's hip when she comes up totake communion and his whole
(01:07):
life.
May this be, so that he knowsthat he is welcomed in the house
of God.
Elias doesn't walk yet, butthey're working on that with him
and I was going to say I don'tknow how much you want to rush
that, because from the time thatlittle people can walk, then
all you do is chase so but youknow they're first parents and
so you let them.
You let them have their ownexperience.
(01:28):
But I love that and I also lovethis morning that Bob is here.
He had the red beanie on, Bobis 94.
And I love the fact that he gothis friend to bring him to
church, or his friend broughthim to church, however that
worked out.
But I love for us in thecongregation that we have people
with us who are in their 90sand we have people with us who
(01:49):
are in their just early stages,even haven't had birthdays yet,
and everybody in the middle andall of us who are here
reflecting the goodness of Jesusand there's so much hope for us
in that.
I'm grateful all the time forthings that I'm observing now
and maybe it just happens withage, maybe it happens with
renewal and for all of us it'sexpected of us that our
following Jesus would mature andI am receiving lots of witness
(02:13):
from nature.
Recently, when I saw the guttershad plants growing out of them,
it just blessed me.
It's not effective from agutter, but I just want to tell
you that's something that haddied.
A tree had lost its leaf and abunch of leaves were together
and they turned into a beautifulcompost.
And some bird or some windbrought a seed and it grew.
And I want to remind you that indead things that is not the
(02:36):
final word there is resurrection, and so when we allow things to
die, as they often do differentseasons in our lives, different
relationships that we can trustthat there's a power of
resurrection, god's resurrectionin us.
Maybe the same thing won't grow.
Maybe in that compost this is acompletely different tree.
Maybe it was not a tree at all,maybe it was a weed or a flower
(02:58):
.
And really, what is a weed?
That's just a plant somebodysaid shouldn't grow here.
I mean, all plants are.
Sometimes they're mucky andpoisonous, but you know, maybe
not to everything.
So I just remind us in our lives, be mindful not to judge good
and bad.
This is a bad season.
This may be a season wherecompost is being formed and
something beautiful is comingout of it, and so I encourage us
(03:22):
this morning with the word oflife that Christ is among us.
We go to the book of James andwe invited last week I hope that
you would consider this that asa fellowship, as people who are
gathered together, and even forthose of you who are online, if
you would consider reading thebook of James with us and it's a
short book and you know, evenif you read a few verses every
(03:43):
day, or just the verses that weactually talked about on a
Sunday, it would really help usto put reset and kind of remind
ourselves what it looks like toreally follow the way of Jesus.
The way of Jesus is love, andwe must constantly be reminded
of that.
In fact, this is what thismorning we're looking at, where
(04:04):
James, the brother of Jesus, hasa lot to say about a living
faith.
In fact, at one point he saysit doesn't matter what you say
you believe if your actionsdon't line up with it.
So faith without works is dead.
Dennis Drake (04:20):
Last week he reminded us that everyone should
be quick to listen, slow tospeak, slow to get angry and to
allow, and oftentimes we referto that as our fate and I think
(04:49):
in modern times what you believeis the most important thing,
and it's been taught to me inthere, almost every church I
I've um went to, that belief isthe paramount and though
obviously without belief youwould not be here.
(05:13):
But sometimes belief and headknowledge get exalted and
there's a beautiful dance, abeautiful harmony that goes with
your walk, your life of faith.
That implies that if I believe,I take a step, do you see the
connection?
And I don't believe one is goodwithout the other, because we
(05:34):
know people that think that bytheir works they will receive,
uh, the righteousness of god,and so stepping out and doing
those things, as great as theyare, that's not what connects us
with God, but also just thatbelief without any corresponding
action to it, it's lifeless aswell.
(05:56):
So that is kind of the when wetalk about the way of Jesus.
Sometimes I need to follow thatway, sometimes I need to get out
of the way, and, and so I wantyou to kind of see that there's
that um, that that walk with God, and I think we can find it um,
(06:20):
with our connection with God inlike a flow, how we will just
follow when it's time to follow,and that it's not so much
everything that you believe oreverything that you do, but if
God is doing something, I canjust kind of connect with that.
(06:43):
Are you following what I'mtrying to say?
I think sometimes we struggleso hard with I better believe, I
better believe this, or, oh, Ibetter do more or do more, and
sometimes I think that throughall that struggle we miss the
just following or flowing withthe Spirit of God.
Heather Drake (06:59):
I remind us all that grace is not opposed to
effort, it is opposed to earning.
There is an effort thatrequires us all to be
grace-filled to the world aroundus.
It is effort to be kind.
But if you're kind because youthink that you have to earn the
love of God beloved, that's notthe reason at all.
You are kind because you areloved by God, because you know
(07:20):
that love is the source of this.
And James is saying dearbrothers and sisters, and please
hear the family language, dearbrothers and sisters, you're not
stepchildren here, you areloved.
And James is reminding us webelong in God's family.
My dear brothers and sisters,how can you claim to have the
faith in our glorious Lord JesusChrist and hear his language?
(07:43):
Here You're claiming to havefaith, not just faith in
anything, faith in the gloriousLord Jesus Christ, if you favor
some people over others.
For example, suppose someonecomes into your meeting dressed
in fancy clothes and expensivejewelry and other comes in who
is poor and dressed in dirtyclothes.
If you give special attentionand a good seat to the rich
(08:06):
person but you say to the poorone, you can stand over there or
sit on the floor.
Well, doesn't thisdiscrimination show that your
judgments are guided by evilmotives.
I mean, here James starts tomeddle and you do have to
appreciate James.
I mean he is talking to thecongregations there and he's
saying I know you're claiming tobe a part of the way of Jesus,
(08:28):
but if you follow practices ofdiscrimination, that has nothing
to do with the way of Jesus.
Dennis Drake (08:34):
You know, sometimes these verses are
considered a little harsh orhard on people, and I find it
real interesting that when, uh,I might be preaching to, uh
people who haven't heard themessage about love, believers
come along and tell me all thetime you better to to toughen up
(08:56):
on them and tell them aboutthey better quit doing this and
quit doing that.
And then when the believers getin the congregation and they
hear the message about justicehave changed, they go hey,
brother, what about grace?
You know.
And so the point is now askyourself if you want grace for
yourself but want judgment forother people, you know.
(09:19):
Ask yourself if, if really themessage of grace is great for
you, but you want to see otherpeople toe the mark or at least
do as well, if not better than,what you've done.
And so the point of sometimesthese difficult messages that we
preach isn't for you to runhome and tell somebody that
didn't make it to church today,or for you to think, well,
(09:41):
that's how I'm going to go reachthe people that are out there
in the world.
But this is really how usfollowers, we need to do some
housekeeping and so we teach agrace message around here.
So this might feel veryuncomfortable today, because
we're getting ready to rebukeyou.
Heather Drake (10:00):
That is not the case, beloved.
That is absolutely not the case, because anything that we ask,
it is not Anything that we askyou to do.
We are also required to do itin double measure, and so be
mindful that everything that weremind you of, we also first
remind ourselves of this.
This is not for you, and thenwe have a special exemption.
No one does.
(10:21):
My dear brothers and sisters,if any of you are playing
favorites in any way, thiscannot be, and I remind you, it
doesn't only have to do withpeople who are wealthy and
people who are poor, though.
I want to tell you that Jesusalways, always, always,
identified with the poor, and ifyou want to find where Jesus is
(10:41):
, find those places where thereis some kind of poverty, and not
just physical poverty, povertyin spirit, poverty in ideas that
have oppressed them.
Jesus came to bring us life.
Jesus is the great liberator.
In fact, jesus loves and iscommitted to your freedom.
And when the apostle brings usan adjustment and says to us hey
(11:06):
, pay attention to prejudice,because if that's happening,
that has no place in theglorious faith of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and not just prejudiceconcerning wealth and concerning
poverty, in fact, he'sreminding them.
You are part of the church ofJesus Christ.
In the very beginning of thechurch in Jesus Christ, in Acts,
(11:26):
chapter 2, verse 42, and itsaid everyone, everyone,
everyone devoted themselves tothe teaching of the apostles, to
the prayers and to the breakingof bread, to holy communion.
This is the church of JesusChrist when, together, we take
care of each other.
In fact, some of the mostmiraculous things that happened
in the book of Acts that arerecorded is that everybody
(11:49):
started caring for someone else.
No one was selfish.
In fact, it said, if someonehad something, they sold what
they had so that the goods couldbe distributed among them.
And so this distribution, thisgenerosity, this unclenching of
our fists into postures wherewe're open-handed, this is what
it looks like to follow Jesus.
(12:12):
Yes, indeed, it is good when youobey the royal law as found in
the scriptures love yourneighbor as yourself.
And this would have remindedthe people who were there,
because this is from the firstfive books of the Jewish
Testament, this is from theTorah.
This verse is reminding them ofwho they are.
(12:32):
This is the royal law of love,that you would love your
neighbor as yourself.
This is preeminent.
How do you want to be treatedFairly, I would assume right.
We all want justice, we wouldlike things to go and be even
and be peaceful, but in theworld that we live in, we see
(12:54):
that that's not so, and so theinvitation is how do we make it
so with us?
We may not be able to changeeveryone, but we can change
among us, in our heart.
We can say in here there willbe no prejudice.
We will recognize that eachperson is made in the image of
God, is made from the source ofGod, that every person is worthy
(13:16):
of dignity, that every personbears Christ.
Now, some of us have marred theimage and some of us have lived
in a world where other thingshave marred the image, and some
of us have lived in a worldwhere other things have marred
the image, but deep within us,the light of Christ, and when we
come, and when we come withexpectation that I am part of
the family, that we begin tolove your neighbor as yourself.
(13:42):
But if you favor some peopleover others, you are committing
a sin I'm just going to let thatsit and you are guilty of
breaking the law.
There will be no mercy forthose who have not shown mercy
to others, but if you have beenmerciful, god will be merciful
(14:06):
when he judges you.
Beloved, if this isn't a textalone in how we should live with
so much mercy, because when westand before God, when we stand
before love, when Jesus is faceto face with us, I want to tell
you how Jesus described GodInfinite mercy.
That means that we ourselvesneed to be people of infinite
(14:31):
mercy.
Now, it doesn't mean sufferingabuse, it doesn't mean that you
stay in situations that areunsafe, but it does cause us to
reorient ourselves and say, asfollowers of Jesus, we must be
people who show mercy.
In fact, the scripture tells usthis is one of the hallmarks of
(14:52):
our faith that we are amerciful people.
I hope that is always true andsaid of us Mercy.
Dennis Drake (15:01):
You know, this verse here is telling us that,
um, that we, uh, we claim christ, you know, and uh, and the
problem with their potentialproblem with that could be to
claim christ but reflect in noway the image of christ, you
(15:26):
know, and that's that'sdangerous because it sends a
mixed message, you know.
So that's the challenge, youknow, we're talking to believers
and saying we're here, we'rehere who claim Christ, so does
that, our behavior, the way thatwe treat people, does that
align with?
Is that the way Christ treatedpeople, you know?
(15:47):
Did he give preference to therich or no?
He was actually, you know,really shown to just really be
on the side of the poor.
That's that I wonder, if, ifthat's how I view things, am I,
am I always looking?
How can I be on the side of thepoor, you know?
Or?
Or I think one of my favoriteverses, uh is is in the bible,
where it talks about that inchrist there's neither male nor
(16:11):
female, jew, jew nor greek,slave or free.
That that, that that type of uh, non-dualism, uh is what that
is is presented by Christ, andwe all should probably admit
that that's a little bit foreignto us.
We're kind of trained to takecare of our family first, or
(16:35):
take care of us, or don't worryabout them, or, in fact, those
people are kind of weird overthere, so we're keeping them,
you know.
And there's us and them, andhe's saying, no, those kind of
things divide us.
So I want to challenge you thatwhen you and I say that we are
these followers of christ, orwe're choosing christ, then how
does that bear out in in ourday-to-day responses to people?
(16:59):
You know, do I now still havethe freedom to just be angry and
tell people off when they pushme far enough?
Or have I said no, I amidentifying with Christ, and so
I want to behave as Christ wouldin a situation of anger.
(17:23):
Because Christ got angry,believe it or not, but he didn't
fight the guy in the street.
He'd have to have his wifebailing him out of jail.
He didn't just treat people anyway that he chose.
(17:43):
There's that choice of love,and so that's the kind of thing
we're wanting us to considertoday.
In this, I call myself afollower.
Well, what does that mean forme then?
Heather Drake (17:55):
moving forward, I appreciate where you're
bringing us here in this life offollowing.
In fact, I was reading somereally ancient texts this
morning and it was they'reconsidered one of the first
baptismal liturgies, and it'sfrom early on in the Christian
faith and when they were goingto baptize someone, which is a
sacrament given to us by thechurch.
(18:15):
We see it even before Jesus.
Jesus was baptized into the wayof John the Baptist, and John
the Baptist had some reallyimpressive things to say.
He said to people, if you havetwo coats, one is yours and one
is the guy who has no coat.
And he said you know, let'stalk about justice here, let's
talk about real generosity,let's talk about taking care of
each other.
(18:36):
But one of the earliestbaptismal liturgies is this
portion that Dennis mentioned.
They would say to the peoplebefore they plunge them under
the water in Christ there is nodifference.
In Christ all the identifiersare gone.
In Christ we are one.
There is no Jew and Greek.
There is no nationality thatdivides us.
There is no ethnicity thatchanges here.
(18:56):
It is in Christ, and it is inChrist that the family of God is
built.
And so we are reminded of thesebeautiful things.
But I draw your attention hereto the fact that you have a
beautiful opportunity, as do I,to practice mercy.
We are to be people who aremerciful people.
(19:17):
What good is it, dear brothersand sisters, if you say you have
faith but don't show it by youractions?
Beloved here, james is reallylooking at us going.
We can say a lot of things anda lot of things have been said
to us, but how someone livesmatters.
The choices that we make matter, and James is saying this is
(19:39):
how you can look at your faithand go.
Is it real faith at all?
And is my faith just a personalfaith?
I just want to tell you thereis no such thing as a personal
faith.
It's not, it's not in thescripture and no one has a
personal faith.
How we live.
Our faith is actually towardthe world.
My faith in Jesus means that Ilive and choose a different way.
(20:00):
Your faith in Jesus means thatthe opportunity is for you to
take the narrow path, the narrowpath that seems like it might
be closing in, and Jesus issaying I'm going to tell you
something about the narrow path.
It is so expansive, it is soincredible, and mercy triumphs
over judgment.
This is what the scripture says.
(20:21):
But if you say you have faithand don't show it by your
actions, can that kind of faithsave anyone?
Can it save you to say that youbelieve something but don't
have the effort or the worksbehind it and there is an
invitation into a new way ofliving that we would be people
so loving that mercy would bethe first thing that came from
(20:45):
us.
In fact, I believe that's wherethat prayer comes, where Lord,
have mercy, christ have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
When I can't figure outanything what to do with this
situation, may mercy come firstand may that be the road that we
choose.
Mercy.
Suppose you see a brother orsister who has no food or
clothing and you say goodbye andhave a good day, stay warm, eat
(21:10):
well, and you don't give thatperson any food or clothing.
What good does that do?
I mean he's really asking us tolook at how we would be the
saving grace, how we would offerto ourselves, to look at how we
would be the saving grace, howwe would offer to ourselves, to
others that we would say what isit like to follow Jesus?
It's like Jesus would be in ourmidst.
(21:31):
If someone was hungry, jesuswould feed them.
And I know you're saying, well,I don't have the multiplication
Jesus had, but I remind youwhat Jesus did was say to his
friend Philip we happen to havea Philip here this morning so
you could talk with himafterwards hey, philip, what are
we going to do about the peoplehere?
There's a lot of them who arehungry and in the gathering
(21:56):
there's a lot of provision.
We may have to look for it, butthere is.
This church is going to be 24years old in November.
That's really exciting.
It's going to be our 21st yearas a congregation and there has
been much that has been donehere.
One of the things that we havedone here was very early in the
church history.
We decided that we would takeon five children around the
(22:19):
world internationally compassionchildren or world vision
children and we would supportthem every month.
And we have done that.
And I have a daughter who'sbeen raised in the faith and in
the church and she's veryreligious and in fact even this
morning she is filling in forthe children's church at the
American Church of Paris.
So she's doing children'schurch this morning.
(22:40):
But she wouldn't allow us justto give the money to take care
of the compassion kids.
She said you have to write theletters and you have to let the
people know that they're lovedand we're doing this because we
love them.
And so, okay, I could write aletter.
And then she said twice a yearyou're allowed to give presents,
and so I'll shop for thepresents and the list is very,
(23:03):
very clear with what you cangive.
It's very, very specific.
Like, you can't send rubberbands.
I don't know why One of thecountries in the world doesn't
want rubber bands for us it'sfine, but you can't send things.
There's a lot of things youcan't send, but Catherine had
narrowed down the list and whatwas not prohibited was kazoos.
So, okay, thank you for thelaughter.
(23:30):
So we sent kazoos and cutelittle hair ribbons and stuff to
children all over the worldwith our money, and then we'd
have letters.
And the letters don't comefrequently from their side.
We do send letters every monthand we encourage them.
And you know what is sobeautiful and I love that about
24 for us is there's alreadyfive children who have their
entire life been cared for bycompassion and world vision,
(23:52):
because together as a group, wesaid we're going to pay for that
.
Their entire life they'veactually aged out of the systems
and they sent us new ones.
We've got new guys and it'swonderful, but it's all around
the world.
But we got a letter one timefrom Myanmar, and this was about
10 years ago, and this littleperson that we had been
supporting and that we sent agift for said my parents and my
(24:13):
neighbors would like to thankyou for the razzmatazz that you
sent.
Now I just want to tell you theparents and the neighbors were
not happy that there was a kazoosent to them somewhere in the
jungle.
Imagine a child's joy to have akazoo.
And they didn't have the namekazoo, so they called it a
razzmatazz.
Thank you for the razzmatazz.
So I just want to tell you, asFirst Love Church, you're part
(24:35):
of the razzmatazz ministry,because not only will we send
resources, but we're going tosend some joy.
So somebody in some little paddyfield was out playing his kazoo
and I don't know if they saidwe're not thankful, and the
child changed that or the personwho was interpreting it did,
but he said his parents and theneighbors were grateful for the
razzmatazz.
And so I tell you that in whatwe can do, together is so much
(24:59):
greater.
And if together we would spreadmercy, if together we would
spread joy, if together we wouldtake people's needs and say I
don't know, I can't fixeverything, but what can we do,
philip?
What is there?
And then Philip didn't evenshow up with his own donation.
In the original scripture hegets a boy to bring his lunch,
(25:19):
or the boy offers it.
And I just want to tell you,the boy didn't make his lunch.
I just I'm going to tell thestory this way there was a
mother who knew that kid wasgoing and she packed the little
basket and she had probably madethe bread, or maybe the sister
did, and somebody, maybe the dad, brought the fish, but she sent
him with fish and with bread.
And Philip found that, talkedto that kid who said, yeah, I'll
(25:43):
give this.
And they put it in the hands ofJesus and Jesus gave thanks for
it and blessed it andmultiplied it and everyone was
fed.
So I remind you that your littleacts of mercy matter, matters
to the whole world, your acts ofgenerosity matter.
It matters to the whole world.
Your acts of generosity matter.
It matters to the whole world.
(26:03):
How we live as followers ofJesus is how the world sees the
love that is still here today.
We pause here for a moment tothank you for joining us today.
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, would you take a
moment to share it with a friend?
This podcast is made possiblethanks to the generosity of
(26:26):
people just like you.
If you would like to supportthe ongoing work of First Love
Church and the continued work ofour podcast, visit us online at
firstlovechurchorg, remindingyou to like, follow and
subscribe.
Dennis Drake (26:43):
After men's breakfast there was a guy here
and he was hanging around and hewanted work.
And so I let him work with usand gave him some money, and
then he wanted a ride.
And then, as he was riding, hewas talking to me and he said
Well, you know, for days anddays I've been needing to get a
ride downtown for some medicalthing or whatever.
And he said Then I was here atthe the church and there was a
guy in there and he wasvacuuming up the water, and
(27:04):
that's todd.
He does it every time it rainshe comes over here, otherwise
this church would stink so badthat none of us could come in
here.
But he takes his own time anduses his own carpet thing and
sucks up them gallons andgallons and gallons of water.
And so he was over here and hemet that man and todd drove.
Of course, no, ever know,except for this guy who just
starts telling me about some guythat was vacuuming up water
(27:25):
here at the church, like Ididn't know who that was, and
took him on this ride, you know,and then told him about the
breakfast that was happeningyesterday.
And so then yesterday he hadcome in and ate the breakfast
and we were able to feed him andhe was just so grateful and
listened to the preach together.
And then, all of a sudden,after work, I was going to have
(27:47):
him work right away and thenSean's like, well, no, I'm going
to take him down, get him someclothes and the other place to
get some more food.
And so this is what's going on.
I have no idea until late.
You know, sean's going down andgetting him, helping him.
You know, no one asked, no oneappointed sean, driver of people
(28:10):
down to get food and clothes.
He took it upon himself inresponse to seeing this need, as
todd did, you know.
And then, as I did, I'm drivinghim back to his house.
And then he was saying, yeah,I'm gonna take this little bit
of money and go buy some cookingoil.
And I thought, well, I justleft cooking oil in from you
know, it might even be good intwo months for the men's
breakfast to come back here.
And so I was able to take himhome and that was again.
(28:35):
It was resources that we'vepooled together as a church,
pooled together as a church.
It's not sweet buying the buyersome kid in the jungle,
although those kids are beingtaken care of because of the
giving and the effort that youmake towards this church, but it
happens through this church ona regular basis, here and then.
(28:55):
What I want to report to maybe,if you don't realize this, this
is happening in you and in thepeople around you.
You know all the time, becauseif we stopped right now and had
a testimony service of how manyof you have stopped and fed
somebody you know, and so I'mencouraged that that is getting
(29:18):
through and it's happening.
And then I I also want toremind you that the people in
the world are going to tell youyou're crazy and those people,
they're just going to use it fordrugs and they're going to, you
know, and they're going to tellyou all the reasons why not to
help, when, uh, jesus didn'ttell you to figure out their
motives, and if they are judgedby you as pure, then you shall
help.
(29:38):
It's like help those are, andlet God work on the hearts of
people.
Amen, you know.
But for you and I to look around, uh, the, the, when the
scripture talks about the fieldsare ripe for harvest, uh, uh,
some of us look at thatscripture and go, oh, that's a
promise that there's just abunch of stuff for me, or, or
maybe we should turn around andlook at that, as there's a lot
(29:59):
of people out there that canreally use the message that I
have and really use maybe that,that, maybe that five bucks
isn't a tipping point for you,but if it gets somebody a burger
, that's a huge deal, you know,and so I encourage you to look
for those opportunities andthank you for those that are
responding to them theinvitation is not just to the
(30:19):
physical, but the invitation isto actually see people, to see
them as beloved brothers andsisters.
Heather Drake (30:28):
Sometimes someone has plenty of resources, but
what they need is acompassionate witness.
What they need is someone tolisten to their pain, and so
those are things that we do also, and so we remind you.
This is why it is our not justpriority, but it is our
intention to be people ofdiscernment that we would know
(30:51):
the voice of Jesus, that wewould hear the voice of the good
shepherd, that in everysituation we could just be still
and listen and say what isneeded.
Here Now we are not Jesus, wedon't have every resources, but
we know we can be mat carriers.
You know the story I'mreferring to.
There was a man who isparalyzed, can do nothing for
himself, but his friends comeand they pick up a corner of the
(31:13):
mat and they bring the mat toJesus.
They bring the person to Jesusand Jesus heals them, and
sometimes beloved.
That is our highest vocation.
We are mat carriers.
We will bring someone to Jesusand then Jesus sorts out the
what, what, the things that theyhave need of, and I am so
reminded in this act of mercy ifyou would go with me in your
(31:36):
memories, cause you know thestory.
But love is being crucified.
Jesus is surrendering his lifebecause he has enemies, and the
enemies are people who do notlike the way of love.
The enemies are systems thathate the rule of love.
And again James is reminding usthat love is the way.
(32:00):
And we look at this love ofChrist.
And Jesus is on the cross,dying, accepting a punishment
that is not his.
And the person on the crossnext to him says remember me
when you come into your kingdom.
(32:21):
And Jesus didn't say well, it'sa little late, brother.
And Jesus didn't give a list ofanything that person had to do.
That person said to Jesusremember me.
And Jesus said today you willbe with me in paradise.
Infinite mercy.
It is the mercy of Christ.
(32:42):
In fact, it is the goodness ofGod that calls us all to
repentance.
It is the goodness of God thatwe are to be reflective of.
It is the goodness of God thatwe are invited to participate in
.
Dennis Drake (32:57):
Sometimes I wonder if I recognize just how gifted
my wife is at preaching and thethings that she says, because
sometimes you'll say somethingand you'll just blow past it and
I'm like, oh, you better stopand do an exhaustive study, and
I want to hear about that.
When she was just talking amoment about a know, a
(33:20):
compassionate witness, you know,I want us to just go back there
for a second, because this issomething that I learned from
her and, um, and there's, uh,there's this idea as a christian
that we need to be a witness,and and we're taught.
Well, that witness is that youbetter learn the romans road and
(33:42):
you better beat the bible oversomebody's head at some point.
You know, or that's oftentimeswhat it ends up being.
Uh, and and though I want youto learn the scriptures and I
want you to be able to sharethem with people, uh, when
they're open to them.
Uh, being a witness is uh, youknow, is not that you have to
prepare a big sermon.
(34:03):
Being a witness is observingwhat you saw.
If you're a witness in anaccident, you would say well,
that car came and hit that car.
You're just telling whathappened, and for us witnesses,
this is what Jesus did in mylife.
This is what God has done sinceI've surrendered, and,
furthermore, the idea of thecompassionate witness.
(34:23):
Somebody was over my house theother day and they were
financially uh fine, and theywere physically fine, but but
maybe emotionally andspiritually they were really
hurting.
And they began to talk and youknow me, I like to talk too a
lot and uh, and I wanted tochime in when they set a point
(34:49):
oh, I, I, I like that too, or,and I just was overwhelmed with
the idea that this person neededsomeone who would just listen
to their pain.
And that's a compassion, notcorrect them, not give them all
these scriptures and fix allthis stuff.
But what about understandingthe compassion that is and
(35:14):
that's priceless.
They're wealthy, they're doing,but yet they're without that
thing that we could provide forthem.
They're really hurting.
And so could you see yourselfbeing able to be a compassionate
witness?
Or have you been acompassionate witness your whole
life and not realized that thatwas a thing, because other
(35:36):
people might be the ones runningtheir yapper all the time and
you think, well, because I'm notdoing all that, maybe I'm not
effective, and maybe thatcompassionate witness, talk
about that a little bit, becauseit's been so life-changing for
me.
Heather Drake (35:53):
When I think about Jesus and I do often or
try to think about who Jesus isand imagine the life and look
for the witness of that, one ofthe things that I see over and
over again, and everyone else istelling, is how compassionate
Jesus was.
It's one of the things I wantus to be.
(36:13):
This is the 16th Sunday afterPentecost.
We're in ordinary time and Iwant us to be paying attention
to the sacredness that iseverywhere.
But, beloved, I tell you, I'malready headed toward Advent.
Oh, I'm already thinking aboutAdvent, and I know we're just
here in September, beloved, andAdvent is coming.
I just say that's good for yourhope, it's good for my hope,
(36:34):
and one of the things that wepractice in Advent is we allow
Jesus to give us eyes to reallysee, which I believe is very
much like what Jesus did Overand over again.
If you'll read through thegospels, it will say and Jesus
saw, and Jesus saw him, andJesus saw him.
And there's a mother on the wayto bury her only son and it
(36:58):
said and Jesus saw her, otherpeople saw her too, but Jesus
saw her.
And then it says and he lookedat her with compassion and then
the miraculous happened.
Beloved.
When we look at people withcompassion, compassion is an
outflow of mercy.
When we look at someone, not tojudge them right or wrong or
(37:18):
different than us, or us andthem, when we let go of all of
that and we receive from Jesus,we are loved, we're part of
God's family.
When mercy is the first thingthat comes from us, a byproduct
of that is compassion.
And so and here's the beauty ofit when you start to practice
it for other people, all of thesudden you will notice how not
(37:38):
compassionate you are ofyourself.
And when you start handing itaway, then all of a sudden
you'll start looking I need tobe compassionate with myself as
well, and so here's the hope forall of us.
In fact, the theologian DallasWillard reminds us of this you
live your way into rightthinking.
You don't think your way intoright living.
(37:58):
So it is this practice that does, that allows us this holiness
that God has called us to, butwe take the tools that are given
to us, and a tool is mercy andbeloved.
Mercy triumphs over judgment.
In the very end, we will allstand before infinite mercy.
We will stand before the Godwho created everything.
(38:19):
This is the hope for us.
If, for one minute, you thoughtstanding before God was in some
way a punishment, I want totell you that every correction
from God is restorative, notretributive, and God intends to
restore us to the holiness thathe put in us.
And mercy, this compassionatewitness, this compassionate
(38:41):
mercy for the world.
It does sometimes break ourhearts.
I think a result of beingcompassionate will require us to
weep.
That's why I also love theseries, the time of the year
that we have lent, because thenwe just get to do something with
all of our heartache.
Advent is coming, lent iscoming, but this, right now,
(39:01):
this is ordinary time and thisis the practice of recognizing
and joining with the sacred inevery little thing In the
planting of seeds, in thewatering of flowers and plants.
Recently, we don't have to dothat.
The skies opened up and wateredeverything.
It was a little heavy.
(39:22):
The other day it was comingdown so much.
I was like, please, the littletiny flowers are still out there
.
They seem to be fine the nextday.
And now we have a ton ofmushrooms I don't know if you do
, they're kind of everywhere butthe green moss that was in
these tiny cracks I love thisabout the resurrection moss and
ferns.
What appears dry is a couple ofdays of that kind of rain, and
(39:45):
there is life, it is greeningall around us.
What would it look like for usto be people who have
compassionate witness?
Dennis and I were together theother day and we have someone
that is not a friend of ours butis just a person that we visit
in a business and we don't knoweven each other's names.
(40:06):
But we recognize each other andwe talk to each other even
though we don't know eachother's names, and we can do
this with everyone.
And I said how was your week?
And she said horrible, justlike that.
And so I put my arm around her.
That's a little disarmingsometimes, but sometimes you can
do it.
And she said my mother justdied and I started crying.
(40:35):
My mother didn't die, but buthers did, and my sister is in
pain.
And she looked at me and shesaid why are you crying?
And I said because you're inpain.
And then she really startedcrying and I want to tell you
it's seeing someone's pain andjust naming it.
(40:57):
I want to tell you that namingpain is a direct path to God.
If you are headed there, I meanname that pain.
Christ is the healer we invitethat.
I can't do anything for thiswoman.
I cannot bring her mother back.
I cannot change anything thathappened in the past.
I cannot change anything in thefuture, but I can be a
compassionate witness right nowwhile she walks through the pain
.
And she said to me this isinappropriate because I am
(41:21):
taking your time.
You intended to come in hereand you didn't ask for my pain.
And I said to her but I honorthe fact that your pain is here
and I care about you.
And together we shared tears.
Nothing fixed, nothing changedexcept compassion.
(41:44):
And I want to tell youcompassion heals us, compassion
changes people.
And Jesus, if you look at him,was full of compassion, in fact,
through the prophet Isaiah thisis what Isaiah said he is a man
so full of compassion that heknows our grief, not only
acquainted with grief, but knowsour grief, beloved.
(42:07):
If you want to know Jesus, goto someone in their grief and
sit with them.
But when we look at Jesus andwhen we begin to see as people,
we see others' needs.
This is the compassionatewitness.
I cannot change something foryou, maybe, but I can let you
know you are not alone, and thisis the promise of God that we
(42:30):
are not alone.
And maybe you'll be like Philipwho, in the scripture, said hey
, there's a bunch of people thatare hungry and Jesus cares
about it.
Who's got a lunch?
I don't know, maybe he shookthe boy down, who knows?
I mean, we don't really knowthat Philip was this great guy.
But Philip is the one who saidhey, there's a boy here with a
lunch and brought it to Jesus.
And so maybe for us we have tobe the people who say, like Todd
(42:53):
did hey, there's a breakfasttomorrow.
Do you want to come?
Maybe we just give theinvitation and say, together,
there are people in the junglewho need a razzmatazz, and they
didn't know it, but we gottogether.
We sent him a little instrument.
So probably I don't knowthere's, you know, five families
(43:14):
who are just so full of joy.
Now I think they probablydestroyed them, but we sent the
metal ones because we thoughtthe plastic might not go through
the mail, so like a good metalkazoo.
So they got hair bows and funthings like that and a
razzmatazz.
I bring that up becausesometimes it is just in the joy
of giving, it is in the joy ofsaying this is what it looks
(43:35):
like if you see someone in needand you don't do anything about
it.
That's why, together, wepractice generous living.
Together, we practice feedingthe, the poor.
Together, we practice takingcare of each other and taking
care of people who are not oursbut who are ours because they're
the family of god.
That's it this is the hope forthe world.
This is how we change, that weexperience the compassion of
(43:57):
jesus and then we ourselves,full of god's compassion, go to
others and offer that samecompassion and I couldn't fully
explain to you what exactlyhappened.
Dennis Drake (44:08):
But I'm telling you what the presence of God was
in that restaurant when Heatherwas holding that woman and I
was weeping at the table and, uh, god did something.
She left that spot different.
And I believe that for you andI, that's all within us and I
(44:30):
think sometimes we want to tryhard or think maybe we don't
know enough or we've got to getsome more information, instead
of just following that flow,because it's God who's doing it
through us, you know.
So you don't have to.
You know, it's for him the willto do for his good pleasure.
You know, I think about when Iwas younger I wanted to go
(44:52):
boogie boarding and one of thekids in my youth group had done
it, lived by the coast and so hewas really good at it, and so I
went out there and I just hadwaves crashing on me and I'd
hustle up and I just couldn'tcatch it and and it was like you
know, and it was just like asurf movie or something.
He takes me out and he's likejust look at the waves and and
it's like meditating almost.
(45:13):
That's why I think a lot ofsurf people are can be very
spiritual, because you're juststopping all your figuring and
all your scheming and you'relike, well, I'm just going to
ride a wave.
That is so giant, you know, Imean one time a wave crashed on
me and I just held the boogieboard and just that little
square inches of pounds ofweight I mean I think it broke
(45:35):
my thumb and it was just.
I mean, there's such power inthat and I can't control that.
But if I just relax and justall of a sudden I was riding
that giant wave, that strengththat was so much greater and I
couldn't control it.
I just had to learn how to getout of its way and kind of ride
(45:56):
with it.
You know, and what anincredible metaphor, right For
us.
You know, god's not asking youto figure all this out or to
drum it up, but would you getout of the way and then just
ride when God wants to dosomething amazing for somebody
or wants to use you, that we canjust get in more of that calm,
(46:17):
meditative state where I canjust watch the waves and I can
see what's around.
And now I know it's time tomove, because I've taken the
time.
We spend that time in thepresence of God and spend the
time around followers who, whodo know the rhythm and all of a
sudden I can just take thatplunge and step in that thing
(46:38):
and sometimes you might miss it.
I missed that one.
Let's go back out and wait.
You know, the same thing withour walk with god.
There's just such a beautifulflow to that.
But do you see how the god ofthe universe so great in his
power and we're trying toproduce it.
But wouldn't it be better ifyou and I just got out of the
way and let you know god, showus what wonderful things god
(47:01):
wants to do?
Heather Drake (47:02):
The invitation is that we would participate in
the kingdom, that we could livelike Jesus lived while we were
here, that we could offer loveto ourselves and to the world.
And the invitation is to usethe faith that we have been
(47:24):
given not to keep people away,but to bring people into the
love of Christ.
Our faith is given to us as away of living and this faith, in
fact in verse 17, faith byitself isn't enough.
And he's not saying faith inChrist isn't enough.
(47:46):
He in fact is a follower.
But he's saying if you just sayyou're a person of faith and
you do not have correspondingactions, it's dead and it's
useless.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's sermon.
If you would like moreinformation about us, visit us
online at firstlovechurchorg.
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