"Life According To Jim: YOUniverse"

This book has become a big part of my walk with Christ, in particular chapter four and in particular this year. So, if you are thinking it seems strange that I, Louise Carroll, am standing up here and have no theological training, little life experience, and a long list of grievances at the library amongst other places, it seems weird to me too. But it’s actually a cool story of how this all came about which I’d love to tell anyone if you’re interested– suffice to say, we serve an incredible God. So I think he wanted me to share what I have been learning. And if even one word of truth is said this morning it is evidence of his faithfulness.

If I were to conduct a survey of the audience and ask each of you to tell me what you require to become a Christian, or to have a relationship with Christ, what would you say?

I think most of us would answer faith. It seems like our entire religious doctrine comes down to this one little word – the glue, the conduit, the bridge through which we are able to experience or accept divinity.

I also think that this is at the heart of James’ message to us. He, like Jesus, spends a lot of time talking about this word. It is referred to over 400 times in the Bible. But what exactly does it mean?

Hebrews 11:1 says that “Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you cannot see.” I’ve always stopped reading there, but if you continue, verse 6 reads “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Faith is more than just believing. As James writes in Chapter 2 – “You believe there is one God, good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.” I love this line, he’s animated and exasperated as he says it. Congratulations. Of course there’s a God. Do you want a medal? What are you doing about it? Doesn’t that make a difference?

Belief is not enough. Faith without actions is dead because it’s really not faith. If we are seeking God – he’ll show up and James is saying when God shows up in your life, something’s got to change. If our actions don’t change, perhaps we’re not seeking. In which case, our faith is dead. It’s like believing that the Rough Riders will win this afternoon, but betting on Winnipeg. Only, despite the risk, I’m going to suggest that the consequences are far more devastating.

When we spend time seeking out God it’s obvious, like being in the sunshine. Our skin starts to get dark; our hair bleaches out. Consequently, we get hot and need water. We wear light, summery clothing and the world can see that we’ve been in the sun.

James asks in chapter 2, “What good is it if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?”

And I ask, is it even faith at all?

If knowing the creator of the universe on a personal level does not change your life around, are you sure your faith is saving you?

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?[

Wow – these are strong words. Surely he can’t expect us to hate everything about the world? We’re living in it after-all, and God made it! Don said last week that we are motivated either by selfish ambition or by love. James says that when we pursue God, we are motivated by love, and when we pursue the things of this world, we are motivated by selfish ambition. I’m going to add, that beyond just selfish motivation is perhaps fear. Fear that God isn’t who he says he is, fear that we aren’t really enough without all the things this world has to offer. Faith in God is love, faith in us is selfish ambition.

So despite what we claim to believe as Christians, we are double-timing God. We’re cheating on him, adulterers James calls us. We pursue and befriend the world because it’s easy, convenient, tangible, and safe. James is saying that our actions speak louder than our words. They betray us. If we were sure of what we hoped for, we would know who our God is and we would live accordingly. People of faith know their God. Lee spoke a few weeks ago about studying intently, leaning in eagerly to hear what God has to say from his word and during trials. As people do that, they develop their relationship, they get to know their God.

The first thing they might discover, if they are linear thinkers and start at the beginning of the Book, is that God is the Creator.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

He made plants and animals and people.

He crafted and arranged for each species to not only be capable of finding food, but designed to enjoy and delight in it so we’d be sure to eat it.

He concocted clever ways of ensuring there was ample motivation to seek out relationships for our social needs, not to mention the need to procreate and sustain the specie.

He gave us humans his abilities to reason and think.

James can say in chapter 1 2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Because James knows his maker. He knows that God uses trials to get us close so that he can teach us. And then he claims we will lack nothing! That means, the one who made us knows what we need. He created those needs. He says, relax, when you persevere under trial, I’ll give you everything you need.

Jesus says a similar thing in Matthew chapter 6. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[b]?

28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Interestingly, both James and Jesus refer on several occasions specifically to the rich. The poor have been chosen to be rich in faith says James, the poor will inherit the kingdom of God writes Jesus – but be careful you rich people. Watch out. I wondered if this was significant. But as I read James over and over, I discovered more than one allusion to riches in each chapter. James knew that wealth was related to quality or durability of faithfulness.

Perhaps this is because a sure footing in the world makes the uncertainty of our faith far less appealing. As I was studying God gave me a picture of a little wooden boat at the shore of a beautiful sandy beach. Above the beach, at the top of a hill overlooking the water were massive, beautiful mansions with huge windows that mirrored the water and the sky and the sunshine. The beach is like the world. We know that God lives out on the water and that his home is on an island just past the horizon, just out of sight of the shore. The little, rickety boat on beach is our faith. But unless our faith is in the water, it’s dead.

For the poor in this world it’s not hard to see why they would choose the boat. Life on the shore is difficult, they’re cold and really have nothing to lose. They are not friends of this cold, cruel world.

But we love the world. We live in beautiful seaside mansions. We rich Christians can look out on the glory of God on the water, comfy and safe in our homes – free from the scandal, the tumult of the rough waters below. We have a holy fear of the water, we believe in the God of the water, we have our lifeboats – but for now, we’re busy. We have car payments, mortgages, social functions to attend, etc. etc. We just don’t really have the time to work on our faith, so we’re sure it’s not really worthy of the harsh waves.

19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Maybe our little boats can save us. I honestly don’t know how God will judge those of us who are busy. But I can tell you that when the time comes, I sure don’t want to show up to eternity waterlogged, shivering and barely clinging to a rotten piece of driftwood.

So what do we do?

6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."[b]

7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

The thing is, our boats are magic. All we have to do is get in, and push away from the shore. As we test them out on the water, take them on longer and longer voyages they are miraculously improved. They get bigger, sturdier and more comfortable. The longer we ride the waves, the more used to sea life we become. Those little holes in our faith, the uncertainty, is mended by God who meets us on the water. He patches up our little dinghies with love and truth. He teaches us to fish. All we have to do is get off of our high horses, our man made pedestals and admit we have a really junky looking lifeboat, but believe that God will save us anyway.

To submit means to defer to the authority of. As we seek out God, discover who he is, we find that he is more than trustworthy. If we are honestly seeking him, there should be no reason not to jump into our boats and start paddling. God’s not asking us to put our lives into the hands of just anyone, but into his hands. The hands of not only our Creator, but our Father.

As people of faith we will know that we are made in the image of our father. As my dad will say to anyone who will listen, “Louise gets her good looks from her dad.” Which, for those of you who know my dad, is scary. However, fathers are proud of how their children resemble them. God is saying, “you belong out here on the water. Come swim!” Perhaps we even have gills, but we won’t know until we get in the water.

He is not saying that the shore is evil in and of itself, but that’s where evil lives. The demons live on the shore and shudder as they look out on the ocean of God’s love and grace. All the devil has to do is to plant a seed of doubt in the credibility, feasibility, durability of our lifeboats and we’ll be sure to stay right where we are, warm on the shore. As they say – the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. His job is simple. Use logic, use reason to confront these crazy Christians. Come on! A mystical island and a magical boat? He appeals to man’s wisdom. But as we know, that’s foolishness to God.

He is our father who loves us and is warning us like our mothers did that cookies for every meal will not give us the nutrients we need for health. God is not saying that cookies are evil, but we’re being offered them on a silver platter, warm and fresh from the oven by the devil when it’s time to eat our veggies. Resist him and his sweet cookies and he’ll clear off. Jump in your boat and get close to your father who loves you desperately and knows what you need. He will show up – heck, you’ll discover he’s not only on the water and in the distance, he’s in the boat steering; he is the boat!

So not only does our father love us, the more we get to know him, we discover we really love him too. Why would we want to continue viewing him from our living room windows when we could be in his presence? People of faith want to spend time with the father they love.

Beyond Creator and Father, he is also the example, the sacrifice of how to live. He shows us not only submission, but humility. To humble means to destroy the power, independence or prestige of.

Philippians 2 explains exactly how Christ did that,

3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Humbling ourselves means putting our faith into action. It means trusting that when we’re on the water, God will take control. It means we obey even though we know

* it could be dangerous
* it could be hard
* we could lose friends and make enemies
* we could lose or be asked to give up everything we own

BUT with that comes the knowledge that our God will give us everything we need.

Jesus was lifted up to the highest position after he obeyed and submitted to the father’s will. We are heirs with Christ when we obey – we’re his siblings. The whole kingdom of God is at stake here.

Finally, not finally because there are a million other things that God is, but finally for me today – God is holy.

His holiness is why we must grieve, mourn and wail. Why our laughter must turn to mourning and our joy to gloom. When we look into the perfect law that gives freedom, when we understand the plan of the maker, the love of the father, the example of the sacrifice, we also see the perfection, the awe and fear inspiring God who is the great I am. Who just is. When we get a sense of this God, we look like cheap hookers with running mascara. We look like crass, ugly, wretched cheaters who have chosen a lie over the God who loves us, who have picked an easy life for a good life – only to discover it doesn’t satisfy, it isn’t enough and we’re miserable inside. We realize as we look into the face of perfection that we are so imperfect, so unlovable, so disgraceful, so quick to speak and anger, so slow to do good. What can we do but weep? We’ve all betrayed him, all denied him, all refused his love. That’s part of the great risk he took when he made us. He gave us the dignity to choose him, and the dignity to refuse. And we’ve all let him down.

As we see ourselves with sober judgment, as we destroy the independence, the power and the prestige of ourselves, God can lift us up. He can honour us – that means to treat like one whose worth brings respect or fame. People of faith wait on the Lord, wait for his blessing, live like aliens in the world.

Listen to this incredible list of people of faith:

7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

11By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he[a]considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

13All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

17By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring[b] will be reckoned."[c] 19Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

20By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

21By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

22By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.

23By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

24By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. 25He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

29By faith the people passed through the Red Sea[d] as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

30By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.

31By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.[e]

32And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37They were stoned[f]; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

39These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Faith is the glue, the conduit, the bridge. It’s the one thing God requires of us to assure we maintain free will. He gives us courage to try it, he strengthens it as we use it, he supplies the grace and the saving and whatever else needs to be done. All we have to do is jump in our boats and start the journey. Gloria Reimer says we are all spiritual beings on a human experience. So long as we are on the shore living life, it’s all about the world. Our boats are what will inform our spirits about the nature of the God we’re hoping to spend eternity with.

If we put ourselves into God’s hands, instead of our own, then we can live like the last verses of chapter 4 – without boasting or bragging about tomorrow. We’ll be floating on the waves of God’s plan, unbothered and unconcerned about where it takes us.

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.