Message Slides – 06.13.2021

Posted on June 12, 2021 by - Slides

FAITH THAT WORKS | Wk 4: “Love Knows No Partiality”

Pastor Mike Overstreet | 06.13.2021

Message recordings available at: https://vimeo.com/element3

 

1:

James - series graphic

 

2:

High Fidelity

 

3:

Myspace. File photo dated 20/08/2009 of the Myspace icon displayed on a laptop. The early social network has apologised after admitting to losing music uploaded to the site since its founding in 2003 until 2015. Issue date: Monday March 18, 2019. Myspace hosts some 53 million songs, with more than 14 million artists, most them unsigned, members of the website. See PA story TECHNOLOGY Myspace. Photo credit should read: Martin Keene/PA Wire URN:41846011 (Press Association via AP Images)

 

4:

James 2:1-4 (NIV)

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

 

5:

James prohibits favoritism – seeing some people as more valuable than others based on your judgments of them.

 

6:

Hierarchy Graph

 

7:

For James, favoritism, prejudice, & discrimination is an act of judgment that divides the Church, violates justice, usurps God as Judge, & is fundamentally sinful. 

 

8:

James 2:5-7 (NIV)

5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?

 

9:

Faith in Jesus demands radical equality, mercy, generosity, & justice for the weak and marginalized.

 

10:

James 2:8-13 (NIV)

8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

 

11:

Jesus Christ’s command to love is meant to be the great equalizer within the Church.

 

12:

  1. Start with a conscious recognition of our universal familial bond.
  2. Name the prejudice & its impact. (Harvard Bias Test: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html) 
  3. Reflect on both in light of God’s story & the Law of Love.
  4. Commit to action.