WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.540 In our 40 acts for Lent, we've come to this point where we come to talk about favoritism. 00:00:06.140 --> 00:00:12.460 And favoritism comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. I don't know about you, whether you were 00:00:12.460 --> 00:00:19.300 part of that humiliating act, I hope they still don't have it at school, where you lined up to 00:00:19.300 --> 00:00:27.300 play sport and then they chose two leaders and they would come out. Now you knew, you knew whether 00:00:27.300 --> 00:00:33.000 you were going to be chosen or whether you were going to be last, not on your ability, but whether 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:43.980 that person happened to be your mate. And so this humiliating act of us and James, James, James, 00:00:43.980 --> 00:00:51.859 James cuts right to the heart of this this morning and says, because all the time the Pharisees were 00:00:51.859 --> 00:00:58.920 saying, you know, we're in this club and therefore you're not part of our favorites, so you don't 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:07.859 belong. And because we all know how easy it is to mix with people just because we like them, 00:01:08.579 --> 00:01:12.400 but don't want to be with them. Here's a little clip. It's a true story. 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:16.900 I didn't want to come into serious life, but if it wouldn't have woke up, I wouldn't have 00:01:16.900 --> 00:01:17.300 been bothered. 00:01:26.860 --> 00:01:32.460 I felt pathetic. Well, I was pathetic. And I went in the archway, just sat with my head 00:01:32.460 --> 00:01:36.080 down because I didn't want people to see me. And I didn't want to see anybody else. 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:46.879 I've seen that look before and that's when you know someone's at rock bottom. 00:01:50.939 --> 00:01:57.379 It was a miracle because I just thought this stranger, this angel has come to help me. So I owe it to him, 00:01:57.819 --> 00:02:03.359 but more so, I owe it to myself. Over the year ago, I was sleeping in the doorway. Now, thanks to my fellow 00:02:03.359 --> 00:02:10.020 soldier. I'm a little bit of a roof on my head. I can tell you that you made a huge difference 00:02:10.020 --> 00:02:15.120 to that man. Absolutely. Would you like to meet him at some point? 00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:24.979 Yeah, I'd like to hear from him and meet him. 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:28.039 Stephen, Phil. 00:02:28.039 --> 00:02:28.719 Yes, isn't it? 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:32.539 Good to see you. 00:02:32.539 --> 00:02:33.379 Thank you, man. 00:02:33.379 --> 00:02:35.379 Looking well, man. Looking well. 00:02:35.379 --> 00:02:36.379 Look at you. 00:02:36.379 --> 00:02:37.379 Look at you. 00:02:37.379 --> 00:02:38.379 Look at you. 00:02:38.379 --> 00:02:44.599 I just want to tell you what you're doing for me. You've done everything for me. I just 00:02:44.599 --> 00:02:52.379 didn't get anywhere. I didn't really have any friends. It was just the loneliness and despair 00:02:52.379 --> 00:02:58.699 was failing. And then you came along. I can't thank you enough. I can barely, I can't thank you. 00:02:58.699 --> 00:03:00.659 I can't. You've just changed my life. 00:03:02.439 --> 00:03:09.159 1 Samuel 16, 7, it says, the Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look 00:03:09.159 --> 00:03:15.159 at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. And we elevate ourselves often, 00:03:15.319 --> 00:03:20.519 don't we, and others when we judge them too quickly. And in the first few verses, we connect 00:03:20.520 --> 00:03:28.960 with this reading. You know, we probably, in this story that we've heard this morning in 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:37.240 Scripture, we probably saw him. He parked his nice new car. He's dressed very well. He's wearing a very 00:03:37.240 --> 00:03:43.980 nice ring. And he's going to come into the coffee shop because that's where we chose to drink. So it 00:03:43.979 --> 00:03:51.639 must be a good place. So therefore, he is one of us. And he therefore comes and joins us. And then 00:03:51.639 --> 00:04:01.959 this person, filthy in dirty rags, comes in to the coffee shop. He's holding his bag close to his chest. 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:07.360 He's probably all that he's got in life. And you notice how people start to move away from him. 00:04:08.659 --> 00:04:15.280 And people are sat there thinking, I hope he gets a takeaway so that he doesn't come and sit next to me. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:23.519 That cuts at the heart of our favouritism. That cuts at the heart of who we are, how we judge, 00:04:23.939 --> 00:04:30.019 and how we should be, how James and Jesus is saying that we should be to others, that we should meet them 00:04:30.019 --> 00:04:37.959 where they are. And so easily, favouritism can infect and dilute our Christian faith. 00:04:37.959 --> 00:04:45.560 The issue that favouritism and judgment sit very closely together. I know that. And you know that. 00:04:45.819 --> 00:04:51.240 And James cuts to the heart in the very first verses. Have you not discriminated amongst yourselves 00:04:51.240 --> 00:05:01.639 and become judges with evil thoughts? Yes, we have, James. And I will put my hand up to that. And I try, 00:05:02.379 --> 00:05:07.740 and I want to be more like you, Lord. I want to be non-judgmental. I want to be there to 00:05:07.740 --> 00:05:14.160 be with people, to meet people where they are, to be exactly where they are. Listen, my brothers and 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:19.220 sisters, has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the poor world to be rich in faith, 00:05:19.420 --> 00:05:26.860 and to inherit the kingdom for those who love him? But you have dishonoured the poor. All the way 00:05:26.860 --> 00:05:36.199 through scripture, that word cuts me deep for James, because we are called to the poor. Poor in spirit, 00:05:36.199 --> 00:05:40.579 poor in whatever way they are. Poor in whatever way they are. But we are called there not to have 00:05:40.579 --> 00:05:50.800 favouritism. And like me, Jesus, I pray as he speaks to me, doesn't discriminate. And James is saying 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:56.719 here this morning, you know, you see favouritism. It can infect our behaviour. It has the dangers of 00:05:56.720 --> 00:06:04.780 making us a club class people. This is who we like being around. And this is the way we stay. 00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:12.780 And inviting people who are like us to be part of our club. Is that a church thing? 00:06:14.440 --> 00:06:21.460 Is that a church thing? Because sadly it is. Look at Christians, how they gather in preference-based 00:06:21.459 --> 00:06:27.859 groupings. I don't like this church, so I'll go there because I like what they do. And it's like-minded 00:06:27.859 --> 00:06:34.799 people. Move churches to people who have a preference in this style of worship. There is a 00:06:34.799 --> 00:06:41.799 danger of gathering around those who we like and moving away from those who we don't. And James 00:06:41.799 --> 00:06:49.599 raises the bar for us. He raises the bar for us this morning on discipleship. And says, enough is enough. 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:54.520 We're going to do this. If you are truly calling yourselves brothers and sisters, then you raise 00:06:54.520 --> 00:07:03.480 the bar and you come and you do not show favouritism. Guard your heart. It's a great piece of advice 00:07:03.480 --> 00:07:13.160 that I was given many years ago by one of my vicars. And said, guard your heart. Because title, status, 00:07:13.160 --> 00:07:19.820 privilege in everything that the world tempts us with can draw us away from the heart of God. 00:07:21.460 --> 00:07:28.040 May surprise you, but tomorrow I'll become a real vicar. I don't know what I've been doing for all 00:07:28.040 --> 00:07:35.200 the rest of this time. But it's interesting that you get a couple of emails from people who said, 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:46.159 welcome to the club. No, no, not at all. Can favouritism affect our behaviour? Yes, it can. Can it draw us 00:07:46.159 --> 00:07:53.399 away from God's purpose? Yes, it can. Can we counter it? Can we put it in check? James says, yes, we can. 00:07:53.740 --> 00:07:59.879 We can get back to as we were supposed to be. Who is my brother and sister? Jesus. They asked him and he 00:07:59.879 --> 00:08:07.000 answered them. Yes, it is the person sitting next to you. Yes, it is the person. And it's really nice to be 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:16.399 here. But it also reminds us of here we are called to be alongside in life. And for those that sadly we 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:25.719 tend to avoid. We need to remember, and James reminds us strongly today of what I call him, because we are 00:08:25.720 --> 00:08:38.759 children of the same heavenly Father. We are the same. We are all loved by God. And if you, like me, 00:08:38.879 --> 00:08:45.420 have at times in my life felt like the cuckoo in the nest of Christianity, you are loved by God. 00:08:45.419 --> 00:08:54.679 You are loved and accepted as those that we are called to reach. At New Wine this year, I was 00:08:54.679 --> 00:08:59.819 worshipping in an area called the Impact Zone. It was very nice. There was this big sort of, 00:09:00.879 --> 00:09:07.079 it was all lit like the British Isles. And there were mostly people there that were from inner city 00:09:07.079 --> 00:09:14.120 Manchester, Birmingham, London. And each of them were encouraged to go and just lay a candle where 00:09:14.120 --> 00:09:23.480 they had a heart for their city. Manchester was nicely lit up and so was London and so was Birmingham. 00:09:24.679 --> 00:09:30.560 And there's this wonderful candle where Clevedon is, because that's where I placed it. 00:09:32.179 --> 00:09:38.060 And the humbling thing was, is I was looking at Manchester and London and Birmingham and saying, 00:09:38.379 --> 00:09:43.340 Lord, do you want me there? Because if that's where you're calling me, you know that we will give up 00:09:43.340 --> 00:09:50.820 tomorrow and we will go. I felt a strong call to the poor. With that, there's a guy that comes over 00:09:50.820 --> 00:09:58.100 and stands next to me. I'll be totally honest, I could smell him before he got to me. He was a lovely 00:09:58.100 --> 00:10:06.460 guy. And he just knelt beside me. He was from an inner city church in Manchester and he prophesied into my 00:10:06.460 --> 00:10:15.720 life. And he said, you're called to the poor, but it's right under your nose. It's not here, it's not 00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:22.620 there, it's not there. It's here. It's where you are, that you are called to the poor and the poor in 00:10:22.620 --> 00:10:29.440 spirit. Do you know, I didn't realise until that time how complacent I'd been, how my calling had been, 00:10:29.560 --> 00:10:36.040 got nice and cosy and things like that. I think again, that wake up call that we have this morning 00:10:36.039 --> 00:10:43.120 from James. James knew there was nothing outwardly spectacular to draw people to Jesus. It was the 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:52.339 godly character in him that drew people to him. And if godly character will draw people to us, 00:10:52.559 --> 00:10:58.179 then surely we look for the godly character in others to draw us to them, no matter what state 00:10:58.179 --> 00:11:03.779 they've been in. Our vision for this church is to reach out and that's not a selective process. 00:11:03.779 --> 00:11:11.620 It isn't just to the people who are nicely cleaned up in the way we are. And often it's messy church. 00:11:12.819 --> 00:11:19.500 And messy church is every Sunday. Messy church should be who we are during the week. Messy church is 00:11:19.500 --> 00:11:30.980 people like us who maybe in all our struggles are messy in our own ways, which amaze us to reach and 00:11:30.980 --> 00:11:38.740 come alongside other people. To Corinthians, Paul nails it, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus 00:11:38.740 --> 00:11:46.560 Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that through his poverty that we 00:11:46.560 --> 00:11:57.279 might become rich. We are rich through his poverty. We are so rich and empowered and enabled to go and 00:11:57.279 --> 00:12:03.240 meet people exactly where they are. Do you feel that gut-wrenching thing in you to do that? 00:12:04.299 --> 00:12:09.779 Because that's what we're called to do. This is about empowering and enabling and encouraging 00:12:09.779 --> 00:12:16.399 on a Sunday in that strong thing to go out and do what Jesus has called us to do. It's part of the 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:23.439 oath. I remember you swear an oath when you're a police officer and you swear that you will serve 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:34.320 without favour or affection. It doesn't matter who it is. I don't choose. But we go to meet people 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:44.360 where exactly where they are. Don't judge. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. So 00:12:44.360 --> 00:12:50.120 what does that look like? We've come full circle. We're coming in. Can we be Christ-like, 00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:57.580 effective in our humility and not show favouritism? Whatever that might look like. 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:06.879 Where is it in our hearts that we are drawn to just like the people who are like us? Because that 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:12.899 isn't what I want. I don't want to be around people who are just like Clive Jennings. What a boring place 00:13:12.899 --> 00:13:24.059 that would be. I want to be alongside people who Christ calls us to. You know that we can let our 00:13:24.059 --> 00:13:33.759 heart actions be louder than our words in these 40 acts. What would our brothers and sisters say of us? 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:42.700 We hear it time and time again. You lock yourselves away. You're not out there. Actually, this church is out there. 00:13:43.639 --> 00:13:49.399 This church more and more is out in the community serving where we should be. And we say more, Lord. 00:13:50.299 --> 00:13:57.600 More of that. Free us to do that. Free each and every one of us in the power of your Holy Spirit to be where we need 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:05.680 to be. Philippians 2, 5, 7. I think it's the last slide. In your relationship with another, have the 00:14:05.680 --> 00:14:14.620 same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in the very nature of God did not consider equality with God 00:14:14.620 --> 00:14:24.620 something to be used to his own advantage. That hurts. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking on the 00:14:24.620 --> 00:14:28.759 very nature of the very nature of the servant, being made in human likeness and being found in 00:14:28.759 --> 00:14:36.419 appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. We have an 00:14:36.419 --> 00:14:50.759 opportunity in this 40 acts to make a difference, to challenge what to the very core of who we are. 00:14:50.759 --> 00:14:58.939 What is our favoritism? Where do we judge? Where should we be free to be alongside those who call us? 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:10.899 The religious club had an outing one day. They thought it would be a great idea to go and stone a 00:15:10.899 --> 00:15:18.299 woman for adultery. It's what they did. It's a nice way of judging people. Notice that they didn't choose 00:15:18.299 --> 00:15:26.899 the man to stone, who had also been in adultery. But what they did is they picked up their stones and 00:15:26.899 --> 00:15:35.399 the woman was hauled out in front of them. Jesus came along and drew a line and wrote in the sand. 00:15:37.139 --> 00:15:43.500 He said, if anybody is without sin, you can throw the first stone. 00:15:43.500 --> 00:15:52.500 They realized that they were all sinners. They hadn't understood about the grace and love of God, 00:15:53.220 --> 00:15:54.500 unlike this woman. 00:15:56.820 --> 00:16:04.279 And I pray more and more that as they heard those words and we hear those words, that we will drop our stones. 00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:11.100 Stones that we're tempted to throw at other people. Stones that we're often choosing to judge. Stones where 00:16:11.100 --> 00:16:17.600 we don't want to get alongside and support and raise up those who are in need of the love and grace of God. 00:16:18.319 --> 00:16:21.139 Because I am. And I need them. 00:16:23.100 --> 00:16:26.100 Jesus wasn't part of the club and he made it clear that day. 00:16:26.100 --> 00:16:34.180 Because the only person that was able to throw that stone, if a stone was to be thrown, was Jesus. 00:16:34.800 --> 00:16:37.460 Because he was the sinless one. 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:39.700 And he didn't. 00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:43.720 And he reached down and he raised her up. 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:47.879 As we just reflect on that, let's just watch this clip. 00:16:48.379 --> 00:16:51.240 And ask ourselves in our own hearts, where are we reaching here? 00:16:51.240 --> 00:16:54.919 What side of the line are we on? 00:16:56.060 --> 00:16:57.639 Are we on the Jesus side? 00:16:58.740 --> 00:16:59.560 Lifting her up? 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:02.480 Or are we ready to pick up stones?