We stake claims in what we believe is valuable.  We stake claims in what we value.  Quote: “A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.” – Martin Luther. We continue in our Sermon Series: James: Faith and Works.  Do you remember what we read last week? God’s truth deserves everything we’ve got. Which includes what? Planting God’s truth in your heart. Why was that so important? Your heart is a battlefield. When you become a follower of Christ, you enter a unique battle. Your heart – your heart before Jesus – wants to deceive you and lead you away from Jesus. But God has also planted His truth in your heart. We must accept and listen to God’s truth planted in our hearts, otherwise, we are listen to a false truth. Understanding that is vital to living out our faith. We are called to put our faith on display. But if the motivation of heart is wrong, then we mess it all up. Reclaim your religion.  Religion is observable actions of your relationship with Jesus. Religion has become a negative word. Religion has become a negative word because of the negative motivations behind those who claim to be religious. I’ve used the phrase “Christianity is not about religion, but it’s about relationship.” And I say that phrase because of cultural Christianity. Cultural Christianity – or the idea that we do the actions associated with Christianity because it was the culture we grew up in – Cultural Christianity is prevalent in the South US. That phrase about religion vs. relationship is to combat the legalism of cultural Christianity. It’s not bad to say, but as I’ve been reminded this week, it still misses the mark. God wants us to be religious. God wants us to have right religion. There is a religious experience that is acceptable to God. What if TCSH becomes a place where religion rightly points to the glory of God?! That’s the design. Read James 1:26 – 2:13. Pray.

We saw last week just how important it is that we monitor what’s coming out of mouths. James has a lot to say about words. He comes back to the topic again. And he’ll revisit the topic again in chapter 3. But let’s look at our tongue in relationship to religion. Here’s where we start: Reclaim your tongue.

1) Reclaim your tongue. (vs. 26)  James loves to cut to the chase. What does verse 26 say? ²⁶ If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.  There are four parts to this verse: 1) What you claim 2) How you really act 3) What that says about you 4) What that says about what you believe.  I want to focus on the third part of this verse: “You are fooling yourself”. I don’t think most people claim to be religious, but then intentionally do things that make their religion worthless. But the reality is that we have the capability to make our religion worthless. For some reason the movie, Brewster's Millions came to mind this week. I’m not endorsing the movie. I watched the made-for-TV version growing up. The movie is about a minor-league baseball player must spend $30 million in 30 days in order to inherit $300 million, but he can’t keep anything at the end of the 30 days. There was one scene in the movie where the main character bought this expensive stamp – a highly collectable stamp – and then used it to mail a letter. That act removed all the value from the stamp. That act took what was worth thousands and turned it into pennies.

James is telling us we have the capability to take our priceless religion and make it worthless with one act, just like taking a priceless stamp, slapping it on a letter, and putting it in the mailbox. Which is what? By not controlling our tongue. We fool ourselves when we come to faith in Christ, begin to live a life for Christ, and nothing changes. Our mouths should change. Our religion becomes worthless when our tongues become uncontrolled. Reclaim your tongue. Why is it important that we reclaim our tongues? What we say can have a massive impact on our lives. I just want to glance ahead to James 3. Just a quick glance because one of our elders is preaching this passage in a few weeks and I don’t want to pre-preach the text. Look at verses 4 and 5: ⁴ And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. ⁵ In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.  One small thing can make a massive impact. Illustration: My child holds the rudder of the paddleboat in MVN. Grandma: “I don’t understand why it won’t go the direction I want it to go!” There was 10 minutes of cackling from this child. What we thought was about the lacking of steering ability, was actually something completely different. This child discovered the rudder of the paddleboat. And this child discovered they could hold the rudder and make the boat go where they wanted it to go, no matter who was controlling the steering.

What we say matters -- what we think matters. It matters because your tongue becomes a test for your religion. This verse doesn’t call for silence. This verse calls for control. Our religion demands that we speak truth. If our tongue speaks anything other than God’s truth, it becomes worthless. Reclaim the tongue. Take it back. James moves from the tongue, which is a matter of the heart, to our generosity, which is another matter of the heart. Much like the tongue, our calling is to also reclaim your generosity. 

2) Reclaim your generosity. (vs. 27a)  I want us to look at the first part of verse 27:  ²⁷ Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. Before we look at what this verse means, let me address something that this verse doesn’t mean. I’ve sat in circles and heard people use this verse as the ONLY definition of religion. This verse is PART of the definition of religion. But it’s not THE definition of religion. We have to be careful when we take one verse in the Bible and make it stand completely on its own with any regard to the context of the verse. There are verses that can stand on their own, mainly because they fit into the larger context of the Bible. But we have to be careful when we do that. In this case, if you take verse 27 as the only definition of religion, you’ve not only ignored verse 26, but you’ve ignored the entire book of James. I can easily stand here and say that religion includes reading your Bible, coming to church, worshipping, and praying. What James is not doing is reducing religion to generosity and morality.

What James is doing in verse 27 (and verse 26) is providing us with some metrics – some ways we can see if our religion is observable. First, it was the tongue. Now, it’s our generosity. At the time of this letter, the two most vulnerable groups were the widows and the orphans. Life insurance wasn’t a thing. There weren’t government programs to help. Those left without anyway to provide for themselves were completely in need. True religion helps those who are helpless. I am so thankful that we have a church, a missions team, and a missions director that lives this out. We feed kids during the school year that don’t have food on the weekends. We send volunteers to help with the homeless in downtown Nashville. We’ve built beds for kids so they don’t have to sleep on the floor. We’re doing our part. And that’s what James is after. Do your part to help. Be generous in ways that make the gospel visible.

Do you remember when Jesus was talking with His disciples about the final judgment? Matthew 25:37-40: ³⁷ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? ³⁹ When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ ⁴⁰ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’  When we show generosity to those in need, we are doing it in a way that demonstrates the compassion of Jesus. Quote: “And those who around you, despite all of their outward signs being under control, you know to be helpless people; and when you go to them in their helplessness, you do so bearing the compassion of Christ himself.” – Alistair Begg. Reclaim your tongue. Reclaim your generosity. James gives us one more visible output: reclaim your holiness.

3) Reclaim your holiness. (vs. 1:27b – 2:1-13)  Look at the end of verse 27 again: ²⁷ Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.  I like how one scholar put it: Quote: “In view of living all life before God, the world must have no hold on the believer.” – Kurt Richardson. What James does in chapter 2, verses 1-11 is give a real example of how the world can corrupt religion. It’s called the sin of favoritism. I’m not going to go into all of the verses, but there is a danger to give priority to people in church. Look at the first 6 verses in chapter 2: ¹ My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others? ² For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. ³ If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well, ⁴ doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives? ⁵ Listen to me, dear brothers and sisters. Hasn’t God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith? Aren’t they the ones who will inherit the Kingdom he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you dishonor the poor! Isn’t it the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?  Favoritism usually happens with two types of people: 1) People who look like me; 2) People I think will benefit me. Favoritism also takes place when people think they should be favored because of their wealth.

Wealth, in and of itself, never deserves honor. Because wealth is part of God’s plan for some. Wealth always points back to God. Again, I believe that James is using the sin of favoritism as a way to show how we must be aware and on guard of how we let of our holiness. In recent years, I’ve been more convicted of the pursuit of holiness. We are not created and designed to live according to the system of this world. If that’s true, then why do let the world have a hold on us? Why are we not fighting for ourselves, our families, our Community Group, and our church to be distinct from the world by fighting to be more like Jesus? The more we become like Jesus, the less we want what the world offers. Holiness is letting the Holy Spirit change us to be more like Christ. Quote: ““Holiness, as taught in the Scriptures, is not based upon knowledge on our part. Rather, it is based upon the resurrected Christ in-dwelling us and changing us into His likeness.” – A.W. Tozer. Illustration: I received a wind chime for Father’s Day. This may seem odd, but I’ve been wanting a wind chime lately. On Father’s Day, I was gifted wind chime. Now, before you think getting a wind chime on Father’s Day is the same as a mom receiving a power tool on Mother’s Day, it’s not. I wanted it for two reasons: 1) The sounds take me back to a peaceful place in my childhood. 2) I want to be intentional about stopping and listening and just being present with God. If you want to reclaim your tongue and reclaim your generosity, then start by reclaiming your holiness. Don’t prioritize your helpfulness over your holiness.  Men, we are especially vulnerable to this. We love to do things, but never stop to let the Holy Spirit do His work inside of us. Men, reclaim your holiness. For you, for your family, and for your church. Go buy a wind chime, if that is what it takes! Make time to be with God. Make time to let the Holy Spirit work in your life, changing your into the likeness of Jesus.  

I know I’ve given you a lot of quotes, but I want to close with one more. Quote: “The human race in the course of time has taken the liberty of softening and softening Christianity until at last we have contrived to make it exactly the opposite of what it is in the New Testament.” – Soren Kierkegaard. Let’s reclaim our religion. Let’s reclaim our outward actions. Let’s reclaim our inward holiness. Let the Holy Spirit move in your life. When’s the last time you pictured your life as a life of holiness? Can you see what your life would be like if you reclaimed your holiness and reclaimed your religion? I see peace ahead for some of you. I see peace ahead for me. I see the Holy Spirit igniting a fire of holiness that we all need. May it be so. Let’s pray.

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