2026-09-13 Making our faith real - Daring to be different

The speaker welcomes the audience to a new preaching series on the Book of James, emphasizing the importance of faith accompanied by actions. They discuss the significance of living out one's faith through deeds, using examples from the Bible such as Abraham and Rahab. The speaker compares faith to driving a car, surrendering control to Jesus, and warns against merely professing faith without demonstrating it through actions. The importance of true faith as a solid foundation for hope and conviction is highlighted, challenging listeners to reflect on what genuine faith entails. Faith is portrayed as an active, ongoing decision rather than a one-time event. James raises questions about the validity of faith without corresponding deeds, urging believers to ensure that their actions align with their professed beliefs. Well, a really warm welcome to you on it feels like a real September morning, doesn't it? I'm hoping it will brighten up a little bit later. But if you were with us last week, you know, we've got that new term feeling going on. And new term means new preaching series here for us on a Sunday morning. And as Rich just said, as we take this step into being a multi-site church, we're really looking to be as united as we can in the ways that we can. And one of the ways that we're going to do that is on Sundays, there will be the same preaching series happening at both sites. So this morning, Louise is preaching in Sudbury. You guys, we're together doing this here at Berry's site. And last week, we kicked off this new series as we're going to be walking through the Book of James, which is if you're getting to know your Bible, it is in the New Testament. That's the final third of the Bible. And we started out reading this book, which is actually a letter which was written to an early church by this guy, James, who was also a pastor. So we're reading this pastoral letter as he looks at this church with his pastor's heart. And the heart of a pastor is like we are heart is to see the people who we have care of just thrive, just come alive as they begin to and continue to look towards Jesus as the way to full and new life, you know, from that day of saying yes to him and through a lifetime of faith afterwards. And so James is coming with this pastor's heart. And what he looks on and sees with this church is, yes, they have encountered Jesus. They've seen him for who he is. They have come to faith in Jesus. But the bit that they've missed, the bit which is like the next step for them, it is the so what of this faith that they found in him that they would come to know what it is to step into. And I love to find every talk that happens here on a Sunday morning and now, every talk that happens at Sudbury as well on a Sunday morning. But lastly, our focus was on what it meant to begin to live a life in Jesus that we're going to think differently. And this week in this passage that we're going to pick up with in a moment, we will find that James sort of addressing that thinking differently, it's a really core and it's a key thing as we step into faith. But for faith to be real, we really need to hold something else alongside. That faith, that belief, so if you've got your Bibles with you this morning, we're in James chapter two, so a bit further on from where we left off last week, and we're picking up partway through that chapter in verse 14. So if you've got your Bibles with you on your phone, maybe, but it's also going to come up on the screen behind me. And James writes, what good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds, can such a faith save them? Isn't that a really good question? What a great way to start. Now, suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith, I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God, good. Even the demons believe that and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was it not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together and that his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed in God and it was credited to him as righteousness and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is considered righteous for what they do and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. Now, I was speaking with a friend this week and this friend was telling me all about this new car that she had recently picked up, she'd been waiting for it for a little bit, but she'd picked it up in the last couple of weeks. And of course, as you if you've bought a car, a different car, a brand new new to you, you know that you have to get used to what it's like to drive this new car. And what she was saying is, as we were saying, like, how's it going? Do you like it? She said what surprised her with getting used to this new car that she picked up? Her description was that you get in the car as you would. But then it's like you switch it on and then it just drives itself practically. It knows the speed limit of the road that you're on. It knows when it's safe for you and when you should change lanes. She said it is almost like you don't have to do anything beyond getting in the car. Now, last week, we looked at this idea of jumping out of a plane like faith and it divided us as a room. Some people were on like not on my birthday. Would I do that? Others would sign up for it tomorrow. And I wonder if the idea of a car that you don't have to drive, it probably would do the same amongst us. You know, for my friend, she was excited that all this car would do. She thought it was just amazing. I was listening and the control freak in me was just like, this sounds horrendous. But I can't deal with the car being on like, you know, if you're in one with what's it automatic, isn't it? I need the gear stick. I need to make the decisions and feel in control of what's going on. That tells you a little bit about me. But as we talked about this car and, you know, really exciting, she was loving this new car. It just made me think that real faith is sometimes a little like this for us. You know, as we talk about this car, you know, for us, we step into faith. Actually, what we're doing is we're beginning to explore a new way of navigating life. One where we are no longer in control. One where the destination and the route and who's driving and the reading of the map has changed from being set by us to being set by Jesus. But I think if we're really honest, if we were to reflect back on where we are now, where we've been in the past, we would all be able to see points where instead of getting into the car that is faith and allowing God to take care of what comes next to the journey ahead of us, allowing him to take care of the route and the speed and the way that we drive when we change lanes. The first thing really that we may have done, what we may have found ourselves doing at various points is saying thanks for the car. Thanks for this incredibly powerful, life changing invitation. But actually in our hearts, what we've done is switch the car back to manual again. We we've picked up the old map and we said, no, that's OK, I'll take it from here. We've begun to take faith and we've put it in a box. We've begun to risk assess what that faith might look like. But a good question for us this morning as we begin to pack all that it is that James has said, there's so much packed in this letter, a really good question for us to start with is what does true faith look like? Not just belief, but what does faith look like? And it seems a bit of a naughty question to ask in church, doesn't it? We're gathered here either because we're exploring faith or we believe that we have faith. But actually, what should that faith look like? Well, in another letter in the New Testament written by Paul, he writes that faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It is the conviction of things not yet seen. Faith is not wishful thinking, it's not an option of something to pray to or look to when things get a little bit wobbly in life. For some of us, Jesus may be one of many options that we go to when we feel unsteady. When we need to know what to do next, when we need direction. You know, alongside Jesus, we may also be looking at crystals and manifesting and horoscopes and AI and chatbots and Jesus may just be an option. But what Paul is describing for us is that faith is to be an assurance, it is a solid place to put our hope. It has a deep conviction at the centre of it, of the power and of the certainty of that thing. And the kind of faith that James is calling us into in this passage is one where there is a deep of our hope. And that following his word out all at once, wouldn't that be great if it was that easy? But we get to make that decision day by day, layer by layer, with our lives becoming this living example of where our faith is placed. And James starts his letter, this part of this letter, with two really good questions. He asked us, what good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Someone who says, yeah, I have faith in Jesus, but then you look at the rest of their life and actually you're left with a bit of a question of, well, what does that look like for you? And the second question, can such faith save them? They're really practical questions, aren't they? Maybe they're the starting point for you this morning, for those of us who have faith. There may be some of you this morning just exploring what that looks like. But for those of us who would say that we have faith, what good is it doing? Do our lives, if we were to really look at them, do they carry the hallmarks of faith? And James comes with a warning, and that is that to believe that faith just looks like saying, I believe in God, in those sometimes uncomfortable conversations where someone's being quite negative about faith and you stick your hand up and go, do you know what? I have faith. That's a really brave thing to do. We've all been in those situations where, yeah, that's me. Just to believe in God, what James says, even demons, even darkness acknowledges that Jesus exists and who he is. But what he's saying is the acknowledgement of someone and their lordship and their authority over your life, those are two very different things. They are not the same. And he's blunt. He says that that kind of faith is dead. It has no life in it. It's useless to you, it's useless to those around you. But Jesus calls us into a relationship with him where faith and deeds are held together. They are a sign of each other. I've known people who what they do changes before they actually realise they have faith. Sometimes one comes before the other, but they are intended to come together. And when we talk about deeds, those deeds, they can be really seemingly small things, really everyday things. It's whether we join in with the gossip that goes on in our office. It's how do we respond when we have those opportunities where we could tell the truth, but equally, it may work better for us if we were to tell a lie. It's to do with how we spend our money. Or they can look like really big things. They can look life defining. It's the job that we take, the place that we live, the sorts of people that we date and then go on to marry. Jesus is interested in all of it. They are all a sign of where faith is placed in our lives. But between this really, you know, for us, a really good place for us to start this morning is to acknowledge we all want to live a good life, don't we? We want good choices, good decisions. If we have faith, we want to point our lives in Jesus's direction. We can all agree on that. But in between the good choices, the good decisions, the brave choices, live the opposite of faith. And that is fear. Maybe you can already think of situations this morning where you're feeling this tension at the moment, where God is calling you to take a step of faith, where you would really like to respond in a way that is faithful to Jesus. But we live in this tension, don't we? We feel the pull towards faith and towards fear. And the pull of fear for us, it will always have something at the root of our, and in this, at the root for us. And James, in this passage, he unpacks that it looks like, it can look like three things. Firstly, that the fear can be that if I obey Jesus, there won't be any fear. That it won't be enough. Or that if I follow Jesus, I will jeopardize my future. It won't look like I had planned. It won't look like I had wanted. And at its worst, it will look like something that I don't like, that I don't enjoy. And thirdly, that if I obey Jesus, I will be forgotten. What about me? What about my legacy? And James gives us three examples in this passage that directly address these three fears. And the first example James gives is of a scenario where someone with faith encounters someone with obvious need and their response in that scenario, seeing that need, it's not a hidden need, it's really obvious, is that our response to that person would be that we would just pray that that person would have what they needed, that God would bless them in the ways that they needed. And then we just carried on with our day. Now, is James saying that it is wrong to pray for people's needs, that that is a wrong response? Well, absolutely not. We believe in the power of prayer. You will see it happening in every place and space across the life of the church. But it's challenging, isn't it? Because actually most of us can think of situations where we've been in that it's looked like this, can't we? You know, I can. But what James is getting at, what he's saying is that our response is rooted in the vision that we have for the purpose of our lives. And this vision is not that we are just intended to be people who say, you know, I believe in Jesus. I believe in God. We're not even just intended to be people who pray to Jesus, so are we called to be? Yes, it is a calling for each of us, not just who's gifted, you know, bring your requests to God. But what he's getting at is that we are also intended to be people who would be increasingly giving their lives away in Jesus shaped ways. That we would be growing to see ourselves as potentially an answer to a prayer through what we do and how we serve the places where we do life. We are God sent people. We are blessed to be a blessing. And it's why the church that we're really committed, when Rich described Serve 13, that is not just to get some jobs done. We want to build a culture here where we want to be part of what's happening. We don't want to come and be served and observed. You know, we invite you to come in one week a month, serve those around you. Love those around you through how you serve, through your gifts, through Sunday teams, there is joy to be found as we do that. But it's also why, as a church, we put such a priority on growing to be a generous and a compassionate church, not just to those who come and join us, but actually to the area in which we're placed. We're in Bury, in Sudbury and all the surrounding areas. And we look to do this in really practical ways. It's why, you know, when Chris and Maggie planted the church, one of the first things they did was to set up storehouse. It was to meet people's practical needs, be the hands and feet of Jesus to our neighbours, to those around us. Because it is so much easier to hear and begin to be curious about the unconditional love and welcome of God when you have already experienced it through people who say they follow him. Or even if he's real, you actually live it out, he demonstrates it, it starts to become tangible and real and possible. We're called to look like that. But the thing that will often hold us back from taking our place in this, it is like that if we give something, whether it's to the church to serve or, you know, giving of ourselves to those around us, those who may need it, those who may need around us, those who may need something in terms of our time, our energy, the resources that we have to hand, that there won't be enough for us, that we fear losing these things that we see as ours. And what begins to happen in us when we lean into that, because we have a choice in that, don't we? But when we lean that way, what begins to grow in us is a poverty spirit. And that causes us to hold on really tightly to things because we believe that that that's all there is. And it can be really subtle, it can look like just kicking the can down the road, where I'll be generous with my time when I finish that study, when the kids are older, when I'm married and there's two of us to sort of share the load with things. I can be generous with my money once I've bought my house and when I've had faith for a little longer and I've learned more or when I've got more to give out of in the first place. You know, we can even package it up and make it appear as a really sensible choice to do that. But what James is showing us is that by seeing the need in front of us, our faith should grow as to ask God, with the little that I have, how might I use it to show others what you look like? And I would encourage you this morning, whatever the choices that's in front of you this morning, to just consider with Jesus, what is my faith response? But what in the middle of that is also my fear response? Just be honest with him and see what he says. The second example that James gives is that of Abraham, this man who, if you don't know anything about Abraham, you'll find him in Genesis in the Bible. And if you don't know much about Abraham, he was a man who was promised by God that he would be the father of many children. But over the years after receiving this promise, the babies did not come, the pregnancy did not happen. And, you know, for some of you, you know, the pain of that, you know, the pain and the confusion of the wanting and the waiting, particularly if you felt it was God's promise. And in that place of that wanting and waiting, Abraham didn't make the best decisions, but eventually a miracle does happen. And Abraham's wife, Sarah, she becomes pregnant and they have their first child, Isaac. But as Isaac grows up, you know, God asked the unthinkable, which was that Abraham would be prepared, that he would take this boy who is this promise, this longed for son, that he would prepare him to be sacrificed. You know, what a request. It's a hard story to read sometimes, but if you go through that full story at the end of it, we see that God did not allow Abraham to sacrifice his son. But what God saw in this is the faithfulness of Abraham to be obedient and to trust God, whatever the cost was for him. And I need to say this clearly this morning, God, God's not going to ask you to do this. God's heart is not, cannot and will not be evil. He is who he says he is. But James points to something as he points to Abraham and he said, you see his faith and his actions were working together and it made his faith complete, that for faith to be complete, it takes not only what we say, but also what we do to come together, that when we find ourselves at these crossroads of faith in our lives, when we can focus so much on what we might lose, what the sacrifice is for us, what the fear is, you know, those are a really human response. Things are precious to us. We hold on to them. It is costly. But in that place of faith and surrender and obedience, we get to be called God's friend. You know, we just sung this morning, as Lewis led us, that there's a joy that comes when we let go. It's that letting go of things that there is joy in. It's in obedience that we can fear that we do find joy. And the reward is intimacy with Jesus and a life where we get to experience that his plans are better. They always are. He's writing a better story than you can write for yourself over the world, over you and your life, no matter what it looks like now, no matter what it's looked like in the past. And the third example that James mentions, it may be a surprise to some of us to find in the Bible. He says that it was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did. The story of this woman, Rahab, you'll find again in the Old Testament, but she hid two spies from danger. And the reason for her doing this, this really courageous thing, is because she had come to believe in the God that these spies were following and worshipping and being obedient to. She saw that their God was the true God and her response, her faith from that place of what she'd recognised in God, was that her obedience looked like something radical, even though it had the potential to be really costly to her. And the incredible thing, there's no way she would have known this at the time, but Rahab's legacy is that she is mentioned in the family line of Jesus. As you look in the New Testament, there's that bit, isn't there, it's just all the long list of names in Matthew and you think, it's just a long list of names. In there is Rahab, this prostitute, this woman who was an outcast, whose job would have been an embarrassment to her family. Her actions saved herself, it saved her family, and she's held up thousands of years later as an example of faith. You know, I always imagine what it's like for Rahab in heaven, like when she realises they're still talking about me. It's amazing, isn't it? Because God is not focused on our past. He's not focused on where you've come from, good or bad. He's not looking back at what you have or you haven't done. We've all got a past. But he's looking for people who will take the little of what they have. And count it as part of their whole lives and make the decision to just see their life as change in the pocket of Jesus that he can spend however he chooses to. John Wimber, who founded the Vineyard Movement, he had this phrase that was that faith is actually spelled R-I-S-K. Faith, real faith, looks like risk. And it's not just a line, but it is a really profound truth. If you've been living this out for any length of time, you will know that this never stops being true. We don't outgrow faith being risk. It is the faith, bit of faith. But it is the place where we have the chance to choose Jesus again and again and again and build up this life history where we have seen his faithfulness come from our obedience.