Howdy Mars Hill Church.
Pastor Sutton Turner here and I'm in Ethiopia.
And I just want to thank Jesus
for continuing to use Mars Hill Church
to make disciples and plant churches.
Mars Hill Global is the arm of Mars Hill Church
that makes disciples
and plant churches all over the world.
We not only do church planting,
but we help better equip church planters.
Most recently we shipped and now distributed
1,000 bibles into Amharic,
which is the language here in Ethiopia.
And we launched a project
to translate Pastor Mark Driscoll's doctrine book into Spanish.
We have people from over 29 different countries
that are giving on a monthly basis to Mars Hill Global.
So whether you're a member
of one of our Mars Hill church locations
in the United States,
or you're 1 of 100,000 podcasters every single week,
we encourage you to pray
about giving above and beyond your tithe
to Mars Hill Global.
Thank you and let's see more materials translated,
more pastors sent out, more churches planted,
and more people saved by Jesus Christ.
Brotherhood, it's a bond as old as time.
It's a love that runs deep.
It's bold. It's strong.
It's enduring.
There's a trust that's built among brothers,
from the trials to the triumphs.
It's a trust that comes from living life together.
No one knows you like your brother.
He knows your strengths; he knows your weaknesses.
A bold brother will lay it all down for his family.
It is difficult to describe that kind of loyalty,
that kind of courage, that kind of strength.
It's the love of a brother.
It's that kind of love that compelled James to become
Jesus' bold little brother.
All right, I got my seat, you got your seat.
I'm going to ask you a question.
Think back in your life.
Where was the best seat you ever enjoyed?
It could be a sporting event, it could be a concert.
I can remember one time Grace and I were going to do
date night and somebody gave us tickets to the Seattle Mariners.
One of the benefits of going to a Mariners game with your wife,
it's a beautiful field
and you can really have some quality time
without being distracted by things that are happening
on the field 'cause nothing is ever happening on the field.
So, it was a nice, sunny day.
The roof was open.
I was with my very best friend, holding her hand, walking in.
And I didn't know where the seats were,
I was just glad to get tickets.
And we kept walking, and walking, and walking,
and next thing I know we're very close to the game.
Now we're really close to the game.
We're just a few rows behind home plate,
and as a former catcher, I was very excited to be there.
And I remember sitting there thinking,
"I would never pay for these seats,
"but I'm really glad to have them,
and this is amazing to be so close to the game."
You could actually hear what they're saying,
and some of it was not that good, so pray for them.
But I thought, "Wow, how great it is to be in this seat
"on a sunny day
"and to have this few hours in this amazing place
with my very best friend."
Think about the best seat you've ever had.
Think about the worst seat you've ever had.
And it was probably on an airplane, amen?
I mean, we can just all agree to that.
I've had a lot of bad airline seats.
I still remember some years ago I had a quick connecting layover
and the window of opportunity was very close,
so I'm running from one end of the terminal to the other,
dragging my bag.
And I'm hot, and sweaty, and more grumpy than I normally am,
and I get on the plane.
I'm one of the last guys on the plane and I go way toward
the back, and my seat is the middle seat between two guys
who could stuff the run for an NFL defense.
They're like 300 plus pounds and they're already buckled in.
And somehow, they had conspired to put the armrests up,
which meant that there was no room for me at all.
There's no way I could sit in this seat.
And so I waited for everyone else to sit down,
it was a full flight.
So, I hit the button, the flight attendant comes over and says,
"Can I help you?"
"Yeah, you really could. I need a seat."
She said, "Well, that's your seat."
I said, "No, it's not.
"It's occupied by Bigfoot and Chewbacca,
"and their extra has gone into my vicinity.
I have no place for myself."
She said, "I'm sorry, we have no other seats."
I said, "Bathroom?"
I honestly asked if I could sit in the bathroom for the flight.
She said, "No, there's no seatbelt."
I thought, "Well, I'll duct tape myself in.
How about--" I'm trying to negotiate the deal.
I ask her, "Can I go in the overhead bin?"
She says, "No, you can't go in the overhead bin."
So I sat down, and then Pete and Repeat,
they sat in front of me and on top of me.
And I'm trying to breathe so I don't die on the flight.
I spent the rest of the flight standing up in the back
the entire flight.
Worst seat I ever had.
What's the best seat you've ever had?
What's the worst seat you've ever had?
And what we're getting into today in James is where we sit
says something about who we are,
or at least what we think we deserve.
So, let me ask you a couple other questions.
Let's say you wanted to go to a concert, and you went online,
and you realized, "Oh boy,
there's different tiered pricing."
You thought, "Boy, VIP, I can't afford that.
"You know, near the stage, can't afford that.
Festival seating, I can afford that."
Click.
You show up early, but it's already packed so you're way,
way, way in the back, but it was a cheap seat.
You paid for a cheap ticket.
And then as the concert starts, you notice they move that
golden rope out of the way
and in comes all the VIP right to the front of the stage,
and they paid a mint for their seats.
Does that bother you that they get a better seat than you?
Would that bother you, yes or no?
No, no, probably not.
You're like, "Well, you get what you pay for."
How about same thing for a sporting event?
You go online and you decide, "Well, I want to go a game.
"I don't want to be--no, that's too much, too much, too much.
I'll go up to the 300 level, that's okay."
And you show up, and you've got a cheap seat,
and you realize that some people are really close to the field
or they're close to the court.
They paid a lot more.
Does it bother you that they get a better seat than you,
yes or no?
No.
Okay, let's do one more since I have the time.
You decide you're going to come to Mars Hill Church.
You try to figure out, "Is there a location near me?
What are the service times?"
You go online and it says, "If you'd like to attend,
click here to buy a ticket."
And you click, and it goes to a seating chart just like
the concert or just like the sporting event.
And there's different tiered pricing based upon what location
and what service and what seat.
You want to sit near the front?
Well, that's going to be more.
You want to sit in the back? That'll be less.
If you want to stand up in the back, that'll be cheaper.
If you want to sit on the floor, we'll give you a discount.
But then we try and upsell you. Oh, you want to be prayed for?
That's gonna be a fee, you know?
You want to take Communion? Click.
Somebody's got to pay for the wine.
Hey, you want to join a Community Group?
That's a double click.
And all of a sudden, like your Amazon account,
they're asking for your credit card,
and to get a ticket to come to church, you have to pay for it.
Does that bother you?
Oh, you hypocrites.
It didn't bother you for the sporting event,
it didn't bother you for the concert,
but it does bother you for the church.
Here's my question: why?
Okay, we'll read the Bible.
All right, James chapter 2, we'll start in verse 1.
Here's the case study, okay?
"For if a man wearing a gold ring."
So, this guy's really bedazzled, all right?
He just--here he comes.
"And fine clothing," right?
Nice suit, all done up, looks great.
"Comes into your assembly," he shows up to church service,
"and behind him comes a poor man in shabby clothing."
You can tell this guy doesn't make the same as the other guy.
"And if you pay attention to the one who wears
the fine clothing," the guy who's very affluent,
"and say, 'You sit here in a good place.'"
"We have reserved seating for guys in suits who rolled up
in Bentleys and showed up with an entourage."
"While you say to the poor man, 'You stand over there.'"
"Get out of the way. Don't block anybody's view.
"No, we don't have a seat for you.
Stand up in the back," or, "You know what?
"I do need a foot rest. How about that?
You could sit on the floor with my feet."
Which, in that culture, you walked to church with
you share with a lot of animals.
Your feet are not in great shape.
He continues, "Have you not then made distinctions,"
he's talking about partiality, "among yourselves and become
judges with evil thoughts?"
You're like, "You know what?
"That guy's rich, that guy's poor.
That guy's worth more than that guy."
"Listen."
He's saying, "I need you to pay attention to this.
Heed this. Hear this."
"My beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor
in the world to be rich in faith?"
Sometimes people who have nothing trust God because
they have to trust him in a way that others don't.
"And heirs of the kingdom."
What he's saying is these people are rich,
they just don't get their inheritance yet.
Like Jesus said, they've stored up their treasures in heaven.
These people who are poor on earth but rich in faith,
they have a massive inheritance,
they just haven't cashed it in yet.
"Which he has promised to those who love him."
He continues, "But," here's the problem,
"you've dishonored the poor man."
You've dishonored the poor man.
James, here, is a pastor,
and apparently what's happening at their church
is somebody decided that what you would do
at a sporting event or what you would do at a concert
is a good idea for the church.
James is saying, "You're dishonoring those who are poor
like my father," right?
James' father, Jesus' father was Joseph.
He was a poor man.
James is saying, "This isn't right.
"If my mom and dad came to church,
"you'd put them on the floor or stand them in the back,
"but it's the pastor's parents, it's the Lord's parents.
This is not right."
If Jesus came to this church, they would have sat him
on the floor or made him stand up in the back
because he was poor.
James says that's dishonorable.
You start to get the sense that the world and the church
are supposed to operate differently.
None of us would have a problem going to a sporting event
or going to a concert and paying for a seat,
and then whatever money we pay determines where we are.
And in church, it troubles us if that were the case.
"Are not the rich the ones who oppress you,
and the ones who drag you into court?"
Not all rich people are evil, but in this case,
the rich people were evil.
They were oppressing and taking advantage of the poor
who could not legally defend themselves.
"Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name
by which you were called?"
He says there's even some unbelievers that are showing up
or some people who are like Judas who claim to be believers
but they're not, and they've got a lot of money,
and they're suing, and taking advantage of,
and hiring but not paying the Christians who are poor
and defenseless.
And he says, "How do you think that feels when the poor people
"come in and the people who are suing them and stealing from
"them get the seats up front, and they're supposed to sit
on the floor like a piece of furniture?"
Here's my question.
Does this bother you?
That's my first question.
How many of you say, "Yeah, actually, this bothers me."
Here's my second question.
Why?
Immediately, you just want to rush to indignation.
"This is just wrong. We shouldn't be like this.
"You should be seated wherever you want to be seated.
"All people should be treated equal.
There should not be partiality like this."
Okay, well there's the conscience that God gave you,
but here's my question.
On what basis?
On what basis would you make that kind of
moral determination?
If you're here and you're not a Christian,
let me submit to you that if you believe in a pure
evolutionary theory, you have no right to be upset.
You're being a hypocrite because if you believe in a purely
evolutionary world view, here's the idea.
Some people are more advanced and evolved than others.
Some people win, some people lose.
It's the weak against the strong and only the fittest survive.
So, if the rich guy wins and the poor guy loses,
that's just natural selection as applied to
church seating charts.
You have no right, if you believe in a purely evolutionary
world view, to start throwing around words like
"discrimination," or "partiality," or "prejudice."
You don't.
You just need to put your moral flag down and you need to
deal with your ideology because it doesn't allow you
to argue against partiality.
It doesn't.
Okay, some of you would come here and you're part
of another religion.
You have a more religious ideology and you might say,
similarly, "This really troubles me, profoundly bothers me."
My question is, "Why?"
See, the difference between Christianity and other religions
is in other religions, you get what you earn.
It's works.
Well, in Christianity, you get what Jesus earns.
It's grace.
Because we believe in grace, we believe in Jesus,
we believe that people should be treated equal.
But if you believe in a religious ideology
or philosophy, you believe in karma,
that some people have paid off more debt than others,
and if they're suffering in this life, we shouldn't help them,
because after all, we could be interrupting their
karmic debt payback.
Some religions teach levels of enlightenment that some of us
have reincarnated, some of us have become more enlightened,
some of us are more evolved.
I remember having a debate with Deepak Chopra on "Nightline"
and he talked about how he had reached higher levels
of consciousness.
What that means is, "I'm more spiritually advanced than you.
You're more," and he used this language, "primitive."
If you believe that, well, then the primitive people sit on
the floor or stand in the back, and us more enlightened people,
we sit up front because we've earned it.
We've gotten to a higher state of consciousness.
I learned this some years ago.
I was in Florida and I met a very affluent Jewish businessman
who I built a bit of a relationship with
at the time.
And I was talking to him about Jesus and he said,
"Oh, you want to come see my synagogue?"
"Yeah, I never--yeah, sure, I've read about--you know,
okay, whatever."
Go to the synagogue. It was beautiful.
This was a very affluent neighborhood.
Very nice, like, wow, synagogue.
And he said, "My family sits here."
I said, "All the time?"
He said, "Yeah, well, these are our seats."
I was like, "What?"
He said, "Yeah, we bought these seats."
What the?
I was like, "Okay, this is evil and a potential way
to make budget at Mars Hill."
This was some years ago, okay?
I said, "Explain that."
He said, "Well, you know, a lot of the Jewish people
"in this community, we don't go to synagogue very often,
"but for the holidays, the High Holy Days,
the place is packed and you can't get a seat."
So he said, "It's kind of like getting box seating
"at a sporting event.
"You can buy seats that belong to your family so you have good,
reserved seating for the High Holy Days."
Huh, oh, just like James is talking about.
See, religion teaches you you earn it.
You pay for your seat through your enlightenment,
through your good works, through your reincarnation
and paying off your karmic debt,
through your evolutionary consciousness.
You earn your seat.
And some people get a better seat than other people because
some people are better than other people.
If you're troubled by this,
it's because God gave you a conscience.
But if you believe in a purely evolutionary world view or
a purely religious world view, you have no right to get upset,
and if you are upset, you're a hypocrite.
You're inconsistent.
You have no basis for your frustration.
That being said, here's their problem.
Their problem is that the church is behaving in a worldly way,
okay?
And when it comes to biblical thinking,
there's the kingdom of God.
This is where Jesus is alive ruling and reigning right now as
King of kings and Lord of lords,
and that God's people will be together forever in his kingdom.
Today, we're in the world.
We're in cultures and nations that don't think in a way
that is biblical and don't submit to King Jesus.
In the middle is the church.
The church is in the world but belongs to the kingdom.
These are God's people, Jesus' people.
And the problem is that sometimes the church thinks in
a way that is more worldly and less like Jesus' kingdom.
That's exactly what's happening here.
And James is saying the church shouldn't be like the world.
The church should be like the kingdom.
And their problem, ultimately, is partiality.
Don't get hung up on the finances here.
The case study here is one of finances, and wealth,
and affluence, but the underlying issue that
we'll get to in just a moment-- I started in chapter 2, verse 2.
We'll revisit chapter 2, verse 1.
The underlying issue is partiality.
Their problem is they think rich people are good
and poor people are bad, okay?
We have a theology for that today.
It's a very worldly theology.
It's called prosperity theology.
Now some of you immediately, especially if you're at
Mars Hill Downtown,
maybe Mars Hill U-District, maybe you're poor,
maybe you live near a city, maybe you went to college and
studied too much philosophy, maybe if you're an indie rocker
who plays in a band, right, you would lean to the other side
and say, "That's wrong.
"I think like Robin Hood.
Rich people are bad, poor people are good."
That's called poverty theology.
Well, which is it?
Rich people are good and poor people are bad,
or rich people are bad and poor people are good.
And the Bible says everybody's bad, okay?
It's equal.
And the issue is that different churches behave in worldly ways
where they show partiality either to the rich or the poor,
but both--both--are wrong.
The answer to those who favor the rich
is not to favor the poor.
The answer to those who favor the poor is not to favor
the rich.
The answer is not to show partiality to anyone
but to treat everyone equally.
I'll give you a verse, Leviticus 19:15.
Jesus and James, they would have been very familiar with this.
This is actually a very well-known verse
in a lot of ancient Jewish theology.
This was a principle that guided a lot of their social ethic.
"Do not show"--what?
"Partiality," favoritism, preference,
"to the poor or favoritism to the great,
but judge your neighbor fairly."
What he's saying is this.
Don't show partiality to the rich
and don't show partiality to the poor.
Treat everyone fairly, rightly, justly.
This is the church, this is in the culture,
this is in the legal realm.
See, if we don't understand this, we read James and we say,
"Okay, then all the poor people, stand in the back.
"Well, no, we need to fix this.
"All the poor people come to the front and now
all the rich people stand in the back."
Either way, all we're doing is changing our partiality.
We're not resolving our partiality,
we're changing our partiality.
Now, let me say that this is not only in the economic realm.
You say, "Women need to be up front
and the men need to go to the back."
"No, no, no, the men need to be up front
and the women need to go to the back."
"No, no, no, the young need to come up front
and the old need to go to the back."
"No, no, no, the old need to go to the front
and the young need to go to the back."
"Well, those who are white need to go to the front."
"No, no, no, no, no, all the whites need to go to the back."
See how this works?
We want people like us to be up front.
And James says, Moses says, God says, "No."
We're not going to say that people like you are good
and people that are not like you are bad so that we
can show preference to you and people like you,
because that's idolatry, that's favoritism,
that's partiality.
But how many of you women wish that women got more?
How many of you men wish that men got more?
How many of you young people wish young people got more?
How many of you old people wish old people got more?
How many of you white people wish white people got more?
How many of you non-white people wish people like you got more?
This leads to our classism, our ageism, our racism,
our nationalism, and our tribalism.
He's really hit a deep root, hasn't he?
So, what's the solution?
Well, the solution biblically is that we treat people equally
because they're equal, because that's what the Bible says.
You can't get there through evolution
and you can't get there through religion.
Okay, let's do a little quiz, Mars Hill.
Okay, according to the Bible, everyone is equally made
in the image and likeness of God.
True or false?
True.
Men and women, young and old, rich and poor, black and white,
equally made in the image and likeness of God.
Number two, all people are equally fallen and sinful.
True.
There's not a race, or a gender,
or a class, or a kind,
or a type of people that are not sinful.
We're equal in our humanity.
We're equal in our depravity.
The Bible says that all have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God.
So, people like you are no better than people unlike you.
We're all sinners.
We're all fallen.
And we're equal.
Number three, true or false, those who belong to Jesus
are equally saved, equally loved, equally forgiven.
True or false?
True.
So, according to the Bible,
we're equal.
As a result, we shouldn't show favoritism and partiality
toward people like us.
But only through biblical thinking does this strong desire
for cultural equality have any basis in reality.
I find it amazing that sometimes those who yell the loudest
for equality have a world view that causes them hypocrisy.
Only through a biblical ideology, a world view, a lens,
a thought process, a mindset, is there any basis for considering
everyone equally valuable and treating everyone
without partiality.
Okay, we looked at chapter 2, verses 2-7.
I skipped chapter 2, verse 1.
Here's the real issue. Take a look at it.
"My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory."
What he's saying here is don't play favorites.
And this is very important to remember that God is a Father.
Okay, I'm a father.
I don't have favorites.
I have three sons, two daughters, zero favorites.
I ask my kids often, because I need to know,
"Do you think that I have any favorite or favorites?"
My kids always tell me, "No Dad, we're different
"and you love us all the same.
"And we each do different things with you because you're trying
to do things we like to do."
So, my sons want to play catch.
My youngest daughter doesn't want to play catch.
So, I'll do different things with different kids, love,
serve in different ways because they're different,
but I love them equally.
Horribly things happen when parents start playing favorites.
Horrible things happen.
Jealousy, anger, violence.
We read this very early in the book of Genesis.
Parents start playing favorites
and things go really bad really fast.
Okay, we are--that's what he's saying here--brothers.
We're God's family.
We're God's children.
God's our Father.
Our Father doesn't play favorites.
How horrible would it be if my kids grew up,
and they all came over for dinner, and I said,
"Okay well, kids, tell me your income."
"Why Dad?"
"Well, the more you make, the closer you sit to me
at my dinner table."
"Really, we're going to do this?"
God's not like that.
"Hey kids, bring your report card."
"Why Dad?"
"Highest GPA sits next to me and gets dessert.
Lowest GPA can sit in the other room."
God's not like that.
God's a Father who loves all his kids
and he doesn't play favorites.
But the problem is sometimes his kids play favorites.
And what's happening here with the case study in James is that
God doesn't play favorites, but the kids are playing favorites.
They have partiality.
That's the real, underlying, fundamental problem.
So, who are you partial toward?
Do you prefer men or women, young or old, single or married,
black or white, highly educated, uneducated,
those who have their life together,
those whose life is falling apart?
Who do you prefer?
Don't let your preferences become your prejudices.
It's interesting, non-Christians tend to think that one of
the big problems with Christianity is partiality.
I'm working on a book.
I'd appreciate your prayers.
It's the biggest project I've ever worked on.
And we tried to find out from the unchurched and dechurched,
what are their primary objections to Christian faith?
So, we did a big national survey and study
and got all the research and data.
The number six most popular issue for the unchurched,
those that have never been to church,
and the dechurched--their primary objection
to Christianity, number six, was this.
All people are not created equal in the Christian faith.
That's not true.
Some of you are here and you may think that Christianity is not
a religion of equality.
It is--I would submit to you
it's the only religion of equality.
Biblical thinking that we're equally made by God,
we're equally fallen into sin, and we're equally loved,
and saved, and forgiven by God, and that God's a Father
and he loves all of his kids equal,
and he doesn't have favorites,
and he doesn't have prejudices and preferences,
it is really informed Christianity in such a way that,
apart from Christianity,
the world is much different and much worse.
I mean, it's the Bible that tells us that men and women
are equal and they're equally made in the image and likeness
of God.
It's the Bible that shows us that Jesus befriended women,
which was very unusual for a religious leader in that day,
and that Jesus taught women, which was perhaps even
scandalous in that day, and that part of Jesus' ministry team
included godly women, and they were the first at his tomb
to see that he had risen from the dead.
Go to nations where the gospel has not spread
and see if women are treated as equals under the law.
In addition, this has affected education,
that it was historically the case that only the sons
of the wealthy were given an education
and taught to read.
Why?
Because then they could win in court, they could own land.
It gave them a preferential position in society.
Well, as Christianity spread, we're people of the book.
We believe that young, and old, and rich, and white, and black,
and all people should have the ability to read God's word.
So, wherever Christianity spread, education spread.
The first schools, almost exclusively
in the United States of America, were all Christian.
Because of our view of equality according to the Bible,
we believe that not just men should know how to read,
but also women, and not just the rich, but also the poor,
because Jesus was poor and he knew how to read,
and he knew how to read so that he could read the Scriptures.
So, wherever Christianity is spread,
the sense of equality has led to education,
and I find it fascinating that then education would argue that
Christianity is intolerant and doesn't believe in equality,
because without Christianity, you wouldn't even have
institutions of higher learning to argue against Christianity.
Just something to think about on the way home.
This has a profound effect, this issue of impartiality,
on history.
Racism is, in large part,
the result of unbiblical thinking,
that people are part human and part animal.
Can you get there from the Bible?
Yes or no?
No.
There are animals and there are image-bearers of God,
and we don't believe that there are variations in between.
This is why racism is completely antithetical,
it's deplorable to the view of the Bible.
This is why those who argued against slavery historically
tended to do so from the Bible.
It was very popular to have slaves
in the early Roman Empire.
Many of the early Christians, first Christians, were slaves.
And once biblical teaching spread in the church,
the slaves became deacons, the slaves became elders,
the slaves became leaders,
and they would have spiritual authority over their masters,
and this led the church to help bring
the kind of transformation into the culture that the gospel
had brought into the church.
This is why, in Great Britain,
you have men like William Wilberforce
who were arguing strongly, and passionately,
and effectively against slavery and racism
because of biblical conviction.
This is why the Civil Rights Movement
in the U.S. was, in large part,
led by preachers from pulpits,
preaching that all people are made equally in the image
and likeness of God, and that certain human beings
are not partly animal.
They're all image-bearers
and these are our brothers and sisters.
And our Father doesn't play favorites,
and if we do we are sinning against him.
This is why you have men like Martin Luther King Jr.
who was a preacher
and he worked from biblical imagery and thinking.
This is why Jackie Robinson was not just a great baseball player
and liberator, but also loved Jesus.
And the situation we see here in Luke 2
is kind of like Rosa Parks.
Because of her race,
she's told to sit in the back of the bus,
just like the poor are being told
to sit in the back of the church.
Rosa Parks refused to do that, and what they oftentimes
don't tell you is that she was a Christian.
Her thinking was from the Scriptures,
and she was right.
Dear friend, if you want to argue for equality--and some of
you say, "I think he's trying to hijack a cultural value."
No, it's been hijacked.
I'm trying to get it back.
Biblical thinking alone leads to dignity, value,
equality among all people, and nothing else accomplishes that.
Do you understand that?
That's why at Mars Hill today, there are rich people
sitting next to poor people,
single people sitting next to married people,
black people sitting next to white people,
people that are highly educated sitting next to people
that are not highly educated.
Because this is what Christianity brings into
existence through the clear instruction of the Bible.
It's why even as Christians we value those who are born
and those who are not yet born.
We believe that all people are valuable.
We believe that all people are equally loved by their Father,
our Father.
And we believe that they all have rights, and worth,
and that to show partiality is to behave in a way that is evil.
Do you understand that?
For those of you who are Christians,
next time somebody's arguing, "Equality, equality, equality,"
ask the 2-year-old kid question, "Why?"
And if they say, "Because,"
ask "Why?" again.
What we have here is not only a moral condemnation
of partiality, but an entire world view
that helps us not only to see ourselves,
but to see our neighbor
and to see our brothers and sisters as God sees them.
Now, here's what's going on in James 2.
The problem is partiality and here's God's prescription
for partiality.
"My brothers."
So, what he's talking about is seats, okay,
and what we've established is that different seats
give the impression of different value, okay?
Where should you sit?
Where should your seat be?
Where should my seat be?
He says, "We're brothers."
What he's saying is we're family,
so think of it like this.
Think of it like dinner at my house.
Okay, I ask my kids often, "Do I have any favorites?"
And if they ever say yes,
then I've done something terribly wrong.
God's a Father, has no favorites.
Here's the deal.
He's glad that you would sit at his table.
He loves all of his kids.
It really doesn't matter what seat you sit in.
The Father's going to serve you the same meal,
he's going to love you with the same affection,
he's going to give you the same embrace.
Your Dad loves you.
Who cares if you're on the left side of the table or right side?
Who cares?
Because I'm here with my brothers and sisters
and we're here with our Father, what a great place to be.
And then he transitions in the most magnificent way
and he talks about the only seat the real matters.
Okay, so I'll get off my seat.
And what we're talking about, ultimately here,
we're talking about the glory seat.
Because what they understood wrongly
was that certain seats
come with different glory.
Certain seats come with different glory.
And so their fight over the seat is ultimately a fight
over the glory.
"I want to be up front!"
Who deserves to sit in the seat of glory?
That's the battle.
What does he say?
"Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory."
What he's talking about is the glory of Jesus Christ
means that his seat alone is the seat that matters,
that you and I shouldn't be particularly concerned
about our seat, even in this life.
And we shouldn't be arguing that people like us
should get a better seat.
"I'm arguing for the rich. I'm arguing for the poor.
"I'm arguing for the black. I'm arguing for the white.
"I'm arguing for the urban. I'm arguing for the rural.
I'm arguing for the single. I'm arguing for the married."
What we do is we want people like us up front,
even in the church.
"We need more women. We need more poor.
"We need more arty. We need more young.
"We need more old.
"Get more people like me up front.
"More glory on us, more attention to us,
"more authority for us, more focus on us,
"more concern for us, more open ears,
"and open hearts, and open wallets,
and open minds to accommodate, to tolerate, to prefer us!"
James says that's the wrong place for the glory.
Glory's a mega-theme of the Bible.
Augustine, the church father, rightly said that when the issue
of glory is settled--I'm paraphrasing--the other issues
are all settled, that all issues are ultimately glory issues
and all conflicts are ultimately glory conflicts.
This theme of glory appears about 275 times in the Bible.
It's a massive theme and it means a number of things:
splendor, beauty, magnificence, radiance, heaviness,
weightiness, prominence, preeminence, luminescence,
splendor, majesty, holiness, purity, worthiness.
What everybody is saying is, "Hey, give me the glory seat.
"Put me up front high and exalted, everybody can see me.
"And bring people like me around because we're more valuable.
We want the glory seat."
Jesus is saying no
and he's saying it through his brother James.
Jesus is the only one who deserves to sit
on the glory seat.
It doesn't matter where you sit, it doesn't matter where I sit.
It only matters where he sits.
One of my favorite images, perhaps my favorite image
in the whole Bible is a chair.
It's called a throne.
You can study it for yourself.
There are various thrones that appear in the Bible,
and kings sit upon them, and they rule over kingdoms,
and some are evil and some are godly.
The last book of the Bible, it's about the kingdom of God.
It's the book of Revelation.
And really, the tension that they're experiencing in James
and the tension that we experience is that we live in
the world, the world that is fallen and corrupted,
and it is chased glory that it does not deserve.
And we belong to the kingdom of God,
and the way things will be is not the way things are.
And in the middle is the church, and the church is to represent
the kingdom in the world, but sometimes what the church does
is the church brings the world into the church
and dishonors the kingdom.
And that's what's happening in James 2,
and so the answer is to always be looking to the kingdom,
and the key to the kingdom is, "Who's the king?"
The key to the kingdom is always this, "Who's the king?"
And we know who the king is because the king is the one
who sits on the--the king is the one who sits on the throne.
That's how you know who the king is.
And as you unveil the book of Revelation and the curtain
of history opens up--in 17 of the 22 chapters of the last book
of the Bible that gives us a glimpse into the kingdom,
the throne appears.
Some 45 times, if my memory is correct,
in the book of Revelation, it explodes.
There's the throne. There's the throne.
There's one seat.
There's one glory seat and there's only one
who's sitting upon it.
Who is it?
It's Jesus Christ.
He's King of kings, he's Lord of lords.
And his throne, his glory seat, it's the center.
It's the center of all creation.
It's the center of all history.
It's his throne that's high and exalted,
and he alone sits upon it, and he alone is worthy of it.
And around Jesus are all the nations,
and all the tribes, and languages.
The rich are there, the poor are there, the black are there,
the white are there, the highly educated, the uneducated,
they're all there.
The men are there, the women are there,
everybody who belongs to that King and is a citizen of that
kingdom, they're there.
And they don't care where they sit,
all they care is that they're around his throne
because he's the one who gets all the glory.
And the angels fall down, and the leaders fall down,
and the people fall down.
And the picture in Revelation is not that you and I would be
seated on the seat of glory with Jesus telling everyone
all the things that we've done, and all the ways we've given,
and all that we've accomplished, and all that we've become,
and all that we are, and that we would bask in our glory,
and that others would sing our praises.
The only imagery in Revelation is this.
Everybody gets off their chair, and he sits on his throne,
and we fall down, and we give him glory,
that he loves us,
that he saves us, that he seeks us, that he forgives us,
that he gives us his inheritance,
that it is all about him, it is not about us.
And praise be to God, praise be to God,
when the glory is removed from us--glory, friends,
means heaviness and weightiness, and those who pursue it
are crushed by it.
He alone is worthy of glory, he alone can shoulder glory,
he alone can endure glory, and we get to bask in his glory
which is our joy.
We were made not to sit on a throne,
but to fall before a throne.
We were made not to be worshiped by God in our glory.
We were made to worship God in his glory.
And the more that we understand this, the happier we are,
the freer we are.
We're liberated from worldly thinking into kingdom thinking.
And we realize, "It doesn't matter where I sit
"because nobody's looking at me anyways.
"It doesn't matter where I sit
"as long as I am seated around him
and his throne, high and exalted."
Mars Hill, Jesus is alive right now.
He is the Lord of glory.
He is high and exalted.
He is seated on a throne.
Angels are singing his praises.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
Heaven and earth are full of his glory.
The departed brothers and sisters in faith
are around his throne, and they are crying out,
"Worthy, worthy, worthy
to receive glory, glory, glory."
And child of God, if you belong to Jesus,
that is where you are going and that is what you will be doing.
And it does not matter today where you are seated because
when you're in his presence, you won't even be seated.
You'll be face down, full of joy,
basking in his glory.
Amen?
So, we need to worship now, amen?
Okay, we worship God by giving our tithes and offerings.
And as the servants collect those,
let me explain to you that at Mars Hill Church,
we're a family.
We have 15 kids called local Mars Hill locations
and we don't have partiality.
The rich churches have the same budget as the poor churches.
We base everything on people, not their income.
So, the poor churches like Rainier Valley,
University District, and the new church in Phoenix,
they are helped and supported by more generous churches
like Sammamish, Bellevue,
West Seattle, and also Ballard.
I want you to know that if you're in a poor church hearing
this sermon--one of our poor Mars Hill Churches--we love you,
and all the kids sit at the father's table,
and they all get the same meal and the same portions,
and we don't play favorites.
And that comes out of James 2,
and that comes out of the Father heart of God.
And so, if you are hearing this sermon at one of our
richer churches, what you give will not all be spent
at the church you are at.
Some of it will go to the poorer churches,
and some of it's going to go to Ethiopia,
and some of it's going to go to India,
because they don't have what we have and so they're part of our
family too, brothers and sisters, amen?
That's how we do it at Mars Hill.
Secondly, we'll worship God by partaking of Communion.
And if you're not a Christian
and you're living for your own glory,
you're living for your own misery.
The most miserable people are the people who seek
and obtain their own glory.
And I want you, today, to give Jesus your sin and then live
for his glory.
He lives without sin, he died for your sin,
he rose for your salvation, he ascended into heaven,
and today he is the Lord of glory.
And as we partake of Communion,
we're remembering the Lord Jesus.
We're remembering that God has given us richly of his
only beloved Son.
And then lastly, we're going to sing.
And as we sing, and as we get out of our seats,
I want you to be mindful that Jesus is on his seat and that
our singing is a prayer that ascends into his presence,
and it joins the chorus of the angels
and the departed brothers and sisters
who have gone before us to give him glory
as we practice together for our eternity.
And so, Lord Jesus, I thank you that you came in humility,
but I thank you that today you are the Lord of glory.
Lord Jesus, I thank you for this incredibly practical word
from your brother James.
And Lord Jesus, I pray that we would not turn this into
yet another economic class warfare conflict
between the rich and the poor,
that we'd let this be about partiality and glory,
that it's about who gets the glory.
Lord Jesus, may you get the glory in our lives,
may you get the glory in our church,
may you get the glory in our eternity.
Lord Jesus, I thank you so much that you are so worthy
of all glory.
When we worship ourselves, we worship someone who is unworthy.
When we worship anyone else, we worship someone who is unworthy.
And when we worship you, we worship the only one
who's ever worthy of all glory.
And for that, we say thank you that you made us to enjoy you
and we come now to enjoy you as your people, together,
equally made in your image and likeness,
equally fallen into sin, but equally loved and saved
to the glory of God, amen.
Pastor Sutton here,
we've just finished our services here in the Bellevue church
and really excited today to tell the extended family of Mars Hill Global
about Text to Give.
Just came out and many of you know my story:
2007 heard Pastor Mark at a pastor's conference
went there, started podcasting.
I still gave my tithe to my local church,
however, gave a contribution amount to Mars Hill Church.
So this Text to Give, the video that we have produced for you,
you're going to love, so check this out.
Hey Mars Hill, my name is Rene and I work here
at the Media and Communications team at Mars Hill Church.
If you're a mobile user like me,
I've got some exciting news to share with you.
There's a new way to give at Mars Hill Church
and it's just as easy as sending a text.
Now, many of you take advantage of our online giving options,
which is a great way to set up recurring gifts,
but until now, we haven't had a way to set up mobile,
where you can give on the spot during our services.
If you're like me, you don't carry cash
you don't carry a checkbook, so Text to Give is the way to go.
It's fun, it's simple, and best of all, it's secure.
I want you to do something with me.
Take out your smart phone right now;
we're going to do something together.
Don't worry, you're not obligated to give,
but try this out.
Simply send the amount you want to give
and the word "Mars Hill" at the end to the following number: 45777.
The first time you give via text,
you will be asked to fill out a one-time form,
which will safely link your card to your smart phone.
Now, this new way of giving doesn't go into your phone bill,
and in case you make a mistake,
you can always get a refund for the gift that you've given.
And that's it; you're done.
You'll receive a text back confirming your gift
and from this moment forward, you'll be able to give
anywhere, anytime with just a single text.
Don't forget to save the number in your contact list.
I've saved it as "Mars Hill Text to Give."
For more information about our giving options
you can visit marshill.com/give.
Each year, over 10 million Mars Hill church sermons
are downloaded worldwide for free.
This ministry is generously supported
by Mars Hill church members and listeners like you.
If you'd like to support our efforts to preach Jesus to the world,
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation
by visiting marshill.com/give.