COME TAKE A WALK: DOES YOUR FAITH WORK: A MESSAGE FOR DADS

Sermon Notes, June 17, 2018

Rev. Garry McGlinchy

            Pastor Garry's sermon, the third in the series Come, Take a Walk, a journey through the book of James,  was titled "Does Your Faith Work: A Message for Dads."  It was based on James 2:14-26.

            Even if you're not a Dad, you have an influence on somebody.  One of the most important things a dad can do is be a Man of Faith.  If you're not a dad of faith, you're in trouble, because things happen.  You need to be a man of faith.  One of the things our scripture tells us is that our faith shows.  If you have chicken pox, measles, or lice, or eczema--they are all things that show.  You can't hide them.  Your faith, or lack thereof, it is hard to hide.
            If you are a person of great faith, it shows in what you do.  If you are a person with no faith, it shows in what you don't do.  What James is saying here in Chapter 2, verses 14-16, is your faith shows.  For a professing Christian, your faith without deeds means little. It takes action; we have to take a little risk, like Indiana Jones did in the movie where he was following his dad's directions, and it required him to take a step of faith over a gorge.
            If we just sit there and wish people well, without doing anything,  what good is it?  In verses 17-20 we read "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.  Someone will say 'You have faith, I have deeds.'  Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you  my faith by my deeds."  It's absolutely worthless. It's possible to believe  the Bible from cover to cover and believe what it says is true, but not have real faith.  If you don't put what it says into action, it does nothing for you.  A person may look at a steak dinner complete with a salad and key lime pie and believe that it  is savory, but until they take a bite, they don't know for sure.  In the same way, a person may say that the gospel is the answer to sin, but he or she will not be saved until they personally are believing in Christ.
            Verse 21-24 talks about Abraham being 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 his faith was made complete by what he did."  We know Isaac was not a small child, because he carried his own wood.  He must have been a young teenager (about the age you might want to take him to the mountain!  Just  joking).  It took faith on both their parts to go up that mountain.  "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.  And he was called God's friend.  You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone."
            Verse 24, "In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?"  Here's where Pastor Garry stops.  We celebrate Father's Day and Mother's Day, but as a product of a single parent home, raised by his mother, she fulfilled both roles.  He's speaking to everybody on this Father's Day.  We live in a different world now.  Even Rahab showed great faith.  Pastor says his mother had great faith.  She had to--she raised him!   
            Verse 26 says "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."  Real faith obeys God completely.  The Christian walk is not an all-of-a-sudden thing.  We must continue to grow, showing our faith by what we do.  It takes a while to have faith completely.  Some of us are still doing it.  We're all on a journey, to be more like Jesus.  This journey takes time.  God rewards faith.  Be a dad of faith.  The world is looking for people who walk by faith, not just talk about faith.