Faith that doesnt work doesnt work

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Faith that doesnt work
doesnt work
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Dead Faith

• James 214-16
• Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere
  in this if you learn all the right words but
  never do anything? Does merely talking about
  faith indicate that a person really has it? For
  instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in
  rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning,
  friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the
  Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so
  much as a coat or a cup of soupwhere does that
  get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without
  God-acts is outrageous nonsense? (The Message)

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Dead Faith

• Gandhi too bad Christians dont do what they
  believe or do we?
• unChristian we are known less for what we do
  than for what we are against
• James perspective a faith that doesnt
  actively love is simply self-deception and
  definitely unhealthy spirituality

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Faith that doesnt work

• V. 14 a rhetorical question
• 122 And remember, it is a message to obey,
  not just to listen to. If you dont obey, you are
  only fooling yourself. (NLT)
• 214b That kind of faith cant save anyone.

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Faith that doesnt work

• V. 14 a rhetorical question
• The conspiracy of little Jesus In a very real
  and sobering way, we must actually become the
  gospel to the people around us an expression of
  the real Jesus. (Alan Hirsch)
• Jim Wallis the only way to propagate a message
  is to live it.

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Faith that doesnt work

• If we dont live it out, we dont really believe
  it
• 217 - Isn't it obvious that God-talk without
  God-acts is outrageous nonsense?
• Gal. 56 - For in Christ, neither our most
  conscientious religion nor disregard of religion
  amounts to anything. What matters is something
  far more interior faith expressed in love.

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A lived out faith is not an option

• 218-20 - I can already hear one of you agreeing
  by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the
  faith department, I'll handle the works
  department."
• Not so fast. You can no more show me your works
  apart from your faith than I can show you my
  faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works
  and faith, fit together hand in glove.

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A lived out faith is not an option

• Does love really exist if it doesnt act?
• 1 John 316 - This is how we've come to
  understand and experience love Christ sacrificed
  his life for us. This is why we ought to live
  sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not
  just be out for ourselves. If you see some
  brother or sister in need and have the means to
  do something about it but turn a cold shoulder
  and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It
  disappears. And you made it disappear.

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A lived out faith is not an option

• Abraham and Rahab their trust causes them to
  act
• Faith that doesnt actively love is not healthy
  spirituality! (226 - The very moment you
  separate body and spirit, you end up with a
  corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the
  same thing a corpse.)

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The Medium is the Message

• We are Gods gift of love / his Good News to the
  world around us
• If we resist the flow of his love, we begin to
  lose our experience of it
• While there are seasons of our lives, faith
  expressed in love is never out of season

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The Medium is the Message

• What God wants is trust and obedience / not
  sacrifice
• More is not better / the church is not the
  kingdom
• Will we ask, What would love do through me if I
  let it?