James is an interesting book. If you were to try to understand the gospel and say, how does it actually work? You would not find the blood of Jesus in the book of James. It's a good reminder that we need the whole New Testament. We just can't isolate one book and think it covers the whole gamut. And so James fits with other books of the New Testament in reminding us that God has given us a lot of truth. And so in the upper room, Jesus said to his disciples, I have many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them. And so the gospels themselves are not adequate for all that the church of Jesus Christ needs. There are many more things that Jesus wanted to say, and he says them in the entire New Testament. James is the beginning of that statement, and in some sense is a bridge. In large measure, it echoes the gospel of Matthew. Maybe you're aware that the epistles, there's usually a matching epistle for a gospel. And so if you go to the Gospel of John, that's an easy one. First, second, and third John are the matching epistles for John. They even sound the same, their style is the same. For Mark, I think it's first and second Peter, because Peter collaborated with Mark to write, it seems, the Gospel of Mark for the Romans. And for Paul, well, for the Gospel of Luke, Luke is a companion of Paul, so you get the entire epistles of Paul. And so James, if you read James carefully, and then you read the Sermon on the Mount, you will find echoes. I think James is the match. For Matthew, largely written for a Jewish audience, and James speaks as if he's talking to Jewish Christians. He speaks of a gathering of Christians as a synagogue, He writes to the 12 tribes dispersed abroad. It seems to be an early book when Christians were basically only Jews and finding the fulfillment of the new covenant in Jesus. That's helpful for us. One, it's helpful if you ever find somebody that says, oh, whatever's written in Matthew up until the last moment is not for the church. It's for the kingdom, it's for the Jews, it's not for the church. The Great Commission, Jesus says, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you brings the entire Gospel of Matthew into a contextualized form, of course, but it does bring it into the church. And James, being an echo largely of the Sermon on the Mount and written in the ear of the church, reminds us that, yes, the Gospel of Matthew is for us. And so that's a side note. If you ever run across anybody like that, reassure them, no, the Gospel of Matthew and its teachings of Jesus is also for us. But it's also a good reminder because we get to use it as a commentary and we're going to dip into the Sermon on the Mount this morning a bit. We're going to dip into the Sermon on the Plain in Luke chapter 6 a little bit as well. And so before I read the text this morning, let me just pray and ask the Lord's blessing on our time. Father in heaven, this is not mechanical and just something we do because we have to. Lord, if we are honest, we are both lacking in ability and we are failing in who we should be and what we should do. We are in need of your grace this morning as individuals and as a church family. And I, as a speaker, And so together, Lord, we're beseeching you that you would draw near to us and that you would lead us as your Holy Spirit is given to lead your church and lead us individually. We pray for his leading now today. As Psalm 141 says, put a guard on my lips. I pray that what is said today would be edifying, would be of you, would be what each of us needs. And so lead us, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to begin reading in verse 12 to the end of the chapter. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for when he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James is a difficult book to outline. It seems to be a sermon put to writing. Sometimes people will say to a preacher after he gets done speaking, it's like, you ought to put that down in writing. That was really good. It has the nature of oral speech. There's a lot of word images and pictures. There's a lot of sharp, exhortations in it, abrupt changes in it. It has the feel of a spoken word more than, say, a tight, crafted, logical argument that you gotta see and read again, like Paul's letters often, with 14-verse sentences, okay? These are like rapid-fire, very vivid, very memorable sayings. And so, it does appear to be that way. Scholars have debated, where are the breaks in James? I think the break, or the hinge, is found in that last two verses that we read, where it speaks about what pure and undefiled religion before God is. Right after that, James mentions the name of Jesus Christ for the second and last time in the book. He doesn't mention it, except in the second, I think the second verse, or the first verse, and then in the first verse of chapter two. That's the only time the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is actually given. And as a result of that, it does seem like he's starting fresh in chapter two. And so, those last two verses that describe genuine worship appear to be setting the tone for the rest of the book. It mentions things like the use of the tongue, that's chapter three. Mentions the care of the poor and needy, that's chapter two. And it mentions that we should not be worldly, which is largely chapter four. And then the book closes with an exhortation to persevere in the Christian faith and to pray, which is exactly how the book begins, persevere through trials. And if you lack wisdom, which means lacking wise and good character, pray and God will make you born again too. And so the book appears to be then structured around these two critical verses in chapter one. And the question before us today, and it's a question on my heart, is what is worship that is genuinely acceptable to God? You and I are in a worship service this morning. If you read the Old Testament prophets, Worship service, by the way, means something that we offer to God, not service in the sense of like serving a meal, but in a liturgical sense, serving as a priest or serving in the tabernacle or serving in the temple, offering up sacrifices. It's meant to be an opportunity for us as individual and as a group to offer sacrifices to God. The book of Hebrews says there are only two kinds of sacrifices basically left for us. The Levitical system went away with the Levitical priests. You change the priesthood, Hebrews says, you change the law. There's a new priest in heaven. His name is Jesus, and he's of the tribe of Judah, and he's now no longer known according to the flesh anyways. He's a new humanity. And he is the one who has opened the door for us, and a brand new law, a new covenant has started with Christ. And we don't follow those old bull bringing, lamb bringing, poor incense kind of sacrifices anymore. That went away. Those altars, those priests, holy days, holy places, holy people, that kind of stuff went away. All God's people in Christ are brought up into a holy priesthood in the name of the Lord Jesus, and we have direct access to God through the Son in the Spirit. So what do we bring? The book of Hebrews that actually catalogs this mammoth change in history ends in chapter 13 by saying there are two things we bring, the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name, a sacrifice of praise. Which, interestingly, in the Old Testament, Psalm 50 says, God wasn't interested in getting the bulls and lambs anyways. He's not hungry, and even if He was, He wouldn't ask us. He already owns enough animals. That's kind of the interesting argument of Psalm 50. And so what He wanted was thanksgiving. You call to me in the day of trouble and I will answer you, and you will glorify me. God just wants to be appreciated in that sense, with a hearty thanks. acknowledging you are the only giver, I'm always a receiver. And whenever I give to you, it's an echo of your first gift to me. So we offer a sacrifice of praise. And the second thing we do is it says, is that we do not neglect to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices, God is pleased. Speech and giving. are the two sacrifices. Not because God needs, but there's a lot of needs around us. And so we give and we meet pressing needs and have fruitful lives. Now, those are the two sacrifices. But we will find over and over again when we read the Old Testament, God groaning. Oh, that somebody would just shut the doors of the temple. I think that's Malachi. Amos chapter 5 it is, he says, I hate your new moons and your festivals. I hate them. Isaiah chapter 1 is like, you got blood on your hands when you're lifting them up in the holy place. It's like, the sacrifices they were offering, even though they loved it. And God acknowledges in Amos, they loved being religious and offering worship. You might say people love to come to church, but God can't stand it when we come to church and we offer up praises to Him and there's blood on our hands. Not the blood literally of like slaying somebody, but it may be as Jesus said, if we're angry and we shoot off an angry word, Jesus said, we've broken the sixth commandment. It is already breaking, thou shalt not murder. And so it's that kind of a concern that James brings to this at the end of chapter one. There are only two kinds of gifts. at the end of James, they're the same things mentioned. It's mentioned negative and positive. This is bad worship, if you don't bridle your tongue. And then this is good worship, if you take care of the poor and the needy, the orphan and the widow, and you maintain purity from the world. Basically, it seems like word and deed show up in James's response of worship. They are meant to be, according to Jesus, all throughout the Gospel of Matthew. They are meant to be expressions of the heart. Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. Our hands are to be the good fruit from a good tree. Our heart being changed by the grace of God, the free favor of God, our hands are to bring good things to others as an expression of a heart. If this is an expression of the heart, it is acceptable to God. But if there's a disconnect, it's not acceptable. Many of you are aware of the idea of a hypocrite. Isaiah speaks of hypocrites giving worship in Isaiah 29, and Jesus quotes it in Matthew 15 and Mark 7. This people draw near with their words, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me. That's the kind of thing that James is getting at in verse 26, where he says, this person's religion is worthless. It literally means vain or empty, often used of idolatry, where there's no God on the other end. This is not doing a thing, because that's not a God, a demon at best, but not a God. And so it's vain or empty worship. Do you feel it sometimes on Sunday morning? You're offering scripted prayers, are we not? I mean, we're not a liturgical church that we all quote something typically. We could do that. I know the back of hymnals often have liturgical readings and things. We could do that. But when we sing, we're offering scripted words. Those are written by somebody else. It's our choice whether we make them our own. If we make them our own, we can offer from the heart, and our heart can be moved by what is said and reminded of gospel truth, and we can offer. But if we don't, and it just becomes an outward show, it's vain. And I don't know about you ladies, I'm a man, but I bet you your husband, if he came and did dutiful anniversary greetings and dutiful birthday cards and dutiful this and dutiful this, you probably would think you might as well not spend the money and waste the time, because it's pretty vain if it's not coming from the heart. And it could be anniversary time and birthday time. But if it is capitalized by the husband and taken to heart and used in his expression of the heart, then it becomes an opportunity to express love. And so may Sunday mornings be that for us. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Bridling a tongue. Chapter three will go on to explain that the tongue is a restless evil. It's a beast. Like we've tamed every animal, and I tell you, there's some exotic animals out there in some people's houses. We've tamed every animal, James says, but the tongue cannot be tamed. So please, it has to be bridled and brought into like, bridled means controlled and directed. It needs to be reined in and then directed to things that edify. Please note, your neighbor may have a much more wilder beast than you. And you may be quick to say, my neighbor ain't a Christian because I can't believe what came out of his or her mouth. please be careful. It's kind of like when parents are raising children and they got these little darlings in their house, little angels with no wings. They just abide by almost everything. One little look and they like cower and go, oh, I'm going to obey. And then the hellions next door These wonderful little rowdies over here that are just being tamed by this diligent mother, but it's like a hard go, and it's year after year after year of struggle. And this couple over here looks over this way and goes, oh, can't control your own children, huh? Boy, I don't know whether you're good parents or not. We got to watch out for that, because some of us were born in this world with a much wilder tongue and a much more prone to anger heart. This is not the time to point those people out, okay? Not only do they know who they are, you often know who they are. They make themselves known. But God bless them if they recognize that and are seeking to bring that tongue into obedience to Christ through faith, hope, and love in the Spirit. because each of us needs to do so. Some of you need to actually loosen your tongue a little bit and talk a little bit more in the name of the Lord Jesus and for the good of your neighbor. That's not the point of this verse, but that might be a little bit more directing. Maybe your tongue is more like a mule that just sat down and needs to be like, come on, let's go. Needs to start talking. All that to say is, James' concern in chapter 1 seems to be on anger. Chapter 1 verse 19 says, Be quick to hear, but slow to speak and slow to anger. And he gives the reason, For the anger of man does not produce the right things of God. When we are angry, we do not do what is right. It is very difficult for us to obey the command, be angry and do not sin. Once we get angry, we often sin. And we are definitely told in Ephesians chapter four twice to put anger away. Before the sun goes down and put it away, all forms of anger, bitterness, malice, wrath, hot-headed, slow simmering, all the anger, because anger does not do what God wants. It's a dangerous thing. It's like a fire. It's good to have a fire every once in a while, but keep it contained and then put it out. That's our first aspect. What's genuine worship? First of all, it's a bridled tongue. The second concerns the meeting of needs, visiting orphans and widows in their distress, and then keeping oneself unstained by the world. Notice the language of worship. This is pure, Undefiled religion, which is outward acts of worship. It's a word hardly ever used in the New Testament, because the New Testament is so interior. But this is what outward religion looks like. If you worship God and it's genuine, this is what it would look like. You would be caring for the poor and needy, the orphans and the widows, and you would keep yourself unstained by the world. because we are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice and our deeds, which come from hands that need to be clean. So if we're dirtied by the world, what we're offering is not acceptable either. And so we need to keep ourselves unspotted so that then when we offer things with our hands, they are also unspotted and are acceptable to God. Now that's an interesting act of worship. That can't be done right here. We could offer with the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name. We could do the lip part in service. And we can do a little bit of like putting an offering in those boxes over there of gratitude to God and express it in that way. But largely, verse 27 is going to occur outside these walls as the Lord gives us opportunity to meet needs. Now this is an occupational hazard of a pastor. Because at this moment, in a room of this size, I dare say there are individuals in this room that I didn't meet your need at a particular time. Maybe there's some of you I did and you can testify, but others of you, not so. Every pastor fails in some regards. And I know there was one time in Indiana, it was really interesting. I went to the hospital for this man named Frank. I had shared the gospel with him multiple times. And he was dying, and I was at his bedside. I cared for him all the way to the end of life, only to find out that another older gentleman of a family I had visited several times, but had dropped those visitations, that that man was in the same hospital, down the hall. And I was unaware of it, and he died too. And the family was upset with me because I had stopped visiting that man in his time of need. And so what a juxtaposition in my life to find out like on the one hand was like I felt really good about having faithfully cared for this needy individual to end of life and then only to turn around and get the news that you utterly failed and dropped this individual to the end of life. And is that not so for all of us in this room? Could any of us raise our hand this morning and say, I have such a wonderful heart of mercy Every Good Samaritan story or opportunity that happened in my life, I've never walked around the other side of the road. I have always taken that individual up on my beast, brought them to the nearest inn, footed the bill myself, whatever is needed, I'll pay for. We know one who did, all the time. We sang about him this morning. He knows our need. Jesus, who is the King of Kings, was born and placed in a manger. Incognito, he was so unknown to his hometown buddies that once he started his public ministry in his 30s, they were utterly offended. Who do you think you are? Even his family thought he went off his rocker. What happened to him? They were scandalized by his claims, his teaching, and his miracles because there was no indication through all his twenties, while he was the village builder, that there was anything different about this man. Can you imagine the son of God, outside of time and space, who's holding the universe together by the word of his power, was so humble and emptied himself of reputation to such a degree that nobody in his hometown could recognize that that man was exceedingly different? And if they had thought about it, I'm sure they'd go, well, I guess he doesn't swear and he doesn't break the rules. but they didn't recognize him. He fulfilled Isaiah that he came like without majesty and appearance. So we have one who does know what it is to be needy and turned around and met our needs all the way to bearing them on a cross and having our sins placed in his hand and then a nail driven through that hand saying paid in full. We have such a savior. And may his spirit lead us this morning as we explore what it means then to care for and to visit the poor and needy in their time of trial. Perhaps the best illustration for this is to go to the story of two widows. I'm gonna do a little storytelling, so please bear with me. A thousand years before Jesus, there was a man named My God is King. who took his family to another land because there was no food in his hometown, even though his hometown was named House of Bread, Bethlehem. So he took his family across the Jordan River to Moab. He had two boys, wife named Naomi. The two boys ended up, well, he died, and the two boys then married women of the land of Moab, Maybe in hopes that they would have somebody that would then take the family on because dad died. But then those two boys died and nobody was left to care for the family. You have one old lady, two daughters-in-law. The daughters-in-law are foreigners. They're not Jews. Word comes to the lady that back in your hometown, God has visited, God has visited. He has brought bread back in Bethlehem. And so she plans to go back. Her daughters-in-law dutifully say to her, we will go back with you. And she blesses them. It says, may the Lord be kind to you as you've been kind to the living and to the dead. May the Lord be kind to you. Meaning, may the Lord freely show you his love. It's a form of love, it's called grace. When it's done from the heart, freely chosen. May the Lord be kind to you. Once they insist they go along, then she gets really argumentative and she says, no, my daughters, no. Shall I give you a husband? Even if I were to marry today and were to have a child, would you wait until they're full grown? No, I'm thinking of you. No, go back, go back my daughters. She's thinking of their need for a house. She's thinking of their need for provision. How can there be provision for a woman in that ancient Near Eastern society unless there's a man around to work the fields, to protect? These were dangerous times. Where would there be a man? No, my daughters, you must go back. Well, one of them lifted up her voice in weeping, then kissed her mother-in-law, her name was Orpah, and she went back. But Ruth, the other daughter-in-law, clung to Naomi. That word is an echo of Genesis, that for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife. She's giving this bitter old lady the same commitment that she would a husband. She tells her, your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. Where you live, I will live. And where you die, I will die. Then she takes an oath that God would basically do harm to her if anything separated her from her mother-in-law. A marriage takes an oath. It's a covenant between two people before God and witnesses. Ruth is not marrying her mother-in-law. She is giving the same commitment to her mother-in-law that she would do a husband. She is foregoing taking a husband. in order to give to this woman her undivided attention and care. And she even goes beyond what marriage would require, because death unties a man from his wife and a wife from her husband, so that they can go anywhere and marry anyone. But she says, where you die, I also will die. I'm never coming back to my people. God help me, and may he do so to me otherwise if I break this covenant. And Naomi was like, huh. So she comes back to her hometown, and she said, don't call me Naomi, pleasant. Call me bitter, Mara, for the Lord Almighty has dealt bitterly with me, and I come back alone. How little did she even reckon Ruth to be something, maybe a drag on her rather than a gift to her. She doesn't even acknowledge Ruth being with her. And Ruth ventures forth with her permission into dangerous times as the time of the judges. And the Bible tells us she just happened to come across Boaz's field. I love when the Bible winks at us. Well, what luck! a man who is associated with the family, a man of means, who can redeem the family. And she happens to land upon that guy's field. And Boaz is a man of God. He blesses his workers. They bless him. And he sees the woman, and having heard about her, that she's come, he tells her, don't go in anybody else's field. knowing the dangers. And she tells the young man, he tells the young man that works for him, don't touch her. And then he tells the ladies who are picking up the sheaves after the harvesters, purposely put more down, so she's got more to gather. And then Boaz calls her to his own circle at lunch, gives her roasted grain, and then loads up her apron to send home to Naomi. He just lavishes her and she goes, why have I found favor in your sight? It's because you have shown loving kindness, grace, freely given love to Naomi. And so now Boaz in turn is giving it to her. freely given, loving kindness. The law only required that they not pick up the scraps. That would have been all that the law required. He goes above and beyond the law, laying out extra, giving her extra, loading her up. Okay. Then there's one step further. After this barley harvest, then I think the wheat harvest begins, and Naomi gets the idea. I think you and Boaz would make a great pair. Now that's not romantic because Boaz is of the generation of Elimelech. What she's saying is Boaz is a man of wealth and if he marries you and buys our family out of debt, because he can do it as a kinsman redeemer in that society, then we'll be set and there will be a boy someday who can carry on the family name. Can you imagine having given up marriage to be committed to this old lady, and now the old lady comes to you and says, I got an idea that you should marry this old man. It's one thing to give up marriage. It's a whole other thing to go like, okay, and I have this guy for you, and he's not your generation, and you're doing it strictly as a practicality. And Ruth does it. But Boaz is not the nearest kinsman redeemer. There's one who's more near. And so Boaz gathers the town people together and the Bible says Mr. So-and-so, doesn't name him, calls him Poloni Almoni, like phony baloney. It's one of those kind of words, like fuzzy wuzzy. And so here he comes, Polony Almony, and Boaz goes, our brother Lemilek has a field, and it's up for sale, and you are the chosen one. You're in the cheap position to buy it. Why don't you buy it? Deal. And then Boaz goes, and on the day you buy the field, you also take Ruth the Moabitess. And you raise up family in the name of our brother Elimelech to redeem the family. And the man goes, I don't think I can do that. It would jeopardize my property. And so he takes his sandal off as a sign that he can't put foot on that land or something like that. It's a sign of giving up his rights. And so Boaz and the site of all the elders of the cities, Basically, the county courthouse, I own the land and I take Ruth. And God blesses them with a child. The second time in the book, it said God does anything. God gives her a child, Obed. And Obed is the father of Jesse, and Jesse is the father of David. And you have just heard the birth narrative of David the king. David's family comes from a house of grace, not a house of following the letter of the law. Not just dutiful obedience, they go beyond. whatever's needed and more. They aren't just constrained by what they have to do. They do freely. They love freely. And the house of David is now marked by loving kindness. He is the oddest king. He doesn't rejoice when his enemies perish. He takes in his enemies orphan. Jonathan's boy Mephibosheth. He takes him in and seats him at his royal table because he kept covenant with Jonathan, the rival king's son, who was his friend. David is no ordinary king. He is a man after God's own heart, and the son of David, Jesus, is no ordinary king either. He'll make a whip to drive the money changers out of the temple himself, to make sure it's a house of prayer for all the nations, and then grab babies and take time for them in the midst of a busy schedule that doesn't allow him to eat, and hold them and bless them. because he's humble and lowly of heart. He's a man of loving kindness like the world has never seen, and he came from a house of loving kindness that was begun through one woman caring for a widow, Naomi, and one man caring for a widow, Ruth. Two widows cared for freely. This is what the spirit of Jesus in you will cause you to do. When you are led by the Spirit of Jesus, you will act freely, disregarding the letter of the law, the rule, what's the minimum requirement. You will go and do whatever is needed to be done, and more, you'll lavish the needy. If you have a calculating heart, if we in our heart grieve over losing, but then think, I must do it, and so we constrain ourselves due to conscience, and we give, we will only give the minimum, it will only come up to the letter of the law, and we will find out in cases of genuine need, we will come up short. I am struck by the book of Ruth having a foil in it. Please, Christian, listen to me. How many of us are an orpah, ladies? How many of us are a polonium moni, men? In that if it benefits us, if it's not too much, we'll do it. But when push comes to shove, and it's going to jeopardize my property, or take me away from my home, or jeopardize my future, we pull up short and we won't do it. The Bible will give us our rights. You can do that. You have the right to do that. But it will shame us. It will erase our name. It will not be in the book of life. Because perseverance is real, and a heart made alive in Christ will bear good fruit, and a heart that resembles Jesus will resemble him in these sources of need. We will not have our names in that book. We will be shamed as a polony almony that day. If that characterizes our life, According to the Sermon on the Mount, there are two reasons why that will happen. Number one is we are doing what we do right because of the gain we get with a name. If we are known for being generous, If we take secret pleasure that other people saw our act of goodness, that's a payback. The Bible warns our Father in heaven is enough payback. But if we are secretly taking pleasure in doing what we do to be seen by men, the challenge will be when it's totally secret, we won't do it. We'll come up short. That's number one. And the second is, both the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain teach us the second reason that we'll come up short in love is if it is our enemy. If somebody harms us and will not pay us back and will not do good to us, we will come up short in our actions of goodness. Jesus said, if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that? If you love those who love you, what credit is that? Even sinners do that. Jesus then said, love your enemies, do good, lend to those who won't pay you back, and you'll be like your Father in heaven, for He is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful even as your Father is merciful. Doesn't that challenge you? My own heart is gripped by that. How many times is it a calculated thing? Where's the payback? Do I have enough means? Do I have enough time? Calculated out becomes an algorithm, rather than the openness of the heart, the freedom of the hand, the loosing of the purse, and whatever it takes to meet the need. That's the way our God has done us. The point of this text, how do we get to that point, is found secretly almost in the mention of God being Father in verse 27. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is to visit orphans and widows and their affliction. To visit doesn't mean just to say hi, it means to meet their needs. keep oneself from being stained by the world so your hands are unstained and then meeting the needs as the needs arise, but to do so with regard to the Father, which verse 18 says, is the Father of lights, from whom every perfect gift and good gift comes. He was the Father of the greater light, the Son, He was the father of the lesser light, the moon, and all the stars, by just merely speaking them into existence. So also, by His choice, He brought us forth, made us alive, gave birth to us by the word of truth. He spoke your spiritual life into existence by speaking into your darkness. and calling you out of darkness into his marvelous light. As he said, let there be light. He said, let there be light in your heart. And he commanded life to come forth through that life-giving word. You have a father in heaven because somebody looked on you in your neediness, your helpless state, and made a choice to step into your darkness and speak truth into your life. Would you now? with His Spirit filling you, make a choice to freely step into the life of a needy child, needy woman, and speak truth, speak life, offered and meet needs freely, without calculation for how I'm gonna get a reputation or how I'm gonna get paid back, but just freely give as you have been freely given to. Would it not be the express and appropriate expression of worship to do that. That was the burden of this morning. It was the idea of the elders several weeks ago to list out tables so that there would be opportunity for us who are gifted in a variety of ways to say, how might I use my gifts? In what way could it be used in people that are in need? You have those beyond stated ministries. We all do. And they're often done without the right hand knowing the left. No trumpet, no fanfare. Needs are being met in this room that are not being shared with others because it's not being done for reputation. But there are opportunities with those ministry needs. Check those tables out this morning. We set them out so that you could see just some variety of things. Our church is often known as an education church. We do a lot of word ministries, a lot of disciple ministries, a lot of elder-driven ministries. This is a deacon-driven ministry. This is a service-driven ministry. What you find out on the tables out there will meet some of you as potential leaders with your hands. to go out and tangibly meet needs while speaking the name of Jesus over them. So I'm asking you this morning, to consider this Christmas how you might reflect the love of the Father and extend that love in being a father to the fatherless, a husband, as it were, to the husbandless, and to find those who are genuinely in need, foreigners, handicapped, those in spiritual darkness, and come alongside them and say, in the name of Jesus, I, who have been freely loved by a Father in heaven, am happy to extend his love to you this morning. Let's pray. O God in heaven, Lord, thank you for the love that you have for us in your Son, Jesus. It says in your word that you loved the world and sent your Son. You loved the world and gave your Son. You did not withhold your very best. How with him then will you not give us all things? We have a generous father. You are not stingy. And we can trust you. Give and it shall be given to you. Shake and press down. overflowing. And so Lord, in faith, as Ruth took refuge in you as a foreign woman and took refuge under your wings, knowing that the abundance of goodness was in your house, knowing that you would take care of her She offered herself freely. Let our faith in Jesus Christ then this morning be expressed this season, this coming year, be expressed in making a choice to step into the darkness and to meet a genuine, tangible need in the name of Jesus, mercifully, not to prove that we're such a wonderful person, but actually to demonstrate we were an unworthy person that was loved by a great father, and he wants to love you too. So may you do that, Lord, through us this season and the coming year, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.