Matt Chandler - Wanderer, Restorer

If you have your Bibles, why don’t you grab those? James chapter 5 is where we’re going to camp out during our time together today. If you don’t have a Bible, there should be a hardback, black-covered one somewhere around you. If you don’t own one, that’s our gift to you outright. It’s hard to believe that this is our 13th week in James and the last week that we will be in James. We started this series in February, and so here we are, landing the plane today. I said from the beginning that the Book of James was about progress and not perfection, and that’s a good thing because regardless of how long we live, the Book of James will reveal every time you read it that God is still actively at work in you, as you will not be where it asks you to be. So that’s why I’m saying it’s about progress, not perfection. In fact, we started right out of the gate in week one and talked about the reality that God has called us to be servants rather than demand that other people serve us. Now, is anybody still struggling with that one? Just a little, just a tiny little bit? Do you find yourself still wanting, still feeling entitled, still feeling like people owe you service rather than just feeling totally freed up to serve them at all costs? Anyone this week? How about today? Already today? Okay, so you can see now what happens. I want to explain to you why I think that’s good and not bad. As we read the Book of James and, really, as we read our Bible, what begins to happen is my ability to see that I’m still struggling in this area and that I have not fully surrendered to God in this area is objective evidence that God is still at work in me. He is maturing, He is growing, He is chiseling, He is conforming me into the image of His Son. Throughout the Book of James, over and over again, we see the call to progress, not perfection, and that God is at work in our day of arriving—not positionally perfect because we are that in Christ, but rather being conformed into the image of His Son is a work that continues every day for the rest of our lives. If God, in His mercy, gives you 120 years—because that might be a curse, right? —if God gives you 120 years here, listen, He will still be at work in your heart. I love that. I love that we don’t get to arrive. I love that He’s just constantly working on me, and the promise of grace is that He never grows weary of how slow I seem to develop. I don’t know how you see yourself; I feel like a slow developer. I still struggle with things that I shouldn’t struggle with anymore, and yet they remain. If we had an opportunity to go through the entire series—of course, we don’t have that kind of time—but I’m going to give it a go here. If we just started walking through the weeks, we could see failure, failure, failure, failure throughout. After we talked about living as servants rather than demanding to be served, we talked about considering trials joy. We talked about being not just hearers of the word but doers of the word. We talked about not being judgmental but rather extending mercy. We discussed walking in works that reveal faith, watching our mouths, walking in true wisdom rather than false wisdom, pursuing godliness not worldliness, walking in humility, seeing money rightly, and understanding the importance of patience. Every week in the Book of James, as I’ve studied and prepared to preach it, the Holy Spirit has pricked my heart that I am not where the Lord would have me. He has given me an opportunity to lean into His grace and mercy, to ask for the power of the Holy Spirit in my life, and to get back up and keep walking, knowing that He who began the good work in me will be faithful to carry it on to completion. No, the Lord’s not done with me yet; He is actively working in my heart. Last week, as James began to finish out his letter to these believers, he laid before them the components they would need to continue this pursuit of progress and trust Christ for perfection. Last week, we discussed the empowering work of the Holy Spirit that enables us to pray and to praise. Those are gifts of God, and the Holy Spirit births them as He anchors us to Christ in relationship. This isn’t just a list of facts about God but a relationship we’re in with our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, the Son. We pray, we praise, and then, on top of that, the Holy Spirit has given us the rich gift of the ongoing ethic of confession and repentance. See how all of this starts to piece together? The word of God bears its weight on us; it shows us that we’re not quite where the Lord would have us. That conviction should always be sweet for the believer. Conviction should always be sweet for the believer in Christ because it’s an invitation to surrender ourselves over to what God is doing in our hearts. From there, the Holy Spirit empowers us to confess and repent that we do fall short.