NOV 16 2025 | Storm Proof: A Study in James S1E8 | Risky Faith

Sea Change Church · Storm Proof: A Study in James · "Risky Faith" Pastor Harry Wilson · November 16, 2025
James 2:14-26
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

James chapter two verses 14 through 26, what good is it my brothers? If someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works.

Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one you do well. Even the demons believe in shudder. Do you want to be shown you foolish person that faith apart from works is useless, was not Abraham. Our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar. You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works and the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of God.

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone, and in the same way was not also Rahab. The prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way, for as the body apart from the spirit is dead. So also faith apart from works is dead. This is the word of the Lord. Uh, well, good morning church. Uh, that premature lightning, while the word of God is being read is kind of scary, right?

That freak anyone else out, you're like, oh, it is happening. I'm just kidding. Uh, well good. This good to be with you this morning. My name is Harry. I am the family pastor on staff, and yeah, we are continuing in our series in the book of James and Pastor Joshua preached last week, uh, in James chapter two and just preach a really amazing message. And I'm just gonna be picking up where he left off as we finish James chapter two, uh, today.

And, uh, as Josh had mentioned, that the book of James is written by the half brother of Jesus. Um, and I think something notable about that is in John chapter seven, verse five, it actually tells us that the brothers of Jesus did not believe in Jesus. In fact, they even tried to send him away. They're like, Hey, go do this somewhere else. So the brothers of Jesus did not believe in Jesus. And maybe, you know, if, if you have siblings, you think about your brother or sister, like how hard would it be for you to believe that they were the God of the universe and savior of the world?

Right? And my, my little brother grew up and his biggest fear was cotton balls. Uh, and like to the point where we had to have a cotton ball intervention in our family and my like family, they literally is a true story. They filled a room full of cotton balls to do like immersion therapy for my little brother and his cotton. So like, he's probably not the Lord, you know? And so I learned that, I learned that quick growing up.

And so it, it's hard for us, right to picture our our our siblings in this way. And yet James has a transformation. Something happens. I think it would take something miraculous for all of us. Maybe something like rising from the dead would do it. And for James, there's something that's happened in his heart and his mind that now he's so convinced that he actually opens up this letter and calls himself a slave of his brother.

He says, I'm James a slave of Christ Jesus. So as someone who knows what it's like to not believe and then come to this place of genuine faith, James has some pretty strong opinions about what a believer, what someone of real faith should act like in this world. And so we're gonna jump in and read, uh, 14 through 17 in our passage, it says, what good is it my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him?

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. When, uh, I was in eighth grade, we were playing, um, volleyball and PE class and they'd broken us up into teams. And I'm a great height for volleyball, as you can see.

And so I'm, I'm at the front of the net. I'm right by the net where I should be, you know, leading the charge. And, uh, my team is not doing well. Uh, we're, it's not going well. I wonder why. And we did have a girl on the team who was standing in the back and she was like six feet tall and she was not participating. And as our team continued to do worse, she just started making fun of us, criticizing us from the back.

And at some point I turned around and I said something to her, and I don't remember what I said, I'm sure it was Christ-like. And I said something to her and she turns to me and she says, you better shut up, or I'm gonna come over there and I'm gonna punch you in the face. And I was like, do it. Uh, so I said, I said, do it because I'm calling her bluff, you know? Um, and so I turned around and continue to play volleyball, and then you know how you just feel like a presence.

You can just feel like this presence behind you. Well, I turn around and I am met with just the meanest bonies right hand to the face, just she punched me in the face and I stumbled back and looked around to see like one, I was shocked too. I was like, did a single teacher see this moment? Like I just got socked in the face and, uh, no teacher saw, thank you, public school. And so I just, I, at the time, I'll say, I really did not appreciate this moment.

Uh, I wasn't grateful for this. Looking back as an adult though, I kind of respect it because she told me exactly what she was going to do and she did it. Like in her estimation, she saw a face that needed punching and she punched it, right? And that's not, that's obviously not the mess. I'm not telling this, Hey, let's go, go throw hands. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that there's something that all of us understand about, we can hear words, but words only have so much value unless they're followed up by actions.

And James is saying in our passage, what good is it if you say you have faith with your words, but that faith is not at all backed up by your actions and by your life, is that faith even real? Can that faith even save you? He says, and I think it's also notable something we should say. I think many Christians we understand this, but it's important to make clear that we are not saved by works. We are not saved. In fact, that's one of the distinctives of Christianity that separates itself from all other religious traditions, is that you cannot earn your way to heaven.

Your works will not get you there. You were saved by works, but not your own, but by the works of another. And that's Jesus Christ and him crucified. So you, your works won't get you there. We're not saved by works. I wanna make that really clear, and Paul makes it clear to Ephesians, we're not saved by works, but by grace through faith. So no one can boast, right? So we know that. But James is saying that good works are evidence of saving faith.

They're evidence of genuine faith. That genuine faith should produce good works. Jesus says in John 15, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me, if I in you, you will produce much fruit. Not you might produce fruit, not, you could maybe produce fruit. You will produce much fruit. So if you say you have faith, but there's no fruit, then are you truly connected to the vine or are you a dead branch, as James would call it?

And then the person James brings up says, in this passage, this hypothetical person says they have faith. And that word for says in Greek is in the present tense, which means it's a continual action. So they don't just say they have faith once. This is someone who's loud about it, right? I'm a believer I have faith. I believe in God, I I believe in Jesus, right? They're loud about it. They continue, and yet they continue.

'cause the word for have or have no works is also in the present tense in the Greek. So it means they also continue to have no evidence of their faith, even though they continue to claim they do. It's kind of one of my, my sister, when we were kids, one of the first pieces of wisdom she wanted to impart to me was, uh, how to ride a horse. And so I was under her tutelage of how to ride a horse. And keep in mind, she'd never ridden a horse.

Um, but I, I had a lot of instruction about the technique and the ways in which you ride a horse from my older sister. I'm still not sure she's ridden a horse to this day. And I actually recently, just like a couple weeks ago, got to ride a horse for the first time. And none of her instruction helped me because she'd never ridden a horse, right? And this is what James is saying, that kind of talk is actually worthless.

In fact, it can even be damaging because if you say you're a believer and you're loud about being a believer, but then your life does not look like the life of Jesus, like you're following him and learning and growing in love, then you actually send a false message about what it means to follow Jesus to the rest of the world. James says, this kind of talk is useless. It's as useful, he says, as seeing someone cold and hungry and saying, go in peace, which by the way is a Jewish expression for goodbye.

So essentially they're saying to someone cold and hungry, Hey, I gotta go, but you know what? God bless you. I hope you get a jacket. I hope, I hope you find some warm food. But what good are your hopes to the one who's cold and hungry, especially if you have the ability to help them? Similarly, James is saying, what good is it then? If you have faith in the most generous and loving king Jesus who left his throne, took on human flesh, took on your sin, went to a cross, died for your sin in your place so that you might have resurrection life, that's his example.

He sets. So what good is it if we claim that, but then we don't ever follow his example? James would question the authenticity of that faith. And I think one of the thing, almost as an aside that I'll say, uh, that I've experienced and I've probably done, I won't confess that here in front of all of you, uh, but is to say, uh, to use the kind of the Christian lingo of I'll pray for you as a means to exit to conversation and avoid actually taking personal responsibility to help someone in need.

And I'm pro prayer, pray for each other. Tell each other. I'm praying for you. But don't let that be a substitute for helping when you can help be cautious to not use it as a cop out. So I put in your notes, pray for others, and whenever possible be the answer to that prayer. We saw this play out in a really beautiful way in our last trip to Tanzania. And uh, you know, I work, as you've heard about all these amazing mission partners and some of even, there's just so many amazing things happening here at this church.

And we get, I get to go to Africa every year and take a team and go to this safe house where, uh, uh, we have about 18 girls staying at the house. And one of the girls, she was praying for her dad that the girls in the safe house, every day they do a devotional time together. They pray together, they worship together. And every day she was praying for her dad because her dad, uh, recently became blind. He lived in the village and because of family dynamics, uh, she's not allowed to stay with her dad.

And now that he's blind, he has really no ability to work or help himself. And, uh, his house is falling apart. He's got to this place where he is just really living in this mud hut that's crumbling with a, uh, there's this massive termite hill underneath where he sleeps. It was just horrible. So every day she was like, pray for my dad. I'm praying for my dad. Please, please, God help my dad. And the leaders of the Graceful Warrior Project heard this prayer and realized, well, we can help be the answer to that prayer.

And then my team and I got to go and start put putting that into motion. And uh, we, we have a quick video to, to, to show that And praying for, for everything here at home, like the house and everything. And Shamsa was praying for that very much like if when we have, uh, evening devotion or morning devotion, she was always mentioning, please pray for me dad. So we're about to let Uma's dad know that we're gonna be building him a home.

He doesn't know that and is just learning that as well. We want to start Building a home for you. And so after we go to camp, we are gonna come back and we are gonna clean and we are gonna start a building project for your new home. Yes, Thank you so much. Thank you. So Thank you so much for coming and helping Now for He's very happy and he's very joy help. You are welcome. And thank you for helping with the hard grow.

She's very, he's very happy To Visit him and to see that it's good to help him so that he can be in a good place like other people. And So May God bless you in all the process that you are going through for helping people like him. We know Shaa has been praying for you. So I, I want to be clear that this is the answers to her prayers. This is not happening because of us, although we care. Nah, I care because we are. But this is happening because of your daughter's prayers for you and because God loves you both Man. And it's just amazing to see, like when you follow Jesus, you don't know what you're gonna get to witness as he, as he works.

And if you're willing to help be the answer to those prayers, and that's not me. I know it. Um, it's me in the video, but I, I wanna be really clear, not I look handsome, but I'm not trying to promote myself. You know, that was all, that's all the graceful warrior project. And I got to, I'm so blessed to get to be a part of what they are doing through the spirit of God. And this man who was blind, his wife left him because he was blind.

He has a daughter who's praying for him. And because of the spirit of God and people willing to be the answer to those prayers, he's now getting a home built for him. And so this is what I believe we're called to do. And let's keep reading in our passage. Let's go to verses uh, 18 through 19. But someone will say, you have faith in I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works. And I will show you my faith by my works.

You believe that God is one you do well, even the demons believe in shudder In the New Testament. Jesus says the phrase, follow me around 12 times. And if you include duplicate examples between the gospels, it's actually over 20 times we read Jesus say, follow me. And before his ascension, he looks at his disciples and he says to them, go and make disciples of all nations. And that word for disciples in the Greek is mathes.

And it actually means followers go make followers. So according to the great commission, the objective of the church is not to make believers, it's to make followers. This is the distinction, James is parsing out. And yes, believing is a central part of following, but belief on its own, without works, without actually following. Jesus is information without transformation. It's orthodoxy without obedience. And James says it's dead.

So faith cannot be divorced from works. They're interconnected. And in fact, James says, I'm gonna demonstrate my faith by my works. Don't just tell me you love Jesus. Show me you love Jesus by loving others the way Jesus did. Which is how Jesus defined, loving Jesus. Jesus defined, I put in your notes, loving Jesus, defined by Jesus himself is described as tangibly and practically loving the one in need. And you can check that in Matthew 25 35 through 46, which I think I have written wrong in your copy of the notes.

But it's the passage that says, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison. And you came to me. And then the people around him are like, Lord, when would, when did we see you hungry and feed you? When did you, we see you thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you naked and clothed you?

When did we visit you in prison? And Jesus says this to them, truly, I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. So if you wanna love Jesus, well love one another. Love the poor. Love the broken hearted. Love the lonely love the lost love those you disagree with. 'cause when you love them, you love him. And this is a great, I didn't, you know, plan that this didn't all fall on Mission Sunday.

We're talking about all this stuff that fall, that that's the Holy Spirit. 'cause that fell so well, we just kind of randomly decided, hey, let's go back to James and James two, you know, landed on this Sunday. And then James continues. He says, you believe God is one you do well. And that comes from the Shama. So the Shama is a Jewish prayer that they would've said every day a Jewish, and probably, you know, Jewish Christians now too would've still said the Shama, which its central point in the Shama says here, O Israel, the Lord our God.

The Lord is one. So every day they're saying the Shama. And James is like, that's great, you know the creed, but so do the demons. That doesn't separate you. In fact, the demons might actually give it more respect than you. 'cause they know that and they shudder. It causes them genuine fear. You repeat the Shama with your lips and then it doesn't impact your life. So who has more fear of the Lord? John Wesley says something similar.

The leader, the holiness movement. He says Orthodoxy or right opinion is at best a very slender part of religion. There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward him. Satan is proof of this. And I wanna be clear, don't misunderstand me. Theology is, uh, really important. I'm not, it's not. I'm not. I'm so pro theology. I love theology. I love talking theology. We had a couple at our house last night, they're close friends of ours.

And we talked theology for like an hour. Got a little sidetracked. 'cause they started asking if their pets go to heaven. And they don't cover that in seminary. They don't cover. So don't ask me. That's something if you, if someone ever asks you future pastors or current pastors in the room, if they, if someone looks at you with tears and is like, does my cat go to heaven? You just say absolutely. You say yes. You just, you listen.

It's a non salvation issue. I mean it is for the cat, but it's not for us. You know? So you just say, yes, they do. Uh, I think it's possible. New heavens, new earth. Why not the animals don't email me. Um, but I love theology and truly good theology, like studying theology. I promise you this, it's changed my life. Like I had a moment in my life where I started really studying. I'd been a Christian A. Long time, but then I started really studying the cross and the theology around the cross and it created just a revival in my spirit.

So I'm all about theology. I love theology, but it can't be devoid of practice. Good theology without good practice is what Jesus called hypocrisy. And it was his biggest gripe with the Pharisees. It's why he says things like in Matthew 7 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father. Or Luke six forty six, why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?

Well, what did he say? He said, you'll show the world. You are my disciples by the way you love one another. He said, love your enemy. He said, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. He said, deny yourself. Pick up your cross and follow me. He said, the Father is looking for those who worship in spirit and in truth.

He said, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, not treasures on earth. He said, seek first the kingdom of heaven and then everything else will be added to you. So there's plenty of instruction from Jesus on how to follow him in his word. We just have to become people more formed by the word than formed by the world. And you will be formed. It's just will you be formed by the word or the world? Let's keep reading. Let's go to 20 through 26.

Do you wanna be shown you foolish person that faith from work, that faith apart from works as useless was not Abraham. Our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar. You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works and the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of God.

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab. The prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way, for as the body apart from the spirit is dead. So also faith apart from works is dead. James, look, this is a blunt book. James is blunt. He says, you fool, you foolish person. Do you still need evidence? Is it still not clear to you?

Do you need proof? Great, I'll go to the source of proof. I'll give you two biblical examples. Let's start with Abraham, the father of faith. I wanna show you that his faith was supported by his works. And when people are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, Abraham, look, we can't live up to Abraham. I mean that's Abraham like, we can't live up to that. James is like, that's fine. How about Rahab the prostitute? Let's talk about her because she also demonstrated her faith when she secretly helped the people of God in the book of Joshua.

So it's her faith was also supported by her works. Both are these examples of faith and works working together. And they're also both examples of what I call risky faith. Abraham is told, sacrifice your son, your only son whom you love. He's waited all his life for his promised son. And God says, sacrifice him. And Abraham believes, we know this according to the book of Hebrews, that he believes that the only way this is gonna make sense because God has promised him that he would make his descendants as numerous as the stars through Isaac.

So if he sacrifices Isaac, then Abraham believes according to the book of Hebrews, that God's gonna raise him from the dead. That's his faith, that's his belief. That's risky faith. But he's willing to put into action. And of course if you know the story, you know, he doesn't have to sacrifice his son. But it's the same is true for, for Rahab. She came and she had people who came to her Israelite spies that came to her looking to take over her land.

And she commits treason against her own city, which would've been punishable by death, but because she believed in the power of the God of Israel. So both are examples of risky faith. And that's because I think true faith is inherently risky. Faith actually requires risk. And if you come to Jesus looking for predictability, you probably came to the wrong place. Now you'll find comfort, you'll find love, you'll find forgiveness, you'll find fellowship.

You'll find goodness and beauty like you've never experienced, but probably not predictability. It's risky faith. And so the main idea of our message today, as I put in your notes, is that genuine faith produces good works. The kind that requires sacrifice and risk to accomplish. Which means if your faith currently requires no sacrifice and no risk, then as a, as a as a brother, I just wanna encourage you, you might need to reexamine your faith because as Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, someone who, by the way, Dietrich Bonhoeffer took a massive risk as he was one of the only few pastors in Germany to stand against the Nazi regime.

He took a massive risk for his faith, was executed for his faith. And he says this, he says, when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. And Jesus, we know says, take up your cross and follow me. And so will we actually follow him? Will we put faith into action? And maybe if you're new here, you're like, this sounds hard, why would anyone want to do this? Why would anyone wanna follow this? Why? And I'll tell you this, 'cause Jesus is that beautiful, that it's worth, it's worth wherever he might call.

And last thing I wanna say, and I'll invite the band up right now, um, but this is the last thing I wanna say. As we close, I think it's important to know that what I'm not saying, I'm not saying that we all need to start doing a bunch of good works for the sake of good works. I'm not saying we all need to become social activists. Now that's not what I'm not saying. I'm saying that if your life, if there are no good works in your life, and God is not leading you by his spirit to do good works, it says in Ephesians four that he's has has good work set aside for us to do.

So. If God is not leading you by his spirit, then as a Christian, we don't actually have a works problem. We have a faith problem. And it can't be solved by going and doing a bunch of nice things. It can only be solved by seeking Jesus. A selfish life cannot be cured by good behavior. Only by beholding Christ are we transformed. So what are you beholding today? Are you beholding him or have you taken your eyes off him?

I could tell you, I've, I've gone through many seasons still do, where I just start to take my eyes off Jesus because I get wrapped up in being a parent, being a husband, work worries, family health, desires. And every time I shift from Jesus, I just become a worst person to be around. But I never solve that. I can't solve that by creating a laundry list of niceties. I just gotta fix my eyes back on the king and watch as he leads me again by his spirit to do the things he set aside for me to do.

Amen. We'll respond and worship together. If you'd stand, please, we'll Out cry. We, If you need prayer, we want to pray for you today. Want to invite you to the front to come get prayed for. If you want to know more about Jesus, man, talk to uh myself, talk to any of our leaders and go to the connect table. And if you have those cards, and that's a great practical way to respond to say, Hey, this is how I want to get involved.

If you have those cards, turn those cards in at the back for, for missions. With that, extend your hands and I'll pray for you. God, thank you for this church. Thank you for those that you have gathered in this room. God and I pray, Lord, as we hear your words