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YOUR SEAT, JESUS’ SEAT
1 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in.
JAMES 2:1-7
3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
JAMES 2:1-7
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?
JAMES 2:1-7
7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
JAMES 2:1-7
SEAT IS
VERY IMPORTANT
IN THE WORLD IT
DETERMINES YOUR STATUS
SEAT IN THE BIBLE
REPRESENTS GLORY AND
CONTROL
IN FCC ALL OF US ARE EQUAL
CHRISTIANITY IS FOR
EQUALS
GETTING WHAT
YOU PAY FOR
DISTINCTIONS ARE EVIL
None of us would have a problem going to a sporting event or going to a concert and paying for a seat, and then whatever money we pay determines where we are. But in church, it troubles us if that
were the case.
NO BASIS FOR MORAL
INDIGNATION
You should be seated wherever youwant to be seated. All people should be
treated equal. There should not be partiality like this.
The difference between Christianity and other religions is, in other religions, you get what you earn. It’s works. But in Christianity, you get what
Jesus earns. It’s grace.
Because we believe in grace, we believe in Jesus, we believe that people
should be treated equal. But if you believe in a religious ideology or philosophy, you believe in karma, that some people have paid off
more debt than others,
and if they’re suffering in this life, we shouldn’t help them, because after all, we could be interrupting their
karmic debt payback.
7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
GALATIANS 6:7
Some religions teach levels of enlightenment that some of us have
reincarnated, some of us have become more enlightened, some of
us are more evolved.
Religion teaches you, you earn it.
That being said, here’s their problem. Their problem is that the church is behaving in a worldly way. When it comes to biblical thinking, there’s
the kingdom of God.
WHO HAS THE BEST
SEAT?
WHO SITS IN
YOUR LIFE?
This is where Jesus is alive, ruling and reigning right now as King of kings and Lord of lords, and that God’s people will be together forever in
His kingdom.
Today, we’re in the world. We’re in cultures and nations that don’t think in a way that is biblical and don’t submit to King Jesus. In the
middle is the church.
The church is in the world but belongs to the kingdom. These are God’s
people, Jesus’ people.
The problem is that sometimes the church thinks in a way that is more worldly and less like Jesus’ kingdom.
That’s exactly what’s happening here. And James is saying the church shouldn’t be like the world. The
church should be like the kingdom. And their problem, ultimately, is
partiality. Don’t get hung up on the finances here.
The underlying issue is partiality.
Their problem is they think rich people are good, and poor people are bad. We have a theology for that today. It’s a very worldly theology. It’s called prosperity theology.
We think like Robin Hood. Rich people are bad, poor people are good.”
That’s called poverty theology. Rich people are good and poor people are bad, or rich people are bad and
poor people are good.
The Bible says everybody’s bad. It’s equal.
ONLY ONE IS GOOD AND
THAT IS JESUS
The answer to those who favor the poor is not to favor the rich. The answer is not to show partiality to anyone
but to treat everyone equally.
FAVORITISM REFERS TO
PEOPLE AND RELATIONSHIPS
1 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in.
JAMES 2:1-7
If you have favorites then you are ruining the lives of both.
PARTIALITY IS YOUR
OPINION AND IDEAS
OR INCLINATIONS
OR ISSUES
1 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in.
JAMES 2:1-7
THE PROBLEM WITH BOTH
SIDES IS PARTIALITY
15 Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
LEVITICUS 19:15
What he’s saying is this: Don’t show partiality to the rich and don’t show
partiality to the poor. Treat everyone fairly, rightly, justly.
THREE TRUTHS TO CONSIDER
IN ELIMINATING PARTIALITY
According to the Bible, everyone is equally made in the image and likeness of God.
1
Every person is very important2
Those who belong to Jesus are equally saved, equally loved, equally forgiven.
3
Horribly things happen when parents start playing favorites.
Don’t let your preferences become your prejudices.
CHRISTIANITY IS THE ONLY
RELIGION OF EQUALITY
Biblical thinking that we’re equally made by God, we’re equally fallen into sin, and we’re equally loved, and saved, and forgiven by God, and that God’s a Father and he loves all of his kids
equal, and he doesn’t have favorites, and he doesn’t have prejudices and preferences.
Wherever Christianity is spread, the sense of equality has led to education, and it’s fascinating that then education would argue that Christianity is intolerant and doesn’t believe in equality, because
without Christianity, you wouldn’t even have institutions of higher learning to
argue against Christianity.
This is why, in Great Britain, you have men like William Wilberforce who were
arguing strongly, and passionately, and effectively against slavery and racism
because of biblical conviction.
Our Father doesn’t play favorites, and if we do, we are sinning against him.
This is why you have men like Martin Luther King Jr. who was a preacher and worked
from biblical imagery and thinking.
GOD’S PRESCRIPTION
FOR PARTIALITY
God is a Father, who has no favorites.
Then He transitions in the most magnificent way and he talks about the only seat the real matters. What we’re talking about, ultimately here, we’re talking about the
glory seat.
What he’s talking about is the glory of Jesus Christ means that his seat alone is the
seat that matters, that you and I shouldn’t be particularly concerned
about our seat, even in this life. And we shouldn’t be arguing that people like us
should get a better seat.
BAD VS
JESUS
We are all bad and only one is Good and that is Jesus.
Seat controls glory and authority.
ISSUE OF
GLORY
Glory is a mega-theme of the Bible.
This theme of glory appears about 275 times in the Bible. It’s a massive theme and it means a number of things: splendor,
beauty, magnificence, radiance, heaviness, weightiness, prominence, preeminence, luminescence, splendor, majesty, holiness, purity, worthiness.
What everybody is saying is, “Hey, give me the glory seat. Put me up front high and exalted, everybody can see me. And bring people like me around because
we’re more valuable. We want the glory seat. Jesus is saying no, and he’s saying
it through his brother James.
Jesus is the only one who deserves to sit on the glory seat. It doesn’t matter
where you sit; it doesn’t matter where I sit. It only matters where He sits.
WHO IS SITING IN
YOUR LIFE?
WHO IS CONTROLLING YOUR LIFE?
WHO’S THE
KING?
There’s one seat. There’s one glory seat and there’s only one who’s sitting on it. Who
is it? It’s Jesus Christ. He is King of kings, He is Lord of lords.
His throne, His glory seat, is the center. It’s the center of all creation. It’s the center of all history. It’s His throne
that’s high and exalted, and He alone sits upon it, and He alone is worthy of it. And around Jesus are all the nations, and all the tribes, and languages.
The rich are there, the poor are there, the black are there, the white are there, the
highly educated, the uneducated, they’re all there. The men are there, the
women are there, everybody who belongs to that King and is a citizen of
that kingdom are there.
And they don’t care where they sit, all they care is that they’re around His throne because He’s the one who gets all the
glory. And the angels fall down, and the leaders fall down, and the people fall
down.
We were made not to sit on a throne, but to fall before a throne. We were made not to be worshiped by God in our glory. We were made to worship God in his
glory.
The more that we understand this, the happier we are, the freer we are. We’re liberated from worldly thinking into kingdom thinking. And we realize, “It doesn’t matter where I sit because nobody’s looking at me anyways. It
doesn’t matter where I sit as long as I am seated around Him and His throne,
high and exalted.”
FAITHWORKS CHRISTIAN CHURCH GLOBAL
Presented By:Ptr. Vetty GutierrezFCC Main, San Mateo Rizal, PH
April 10, 2016
Website: http://faithworkschristianchurch.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Faithworks-Christian-Church-Global-292363410916567/