My Worship Works
James 2:14-17 NKJV
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
A while back I was flipping through the television and stopped on a Dr. Phil show. The segment was about two parents that had adult children living at home that had never had jobs lasting more than a few months at a time. Watch this, they didn’t have jobs, but were driving nice cars. They went out to eat several nights a week and were dressed in the finest clothes. The parents contacted Dr. Phil because they were getting older and had started tapping into their retirement fund to support their grown, healthy children. They said they were at the end of their rope and in need of help to get their children motivated. When questioned about their state of living, one of the adult children said something like this, “I’m an entrepreneur so working for people is not my thing.” He went on to say that it’s his parents’ responsibility to take care of him until he is able. This might come as a shocker to some of you, but I understood where he was coming from. Because for 12 or 13 years of his adult life, work was optional while his living standards were maintained. I remember Dr. Phil saying to the adult children, in order to be who he was and have what he had, he had to work at it. It wasn’t enough just to want it or expect it, but he had to demonstrate his desire to achieve it.
Watch me switch. It’s one thing to want a thing and to believe and have faith that you can or even should have it, but the text puts a question out there, “What does it profit a man, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works?” There is a follow up to that, “Can faith save you?” Listen Fam, we are saved by grace through faith, but faith alone is not designed to save you, but to move you. You cannot say a thing without the willingness to act on, move or demonstrate what you say. True faith is accompanied by action. The text deals with basic needs. Demonstration can lead to personal activation. We are in a place where it is necessary to meet a person where they are, but by no means allow an excuse to leave them there.
Let’s get in the mindset of watch me work. Work as an invitation to become better. We are declaring that there is nothing dead here. This work will meet you where you are, but with all we have we state it cannot, it will not leave you where you are, but it will move you from seeing to being.
Let’s tell people, I see you. I hear your need. I see your need, but my faith is not to keep you where you are, but to move you where you should be. Watch this, words will eventually die, but works will multiply. Want to see me work, watch me worship. Watch me activate my faith. Watch me open my mouth and praise His name. Watch me shift the atmosphere as the fullness of God arrives to abide in the praise of His people. Choose to put your faith on display! Work your faith! Let your demonstration be an illustration of how good He is. Let your demonstration be an invitation to taste and see the Lord is good. Let your demonstration reach back and help others keep going, keep moving, keep reaching. Let your demonstration show how work moves, how work changes, how work refuses to settle at the same place. There is a return on the investment that you are sowing into your family, into your friends, into your associates. Real faith is not just said, but it is seen. Declare nothing dead here, but we work the works of Jesus. We work the works of the kingdom. Our worship works! Nothing Dead Here!!!
Remember to live your life without excuses.
