Love Without Partiality

Amen. How many of you are thankful to the Lord? Amen. You might hear it in my voice. Maybe not; it’s not too bad. I have been helping coach the girls’ lacrosse team, which my daughter is on, and we entered our playoff season, and so we had a big playoff game on Friday up in Wausau — which is way too far for a lacrosse game, but it’s playoffs. And we were not supposed to win, but we felt really good, and we did win. Boom, boom. It’s what we do. But I spent a lot of the game yelling at the refs. You would be very proud of your pastor. I was very polite. I said “sir” many times: “Sir, sir, sir.” Okay. No, but we were yelling, we were cheering, and it was an awesome time, but my voice is very weak today. So I will do my best. And you know what? That just means I need a little more coffee, right? Because I hear that’s really good for the vocals. It’s not. It’s terrible.

Amen. Are we good this morning? You guys are taking Benadryl. Everybody’s got the allergies. We’re a little quiet today, but that’s okay. The Lord will bring the heat.

Faith that lives in community

All right, if you have your Bibles, let’s turn to James chapter 2. We recently finished a study in Hebrews, and we are now going verse by verse through the book of James, and we’re now heading into chapter 2. James has been bringing this theme of what it means to go through life as a believer, through various trials, and being genuine in your faith. There is this very present reality that as we go through our Christian walk, our Christian life, there are going to be times where we face trials, where we face temptations. But how many of you are thankful that Jesus has overcome, and He has given us the ability to overcome temptation? Amen.

And so we’ve talked about that. But we’re now moving into chapter 2, and James is going to begin applying it to believers who are in community with one another. How many of you know that we as believers are supposed to be in community with other believers? Did you know that? I was so reminded of that over this last week. I was with various groups of people, at various celebrations, various things, and I just found myself craving fellowship with other believers. I was like, “Man, I just need a little more time with some of my brothers and sisters,” because things can get a little dicey out there.

When you are born again, there’s something in you that is different than the world. When we refer to “the world,” we’re often referring to people that maybe are not born again, or just the darkness or the sin of the world. And when your spirit is born again, there is something alive in you that craves fellowship with other people who are also born again. Do you guys get me? You have freely received from the Lord. Others have received from the Lord. And there is a strengthening and a building that happens in community with other believers. Amen. And so while our salvation is so personal, it’s so unique — each one of us has a different testimony, a different story — yet there is supposed to be this common ground, this commonality, this communing with other believers that we’re supposed to have.

And so we come to James chapter 2, and we’re going to start at verse 1 this morning, and then we’re going to open with some prayer. James says this: “My brethren” — so he’s talking to believers — “do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.”

I’m going to pause right there. Can we just open our hearts to God’s Word this morning? Lord, we open our hearts to Your Word. Holy Spirit, we ask that You would come and speak to us, Lord. Speak to us a word that would change our lives forever, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Lord of glory

Something that I really have appreciated about going through books of the Bible verse by verse is it forces you to talk about things that maybe you don’t normally talk about. And this is one of those subjects that is probably not something that I normally would gravitate to, but it’s something that is so important, and maybe something that we even take for granted in the church. I would like to think that we have a friendly church. Some of you may not know, but I work a full-time job designing websites, a digital designer in general, and I work with a lot of churches. And when I ask them, “What’s something unique about your church?” every one of them says, “We’re very friendly.” And I’m like, “I’m sure you are, but what’s really unique?” Right? Trying to tell their story. But I would like to think that the church at large is friendly, that we really would show no partiality, that we really would be open and one with one another in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But before we get to that, because that is the main point of this verse, I want us to notice something that was kind of just snuck in here. It says, “My brethren, do not hold the faith” — notice — “of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” I love the title that James uses there for Jesus. He is the Lord of glory. What does that actually mean? When James is calling Jesus, the Son of God, the Lord of glory, it means that Jesus Christ is the divine glory, the full manifestation of the divine presence and majesty.

So when we are singing those songs, “Show me Your glory,” what are we actually saying? We’re saying, “Jesus, I want to see You. I want to see You in Your fullness. I want to know Your heart. I want to know what You think about me. I want to see how You see me. I want to see how You see others.” Amen. And so when we’re saying, “Show me Your glory” — He is the King of glory. Jesus is the full manifestation of glory. He’s the perfect image of the glory of the Father. Amen.

And so this is a title that James sneaks in, and I find it interesting because this is James. For those of you that maybe weren’t here as we were setting the tone, James was the half-brother of Jesus. What I mean by that is they were born of the same mother, but Jesus was of course not born by man; He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And so they were these half-brothers, but they were brought up in the same house. In other words, James was around Jesus when they were growing up. They would play games together. They were doing things together. No one knew Jesus as a man probably like James. Because how many of you know Jesus was fully man, but He was also fully God? And here’s James, the brother of Jesus, identifying that this is God, the Lord of glory. There is no one like Him; there never will be. He is the Son of God.

Now remember also that the book of James was one of the first books written in the New Testament. It was written about AD 44 to 48. This is about ten, eleven, twelve years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. And notice that it was accepted immediately that Jesus wasn’t just a man. This wasn’t a later revelation. Jesus is the Son of God. Amen.

In Christ the wall is broken down

And so it says — and I’m going to just reread this — “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.” And so here’s James’ point as we go into chapter 2: as believers, there should be no partiality, no prejudice, no discrimination within the church, amongst other believers. And throughout Scripture we actually see that the Lord shows no partiality. We see this in Deuteronomy 10:17 — we’re not going to go there, but you can write it down — and also Acts 10:34. They tell us that God does not pay attention to social or economic status, or race, or nationality. He calls people, but He does not show partiality. Because God does not, therefore we should not show partiality.

And so James was writing in a time in the early church that was actually very prejudiced. When people would see you, you were immediately put into a box. You are either rich or you’re poor. You’re either slave or you’re free. You’re either Jew or you’re Gentile. It was very much a social-status game, and whatever your background was defined you. It defined who you were, what you could do, what your ability was. But one of the glories of the early church — and I believe that one of the signs and wonders of the church — is this: that in Christ Jesus, it doesn’t matter what nationality, it doesn’t matter what culture, it doesn’t matter your background, your economic status. How many of you know in Christ Jesus we are all one? Amen. We are one body, Jesus being the head.

This was mind-blowing at the time, that there would be these gatherings of different backgrounds, of different social statuses. You would have rich people and poor people all gathered together in one place, and it blew people away. But it was still a struggle. That’s why James is encouraging this: let there be no prejudice among you. You see, this didn’t always come easy. But James understood that this was one of the greatest works of Jesus dying on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, He took away all separation. He broke down all barriers that separate people. Somebody say amen. It is a good thing, because He went first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. There was a barrier. But because of Jesus, how many of you know that all who believe in Him would have eternal life and salvation in Him? Amen.

This is why Paul writes in Ephesians 2:14, “For He Himself” — talking about Jesus — “is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.”

In other words, Jesus, through His death on the cross, broke down the wall of separation. He broke down the wall between races, between classes, between nationalities, between ethnicities. We are one in Jesus Christ.

The man with the gold ring

James then goes on to share one way that partiality could manifest within the Christian community. Starting in verse 2, he says, “For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ and say to the poor man, ‘You stand there,’ or, ‘Sit here at my footstool,’ have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?”

And so we see this example that James is giving of ways that partiality can be demonstrated within the community of believers. I want you to think about it like this. We see first that there is the rich man. At the time, wearing rings was actually a way that you showed your economic or your social status. In fact, there were actually shops within the city where you could rent a ring for special occasions, to show that you were better off than you actually were. And so rings were an identifier: “Hey, I’ve got my life together. I’m good. I’m blessed by God, clearly, because you see how I’m dressed.” Again, there was this idea that if you were rich, you were blessed by God, but if you were poor, you were cursed by God. Well, the word that was being used for “poor” in this scripture, in the Greek, was that of a beggar. You get the picture of someone who did not have fine clothes, who was dressed in rags, and was a beggar. So we see this contrast here of partiality.

So with the rich man, the one who is socially acceptable and successful — let me put it this way. When you read “the rich man,” these are the ones that you find it easy to talk to. These are the ones that are a lot like you, the ones that make you comfortable, the ones that are acceptable, and clearly their life is together, and you want to be around them, and you want to get to know them, and maybe you even want to be their friend. But the poor man — those are the ones where maybe it’s a little uncomfortable when you’re in conversation. Maybe you’re having a talk and things just aren’t vibing, or you’re not understanding. Or for some reason, because of the way they look or because of the way they dress, you want to keep your distance. “It’s not that I don’t like them. I’m just not going to talk to them.” Do you see? There’s this idea that we as believers can actually just gravitate to those that we find commonality with. But how many of you know Jesus is our common ground? It’s a little quiet in here. How many of you know Jesus is our common ground?

And so as believers, we’re to show no partiality. And so with the poor man — the one who is maybe socially awkward, difficult to talk to, difficult to relate to, not popular, not successful — maybe during our conversations we try to keep it short. And what James is saying is, listen, it’s not that you can’t be nice to people who are rich, or be nice to people who are like you. It’s not that you can’t have friends or people that are closer. What is wrong is when we treat people differently. When we exclude them, it shows something in our heart. When we show partiality, James says, have you not become judges — notice — with evil thoughts? There is something evil in our thinking when we show partiality.

That’s why Paul writes, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” How do we get our mind renewed according to the things of God? We come into the Holy Scriptures, and we allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us through His Word. It transforms our thinking. It transforms our way of life, how we do things. And here James is writing, listen: when you show partiality, it exposes an evil in your heart. There’s something evil in our thinking when we show partiality.

Early on in ministry, I was an intern at a church, and I’m so thankful for that time, because you learn a lot not just by doing the job; you learn a lot by who you’re around. And I remember the pastor at the church that I was serving. I would watch him after a service, and he would not leave until everybody that wanted to talk to him talked to him. I never saw him hurry a conversation. I never saw him move his feet. He would stay there and look them in the eye, and you could see the love of Jesus in those moments. I would go to conferences and I would watch him stay there hours and hours for all the people that wanted to talk to him, and he did not rush them. He would talk to them and pray for them.

And I was so moved by that, because there’s something in us that, when we get uncomfortable, we want to have quick feet. We want to get away. We want to get out. We want to move on. “I want to be comfortable.” And it’s not that we can’t enjoy the people in our lives that are like us, or that are successful. No. But there should be a love that we have for everyone in the body of Christ. Amen. That’s why, when we say, “Lord, give me eyes to see those that are around me. Help me to see the way You see,” don’t be surprised when maybe some difficult people come into your life — people that might be difficult for you to talk to. Maybe there aren’t a lot of common interests. Maybe there’s even a difference of values. But how many of you know, because of Christ in us, we can love? Amen.

What partiality reveals

I want to share quickly just three ways partiality shows or reveals an evil heart. Number one: to show partiality shows that we care more about outward appearance than the heart. How many of you know God does not look at outward appearance; He looks at the heart? When Samuel was looking for the next king of Israel, there was a young man named David, and he did not look like a leader. But what did God say? “For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” How many of you know, if God looks at the heart, we should also look at the heart? Amen. Don’t make your judgment by outward appearance. Ask the Lord to give you discernment by looking at the heart.

Number two: to show partiality shows that we misunderstand who is important or blessed in the sight of God. Even though time has passed, not much changes. When we look at someone who is successful or rich, we think they must be blessed by God. But that is not necessarily true. According to Scripture, riches can actually be a curse to a person. When you have riches, when you have accumulated a lot of wealth, there is a different level of weight or burden that you carry. There is a stress and anxiety not to lose the wealth. There is a stress and anxiety to keep up with the life that the wealth has given you, because you’re afraid to lose it.

When you accumulate a lot of wealth, it becomes difficult to actually be generous, because you don’t want to lose what you’ve accumulated. So often I’ve heard believers say, “I’ll start tithing when I actually start making money.” The reality is you won’t give, because you haven’t started in your heart. That isn’t something that is embedded in who you are. If you can’t give God the little that you have, when you have a lot, you won’t give it. You see, it is hard to have wealth and to be generous. And so it can oftentimes in Scripture be considered — what did Jesus say? It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. It’s difficult.

Number three: to show partiality shows the selfishness in us. To favor the rich man reveals something in us, thinking the rich man can do something for me. But how many of you know, if we only look at people for what we can get out of them, we’re not looking at them with the heart and with the eyes of God? Amen. When we look at people, it’s not, “What can I get?” It’s, “What can I give? How can I love you? How can I serve you?” That’s the heart of Jesus. And so we’re not to show partiality. Don’t look at the outward appearance.

Rich in faith

Now listen to verse 5. It says, “Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?” Again, James is saying the problem is not treating the rich man well. It’s being dismissive or disgraceful to the poor man. Because James is saying, don’t forget, God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom.

I believe that in the age to come, when we’re before the Lord, there are going to be janitors closer to the throne than pastors who serve at churches. Because it’s not the outward appearance. It’s about the heart. There are those who are poor on this earth, but they are rich in the kingdom. Amen. God has chosen the poor. It’s easy for us to show partiality, forgetting that the poor in this world actually have more opportunity to put their trust in God. I think some of you might have missed that. We think that being poor is a curse, but in reality, when we have lack, there is an opportunity to put even more trust in God. Do you know what I mean?

When you’re in your groove and nothing is wrong, it can actually be even more difficult to follow Jesus, because you have no need. “I’m fine. Everything’s good. I don’t need to go to church.” Right? It can be more difficult to follow the Lord when things are going well, when life is rich. But we forget that the poor in this world have more opportunity to put their trust in God. Therefore, they may be more rich in faith than the rich man. There’s a quote by F. B. Meyer. It says this: “The rich man may trust Him, but the poor man must. The poor man has no fortress in which to hide except the two strong arms of God.”

It’s interesting when you think about Jesus, that when He came to this earth, He actually chose a life of relative poverty. Now, I think we can sometimes overexaggerate the poverty of Jesus while He was on earth, because He always had what He needed. He actually did not dress badly. He was supported by people that were around Him, people who followed Him. But Jesus said, “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” “I have no home. I have no place. I have no bed.” He actually chose a life of relative poverty when He came to this earth.

F. B. Meyer also says there is nothing that men dread more than poverty; they will break every commandment rather than be poor. But it is God’s chosen lot. He had one opportunity only of living our life, and He chose to be born of parents too poor to present more than two doves at His presentation in the temple. In other words, when God became man, He chose the poor and identified with the poor, so that we could become rich in Him. Do you see this? Now, if you are well off, if you are wealthy, if all of your needs are met, praise God. Amen. It’s not a bad thing.

But if you find that you have lack in your life, or that things just don’t always seem to line up, or there’s just a bit of a struggle, there is an opportunity there to put your trust in the Lord. Amen. And this is true in other things, by the way. There are a lot of things that you can be poor in. You can be poor financially, of course, but you can be poor in relationships. You can be poor in health. You can be poor with family dynamics. There are all sorts of things that you could be poor in. And when we are at our weakest, how many of you know there’s an opportunity in those moments to not just try to comfort ourselves or cover it up, but to actually run to Jesus, to put our trust in Him, to look to Jesus? This is so good. Somebody say amen. We miss this too often.

So God has not only chosen the poor, but His first call was to the poor and to the weak. When Jesus chose His disciples, He didn’t go to the rich young ruler. He didn’t go to the rulers of the synagogue. Who did Jesus go to? He went to the fishermen who couldn’t catch fish. He chose the poor and the weak. First Corinthians 1:26 says, “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” In other words, not many who are rich, not many who are noble will receive the hope of Jesus — but some will. But the first call is to the humble and to the poor. He uses the weak and the foolish to confound the wise. Why would He do that? Well, how many of you know that brings more glory to the Lord, when it’s like, “How did God do that for you? How did He come through for you?” Amen.

The royal law

James goes on in verse 8. He says, “If you really fulfill the royal law” — everybody say, “the royal law.” Let’s say it with a little gusto. Everybody say, “Royal law.” James is saying this is the law of the King. And how many of you know the King is Jesus? He’s the King of glory. And James is saying, listen, this is the royal law. What did Jesus say was the greatest commandment? He said, love God. But then He said, love your neighbor as yourself. This is the royal law. Everything hinges on this.

“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” James comes straight to the point, and that’s one of the things that a lot of people love about the book of James — how practical, how direct it is. A lot of people equate it to the book of Proverbs, where there are these short statements saying, “This is the way you should live as believers.” And James comes straight up and says, “Listen, if you show partiality, you are sinning. It is a sin.” And again, the problem isn’t being kind or loving to people who are rich. The problem is if you’re only kind or loving to those who are rich. And so this is something for us to take seriously. This is something for us to consider.

James continues in the idea of obeying God’s law in the next four verses. And we’re actually going to receive communion here in just a moment, so I’m going to invite the worship team to come up. Starting at verse 10, it says, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” Oh man, there’s a lot here.

Something that has crept up in the church — and probably has always been prevalent, but we see it today — is the idea of selective obedience, where we pick and choose from Scripture what we will do and what we won’t do. But James is saying no. If you are guilty of one sin, you’re guilty of all of it. If you break one command, if you break one rule, you’re guilty of all of it. When you hear that statement, immediately you’re like, “Oh man. Oh boy.” Right? When you hear that, does it not make you want to immediately run to Jesus, your Savior? There is not one who is righteous. There’s not one who is perfect. If I’ve broken one, I’ve broken all of them. And I don’t know about you, but when I hear that and when I read that, there’s something in me that just wants to jump and say, “Jesus, I need You.” Anybody else? Does anybody else here need Jesus?

If you’ve broken one, you’ve broken all. This is why we preach Jesus. James is making the point: no one will find their salvation in their ability not to sin. Our salvation isn’t based on, “Well, I’m a better person than most people.” That’s not going to get you to eternity with Jesus. Being better than average isn’t going to get you there. The only way to life with Him is by receiving Him — His grace, His mercy. Jesus died on the cross. He gave Himself fully, because if you broke one, you’ve broken all of it. And He’s saying, “I’m dying for you, that you could have salvation in Me.” You see, we have salvation not by what we do. We have salvation because one man kept the law perfectly — that’s Jesus Christ — and one man died to pay the penalty of sin — that’s Jesus Christ.

And so we’re going to receive communion in just a moment, and this would be my charge to you as we do this: look to Jesus, who’s the author and the finisher of your faith. He’s the only hope that any of us have. He’s the only way to the Father. But how many of you are thankful He made a way? Amen. Look to Jesus, the one who not only fulfilled the law, but the one who paid the penalty of the law.

Mercy triumphs over judgment

And so verse 12 says, “So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.” Who is James talking to in this letter? Is he talking to unbelievers, or is he talking to the church? Let’s be confident here. He’s talking to the church. He’s talking to his brethren. And he’s saying, “Listen, do you not know that we all will be judged according to the law of liberty?” Now, I don’t know about you, but I am thankful that I’m not being judged according to a law of judgment and condemnation. But there is a law that we are to obey. There is a way that we are to live in response to the salvation and the hope that we receive. And what James is saying here is, this is the royal law. This is a part of that royal liberty. The way is: do you love your neighbor as you love yourself? If you do, you do well. Amen.

This is important. I’m not going to go there, but 2 Corinthians 5:10 talks about how all believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ — that there is going to be a time where every believer must give account of how they lived this life on earth as believers in Christ Jesus. Now, the Bible also talks about how believers will even judge angels in the age to come. I don’t even know what that means; it doesn’t go into much explanation there. But there is this accountability. Why? Because there’s actually a law to this. How many of you know God is a God of order? Because He’s a holy God. Amen. And in Him is no darkness. He knows no sin. And so if you want to know God, if you want to be one with Him, the first thing is to look to the one who has given us full access to the Father. That is Jesus Christ, the one who fulfilled the law. He lived a perfect life, but then He paid the penalty of the law by dying on the cross. Amen. And because He was raised to life, we too are raised to life with Him.

Now look at verse 13, and I’m going to close with this: “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.” In other words, as people who will be judged by the law of liberty, we should show mercy to others by refraining from partiality or prejudice. The mercy that we show is what will be extended to us in the time of judgment. Did you show mercy to others? Jesus said, you have been forgiven, so also you must forgive others. The measure of mercy that you give is the measure that will be accounted to you.

We talked about how there are a lot of parallels between the book of James and the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus actually closes the Sermon on the Mount with a portion of this, out of Matthew 7:2. Jesus says, “For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” How many of you know, when we call out the speck in another’s eye, it’s proof of a plank in our own eye? He says, “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

You see, this is very sobering, because we have a tendency to give others small measures of mercy. But when we come before God, we’re always like, “Lord, I need mercy.” How many of you know we must show mercy to receive it? So let us be generous in our love and the mercy we show to others, because you need a generous amount of love and mercy. Amen.

So let’s do this. We’re going to receive our communion. And just to lay this out, this is open to anybody that is here today that would say, “I want to receive more of Him. I want Jesus in my life. I’ve said yes to Jesus.” I would encourage you, if you have not given your life to Jesus, that you do that. If there’s sin in your life, I would encourage you to repent of that sin. What does it mean to repent? It means, number one, I confess it and admit that it is sin in my life. But repentance means I’m turning from it. I’m doing a 180, and I’m going in the opposite direction. We want to repent of our sin. But if you’re here today and you’re saying, “I want more of the Lord,” you’re welcome to receive communion.

We’re going to receive the body, which is the broken crackers, and the blood, which is the juice. And I would like for every single person — if you’re new here, or if you came by yourself — if you can find someone just to pray with, to give thanks with, and to receive the body that was broken and the blood that was shed. How many of you know it’s by the broken body of Jesus that we’re made whole? And it’s by the blood of Jesus that we’re washed clean. Amen. And Jesus said this: “Do this in remembrance of Me.” In other words, let’s not just go through the motions. Don’t take this lightly. How many of you know it was a serious moment when Jesus, the Son of God, gave His life for us? Amen. And so let us remember. Let us remember the love that was shown. Let us remember the mercy that has been given. And as we do, commit in your heart and say, “Lord, would You do a work in me, that I would love people the way that You do? Lord, let there be no heart of partiality.”

In fact, can we do that right now? Can we just bow our heads? Let’s close our eyes.

Lord, give us pure hearts. Lord, give us hearts that can see You, hearts that can receive the things of You. Not because of what we can clean up, but Lord, You are the one who washes us. You’re the one who cleanses us. And Lord, You said to all who are called by Your name — Lord, we call to You, and we say, “Come, Lord Jesus. Fill us with fresh hearts, Lord, fresh fire from heaven that would purify every place in us that is not holy to You, Lord Jesus.”

Lord, we thank You for Your body that was broken for us. You were beaten. You were striped. You were pierced. You were broken, Lord, so that we could be made whole. And Lord, we thank You for the blood that was shed for us. As we receive it, Lord, it is You washing us clean. Though our sins are like scarlet, You have made us white as snow. Lord Jesus, we thank You that Your Word says that You made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, to die on a cross, to take that sin and put it to death on the cross, that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We thank You for what You’ve done, Lord. Now we receive Your love. Do a work of love in our hearts, Lord, that we truly would love our neighbor as ourselves. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.