The Sin of Partiality
Tom Shrader teaches through James 2:1-13, addressing the problem of partiality and favoritism within the church. He challenges believers to avoid making judgments based on wealth, education, race, or political views, instead calling them to love their neighbors as themselves according to the royal law. Shrader emphasizes that God chose the poor to be rich in faith and that true Christianity expresses itself through mercy and impartial love.
“Don't show favoritism based on these artificial things - it could be economics, education, racial discrimination, or even politics.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: James (2011)
Recorded: 2011
Duration: 40 min
Themes: partiality, favoritism, prejudice, mercy, love, judgment, wisdom, faith, struggling with prejudice, church leader, facing class differences, new believer, dealing with social pressure, mentor, parent, navigating wealth differences
Scripture: James 2:1-13, James 1:22, James 1:26-27, Deuteronomy 10:17, Deuteronomy 1:17, 1 Corinthians 1:18, 1 Corinthians 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, 1 Samuel 21, 1 Samuel 22:1-2
Theological Themes: ecclesiology, church unity, royal law, biblical justice, sanctification, holy living, christian ethics, spiritual maturity
Full Transcript
Open your Bibles to the book of James, if you would. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand, the guys will bring you a paperback copy that you're welcome to take with you. If you have a Bible for much, it's page 654. So raise your hand high so they can see it, page 654.
We are in our fourth week in our study of the book of James. It's a book filled with practical advice for people who know Christ as Lord and Savior. Fifteen or sixteen times in the book, twice in the section we'll look at today, James uses the phrase "my brethren" or "my beloved brethren." He's talking to believers. He tells us in verse one that there are Jewish believers who are scattered abroad.
The Reality of Life and God's Wisdom
He tells us the reality of life in verse two, kind of summarizing here in chapter one, that there will be trials and challenges in our life. We need to understand that. And not only just endure them, but they are the things that cause growth in us. We know that the testing of our faith produces endurance.
We also know that as we begin to live life, we can become confused, especially as difficult times come. We can be absorbed by either the world around us or the circumstances we find ourselves in, so we pray for wisdom. And God gives us wisdom generously without reproach so that we can ask of Him. And He says, ask without doubting.
The doubting here has nothing to do with the outcome. It has everything to do with the God who makes the promise. You believing that God will do whatever does not obligate Him to do it. I was talking to a pastor friend of mine and his wife is sick and he tells me that he's believing God for healing and I have to press him and go, "I don't know what that means. Are you believing that He will heal her, that He can heal her, that He must heal her? What does that mean?" Because the way the phrase is often used is when I say I'm believing Him for healing is I'm believing that God almost is obligated to do this because I'm believing. Well, that's not what James is saying. He says, ask in faith without doubting. The doubting is in God and who He is, not in the outcome.
Understanding Human Nature and Temptation
James understands human nature as well as the advantage of writing under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit, so he knows that we have a temptation when temptations come to blame God for them. So he tells us in verse 13, God can't be tempted and He doesn't tempt us. What God gives us is every good thing, verse 17. Every perfect thing. He's a perfect God who loves His kids, His people, and He brings to them, even in the trials and the difficulties, He brings those in for their own good, for His glory.
So if you want to understand the book of James, you have to understand what we looked at last week, verse 22 of chapter one. He said, "I want you to prove yourselves doers of the word, not merely hearers." Sometimes it's helpful maybe to state it in the negative. Here's what he's not saying. He's not saying be a doer and not a hearer.
The Problem James is Addressing
He's dealing with a problem that he has heard about with these believers, and the reality is they love to Bible study, but they don't love to do anything. So he said, "I want you to be a hearer of the word, but that's just the beginning. I want that hearing to change you so that you're doing."
Years ago, I was using a simple three steps that we want to have a transformed heart and an informed mind and lead a radical life. That's what verse 22 is saying. So you have followers of Christ, those that know Jesus in a personal way. The Holy Spirit has taken their heart of stone, turned it into a heart of flesh. That's the beginning. Now that mind has to be informed.
Two Types of People: Hearers and Doers
Here, you have two types of people. You have hearers and doers. You have the hearers, all they want to do is study. You have the doers, all they want to do is do. You have the hearers, and they want to nuance every little aspect and argue and debate about every little aspect. They want to read and read and study and study and study. All good. They don't want to do anything. They just want to study more, learn more.
You have the other side, they want to do. So their theology is "Jesus loves me, yes I know, for the Bible tells me so," I'm kind of done. He's not saying that. He's saying that's a good first step, and I need to unpack that, but I need to not just be hearing, I need to be doing. I shouldn't just be doing, I should understand why I'm doing what I'm doing. So I have a transformed heart and an informed mind, and I'm leading a radical life. And by radical life, we simply mean we view the world as God views it, and we act accordingly. We're going to get a great example of that today.
Three Characteristics of True Religion
When we closed last week, verse 26 and 27, he's talking about religion and true religion, and he said you're going to see three characteristics. Self-control, verse 26. "If anyone thinks he's to be religious, but he can't bridle his tongue, he deceives himself. This man's religion is worthless." There's a self-restraint. We're not just running around, driven by every personal drive and desire.
Then there's this aspect of charity, or of a sense of those around us who are particularly weak. Pure and undefiled religion, in verse 27, James says, "in the sight of our God and Father, is to visit the orphans and the widows in their distress." Is to be on lookout for those who are hurting. To try and discern the people around you. And it's not just economic, by the way. You may be a student who's at Mesquite High tomorrow, and there's a kid who's clearly just over there by themselves, hurting, struggling. Rather than you hang around with your friends to just deepen those relationships further, you reach out to them. It's the same thing at the office. It's the same thing in the neighborhood.
And also, they keep themselves unstained by the world. Now, that doesn't mean they don't engage the world. The night before He died, Jesus prayed
to the Father, "Father, as You sent Me into the world, I'm sending these guys into the world." So that's how this gets messy for us. If we're going to be ambassadors for Christ, we have to be engaging the world around us. We have to be concerned about lost people. We have to guard against this flinch to create just a Christian ghetto.
To only read Christian books by Christian authors with Christian music and Christian comics and Christian TV and Christian, Christian, Christian. Christian's a noun, not an adjective, right? We turned it, by and large, into an adjective. So He said, well, all of a sudden, all you do is Christian stuff. You don't have any contact with the world. Well, you tell me how you're an ambassador to somebody if you have no contact with them.
How are you going to share Christ? How are you going to go and make disciples? And it's literally, in Matthew 28, it's as you're going, you're making disciples, you're contacting people. It's the barista that starts the morning. It's all through your life.
The Expression of True Christianity
I came across this week in an unrelated reading, but it's pretty good, and it's dealing with this passage. The author writes, "Isn't it amazing that when writing about the essence of pure religion, James can focus not on doctrinal matters, but on the matters of righteous and personal conduct?" Of course he's not talking about the content of our faith. If he had said the essence of the content of faith is to take care of the widows and the orphans, he'd be wrong.
The content of the faith is the atoning death and victorious resurrection of Jesus. The care of the widows and the orphans and act of charities is not the content of Christianity, but the expression of Christianity. As I said, the content is the gospel that God works through Christ for our salvation.
Another author who talks about it writes this. Here's something provocative about James. He provokes the liberals, and he provokes the conservative. James says in face of left-leaning Democrats, and James has something to say to rightward-leaning Republicans. To one he says, care about social justice and compassion. To the other he says, care about private morality, chastity, honesty, fidelity, modesty, purity.
So the stage is set. True religion, true Christianity is moved by a God-shaped heart of mercy. It bridles the tongue when talking about people created in God's image. It cares for the poor, the ones who cannot easily take care of themselves, but in fact can be taken advantage of. They don't have any power to care for themselves. It keeps yourself free from the impurities of the world. So that's James.
The Sin of Partiality
So what I just gave you in that, whatever that was, five, ten minutes, that's chapter one. When he turns the corner in chapter two, and we understand now, right, we should probably, it's a great place to say it, and these original letters, it didn't have chapter breaks in it. Those are inserted, but there is a break here where he now begins to, and we're going to look at chapter two, verses one through thirteen, where he begins to talk about the sin of partiality.
So he's going to talk about the fact that in verse one, we shouldn't show partiality, and in this case, because of economic status, we can expand it. In verse eight, he said, you should love your neighbor as yourself, and in verse twelve, perhaps, the point of this, he said, "So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty."
So let's work our way through it. Verse 1, chapter 2, "My brethren," so there it is again, often when he uses that, almost always, he's going to do one of two things. He's either going to tell you something that's really difficult to say, something you need to do, or he's going to correct you. So the sense here is he's hearing back about these different churches and he hears about a problem. And the problem is that they are showing favoritism. And the favoritism is based on wealth.
So verse 1, "My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism." You're showing preference based on an external. He's not telling you don't judge matters of sin or whatever. He's saying here are these things where you're showing favoritism and preference just simply on the basis, in this case, of the way one man looks.
Cultural Context and the Revolutionary Nature of Christ's Teaching
Now one of the scholars notes that in that day and age that was considered not only acceptable but reasonable behavior. That you showed preference to certain people, certain classes, certain groups. On comes Jesus and His disciples and believers and followers and we start to abolish that world view.
So when Jesus came along and He taught mercy, meekness, humility, the Greeks and the Romans thought He was nuts because they considered humility and meekness to be a sign of weakness. Paul had to create a new word when he wanted to write about humility. They didn't even talk about it, it didn't even exist.
How We Judge People Today
So what they were doing in this church is what typically you do. You look around, you come in contact with somebody and instantaneously you make a judgment based on initial contact, based on whatever reconnaissance you can do by looking in a few minutes to figure out, is this person going to advance my cause or not?
You're sitting on the airplane and the guy next to you says, "How are you doing?" I say, "Fine. What do you do?" And he said, "I'm responsible for distribution of tickets to every major sporting and entertainment event that takes place in Phoenix." Really? I'm Tom. You know? I mean, I don't know you. You may be a jerk. You may be a blasphemer, but you got tickets. If he says, "I clean the arena," I'm going, "Okay, I don't like to talk during flight." See how we respond almost intuitively. You do it all the time.
So you go to an open house, you say hello, how are you, what do you do, and you instantaneously try to figure out, is it going to benefit me to invest another five or ten minutes with this person to advance my cause of my life, my resume, my business? Well, they were doing it just based on
The Problem: Acting Contrary to God's Character
Here was the problem that they had, because they're acting contrary to God. When we look at God and His attributes, we think of His power and His might and omniscience, His sovereignty. We rarely think that He's a God of impartiality.
Deuteronomy 10:17: "For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe." Deuteronomy 1:17: "You shall not show partiality in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God's."
The Setting: A Tale of Two Visitors
What's happening here in verses 2, 3 and 4, is the setting. So here you go. A man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and is dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes. And you pay special attention to the one who's wearing the fine clothes, and you say, "Sit here in a good place." And you say to the poor man, "You stand over there or sit down by my footstool." Have you not made a distinction among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?
"And my brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in the faith and the heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who loved Him?"
So let me give you the background. In this setting, here's what would happen. They would have an assembly room. It would not be near anything like we have here in the chapel or over in the conference center. It would be a room, most commonly a house church, but even in a larger room with virtually no seating, very few seats. And they were reserved primarily for teachers or very important dignitaries.
The Status Symbols of Wealth
So in comes a guy who is gold-ringed. The Roman statesman and philosopher Seneca said, "We adorn our fingers with gold and we distribute gems over every joint." By the second century, when the church fathers said Christians should wear no more than one ring, and the ring they wear should be a depiction of a dove or a fish or an anchor or some Christian symbol. In that day and age, rings especially were a sign of prosperity.
So let's say you're going to a special dinner, gentlemen. You might rent a tux. You'll go in, because you don't own it, you've got no business at this dinner, but you're going to rent a tux. In that day, they would rent rings. They would come in, and of course the epitome would be to have ten of them on. So they would come in with these rings.
So in comes a guy with rings and these fine clothes, literally these brilliant, bright clothes, these amazing garments. And immediately, it would cause a buzz. Look at that guy. Look at the rings on that guy. Look at those clothes. You don't know him from a post. You come up here, you say, "You sit right here." Poor guy comes in the same time, and you make a judgment, not based on spiritual conditioning. This guy's rich, this guy's poor, the best you can tell.
Making Judgments Based on Appearances
Now they may be in the process of repossessing those rings, we don't know that. But at this point, this guy's rich, this guy's poor, you bring him in, you say, "You sit over there, sit on the floor, sit by his feet, but you, you're in a position of honor."
And so James is making the point, based on economics, and we can certainly make that, right? We still have that flinch. You get some really successful business guy, and he's in the church, saved or unsaved, we can't wait to get him up in front and have a whole breakfast where he tells us whatever it is he's going to tell us. The same thing, I can't tell you, in the course of 30 years, how many breakfasts, lunches, dinners, events I've been to, where successful people, athletes, entertainers, whatever it is, who can say "Jesus," if not say it, spell it, they get him up and they let him start to teach and they've got nothing to say.
The Basic Rule: Don't Show Favoritism
So here's the basic rule: Don't show favoritism based on these artificial things. So it could be economics, for sure. It could be education. I had a friend who was just visiting back east, and I said, "How was it?" He said, "It's unbelievable, because they don't say to you, 'Where do you work, where do you live?' Their whole thing is, 'Where did you go to school?'" So we see that somehow.
It drives me nuts to see these signs in front of churches. I don't understand why these pastors feel compelled to put their names on them. And if they're going to put their name out there, why do they have to put it in front of them? "Doctor! Doctor!" Most of them unearned, I would assume. "Doctor!" Who possibly cares?
The Humility of True Scholarship
One of the great things about Wayne Grudem, and you'll hear it all the time, is how humble he is. Let me tell you, Grudem is really smart. Grudem has a bunch of degrees. Harvard. Went to Harvard, got an economics degree. So somebody said, "You ought to go to Harvard." He said, "Alright."
But here's the key: Grudem never makes you feel stupid. He doesn't use a bunch of words you don't understand. He writes for people like us. Well, unless you're from the U of A, then he hasn't even gotten the bar quite low enough for you. But essentially, he writes for us. He's a common guy. I mean, I have breakfast with him probably once a quarter, and I'll ask him all sorts of things. And I don't know any of the stuff, and he never puts me down. He'll ask me questions like, "I've never even heard of that." I've never even heard of that. He said, "Oh, okay." And he'll deal with you.
Other Forms of Discrimination
It could be racial discrimination. You just look at somebody and say, they're a different color than we are, and I don't have anything to do with them. It could be a white guy looking at a black guy, or a black guy looking at a white guy, or Indian, or Latino.
I'll tell you a big dividing issue within the evangelical church is politics. Last year, I was at a Christian kind of political dinner, 1,200 people there, not one black guy and the only Latinos were waiting tables. Right now they didn't say "If you're black don't come, if you're Latino don't come," but that's
a dividing line. And I try to tell them, if you think you're going to mainstream this stuff, you're leaving out two massive groups of people. So in 1980 when I became a Christian we were going, "Can you really be a Christian and go to those movies? Can you really be a Christian and drink? Can you really be a Christian and swear?" Now, and I'm not making this up, it's "Can you really be a Christian and a Democrat? Where do you stand on these political issues?" And I mean I don't lack for strong opinions on these. I was reading a book the other day by a lady who is a Democrat and left her church simply because she was ridiculed at every step for what she believed. Now I know for me to even talk about this is stupid because it just fires up emails, but there's a reality here.
I might have some strong views. I have a strong view on abortion. One party tends to support, although not exclusively, you have a whole movement. You have a movement within both parties, pro-life, pro-choice, one bigger than one, one bigger than the other, free market, all that. Here's what He's saying: listen, you're making all these arbitrary distinctions among people based on these superficial things. It's not to say those aren't issues to deal with, but it's to say they're coming to church and you're making them feel like second-class citizens when they want to come and hear.
Partiality Contradicts Our Faith
So He talks about partiality and He says, listen, when we conduct our life with partiality we contradict our faith and we reveal, and He uses in verse 4, we judge with evil hearts. We're thinking contrary to how God thinks. He said this just shouldn't be this way. Now this is how the world thinks. He doesn't have any problem acknowledging that. That's what the world says. The world says you come and you sit right here. He said don't you do that.
Verse 6, "Have you not dishonored the poor man? And is it not the rich man who opposes you and is personally dragging you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you've been called?" He said, and maybe some authors, everybody has a little bit of a view on this, some authors think he's talking here about the idea of even the Sadducees themselves. They're rich, prosperous, and dragging them into court. It could be the very guys within the culture that are persecuting them. You don't know, but He goes, He says, look at how silly this is. This is the guy who's slamming you and you're putting him in the front. You're obsessed with people for just who they are.
Modern Examples of Wrong Priorities
I have started in the last month, I've started doing a lot of the things around the house, and I'm grocery shopping, and I've never been to the grocery store before. This is an amazing, let me just tell you, it's the coolest place in the world. I went last Sunday, Susan sent me for cream of wheat, and I spent $43.50. There's so much stuff in there, it's unbelievable. Everybody, all my friends want to go to Vegas. I want to go to that Fry's up at Shea and Tatum and see what it's like, because that's got to be the ultimate experience.
So I was a little intimidated the first time to check myself out. So I went through the line, and I come face to face with what you know. By the way, if you check yourself out, you don't have to look at all those magazines. All these magazines. I don't care about the Kardashians. I can't even fathom what they could possibly bring to your life. Lindsay Lohan. I don't care about those things, but obviously we do.
And He said, you got a real problem going on here, man. You're honoring the wrong kind of people. You're writing about the Kardashians, and you're ignoring the men and women who are making America work. You got junior high kids know more about the Kardashians than they do the Declaration of Independence. That's why I can do, I think, I don't know if I've done it in church or not. I did it in PL twice. The president took 62 minutes on his State of the Union. I can do it in two words. We're screwed. That's the State of the Union. You don't need to go any further. I don't need to think it through.
See, I went through exactly what I would have done. I would have come in. "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. President. We're screwed. Good night." And left. And part of it is, we're worshipping the wrong things. We're holding values that are in reversal to His. And I'm not trying to, I'm not even being critical of these people. I know it sounds like it, but a Paris Hilton has done nothing but be born into the right family. And she's going to write an autobiography? Are you kidding? What can you teach me? He said, it's all backwards.
The Royal Law and Sin of Partiality
Verse 8, He said, you're not fulfilling the royal law. "Love your neighbor as yourself." But if you show partiality, you're committing sin. I want you to keep your finger there in James. And just start, I want you to see how typically human and even within the church this is. Turn to the book of 1st Corinthians. It's page 618 in the Bible we gave you. Paul's writing to this church at Corinth. It's all messed up. Chapter 1.
I'm sorry, 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18. Verse 18 is that just overall "the word of the cross is foolish to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it's the power of God." And then He talks about the church. Verse 26, "For consider your calling brethren. There were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong."
So here's what He's saying. He's saying look at the church around you. He's talking about the church at Corinth. And He's saying there's not a bunch of PhDs running around here. There aren't a bunch of super powerful smart guys. There's not a lot of economically strong people. And the same thing is true in the church today. Rarely do you see, at least us, rarely
When do we see political officials in church except in September and October of the election year? Go over to ASU and ask the PhDs where they go to church on Sunday. "Sunday I read the Times. I read the New Yorker. I'm wine tasting." Where are the rich guys?
I came across this quote two summers ago and just remembered it this morning. I had to go through my phone to find it. "Just in terms of allocation of time and resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on Sunday morning." That's Bill Gates. Now whatever—He doesn't know Christ, so why would you expect anything else? But that's how a rich guy looks at it. "I don't get why you would do that."
The Makeup of God's Church
When Paul gets to chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians, He says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor covetous, nor gossips, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor revilers will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you."
That was the makeup of that church at Corinth. By the way, that's the makeup of most churches. There were just a bunch of people who used to gossip, sleep around, drink around, cheat, lie, and steal. And now—I don't mean this flippantly—now they do it less. Now they've been redeemed. That's what you were. You're not that anymore. You used to be that. Now you're a follower of Christ who does sin, but is forgiven. Not a license, just a statement.
Paul's Approach to Ministry
Stay there in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 1: "When I came to you brethren, I did not come in superiority of speech or wisdom proclaiming to you the testimony of God, for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, fear, and much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of the power. So that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of man, but on the power of God."
Paul said, "I didn't come in here to impress you." When they walked away from Paul's teaching, they did not go, "Wow, isn't He amazing?" In fact, the reputation was He wasn't a very good speaker. They didn't go, "Wow, how about Paul?" They would go, "Wow, what a God."
Now that's not to say that God doesn't use people who are politically influential. It doesn't mean at all that He doesn't use people who are powerful or economically wealthy—He'll use those. But by and large, they're the exception not the rule.
God's Strategy vs. Human Strategy
If we were going to start a worldwide movement, here's what we would do. We would figure out who do we know in places of power who could expedite the zoning. We would go, "Who are the best and the brightest? We want best practices." And then we'd ask, "Who are the guys that are going to pay for this? We can all chip in a little, but somebody's got to write the big checks." This is how we'd do it and we'd take the world.
God says, "Here's what I want. I want people like you. Not so smart, not so impressive, not so rich. So at the end of the day, people will go, 'What a God.'"
But they're falling into the trap in that church of making all sorts of arbitrary decisions based on the most superficial things you can imagine. Let's go back to James. You can't make it any more superficial than what James points out in chapter 2. They're walking in the door and this guy's got rings and fine clothes. This guy looks poor. "You come up front." And He said, "That's not the way to live. These are the people who are pushing you down."
Living by the Royal Law
You need to live by the royal law. This is how, the night before He died, Jesus says, "This is how the world's going to know you're mine. One way—that you love one another." That you're going to yield. That you're not going to be concerned about your rights, but about somebody else's. That you're not going to walk in and say, "Who can help me?" but you're going to walk in and say, "Who needs my help?"
You're going to have a whole different view than the world has. You're going to spend time and energy and effort, maybe even resources, maybe even money, with people who can't possibly pay you back. There's no way they can reciprocate for what you're about to do. They can't hook you up with good tickets. They can't grease an interview. They can't get you in to see the legislator. They're just plain old people, and you love them. Why do you love them? Because God does.
The Power of Transformed Life
He says, "That's the measure. Have the mind in you that was also in Christ Jesus." And that's the power of a transformed life. All of a sudden, you have the most powerful force on earth. You have a transformed life, transformed heart, an informed mind, and a radical life. You're living differently.
You and I who say, "Jesus is Lord," we live differently. We look at things differently. We respond differently. We see things as God sees them, not as we see them. We see people as human beings, not as clients. That's what's happening in that church.
So He said, "Here's what I want you to do. It's really simple. Speak and act as those who are judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless on those who show no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment." He said, "I want you to look at people, and I want you to be concerned about the person and who they are."
A Memory from Samuel
If you go back into the Old Testament, I got a letter from somebody in Minneapolis. It was about the lesson I did in 1 and 2 Samuel. I remember nothing. It's just getting worse for me in terms of remembering Bible verses and stories. I can't remember anything out of 1 and 2 Samuel. This person was talking about how good it was, and I said I can't remember anything.
There's one thing I remember out of 1 and 2 Samuel. Why don't you turn there? It's chapter 21, 1 Samuel.
God Looks at the Heart
Just go to the index in the front, table of contents. Look it up. 1 Samuel, chapter 21. Now we do know this. We're going to talk about David, that David was a man after God's own heart. When it was time for Israel to pick a king, they liked Saul. God says, "I got a different way of judging and evaluating things. I look at the heart, man looks at the outside."
Here's the one thing I remember about this whole book. 1 Samuel, chapter 21. David is now on the run. David is an absolute mess. He has been anointed king. He is moving, running. He now has run away from Israel. He's run to Gath, which is where Goliath is from. He then gets there and fakes being insane.
He runs, chapter 21, verse 13, "he disguised his sanity before them and acted insanely in their hands and scribbled on the doors of the gate and let saliva run down into his beard." So much so that the king said to his servants, "behold you see the man behaving like a madman. Why do you bring him to me? Do I lack madmen? You're crazy enough, I don't need another one."
God Uses Unlikely People
Then David departs in chapter 22. From there he escapes to a cave in Adelam and his brothers and all his father's households heard of it and they go down to him. Now look at the condition of this group of people. David's got saliva drooling down him. The guys that come, chapter 22, verse 2, are in distress, they're in debt, and they're discontent. This is great. And he became the captain over them. This becomes David's mighty men.
I mean that's what God's all about. God's not about using proud, arrogant people. He'll use them, but only after they lose that, like Moses. So the call to us is to try to think like Christ, to look around and see people as people. The only way you can, because it's not natural, the only way it's going to happen is supernatural, which takes us right to the cross and communion.
Family Business Updates
Now when I started I said I had three pieces of family business today. We took care of one, let me give you the next two. For the last six years I've been as candid as I can be within reason when we talk about Susan. So we've been at this for almost six years in terms of the cancer.
Last Monday she's had some symptoms that have not been good. She's just been very tired and very sleepy. She's sleeping 22 hours a day. She's very tired, very weak. So we went to the doctor. We had a test that was done Monday. We were finished at 3:30. By 5 o'clock the doctor had called and said that her cancer has spread to her brain.
It's in what they call the thalamus, which is a part of the brain where they can't go in there. They won't even do a biopsy because they don't want to put a needle in there. It's so central and so deep into the brain. So there's two possible treatments that we're looking at. We'll figure out. I think we've decided, but we need to make a decision by tomorrow morning.
I tell you that because I think we owe you that. We said we'd keep you in a loop. I want you to understand that and to know that. There's nothing you can do other than prayer, which is very big. But please, we don't need it. Please. And I say this. It's because you're great people that I have to say it. We don't need food. There's only one person eating in our house and I can speak for him. He doesn't need more food. We don't need food. We don't need visits. We just need to be prayed for. So that's one.
A New Granddaughter
The other family business is we have a new granddaughter. So Haley and Tyler adopted a baby. She was born. Let me get you the accurate information because Haley sent it to me this morning. She said, "you'll never remember this." And I said, "well, that's not true." But until my phone pops up, I won't be able to tell you what it is.
So I think the baby was born January 17th. She was 17 and a half inches. So she's short, six pounds. She's bigger now. So I got a picture. So I want you to see a picture. So there she is. And now I think she looks really cute. I think she looks more like Haley than Tyler. Now what's the best part of that picture? Looks like she's flipping me off. It looks, to me, that's the perfect worldview, right? If you're three weeks old and you got that much figured out, I'm going to like this kid a lot.
She looks cute. Here's a family picture. Let me show you this one. So you'll see Haley and Tyler. And there are the boys. So Brayden on the left, they're not going to look a whole lot alike because Brayden is fair-skinned with red hair. Yale in the back. He's in Brayden's five. Yale's three. He's olive skin. And then Lucy is black. And so they don't look much alike. But they're a happy little family.
So you can be celebrating when you see Haley and Tyler. You'll probably see Tyler more than Haley. You can tell them congratulations. So they're thrilled. And we are as happy as they can possibly be. So that's a great little, it's a great little family. I love that one picture though. Haley said this morning, she said, "Tom, don't say anything about that." Which I considered to be a challenge. So we communicated that.
Communion and Closing
Brian Berger is going to come lead you in communion if you're here in the chapel. If you're in the conference center, he'll come over and close your time of service. Here in the chapel, Brian will lead us into communion and then to our time of worship.
So let me pray as Brian comes, the band comes. Father, thank You for these amazing truths. We confess that we tend to judge and look at the outside, not the heart. And God, what we want more than anything is to have, in fact, a heart that's transformed and a mind that's informed and that our lives would be radical. So God, will You do that work in our life? We ask it in Christ's name, amen.