Title: Part 3. NeighborJames 2:8-9Big idea: What choice do we have to make that changes a culture of loneliness to one of connectivity?
Main Point: Reclaiming salty
- Cross the street
- Shake the Flavor.
Car ride conversation: When we actively partner with local or global missions, we often bring a piece of that transformative love back home with us. Are you ready to pray the dangerous prayer, "Lord, send me"? What is holding you back from making that leap?
Anchor Passage: James 2:17 Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Prophetic Thought: Culture would push us into cliques and factions: the haves and have-nots, the ins and the outs. This favoritism breeds deep resentment and bitterness, causing the moral and physical decay of families and communities through division and conflict. Where have bitterness, anger, and hate started to fester in our own lives? When unconditional love is chosen instead, it moves us together for our benefit and the benefit of others. Christ so loved us in our moral and physical decay that He sent His Son to die so that we may be completely united with our Creator.
Application: Reclaiming salty. We stay salty by surrounding ourselves with other disciples who challenge us to love well because iron sharpens iron, meaning that if you hang out with cynical, exclusive people, you will become exclusive, but if you hang out with salty people, you learn to love like Jesus. Salty people do not show favoritism; instead, they foster community connection because we can’t hoard God's love for ourselves. When we choose to step out and be the salt and light, our prayers start to become dangerous as we cry out, "Lord, send me," and we begin to partner with those who are going out locally, regionally, and globally, which might even mean we go ourselves. There is something truly unique about going that not only allows us to show unconditional love to others, but we actually bring some of that transformative love back home with us.
James 2:8-9 NLT 8 Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[a] 9 But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law.
Leviticus 19:18 NLT 18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself
Luke 10:27 NLT 27 The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Matthew 5:13 NLT 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.
