For the last three weeks, we have been talking about who we are as a church; who God made us to be. Hearing the basic idea each week is good, but sometimes we need to dive a little more fully into the ideas to make sure we are all on the same page together. We have so far talked about being a people with whom anyone can connect, and growing in Christ together. Both of those are necessary and important parts of who God made us to be, but they aren’t the end of the journey. Having a faith in God that means something means reaching out to advance His kingdom. That’s what we are diving into this morning as we complete this journey. Let’s dig in together.
Real Faith Reaches Out (James 2:14-26)
October 4, 2026
I loved doing worksheets when I was in school. I loved them. Yes, I have long since owned my nerdiness. When teachers would start handing out worksheets—especially in math classes—while all the other kids would groan (often loudly), I would be secretly celebrating. I could sit there and do those for hours. When I was in eighth grade, I had a science teacher who was a very nice man, but not a very organized teacher. He handed out these enormous packets of worksheets about the various systems of the human body, but then he decided not to actually assign them and made them just extra credit. I did every single one of them anyway. I think the reason I loved them so much is the perfectionist in me. I could get them done, I could mostly do them right, and when you got to the end of the worksheet, that job was finished. They delivered me the same dopamine hit that accomplishing objectives in a video game gives you.
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