Pick Up the Hammer

You believe in Jesus. You know the Bible stories. Maybe you can point back to the moment you first gave our life to Christ. But when was the last time your faith actually moved you?

In "Pick Up the Hammer," Pastor Jason Barnett closes the Faith in Work Boots series from James 2:20-26, where James points to Abraham and Rahab as examples of a faith that didn't stay safely on the shelf. Their trust in God became visible through obedience.

This isn't a message about doing more church stuff, earning God's love, or proving you're a good Christian. It's about the uncomfortable gap between saying, "I believe" and actually following Jesus when He asks us to move.

If your Christian faith has become routine, if most of your stories about God happened years ago, or if you've been waiting for somebody else to do what God may be asking of you, this message is for you.

What is the next thing Jesus is asking you to do? You don't have to do everything. You just have to trust Jesus enough to take the next step.

Living faith leaves footprints, and you cannot leave footprints until you move.

Linkoln shares his story on why he started coming to Ravenna Church of the Nazarene and shares why you should consider doing the same.

Ravenna Church of the Nazarene
530 Main Street, Ravenna, KY 40472

Transcript

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Pastor Jason 0:00

You can believe everything right about Jesus and still have a dead faith. If your faith is alive, eventually it has to move. I'm Pastor Jason Bonnet, and this is another passion of podcast. Hey, thanks for joining on the Dirt Pastor on Podcast. I'm Pastor Jason Barnett, aka the Dirt Past Pastor. And today we're wrapping up a series called Faith in Work Boots, where we've been walking through James and asking what happens when the faith we say we have actually meets real life. But you don't need to have heard other messages to jump in today because James asks us a question every follower of Jesus eventually has to face. That question is does what I believe actually change what I do? It's easy to believe the right things about Jesus. It's easy to agree that we should love our neighbors, serve others, and make disciples. But eventually, faith has to get up off the shelf. Whoever you're listening today, I want you to consider one question. What is the next thing Jesus is asking you to do? Now let's head to our Vinny Christian asking for pick up the hammer from James chapter 2, verses 20 through 26. Well, I get your Bibles through with me to James chapter 2. We're gonna be in James 2 this morning. And as you're turning there, I'm gonna give you some of you already know this, but I love football. I've been playing football. I played football from fourth grade until freshman year, and then everybody got a lot bigger than me, a lot faster than I could catch up. So I decided after ninth grade I probably shouldn't play. But I remember when I was in eighth grade, I was going to Martinsville West Middle School, and it used to be the high school, so that's our gym. It was huge. And our mascot was the artesians, it was an artesian well. So you don't really get excited by the well of water as your mascot. But that was our mascot. Um but I was on the West Middle, the eighth grade team. I played seventh grade and eighth grade, but eighth grade years is what I'm gonna focus on this morning. And when I say played, I mean I played in the loosest sense of the term. Okay? Like I spent a lot of time on the bench. Matter of fact, on this team, I was part of a group called the Mighty Midgets. I was probably about Ben's height and weighed 95 pounds when it was with my gear on. And the color team would put us in that when he wanted disruptive kids with attitude that would hit people for no reason. We didn't do a lot of damage, but we had fun. But I was a part of that group, the Mighty Midgets, on a team that just wasn't very good. Just gonna be honest, we were not a good team. Matter of fact, our first game of the season that year, we got beat 48 to 0. It was bad. It was one of those games where no matter what you did, their team is better. And we found that out real quick. So we got clobbered. And so, you know how after a game, if you've ever played sports, after a game like that, though, your coach goes into, okay, I gotta boost the morale mode, right? So it's like, hey, you know, we learned something from this game, right? We learned some things that we've got to work on to get ready for this next game, right? And so we learned he said that, those typical coach things. And we took it to heart, we practiced really hard that week. And then we go into our second game, and we lose that one 36 to 0. Now we got better by 12 points on defense, but our offense was terrible. Matter of fact, after that game was over, the coach comes up to us, he goes, Now, boys, I don't even care about winning anymore. I just want to score. And then he's then he proceeded seated to take the game from a stomp out in front of us. He goes, Boys, there's nothing to watch on this tape. Nothing we can learn from this one. Now, if you thought the coach had it rope with us, it was not nearly as bad as our poor cheerleaders.

unknown 5:15

Right?

Pastor Jason 5:16

We're getting pounded 48-0, 36-0. Meanwhile, they're standing on the you know in front of the booth saying, we believe that we're gonna win, right? Trying to pump the crowd up. That sailed midway through the first quarter, right? After that first fumble. I get what they were trying to do, right? They they were they're trying to inspire us, they were trying to give our fans confidence in us, but let's be honest, there was nothing happening on that football field that gave anybody any confidence that we were gonna win that game. The boy in the fourth quarter, they were still chanting it. Give those cheerleaders credit. I mean, matter of fact, they the cheerleaders they could say it louder, they could they could even say to the point where the fans got involved, and they could have maybe even said to where we believed it, but guess what? It doesn't mean anything if our play on the field didn't back up what they were saying, right? Whatever they were saying, we need to be able to that belief need to show up on the field somewhere. And that's kind of the uncomfortable place that James has this today. If you've been journeying with us in this James series, one thing that's probably you've noticed that's pretty common at this point is James likes to make you uncomfortable. And that's what happens this morning because he's he's kind of coming out of a place where he's talking about how we can believe Jesus is Lord. We can have faith that Jesus is real, that he's Lord, that he's King of Kings, Lord of Lords. We can believe that Jesus called us to love our neighbors and to go make disciples. But then James asks us, if you believe that, where's it at? Where's it at? You can believe it all you want, but is it is it showing up on the field? And that's what we're gonna look at today in James chapter 2. We're looking at James chapter 2. I'm gonna be reading verses 20 through 26. It says, Are you so slow? Do you need to be shown that faith without action has no value at all? What about Abraham, our father? Wasn't he shown to be righteous through his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? See, his faith was at work along with his actions. In fact, his faith was made complete by his faithful actions. So the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and God regarded him as righteous. What is more, Abraham was called God's friend. So you see that a person is shown to be righteous through faithful actions and not through faith alone. In the same way wasn't Rahab the prostitute shown to be righteous when she received the messengers as her guest, and then sent them on by another road. As a lifeless body is dead, so faith without actions is dead. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Alright. Everybody still awake? That wasn't nearly as long as some passages have I read, but if we need to do jumping jacks and do some movement to get going, we will. We good? Alright. Well, if you're just joining us today, we are wrapping up a series called Faith and Work Boots. And we've been kind of camped out in the book of James, and this is our last sermon in this series. And again, the book of James is one of those that James isn't interested in you just knowing what the scripture says. He's not just interested in you knowing doctrine. Those things are all important, those all those are all great things. But James has no interest in faith that just sits on the shelf. He's interested in us having faith that puts the work boots on and goes out and leaves footprints in people's lives. And so far, we've talked about how James showed us that we have to take responsibility for what's happening inside of us, right? It's when it's our sin is a result of us being tempted and us giving in to temptation. And we're tempted by the things that we desire. So he points that out to us. Then after that, he shifted our focus outward. He says, if we believe in Jesus, then as people who have received his mercy, we should share mercy with others. And he talks about how there's no place for favoritism in the church. Regardless of skin color, background, family name, or any of those things, we are to help each other share the load, right? Because we were given mercy, we should give mercy to our neighbors. Now here we are, because all that sounds great, right? I'm sure if we went around the room and I said, raise your hand, if you agree and believe with that statement, almost all of us would probably raise our hand, right? I believe in those statements, I agree with those things. Here's the thing, we can believe all that. But does that faith ever get off the shelf? Or does it just stay up here in the mental library? That's what James is getting at here. So let's kind of dig in here. Our passage begins in verse 20, and Nicole and I had a good laugh at verse 20 this week because I love the way it starts here in the Common English Bible. In some of your Bibles, it might taper this down a little bit, but it's very jarring in what James says here. He says, Are you slow, slow? Are you so slow? Meaning like he's not trying to call you dumb, but the wording is it doesn't imply like empty-headed, empty knowledge, empty-handed. There's nothing really in it, nothing useful, nothing valuable in it. Because to him, this seems obvious. It seems like something that doesn't need to be said, but he's gonna say it anyway. And so he goes on, he says, Do you need to be shown that faith without actions has no value at all? Unless he doesn't say, you know, it has some value or it needs a little bit of training. What does Paul say here? Or Paul, what does James say here? He says, faith without actions has no value at all. He's saying that faith that isn't that has no actions with the faith that isn't working is not working. It's broken.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

It's a jarring way to start a conversation, isn't it?

Pastor Jason 12:04

It's like sometimes a coal starts a conversation with me. She says, Jason, are you listening?

SPEAKER_03 12:08

Like, that's a weird way to start a conversation.

Pastor Jason 12:16

That would have been a lot better if she wasn't in the room staring at me as I said it.

SPEAKER_03 12:19

She got it, she she made back.

Pastor Jason 12:23

Anyway, so James says that now he's gonna go, he's gonna give us two big, two examples, sharing two examples with us about what he's getting at. And the first one he shares the example of is Abraham. And you have to understand Abraham, James is writing this letter to the early church, but this early church in particular is full of Jewish Christians, right? Christians that came from the Jewish background, that are believers in Jesus and following Jesus. So he picks Abraham. That's like that's like going straight to the top of the most important people list in the history of the family and of the nation. Right? Because Abraham, he even says, Abraham, our father, right? Abraham is the father of the Jewish nation. So he pulls Abraham out. And most of us, we know the story of Abraham, right? We know that he and his wife Sarah were barren for years, and then in Genesis 15, God goes to him and says, I promise that I'm going to give you a son, and you're going to become the father of many nations. And so he gives that promise to Abraham. And in Genesis 15, it tells us that Abraham believes God. He trusted God, he put his faith in God in that promise of God. Now there were some bumpy moments in between there, but he has faith in God that God's going to keep this promise and stay true to what he's told him would happen. So you fast forward to Genesis chapter 22. And at this point, that promised son has arrived, and his name is Isaac. And God tells Isaac, or tells Abraham, I want you to take Isaac and offer him up as a sacrifice to me. And so he takes Isaac and they go up the mountain. If you read the story, he believes. He trusts God, he takes the step of obedience that God's calling him to. But also the whole time, he's trusting that God, God's got something in mind. God's got a plan, but I'm gonna do what God tells me to do.

unknown 14:16

Right?

Pastor Jason 14:17

And then God sends the ram out of the weeds at the last minute, you know, and Isaac breathes a sigh of relief. Um so what James is saying here about Abraham, though, so chapter 15 of Genesis, that's where Abraham places his faith in God. That's a moment, that's a crisis moment. That's a moment where he puts his faith in God, says, God, I trust you, I believe your plan is gonna work out. Genesis 22, though, that's where Abraham's faith becomes what he lives out. He lives it out, he lives from it. It's not just something up here now, it's not just faith on the shelf, it's not just something he's holding on to, it's something that he steps out and he does. In verse 22, it says, actions, oh my god, James isn't saying that actions boosted Abraham's faith to completion, right? He says that in this verse that made Abraham's faith complete because he did that. It wasn't that Abraham had 80% faith, and then he did the action, and that gave him the other 20% to make his faithful. No, what it was was he taking that action and being obedient to God was living his faith out in a way that produced the fruit that God wanted it to produce. The fruit that he started out chasing grew in that moment in Genesis 22. In that moment, Abraham's faith left footprints. You see, Genesis 22 is where the faith of Genesis 15 went. So that's the first example he gives. Second example that James gives us is actually kind of the exact opposite of Abraham. Right? He picks Abraham first, and he picks Abraham why because Abraham's the our father, the father of the Jewish nation. Something, a big important figure that the whole nation could get behind and understand what he's talking about. But then he changes gears and he picks Rahab. Which I don't know if you know this, but Rahab is in the genealogy of Jesus. But if you don't know Rahab's story, um James kind of gives you a big clue. He says she was a Canaanite woman who was a prostitute. He doesn't hold back, he doesn't sugarcoat it, he doesn't try to hide. He says that's who she is. This is what she does. And her story is in the book of Joshua, right? Joshua, when you know the Israelites get out of Egypt, they get they're getting ready to enter the promised land, and she lit Rahab lives in the city of Jericho. You know, the city of Jericho, we sing the song about. You know, Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, right? We sing that song. That Jericho, she lives there. But before the song, right? She lives in it, Jericho, to the buildup of the song. And all she knows about God is that this God is the God of Israel, and this God of Israel is doing things that can't be explained. That was the extent of Rahab's knowledge of who God was. When Joshua says, and James is pointing this out to us, Rahab believed God. Now it wasn't Mig in depth, it wasn't, she probably wouldn't pass our theology class or Bible exams. She probably would struggle in nine and Sonia school class, but she knew one thing that this God was different, and that I'm gonna believe in him. So she puts her faith in God, and so she puts this faith in this God that she doesn't even know, barely knows about, and all of a sudden there's a knock on her door, and it's these Israelite spies there to scout the city out. And so what does she do? She invites him into the house, and then when the government officials show up to ask where those spies are, she hides them and helps them get away. And James says that was an act of faith. See, Rahab didn't just hear about God, she believed. And her belief came with a demand, right? It came with a demand when the Israelites knocked on the door. I don't know if we understand do we understand the gravity of what Rahab did in that moment? Those people were spies there to scout out her country, the place where she lived. She welcomed them into her house and she hid them to protect them. That is it. This woman barely knows who God is, barely knows about him, but she had enough faith to say, I'm gonna trust him and I'm gonna take his messengers in and protect them. And that's what she does. And she does this at a great risk to her own life. She showed mercy to actual people when doing so cost or something. Rahab's faith left footprints. You see, her belief in God existed before the spies knocked on the door. But that sure that faith that became a tree that produced fruit when the knock came to the door. Then James chapter 2 ends on verse 26. And it ends with as as the as the lifeless body is dead, so faith without action is dead. Now that the NIV translates as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. Now that word spirit is a fun one, both in the Hebrew and in the Greek, because it can also mean breath. And if you look at a body with no breath in it, it looks like you just know something is off, something isn't where it's supposed to be, it's not functioning the way it should because there's no breath in it, there's no life in it. It's clear something fundamental is missing. And so what James is saying here is he's saying that works are the evidence that faith is breathing. Dead things can be remembered, dead things can be talked about, and dead things can even be displayed. But living things move. That's what James is talking about when it comes to faith. You see, he's telling us that living faith leaves footprints. Living faith leaves footprints. Now let me give you a disclaimer about what the sermon is not, because I'm sure most of you have heard this sermon 500 times if you've been to church at all. This sermon is not telling Jesus, James is not telling us that good Christians do more stuff. Just because you're doing things doesn't mean you have faith in Jesus. You can be doing a lot of things for no reason. You can be doing a lot of things just trying to impress people, trying to make people think you're holy and look like you're holy. James isn't talking about that. Because you can't do enough stuff to make yourself holy. He's not telling us that after. You work hard enough, Jesus will save you. Right? This is not a works-based salvation. You can't work enough, you can't do enough to pay off the debt that you owe Jesus. But the good news is, Jesus asked you to. He said, just put your faith in me. And just so I know Nicole's not hiding a sign-up sheet back there that is, as I'm preaching, it's going to go around asking you to sign up for different ministries of the church. Right? Don't worry, you're not going to walk out here now. You're teaching children's church next week. If you'd like to, we could use somebody that wants to do that, but we're not going to, we don't force people into that. Okay. That's not what the sermon's about. But James is saying in this passage is that when we genuinely trust God, that eventually changes what we do. If we genuinely put our faith in Jesus, we genuinely put our trust in God, then we're not going to live the same way that we used to live. At some point, what's up here in our head on the bookshelf is going to come out as knowledge and practical living. See, that's why he gives us the examples of Abraham, right? Abraham trusted God enough to obey. It sounded crazy. But Abraham said, I'm gonna trust God knows what he's doing. I'm gonna take that step of faith. I'm gonna step out in obedience to do what God's called me to do. Rahab, she trusted God enough to act. And now James is asking you and me, where are your footprints? What is your faith doing? Is it just sitting on the shelf or is it out making footprints? Because living faith leaves footprints. Again, some of us we can say, I know a lot about Jesus, right? Like you've been to you've not missed a cult or nine of Sunday school class or Nicole Sunday school class in two years. If they were to give you a test tomorrow, you'd pass. You've been studying the Bible from cover to cover, you read through it once a year, right? You do a little Bible planning, you read it in a year, you make it every year. So we know a lot about Jesus, but whenever somebody comes to us and says, Hey, can, or we whenever we open our eyes and we see something, right, that's wrong in our community or wrong in our life or wrong in somebody else's life, we begin to pray, and there's nothing wrong with praying, but we pray and say, God, would you send somebody to do something? It's kind of like Moses at the burning bush, right? Moses, God tells Moses, hey, I want you to go and tell Pharaoh, let my people go. And as Moses say, he's like, uh, you know, pardon your servant here, Lord, but I think you've got the wrong guy. Could you pick somebody else? Or we can say, God, would you get God, would you send somebody else, or would you give me a sign that you want me to do this? He's like, What other sign do you want me to get? You saw what the problem was. It's like one, I think I told this story, but one time I was working at a car dealership in Colorado, and uh we had this, we you know, it was a car in the service department, it was a Ford Escape, and it caught on fire as it was waiting to go in the shop. Now I didn't see it, but one of the salesmen did it. We had these little radios because the lot was big and we had to communicate. And so he comes on the radio and says, Hey, there's a car on fire. We're all like, okay. Five minutes goes by, I don't hear any fire trucks, but I hear the same salesman get back on again and he goes, Hey, there's a car on fire here in the parking lot. We're like, okay. Wait, listen, no fire truck. Finally, the salesman gets the same salesman a third time and goes, Hey, there's a car on fire in the parking lot. Finally, the salesman is like, Call the fire department. What do you want us to do? That's kind of what James is saying here. He's like, We see the car is on fire, we know 911, we know the fireman can come and put it out. So why are we waiting for somebody else to call it when we have the number in our hand? Faith is seeing that need and saying, God, I trust you enough that this is where I'm supposed to go. And that's how you leave footprints. Some of us we have we have footprints, but our footprints, there's stories that we share about what God did 20 years ago. And that's great. I'm glad that God moved. God did wonderful things 20 years ago in your life and the lives around you. But if your footprints stopped on the beast 20 years ago, you're stuck. Your faith isn't moved because remember, living things move. Dead things don't. What about your footprints today? What are you what's your faith doing right now? Now some of us were sitting here with thinking, you know, like, you know, I'm a brand new believer in Jesus. I don't know enough yet. Actually, I remember when I first accepted the call to be a pastor, I was 16 years old. And you all have heard this story before too. I was 16 years old, and um a couple of weeks after that happened, our pastor preached a sermon and he gave an invitation at the end, and the altars were flooded. I mean, it's one of those old fashioned services, right? When people respond, they come down the altar to pray. And as he was overwhelmed, he couldn't pray with everybody up there by himself. So he said, Hey, every minister that's here, because we had some retired guys there, too. Can everybody, every minister in here, come up and help me pray? I stayed in my seat and didn't move. And when the service is over, one of the old retired guys walked up with his cane, he poked me in the chest and said, Hey, why didn't you go up here? Well, I don't know enough yet. Did God call you? Well, yeah? That's enough. Get up there. So Rahab was like that, right? Rahab didn't know a whole lot about God. She said, This was the God of Israel. She had heard the stories probably of Egypt going through the room and all those things, but she had heard the stories of how they defeated these other places coming up to Jericho, but all she knew about God was that. She didn't know anything about the temple, she didn't know anything of the dietary restrictions. She probably barely knew who Moses was. Probably got confused with Aaron, right? Because that's what happens when you have siblings. They always think it's your sibling and not you. She didn't know any of that. All she knew was that this God was different. And she trusted that God enough to open the door when strangers knocked on it. She trusted enough to take those strangers in and risk your life to protect them. So if that's you, then you're saying, well, I don't know enough. It's not about your spiritual resume. You can have a long spiritual resume, but that doesn't mean anything because at the end of the day, it's about will you surrender to what God's calling you to do? Will you take the step that God's saying you need to take this step? Again, it's not about another pastor demanding you do something to earn salvation. And it's not like I got a gold star chart, right? That when David does something good, I put a gold star next to his name. I'd put one next to Warren's name, but he's been skipping church lately. I'm just picking on, he's been working. But there's no gold star cheating charts or anything like that, right? Here. Your resume could be great. That's wonderful, that's awesome. God's easy. You've left footprints before, but don't just rely on that resume. If you don't have a resume, don't think that disqualifies you. Sometimes my ministry needs a fresh new look, a fresh new idea, a fresh new person going into it to do it a different way. One of the things I told our teenagers, which Jaden's the only one here, but Billy's here somewhere too, but I won't pick on Billy because she doesn't know me that well yet. But but I told our teenager, do you realize this is not my youth group? That's why I told my lawyers, this isn't my youth group. I'm almost 40 years old. I'm definitely not a teenager anymore. I'm twice removed from being a teenager. This is your youth group. I'm here to help you teach you about Jesus and help and show you some stuff along the way. But in the end, this is your youth group. You're gonna respond to it. That's what God's saying to all of us. This is this is your walk with me, this is your journey with me. Be faithful to what I'm calling you to do. Take the next step I'm calling you to take. And you see, here's the thing about this though. We're not taking that step because we're trying to earn anything with Jesus. Remember, Jesus already loves you. He already loves you, he doesn't care. He doesn't care that you've been sitting in the same same pew for 125 years, collecting does not do anything. He still loves you. He still loves you if this is your first Sunday here, and even last night you were out partying and doing all the things that you probably wouldn't know the church people wouldn't like you doing. Jesus still loves you. So it's not about you doing these things to make Jesus love you or earn Jesus love you. He he already loves you. So it's not about us earning anything or proving we are good enough. It's about us, for lack of a better term, is about us picking up the hammer. Right? I love this picture. If you guys know who Thor is, does anybody know who Thor is? If you don't know who Thor is, find a young person or find John in the back and they'll explain to you who Thor is. But the other thing about Thor is Thor has this hammer. And Thor is supposedly the only one, other than Captain America, that has the ability to pick this hammer up and carry it and use it as a weapon. You have to be worthy to handle it. Well, I love this cartoon because it's a cartoon of Thor sitting down with Mr. Rogers. And he sets the hammer down next to Mr. Rogers, and Thor is telling Mr. Rogers how hard and heavy this hammer is. A lot of people can't pick it up. And as he's talking, Mr. Rogers is very casting bad and picks it up like it's nothing.

SPEAKER_03 32:43

And then he explains the story why that's possible.

Pastor Jason 32:49

That's what Jesus is calling each of us to do. He's calling us to pick up a hammer. Not to prove that anything, not to try and say what we're doing, that he's calling us to pick up a hammer out of love. Not out of his love for us, but because we love him. Not because our his love is forcing us to do it. We're doing it because we genuinely love him and we want to do something. You love somebody, you want to show them you tell them you love them. You can say it all you want, you can, but in the end, at some point you want to show them that you love them. Right? You you you you want to do something to prove it. Not because you have to, but because you want to. You want them to experience it. So Jesus is calling us to pick up a humor. See, Jesus came to you. He loves you, he gave himself for you. And by his grace, he saved you through faith. That's wonderful, that's awesome. That's a moment you should always remember, that's a moment you should celebrate, that's a moment you should come back to when everything else is falling apart, when you're when you're hurting and wounded, you should come back to that moment and remember Jesus saved me. But after he saved you, you know what Jesus says, follow me. See, that's where a lot of people in the gospels got in trouble, right? They acknowledge Jesus, but they don't believe in Jesus. When Jesus said follow me, he didn't always always follow me. He's saying follow me. And here's the thing, when you follow Jesus, what Jesus does is he gives you his spirit so that way they can empower you to do what he calls you to do. And it's his spirit, because this thing, none of us are worthy to pick up that hammer on our own. None of us are qualified, none of us have the gift enough, none of us are smart enough. But when he gives us his Holy Spirit, it's his Holy Spirit that makes us worthy. So we can pick up that hammer. We were never meant to pick up, but pick up that hammer and use it for the glory of God. See, obedience is what happens when you trust that Jesus has done all those things.

unknown 35:02

Right?

Pastor Jason 35:02

When we trust that Jesus did die on the cross, did rise again, right, for my sins and for your sins. We believe that he rose again, ascended to heaven, and since it's all right. Obedience is what happens when you trust that Jesus has done all that. And you pick up the hammer because you see something that needs done. You're doing it because your love is compelling you. Remember the story of Jesus feeding, I can't remember if it's 5,000 or 4,000, maybe in post. There's some other spots of the gospel's word it this way. And it says, and and Jesus was compelled, right? He felt compelled or moved to respond. I think when Lazarus dies, right? Jesus felt moved to do something. Well, that word moved is a fun one because it's it's like it's like an inner compulsion. It's like, for lack of a better phrase, like you move to Taco Bell, right? Your stomach's responding to the Taco Bell. You know you have to move. You better do something. When Jesus looked upon those crowds, he didn't move and act because he had to. Yes, that was the Father's will. That's what God wanted to do. Jesus looked upon the crowd, and he had this inner compulsion that said, I love them, so I'm going to do something. And when we love God, we develop this inner compulsion that we see it and you can find us and say, you know what? I don't know how to do this. I'm not smart enough to do this, I'm not talented enough to do this, but guess what? By God's grace, this Holy Spirit, I'm gonna pick up the hammer, not get to work. And the church's history is full of people like that. I was telling the kids in Sunday school this morning, the book of Acts is one of my favorites. Because yes, the whole that the apostles are full of the Holy Spirit, but the more you read it, the more you realize the apostles have no clue what they were doing. They were just trusting the Holy Spirit going where God looks at them. I get that.

SPEAKER_03 36:58

I have no idea what's going on.

Pastor Jason 37:00

I'm just trusting the Holy Spirit. But they responded to it. They trusted him enough to pick up the hammer. You see, when you love, when you love the way that James is telling us the way that makes you respond, that this inner compulsion, right? It compels you to move like Jesus did, right? The way Jesus moved toward the lepers, right? The ass of the society that nobody wanted. It compelled Jesus to move toward the tax collectors, the prostitutes, right? The people that nobody else wanted, thought were unworthy.

SPEAKER_03 37:35

Jesus went to that same love compelled Jesus to move towards you.

Pastor Jason 37:45

So when we love Jesus and we're filled with this Holy Spirit, that love is going to compel us to move, right?

SPEAKER_03 37:52

Remember, dead things don't move, so dead faith doesn't move, but living things move, and living faith needs footprints. Remember, James gave us those, he gave us Abraham and Rahab as examples. Two very different people with very different stories. But they have one thing in common. They trust to God enough to act. And that's where James leaves us. What is the next thing Jesus asking you to do? What is the next thing Jesus is asking you to do? Is it talking to someone you know about Jesus?

Pastor Jason 38:43

I'm just throwing things out there, right? I don't know. But maybe maybe there's somebody that as I've been talking this morning, the Holy Spirit gave you a face of a person and say, hey, I've been telling you to go talk to this person.

SPEAKER_03 38:54

Wait, wait, wait on. You need another sign, here it is.

Pastor Jason 39:00

Maybe that's a gift this morning. Maybe he's asking, just go talk to somebody about it. Maybe he's not even talking about it.

SPEAKER_03 39:09

Maybe he's not even inviting, maybe it's just sitting down and listening to him for a minute, hearing the story.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

I don't know.

Pastor Jason 39:20

Maybe, maybe the next step Jesus is telling you is maybe he's saying, I want you to get baptized. I want you to make that public declaration of faith so that the world knows that you belong to me.

SPEAKER_03 39:31

Not because it saves you, but because it's a testimony to you that you're changed now. Maybe he's talking to you about joining the church. I would love for you to join the church.

Pastor Jason 39:46

I don't know, maybe maybe he's talking, maybe not. Maybe he's saying there's a ministry in this church that I would, you know, you see it. You know it needs help, you need somebody to tackle it, you need somebody to do it. And God's saying you need to be the one. He's been telling you for a while you could fight me. You want to hear a funny story about me? I was here in Ongahe one time. They asked me to sit, I was the associate, and they asked me to fill in in the nursery. I got all bent out of shit and I was like, I don't work the kids, I'm paying what the means, right?

SPEAKER_03 40:16

My senior pastor had this big to-do over it. You wanna know it's funny? I taught the kids Sunday school class this morning.

Pastor Jason 40:26

I teach the kids on Thursday nights right now. I've learned more about teaching kids. Learned more from them and about them by doing that than just about anything else I could have done. Later on tonight and I teach teenagers again. Talking to you all right now. This kid from Martinsville, Indiana, that was weighing 75 pounds, stoked away.

SPEAKER_03 40:50

This hero on football. Had no self-confidence to know anything. Here we are.

Pastor Jason 41:02

So maybe it's stepping into ministry like that, or maybe it's finally just doing whatever it is you've been praying about for months. God's like, you know, I want you to do this. You've been praying about it for months. God would do up the doors. Sometimes it's I don't know. Hey, if God's talking to something to you about something like that, come talk to me and say, hey, Pastor, I feel like God's telling me to do this. Awesome. Even if it's something we're not doing yet. Because maybe it's something we haven't thought of. Yeah, maybe we thought it was like, well, I can't ask poor nine to do anything else. I can't get Patrick to do Jackson's doing everything he can't do. David's doing all he can't. I can't ask him to do it, so we don't have it. Maybe you've seen it. Maybe God's asking you, maybe that is whatever. I don't know. Maybe it's forgiving somebody, maybe it's letting go of business. I don't know. God is asking you to take some step of faith today. Whatever that step is, the question is, will you take it? See, God's not calling me to do everything, He's calling you to one thing right now. But you have to pick up the hammer. He's not gonna force you, He's waiting for you to pick it up. And in order to pick up the hammer, though, you have to stop asking God to send someone else to do it. Listen, if God was gonna send someone, I'm not saying he won't, but if God was gonna send someone else to do it, you probably would already send it by now. And he's probably like, I would send somebody else, but I put the hammer next to your hand for a reason so you can pick it up. And here's the thing, whatever it is, say Jesus is trustworthy enough if you obey, right? He's trustworthy enough to give your love to you. See, Jesus freed you to act in love because of his love, and his spirit will give you what you need to follow him. So, what is your next step? Trust Jesus and take it today. Pick up the hammer, because living faith leaves footprints, and you cannot leave footprints until this question for a moment. What is the next thing Jesus is asking you to do? Not everything, not how you're going to fix your whole life, not how you're going to change the world by tomorrow. What is the next step? Maybe you've known what it is for a while. You've prayed about it, thought about it, wrestled with it. Maybe but and maybe even found some really good reasons to wait. Somewhere along the way, I'm praying about it became another way of saying please send someone else. Maybe your first step isn't doing something for Jesus at all. Maybe your first step is trusting him. You've known about Jesus. You've heard people talk about Jesus, but you've never surrendered your life to him and said, Jesus, I'm yours. Wherever you lead, I'll follow. And you can do that right where you're at. Now maybe you followed Jesus for years, but your faith has been sitting on the shelf lately. Don't beat yourself up over yesterday. Jesus inviting you to move today. The hammer is in your hand. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for meeting us wherever we are. Thank you that we don't have to earn your love or prove ourselves worthy. Or work our way into your grace. You came to us. You gave yourself for us. You loved us first. For the person who's trusting you for the first time, meet them right now with your saving grace. Forgive them. Make them new and begin leading them into the life you have for them. The person who knows the next step but has been afraid to take it. Give them your courage. For the person who feels unqualified, remind them that you have always used ordinary and unlikely people. For the person who's been has grown comfortable with sitting with face sitting on the shelf. Breathe fresh life into them. Fill us with your spirit and empower us to do whatever you ask. May our faith become visible through love, mercy, courage, and obedience. Help us leave footprints that lead people toward you. In Jesus' name. Amen. And friend, if you prayed that prayer, if you're trying to figure out what your next step is, or if you just need somebody to walk with you, reach out to me. And I mean that. You may never sit in a pew at Rivenna Church of the Nazarene, but I would be honored to walk alongside you, be your pastor, whatever way distance allows. You can contact me by emailing me at dirtpathpastor at gmail.com. That's dirtpathastor. All lowcase all on word at gmail.com. If you need a little encouragement between episodes, you can find me on TikTok. I share short dirt path devotions with throughout the week as we walk through scripture together. And there are just a few minutes to help us keep following Jesus in everyday life. And if this episode in particular encouraged your challenge you, share it with somebody who needs to hear it. Subscribe to the Dirt Pass Run Podcast so you don't miss what's coming. And if you'd like to support the show, just know you're not supporting me. Uh you're supporting uh you're supporting the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, specifically their emergency relief fund, which helps the church respond when disasters and emergency strikes. And they do that by providing practical care and assistance to people and communities facing quite crises. Now before you go, don't let this become one more sermon you heard, one more sermon you agreed with and put back on the shelf. You don't have to do everything today. But today I want to have the faith to take the next step. Make the phone call, have the conversation, forgive, serve, go say yes. Whatever Jesus put in front of you, trust him enough to move. Pick up the hammer. Living faith leaves footprints, and you cannot leave footprints until you move. Until next time, grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Nastman Podcast. It was recorded live at the Ravenna Church Nazarene, located at 530 Bay Street. You can learn more about the Ravenna Church Nazarene by visiting Ravenaz.com. If you'd like to send me a message, just the link in the show.