There Must Be No Favoritism In Your Life

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries. My name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for tuning in this week. We’ve got a great message for you. Hopefully, you will use those share icons — wherever you are watching or listening — share this with others.

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“Well, I’d like to get them some fun stuff or something that — that would help them do.” Oh yeah, we’ve got all that kind of stuff. You could — tea or coffee or things like that — that we can use around and kind of get us motivated for the volunteers, for me, for — for all this stuff.

All right, there’s just — when you run a nonprofit and you need volunteers and you want to do work, you need things, and that’s the bottom line. We have to operate in the world, not of the world.

And so we use worldly things to accomplish a Heavenly purpose and build the Heavenly Kingdom. And one of those worldly things is money. And so we’re paying to get in front of more people, that’s advertising.

We’re going to use advertising and marketing to try to reach more people for the Kingdom of God. You say, “I can’t be a part of that.” That’s you, but guess what? God told us to go into all the world.

That means all the world. Social media is a world, we’re there. We want to be over there in China. We’re going to be in China. How? Digitally, virtually, in a fraction of the price. I’d love to go there, too, in person and speak, but sometimes those places don’t let you in.

Sometimes they even block us on the content because they won’t allow Christian content in. Well, that’s why we have a lot of different content. So some of these things that have God in the title they get blocked.

Some of them don’t have God in the title, they get in. People in China are watching them. They’re like, “This is Christian content. I didn’t think this was allowed in China. Wow, this is amazing. Thank you so much for getting this here.”

Boom, we’ve had — no kidding — Pakistan. Same thing. We’ve had people in the Arab world, people in France, people in Africa, all over, Philippines, people in Thailand, some in Russia — all over the whole world, people are wanting to learn about God. It’s our job to get content so they can do that.

All right, what are we talking about today? We’re talking about favoritism. No favoritism. You cannot show favoritism toward anyone. That means we need to be just as willing to share our content everywhere to people in China, Pakistan, Singapore, Asia, Europe, wherever it is.

We need to be willing to get that content in that area, no matter what. If I share it somewhere and I’m like, “Wow, this market gives me a lot more views.” This market doesn’t give me as many views. Guess what? I need to be sharing it in both of those markets, and we need resources to do that.

You can’t show favoritism towards anyone or anything. Now, I used that to illustrate a point. It’s not the point of the sermon, but it is powerful and it’s something — it’s a good reminder for us. It’s a good reminder for you. Share the Word no matter what, no matter where.

Do not show favoritism. Do not talk about God only around people that you know already believe. Talk about it among the unbelievers as well, because they need it more than these other people who already believe.

Now James 2:1, “My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.” It’s pretty clear. James also has a good example. We’re going to read that example of a rich man and a poor man.

James 2:2-4, “Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say,

‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there,’ or, ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated amongst yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”

Judges with evil thoughts. We have a sermon, “No Discrimination.” Check that one out. It goes hand-in-hand with favoritism. You cannot do that. It is unacceptable for you to be discriminating or showing favoritism towards certain areas.

Let’s put this in a little better perspective for you, because maybe today you don’t really have meetings where rich people and poor people come in. Or beggars and things like that, but let’s say you have a dinner party or a Super Bowl party.

Or New Year’s Eve or one of these goofy holidays that people always celebrate that the devil uses to stop momentum around the church — anyway, you have some type of a gathering. And this celebrity comes in and comes to your meeting, and right after they come in, a homeless person also comes in.

How would you treat those people? See, most people would probably give special attention to the celebrity or the rich person in James’ story because they’re probably nicely dressed, famous, they don’t smell, etc.

And they might treat that homeless person or the poor person with some neglect because they’re off-putting. They might be like, “Okay, we’re going to cater to this person, but this one we’re just going to kind of ignore. I’m not really going to tell them to go stand in the corner.

I’m not going to tell them to leave, but I’m not going to really acknowledge they’re here because I don’t want to talk to them.” That’s favoritism.

Let’s go to Job 34:19, “who shows no partiality to princes and does not favor the rich over the poor, for they are all the work of his hands.” It’s talking about God. God shows no partiality, no favoritism to those people. We have a sermon about that, Partiality, “God Is Impartial.” Check that out.

Showing preferential treatment to someone famous over someone not famous would be the normal human reaction, but remember, you need to be different. People like people who are presentable, and they dislike people who are less than perfect.

They don’t like the off-putting type people. They don’t like the smelly people. Let’s go to Leviticus 19:15, “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.” You need to be fair when you’re treating other people.

This doesn’t mean judge as in pronouncing judgment. It means, as in, when you see two people, you can’t be judging the book by its cover, so to speak. If you go somewhere and you’re dressed to the hilt, you’re likely to receive better service than if you go in your sweatpants.

People are treated based on the initial impressions they portray. In a sermon before — probably on the discrimination one — I told a story about my own experience. I’m going to tell it again.

I went to a bank one time, and I had an account there. The bank didn’t really know who I was, but I held an account there for quite a while, and I was in a different town now, and it’s the same bank but in a different town, so these people didn’t really know me.

But I’ve been banking with this bank for a long time. So I go in there one day and I’m dressed in a nice suit. It wasn’t this one, you’ve seen the suit before, but it’s one of them that’s just — it was very sharp. It was actually a gray suit. I was dressed up nice.

I get out of my car in the parking lot. Someone not even near me, “Hey, how you doing?” I don’t even know this person, but they saw there’s a sharp-dressed guy, summer day, nice out, I suppose everybody was just happy. Said hi to me. “How you doing?” “Good, good, yep, yep.”

Go on in. I’m walking into the bank. Person coming out, “Wow, come on in.” Into the — there’s double doors. That’s a first door. Get through the next door. Someone in the lobby, “Hi sir, how you doing? Welcome.” Come on over to our teller.

Go over to the teller. There are like two or three tellers over there. Both of them, “Hey, come on over.” Okay, go on up. Get help. Talk to them. Then, as I’m leaving, same thing, another person, “Hi.” Because I was dressed nice.

Like three days later, I went to the bank again, but I was dressed in some work clothes. Like a gray t-shirt, just a regular t-shirt. Maybe like some business logo on it or something — the one that you get at like a free event — or I think I went to like some building seminar cause I was working in construction — concrete — and they gave out these shirts, and so it had some whatever brick and stone company.

And I had my work boots on and some just jeans. And I might have had mortar on my jeans from kneeling and stuff. And it was, you know, my hair wasn’t nice like this. It was kind of shaggy, a little, and from wearing a construction hard hat. You know, you know what I’m saying. And so I go in and parking lot, saw probably two or three people, nothing.

No one says hi. Walk in, no one got the door for me. Person in the lobby barely acknowledged me. I go up, tellers — not a soul in there in line. No one greets me and says, “Come over here.” I walk up, do my business, leave, no one says — Isn’t that amazing though?

Same person, dressed differently, stark difference in treatment just on the clothing I wore. You cannot show favoritism. There may be no favoritism, and that’s what was going on. And now people watching this might say, “Man, and you’re a white guy.”

Yeah, I understand. We have racial preferential treatments and all these movements of whose life matters more, and we have all of this, proud or heritage. Or all these things. Guess what? All of that is perverted. All of that is of the devil.

Because God created humans, male and female. He created them and blessed them, male and female. God blessed them, and as Paul says — we’ll probably get to this later — Paul says, “We’re all one in Christ.”

And so if you are saying, “Oh well, my people” — your people are the body of Christ — “oh well, it’s real hard for my people to get ahead.” What people? Because you’re Black, because you’re white, because you’re this?

“Oh, well, I have a black-owned business. I’m a woman-owned business. I’m a veteran-owned business.” You know what? We’re all one in Christ, and remember that because if you have a problem with racism or with partiality or with favoritism or with discrimination, and you are using any of those titles, you are contributing to that problem.

The fact that you are saying “my people” or “our people” or “I’m a so-and-so” owned something that means you are condoning the separation and the segregation of those groups. You can’t be doing that. You say, “Well, I’m proud of my heritage.” Good, fine, but you know what?

When you start speaking of it like that, you are becoming part of the very problem you are trying to stop. Hypocrites. You shouldn’t have any — your heritage is your Father in Heaven.

Anyway, as Christians, we need to be different. We are one body in Christ. That’s it. There’s no red and yellow, black and white, because they are all precious in His sight.

Let’s go to Proverbs 28:21, “To show partiality is not good — yet a person will do wrong for a piece of bread.” You cannot show any favoritism. There must be no favoritism among you. Let’s go to Galatians.

Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Listen to this. You could even say, Okay, there is neither black nor white. There is neither red nor yellow. There is neither, whatever Viking nor European.

There is neither Chinese nor American. There is nei — what is American nowadays? America is a melting pot, so there is neither what — Italian, British, Norwegian, Scandinavian — whatever, African. There is none of that. We are all one in Christ Jesus.

There is neither slave nor free. We are all one. There must be no favoritism. James 2:9, “But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.” Guys, this is so important. This is part of that “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Now I understand that a lot of people out there — so race, let’s talk about race for a minute. Race is a big deal. A lot of people have problems with things like race and sex, racism, sexism, oh, feminism, this, that, all these isms that are out there.

That needs to not be a thing because we need to be different. Christians — one in Christ. If you are a Christian, you are not a black Christian. I am not a white Christian. I am a Christian. Okay?

This is not a black believer and a white believer. We are one. And if you can’t see that, then you need deliverance because the devil comes in and tries to pervert the blessings of God. He tries to cause division in the church. He sows discord among believers. You say, “Well, what’s discord?”

That’s a server. Yeah, we’re on there, but that’s not what it means. Discord is like disunity, and there cannot be that. We need to be united as one in the body of Christ. And if you have any of that identity, and you are seeing your identity — “Well, I’m a veteran-owned business.”

You’re not a veteran. Okay? That’s Discord. That’s disunity. “Well, we’re a female-owned business and proud of it.” Great, I’m very happy for you, but guess what? That’s disunity. If you are taking those to the extreme, feminism or racism or things like that, where you are claiming that heritage as your identity, that is what the devil comes in and seeks to do.

God gave you a blessing. The devil is perverting that blessing. That’s — the devil is so unoriginal. That’s all he seeks to do, and if you guys want to argue with me about this, I encourage you to dive into the Bible, the Word of God, because these verses say we are all one in Christ.

So if — and you might even tell me, “Oh, that’s so easy for you to say, you’re a white American.” You know what? I am, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have the ability, the discernment, the wisdom from the Holy Spirit to be able to look on situations and identify with and feel the empathy or the apathy or sympathetic or empathetic with whatever is going on.

Because guess what? White male Christians face discrimination and persecution as well. Yes, I understand that if you take a look at things like, “Oh, well, look at how the whites treated the blacks in the 60s.”

I wasn’t here then. Okay? That wasn’t right. “Well, look at how females were treated in the 20s.” I know. I get it. The point is, all of that was wrong. We are one in Christ. We need to act like it. Satan wants you to dwell on that and identify with that and take it in here and pollute what’s going on now.

That cannot be. There cannot be your people and my people. “Well, I’m so scared for my children being black in this world and being raised because the cops — as Black” — stop. If you truly believe that and you truly want to change that, then stop identifying in that way. Start believing what God says.

Claim that truth and identify and unite the body of Christ together, and we will make a change. You want to be like God? God does not show favoritism. Let’s go, some more verses. Romans 2:11, “For God does not show favoritism.” Pretty simple.

Ephesians 6:9, “As masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that He who is both their master and yours is in Heaven and there is no favoritism with Him.”

You say, “We don’t have slaves.” Anyone — treat your employees, treat your kids, treat everyone the same, because guess what? Who is their master? It’s not you. It’s God. And who is your master? You have one. It’s God. Get with the program.

Acts 10:34, “Then Peter began to speak: ‘I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism.’” You want to be like God? You cannot show favoritism. That means your identity is not red, yellow, black, white.

Is not African, Chinese, Filipino, American, whatever. Your identity is in Christ, and you need to transform and renew your mind so that you believe that and you act on that, because if your identity is stuck in one of those Earthly things, you are of the world, and God says, “A friend of the world is an enemy of God.”

We have sermons on that. “Do Not Be A Friend Of This World”, and if you are claiming your identity in those things, you are finding your identity in this world, and if someone is of the world, they are not of God, and if someone loves the world, they do not love God because the love of the world is in them.

This is serious, guys. I encourage you to dive in and study it a little bit more and realize you need to transform and renew your mind. There can be no favoritism. We must unite the body of Christ and act as one.

So I challenge you, if you are someone who is finding your identity in your heritage or in some worldly thing, try to change that. Update your profile status, “Proud black owner of a business.” No. “Proud whatever.” Change that. “Proud Christian.” You’re not a proud Christian, Christianity does not have pride. Okay? Christian.

“This second-generation immigrant.” That’s not your identity. Your identity is in Christ. Let’s unite the body together, take ground, build the Kingdom.

Let’s pray.

Father, thank you so much for this message. It can be very hard to hear. I understand that. It is somewhat of a touchy subject, and people identifying in the world may take offense to this, but as believers, we shouldn’t take offense to any of this. You tell us not to be offended.

So Father, soften their hearts, open their minds, and let them be inspired if they’re thinking about this, and if they’re angry or upset about this, have them dive into the truth, and they can discover it for themselves, and they will see your truth. That we are all one. That they cannot be tied to this world. They are not of this world.

Father, let them see and interpret these scriptures and know the truth. That they cannot love the world or anything in the world. That they cannot be a friend of the world. They are not of the world. That they are believers in you, that they get their identity from you, not from the world.

Help them to show no favoritism, exactly like you show no favoritism. That they will treat people equally. Yes, we may have to treat people different. You treat a child different than we treat an adult.

You treat a man different than you treat a woman, but we treat them all equally with love and respect as Jesus did. Inspire them to be different.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Show no favoritism. Have a great week, and God bless.