Where Our Wanting lives – James1:12-18

James came late
to faith.

Brother of Jesus,
then servant of Jesus,
steady in the early church
when the gospel
opened its doors
to the nations.

He knew this much:
faith is not inherited
like furniture.

It is birth.
Second birth.
God giving life
by the word of truth.

So it is not enough
to say,
my parents believed,
my grandparents believed,
I have known the songs
since childhood.

A chain can be inherited too.

Self-righteousness
can look like clothing.
Intellectual pride
can feel like freedom.
And still we walk back
into the cell
whose door Christ opened.

James says,
Blessed is the one
who perseveres.

A trial can be
a place to win,
to shine.
A temptation
is bait on a hook.

No one is tempted
to eat rocks.
There is no sweetness there,
no colour,
no small bright promise
melting in the hand.

But put out a bowl
of M&Ms
and suddenly
the room has a centre.

Sin knows where
our wanting lives.

It does not offer rocks.
It offers sugar.
It offers colour.
It offers just this once,
just this far,
just close enough
to the edge
to feel free.

But sin never tells
the whole story.

It takes us farther
than we meant to go,
keeps us longer
than we meant to stay,
costs us more
than we thought
we could pay.

So James says,
do not be deceived.

God is not baiting
his children.

He is not setting traps
and calling them love.

The test he gives
is for victory.

Not the fading crown
of applause,
but the crown of life—
life now,
life in the no,
life in the turning,
life in the quiet refusal
to worship
what destroys us.

Ask.
Let God name
what we have hidden.

Confess.
Say the same thing
God says.

Take action.
Repair what can be repaired.

Stay focused.
Not I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,
Not sin, sin, sin,
as though staring at the bowl
could make us holy.
But Jesus,
the One who broke
the lock,
opened the door,
and called us out.

A freed person learning
not to return
to the cell.

And when the old sweetness calls,
when the chain feels familiar
in our hands,

may we remember
the One who set us free,

and keep walking
toward the crown.

Original message by Lou Fortier
The Bridge Church Macquarie Park NSW
26 April 2026