- James has told us that real faith works when life doesn't. And he has said real faith works when we're in the midst of temptations. And then he says that real faith responds to truth. Much like what I've just communicated, asking you to wear a mask, even while you're in here, all the time, it's just something we can do for one another. Now, I have to say this, that I identify with James, and I want you to understand what he's dealing with. And some of you have already dealt with this, even though I won't be able to see your faces when you shine, because you're all putting your masks on, thank you, appreciate that, if you do. Have you ever been in a situation where you stepped into a relationship where you've got two people on two opposing sides? And you have decided in your life that you're gonna step right in and try and negotiate and try to bring some conflict resolution. Have you ever been there? What usually happens to you? You get smashed from both sides. So if I get emails from everybody on both sides, then I probably did what God asked me to do today. If you look at James chapter one verse 19, here's what he says. He says, "Know this, my beloved brothers," he's talking to believers here. "Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, "slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce "the righteousness of God. "Therefore put away all filthiness "and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness "the implanted word which is able to save your souls." There are two key words that drive everything that we're gonna say this morning from this passage. And the first one is found in verse 21. If it's your Bible, then you can go ahead and circle it, and hopefully you've downloaded your notes, so you're following along with us. That's the word we're gonna look at first, because James starts with this understanding of that we need to have regarding how we receive this word that's been implanted in our lives. He said in verse 18, if you look back up there, that the word of truth came to us, it changed us, it's gonna bear fruit. We were the firstfruits of his creation, we embrace the gospel through repentance and faith. And now he says, I want this word planted within you to begin to generate and to grow and to change you. Now that's gonna happen when we move in just a few minutes into the second key word which is in verse 21. You can circle it, it's the word doer. It's not just receiving, it's being ready to receive it, but it is also doing the word and living it out. Let me illustrate it this way. When my father-in-law was planting soy beans and corn, he wanted to make sure that the soil was ready to receive the seeds so that it would bear fruit. Okay, that was the goal. The issue was the soil. And James is really after the soil of our heart in our lives. And so he starts out with this idea. He says if you wanna be ready to receive the word of truth, you have to prepare your hearts. And he does so with three key words. He says, I want you to be, actually it's a couple words with three key concepts. He says, I want you to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. And the reason is because he wants them to embrace everything that he is going to communicate to them. Now, let me set the stage for this, 'cause then you'll understand where we're going. If you read through all five chapters in the Book of James, you are going to encounter several different subjects where he's telling them, you're in the midst of trials and temptations, the pressure is on. And when the pressure is on in our life, we oftentimes are not really quick to listen, we talk too much, and we get angry. That's usually what happens. You get in a pressure cooker situation, and you respond with impatience to people, you're not stopping and listening, 'cause you're so focused on what you're going through. And then there's anger that steps in between you and someone else or maybe even you and God. And so James goes through and he actually hits all of these topics. He actually says you need to control your tongue. He says you need to stop playing favorites with people. He says, I'm gonna talk to you about true religion, because some of them are speaking about what they think true religion is. James says, let me tell you what that is based on what Jesus said. And there's some people that go along and they're thinking about their own pride and arrogance and James just go through and he says, I want you to listen. His primary focus is to listen to God. And he begins with this idea of being quick to hear God's truth, but also one another. It's interesting the connection between our relationship with God and our relationship with one another. And if our relationship with one another is not going very well, and we're not listening, and we're speaking too much, and we're angry with one another, it usually ends up affecting our relationship with God. And if we're not listening to God, then we're not gonna be living out our truth with one another. We were designed for relationships. And it all connects here together. We begin with this word hear. I want you to understand the Jewish mindset behind it. He's not just talking about listening to words. Let me illustrate it this way. In Deuteronomy chapter six verse four and five, Moses, under the inspiration of God, is communicating to the nation of Israel. And he actually says, "Hear." Now remember James is writing to a Jewish audience, so this is the idea that they're gonna understand, and this is his point, "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart "with all your soul and with all your might." The word I want you to see is the first one, hear. He's saying hear. Now that is in Hebrew, the word shema. That's why it's called the Great Shema. This word shema means more than just listening. The word actually means listening, perceiving, meditating on, and then actually obeying. It means all of that depending on the context. And James is coming along here in the context of chapter one and he says, I want you to hear, I want you to listen, I want your heart ready, I want you to perceive, let it penetrate your life so that you are ready to respond in obedience. Now James would've drawn from his half-brother Jesus, and it was Jesus who constantly called the religious officials out. And he was saying things like, you know, "Have you not heard?" Well, of course they heard, but they weren't listening and obeying. They weren't applying the truth personally and individually to their life, they were being resistant of what was being communicated. In Matthew chapter 13 verse 14, Jesus actually tells them, "You will indeed hear, but never understand." There's the contrast. You're not listening, you're not paying attention. It's right after this that Jesus actually gives, and I'm gonna encourage you to go back and read over this next week. He gives this parable of the sower and seed. The seed is the Word of God being sown into the soil or heart of our lives. And then depending on how we're ready to receive that Word, it will bear fruit or it will not bear fruit. Oftentimes in churches, we get to this parable and we start wanting to analyze, well, is it the first soil? 'Cause there's four of them. Is that a Christian? Is the second one a Christian? Is the third one a Christian? Which one of the soils represents a Christian? That is not Jesus' point. His point is there's only one soil that matters, the last one that receives it, welcomes it, and begins to grow. So the whole idea is to listen. And then he says, hey, be slow to speak. Now what happens if you're speaking too much? You're not listening to one another. We're not paying attention to what's happening. And oftentimes if we're telling everybody what we think true religion is, if we're telling everybody what our opinions are based on our research, this has total application for what we're talking about. If we get in an argument with someone, then we get angry and before you know it, we're not listening to one another, we're speaking too much, and then eventually we're getting angry, which he talks about, and then all of a sudden we find ourselves really not listening to God. We find ourselves in a trial, and we start telling God how we think it is instead of just listening to God's perspective on how he thinks we ought to be living in the midst of the trial. And then we get angry. We sometimes get angry at God. And we blame him for the temptation. We say, "God, how come I'm going through this trial? "What's going on here? "What's happening in my life?" And I will guarantee you, if you're angry with one another or you're angry with God, you're not gonna be ready to listen. Classic example of this is if you got in the car today and you are driving with your family towards the church, okay, you're coming to RockPoint, and you just had an argument at the house with your wife or your husband, and then you get in the car and one of your kids found a French fry that was in there from Friday's Happy Meal, throws it at his brother, pokes him in the eye, and you lose your cool. And then you come in here and you sit down, and open up God's Word, I'm ready God, talk to me. How many of you think you're gonna be in an attitude ready to listen and hear from God? It affects you. And if you take all three of these together, here's the main point I don't want you to miss. James is coming along and he's saying, would you please just stop. Would you please just stop talking, and stop telling everybody how you think it is. And would you just humble yourself and swallow your pride, which he deals with in the book, hold your tongue, which he deals with in the book, and stop telling people what you think religion is, which he deals with in the book. And why don't you start praying, which he deals with in the book. And why don't you start opening up and listening so that you're ready to receive whatever God says. And then when God starts touching on the nerves of your life, you're not angry with him and resistant. You're willing to actually listen to him and listen to the truth that's coming, maybe even through other people to you. Because he says angry, being angry, or quite frankly any of these things, but he specifically says anger does not produce the righteousness of God. If these things are in your life, you're not ready to hear from God, and you won't grow as a righteous servant, seeking to follow Jesus to be the light on the hill so others can hear the message of hope. That's the main focus. But you know, he doesn't stop there. Because he goes on to the next one and he says, you know, you gotta prepare your heart, but you gotta cleanse your heart. 'Cause he says, "Therefore, in light of this stuff, "put away these things, "put away any filthiness and rampant wickedness." The word for put away there actually means wax in the ear. Get the wax out of your ear, so that you can actually hear. That's his point. Allow God's word to penetrate every area of your life. I grew up in Cicero, as many of you know, and my mom would take us through spring cleaning. And we would haul beds out of the rooms, put them in the hallway. I mean, we cleaned every corner of that house. My dad would take a dry spot. You probably don't even know what that is. And he would wipe down the walls and make sure, you know, I don't know, maybe she was just, you know, trying to save plates. Throw the food on the floor, eat off the floor. I mean, we had a pristine house, it was unbelievable. You know what he's saying here. It's time for a spring cleaning. It's time for God's word to start penetrating every single area of your life. There's big issues at stake here. He's saying, I want you to cleanse your heart. And when God's word starts showing up, don't be resistant, cleanse it, and then receive it with a sense of humility. Take that pride out of there. The word is actually meekness, because meekness means strength under control. And I think he's simply trying to communicate there's a choice here. You have a choice to receive it and swallow your pride and let him press into all of the areas of your life and clean that stuff out, so that you can achieve the righteousness of God and receive the word that is there. And it can start transforming you and changing you and allow him to direct you and become the person he's called you to be, or you can resist it and grab control of your life again. And so yeah, James is admonishing us, and he's saying, I want you to be teachable, I want you to hear. So the questions are obvious. Are you submitting to his direction? Are you resistant, are you resistant this morning to what he's telling you about anything? Are you willing to surrender? He says if you are, then this word will change you and it will save your souls. I don't think he's just talking about eternal life here, obviously we embrace the gospel that gives us eternal life, but to save your soul and life, save you from the consequences of life. Last week we talked about that wasting away life when we let sin rule the day in our lives. And he's saying, no, I want you to experience more, something greater. And now that your heart is ready, you can respond to that truth. So you get to verse 22 and really it's the entire book summarized. "Be a doer of the word," he says, "and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, "he's like a man who looks intently "at his natural face in the mirror. "For he looks at himself and goes away "and at once forgets what he was like. "But the one who looks into the perfect law, "the law of liberty," this is the Word of God, "and perceives," that's that word hearing again, "being no hearer who forgets what a doer who acts, "he will be blessed in his doing." When he uses the word perceive, it's the same idea of what James was after in the beginning. I want you to listen, let the truth penetrate your life. "And if anyone thinks he is religious "and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, "this person's religion is worthless. "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father "is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction "and to keep oneself unstained from the world." The big idea here is real religions sets aside self, real religion sets aside all of who we are and our rights and we surrender and pick up our cross daily and say, "Jesus, I'm gonna follow you." 'Cause it's death to self and it's being resurrected to new life with others, so that other people can see the transformation in me. That's the idea here. That's his point. So he goes through and he says, you need to be a perpetual, ongoing doer on a daily basis. Allow the Word of God to penetrate your personality, your life, every part of who you are. It should be who you are, not just a part of your life. And he uses this illustration of a mirror. It's pretty obvious, I think. If you got up this morning, and I can't see all of your face, 'cause you have your masks on, so that's kind of nice. But if you got up this morning and you looked in the mirror, and you saw stuff that would not be presentable, what did you do? You made yourself presentable. You reacted to what you saw, okay. So the same things true when we open up God's Word, and it begins to penetrate our heart and our life. The point is don't be the kind of person that looks in the mirror and walks away and does nothing. Look into the mirror, and when God starts bringing stuff up, you respond. I have no idea where you are right now. Some of you might be like totally, you know, messed up, because I started with an issue of a mask. And you're still resisting everything we've said. Some of you might walk out of here, "Ah, I'm gonna write him an email," and whatever you wanna do, that's fine. I'll give it Wes Oren and let him deal with it. I don't know. All I'm saying is James is telling us, just listen. Just humble yourself. And just look beyond ourselves. And then when God starts telling us about all these other things that James quite frankly is meddling with. I mean, you read through the Book of James, and you know, I've done it several times. He's just meddling with almost every area of your life, isn't he? I mean, you read this book, and it's like, "Whoops, I got issue here." The point is set it all aside. And then once we see it and we're ready to respond to the Word, that's the idea, then he gives this illustration at the end. And the key word is the word religious. And here's how it pulls everything together. The word religious that he uses here, he's not just talking about how you live your spiritual life, he's actually talking about a body of beliefs and practices that communicate what the community believes. So in other words, in the Jewish religion, they followed the law of God. And if they did it the way they were supposed to, the way Jesus told them to, by faith obedience, trusting, then that would reflect the overall community of what this looks like to live with Jesus Christ as King of your life. The same thing as Christianity. The word that he uses here describes how we are, yes to follow those beliefs, but the bigger picture is his idea that as we follow those beliefs that we know to be true. These are the things that characterize a true follower of Jesus Christ. And as I live that out within this church and in the community, then people look at that, and they say, "That's a real Christian. "That person is a real follower of Jesus Christ." 'Cause what is the opposite? Oftentime we hear this, right, we hear, "What a bunch of hypocrites." You know why? Because we're not doing what James says. If somebody lays that before us or another group of people that claim to be followers of Christ, man, you need to be pulling out James and reading it again, 'cause that's his whole point here. His point here is as you live your life it impacts all of us, and it gives a demonstration that the world will know that we are his, by our sacrificial love for one another. Two things I want you to walk out of here with. First, there's times when we have to have some honest evaluation of our life. And here's a couple of passages I want you to contemplate. Hebrews chapter four verse 12, "For the Word of God "is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. "It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, "joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts "and attitudes of the heart." You know, a lot of us pray for revival. Todd had some before words. And oftentimes when there have been massive movements of revival in the United States of America, and even globally, you know where it oftentimes starts? Repentance. Repentance in the household of God, where the church says it's time to get serious about our faith, and a hunger and thirst for righteousness, as Jesus says in Matthew chapter five. By the way, the Sermon on the Mount is behind all of James. And he says here, it's time for the church to let God's Word penetrate where it needs to go into every single area of your life. Notice there's a description of a group of believers in Acts chapter 17 verse 11. These were Bereans, and it says, "Now these Jews were "more noble than those in Thessalonica. "They received the word with eagerness, "examining the Scriptures," that's that hearing concept, "daily to see if these things were true." True factually, but then, hey, is this real? And if it's real, I gotta respond to it. And then eventually Paul does write to the church in Thessalonica, the believers. And he commends them, "And you became imitators of us "and of the Lord, for you," here it is, "received "the word in much affliction," in the midst of a trial, they listened "with the joy of the Holy Spirit," which is exactly what James has been saying. So you need to ask the Lord, every time you open the book, constantly in the next several days and several months, as we continue down this road, "Lord, what are you saying to me now in my personal life? "How can I get right with you, so that I can be "the kind of person you want me to be?" And then I want you to find someone else that you can be accountable with, and ask them the question, if you're able to do this, okay, you're confident enough in yourself, ask them this question, what is it like to be on the other side of me? What's that like? Talk to me. Because if you're really serious about asking that question, you're gonna get some feedback that could revolutionize your life. Now, there's the other step, and that is you gotta apply it. It's gotta penetrate your heart and your life. And that's why I love this verse in Joshua chapter one verse eight. "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, "but you shall meditate on it day and night, "so that you may be careful to do." Now, we just talked about all of that this morning, to listening, let it penetrate every area, meditate on it, allow it to become personal in your life, and then do it "according to all that is written in it, "for then you will make your way prosperous, "and then you will have success." This is that life, this is the saving of your soul. This is exactly that blessed life that James wants us to have in the midst of a trial and in the midst of the temptation. So as you look at the areas of your life, are there sins that need to be removed? Are there things that you need to do? How's your heart, is it teachable? Is it resistant? Just go back to the passage and you'll easily be able to find some things. Which kind of soil, as you read through Matthew chapter 13, really describes your heart? It's time for us to be the church. And as Jesus said, to be known by our sacrificial, setting aside of our personal views, serving one another kind of love. That's the point. So that the world will know that we are his disciples and followers. Yeah, there's a sacrifice, but Jesus told me to do it daily, to die to myself, to pick up the cross and follow him. Now more than ever, we have to set aside ourselves. And what we personally hold to regarding many of the issues of the day, to come together in unity and community, so that we can actually be the church the way it was meant to be. To be a light, not only in here, but a light to our community. A city set on a hill, so we can point people to the hope they desperately need today. God's working in their heart, are you gonna give them the answer that's found through Christ? And we need to pray for courage and boldness like we've never prayed before. Father, we thank you for your truth. We thank you that at times it convicts, it encourages, it moves, it changes us. And I pray that through the power of your Holy Spirit, you would work your work in our hearts and in our lives today, that we might be your people in this community, communicating your hope, the truth of the gospel, the good news of the cross and the resurrection. And it is in Christ's name we pray, amen.