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[00:00] We are in James chapter one and we are down to verse 19, and we're going to most of you
[00:05] are going to be very familiar with some of the things in this passage because you've
[00:10] heard them.
[00:11] And I'm going to say most likely you've heard them maybe not in the right context, but you've
[00:14] heard them.
[00:15] You know, and maybe you have heard them in the right context.
[00:18] I'm just going to say that a lot of times in this passage, things are taking a little
[00:21] bit out of context or not fully understood in the context that it's given.
[00:27] Although, I will say that as we get into it and I show you some things, I think you'll
[00:31] see that even without full context, it's pretty easy to understand some of the things that
[00:38] James is going to talk about here.
[00:40] But before we get into that, let's pray and then we'll talk a little bit more.
[00:45] Father, just thank you for this time.
[00:47] Thank you for the people that are here today.
[00:50] We think of those who are not here and just pray for them wherever they may be, if they're
[00:55] not feeling well, if they're working, whatever's going on, Lord, I just pray that you would
[01:02] be with them today, just comfort them if they need to heal them.
[01:05] If they need healing, Lord, you know the situation and we trust you, Lord, to oversee
[01:12] that.
[01:13] Father, we know that there are some in this room that come on a Sunday.
[01:17] Maybe they come today and they're just filled with anxiety or hurts or lack of sleep for
[01:25] whatever reason.
[01:26] Father, I just pray that you would settle even now their hearts and their minds and that
[01:34] you would teach us what you would have us know, what we do not know and what we need
[01:37] to know, Lord.
[01:40] As we look at the words of life in your Word, in your Scripture, Lord, we love you.
[01:45] Jesus, then we pray, amen.
[01:49] So James is a book on doing for all its central purposes, kind of like, okay, you're a Christ
[01:59] follower, but now do, right?
[02:03] And I want to make sure that we understand that James is not talking about doing stuff
[02:10] to earn favor with God or doing stuff to become righteous before God, right?
[02:15] We made right before God or to be justified before God because those things were done
[02:19] on the cross.
[02:20] And when we put our faith in Jesus on for what he did on the cross in his resurrection,
[02:25] we are then made righteous at that moment.
[02:28] And that anything we do in James should be a result of that, right?
[02:33] So we have a faith.
[02:36] We say, yes, Lord, I believe, I know I need a Savior.
[02:39] You've been that Savior.
[02:40] I know I'm a sinner and a great sinner in need of a great saver and Jesus, you are that
[02:43] great Savior, right?
[02:46] And then our lives should start to look as we can kind of continue down the road, right,
[02:53] of our lives.
[02:54] It should be more and more Christ-like is called sanctification.
[02:59] We talked about that, right?
[03:00] We want to become more and more Christ-like in our lives.
[03:04] And how do we do that?
[03:05] Well, Scripture teaches us that and how to do that.
[03:09] And James specifically goes into very specific details on what that looks like.
[03:15] But I want us to know that as we look at this passage, and it's going to be convicting
[03:19] for all of us, I'm sure at some point, especially convicting for me.
[03:23] And you'll know, since we read it, we'll be, oh, yeah, we know why it's convicting for
[03:26] you.
[03:27] Okay.
[03:28] Right.
[03:29] But all of us that probably at some point are in some of these areas are going to feel
[03:34] convicted.
[03:35] But I want you to know that Jesus, right, did the work on the cross when He said it is finished.
[03:41] It was finished.
[03:42] Right.
[03:43] And our love for Jesus then, and our, and the spirit within us then bids us to live a life
[03:48] that looks like this, that what we're going to look at today.
[03:51] But when we fail, we don't go, oh, man, I fail, I got to, I got to, what am I going
[03:58] to do, right?
[03:59] God is, you know, hates me because I'm not doing these things.
[04:02] You know, Jesus already paid the price for God's wrath, right?
[04:08] And so God's wrath was poured out on Jesus on the cross.
[04:11] And so when we fail, we say, Lord, I know that I'm failing in these areas or in this
[04:15] area, forgive me, help me to do better.
[04:18] And then we seek to do better through various, what it means, you know, whether it be reading
[04:21] the word, whether it be talking with other people, confessing our sins, one another,
[04:25] those kinds of things, okay.
[04:27] So as we talk about this, I just want you guys to know, like, that you don't get so
[04:30] if I would think that James is, because some people do, like, I got to be, I got to do,
[04:34] I got to do, and we'll get to the end of this chapter and it talks about orphans and all
[04:37] that stuff.
[04:38] And we have a friend.
[04:39] And I just use that example.
[04:40] We have a friend that's adopted six children and you think, wow, it's really good, right?
[04:44] They adopted six children.
[04:45] And it is.
[04:46] It's great.
[04:47] But they would, right, fit on a category that they feel like they have to do to earn
[04:51] favor.
[04:52] Right?
[04:53] And so they love their six adopted kids don't get me wrong, right?
[04:56] They love them and they adore them and they've done a great thing by doing that.
[05:00] But there's a missing element in the sense that they feel like they have to earn favor
[05:04] with God.
[05:05] And that's one of the reasons why they did it, right?
[05:08] That it helps them earn favor with God and it doesn't.
[05:11] Okay.
[05:12] God is pleased when we obey, but God loves us even when we disobey.
[05:17] Right?
[05:18] So let's go.
[05:20] Let's move on.
[05:21] All right.
[05:22] We're in James chapter one verse 19 through 27.
[05:27] And I just want you to know that it's basically broken off into three sections.
[05:31] We're going to take each section separately, okay, verses chapter one, verses 19 through
[05:36] 21.
[05:37] Now it's all kind of tied together.
[05:39] Yes.
[05:40] But we're going to do 19 through 21, then we're going to do 22 through 25 and then 26
[05:45] and 27.
[05:46] All right.
[05:47] But we'll read it all together right now because it's good to read it as one section.
[05:51] It says this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow
[05:59] to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God, therefore put away
[06:05] all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which
[06:10] is able to save your souls.
[06:12] But be doers of the word and not here is only deceiving yourselves.
[06:16] For if anyone is a here of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently
[06:20] at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets
[06:25] what he was like.
[06:26] But the one who looks into the perfect law of the law of liberty and perseveres being
[06:30] no here who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing and if anyone
[06:35] thinks he is religious and does not bridal is tongue, but deceives his heart.
[06:40] This person's religion is worthless, a religion that is pure and undefiled before God.
[06:45] The father is this to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep one unstained
[06:49] from the world.
[06:50] All right.
[06:51] Man, lots in there, right?
[06:53] If you're following, you're like, wow, okay, I'm, right, I did really good, right?
[07:01] I mean, each section could be a sermon, right?
[07:06] But let's start with section one, 19 through 21.
[07:08] Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow
[07:11] to anger.
[07:12] The anger of man does not produce the righteous of God, therefore put away all filthiness
[07:15] and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save
[07:19] our soul.
[07:20] So, James starts right off and he says, know this, when he says, know this, right?
[07:27] He wants you to know that this is not something optional, right?
[07:31] This isn't something that we can look at and go there, not that big of a deal, right?
[07:35] He is saying in these words in this, know this, it's this is vital.
[07:42] But before he goes into what is vital, he wants the people that he's speaking to know
[07:45] something very important.
[07:46] He says, know this, my beloved brothers, and what he wants them to know is, number one,
[07:53] he wants them to know that he's speaking to brothers in Christ and sisters.
[07:58] If you go back and look at that word brothers in the way it was in Greek, there's an idea
[08:02] that it could actually literally be brothers and sisters the way the word works.
[08:06] So, for us, obviously the Bible speaks all of his brothers and sisters, but James is
[08:09] saying to those of us, right, or to those who he was, I mean, he was talking to, right?
[08:15] You are my brothers in Christ, my sisters in Christ, and you, I love you dear, you are
[08:21] my beloved, right?
[08:23] So he has strong feelings for the people that he's writing to, right?
[08:26] Strong feeling.
[08:27] These aren't just people that he's like, okay, well, good luck, you know, here's some instruction.
[08:30] He wants them to know, I love you, right?
[08:34] And in this love, I want to share these important things with you that are not optional as
[08:39] a Christian.
[08:40] And what's not optional?
[08:42] He gives some, he gives some things here, he says, first thing he says is this, right?
[08:48] Let every person in his memory speaking to Christians, to us, let every person be quick
[08:54] to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, right?
[09:03] I mean, he's requiring that for all Christians, be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
[09:10] So a couple months ago in December, we had a party at my house for the parents of MCC,
[09:17] right?
[09:18] That's kids, you know, the children's ministry.
[09:20] We had kids in it, they came over and we had a party, and then we had a campfire afterwards.
[09:24] So we're sitting around campfire, and I think some people are left by that, I don't remember.
[09:27] But Chad and Beth were at the campfire with some other people, and we started talking about
[09:32] going to see a play, and going to say, if you're going to Deepak, and they like a Christmas
[09:38] carol, one of the plays there, and I thought it was not good.
[09:41] And so then I started arguing with them about how this play is ridiculous to play it, or
[09:45] something.
[09:46] And it was about something about this play, right?
[09:47] And I'm like, and I'm like, so I started arguing with them about this play, like, wow,
[09:55] right?
[09:56] Which I'm always loud.
[09:57] So I mean, that's not really a mark of the arguing, because I'm just loud person anyway.
[09:59] But it was loud, and it was that night, it was out of the campfire, we try to not be
[10:03] super loud around the campfire at night, because, you know, part of the campfire is enjoying
[10:06] the campfire.
[10:07] But anyway, I blew that out of water, right?
[10:09] And I'm like, this is ridiculous, you know, and I can't even remember what the whole thing
[10:12] was.
[10:13] But Chad stops, and he goes, because me and Beth are going back and forth, and Beth isn't
[10:16] really, she's not really arguing with her, she's just like, okay, right, whatever, you
[10:19] know, you're, whatever.
[10:20] Anyway, when Chad goes, don't worry about it, race just yelling into the wind, or something
[10:23] yelling into the, I don't even know, is that what it was, yelling at the moon, I don't
[10:26] know.
[10:27] So some phrase like that, right?
[10:28] He's just, he's just doing what he does, yelling into the wind, or yelling at the moon.
[10:32] So I didn't say, you know, we kind of like wrapped up our conversation, whatever our
[10:38] argument.
[10:39] And that night, right, everybody leaves, and I'm laying in bed, or just yelling at the
[10:44] wind.
[10:45] I'm like, I think Chad, he's right, right?
[10:48] And I'm like, wow, I'm just yelling at the, like, just making noise, right?
[10:52] I'm just making noise, basically what he's saying, right?
[10:54] And so then Sunday comes, and I think it was here at the top, I think I come here, and
[10:59] I just, I went to that, and I was like, yeah, you're right, man.
[11:02] I'm like, I'm literally just, yeah, I keep my mouth shut, like, they're totally, you
[11:06] know?
[11:07] I know, you probably didn't, but nobody was right, I mean, some people are right, even
[11:14] if, you know, they're just goofing off, or whatever, yeah, you know, I mean, I think
[11:19] Chad didn't know it, but that's like, I'm gonna say, yeah, he had some wisdom on that.
[11:25] But I was thinking like, yeah, that's me, right?
[11:27] I'm like, what am I doing?
[11:29] Yeah, he and I have got an argument that I've been 100% right on.
[11:33] So I just want to point that out, because we've never really brought it up again.
[11:36] Hack 12, big 10 argument, that was a big argument we had at, at the Carver's House.
[11:43] And you know, I, I won that argument because Michigan won the National Championship.
[11:46] So, but we had some final over texting on that one, that night.
[11:49] But anyway, all that to say this, right, all that to say this, it is hard to be quick
[11:56] to listen, and slow to speak, and slow to anger.
[12:01] I mean, it is hard, and it, and, and not, so some people don't have ground because they
[12:08] just aren't really talking, but maybe they're slow to listen in their mind, right?
[12:14] They may not ever be the person that says it out loud, but in their mind they're going
[12:18] on.
[12:19] Right.
[12:20] And it's the same thing.
[12:21] Right, right, they would, they would if they were out, you know, if they weren't an introvert
[12:27] or whatever, they'd be like, I have to watch this, and while the person talking, and they
[12:30] don't want to, you know, so it's not just those who are verbal, all right, just what
[12:33] I'm trying to say.
[12:34] It could be, you know, nonverbal thoughts, like it's all, yeah, all right.
[12:41] Quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, here's the deal, right?
[12:48] That a nonstop talker, right, whether it's in your mind or whether it's a lot of somebody
[12:53] who's just constantly, right, doesn't want to listen, can't hear what anyone else is
[13:00] saying, can't, won't hear what anyone else is saying, and by the same token, won't hear
[13:07] what God has to say, because this passage, although it isn't in practically speaking
[13:13] to other people, you know, relationship to people in this, it's also speaking about
[13:18] the word of God, the whole path, this whole passage is about how we kind of interact
[13:22] with the word of God, because if you go back, if you look, right, if you, if you say, if
[13:26] you go down to verse 21, it says and receive with me to say and plant your word, if you
[13:30] go to verse 22, but be doors of the word and not hear us only, all this ties together,
[13:34] also in verse 18, right, where it says of his own, we will brought us forth by the word
[13:40] of truth, right, again, he's speaking about the word of God, now, there's practical implications
[13:46] for us as Christians to one another in this, right, to be quick to, quick to hear, to slow
[13:55] to speak, to slow to anger, how we deal with one another is vital in that regard, right,
[14:01] because let's say, face it, we don't want to deal with people that are, and angry all
[14:05] time, right, heart, oh, right, we don't want to do that, no, that doesn't want to hear
[14:09] me yelling into the wind about some stupid play that she likes, right, she'll, she'll
[14:14] a lot of, she'll a lot of talk to me, right, she'll a lot of talk to me when I'm like
[14:18] that, which, yeah, of course not, right, but by the same token, we will also not hear what
[14:26] God wants us to hear through scripture and on Sundays, or whenever we, whenever there's
[14:32] a teaching moment, right, he, he then goes, James then goes into, right, kind of more
[14:43] about this last part, be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. Now, if you think
[14:48] about that, first of all, let's stop right there, those all work together, right, they
[14:53] all work together, because here's the deal, right, if I, if I, I'm going to use, I'm
[14:57] going to keep using chat about that example. If I don't say anything, and I just listen
[15:02] to her talking about the D-pack and one of her favorite plays and, you know, maybe ask
[15:06] some questions about what you like about it and just let it right, I hear more about
[15:10] what she's thinking, right, I don't have, now I'm slow to speak because there's nothing
[15:14] I need to say, right, now I don't have to, I don't have to feel like I need her to validate
[15:19] my opinion, right, so now I don't get mad because my opinion is not her opinion, and
[15:24] so she can just speak because I was slow, I was quick to listen, slow to speak so now
[15:28] she can speak, and I don't have to get mad because I didn't have, I didn't raise my voice
[15:34] about an opinion I had and then felt like, well now I have to defend it to the death,
[15:38] okay, right, right, I don't have to do that, because ultimately, many times when we talk
[15:44] and when we, when we look at this slow to speak, or quick to hear, slow to speak, slow
[15:48] to anger, right, most of the time the reason why we say slow to anger is because we want
[15:53] to, we want our opinions to be known and validated when our opinions, when we give our opinion
[15:58] in some kind of discussion and it's not, not only not validated, somebody says, nah, no,
[16:04] you're wrong, right, all right, so it does solve, right, and we want to like, because
[16:09] we have pride, right, and we want to, right, we want to make sure that we validate this
[16:13] and make sure, no, no, I'm not wrong, you're wrong, you know, and we may not say it that
[16:17] way but we're going to argue until I, until you say, oh yeah, you were right, which never
[16:21] happens, right, in an argument, people just walk away, but then look what he says, right,
[16:26] for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God, again, he's going to,
[16:32] he's going to focus in on the anger because it's all tied together, the anger of man
[16:42] does not produce the righteousness of God, now, man, and I, when I read that and I started
[16:51] thinking about it, I started thinking about, remember in Matthew, one of the, maybe it's
[16:57] all about, well, I know, but what Jesus is talking about, the soil, actually, the good
[17:01] soil, the different kind of soil, and I couldn't help but think like, man, when I'm angry,
[17:07] the soil of my soul becomes hardened almost, right, and so it is, it's not a soil of righteousness,
[17:17] right, where that, that it's a soil of hardened heart, right, it's not a soil where righteousness
[17:22] thrives, right, when I, when anger is going to take place and I'm going to be, I'm going
[17:27] to be quick to speak and slow to listen and quick to anger, right, now righteousness
[17:33] in my life is basically any, is invalidated at that moment, now obviously I have Christ
[17:39] righteousness covering me but as far as I was living righteousness, that's what I'm
[17:42] talking about, right, that's why I gave you a whole intro, I don't want you to mistake
[17:46] those, living righteousness, right, that an angry attitude is not the soil in which righteousness
[17:57] will thrive, anger, it will just won't, right, I read a quote and I didn't put that, I put
[18:04] it in quotes and never put who it is, I don't know what it is, who said it but I'm sorry,
[18:08] but somebody that wrote a, you know, a thing on this passage and it says this, a fiercely
[18:14] argumentative attitude is not conducive to the humble reception of the truth, a fiercely
[18:22] argumentative attitude is not conducive to the humble reception of the truth, meaning
[18:25] it's going harder to receive God's word because right, the soil of our heart is going to be
[18:31] hardened when we are, when we are not slow to speak, when we are quick, right, to speak
[18:39] and slow to hear and quick to anger, I speak in my own life, I know this for a fact, right,
[18:47] through my own life, I can give you specific examples, mm-hmm.
[18:52] I think James is saying, hey, this restraint, this thought of, restraint of anger, has to
[19:06] happen in our lives, right, because in verse 20, he says, anger does not produce, right,
[19:17] and basically he's saying anger does not produce the righteous life that God demands, it doesn't.
[19:24] And then later on in James chapter 3, he'll say this, peacemakers, in James 3, 18 peacemakers
[19:31] who are so in peace, raise a harvest of righteousness, hard to sow in peace if we are quick to
[19:39] speak, slow to hear and quick to anger, hard to be a peacemaker and I speak again from
[19:46] his experience, right, want to be a peacemaker, right, man, we have to get rid of this anger,
[19:56] we have to think, and when you think about studying scripture, right, this idea of,
[20:01] this is where it really comes into focus with this idea of being quick to hear, slow
[20:06] to speak, let me dig into your word, Lord, without preconceived ideas, without a heart
[20:12] of anger, without a heart of whatever, right, just a heart that says, Lord, teach me and
[20:18] let me learn because oftentimes we read scripture, right, and it's more about if we read it,
[20:25] it's more of like, let me check the box, let me, you know, I got to get through it,
[20:29] let me read my little, my daily verse that comes up on my phone that I said, you know,
[20:33] every day, make sure I got that in, okay, let me, man, when you think about the way
[20:37] he's talking and the way he's going to continue to talk, it's digging into scripture and it's
[20:42] hard to do that if we're not slow, or if not quick to hear, and slow to speak, and slow
[20:49] to anger, right, the anger of man does not produce the righteousness, yeah, or the anger
[20:54] of man does not produce the righteous life that God demands, then goes on, therefore,
[21:01] because of all this, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness
[21:07] the implanted Word which is able to save your souls, right away, he says, put away, what
[21:14] he's talking about there is this idea of taking off, right, think about like taking off your
[21:20] dirty and nasty clothes, let's say you worked in a sewer all day, right, and you had it,
[21:26] you know, you're literally in the stuff, digging, you know, you have steady sewer and stuff,
[21:29] but you know, where we came from, most of it was, you know, you had septic tanks and,
[21:33] you know, they were back up, and before you had lots of companies that would figure that
[21:37] out, you know, you'd have to do some of the work yourself, and before they came in and
[21:41] pumped it out, you know, you'd have to do some of that work yourself, that's never fun,
[21:44] right, and even deal with toilets, right, you know, toilet that goes, you know, that's
[21:48] not fun, but it's the idea of taking off those clothes, the filthiness, that's what
[21:53] it says, put away, right, that's where the put off, that's what he's saying, put away
[21:58] filthiness and rapid weakness, and receive with meekness, the implanted word, so a couple
[22:08] of things, right, to receive with meekness is what he's saying is be willing to receive,
[22:15] to hear the word, right, even when it includes, like, hearing our faults, right, we're opening
[22:24] the word because when we open the word and we study it, what should it do? It should be
[22:27] like a mirror, should it not? It should show us, and it will show us if we have the right
[22:31] to have to, exactly who we are, right, and where we are, and so when you receive with
[22:38] meekness, you're saying yes, Lord, show me, whatever it is, right, and we not only take
[22:45] it serious, but we take it with gratitude, yes, Lord, I want to know, because I want
[22:50] to be righteous, I want to be more like Christ, we want to be changed and formed by the Word
[22:57] of God through the power of the Spirit, let's say yes, Lord, and he says to save your souls
[23:06] and he's not talking about salvation, we know he's already talking about to Christians,
[23:10] right, he's already speaking to those, and I thought about going into a deep dive in
[23:15] this, but I'm not going to do it this much, all right, but just real quick, you can think
[23:17] of like the Bible kind of speaks of three salvation and your salvation through Christ,
[23:23] the one that saves your soul and you're made right with God and you have eternity with
[23:29] him and all those things, then there's the continuing and working out your salvation
[23:34] as you go through your life, sanctification, you're working out your salvation, that's
[23:38] kind of what he's talking about here, and then there's the final salvation where you
[23:41] are now called back, right, to God, right, and so I just don't want you guys to think
[23:48] like, oh, he's talking okay, but I do these things, I can be saved, that's not what he
[23:51] means by that, he's talking about working out your salvation to be more like Christ, all
[23:56] right, in those areas, so I just want to make sure that that is clear, but here's the deal,
[24:00] we cannot and we won't receive the Word, neatly or humbly or obediently, if we are
[24:06] angry, contentious, right, quick to speak, slow to listen people, we just won't, and
[24:16] so James gives a warning and says, here's what you need to do, right, be quick to hear,
[24:23] slow to speak, and slow to anger, think about us, think about as Christians, if that was
[24:29] all of us, not just in this rhyming Christians, through Christians, worldwide, the impact
[24:34] that we would have, if we just took that first phrase in James 19, and we just said, we're
[24:41] going to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, because you know, you think
[24:46] about like, I know, I've ruined my testimony at work sometimes when I've gotten angry, right,
[24:51] and said, you know, I can not say that you can't ever get angry, I mean, oh, anger, right,
[24:57] the Bible is very clear, right, be angry and do not sin, right, Jesus got angry, right,
[25:03] and he healed the man with a member of the withered hand, and Pharisees and the religious
[25:06] leaders were all like, waiting to see who's going to heal him, because you know, it was
[25:08] a savage, we're going to get you, and he says, and above says, I think it's Mark 3, he looked
[25:13] at them and was angry at them, so obviously we can have righteous anger, I'm going to say
[25:20] most of us don't have a lot of righteous anger, all right, that's not usually the case, and
[25:25] so I don't want you to say we can never be angry, because that's not true, my Bible speaks
[25:29] about anger and how we can be, if we're angry at the things God has angry at, and we handle
[25:34] it the way Jesus handles it, okay, then yeah, that's probably a good righteous anger, most
[25:39] of the time, my anger comes from pride, you know, I mean, listen to me, you're thinking
[25:44] that I'm wrong, when I think I'm right or know I'm right, but we can't receive the word,
[25:50] he's saying, you know, you want to receive the word neatly, but we can't receive the
[25:55] word neatly, or humbly, right, or obediently, if we are angry, contentious, you know, again,
[26:04] quick to speak, slow to hear, quick to get angry, people, so he goes through that, and
[26:12] that alone is like, if we stop there, we'd be like, most of us, I got some work, and the
[26:18] great news is Jesus pays the price, and he gives us the spirit, and these are things
[26:21] we can get better at, I'm not the same person, and you know I'm arguing with Beth over a
[26:24] day, I'm better now, believe it or not, than I was, you know, 10 years ago, about arguing
[26:29] and thinking that I need to be right, and I'm better 10 years ago than I was 10 years
[26:32] before that, you know, so there is improvement, chat with you, you see it or not, you know,
[26:42] don't get discouraged because you are not there yet, but continue to work, and to me,
[26:49] the best thing you could do is to help find somebody to help you work through this, because
[26:53] to work by yourself, you don't see your faults, when people are willing to say, "Dude, you
[27:00] know, damn," you know, you're kind of, "I don't get mad about things, it don't matter,"
[27:05] you know, like, or maybe we should, like, and you're willing to hear that from somebody,
[27:09] that has great healing power, you know, and so don't get discouraged if this is, you're
[27:17] not there yet, you know, Christ is still working in your life, right, but, we should be working
[27:23] in those areas, right, we should be moving, we should be confessing our sins one another
[27:26] in those areas, and then he goes on this, and this is a pretty easy passage, it's part
[27:31] of it, it says, "But, but, be doers of the word, and not here as only, deceiving yourselves,
[27:37] so right off of that he's like, "Okay, well, if you come on Sundays as an example, and
[27:41] you walk out the door, forget everything that's said, and don't think about anything that's
[27:44] said the rest of the week, and don't even, you know, care until the next Sunday, you're
[27:47] deceiving yourselves about who you are, for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not
[27:55] a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks
[28:00] at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like."
[28:03] Now, back then, the mirrors don't look like the mirrors today, right, I did some research
[28:09] on mirrors, it was kind of interesting, but you would have to look more intently, right,
[28:14] because, first of all, it wasn't, you know, like it is now, super clear, and so it was
[28:18] always be a little bit shadowy, a little bit dark, and, you know, so people would look
[28:22] more closely at the mirror, and let's see, but even then, right, if you go to look at
[28:28] something and you notice something about your appearance, you know, if I miss half my size
[28:35] shave in my head this morning, and I looked in the mirror, and I turned around and, you
[28:38] know, "I gotta get dressed and take care of her later," and I came to church with it,
[28:42] that's ridiculous, right, that's ridiculous, right, I miss half my, I just saw it in the
[28:47] mirror and I did nothing about it, was no less ridiculous when we read the word of God,
[28:52] and we don't do it, when we know what to do and we don't do it, God has an expectation
[28:59] for us, not just to be hearers of the word, because he gives us instruction to be good
[29:04] hearers, right, be a good listener, then he says, "But don't just be a hearer, be a
[29:10] poor," because if you're not, then you're like the person who looks in the mirror and
[29:15] then forgets what he looks like, and if I have, if I look in the mirror, and I don't
[29:20] want to be gross, but if I have a booger in my nose, I have to do something about it,
[29:23] if I don't, you know, I should do something, walk away, people are like, "Uh, alright,"
[29:28] and some people would tell me, like, "I have full faith, that's what I would say, right,
[29:32] you have a booger in your nose." No, it's good, no, I want that from me, right? And other
[29:37] people would be like, just kind of look, not look at, right, but either way, if you're
[29:42] just like, do not, you know, the bottom lines, right, you look in the mirror, you want to
[29:47] do something about it, when we look into scripture and we see what we need to do, we're supposed
[29:52] to act, right, because we're verse 25, but the one who looks into the perfect law, the
[29:56] law of liberty and perseveres, there's that word again, perseveres, we saw it earlier,
[30:03] in James 1, "Being no here who forgets but a doer or her acts, he will be blessed in
[30:09] his doing." Wow, right, that's that, I don't know, we don't want to be out of sight out
[30:16] of mind, right, we leave here on Sundays and go, "Well, okay, well, I'm not there anymore,
[30:20] so I'll forget what it was just said, don't care." You may not say don't care, but that's
[30:25] what you're doing, you're deceiving yourself by pretending that you cared in the first
[30:27] place. And the bottom line is reading truth, right, it's not an end up to itself, right,
[30:37] if we don't read it, doing it, right, is an doing it, because we love Christ and we want
[30:44] to please him and obey him, right, and that is the end. And by the way, it's not just
[30:52] when he says this, because he says, you know, looks, but the one who looks into the perfect
[30:57] law, the law of liberty, and we think about the law, sometimes we think of Old Testament
[31:02] law, or you might even think of the Mosaic law that the, you know, the religious leaders
[31:06] were doing crazy stuff with in Jesus' time, right, making rules upon rules upon rules.
[31:12] No, when he says this law of liberty, right, James has this idea of all of God's counsel,
[31:17] right, it's a law of liberty, a law of freedom. And so, you know, it's freely given, it's freely
[31:26] accepted, and hopefully, you know, you think about Galatians 5, the Spirit, it's, you
[31:31] know, we receive it gladly and then do it through the power of the Spirit, right, as
[31:35] we learn and as we grow. And then he says, he will be blessed in his doing. And I, you
[31:43] know, I just think, I think he's referencing Psalms to that, Psalm 1. Psalm 1 says this,
[31:51] verse 1, "Blessed is the man who walks, not in the counsel of the wicked nor stands in
[31:55] the way of sinners nor sits at the seed of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of
[31:59] the Lord and on his law." He meditates day and night. I think he goes more into it. But
[32:04] I think that's what James is talking about. Blessed in his doing, you know, as we, blessed
[32:08] in the doing of reading Scripture and studying Scripture and listening and obeying, you know,
[32:14] God blessed. A Christ follower who reads and hears the Word of God and then applies the
[32:25] Word of God by being a doer, right. We can continue then. We know that they will continue
[32:32] in the faith. You see a lot of people that deconstruct, you heard that term, they deconstruct
[32:36] their faith and they basically leave the faith. And these are, here's the reasons why, right?
[32:42] I think we sang a great song last week, and I'm pretty sure. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty
[32:47] sure. But the person who wrote that song, "Blessed be the name," is one of those guys
[32:52] who deconstruct, or maybe that part of his band, is in his band, right. Meaning it's just
[32:58] a fancy word for he left the faith. Right. And I would love to chat and if you read some
[33:04] of these people who read, I'm like, they don't know Scripture. You hear what they're saying
[33:10] and they sound, you know, they try to make themselves sound very intelligent, but if you
[33:13] really dig into what they're saying, they don't know Scripture and they're definitely
[33:16] not doing Scripture. So they didn't, they didn't, they weren't quick to hear and slow
[33:21] to speak, right. In that regard, they didn't get, dig into what Scripture has, and then
[33:27] they didn't want to do what Scripture has to say. Too hard. And that's part of studying
[33:31] Scripture. We read Scripture like, yeah, that's, I mean, we're going to get into this next
[33:35] section, right. It's brutal. But how we should be like living as Christians, and some people
[33:41] would rather just go, eh, in one way, some form or another, that's too hard, or I don't
[33:47] want to do that. And they read Scripture with that bias and I can do certain things, you
[33:52] know. Well, when we, right, accept, right, this law of liberty, when we read it, right,
[34:02] knowing that God loves us and it's for us, right. He's given it to us. And it's given
[34:07] us the spirit to enact these things and to obey. Then, right, we continue in the faith
[34:17] as we are meant to live, as righteous, right, as those clinging to righteousness, both
[34:24] God's righteousness and working our righteousness daily, right. We get to the last part, James
[34:34] 126 and 127, man. And, you know, basically what he's going to do here is three specific
[34:42] areas that we can be doers. You know, because we all hear, you know, we're all here and
[34:47] sometimes I'm, I'm sitting out there and Chris or Raymond or somebody's preaching. I'm a
[34:51] writer and Sunday, when I was, when we were at, um, rambrian house, you know, I was
[34:58] a here as far as listening to what Lee had to say and listen to the Scripture being
[35:02] read. I worry, so we're all here. Are we all doers? I sometimes like, well, I don't
[35:10] not sure how that looks. James, okay, well, I'm going to help you with that. Okay. I'm
[35:14] going to help you with what? Maybe I'm going to give you three areas and it's probably
[35:18] not the only three areas, obviously, but three really important areas. I, I'm being a doer.
[35:23] And he says this in verse 26, if anyone thinks he's religious and does not bridle his tongue
[35:29] but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. One, religion that is pure and
[35:37] undefiled before God, the father is is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.
[35:43] Two, and to keep oneself on staying from the world as three and all three are not easy.
[35:52] Right? All three are difficult. Um, it's interesting because he talks about an unbridled
[35:59] tongue, but he doesn't really give us, right? Like what's wrong with this person's speech
[36:04] that he's talking about? He doesn't say, oh, you know, it's, this guy is being critical.
[36:08] He's, you know, he's whatever he'd be dishonest. He's, you know, angry, whatever he doesn't say.
[36:13] He just says an unbridled tongue. And I'm not going to get too much into that because
[36:17] James is going to talk more about the tongue later on in James. He's going to go with the
[36:20] dive on that. And so we'll wait until that happens. But I will say we kind of have a general
[36:24] idea of nothing else, what an unbridled tongue needs, right? Because he kind of gives to us
[36:28] right in the very beginning of this, this whole thing. Know this? My beloved brother's
[36:32] lettery person be quick to hear, slow to speak. So if you don't want an unbridled tongue,
[36:38] be slow to speak. Now you could still have an unbridled tongue and be slow to speak. So I don't
[36:42] want to say they're definitely too thing. But one way to help that is definitely be slow to speak.
[36:46] Be slow to speak. Um, and so we don't really know, but what he's saying though, that if you have
[36:55] an unbridled tongue, an uncontrolled tongue, it reveals to people, and hopefully somewhere
[37:03] along the line to yourself, that your religion is a sham. It's trash. He deceives himself,
[37:14] because we go back to verse 22, look what it says, but he'd be doers of the word, not here,
[37:17] is only deceiving yourselves. So if anyone thinks, and they go to 26, if anyone thinks
[37:21] his religion, he is religious and does not bridle his tongue. Again, he deceives himself,
[37:26] and this person's religion is worthless.
[37:28] Right on your tongue. God demands it. Right. And one way we can do that is as a people, God,
[37:42] is to be slow to speak. Quick to listen, slow to speak. If that was if I was if I was a teacher,
[37:54] and I was giving you homework or something, I would say repeat those things twice a day,
[37:58] every day for the next week, and say it more personally. Am I quick to listen? Am I slow to speak?
[38:08] Am I slow to anger? And say them over, say them over, and then say, God, show me the areas that
[38:17] I am not, or I am, depending on what they are. But if you do not bridle your tongue,
[38:25] this, anything that you do in Christ's name, he calls it, what does he say?
[38:32] Yeah, right. It's worthless. And then he goes on, he gives number two, look what he said in verse 27,
[38:38] religion that is pure and undefiled though, and it gives the opposite, right? This is what you
[38:44] are, unbridled tongue, garbage. But you want to pure and undefiled before God the Father,
[38:50] visit orphans and widows in there affliction. Now let's talk about visit. What do you mean
[38:55] by visit? Do you know what I mean? Just stop by and say hello. Okay. That's not what he means.
[39:00] Don't say, oh, hey, hope everything's okay. Good to see you. And then leave. God, I visited,
[39:08] right now. This idea of visit means, again, to do, right, to help, to give, and to really look
[39:16] at people that are hurting. Now he uses two examples, right? Orphans and widows.
[39:22] Orphans and widows back then were considered basically, you know, outside of society.
[39:29] They were outside of society. They were looked down upon very oftentimes, you know, they didn't have
[39:34] homes. They didn't have places to stay. They were, you know, just in rough, rough shape.
[39:38] And so in today's world, it might look a little different, right? But the point remains,
[39:46] compassion and kindness to those who are desperately in need.
[39:54] And passion and kindness to those who are desperate in need are reactions to the poor,
[39:59] the desperate, right? The hurting is a necessary part of who we are as Christ followers,
[40:06] our reaction to this. Now, it's interesting, right? Because
[40:11] within our group here, many of you have a mom that is a widow, right? Thank Chris, you know,
[40:23] we talk, just talking about your mom this morning. He's a widow.
[40:25] Everett's mom is a widow. Gail's mom is a widow. Chad's mom is a widow. I might be missing more.
[40:33] That's all I know about, but if there's more, but that's a lot of widows just in this, you know,
[40:38] here, like that we know of. And as I'm reading this, I'm thinking, man, like,
[40:44] I don't want to just do just to do, I want us to do because we love. How can we, and how can we not
[40:49] love those who are part of already our family? If we can't love the people within
[40:55] the family here that we have, and even the extended family, we're not going to go out and love
[41:00] those other people, right? My, my friend, and my friend, Corey Daker, he was his wrestling coach
[41:10] for four years in Clayton, and just got to know him great, you know, really well, and
[41:17] he came, and when the Lord was in the hospital, he came to the hospital and just was, you know,
[41:22] not, it wasn't saying at the time that I know if he might have gotten saved, he said you might know,
[41:26] but he took his life a couple of weeks ago, you know, you know, 49 years old, three kids at home,
[41:35] right? And we stopped by his, we stopped by his house to see his wife and to see Amy and,
[41:41] and I, well, Lori had, we had Ridley, so Lori stayed in the car with Ridley, and I went in and
[41:46] just talked to Amy for a while, and prayed with her, and, you know, she's not, you know, she said,
[41:51] "I'm trying to go to church. I don't know what else to do, but it's not my thing," you know, and,
[41:54] so we had a good conversation, but my man, she is, obviously, hurting, right? She has three little
[42:01] kids at home, two high schoolers, and one elementary student child, and they, like, I mean, obviously,
[42:11] she's just in pain, and I, and I had been, like, like, how can we, as a church, really,
[42:19] knowing what James says? And it's not just about widows and workers. I don't want, I don't want
[42:24] this, you know, I know you who grew, like, amazing stuff on Fridays, you know, with, you know, with
[42:29] the group, and helping special needs, and I know Beth goes to the house of Hope, along with some
[42:34] others, Rita, and some other people, and, and do great work with that, and that's all part of this,
[42:41] right? And so, I want you to know, like, it's a bigger picture than, and then just widows and
[42:44] orphans, but he's using widows and orphans because they are oftentimes so desperate in need,
[42:49] so desperate in need. And so, like, I've been just, as that happened, and, and when Laura just
[42:59] talking to the lawyer, it's like, how can we, like, how, like, why don't you, I don't know,
[43:03] I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do for the, for Amy, Amy Daker, after her husband,
[43:10] after she lost her husband, I don't know what to do for her kids. We have, again, we have group
[43:15] people with widows, I don't know how we can help. And so, I'm asking you, over the next week,
[43:21] is to help me, but I don't know. If there's specifics for, I'll use Chad as your mom, as an
[43:30] example, because I just don't know. If there's things that we can do as a church, whether it's
[43:34] one time, or whether it's consistently, we need to know that, right? If there's something that you
[43:40] know that we can encourage Amy's, Amy's family with outside of our church,
[43:44] then other churches, he did come to my old church a couple times, like, this kind of
[43:49] opinion, like, you know, like, you never really, it's all, you know, I just don't know much about,
[43:53] you know, we talked spiritually, and he was always like, you know, never against it,
[43:57] but never really seemed to be for it. But he was going to church more regularly.
[44:03] But if there's something you think we can do, or you know, like, please, I, I don't know.
[44:10] My heart breaks for, for families, whether they're here in our church who have moms that are widows.
[44:18] Man, let us help. I let us help. Tell us how we can help, because there are times when I think
[44:27] it is fully appropriate and even better to go do on a Sunday morning, right, to go help on a
[44:32] Sunday morning to sit here and listen more, right? Or on Saturday, or whatever day. I'm just doing
[44:38] that example. And so if there's something we can do, let us know, right? He also speaks of orphans,
[44:45] and obviously we don't, orphans is a different term. We don't, you know, typically use that. I
[44:50] remember when Lori's mom died, her dad had died when she was, when, you know, when he was 52,
[44:55] and then her mom died, like, around 10 years later, and she goes, you know, as a kind of
[45:00] some brevity at the moment, she goes, well, I guess I'm an orphan. You know, and she was just
[45:06] being funny. She didn't, you know, me, technically she did this, but, you know, that, you know,
[45:11] that's not what, he's not really speaking into that, because, you know, she has help. And
[45:15] but there are a ridiculous, and then a foster kids.
[45:21] The, the, if you look it up, it's hard to get a, a true accurate number, but it's somewhere between
[45:27] 350 and 500,000 kids in America. Foster kids. In North Carolina, there's around
[45:36] 10,000 foster kids, and only 5,000 foster families. So what are the other 5,000 doing?
[45:44] And I tell you that now, because I think everybody has to go out and do something. I say that because
[45:49] there's a need, right? And maybe some people haven't thought of that need,
[45:55] and we should. I tell you because it is near to my heart, some of you have come from families
[46:02] that adopted, right? That did foster care. So you understand the sacrifice, the hardships that
[46:08] that comes with. But I say that because, you know, I know, I know Mike and Bailey are going,
[46:15] are working towards fostering, and we want to be a people that pour, like pour into their lives,
[46:24] anybody who chooses to go that route. And I know it's not for everybody, right? There's other,
[46:30] that's why I said it's not just orphans and we don't. It's a bigger picture thing.
[46:34] Not everybody should be going out and trying to foster. They're not. They should.
[46:39] Just not the people that, you know, they can't do it. And they know their personalities,
[46:43] they know what God is giving them. But I would say that you may not know that,
[46:47] even though you may already think you know that, right? Because you've never prayed about it.
[46:51] You've never had a conversation right off the bat, you're like, I'll end it up.
[46:55] I would say at least, at least, ask, like, at least bring it up, right? Start thinking about it.
[47:01] Because I, Laurie and I, I mean, it was a long time when we didn't think really now. I guess we did.
[47:04] And not everybody's out. I'm not, you know, believe me. If you saw the kind of positive
[47:11] parent I was talking about, that was great. So I'm not popping myself on the back by any means.
[47:16] All I'm saying is that this is an area that is, that James is just kind of just going right
[47:25] at. And we all have nice houses. We all drive nice cars. We all have, you know, things
[47:32] our lives are pretty, you know, pretty good. God has given us a lot of things.
[47:36] And if we never think outside of that, if we never think, how can I help the most desperate
[47:43] among us, then we're missing out. When James is saying, listen, think about the most desperate.
[47:51] And that looks different. Again, it may not be foster care. It may not be adoption. It might
[47:55] be helping out house of hope. It may be helping in another area of people who desperately need
[48:00] your help. Important time, energy, resources, money, all that into that. Okay, again, I don't
[48:08] want you to think that this is me telling everybody, you know, everybody here, you know,
[48:13] you guys got to start thinking about it now. All right, I want you to look at scripture.
[48:16] I think I convict me in the areas I need to be convicted in.
[48:22] Help me if I have a closed off area in my life that I think I can't do something.
[48:27] Show me if you want me to show me that I can.
[48:29] And I will tell you that if anybody ever, right, decides to go the route of that or needs help
[48:37] in another area of people, please let us know. Right, we will do. All right, we will help. I
[48:45] promise you that. If you have things that your your mothers that I just said, there's areas in
[48:51] your lives and mother's lives that who are widows that we can help, please let us know.
[48:56] We will help. Right, because that's who we are. That's who we have to be. And I already know that
[49:03] about us as a church. You know, we've talked about this before in my life. Like there's
[49:07] every anybody in this church. I know that if I was desperate, I needed to help and I called any
[49:12] person they would come, they'd be at my door. And I love that about this church. I love that
[49:18] about the people here. And so I don't I don't want you to think I'm trying to bash anybody
[49:22] or I'm not at all. I just want us to know that James is getting pretty specific and saying,
[49:29] don't just be a here be a doer. And here's an area. Real quick, he finishes out with this.
[49:37] He just says, and to keep one on staying from the world. We tend to be here's of the word
[49:47] and here's of the world. Right. That's kind of where we're at. And just look at our lives. We
[49:52] tend to let the world seep into our lives and how we talk. Now we speak. What's important, how we
[49:58] raise our kids, everything has a little paint of the world and it's and we need to be careful
[50:03] that because he says, right? Oh, here's an example of being a doer. Keep yourself untainted,
[50:10] unstained from the world. James four, four, he's going to talk more about this. He says this,
[50:18] you adulterous people. Okay, thanks James. Do you not know? First of all, he's calling you an
[50:25] adulterer and calling me an adulterer, right? So, you know, but why? Do you not know that the
[50:30] friendship with the world that is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the
[50:35] world makes himself an enemy of God? Ouch. And so, just be careful. And how do you do that?
[50:42] Let's circle back. Let's listen to what scripture says. Let's be quick to listen.
[50:50] Right? Slow to speak. Slow to anger. The person whose faith is genuine will tend to be and this is
[51:02] this is a sanctified person, right? Who's been in the scripture, who's been listening in the church
[51:08] and being a doer, right? Somebody whose faith is genuine will be quick to listen, slow to speak,
[51:14] slow to anger. They would put spiritual truth into practice. They will be doers and our lives
[51:22] will be marked by love for others and holiness before God. And love is not just a feeling.
[51:28] Remember John Mayer, he's saying, "I love his verb." All right. I think that's all by John Mayer, right?
[51:34] Love is a verb. It's action. Even John Mayer knew, right? Even John Mayer knew.
[51:42] It was only a courage just as a church. Let's not leave here today and just go get it. Whatever.
[51:47] Oh, how am I going to be quick to hear slow to speak, slow to anger?
[51:55] How am I going to bridle my tongue? How am I going to think more purposefully about those who are truly
[52:05] hurting? And what can we do? That's our assignment. That part, right, is if you know something we can do,
[52:14] let us, let us do it. It's the job, right? It's our responsibility to say, "Let us help you.
[52:22] Let us be a part of this together." So many people take burdens on themselves. And yes,
[52:30] family is supposed to take care of their loved ones, understand. But the church can still walk
[52:36] beside you and help in the areas when you need help. Okay? Let's pray. And then Chris,
[52:41] you can kind of come up one and have a break. Father, just thank you for this. This is powerful,
[52:46] hard to hear, but necessary. Father, just real quick, I just ask you, Lord, to help us,
[52:55] help us, please help us. To be quick to hear slow to speak and slow to get angry.
[53:03] Father, help us to be doers. We see right here in scripture things that we should be doing,
[53:10] bridling our tongue, helping those who are desperate need,
[53:14] being unstained from the world, help us in those areas, Lord.
[53:20] Give us knowledge that we don't have to help us with, give us wisdom, convict us.
[53:25] May we leave here today, change people. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.