SPEAKER_00: My name is Pastor Sammy, one of the pastors here at the Springs.
SPEAKER_00: Glad that you're here with us today.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bibles, would you open it to the book of James?
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, you can find a Bible under the seat in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: Book of James is where we will be today.
SPEAKER_00: And so there'll be a Bible in the book or in the chair in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know how to get to James, maybe the person next to you, you can ask how to get to the book of James.
SPEAKER_00: There's a concordance in the front.
SPEAKER_00: Or just ask for help.
SPEAKER_00: They won't bite you.
SPEAKER_00: I hope not.
SPEAKER_00: But real quick, just an announcement we we forgot to make.
SPEAKER_00: Today, right after the service, we have our financial workshop that Brother Patrick is going to lead that really stemmed from.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we can clap for that.
SPEAKER_00: We were going through Proverbs and talking about being wise, being wise with money, and we said, hey, why don't we offer a workshop after church where we'll provide some lunch?
SPEAKER_00: So again, if you want to like last week, just come and get a sandwich.
SPEAKER_00: You can come and hang out and have some have some lunch.
SPEAKER_00: But we're going to be talking about how to save money, how to be wise with money, how to be good stewards.
SPEAKER_00: And so would definitely invite you to come after service to that.
SPEAKER_00: And also for any of our Spanish speakers as well, we have our Spanish Bible Fellowship in Module 3.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, James chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: We've been going through our series verse by verse, walking through James series is entitled Fruitful Faith.
SPEAKER_00: There's a story of a businessman who is getting ready, a CEO, to go on vacation.
SPEAKER_00: And before he was going on vacation, he wanted to make sure his business was in good hands.
SPEAKER_00: And so he went to his assistant and gave his assistant a letter of his instructions and all the things the company needed to do to thrive and to survive.
SPEAKER_00: And so the CEO left for his time on vacation and came back.
SPEAKER_00: And when he came back, after the couple weeks he was gone, to his surprise, the company was in chaos.
SPEAKER_00: People weren't doing what they were supposed to be doing.
SPEAKER_00: It was just pure chaos.
SPEAKER_00: So he goes to his assistant, he says, Hey, did you receive the letter?
SPEAKER_00: I handed it to you.
SPEAKER_00: Did you open it and read it?
SPEAKER_00: And the assistant says, Yes, I did.
SPEAKER_00: I took the letter, I got it, actually printed out the letter, and I sent it to every employee.
SPEAKER_00: All of us have the letter, and we've all read it.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Some of us, we've even gathered together and have done studies of the letter, on the words and the intentions of every single word.
SPEAKER_00: Even a few of us have become, we we began memorizing the letter.
SPEAKER_00: And the CEO says, but did you do anything the letter said?
SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, they they didn't.
SPEAKER_00: And we do the same thing with God's word, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Where God, our manager of our life, of the universe, has given us a set of instructions to live by.
SPEAKER_00: And we hear the word, but fail to do it.
SPEAKER_00: We study the word, but fail to walk in it.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what our text is about today, this morning in James chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes week to week, we come in here, we hear the preaching of the Word of God, we can sit in Bible studies, we can memorize verses in the Bible, but when we examine our day-to-day life, nothing changes.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how many of us in here we've felt conviction of the same sin over and over and over again with little to no progress?
SPEAKER_00: We're much like the employees of the story, where we have the letter from the boss, but do very little to apply it.
SPEAKER_00: James 1, 22, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: See, there is an epidemic in the church today.
SPEAKER_00: We are flooded with biblical knowledge, with podcasts, with books, with Bibles, study Bibles, Christian content and social media, online sermons.
SPEAKER_00: The issue isn't biblical content, the issue is conforming to the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So what's the solution?
SPEAKER_00: Because we know that this the problem isn't with the word of God, the problem is with us.
SPEAKER_00: So what can we do?
SPEAKER_00: And our text answers that for us today.
SPEAKER_00: So I want us to stand in this moment in reverence for the reading of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk briefly about why we stand, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Because this is something we haven't always done, but are beginning to do in our service as a tradition.
SPEAKER_00: Because some of y'all are like, man, I'm comfy.
SPEAKER_00: You know, my seat's starting to get warm.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we gotta, why do we gotta stand up?
SPEAKER_00: You see, we stand in reverence and respect for things to give honor.
SPEAKER_00: When a bride comes down, when the king, a present, important person comes into the room when we see something uh spectacular in an event, in a sporting event or whatever, or a performance, we stand in a standing ovation.
SPEAKER_00: We show honor of a significant thing that's happening.
SPEAKER_00: Because during the sermon, yes, it's the word of God, but it's mixed with me and my words filled with the Spirit, doing my best to interpret it.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a moment that we have in the service where we just hear from God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And we're standing here saying, God is here in the room, and he is speaking through his word.
SPEAKER_00: We are church grounded in this book.
SPEAKER_00: So let's read James chapter 1, verses 19 through 27.
SPEAKER_00: It says this, know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
SPEAKER_00: For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
SPEAKER_00: But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
SPEAKER_00: For he looks at himself and goes away at once, forgets what he was like, but the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being not hearers who forget, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: The question we're answering today is how do we become doers of the word and not just hearers?
SPEAKER_00: Pray with me.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we thank you for your word that you've given us.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for hunger and expectancy in this moment to receive it.
SPEAKER_00: But not just to receive it, but look to obey it, God.
SPEAKER_00: And with that, we need your help.
SPEAKER_00: And so right now, Lord Jesus, come and fill us.
SPEAKER_00: Glorify yourself, Lord God.
SPEAKER_00: Glorify yourself in this moment through the preaching of your word.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: The past two weeks we've been in uh chapter one of James, and we'll finish chapter one today.
SPEAKER_00: And James has spent the majority of the verses we've been reading talking about having joy in trials, persevering in trials to be faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And here James shifts to us being doers of the word and not just hearers.
SPEAKER_00: A reminder that James, this book can be summarized with two words prove it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just say it, prove it with your life.
SPEAKER_00: And so we start here in verse 19 of our passage.
SPEAKER_00: So look into your Bibles there in verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: And when I I want to be intentional here, and just this is even a teaching moment.
SPEAKER_00: I try to, in my preaching of the word, have moments where I'll say, look at such verse.
SPEAKER_00: Look here at verse such and such.
SPEAKER_00: It's so that we can take a moment and actually in our Bibles look down in that verse to see it.
SPEAKER_00: And so look at verse 19, that first verse, examine it with me.
SPEAKER_00: Know this, my beloved brothers.
SPEAKER_00: Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this this verse may be familiar to some of us.
SPEAKER_00: It's commonly used in the context to our personal relationships, that in our relationships with others, we should be slow to speak, quick to listen, and slow to anger.
SPEAKER_00: But when we look at the text, yes, it can relate to our relationships with one another, but in reality it's talking about our response to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you look at verse 19 and 21, or the verse before 19 and 21, you can see that James sandwiches this command of being quick to listen in between verse 18 and 21, where it's talking about the word.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at verse 18, the verse prior, it says, Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 21, it says, Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the what?
SPEAKER_00: Implanted word.
SPEAKER_00: So here when it says quick to hear, yes, it can mean in our relationships, but what James is saying is be quick to hear the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be slow to hear it and quick to respond.
SPEAKER_00: No, receive it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the first point of how do we become doers of the word and not just hearers, is receive the word humbly.
SPEAKER_00: Receive the word humbly.
SPEAKER_00: We see in verse 19 this command: be quick to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Be quick to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Hearing and receiving the word of God is a command.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It says, let every person be quick to hear.
SPEAKER_00: And some of us might say, Well, how can this be talking about the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: It has to be talking about relationships because it's saying, you know, quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
SPEAKER_00: But I I think about Jonah.
SPEAKER_00: When the prophet Jonah in the Old Testament heard the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he was not quick to hear, he was quick to run.
SPEAKER_00: And we see at the end when God calls him to preach of repentance and forgiveness that God can offer and God shows grace to the people of Nineveh, how does he respond?
SPEAKER_00: In anger.
SPEAKER_00: With a lot of words to say.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can do that with the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Where we're not quick and eager to listen, to receive that word humbly.
SPEAKER_00: So how can we be doers of the word and not just hearers?
SPEAKER_00: You have to hear first.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You have to hear.
SPEAKER_00: So what you're doing right now in this very moment is obeying the word of God by listening to the word.
SPEAKER_00: Listening to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And this is such an important thing for us to understand that we need to find and be a part of a Bible-preaching, gospel-centered church and attend that church weekly to be quick to listen.
SPEAKER_00: That we hear God's word, we submit ourselves under it and receive it humbly.
SPEAKER_00: So, how can we receive the word humbly?
SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons we can hear the word week to week and nothing happens, nothing changes is because of 20 and 21.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Our goal is to produce the righteousness of God, meaning to reflect God in the way that we live, to reflect God's goodness.
SPEAKER_00: And we can't do that with an angry heart.
SPEAKER_00: And I would say, be careful with anger.
SPEAKER_00: Because anger is easy to justify.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than maybe lying or stealing or sexual sin.
SPEAKER_00: For some reason, anger in our hearts is easier to justify because we can look at the circumstances and justify our response of anger.
SPEAKER_00: But we're called to be patient and kind.
SPEAKER_00: That's the command.
SPEAKER_00: This Greek word anger symbolizes deep resentment or rejection of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And when we preach on Sundays, when I mention Greek word, the reason I say that is the New Testament was originally written in the Greek language, and this is a translation of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can have a deeper understanding when we look at the original language of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So anyone can claim to follow Jesus, but anger often exposes that truth.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot receive the word, and the word will not be able to change us with anger in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: But not just anger.
SPEAKER_00: Any sin.
SPEAKER_00: Anything.
SPEAKER_00: We see that in verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness.
SPEAKER_00: And receive with meekness or humility.
SPEAKER_00: This is where I get our first point.
SPEAKER_00: Receive with meekness, humility, the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
SPEAKER_00: So there's two commands here.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21 says, there's a command to what?
SPEAKER_00: Put away.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's a command to receive.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_00: Put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive the implanted word.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this of what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is exactly the reason why so many of us fail to be doers.
SPEAKER_00: Lean in here.
SPEAKER_00: What's being done here in this moment in the original language is what James is saying is you cannot receive unless you put away.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the order there?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, take these things off.
SPEAKER_00: And then once you take these things, these things off, then you can receive the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Do you get what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm just making sure.
SPEAKER_00: Brother Eddie's not here in the back to, you know, scream out glory.
SPEAKER_00: So I need I need y'all's help.
SPEAKER_00: I need y'all's help, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We cannot receive with meekness or humility the implanted word because we are already filled with sin and distraction in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: It's like this, it's like coming to church on a Sunday is almost like coming to a banquet, a five-star restaurant, and they're sitting a beautiful full course meal, a filet mignon, a beautiful steak.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, dream of it, whatever it is before you.
SPEAKER_00: But you had already eaten some McDonald's.
SPEAKER_00: And you're full to the brim.
SPEAKER_00: You can't have anything else.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's like to come on Sunday and to hear the word, but be filled with the filth of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Where yes, we can hear it, but we're not really hearing it.
SPEAKER_00: We can hear it, but it's not what?
SPEAKER_00: Getting implanted.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's something already filling us.
SPEAKER_00: Why does that happen?
SPEAKER_00: Look at that word, it says rampant wickedness.
SPEAKER_00: Or some translations there, and maybe your Bible says pervasive.
SPEAKER_00: It means it's all around us.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we live in a day and age that's filled with deadly sins, sinful distractions, right?
SPEAKER_00: On our phones and in the media, friends, it's all around us.
SPEAKER_00: It's pervasive, it's rampant.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're not careful, we become filled with these distractions or these sins and these temptations.
SPEAKER_00: And we come on Sunday and we hear the word, but we're filled already.
SPEAKER_00: We have no space.
SPEAKER_00: So, what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: We have to, as it says, put it away.
SPEAKER_00: I love what 1 Peter 2 says.
SPEAKER_00: It does the same thing that James is doing.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 2, verses 1 through 3.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander, like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, which is the word of God, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the same pattern?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see that.
SPEAKER_00: There's a put away the malice, put away the filth, and receive the word.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason we can't receive it humbly is because we're not empty.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to be empty.
SPEAKER_00: This word filthiness here in the Greek, it can be used as moral vices, but it's also can be used for dirty clothes.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We can't put on new and clean clothes with our dirty clothes on.
SPEAKER_00: We have to take it off.
SPEAKER_00: The other way this word was used back in that day for filthiness could be used to describe earwax.
SPEAKER_00: Now I asked my wife if I should share the story or not.
SPEAKER_00: And she she gave me approval.
SPEAKER_00: It's about me.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, is this gonna be too embarrassing?
SPEAKER_00: So I have these headphones, and one of the headphones stopped working, but the other one was completely fine.
SPEAKER_00: And I had just gotten these headphones.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, man, like something's not, you know, after a couple weeks, something's not working, one I can hear clearly, the other one is super faint.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at the settings, I'm looking at all these things.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: Until I noticed what the problem was.
SPEAKER_00: One of them was filled with earwax.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, it was blocking the sound.
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it's filthy.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the point here.
SPEAKER_00: And some of us, we come, I know y'all, some of y'all are judging me right now.
SPEAKER_00: I'll work, I'll work my mo uh, I'ma stop.
SPEAKER_00: I'ma stop.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not, I don't want to share too much.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: But the but the point we see here is this we come with the filth in our ears.
SPEAKER_00: And we can't hear, we can hear, it's faint, we can even feel conviction.
SPEAKER_00: We can even say amen.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't go deep.
SPEAKER_00: It's not implanted because we're not empty.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to humbly, meekly receive, is desperately.
SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't eat the the McDonald's on the way here.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I need.
SPEAKER_00: I'm hungry.
SPEAKER_00: I'm empty.
SPEAKER_00: This is what's gonna fill me, what's gonna change me.
SPEAKER_00: To be desperate.
SPEAKER_00: And even now, in this moment, is that your attitude?
SPEAKER_00: To be quick to listen, even in this moment, the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Of God, empty me right now.
SPEAKER_00: God, I'm filled with so much filth.
SPEAKER_00: Empty me in this very moment.
SPEAKER_00: So I can receive your word.
SPEAKER_00: So I can receive it and let it go deep and plant it in my soul.
SPEAKER_00: You see in verse 21, what's the word able to do?
SPEAKER_00: It says, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
SPEAKER_00: When we understand the beauty of what God's word is able to do, then we'll receive it with humble humbly in desperation.
SPEAKER_00: That his word saves our souls.
SPEAKER_00: That the word of God saves us from eternal damnation, from separation from the Father for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: His word does that.
SPEAKER_00: But not only eternally, the word of God saves us circumstantially.
SPEAKER_00: When we're in despair, when we're in ruin in our lives, the word of God gives us hope.
SPEAKER_00: And it gives us peace.
SPEAKER_00: It saves us.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a book.
SPEAKER_00: This here is the revelation of God.
SPEAKER_00: We would have no idea of what it means to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Who Jesus is, his death, his resurrection, what we can, what we're supposed to do with our lives without this book.
SPEAKER_00: It is the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And it saves us.
SPEAKER_00: I remember many years ago I saw a video of Chinese believers receiving a Bible for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: It was popular back in the day.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you saw it.
SPEAKER_00: But in places with persecution that's rampant, and in a place like China, many of them only have parts of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Literally pages handwritten.
SPEAKER_00: They memorize the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: They pass notes after they memorize a certain amount to give to the next person.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you have James 2?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll take that.
SPEAKER_00: You take.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have the Bible, and this video shows them this bag full of Bibles as it's being opened, people running to get a Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And it shows them picking them picking it up from the bag, and they're weeping in tears.
SPEAKER_00: And they're kissing it over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Saying, this is what we needed.
SPEAKER_00: Our problem isn't that we don't have Bibles, we have more than enough Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't want to receive it empty and desperate, quick to listen.
SPEAKER_00: But we receive his word humbly.
SPEAKER_00: What are the things in your life that you must be rid of to receive the word humbly?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about that.
SPEAKER_00: What are the things that are preventing you from receiving the word humbly?
SPEAKER_00: James 1 22.
SPEAKER_00: Next verse.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the main verse of the message.
SPEAKER_00: But be doers of the word.
SPEAKER_00: And not only hearers, deceiving yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: That's how James starts in verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, he says, know this, understand this, and I want to come to you right now.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way James is writing this letter with this warning.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, do not deceive yourself.
SPEAKER_00: See, it's bad to deceive others, but it it is far worse to deceive yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Because you have no idea.
SPEAKER_00: Do not think because you come to a service and you hear, or you grew up in a family with a grandparent or a parent who would say the word of God, or you're around the word of God, or because there's a Bible in your room, that is not what makes you a follower of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's a being a doer of the word, not just a hearer.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a warning, please, please don't be deceived.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be deceived.
SPEAKER_00: And the believer, when you hear this, and there's this moment of, okay, am I deceiving myself?
SPEAKER_00: Am I saved?
SPEAKER_00: See, the believer's response when they hear a warning is to run to Christ, which confirms that you know him.
SPEAKER_00: And repent.
SPEAKER_00: But when we hear the warning and we stay in it, that's a dangerous place to be.
SPEAKER_00: This is the second point.
SPEAKER_00: How do we become doers of the word and not just hearers?
SPEAKER_00: Receive the word humbly, reflect on the word daily.
SPEAKER_00: Reflect on the word daily.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: James, here he uses an illustration, an example of someone who hears the word but fails to obey it, what that may look like.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23 and 24.
SPEAKER_00: For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
SPEAKER_00: For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think of the absurdity.
SPEAKER_00: That's what James is trying to do right now.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to the craziness of that.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: How can someone look in a mirror and see themselves and forget what they look like?
SPEAKER_00: Instantly.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't take long if you look there.
SPEAKER_00: Instantly forgets what he looks like at once.
SPEAKER_00: How can someone do that?
SPEAKER_00: And it's the same for the person who hears the word and does not do it.
SPEAKER_00: See, James calling the word of God, a mirror shows us two things the word does.
SPEAKER_00: First, it exposes.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: What is the purpose of a mirror then to reflect?
SPEAKER_00: Show us.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about you in the morning, but you wake up in the morning, it exposes a lot of what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We may have some dry boogers in your eye, that you know, crust on the side of your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: If you're me, you got I use some breeze strips for breathing, and you still got the hanging hanging on there.
SPEAKER_00: Your hair's disheveled.
SPEAKER_00: The mirror exposes.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And then in the same way, that's what the word of God does.
SPEAKER_00: It's a mirror that we look at our life and we can see how we fall short.
SPEAKER_00: We can see what needs to change.
SPEAKER_00: We can be convicted by it.
SPEAKER_00: And in the same way, that's what God's word does.
SPEAKER_00: It shows, like we saw in the verses before, the anger, the filthiness, the wickedness.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard the word of God preached or read it and you felt exposed?
SPEAKER_00: That's what the word does.
SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes that's an example used talking about this text.
SPEAKER_00: But I think when you look at this text, the problem with the man isn't so much revealing or exposing something.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is the man forgetting who he is.
SPEAKER_00: It is forgetting who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Does this describe you where you can hear the word of God, you can be so encouraged that you're reminded, you're a son, you're a daughter of God, you're adopted, you've been forgiven, you're washed, you're the righteousness of God, you are a indwelt by the Holy Spirit, a temple of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then you go out to your day-to-day and you forget who you are.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God reminds us of our identity.
SPEAKER_00: Belief causes behavior.
SPEAKER_00: That's something I say a lot.
SPEAKER_00: What we believe will affect how we behave.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're not behaving rightly, we have to go back.
SPEAKER_00: What am I believing?
SPEAKER_00: There's something I'm not believing rightly, and that's what the word of God does is a mirror, yes, to expose the flaws, but a mirror that reveals who we are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What God's word says that we are.
SPEAKER_00: So how do we combat this?
SPEAKER_00: How do we become doers?
SPEAKER_00: We reflect or remember the word daily.
SPEAKER_00: Reflect on the word daily.
SPEAKER_00: There was um research that was done uh by the Bible engagement project of what happens, they researched what happens when a follower of Jesus reads the Bible daily.
SPEAKER_00: So they saw a Christian who reads the Bible only one to three times a week, nothing much happens.
SPEAKER_00: There's no significant effect that reading the Bible one to three times a week has on a person.
SPEAKER_00: But they saw someone who read four times at least or more radical changes in that person's life.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what they found with those people.
SPEAKER_00: Excessive drinking went down 62%.
SPEAKER_00: Viewing pornography was down 59%.
SPEAKER_00: Having sex outside of marriage was down 59%, gambling 49%, lashing out anger.
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is less of negative of 31%, gossiping, negative 28% lying, 28% less likely, neglecting family, 26%.
SPEAKER_00: Overspending or mishandling money, less than 20%.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we need to go to the class after this.
SPEAKER_00: But do you see the word of God when it's implanted?
SPEAKER_00: It does something.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And that's not just with sin, but with how we feel.
SPEAKER_00: It says feeling bitter, less than 40%.
SPEAKER_00: It goes down, negative 40%, thinking destructively about self or others, 32%, feeling like they have to hide what they do or feel, 32%, again, less likely, having difficulty forgiving others, 31% down, feeling discouraged, 31%, experiencing loneliness, 30%, experiencing fear or anxiety, down 14%, having difficulty forgiving oneself, 26%.
SPEAKER_00: And what we feel, the word of God changes, and it's about what we do.
SPEAKER_00: Giving financially to a church, someone that they found read their Bible four times or more in a week, goes up 416%.
SPEAKER_00: See what the word of God does when it gets implanted.
SPEAKER_00: Memorizing scripture 407%.
SPEAKER_00: Discipling others 231%.
SPEAKER_00: Sharing their faith with others, 228%.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because when this book gets in you, it changes you.
SPEAKER_00: It changes you.
SPEAKER_00: You can't stay the way that you are when you're in this book.
SPEAKER_00: And this isn't about doing things, this is allowing the word of God to change you, to get in the Bible, to read it, it read it, be in it, to swim in it.
SPEAKER_00: Read your Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: Spend daily time alone with God to read your Bibles, meditate on it.
SPEAKER_00: What does meditate mean?
SPEAKER_00: The Hebrew word for that can be translated mumbling.
SPEAKER_00: It creates this picture of someone under their breath repeating the words of God to themselves.
SPEAKER_00: To meditate, let it sink in, memorize it, study it.
SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you, we have groups here Thursday night, midweek, where we have uh women in here in this very room, about 20 of them walking through the book of Ephesians, verse by verse, challenging each other, not just to be reading it there and studying it deeper, discussing it, but also daily reading it.
SPEAKER_00: We're doing the same thing with the men.
SPEAKER_00: We're walking through the book of Mark, verse by verse, challenging each other, encouraging each other to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And you might be saying, where do I start?
SPEAKER_00: I'd say, come on a Thursday.
SPEAKER_00: If you can't come on a Thursday, ask somebody.
SPEAKER_00: You can come to me at the end of service.
SPEAKER_00: I can point you to somebody of well, how do I read, or where do I go, or what do I do?
SPEAKER_00: We want to help you to do that.
SPEAKER_00: As your pastor, that's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: I was meeting up with somebody, and you know, I was just like, this is all I got.
SPEAKER_00: This is all I got.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have anything else.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all have been believers more than I've been alive.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have much life experience.
SPEAKER_00: But this is all I got for you.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what you need.
SPEAKER_00: And you need this book.
SPEAKER_00: You need to get in it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's gonna change our church.
SPEAKER_00: When we're in this book, reflect on God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep reading.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
SPEAKER_00: We see two different names for the Bible here, the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We see the perfect law and the law of liberty.
SPEAKER_00: It says, who looks into this perfect law, this law of liberty, liberty, not with a glance, but intently, who perseveres in the looking, in the reading, in the listening, perseveres in it.
SPEAKER_00: Daily, this reflecting on the word to get in the heart.
SPEAKER_00: And some may wonder, man, isn't the Bible like it's just a bunch of rules?
SPEAKER_00: It's a bunch of do's and don'ts.
SPEAKER_00: It wants to chain me down.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be free.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that a contradiction?
SPEAKER_00: The law of liberty?
SPEAKER_00: How do those things come together?
SPEAKER_00: Law and freedom?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing: apart from the word of God, the law of liberty, we are in bondage to sin.
SPEAKER_00: We are in bondage, entrapped, ensnared.
SPEAKER_00: And there is one place where freedom can be found.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the law of liberty, in God's word.
SPEAKER_00: True freedom from the power of sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's there in the perfect law.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens when we reflect on it, when we persevere in it, when we look into it?
SPEAKER_00: It says he will be blessed in his doing.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to be blessed in my doing.
SPEAKER_00: We have to persevere.
SPEAKER_00: We have to reflect on it daily.
SPEAKER_00: Last point how do we become doers of the word and not just hearers?
SPEAKER_00: Hearers, obey the word faithfully.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 26 and 27.
SPEAKER_00: Last verse is if anyone thinks he's religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Again, verse 26 and 27 is showing us the result of the implanted word.
SPEAKER_00: It's showing us the result of persevering in the word of God, that it does something.
SPEAKER_00: It gives two examples to control our words, control our tongues.
SPEAKER_00: But also to do what?
SPEAKER_00: To take care of orphans and widows.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to get more into that passage the following week as we get to the beginning of chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: But it's outward.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian faith is outward.
SPEAKER_00: It shows something.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus doesn't just save us, He sanctifies us, and then He sends us.
SPEAKER_00: He sends us out to walk in obedience, to walk with Him.
SPEAKER_00: That's what true religion is.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the problem in America we think walking with Jesus is about information and not transformation.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay, I've learned a new thing about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I did that book study, I did that thing, I listened to that message, I learned the background, the c that's valuable.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not about more information, it's about transformation by the word of God, by the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't also want to get us distracted that when we're talking about being a doer of the word, that's about a list.
SPEAKER_00: Because you could be deceiving yourselves and trusting in your religion and your goodness and not in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Don't confuse intimacy with activity.
SPEAKER_00: Those are two different things.
SPEAKER_00: You can have activity for Jesus without intimacy with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's letting him come inside and change you.
SPEAKER_00: I close with this quote.
SPEAKER_00: Charles Spurgeon talking about John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress, he was imprisoned in the 1700s for 12 years.
SPEAKER_00: 12 years he was in prison.
SPEAKER_00: All because he didn't sign a piece of paper that said he would stop preaching the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't renounce Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't burn this Bible, step on it.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't renounce your faith.
SPEAKER_00: All it was was sign this paper saying that you won't preach Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can follow him, you can pray to him, but you cannot share him with others.
SPEAKER_00: All he needed to do was sign it, and he was good to go back to his family.
SPEAKER_00: But he stayed there for 12 years because he knew he was called to preach Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And Charles Spurgeon talking about John Bunyan, this great author, for some of us who are familiar with the Pilgrim's Progress, he says this about Bunyan, and I pray that it would be said of us.
SPEAKER_00: He says, when you prick him, he bleeds the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: He was a man so filled with the Word of God and his actions and his speech that when you would prick him, he would bleed the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, if we were to be pricked, if I was to come and prick you, what would you bleed?
SPEAKER_00: Would you bleed the filth of this world?
SPEAKER_00: Or would you bleed the Bible, the Word of God, deep in your souls?
SPEAKER_00: That's my prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That's the only hope that we have.
SPEAKER_00: And it starts just here week in, week out, when we come into this room to come expectant and hungry.
SPEAKER_00: And it's understanding this that the sermon is not finished now as we wrap up.
SPEAKER_00: The sermon has just begun.
SPEAKER_00: It has just started every week.
SPEAKER_00: When I say amen, when we leave, the sermon is not done.
SPEAKER_00: It has just started.
SPEAKER_00: And saying, God, help me to obey what I just heard.
SPEAKER_00: Help me.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just your word, we need your spirit, God, to help.
SPEAKER_00: So we pray right now.
SPEAKER_00: God, would you bring up in our hearts the filth in our mind, in our heart that's already filling us, that's preventing us from the word to go deep, God.
SPEAKER_00: Would we confess that to you now?
SPEAKER_00: Would you challenge us to confess that to others?
SPEAKER_00: God, for anyone in here who's been deceiving themselves, I pray that you would save them today.
SPEAKER_00: That there is a way that your word has shown us of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: God open our eyes, our ears, our hearts with open hands.
SPEAKER_00: We come.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand in this moment again.
SPEAKER_00: The message has just begun.
SPEAKER_00: Now this is the time to respond to his word and prayer and praise and coming down here, receiving prayer for anything.
SPEAKER_00: It's a time to respond, to reflect on what we heard, and not just go through the motions.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you're in here and you are lost.
SPEAKER_00: You have not been saved.
SPEAKER_00: You can be saved today.
SPEAKER_00: That implanted word can save your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to come and you just need to repent for the pervasive wickedness that has filled our minds and hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's your Bible reading.
SPEAKER_00: You haven't been protecting that and spending time with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We fall short.
SPEAKER_00: I fall short so often.
SPEAKER_00: But God's grace is there to welcome us and to receive us.
SPEAKER_00: And so in this time, you can come down, pray where you are, pray with people around you, receive prayer here from somebody.
SPEAKER_00: But come be saved, come be prayed for.
SPEAKER_00: Let's respond in worship.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna sing a song open the eyes of my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Say, God, open them.
SPEAKER_00: Let me see you as your word says it.
SPEAKER_00: That you are holy, holy, holy.
SPEAKER_00: Get rid of the filth.
SPEAKER_00: Let me see your word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's respond in worship now.