"Hearing and Doing God's Word" | Pastor Steve Gaines

take your bibles and turn with me again to thank you charles james chapter 1 james chapter 1. and we're going to start in just a moment in verse 21. when don and i got married we moved to texas 41 years ago this uh august and the first memory verse that we memorized together was ezra 7 10. we enrolled in a church's scripture memory program there ezra 17 you say ezra what what's that all about listen what it says for ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the lord and to do it and to teach in israel statutes and judgments ezra studied the word he applied the word he did the word and then he taught the word and i want to say this to you you should not teach the word of god unless you study it and you do it you need to do it just do it don't just read it but apply it do it i believe james loved the book of ezra and i believe ezra would have loved the book of james because james is always telling us it's not enough just to believe right you need to do right you need to do the right thing don't just get more knowledge of the bible put it to work apply it so today i want to talk to you out of our text hearing and doing god's word james 1 21-27 therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness in humility receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls but prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he is a like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror for once he has looked at himself and gone away he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was but one who looks intently that is constantly at the perfect law that's the word of god the law of liberty and abides by it that is he looks at it he reads it but he does what it says he abides by it not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer this man will be blessed in what he does if anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart this man's religion is worthless pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our god and father is this to visit that is to take care of orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world well let's talk about hearing and doing god's word first of all let's look at the hearing part requirements for accepting god's word hearing the word of god is accepting the word of god now how do you do that what kind of spirit do you have to have to be teachable what what kind of spirit do you have to have to say okay i don't know everything there is to know about the lord i don't know everything there is to know about the christian life so i need to learn what kind of spirit do you have to have in order for god to let you be a really good student where you can really learn from the word of god now there's three things first of all you have to have a spirit of holiness holiness does anybody remember holiness does anybody remember that there are some things christians should do and some things christians should not do and it comes out of being taught by the holy spirit through the holy scriptures look at verse 21 therefore putting aside all filthiness say the word filthiness and all that remains of wickedness say wickedness in humility receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls putting aside apothemino it means to lay aside it means to take off dirty clothes that's what it means when i left this morning we've had grandkids here all week can i make a statement we had a lot of clothes to wash and a lot of sheets to wash and they were dirty and it was just a bunch of stuff to clean did you know that that's exactly the picture that he's given us here you need to shed the filthiness of the world you need to take off your old garments let me say this to you when you get saved and jesus is in your life you need to live differently than you did before you got saved people ought not to have to wonder if you got saved or not and they ought not to be shocked if they find out that you are a christian because you have taken off the old self the old garments of sin that's exactly what putting aside all filthiness means and notice and all that remains of wickedness once you get off those filthy clothes you look around is there anything left of wickedness kekaiah depravity vulgarity kecaya is the word that deacon philip used when he rebuked a magician named simon in acts chapter eight he said therefore repent of this wickedness cacaya depravity evil iniquity malice of yours and pray the lord that if possible the intention of your heart may be forgiven you if i am going to live for jesus if i am going to live in the word i've got to have a spirit of holiness if i'm going to learn what god wants me to do years ago when we lived in birmingham i went to a banquet an athletic banquet and the speaker was somebody i really wanted to hear coach gene stallings i had seen him when he was an assistant coach with the dallas cowboys back when don and i lived in the dallas-fort worth area when we were going to school and then i knew him to be the coach of the university of alabama football teams he won 70 games in seven years do the math that's not bad amen and they still fired him because he didn't win big enough but he won a national championship his first or second year there but he loved the lord still does and he preached if you will that night he spoke that night from hebrews chapter 12 verse 14. listen to this i can remember i can hear him talking today try to live in peace with everyone and seek to live a clean and holy life for those who are not holy will not see the lord and then he looked at us he had these little reading glasses and he would wear them down on his nose and he would look over and say do you know what that means it means that if you're not holy you won't go to heaven that had everybody listening what did he mean by that he explained he said the only way to get holy is to receive jesus into your life and when jesus comes into your life he comes in the person of the holy spirit and then daily you're living in the word and you're not just reading the word but when it tells you to do something you do it i thought man alive that's exactly what holiness is just being like jesus just applying the word of god coach thank you for that if you want to listen and hear the voice of god you've got to have a spirit of holiness you've also got to have a spirit of humility of humility look at verse 21 therefore putting aside all filthiness all that remains of wickedness in humility receive the word implant it i love that picture it's a picture of sowing seed and when it hits the ground it is implanted and you in humility receive it you don't think that you know better than the word of god you receive the word of god and you do it in humility you've got to walk in humility if you want to receive the word of god you've got to humbly bow yourself at the feet of jesus now listen what i'm about to say this is major league important you've got to come to jesus and say i don't have what it takes to live the christian life i need your help how many of you know deep down that in and of yourself you can never be like jesus anybody know that yeah you need help that's humility and it's okay it's okay to say i need help i need some help lord i don't need you some i need a lot of help come to god just like a little child you know jesus was humble he said in matthew 11 29 take my yoke upon you that is get hooked up with me and learn from me for i'm gentle and i'm humble in heart and you shall find rest for your souls now hold that just a second when you see all caps there that doesn't mean it's not there for emphasis it just means that's a new testament verse quoting an old testament scripture scripture and so that's from jeremiah there at the end but he says in humility humble heart you'll find rest for your souls i love what jesus said he said basically it's only the childlike it's only the people who walk in humility who really get it spiritually he was praising the father in luke 10 21 he said that time jesus was filled with joy the holy spirit he said oh father lord of heaven and earth thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever and are revealing and for revealing them to the childlike to the humble yes father it please you to do it that way you say man brother steve i i want to know the lord i want to be able to look at the word and i want god to talk to me out of the bible okay you got to have the right spirit you have a spirit of holiness and a spirit of humility but there's one more thing you gotta have a spirit of hunger you gotta hunger for the truth of the word of god i want to ask you are you hungry for the things of god or are you hungry for the things of this world you can't have both you can't dine with the devil and dine with jesus you can't have both you can't receive from the enemy and receive from the world and receive from jesus simultaneously you've got to choose choose you this day whom you will serve joshua said this for me and my house i made that choice a long time ago we're going to serve the lord if it means death i'd rather die for jesus than live for the devil amen amen so i'm going to have a hunger therefore verse 21 putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness that's got to have the spirit of holiness in humility got to walk in humility i'm going to receive the word and plant it i'm hungry for the word i'm going to receive the word implanted i'm going to receive the seed of the word of god which is able to save my soul wow i'm going to hunger i'm going to receive the word implanted i'm going to live in the word until it lives in me i'm going to daily just sow this seed of the word of god i'm going to read the word of god i'm going to memorize the word of god i'm going to meditate on the word of god i'm going to come at least once a week to hear the word of god taught and i want to say this to you if you come to this church and there's not the teaching of the word of god don't ever come back if you go to any church and they don't get up and explain the word of god verse by verse walk in through a text and illustrate it and apply it why would you go there you don't need a little feel-good talk you need the word of god man look i'd rather hear somebody with a third-grade education who knows the word than somebody's got a phd that won't preach the bible i don't need that stuff i want the word that's what you are you ought to hunger for it therefore putting aside all filthiness receive the word implanted which is able to save your soul you know the bible says you have to receive salvation if you're saved you understand what it means to receive the word of god and the god of the word the bible says in john 1 12 but as many as receive him jesus to those people to them he gave the right to become children of god to those who believe in his name on the day of pentecost the bible says they received jesus they received his word acts 2 41 then those who had received his word were baptized they got saved they received his word it is an explanation it's just a description of how you get saved you receive the word and then you get baptized to show that you're saved and that day they're added about 3 000 souls paul talked about that in first thessalonians through 13 he said for this reason we also constantly thank god that when you received the word of god which you heard from us you accepted it not as the word of men but for what it really is the word of god which also performs its work in you who believe so you say okay brother steve i want to hear the word of god man i i want to avail myself to the word of god i i want to take in scripture what kind of spirit do i have to have for that really to work spirit of holiness you can't live out you can't live a double life and god speak to you doesn't mean you have to be sinless but it means you're not living in known unconfessed sin you're not living over in the world here you're not cussing all week long and drinking and getting drunk and being immoral and looking at pornography and you know living with somebody you're not married to and all that you're not doing all this double stuff and you're not you know acting a fool at work and and being a big man and all that stuff and bragging all the time but you're walking with jesus man you're in the word and you're walking in humility you're walking in holiness and humility and you're hungry for the things of god man that's when you're really going to get it but then when god gives you his word when he speaks into your life look at me then you've got to do it let me put this you get to do it you get to obey god because look at me god i'm going to show you to me god will bless you when you apply the word of god you may not know this but there is a structure that i have used here for and i've used it for 40 years in teaching the word of god you may not even recognize it and that's fine i don't i'm not asking you to recognize it but i want to tell you what i do with my sermons what i do is i take the word of god i i take the the main text and i see that there's one major overarching idea then i see the skeleton on it and i take it apart that becomes the point and under every point i do this look at me i explain it and i apply it i explain it i tell you what it meant to the people back then i tell you what james was saying to the jewish christians to whom he was speaking but that's not enough you can't just hear the word of god you've got to do the word of god so what i then i try to do is say okay now that you all know what god was saying to them here's what god is saying to you and let's here's how we can practically put this stuff into action that's where we are on this next thing we're going to see how in the world do you go from explanation to application and if you don't do that you're not living for the lord okay it's not just a bunch of head knowledge it's doing something doing it right for the lord okay how do we do that if we apply god's word what's going to happen number one we are going to escape self-deception nobody is more deceived than the guy who deceives himself look at verse 22 but prove yourselves doers of the word not merely hearers who delude themselves parallel gizmod you say do what peril of gizmo it's the word for delude prove yourselves doers of the word not merely hearers who delude themselves who deceive themselves what does it mean it means literally to miscalculate it means to reason falsely you know what when you think bad you do bad when you think wrong you live wrong and when you miscalculate even if it's just a few degrees let me tell you something you get on an airplane that's supposed to go to new york city or london or wherever you want to go you go to memphis you get on that air that airplane and they are just a few degrees off they miscalculate their destination just a few degrees when they fly that for about three hours wherever you land is going to be hundreds if not a thousand miles away from where you're supposed to go a few degrees off can mess you up you can miscalculate that's the word here that's the word they delude themselves they miscalculate they reason they're thinking bad god's word to them is heard but they don't do it they don't heed it they overheard it but they don't obey it it is in their head but it hasn't come out their hands they haven't applied it then james gives an illustration that anybody if they're honest understands look at verse 23 don't tell me there's no humor in the bible or if anyone is a hearer of the word not a doer you know what he's like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror for once he has looked at himself and gone away he immediately has forgotten what kind of person he was he said i don't see the humor because you don't want to you look in the mirror and you see reality but your mind starts filtering saying well it's not that bad it's not as bad as that mirror says it is oh yes it is it's that bad or it's that whatever bad or good that's what it is i'll i'll go i'll go to another thing if you've got a driver's license look at the picture on it how many times have i heard people say i don't look anything like that yes you do yes you do you say i don't look like that that's exactly what you look like at that split second no yes you look in the mirror of god's word and god tells you the good bad and ugly amen he tells you all of it but then you lay it down and you start living he said well that's not i'm not that bad i'm not as bad as joe over there and joe is the worst guy you could have picked out amen i mean joe's worse than everybody all right that's always the guy you go to right i'm better than joe well everybody's better than joe big deal if you're joe i'm sorry i didn't mean you i gotta i don't i don't need letters from that okay okay why is it we always pick out the worst person you look at yourself and you delude yourself you you look in delusion you're looking and you're you're really just telling a lie i heard about this guy over in east tennessee up in the smoky mountains he was out in the woods one day and he found something he didn't know what it was and it was a mirror he picked it up he looked at he said well i'll be there's a picture of my daddy right there put it in his pocket got home wrapped it up in a towel put it under the bed didn't think anybody saw him but his wife saw him and every time he wanted to see a picture of his daddy he'd pull it and said there's daddy right there and he put it back in his wife pulled it out looked at it and said ah there's the old hag he's been cheating on right with me right there some of y'all get that after a while how many of you know that we don't we're not as good as we think we are does anybody know that i want to say this to you the reason a little dab won't do you with the word you've got to live in it until look at me until you see the real you and you own up to it and you keep looking at it until all you see in your life is christ likeness this is the greatest mirror in the universe and you look at it and you live in it until you start doing it and you become christ-like oh that's what we need that's why we do what we do with the word of god the bible says we we don't need to be living in self-deception first corinthians 3 18 stop fooling yourselves if you think you're wise by the world standards you will have to become a fool so you can become wise by god's standards galatians 6 3 if anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing he deceives himself all deception is dangerous it can even be deadly but the worst self-deception the most dangerous self-deception of all is self-deception living daily in god's word will give you a reality check you escape self-deception and when you apply god's word when you live in the word of god and you apply god's word number two you ex experience divine blessing look at verse 25 but one who looks intently at the perfect law the law of liberty and abides by it not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer this man will be blessed in what he does macarios he'll be blessed he's going to be happy he's going to be a privileged recipient of divine favor that's exactly what makarios means it's it's in the beatitudes blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are those who mourn the gentle those who hunger and thirst for righteousness the merciful the pure in heart the peacemakers those who've been persecuted for the sake of righteousness they are privileged they are happy and they are privileged recipients of divine favor and when you live in the word of god and do what it says god blesses you and i want to say this to you god doesn't bless everybody the same god blesses the people who do what he tells them to do he said that's works that's works no it's not it's obedience i want to say this to you if you will do the dues and don't do the don'ts you will be blessed that's not works it's not works god blesses obedience and god disciplines disobedience he just does he says well i don't believe that i believe in the sovereignty of god i believe in the sovereignty of god too but i want to tell you something you disobey this book god's going to discipline you you obey this book god's going to bless you that's just the way it is that's just the way it is and you're going to have joy the psalmist says this how blessed is the man this is the first three verses in the book of psalms who doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the path of sinners nor sit in the seat of his conference he's not going to live in the world verse 2 but his delight the pleasure of his life is in the law or the word of the lord and in his law or his word he meditates day and night what will he be like he'll be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in its season its leaf doesn't wither and whatever he does he prospers you live in the word you're going to be like a tree and you're going to be prospering and you're going to be blessing other people how many of you think we need more trees in the church nowadays amen some spiritual folks that just love god and want to live in his word and want to repent when they're wrong and do the right thing oh you can experience divine blessing if you will apply the word of god you can also if you'll apply the word of god exercise controlled speech do you know anybody that has a mouth that is out of control look at verse 26 if anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue say those three words with me please bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart this man really his religion is worthless it's garbage is what it means i know people that say well brother steve i it came to my mind i just had to say it no you don't no you don't flush it don't let it flourish don't let some bad worth come out of your mouth i said you say i don't cuss i'm not talking about that i have i've heard people say well i am a prophet i'm going to speak the truth i want to say this to you all the prophets i read in the bible they wept all the time because they had to speak hard words they didn't enjoy it if you enjoy rebuking somebody you're you need to look in the mirror and rebuke yourself you need to be very careful with the things you say and just because you think something doesn't mean it needs to have exit out of your mouth sometimes the best thing to do is just to be quiet is it quiet in here verse 26 if anyone thinks himself to be religious yet doesn't bridle his tongue he deceives his own heart this man's religion is worthless jesus said in matthew 12 34 the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart i've had people tell me for years you don't know what's in my heart i may not right when i first meet you but all i have to do is listen to you talk for a while and i'll know what's in your heart you know why because out of the heart does the mouth speak and what you talk about that's what's in your heart if all you talk about is sports that's what's in your heart if all you talk about is money that's what's in your heart if all you talk about is yourself that's what's in your heart if you never talk about jesus if you never talk about scripture if you never talk about the holy spirit you have to ask is he really in my heart is he really in my life because what is in your heart comes out your mouth that's what happens and you can exercise controlled speech and let me tell you something it's not just the content that you need to control it's the tone i thought somebody would say amen you say brother steve you're on your own on this point okay great you can say the right thing and say it the wrong way i mean this doesn't really work does it i'm sorry what's up with that you're sorry what that you got caught or that you repent that you did it no you're not sorry when you talk like that tone man tone tone is it communicates big time so you got to give all this to the lord and just say lord i just want to keep my mouth closed until you tell me to open it and then when i open it lord tell me what to say when to say it and how to say it oh god let me live in your word so much and let your word live in me so much that i exercise controlled speech next when you apply god's word you know what else you do you'll encourage needy people there are people all around you that need your help but you know what we miss it because we live so much for ourselves we think about ourselves so much we don't think about the lord and we don't think about other people we just think about us look at verse 27 pure and undefiled religion isn't the sight of our god and father is this to visit lame translation to visit orphans and widows in their distress episceptomide does not mean just to make a visit it means to meet the needs of somebody and to take care of them so when he says you need to visit orphans and widows he's saying you need to take care of them you need to do something about that you need to give to a ministry that is ministering to orphans and widows and people like that i was reading this morning early in my time in just the word when i read the bible no offense not for you not to feed you in a sermon but rather just to feed my soul i was reading this morning the old testament in lamentations and it talked about the fact that we need to be people who minister to orphans widows strangers people that don't normally fit in our culture aliens is another way of saying it people who are from other countries who come to this country we need to love them they're vulnerable and you know what the bible says you need to treat foreigners and aliens with love and respect because you were once a foreigner and an alien in egypt he said that to his children so these people these orphans and these widows they are indicative of people who are vulnerable and in the first century nobody was more vulnerable than the orphans and the widows they could be abused they could be kidnapped they could be sold into slavery they could be sold into prostitution even the children and the government would do very little about it at all nothing they were just vulnerable and so christians started taking these people in and ministering to them they represent oppressed people and by the way some of you my children my own children who already have quite a few children they want to minister to orphans how can you do that you can support ministries that do that but you can also engage in foster care or adoption there are 153 million children worldwide who are orphans 135 000 orphans are adopted in america every year and while i applaud that and praise god for that 135 000 are adopted but let me tell you something almost a million are killed by abortion every year and if a lot of those people would give their children for adoption there would be more adoptions than there are don't have an abortion don't kill your unborn baby give that baby up for adoption you say well how can we get involved what can we do i'll give you three ways to get involved get involved by contacting there's three ministries you can contact take a picture of that on the screen if you'd like to there's two of them life choices of memphis don and i give to that ministry every month and then we give another check to it every year when we go to their banquet they are all about helping girls who are pregnant understand that what is in their womb is a living human being and they help not only with fighting abortion but also in adoption then there's the tennessee baptist children's home both of these just have websites just look them up lifechoicesmemphis.org tennesseechildren.org and then we have a ministry a third way to minister here at bellevue we have our own orphan care ministry and you can find out more about it go to bellevue.org slash orphan we partner with agencies and we give you information of how we can assist you in providing foster care or adoption and if you don't want to go to those ministries how you can help these children financially and through your prayers in other ways and bellevue doesn't get any of the money if you're worried about that he said well how can i help with us glad you asked and you'd be shocked at how many widows we have who are members of bellevue that can't come to church anymore they're totally isolated many of them and they would just love it if you just send them a vid a card once in a while if you just maybe call them on the phone or maybe even go by with your spouse and visit them can't we do something like that you say how do i get involved in that call our main number 347-2000 ask for pastor ron jerkins ron jerkins let me tell you something i if you if you stand before god and you say i just didn't have time to take care or to be involved with orphans and widows and i i'm going to tell you something you're going to get rebuked at the throne god is going to say what do you mean you didn't have time you had time didn't you you need to have the heart to do it find a need and meet it find a hurt and heal it quit thinking just about you and your family and start looking around there are people all around you with needs jesus said in matthew 25 then the king that's the lord will say to those on his right that's the people who are saved and love the lord come you who are blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world why for i was hungry you gave me something to eat that is you saw that in those people you ministered to them like they were me they were hungry i was hungry in them i was hungry you gave me something to eat when you fed them you gave me something i was thirsty you gave me something to drink when you gave them something to drink you gave me something to me i was a stranger you took me in i was naked you clothed me i was sick you visited me i was in prison you came to me when did we see you and do all these things and we when did we do that to you when you did it to the least of these people out here you did it to me the way you treat people is the way you treat the lord encourage needy people how you do that get in the word you stay in the word and i promise you you'll stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about other people one more thing you apply god's word you engage in holy living look at verse 27 very quickly pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our god and father is this to visit orphans and with us in their distress there it is and to keep oneself unstained by the world how many of you know that our world is getting darker and darker spiritually does anybody know that sure it is and as we draw toward the end of time whenever that is if it's 100 years from now five seconds from now 200 years from now we don't know when it's going to be but as we draw toward the end of time it's not going to get better it's going to get worse in the world but the world is going to get darker but i believe the church is going to get brighter and i think that god's going to draw people to that brightness i believe that with all my heart and you need to be delightfully different i want to say this to you if you've got to fit into the world you're not a christian now i'm not talking about weird but i am talking about delightfully different although some people will look at you and think you're just really different you don't talk like they talk you don't listen and laugh at the jokes they tell that are immoral and nasty you don't cuss you don't go out and get drunk you don't cheat on your spouse you walk the straight and narrow with the lord jesus because you are looking forward to the prize see you don't want to live like the world you're not all the time putting everybody down all that i'm not talking about that but i am saying you ought to live in such a way that if the people at work found out that you were saved they would not be shocked maybe they say you know well there you go that's why that's why they live like that they love jesus christ they may not agree with you on everything but you know what they'll look at your life and say they love the lord paul said in ii corinthians 6 you've got to be different than the world he said don't team up with those who are unbelievers that doesn't mean you never hang around lost people it just don't mean you don't act like them how can righteousness be a partner with wickedness how can light live with darkness what harmony can there be between christ and the devil how can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever your best friends don't need to be lost people you can befriend lost people but for the sole purpose of leading them to christ and what union can there be between god's temple and idols for we're the temple of the living god as god says i'll live in them and i'll walk among them and i'll be their god i'll be there they will be my people therefore come out from among the unbelievers not not saying that you never get around christians but stop living like the world that's what he's saying come out from among the unbelievers separate yourselves from them says the lord don't touch their filthy things and i will welcome you and i'll be your father and you'll be my sons and daughters says the lord almighty you can't cuss monday through saturday and come in here and praise god on sunday you can't do that you can't yell at everybody and be mad all the time and angry and come in here and sing holy holy holy you can't live in fear and anxiety and scared all the time not trusting god coming here and saying i trust in the lord you can't do that you can't have it both ways you can't look at pornography all week long and by the way that's cheating on your spouse that's adultery whether you're a man or a woman and you do that that's adultery you know that don't you he said well i didn't do it you just didn't have the right circumstances you would have if you could have you're lying to yourself if you think anything else you can't look at that trash and then come in here and everything be okay with you and god can't you got to engage in holy living i don't know about you but i've already made up my mind i'm not going today without looking in the mirror i'm going to get in that word man i'm going to get in that word before i get in before i get on any kind of social media or look at check my emails and all my texts and all that stuff no but i'm getting up i'm putting on airplane mode amen i'm gonna get in the word and i'm gonna look and i'm gonna intently look at this and i'm gonna let it just bathe my mind and bathe my heart i'm going to hear it i'm going to take it in i'm going to do it with a spirit of holiness humility and hunger and then by the grace of god i'm going to take something i learned today and i'm going to put it into application and i'm going to do it and i'm going to escape my self-deception i'm going to experience divine blessings i'm going to exercise controlled speech i'm going to encourage needy people i'm going to engage in holy living and it's all because of the word of god don't just look at it apply it do what it says and you'll be blessed amen let's thank god for the word of god can we just thank the lord right now amen let's all stand up thank you for letting me just teach i want to say this to you i appreciate the opportunity to be able to teach verse by verse through the word of god thank you for not being a church that has to be entertained i'm no great speaker but i want to tell you something i love to go verse by verse just through the scripture and explain it and apply it thank you for letting me do that and if today the lord has touched your heart and you say brother steve i want jesus i don't know if i'm saved or not man i've come to church but i don't know if i'm saved or not would you like to know and that's the greatest thing to know i don't know a lot of things i don't know what's going to happen tomorrow i don't know how long i'm going to live i don't know what's going to happen to my kids and my grandkids i don't know what's going to happen to america i don't know what's going to happen in politics i don't know what's going to happen in the southern mass convention but i know one thing if i live today i'm going to live with jesus and if i die today i'm going to be with jesus that gives you look you're not ready to live until you're ready to die are you ready for it all to end here and just see him face to face man that's what you got to know you got to repent you got to turn from your sin doesn't mean you promise you'll never sin again but it means that you're sorry for your sin and if you are just tell him i blew it i'm sorry and then you don't just repent you believe that he died to pay the penalty for your sin and rose from the dead to give you allah eternal life he's really alive and then you receive him into your life would you do that would you do that in the balcony we've got hundreds of people in the balcony hundreds of people on this main floor would you do that right now how how brother steve let me just lead you and we can talk to the lord you can pray and invite him to come to your life and if you don't want to pray everything i say that's fine pray your own prayer that's fine but do it right now why waste another minute of your life and why gamble with your soul why why espou pray with me and if you don't pray the words exact words just pray and invite christ to come in your life say something like this dear lord jesus thank you that you're the only savior i want to be saved right now i repent of my sin i turn from it i'm sorry lord i i've sinned i've sinned against you please forgive me i repent and i believe that you died on the cross and you paid my sin debt i believe that and i believe that you rose from the dead i believe you're alive so lord i turn i repent and i believe now i receive you i call on your name save me right now lord jesus wash me and cleanse me and help me to live for you for the rest of my life in jesus name now with our heads bowed i want to lead you christians in a prayer somehow some way in these days these dark days we have got to stop just listening to the word and start doing the word all right you got to start doing it guys and so do i so let's just pray together pray something like this with me just say dear lord jesus i don't want to just hear the word i want to do the word i want to do what you say god whatever you say i want to do it help me lord hear the word of god but then help me to do your word in jesus name if that's your prayer say amen

Channel: Bellevue Baptist Church

Views: 2,295

Rating: 4.9310346 out of 5

Keywords: Hearing and Doing God's Word, The Book of James, but be ye doers, BellevueChurch, Bellevue Church, Bellevue Church Memphis, BellevueMemphis, Bellevue Memphis, Bellevue Church sermons, Steve Gaines, Steve Gains, PastorSteveGaines, Pastor Steve Gaines, Pastor Steve Gains, Steve Gaines Bellevue Church, Steve Gaines Sermons, Steve Gains Sermons, SundaySermon

Id: RJswc-xy4m0

Length: 51min 20sec (3080 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 12 2021