James 1:19-27 - Just DO It - Pastor Greg Mah

good morning and welcome to South Lake Community Church like Pastor Gary mentioned if this is your first time welcome my name is Greg I'm one of the pastor's here and if you're back for the second or third time we're thankful that you would come back we're excited we are in the book of James so if you have your Bibles last week I encourage you if you have a Bible bring it if not it's in the program that you received we call it the baywatch or you could find it in your Bible app but we'll be going through James chapter 1 verses 19 through 27 this morning so I'd love to have you turned there and get ready but as you're doing that let me share with you a story this morning I was surfing quite a while ago I'm surfing at a local beach break here in the South Bay and you know it was a crowded day at the beach and the waves weren't that big but a lot of people and and the more people there are in the water the fewer waves you get and so we're just in the water I'm sitting on my board and every once in a while a plane or a helicopter will fly by the coast and every time it does I always check it out and see what's flying by and and on this day a helicopter flew by I know it's always a pretty cool helicopter and it flies by and as it flies by just moments later I can see it down the down the coast turn around and fly back and that's normal but as its flying back it starts descending pretty quickly now I don't know about you guys but if you're like driving in a car you see an airplane or a helicopter descending what's your first thought this crash landing sound like oh my gosh he's crash landing and it was coming like right at us and I'm thinking okay we're about to die right now this helicopter is about to crash on us and it descends and then it stops and it just hovers right up right above where we were and I'm looking up I mean I'm not good with distance I'm thinking maybe 50 to 100 feet above the water it was really close and I wasn't sure what he was doing cuz he's just hanging out there and one of my first thoughts was oh this guy's so cool maybe he saw that we had no way so he's making ways for us right because the propellers were literally making waves ripples in the water I'm like this guy's hooking us up this guy must be a surfer and and then I'm trying to look in through the glass I could barely see bit but it looked like he was fist pumping like I thought like oh he's so cool he's throwing shotguns at us and he's like this pumping go go go and so I'm like just watching him I'm like yeah yeah thank you right and then I'm just staring at him he's still not leaving and I turn in about 10 to 15 feet away from me he's another surfer and I say hey do you know what's going on and he goes I think he's telling you that there's a shark right underneath you and I look around and literally there were no more surfers in the water I looked at a shore and all the surfers had paddled in they're all standing on the sand and two lifeguard trucks had pulled up to the shore and so now it's just me and this guy and and I look at him he goes more ways for us yeah we just we just continue surfing we've never had the entire Beach to ourselves we just kept on surfing for another like five or ten minutes then I went in but some of you guys would say Craig that is foolish that's foolish we have you got attacked by a shark come on is it foolish to get attacked by a shark is that my fault well it's foolish if you were being given the message and somebody was trying to tell you that there's a shark and you did nothing about it then yes that's foolish today in James chapter one verses 19 through 27 James is telling this very same message that there's a message that's being given to you and you got to do it I'm calling this message just do it and we're about to look into the Scriptures before we do that I want to pray with you guys and let's just prepare our hearts as we become come before his word but you bow your heads and we're gonna do a little differently this morning I'm gonna ask you to just spend time in your own moment of Prayer and ask the Lord this ask him to remove anything that's going to keep you from hearing his word any pride any sin any distraction would you just talk to the Lord right now so lord that is our prayer Lord we know that there are many things that are going to keep us from receiving your word this morning and we know that the devil would do anything to get us to be distracted or to to be hindered in receiving your word and so we pray in Jesus name that you would come and help us to be totally undivided in our attention that we would hear what your word has to say take away any arrogance or deceit maybe some others that are thinking I already know this message I already know this simple truth and I'd pray that you would wipe that away so that we can receive the power of your word this morning so God we want to give our hearts and our minds to you take over this time and we pray this in Jesus name Amen amen James chapter 1 verse 19 through 21 I just want to read the first few verses it goes like this would you follow along with me it says know this my beloved brothers let every person be quick to hear slow to speak and slow to be angry slow to anger for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls you could pause right there the first thing I believe James is saying to us this morning through this passage is be quick to hear if you're following along in your nose so you have your your app open the first point is this be quick to hear what you write that in be quick to hear last week as we kicked off this book we talked about how James is writing to these new Christians these Jewish Christians who had been scattered and trials and tests and temptations were going to come their way and as he continues on one of the tests that they were gonna face and we're all going to face is the test of anger anger is one of the things that will test our faith now to quick glance you look at this verse and many of us have seen this verse before it looks like very simple practical wisdom everyone should be quick to hear slow to speak and slow to become angry and it's like yeah that makes sense if we would just listen more and talk less we would probably find ourselves in a lot fewer arguments right you might have heard someone say oh you have two ears on one mile so you should listen twice as much as you speak and I think there's wisdom in that I think that's right like listen more listen not just to what the other person is saying out of their mouths but what are they saying out of their hearts listen to their heart that'll help you a lot but but with that being said I don't know if that's all James is talking about here I think it's at least that but I think there's something more that he's telling us in this passage when he says be quick to hear okay I think he's trying to say be quick not just to hear the other person I think he would be saying be quick to hear the word of the Lord be quick to hear what the Lord is saying to you how do I know that let me try to show you where we get that if you notice that the passage in verse 19 he doesn't say it's wrong to be angry he didn't say say no to anger he said be slow to anger and playing that sometimes it's going to be justified it's understandable it might be biblically-based to be angry right for example let me give you an example a couple years ago I shared the story with you guys there was a local church pastor in our community this was in the 90s where he was pastoring a church but he suspected that his wife was having an affair with their choir leader the choir leader in the church and so he was angry like what was it understandable that he was angry well if you look at the scriptures yeah God loves marriage and he wants to keep it holy and consecrated so when when a marriage is violated like that and he gets angry I get that but what did he do in response to that anger while I shared with you on that one Sunday that he actually went to the work place of this choir leader and he killed the guy took the guy's life obviously went to jail for that but but in that situation in one moment what he was angry about could have been backed by the scriptures but then he goes and takes matters into his own hands and he violates the commands of God thou shalt not murder so is it righteous or unrighteous I would say that was an unrighteous anger st. Augustine in his book he writes an autobiography called confessions and he talks about this idea of disordered loves and what he's saying in that is that there is an order to our love and when we put the love out of order that's where sin comes so we look at the scriptures and you look at the word and it says we should love God supremely love God with all your heart soul mind and straight and then the second command is love your neighbor as yourself so there's an order you love God first you love people and then you love yourself and those are all good loves but once we start putting that out of order if I love myself more than I love God that's a disordered love if I love other people more than I love god that's a disordered love if I love myself more than I love other people that's disordered love and that's when we start going against God's designs and intents and so for that for this dentist yeah it's understandable that that he's angry but then he supersedes God's commands that thou shalt not murder and he starts acting out of love for him self and so when you are in that situation where you're feeling angry you have to ask yourself is this a righteous or an unrighteous anger am i angry because I love the Lord my God with all my heart soul mind and strength or am i angry because I love myself with all my heart soul mind and strength am i angry because God's standards have been crossed or am i angry because my standards have been crossed do I cross God's standards in my anger one is righteous one is unrighteous so so what James is saying is okay you're in the situation stop be quick to hear ya hear the other person out but but what is the Word of God saying how does God's Word instructing you to see the situation and then act and respond in a way that's in accordance to the word he goes on to save verse 21 therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls that's why I had you guys in that moment just take a moment to pray and ask the Lord to remove any kind of sin or pride because because that gets in the way of us receiving the word with humility and that word is able to save our souls we have to get rid of any kind of wickedness or filthiness I love that phrase therefore put away would you guys circle that in your Bibles or your notes put away it's in the Greek it's one single word and it's a word that's used in regards a lot of times in regards to taking off your clothes to strip off or to put off your garments he says before you can receive the word you got to put off this filthiness I get that I told you guys last week that I started getting into mountain biking and I've been just really enjoying just riding on the trails here here in the South Bay and every time I come back from a bike ride I'm literally covered in sweat my shirt is drenched and I got the dirt from the trails all over me I mean I'm like filthy my socks I filled with with dirt and my shoes are filled with dirt and it's like I don't even want to go into the house because I'm so dirty and so I get back from a bike ride the first thing I want to do is I just want to jump in the shower I just want to jump in the shower and just clean it all off now I've done a lot of stupid things in my life but one thing I've never done I promise you have never ever done this I've never jumped into the shower with all my gear still on with my helmet on and my clothes on and my shoes on on my shorts and my my shirt I've never ever ever done that why cuz you can't get clean that way some of you guys are saying oh that's a silly illustration who does that exactly nobody does that if you want to be cleanse you got to take it all off you got to put it all off the Bible says in Ephesians 5 that the word cleanses us we were washed by the word it purifies and sanctified and James is saying if you want it to cleanse you and save you you got to put off all the filthiness and rampant wickedness that's going to keep you from receiving the word with meekness humility so oftentimes our pride gets in our way I know I'm right I know I'm right in this situation there's no way I'm wrong in this I'm totally justified and how I'm feeling and what I want to do no hold on put it all off receive the word so we we see that this word and and I love in verse 21 it would you circle in the last line it's able to save your souls that word is a good word in the Greek language is the worst so sign to save - to deliver or to rescue you that's how powerful this word is it can save you and if this word of God right here can save you from a lifetime of Hell that's brought on by sin then you know can save you from a moment of anger that's brought on my sin if it has saved you from from hell for eternity because of your sin it can save you in that explosive moment that situation that's brought on by sin so receive the word receive the word so James would say be quick in any given situation be quick to hear what the Word of God says but then he would go on to say don't just be quick to hear the word be sure to do what you guys would write down for number two be sure to do it be sure to do don't don't don't just be quick to hear be sure to do verse 22 we go on he says this but be doers of the word circle that we're doers not hearers only deceiving yourselves 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 the mirror for he looks at himself and goes away and once forget at once forgets what he was like would you pause right there and so God's Word we see this has power to save us out of a situation can keep us from unrighteous explosive anger but but once you hear what God is saying do it Stewie and he gives us really simple very practical application he says if you hear the word and then don't do it you're just like a person who's gonna go look at his face in the mirror and then walk away and not do anything about what he saw he needs to fix that's a great illustration James are so practical here now let me contextualize that that illustration for us in this context in this generation we have a mirror every one of us has a mirror in our pockets it's called the smart phone right I know you guys use this for a mirror I don't like you guys use this and so so what we can do in this generation is we got selfies right yeah I was thinking as I was preparing this message when I was in high school and I was that my homecoming dance I actually had to have this big fat Kodak camera you guys remember that and I had 24 exposure film for you young uns that's that's that's that means I had a wind but camera every time I wanted to take another picture and that means I only had 24 shots at trying to capture this night 24 opportunities to try to capture this night and then a lot of times I wouldn't know if I really captured it until weeks later when I developed the film did I really capture in half the time my eyes are closed alright my friends would say all the time my eyes are closed or or like someone's not looking well these days I could take a picture a selfie that's like oh man my eyes are closed and if I don't like you what do I do delete right let me try that again so the next picture I got my eyes is as big as it can get and then I take it I look oh my eyes are open but I got a double chin right so like so what do I do delete like nobody nobody takes a picture looks at themselves and says oh my eyes are closed and I got a double chin post right nobody does that no no no you keep fixing it so the next picture eyes open next stressed out make sure you got no total chin take it BAM - that's perfect there we go and James would say look nobody looks at himself in the mirror or a smartphone and see something wrong and then walks away and doesn't do anything about it no no you see yourself as it's being reflected and if it's not right you you do something about it you fix it you fix it and so James is saying in the in this word right here don't don't be deceived don't be foolish if you hear what God is saying to you and you hear the message and you don't do it you are living a life of deceit you might think you're living by faith you might think you're a person of faith but you're being deceived it's not enough just know what the word says you know one common thing I've heard a lot of people say through my years of ministry even before coming this church a lot of times people will say well you know I go to my church and I just I'm not getting fed I walk out of church and I'm just not really getting anything new and I hear that a lot and sometimes from this church as well and from people who other church maybe you're here because that was your experience and sometimes that's a legitimate issue and you should be concerned about that but but sometimes I hear that and here's my thought that's going on in my mind sorry okay well maybe you you know it well but do you live it well my question is maybe you've heard all the things before but do you live out the things that you've heard like maybe you've mastered the material but have you mastered the lifestyle this book of James is all about putting our faith into action he's so serious about you got you got to live out what you believe and he's saying if you don't you're being deceived is that real genuine faith if your life is not reflecting it if if you're not reflecting it you're being deceived you're thinking you're a mature person in your faith when in actuality you've got no faith at all and so maybe yet you you right here you can you can tell Bible stories and you could quote scripture references and you can sit all day talking theology also what I remember when I was in seminary one of my final classes of my whole master's program and the year was winding down and I'll never forget we're in the Christian education class and the professor says this to us in class he says in a few weeks some of you guys are about to graduate and get your diploma and you're going to have those prestigious letters behind your name m.div your masters of divinity he says do you think when you get those letters behind your name that God is in heaven just so proud and applauding well these are the masters of divinity these people have truly mastered all things Devine my professor goes police please he says God is not pleased with the knowledge that you've received from this institution it's not about what you know but what do you do with what you know it's not about your knowledge but how do you live out your knowledge that's what God wants to see that's what he's gonna plot at the end of your life and say well done good and faithful servant and in the same way James are saying it's not about what you know but do you live out what you know the reality is I know some of us do this we'll go to a church service we'll get the program and and we'll take our seats and the first thing we do is open it we'll be talking about today who's giving the message what's the message about and then sometimes you'll look at it and consciously or subconsciously you'll make a decision am I going to listen to this or not ah we're talking about forgiveness again I know about forgiveness Matthew chapter 18 checked out well maybe God's having you hear the message of forgiveness again because maybe there's somebody in your life you're not forgiving I mean could that be would you stop and ask Lord why are you having me hear this again maybe you come to us a service and you you hear this message and 10 minutes in it it's about loving God and loving people I know this message that's all this church talks about love God love people I know love God love people I've heard it a hundred times Oh can I suggest that on your 101st time that you humbly come before him and ask what are you trying to say to me maybe God isn't having you hear this message because you don't know it yet maybe he's having you hear this message because you haven't lived it yet maybe there's somebody in your life that you are not loving out of your love for the Lord your God maybe maybe when you hear the same old things again God's not trying to get more information into your head maybe he's trying to get Transformation out of your heart he's not trying to fill you with more knowledge he's just trying to get you to finally live it out but a proud person won't hear that so we got to put off the pride and the the filthy and rampant wickedness don't be deceived Kirk James teaches this idea that the one who hears the word but doesn't put his faith into action is a foolish person and he lives deceived so be quick to hear be sure to do then he goes on and he gives us a picture of what it what it should look like right we go on in verse 25 but the one who looks into the perfect law that's the Bible the law of Liberty and persevere being know here who forgets but a doer who acts he will be blessed in his doing in Capas right there and and so he says there's blessing if you actually lived a life opposite to what we just talked about you actually do what you hear now I love how he he puts it the one who looks into would you Circle that phrase the one who looks into the perfect law and I like that because the word in the Greek is actually not look it's not the word look it's actually a word hippo coop doe or a pair of coop coop doe and it means to stoop over stoop over something I imagine you're just walking in the lobby and in the middle of the lobby see this colorful caterpillar walking by okay that's random what would you do in that moment well you would stoop over it what is is what is that seriously a caterpillar in our lobby right and you're like inspecting it and you're looking at it intently that's what pericope doe is so is it's not just glancing at the word it's not just what's the verse of the day and my Bible app today it's not quickly reading through a 1-minute devotional as you're in the bathroom getting ready for the day but it's like how do i stoop over this and intently the NIV says whoever looks intently into the law how can I study this and investigate this and know this and he says and whoever persevere in doing this on a regular basis this is just how I live my life I investigate and I study the word he says you will be blessed and I wish you would talk more about that how are we gonna be blessed well I looked at the scriptures and I think the Scriptures give us what it looks like to be blessed when you hear and do let me give you a couple that we get gathered from scripture number one you will be blessed because you will better understand would you write that down you'll be blessed because you will better understand how many of you guys have heard this thing there's a saying it goes like this I heard and I forgot I saw and I remember I did and I understand I heard and I forgot I saw and I remembered I did and I seen this before no probably heard it but you forgot it but but there's some truth to this it's not from the Bible but there's some truth and I think the Bible would back it up when you do something you understand Paul says to Timothy those who have certain well served well gate gain an excellent standing in their faith great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus you know Monica and I my wife and I we we should go head-to-head in this in this card game called Monopoly deal and we I mean we used to play hard and it would get almost violent at times there could be so competitive and so we would play and and when our kids were growing up by the time Evan was about like 5 this is just a few years ago we figured hey let's teach our kids and so I we were on a road trip to Yosemite and I wanted to teach to play so you could play with this and it's a very simple game very simple and so I started explaining to this five-year-old I said Evan is it's really easy how you win is you just gotta gather three complete property sets and you win but the property sets which are marked by different colors sometimes our complete property is two cars sometimes a complete property is three sometimes it's four it depends on what the card says and so how the game goes is you're gonna get five cards then on your turn you pick up two cards and then you just got to play three cards and when you play there's all different cards you can play you could put money in your bank and stack up your bank or you could play a property card and try to build your properties or you could play an action card with the action card you could either do a four steal and force I want to share with you you could do a slide deal or you can collect money for your birthday two million dollars on your birthday or you could break it down steal someone's entire property but be careful because on your turn you get three turns you don't want to put all your property out without building your bank because if they charge you rent sometimes double the rent they can take your properties if you don't have money and this five-year-old kids like huh right like total utter confusion and then I say to Evan okay just play let's just do it okay let's just play and it'll make sense and sure enough we play the game and we're explaining it to him as he goes and as he plays once he's starting to understand it then we play again and now he really understands it and now it's starting to get fun and then he plays more and more and now he wants to go and teach his friends how to play it was all confusing but when you start to do it you start to understand how many of us can open this book and say huh like what what does that mean what what does it mean I have to forgive seventy times seven times I don't get and sometimes it could be overwhelming it's confusing what does Leviticus 17 mean right it could be far fetched sometimes it seems idealistic and and James's say do it just do it Jesus would say just do it and you'll start to understand so that's that's one blessing you will be blessed because you will better understand and then when you better understand you will be blessed because you will better stand would you guys write that down for the second one you will be blessed because you will better stand your stance will be a lot stronger Jesus talked us so clearly remember in Matthew chapter 7 he tells 2 he tells the story of two men he says there's two men one builds his house on the rock and the other builds his house on the what the sand right one builds his house on the foundation of rock one builds his house on the foundation of the sand and then all of a sudden the rain comes the flood rises to wind blows what happens to the man who built his house on the rock his house what stands stands what happens to the guy who built his house on the sand crumbles falls there's no foundation there's no strength in it and here's what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 verse 24 you don't have it in your notes but it's up here it says in 24 everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock then he says the first when he said 6 and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand he crumbles when the rains come when the storms hit when his faith is tested and tried who remains standing the one who has been hearing the word and doing it James is saying exactly what our master said you have to hear but you also have to do Jesus says that our faith is strengthened when we do it yeah you know I I try to go to the gym a couple times a week and it's so cool the the gym I go to right here in Torrance there's so many of you guys from South Bay Community Church are there and it's cool sometimes it feels like I'm at church there's so many of you guys there and you know I'm not a workout freaking I'm not a physical trainer but but I know this I know that so much of muscle growth you know it has to do a technique in form like you got to have good technique in form this Princip to working out and so some of you get some of you guys are at the gym and I could go and just sit there and watch you work out and that would be creepy right but but I could just sit there and try to learn what you're doing and learn the technique and the skill and the form and I can say well okay I get it you got to keep your arms at 90 degrees you got to make sure not to overextend okay you don't use your back have good posture I could learn all these and I could go like every single day and watch you as you work out and get the form down I can know it so well but six months down the road what will happen to my muscles absolutely nothing I can watch you run on the treadmill and I can see your form and how you're supposed to run and then six months down the road I run a marathon and die at Mile 0.5 why because I've done nothing about it and it's until I actually work out my own muscles and actually apply the principles that I know is it's only when I get on that treadmill and start running for myself that all of a sudden my muscles will grow strong and they will be strengthened because I've applied what I know ok well that's a simple silly illustration well how are you guys know that just coming to church week after week you might have been the most faithful attendant for the past 20 years but how many you guys know you can't just sit here and learn these principles and go ah I got it love God love people that's good I got it you got to forgive even your enemies got it got it and expect that six months down the road that your faith is going to be strong if you haven't done anything about these principles that you have learned it's only when we apply what we know that our faith will be strengthened there's no wonder that people could have gone to church for 20 years and then all this and there's a test or trial in their life and they crumble why because for all those years their faith hasn't been strengthened I want South Bay community church to be known as the church that teaches the word but more than that I want South Bay community church Church that does the word that people will say yeah that Church teaches them with the Word of God no that's filled with people who do what they hear and do what they teach there is blessing and so we are blessed because we will better understand and will be blessed because we will better stand our faith will be like that who's built on the foundation of the rock James closes off this passage and to finish off we have three more verses and he finishes off by teaching how important it is to put our faith into action and he gives three indications right kind of a litmus test three indication is that you're a true doer of the word let me give you these three the first one is controlling the tongue controlling the tongue verse 26 he says this if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart this person's religion is worthless it's pause right there now I mentioned a couple months ago in a message that the word religion or religious it's become like a bad word in in the church today like no one likes to wear religion right because it's tied to just this negative connotation of hypocrisy and yet all religion is by definition is that adherence to a system of beliefs and practices that's what religion is when you adhere to two beliefs and practices and what James is saying here is if you claim to adhere to the beliefs and practices of Christ and His Word but you don't actually adhere to the practices of Christ and His Word you deceive yourself he's just one way you can know is if you are a person who claims to adhere to his word you will know it by the way you control your tongue one indication is how do we control our tongue and I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time on it today because in Chapter three we're gonna do an entire message on taming the tongue but let me just say this for today sake our tongue this is one of the most important instruments that we have that we have to bribe we have the a bridle as that instrument you put on that powerful creature that the horse to steer it to control it to guide it to tame it we got to put a bridle on our tongue because it's powerful I would say I would argue it is the mitt is the smallest and yet most important and most powerful instrument or weapon in this church because with this you can build the kingdom of God or you can destroy the kingdom of God with this you can watch a person receive the gospel and and see their soul saved for eternity with this instrument you can speak to a woman who's lost her child and see a shattered heart be put back together again and yet with this you can gossip behind someone's back and watch a church get divided with this you can say something nasty to a person and keep them tossing and turning night after night after night after night as they spiral down in insecurity I could destroy a person with this thing and so James is saying here's a test of your faith how well do you control your tongue because a faith filled Christian with genuine faith will control this because a faithful Christian will look into the word and see that it is powerful and he's telling us right now we got to control it so if you here's the application very simple for you for you sitting here today if you're a person of faith does it sound like it like do you have faith in scriptures like Ephesians 4:29 that says do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth except that which is helpful for building others up like do you have faith in that do you believe that or do you constantly continually say things at work or with your buddies where people are wondering are Christians supposed to say that a Christian is supposed to talk like that people love supposed to talk behind people's back like that if you're a person of faith does it sound like you then on the flip side if you're a person of faith are there things that God wants me to be saying that I'm not saying can this tongue be doing things saying things or testifying to things or giving praise to things that I should be how do you control your tongue second thing he would say is not just control your tongue but concern for others would you guys write that down here's another test if your faith is genuine concern for others verse 27 religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this to visit orphans and widows in their affliction you could pause right there so what he's saying here is you cannot be a Christian a growing Christian who claims to adhere to the practices of Christ and his award if you're not demonstrating a growing concern for people in need and in this passage he mentions orphans and widows and we know throughout scripture that God cares about orphans and widows but we know that he also cares about the homeless and the oppressed and the abused and the voiceless the the sick and the hurting and the disabled we know that there's all sorts of people that God is calling us to care for James is giving us two examples but the main idea here is is you can't truly say you adhere to this book which is all about loving God and loving people if you're not out there showing caring for people tangible concern because that expression is our expression of love for the Lord our God and so there's a lot of people we can be caring for a lot of people in need but since this is our word today since this is the word we are hearing let's look at that orphans and widows and the question we have to ask ourselves is what are we doing to put our faith into action let's consider the orphans and widows that we know you might be thinking I don't know any orphans maybe that's why God's speaking to us right now and God's saying hey hear my heart I care about orphans and some of you guys have some you guys have adopted children who are fatherless and motherless and that's your faith in action as some of you guys have been praying about adoption and you've been going back and forth should we adopt or should we not and and maybe by God's sovereignty he's he's speaking to you right now I care about orphans I care about orphans and if my church and my people don't go and take care of the fatherless and motherless and who will house the Lord speaking and then and that's not a call for everybody started adopting orphans I mean even to care for them maybe maybe you want to sponsor a child through compassion International or loving one by one in ministry right here in this church I i-i've had a compassion child since college like this is like 20 years ago I Indonesia and then I picked up another one and I've been convicted as I've been preparing this word that I need to care for him because right now it's set up when money just gets pulled from my bank account every month and I cannot even think about it and I need to get back to that practice where I gathered my kids and my family we pray for navall every single night before we go to sleep to remember that he needs the love of the Lord I need to write him more often and show them that I care about him maybe you've been thinking about mission trips and Uganda is one right here from our church that cares about orphans and widows for that matter and all sorts of people need so maybe you can consider how can i Karen how can I either go or how can I support those who go the widows how about widows what widows do you know in this church we have widows and we have widowers and so when it comes to caring for people in need it's not just people who are in financial or physical needs sometimes it's the emotional need the relational care the spiritual support who in our church does this apply to and how can we start living out the heart of God okay so so do you trust you do trust in this word do you have faith that he means that I care about orphans and widows so control your tongue concern for others and the last thing he'll say is concentration from the world would you guys write that down consecration from the world because he finishes off in the last sentence of the passage and to keep oneself unstained from the world to be consecrated means to be holy and to be set apart and so true faith get this true faith isn't only demonstrated and how you act but true faith is also demonstrated in what you keep from coming into your heart putting your faith into action also involves taking action to keep things from contaminating your heart and your mind right because when we look intently into the Word of God will see this teaching over and over again Jesus is that out of the heart the mouth speaks proverbs says the heart is the wellspring of life so proverbs 4:23 says this above all else guard your heart for everything you do flows from it what's in the heart is what comes out and the way you act the way you speak the way you behave that's a reflection of what's inside so what do you do to guard this do you are you vigilant to protect this I share with you guys last weekend in high school my friends and I we were foolish and so we would you know go around hearing all these urban legends and checking out haunted houses and all that and and I realized although a lot of the stuff isn't real that sometimes that's a foothold into our hearts where the devil wants to instill fear in us and influence with the demonic realm and so I made a decision in the year 2000 that was the last time I was gonna watch any horror movies I haven't watched a scary movie since the year 2000 why because I don't want to be affected by the things of this world I don't want to be stained by the things of this world I grew up listening to hip-hop and rap I had my stations preset on my car radio and then I realized that a lot of these songs were staining my mind and I I would play these lyrics in my mind that would they would bring up visuals and images and attitudes and so right out of college I wiped those stations off of my radio not because I didn't like those songs anymore I loved the songs but I realized I was staining my mind and my heart and affecting the way I live so I decided I'm not until this day I don't listen to those stations as much as I would love to and this isn't me trying to be a goody-goody this is me trying to live out my faith that I believe that my heart is the wellspring of life I believe what God says guard your heart and so I'm gonna try to do what I can do take action to to live out the word and so the challenge for us as a church is what are you doing to consecrate yourselves from this world how do we be in this world but not but not of it and so I want to stop right there those are three ways that that that James gives us control your tongue show concern for others consecrate yourselves from the world but I want to stop there because I don't want to miss the point because he gives these tests but I don't want us to think that this is a checklist an exhaustive checklist of what makes a true Christian because we know from the Word of God that we are saved by faith and not by works amen we're saved by faith and faith alone by the grace of God but our works are indications of our faith our works our response to our faith so if your faith is real then it should look like you and what I think James is saying here's the big idea even beyond these three things that he just mentioned is this in any given situation in life in any moment of life how can you know that you are a true person of faith your faith is genuine whether you're in an explosive situation where you want to get angry or you come across a child in need or maybe maybe you are in that situation where you're being tempted by the things of this world James would say stop and take a good hard look in the mirror take a good hard look in the mirror this mirror and put yourself up to it and what do you see is is this is this is this a good reflection of who I am my good reflection of what this says or do I look at it and my eyes are closed my eyes are closed to what this says and we say if it's not a good reflection then then fix it by the grace of God by the power of the Holy Spirit make it right and let's reflect the word let us not only be quick to hear but be sure to do the Word of God that's been implanted in our hearts which will save your souls you know I wanna I want to close and I think about our God in all throughout history our God has been trying to communicate to this world that he created that He loves us that his heart is for us all throughout history he's been shot I love you I love you I want you he would gather prophets as his messengers to preach this message tell them I want to be their God I want them to be my people he would gather kings and he would gather poets to write songs and write poems that could be read for generation after generation after generation to express his affections for these people I love you and I want you but I praise God that God our God is not a God who just sits and says but he's a God who came and did that Christ came and died I praise God that our God is not just a sailor he's a doer and by that death on the cross we are saved he didn't just claim to be for us but he put his heart into motion and this actions proved his heart and so church let us not only be quick to hear but be sure to do the Word of God because of what he has done for us amen don't wait you guys bow your heads with me I want to give you guys a moment just to consider how we will respond learn what what have you said to me this morning or this week [Music] and what is something god I can do to to live out my faith to bring it beyond knowledge and to do something about it pray that right now [Music] and father God we thank you so much that you are building your kingdom and you're growing your church Lord we thank you for this community Lord and I I pray that the South Bay community church that this would be known as a church that believes in the work that this is a church that teaches faithfully the Lord but God more than that I pray that people would see the people in this community and say those people are doers of the word those people really live out what they believe and I pray that that would be our reputation so that your reputation would grow and people would see you for the great God who changes lives who save souls and brings transformation so God help us to be people of action help us not just to hear but help us to do because of what you've done for us this to this is to your praise and your glory we pray this in Jesus name [Music]

Channel: sbcclive

Views: 2,227

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Keywords: South Bay Community Church, South Bay, Torrance, SBCCLive, southbaycc, church message, church sermon

Id: cqCD4loERTA

Length: 50min 16sec (3016 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 14 2018