Join us for our midweek encore service!

campus pastor here and we are thrilled to join you by my side as always well maybe not always i wasn't here last week yeah you've been like a little episode a little bit a little busy miss sandra maleki always holding it down online but again we are thrilled to be here with you all you guys are the online family here at crossroads community church and we get to be the church without walls gathering all over the place i love it it's so cool in a moment we're going to read some comments from our community uh that is found on facebook so if you have not found our facebook community group sandra how does someone join our facebook community group i ask you because i don't know you do no he's just joking if you go to that search bar on facebook again pretty much everyone has a facebook i know i don't use it as much as i used to but i do use it for that community because it's so important that you are a part of a community and we've got that for you no matter where you are which again is the beauty of it so in that search bar on facebook go ahead and look up crossroads online community group look for our crossroads logo there and then go ahead and join in a couple questions there to make sure you're a real human being we're looking for real connection uh but once you fill that out you're gonna get connected right away and meet some amazing people so as we said in a moment we'll read some kind of comments from our community group as we reflect on the week of goodness but let's give an appetizer for what's going down today so number one this is probably the most important thing uh you need to go and grab some communion elements we're gonna be doing communion together and we want you the online family of faith to participate in that with us absolutely but remember you don't have to have what we have here it's not the elements that matter it's why we're doing it that matters so if you have water everybody has a sink lord yes yes grab some water if you've got juice grab some juice if you have grape juice extra points but not necessary right that's right you just need something to represent the body that's right so whatever you have crackers and let us know i always have fun reading the comment sections during the service like yeah people letting us know i got ritz and orange juice i got goldfish and coffee goldfish is probably pretty spot on jesus fed so often with fish so communion is coming up we want to make sure that you have those uh because we want to do it together again even though you're not here with us you're stuck with us we're your family you we want you to do it with us so just have those ready for when pastor daniel goes into communion that's right and people in the comments section are going to be taking communion with you and super super cool uh so we have community coming up we also continue the second sermon in our series super good where the rubber beats road the book of james is my wife's favorite uh book in the bible and she loves how practical it is and i think that's really a big part of the message here today so we're going to be in james chapter one yep verse 17 through 27. yeah we went 1 through 16 last week 17 to 27 this week and so the sermon title for this message within this series is put feet on your faith and we we say that a lot how important it is to actually live out uh what we believe yeah because you know that the kind of the sermon blur that pastor daniel wrote for us is this reality that spirituality spirituality pardon is a buzzword in our culture and almost everyone is has a spiritual connection or will make that claim yeah i'm a very spiritual person i'm not a religious person but what james says is like well i actually need to see your faith in action absolutely yeah you want to make sure that wherever you are wherever you go whatever you're doing that you are a reflection of that you are a reflection of christ because that's how we're going to get the word of jesus out there right he called us to be disciples so we want to make sure that we are a good reflection yeah so that that's what we're going to be in here james chapter 1 17-27 so make sure you have your communion elements doesn't have to be the you know the actual thing make sure that you know that there's nothing magical about the elements but there's something deeply symbolic significant even so make sure that you have those i mean if you even can right now take a picture of it post it on our online community group people i love it too it's so fun because again it brings us together and that's what we need is yeah is that sense of community it's so cool and then make sure you have your bibles open to james chapter 1 17-27 we're gonna ask a question here that comes from our small group curriculum guides which are always available to you as well uh so we'll ask you guys a question here in just a little bit but right now let's get into some reflection points for from our community now sandra i'm gonna start with you uh you know every week we like to reflect back on something that god did in this week yes it's a it's a looking back of sorts it's a discipline a spiritual discipline of sorts where we get to look back and thank god for something that he did in the week and so we post uh every friday yeah in our community group and we love to hear from the community what you're giving god thanks for yeah there's always something it's always something even when it's been a bad week even when it's been a tough week because there's been some not so good things in my week but yeah i'll say what i'm grateful for i talked to my dad this week i called him because i hadn't heard from in a while i wanted to check in on him and then he was like is your hair getting longer i saw you on the pre-show for crossroads and your hair is getting so long and i was like oh i didn't know my dad was watching so i'm really grateful for my dad that he takes the time that i didn't know so much for the service so i'm afraid i love you yeah and your dad is in vegas yep yeah which is what i'm even thinking last week i was on a trip on a work trip with my wife's company the perfect segway there uh we were just outside of vegas but i'm so grateful for that community that my wife has an amazing job that she loves uh and that uh the owner's very generous bringing out all their staff and their spouses yeah such a fun time so god's stories from that tons of godzilla's being able to share the love of jesus with a number of folks so yeah grateful for that background everyone with very different backgrounds spiritual backgrounds uh but uh yeah opportunities to show the love of christ and and how he is unique and that's gonna be one of our questions but let's jump over uh to some of the comments from our community we know that charlotte uh who i actually saw running around the sanctuary here yeah she's great she's she's usually here in person but she's also very active online which i love she she's a great crush charlie charlotte writes i'm thankful for four seasons especially fall weather so we're definitely starting to see that a huge sneak peek we had a lot of rain yesterday so wherever you are let us know how the weather is yeah because we've got denise who's in arizona who's grateful for air conditioning which means she's not experiencing fall weather um so again wherever you are let us know what your weather is like and what you are grateful for yes definitely um we have ursula who's been a part of our online small group for a long time been a part of our little uh kind of a live show that we did in the midweek for some years ago but yeah ursula writes i'm thankful for my grief it may hurt it may sting and i may have shed quite a few tears but i will happily walk through this grief than not knowing him at all him with a capital h referring to our lord jesus who walks people through difficulties yeah i can absolutely um relate with that i'm definitely going through like some grief on relationships and friendships and just kind of just giving that to the lord and wishing them the best but it still hurts it's there are tears that are shed but uh the beauty is that the lord walks through that that's right and then miss linda yeah something kind of similar yeah linda the constant reminder that he has control and the best plan so i always hold tight to that as well so i am definitely grateful for that as well linda yeah definitely hard to to trust in those difficult moments but leaning back on those promises of god i think is another discipline a helpful discipline is when you read the word of god if you read a promise jot it down maybe you write down the key words somewhere maybe you can't write down the whole verse but try to memorize the promises of god because you're going to need those promises when you're walking through those tough times i mean we've all pretty much got devices right we've all you got that note section that you could always maybe go to or i know people like to doodle have that notebook with you at all times or in your planner just have those reminders for you when you hit those stages come on okay so uh coming from our our small group or kind of a group leaders resources page and i want to make sure you know how to get to those go to crossroadschurch.net slash groups at the bottom there you'll see leaders resources you'll be able to download the sermon study guide for it but coming from that we have a question that we'd love to discuss with you all uh so sandra go ahead and read that question let's see if we can get yeah so the question is how is the lord different from everyone else again pastor daniel's message is put feet on your faith he'll be in james chapter one so get those bibles open but how is the lord different from everyone else right well in the context of the theme the greater theme that the world in our world in our culture spirituality is a buzzword so someone could say look i'm i'm a person of faith i'm spiritual what's the big difference between you and me and the big difference that i always love to share with people i said jesus the work of jesus is the only faith system where the work has been done every other system whether you want to use the word cult or or world religion whichever word you want to use whatever yeah every other belief system teaches that you have to do something and what christianity teaches what biblical christianity teaches is that the do has already been done by the person of jesus that's the greatest yes there are some steps you need to take in professing your faith in trusting jesus with your life but the emphasis the goal the focus is on what jesus has done for you and we know pastor daniel's going to give that gospel explanation today he was getting ready in the pre-service prayers like all right we have to shut him down you're giving away all your best sermons so uh what we want you guys to do right now here's what you do need to do we want you to share this service because there might be some friends family who you know need this message of hope of living out their faith system and trusting in jesus so we want to make sure you know that and we're going to pray for you that's one way for you to be the hands and feet of jesus hitting that share button father god we pray for the online community we thank you for how you've knit us together whatever people are all over the world whatever the weather's like however we're taking communion you're there with us in jesus name amen service well good morning crossroads how's everybody doing all right all right well we are so glad that you decided to join us this sunday and again uh thank you for all of our friends and family that are joining us online we're gonna sing together would you join us [Music] for me [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you took me [Music] [Music] you [Music] is for me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] amen [Music] holy ghost breathe on us we pray as we repent turn from sin revival [Music] the fragrance of heaven [Music] oh [Music] come on [Music] [Music] is [Music] the [Music] pull your spirit down [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] we [Music] from [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh foreign [Music] [Music] is [Music] spirits [Music] begin to move [Music] is [Music] four years [Music] foreign [Music] your spirit out on earth [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] at crossroads we love to celebrate what god is doing in and through our family let's check out what's happening this week here at crossroads i have been to kate's wounded to worthy conferences i have done her online course i'm part of her private facebook group i have learned that forgiveness means a lot of different things and part of why we forgive is because we have been forgiven i am so amazed when i recognize how much the lord has forgiven me forgiveness is a process but kate will totally help you understand and enjoy the process along the way have you ever experienced a time where no matter how hard you tried you simply could not forgive or when you've opened up to somebody only to hear you just need to forgive and move on you ask yourself how can i ever get to a place where i can truly forgive so join us for wounded to worthy a two-day concert and conference experience where you will be able to expand your journey to lasting forgiveness this friday september 24th and saturday september 25th we'll have worship biblical teaching q as and people available for prayer so register for this spirit-filled event today at crossroadschurch.net worthy here at crossroads we want to be known as a fellowship of believers that serve others in need one of the most practical and simple ways we can serve our community is by giving blood donated blood can be life-saving for those in medical crisis join us friday october 1st anytime from 10 a.m to 3 p.m register today as we roll up our sleeves to give together [Music] are you looking for a job crossroads is hiring we are looking for talented people who are passionate about changing our community and our world for more information check out crossroadschurch.net jobs welcome to our encore mid-week service here at crossroads we believe that we are a family of faith part of being a family means that we are in community together whether you're on your own with friends family a small group we want to create a space to reflect on the message so right now reflect with the people around you or in the comments section with people who are online just like you after the message we will have an opportunity for you to respond to jesus and have discussion questions for you to talk about so grab your bible grab your journal and let's go into the service together [Music] as we now prepare our hearts to receive the lord's table i want you to pull back that top layer and get to the bread and this is what the apostle paul said speaking to the church in corinth about the lord's table he said for i received from the lord that which i also delivered to you that the lord jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed he took bread and we had given thanks he broke it and he said take eat this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me it's all particular bread together thank you jesus for dying on the cross for our sins now as we pull back that larger tab to get to the cup and again please go slow with it we don't want you to spill it the apostle paul continued in the same manner he also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me let's partake of the cup together for as often as you eat this bread and you drink this cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes now let's bow our heads and our hearts we spend a little time in stillness as we each place our own personal needs before the lord father i want to thank you that we can be still and know that you're god lord stillness and silence are so unique in our very busy world but jesus i want to thank you that you gave your body to be broken for us she is i want to thank you that you gave your blood to be shed because your word tells us without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins and father i ask today that you would infuse the ordinary parts of our life with your extraordinary meaning and purpose father as we as a church family participate in communion and baptism today lord i ask that you would make our lives distinctively christian not in some sort of formal or kind of distantly religious way but in spirit and in truth that our lives may have a quality that is unique because it reflects your light and god forgive us for the ways that we don't do that and father as we continue to worship now i just want to pray and thank you for your generosity as it is expressed through the crossroads family father all throughout the week online and people are giving of their resources to help your gospel make it into our community and our world in a myriad of ways lord you know that as a church we feel called not just to proclaim the gospel and we're going to do that but to live out all of the social implications of what that means through serving our community at its places of pain through helping people in need through visiting the vulnerable and planning churches and all the different things you've called us to reaching the unengaged and god i want to thank you for just the just the joy of the crossroads family and getting at the work of your kingdom especially in this cultural moment and so father as we give whether we give in person or online through the the generosity boxes here on campus or online or we mail something or however we do that i just ask lord that it would be done as an act of worship because you're worthy and we ask it all in jesus name and all of god's family agreed together as we said amen and amen [Music] so so i was just talking to someone the other day and we were talking about jesus and the person i was talking to wasn't a follower of jesus and so it was interesting because we were talking and when you know i always laugh because when people say you know the common line like hey so what do you do for a living you know and i'm always like what do you think i do for a living you know that's my favorite one and i hear all sorts of things like well i don't really know that i want to say that out loud because you might get arrested i'm like hey you know but nobody ever guesses that i'm a pastor you know and i mean i don't know why i mean i'm so pastoral but you know but but when it came out that i'm then i'm a pastor they're like oh so like i just don't understand like you know christians it's like there's so much emphasis on heaven when you die you know and like why why is that the thing for you christians i'm like well i'm like hold on i'm like well so eternity is a long time bro you know what i mean and just kind of looked at me and i'm like so like you know you got to think about your future you know the guy was a little bit older and and it was funny because i'm like are you thinking about retirement and he's like yeah i totally am i'm like well you know retirement that's an important thing right like you know at some point you're going to stop working and you're going to get maybe 20 or 30 years i'm like but ages upon ages without end that's a pretty long time so i'm like you got to be prepared for that and then i'm like but actually as a follower of jesus it's not just about what happens after you die i'm like really what makes following jesus so powerful is the fact that we get to walk with jesus in the spirit now i'm like so it's not about heaven when you die it's about letting jesus make our lives a fragrance of heaven on this side of eternity and i'm like so like don't get me wrong i love the eternal benefits of following jesus and i'm like but i'm actually not focused on that right now because i want to walk with him today and i'm like when i walk when when a follower of jesus walks with him today their life actually takes on the very purpose for which god created them and i'm like and that i think is huge and i'm like for so for someone who doesn't put their faith and trust in jesus you end up missing out on what god has for you in the here and now and i said you know there's a man named paul who wrote a bunch of books in the bible and he said quite succinctly for me to live is christ and to die is gain and i'm like and i think that's a very powerful idea he's like listen he wasn't sure is it time to go home to be with jesus and pass away or is it time to keep going he said listen for me if i live i get christ and fruit for my labor and if i die it gets even better and i'm like and that's what jesus has to offer and he's like wow he's like you're pretty good at this you know i'm like well why thank you you should come join us across the road so if you're here watching this right now i'm super stoked that we had that conversation but but i bring all this up because really what god is wanting to do in each one of our lives is he wants our faith in jesus to impact street level where you live and i think that what god is wanting to do in each one of our lives right now is there are truths that you already know from the scriptures that you're not living out and my encouragement would be to like what does it look like to put feet on that stuff right now one of the biggest mistakes we can make as followers of jesus is thinking that there's some deeper meaning than what it actually just means now don't get me i'm not saying i want us to be shallow right but sometimes we're so busy looking for like the new hook on the thing that we forget that actually we just need to figure out how to live out the good old-fashioned stuff like loving god and loving people like forgiving people like being salt and light right like the fruit of the spirit is love joy and peace and those words all night of it never changes right and so like in every situation it's like okay so what is it what does a long-suffering version of me look like right now right what is me being a person of peace because i have peace with god i have the peace of god what does me being a peacemaker look like right now see so so often we get so busy looking at all these other things that we forget like the most essential things and that's what god wants to do in all of our lives and i realize that the the tension of life is the fact that there's all these simple things that we already know that we have to put feed on if we choose to and i really think that the the beauty of following jesus is when you decide that you're going to actually put feed on the stuff that you already know like okay i'm going to actually live that it's like you ever talk to somebody they ask for your advice and then you give them a great advice and you're like i should take my own advice am i the only one who that happens to people ask me all these questions and i i say something i'm like i should totally be doing that right now right because in some ways when you're in the middle of life you don't think about like well if i was detached from this and if someone was telling me these variables of their life this is what i tell them to do and in a lot of ways we need to learn how to take our own advice but in real time where we live and today's text in this where the rubber meets the road series i love studying the book of james because it's so practical it's like it's so where the rubber me and i love theological books i love really like like delving into the depths of the scriptures but james is so disarmingly practical what does it look like to walk by faith in jesus in the spirit in real time so open your bibles james chapter one we're gonna take verses 17 to 27 today james 1 17-27 so if you brought your bibles the book of james between hebrews and first peter there towards the end of your bible if you didn't bring a bible with you there's bibles on the streets in front of you or if you have if you're like you know kind of against paper because of some reason then uh pull out your mobile device type in your favorite browser window bible app james chapter one or you can go to the free crossroads mobile app go to the book of james chapter one scrolling down to verse 17. pretty easy to find there and we're just gonna see some like i'll be honest like it's been so fun studying for this series because like i've taught james before numerous times and read it hundreds of times but every time i go through it i'm like gosh this is so good like i just want to live this out lord give me the simple faith to live this out so listen what it says this is verse 17. it says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures now in these just these two verses verses 17 18 it teaches us a really important idea and it's that we have to remember the gift giver we have to remember the gift giver now it's like i i learned this growing up because you know like i'm all italian from uh new jersey they all came out of new york my parents couldn't afford to buy a house because they had a ch a a child and they had twins on the way so then he had gonna have they went from one to three kids in almost no time and they couldn't buy a house in brooklyn or or you know uh long island so they moved out to the boondocks of new jersey back when new jersey was the garden states not necessarily anymore but at least not all of it you know and so but you on all time family so when when the holidays happened there was like a million and five people right and you get all these crazy gifts and and you know like you know the the the story of like the aunt who gives you the crazy sweaters i got like 80 of those that's why when it's like you know uh ugly sweat at sweater things i just don't show up at all because i'm like i i've already done that you know but what was funny is is my my mom god bless her you know she when we'd get these gifts she's like who's it from even before you opened it who's it from who's it from so i had to like read it out loud she'd be like he'd have like a like a legal pad you know like aunt dolly gave us some knickers like nobody wore knickers but we got knickers you know and i mean like it's like and so like because you had to remember who gave you the gift because you had to give them a a thank you card a handwritten thank you card you know what i mean and my mom she was tough she'd be like you can't just write the same thing i'm like well how many different ways you say thank you for the sweater she's like well think of something nice you know i mean she was rough my mom god bless her you know but like we had the right we were all these cars that you had to remember the gift giver and and that's exactly what james is telling the people he's saying listen because we had just seen if you were with us in the end of the last message that god is not one who brings temptation temptation is common to people but god does not tempt anybody it's okay so god doesn't bring evil into the world so it says every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no vacation no no variation or shadow of attorney they're saying look everything that's good and every gift you've been given is a gift from heaven from god for you and the big human struggle is that we forget that the gifts that we have are from god we think we do it ourselves like we think man you know i'm a self-made person no you're not you didn't make yourself i mean who are you kidding like i had someone say that to me at one time like i'm a self-made man i'm like how do you how do you believe that what of you did you make how much you make your arm make your brain did you make your digestive system like no real he's like but i worked hard i'm like did you give yourself energy to do that did you give yourself the the inclination to want to do that did you give yourself the ability to keep showing up i'm like i would tell you that all that's been given as a gift see what happens is we have to remember that god is the great gift-giver and we don't just want to thank him for the gifts we want to thank him because he's god and what's beautiful is james is talking about how listen god isn't the author of temptation god is the gift-giver that he tells us about who this gift-giver is listen the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning seeing they're saying that the father who is the gift giver who gives you these gifts he is pure light and this is a theme that goes all the way through the scriptures let me read to you how the apostle john put it in first john chapter 1 verses 5 to 7. this is the message that we heard from him and declare it to you that god is light and in him is no darkness at all if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of jesus christ his son cleanses us from all sin see i love this because james makes the point that god is pure light and in him there is no variation or shadow of turning that means there's no shadiness with god you know what it's like and maybe you've seen it with kids when all of a sudden they become aware of their shadow but they're not sure that their shadow is actually their shadow right really what they're saying is god is light and there's no shadowing with god there's no variation with god there's no shady spots god is pure light and john the apostle tells us that god is light in him there's no darkness at all and if we say we have fellowship with god but we walk in the darkness then we're lying and we don't practice to do because god is light and if we have fellowship with god we can't be in darkness because god is pure light and it says if we walk in the light as he is in the light then we get to have true relationship community queen anneal with one another and the blood of jesus cleanses us from our sins and so god is light and he invites us into his own light so that our lives may be light in him and what's beautiful is verse 18 back in james 1 tells us this of his own will because of god's will he brought us forth by the word of truth so god has given us his word his word is truth and our ability to respond to the word of truth is because of god's will that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures and i love that because he uses this picture of the first fruits and the first fruits is an old testament concept which means the beginning of the harvest and here's what i want to tell you if you're here today and you're a follower of jesus god actually wants you to be the first fruits within your sphere of influence god saves us so that he might have ambassadors in our families and in our neighborhoods and on our jobs and in our schools i remember when i realized this because when i first got saved and you know i'm so grateful for jesus i was just thinking about this about man like what god has done in my life like if you're here today and you're not yet a follower of jesus listen i know it sounds unbelievable that god can transform you but i'm here to tell you it is real he is real i think about i think about 23 years ago in my life the fact that i'm even alive today is a testimony to the grace of god i was on a crash course with the grave and the penitentiary the fact that i'm here today is a testimony to who he is he changes people's lives and i'm so grateful that he changes people's lives but i remember when i got saved i realized very quickly that what god has doing in me he wants to do in other people and at the time i was playing music for a career and i'd be playing in all these restaurants and bars and you know and i remember i get these little stacks of the gospel of john i'd go to the church that i was going to and i'd like steal i would i would ask but i'd steal them i'm like i just need i need those these little gospels of john i put them in my music band i have like all cables and all this stuff and i would be there and i'd be meeting people all over the place i could separate we talked to someone like man you are so happy i'm like yeah you think so it's like you must be so high right now i'm like i'm actually not i'm not high in the way you think you know because everyone thinks that i'm so you know holy when they look at me because i look just like this a little skinnier but a little less gray but same handsome you know and and like i i bet no no i'm like i'm happy because i believe in jesus and like what i'm like in a bar you know what i mean like i believe in jesus you believe in jesus i'm like i believe jesus i'm like no i really believe in jesus like i believe you saved my life you know and and they're like wow i'd like to meet you just like you want to meet with him i give my gospel a job you should read this i'm playing next thursday come back we'll talk about it you know and it was like because i really wanted to share he him saving me was a first fruit i got to be the beginning of the harvest and brother says no matter how long you've lived in this community you're the firstfruits your neighbors god loves them he saved you so that you can talk to them about jesus your classmates your cohort you got that new job guess what because god wants a missionary on that job you do your job but god wants you to be the first fruits of a harvest that he wants to bring and that's exactly what's going on here so we remember the gift giver he has done a work he has brought his light in jesus into your life and then he wants you to be a type of first fruits now from there look what it says next james chapter 1 picking up in verse 19 it says so then my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak and slow to wrath for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of god now i like to call this three simple truths now i'm gonna be honest they're simple truths but we're all pretty horrible at these three okay isn't it that was like oh yeah so listen three simple truths first truth let every person be swift to hear second truth let every person be slow to speak third truth let every person be slow to wrath those are the three simple truths quick to listen slow to speak slow to wrath now if there was ever like here's some truth bombs for 21st century america i think these three take the cake and it's always been there in james chapter 1 verses 19 and 20 has always been there but we need to grab holies first be quick to listen and slow to speak every parent has told their kids at some point you've been given two ears and one mouth so that you can what is as much as you want so that you can listen twice as much as you talk now how many of you have been in a conversation with somebody and the other person was just waiting to talk and wasn't listening to you go ahead raise your hand now everyone keep your hands up that's what they thought you were doing too i see how i did that it's so true right like we don't want to hear people anymore so we want to be quick to speak and we're slow to listen which gets this thing upside down and james says because god is light and in him is no darkness at all and because he's brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be the firstfruits so then my beloved brothers and sisters because god is your father and in his life then you should listen and of course when you spend time listening and not speaking then you're slow to speak of course proverbs chapter 10 verse 19 said in a multitude of words sin is not lacking but he who restrains his lips is wise isn't that a nasty verse in a multitude of words sin is not lacking no i i'm gonna do this and i probably shouldn't which means you all want me to do it so i'm not going to i'm just kidding if my dad was here my beloved dad he would say god is saying you all need to shut up and see i shouldn't have done that right isn't it kind of is it rude isn't it true though that's what he's saying like we just got to stop talking that's like it's so simple and my dad's like i could just see my dad my dad's watching this i wish he would watch this he'd be like that's what i would say you're right but here's it it's like stop talking start listening it's a listening is spiritual hospitality my friends listening is spiritual now what goes on is in our day and age because everyone thinks that they're right because everyone thinks that they're right they have to make sure that you realize you're wrong they're right that's why they talk over you but here's the difference if you're a follower of jesus you don't think you're right you know you're right and because you know you're right you don't have to prove it to anybody so you can listen that's pretty deep isn't it think about that later you don't have to prove that you're right to anybody because god in jesus has already said this is what the truth is so you don't have to prove it to anybody you can listen to people you can let them talk about all the different ask them a million to five questions and it's okay and what what i have learned and i do not do this well so i'm not i'm not preaching this to you as an expert on this i was very convicted when i read this and i wrote in my own journal you just gotta stop talking right what i am aware of is that when you don't talk all the time you can pick the right spot to say the one thing that god actually wants them to hear so it's about i was talking to somebody who has a military background he was talking about how in different branches of the military you know some in the military are trained that you have one bullet and and each bullet needs to have a purpose to it right now i've never been in the military so i just took him on i'm like you know that that each bullet has a purpose and he's like in a lot of ways and this is what this guy's a believer he said in a lot of ways that's exactly what our word should be we shouldn't just be spraying words everywhere we want to be purposeful in what we say and i was like oh yeah that's james chapter one be quick to listen be slow to speak and be slow to wrath and then james says something powerful for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of god now this might be the one verse fix for everything that is political in america right now the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of god and that when it says man means men and women human wrath does not produce the righteousness of god so listen i always say it everyone holds their politics personally and passionately and my only request as a brother in christ and as a pastor is that you hold those passionate and personal political views under the authority of jesus according to the word of god and the wrath of people will never produce the righteousness of god so trying to change people's opinions ideas and views through human wrath is folly and if you don't believe me oh amen i think that's some pretty good bible but what's beautiful is the apostle paul gives us the other side of the coin which does the exact same thing and this is romans chapter 2 verse 4 where he says or do you despise the riches of god's goodness forbearance and longsuffering not knowing that it is the goodness of god that leads you to repentance so what you have is you and i where the rubber meets the road when we're walking through this world you have two options you have your wrath and frustration and everything that's going on which will never produce the righteousness of god or you have i'm gonna be quick to listen i'm gonna be slow to speak and i'm not gonna get angry and i'm going to allow god's riches of his goodness and forbearance and patience to work through me knowing that god's goodness through my life to somebody else will lead them to repentance and i'll be honest with you brother sisters i love the fact that crossroads as a church family has always taken that ladder position and i want to encourage you let your life be a vehicle for god's goodness to reach people who are outside of the gospel don't get mad at them nobody ever got shamed into the kingdom of god nobody ever got argued into the kingdom of god nobody ever got yelled into the kingdom of god it's god's goodness that draws a person it's god's goodness that does it so don't let's not forget these three simple truths now moving on it says in verse 21 james chapter one therefore now you guys have been here long enough when you see the word therefore what do you say what's it there for good bible interpretation just like so then to conclusion therefore a conclusion based on the last conclusion therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man observing his natural face in the mirror for he observes himself goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was now it's really fascinating here because really what this teaches us is that you and i we need to do the word we need to do the word remember he just said that because god is light he doesn't lead us into temptation and of his own will he brought us forth by the what the word of truth that we might be these first fruits so so so he's saying listen god in his perfections given us the word of truth and and he birthed us into the kingdom that we might be the first fruits he says and because we've been birthed in the kingdom be quick to listen to the word slow to speak slow to wrath and then he says because of all this we need to let our lives reflect the very word that we hear and that's why he says but be doers of the word and not hearers only and he says if you're only hearing the word of god and not actually applying it to your life then you're actually deceiving yourself when you go back to verse 16 of james 1 it says do not be deceived my beloved brethren so the earlier deception is that i am tempted because god tempts me see don't be deceived by that the second deception is when you hear the word but you only hear it and you don't put it into practice he's saying the person who hears the word but doesn't apply it to their lives is like somebody who looks in the mirror he sees himself and goes away and immediately forget what he looks like wouldn't that be weird right the idea here is that it's not enough just to hear the scriptures you need to let the scriptures change your life and this is something that jesus spoke about in matthew chapter 7 verses 21 to 28 jesus tells this story about remember the person who built their house on the rock and the person who built their house on the sand in that story there's a man who built his house on the sand when the wind and the waves come the tempest hit because that was built on the sand that house fell the other was built on a rock right and when everything happened because it was built on the rock that house stood now in both examples here one of the things that jesus says those who he the person who built this house on the rock are those who hear these sayings of mine and does them does them not just hears them does them and brother sisters listen this is one of the reasons why the reformer martin luther did not like the book of james it's reported to have said that the the reformer martin luther wanted the book of james thrown out of the canon because martin luther's mesmerism were saved by grace apart from works but then james comes and says listen it's not enough just to hear the word you have to do the word and here's the deal is that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god but once faith comes by hearing by the word of god then our job is to say i want to integrate these things into my life and my friends all of us have things that we know that the bible says that we're not doing right now and those are the things that i think god wants us to start taking steps of faith in like when you know god says love your enemy and you're not loving that person guess what you're not being a doer of the word when god's word says that we should serve one another and you're so mad that everyone's not serving you and i'm not talking i mean we live in a day and age now because of trauma culture and you know everyone's we have a victim cultural mentality right now everyone takes everything to the most extreme end so like if you're in an abusive situation this does it doesn't apply to you in the same way i'm saying it right now i got to say that in this day and age because some people are in abusive relationships and it's like man when i say you got to serve that person well i'm gonna you know i'm not talking about the extreme ends i'm talking about as a life principle as a life principle the bible talks about loving beyond everything about forgiving about being compassionate being gracious being faithful being patient right and all of us in our daily lives we hit these points where we're like yeah i know it says that i really don't want to do that and james is saying that that's actually a deception so how simple would it be if each one of us just simply tried to do what it says kind of look at man it's like everyone's just like it's like i love the bible because this is like god is inviting all of us he's saying listen i know it sounds crazy but i'm inviting you be doers of the word take the step one thing that i have learned in my life is that nine times out of ten god's way does not make a lot of sense to me until i do it and then i'm like this is really really awesome like i didn't want to do it but then you do it and then you're like i'm so happy i did that it worked out way different than i thought but that's what walking by faith is all about that's where the rubber meets the road my friends and this is where we learn how to become distinctively christian which is a word that i'm i'm starting to use a lot lately what does it mean for us to be distinctively christian because we live in a day and age where christianity is getting filtered through all these other things and it doesn't look distinctively christian it doesn't look like james and john where they knew they'd been with jesus even though they were uneducated it's like so what i'm finding is that what god wants to do in this generation with all the cultural stuff we have is he wants to make people who believe in jesus to be distinctively christian that like people who look upon our lives whether they their co-workers or classmates or family members there is something uniquely distinct about who we are as opposed to everything else that's going on in our world and i believe that the distinct christian nature of the people of god come by the spirit because god has given us his word so what if we just simply decided i'm just going to do what it says the word says i'm going to just do it because you know what's so i was thinking about this the other day as well a hundred years ago if someone read the bible you just did it and you saw what it says today whatever you want the bible to say you can go on google it you can find someone who will give you a lousy interpretation of what the bible says that suits what you want it to say so i mean even like 50 years ago you could just go to the library if you were so inclined and you can follow the dewey decimal system to try and find a book if you could find it was that the only one who who could not do the dewey decimal system i just finally go to the reference librarian like i need help didn't you learn this in school i think i did but i don't get it anyway you know if you're a librarian forgive me i was not your favorite person that's how it goes but now it's like people that have we have so much access to information and we have such a lack of wisdom and within the church we have so much access to teachers but yet i don't see people more godly now than they've ever been with all this information what i realized is that depending on what you wanted to say you can find somebody who wrote a blog from their mom's basement with the interpretation that you want it to be rather than simply this is what it says and i'm gonna try and live this out what would it look like if we just did the word don't overthink it don't rationalize it don't read 27 commentaries oh i love reading i love reading we just did it what could god do we would we would be way better office people and the church would be way more salt and light because what's what i find is like and i notice i have lots of friends who you know pastors who go back to school later it's amazing they were totally great pastors and they go to school and they become totally in their head it's like what happened to you oh well i read this theologian it's like well listen are you walking with jesus right now because we have a tendency to overthink everything we let it get big in our heads rather than simply this is what it says and this is what we should do and in a lot of ways we want to be deep in the word of god and we don't want to be deep in this is how i just rationalize what i want to do does that make sense so with those three simple truths let's just do that let's listen more talk less be less angry sounds good doesn't it rather than just hearing the word like just do what we heard let's just do that and look what it says next verse 25 as opposed to the person who hears the word doesn't do it who's deceived but he who looks into verse 25 the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful here but a doer of the work this one will be blessed in what he does and if anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart this one's religion is useless pure and undefiled religion before god and the father is this to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world now here's what i would say i would put it in this language you and i we should be religious in the best sense and i say that we should be religious in the best sense because by and large the word religion or religious is used in a negative way today like you've heard people say it's not a religion it's a relationship right or i'd be like man oh you're so religious i'm like what do you mean by that you know because the idea of being religious has negative connotations by and large in our culture but really what james is saying he's saying let's be religious in the best possible sense of the word the biblical sense of the word because he says listen as opposed to the person who hears the word but doesn't do it he says but the person who looks into the perfect law of liberty i love that that's a great definition of the word of god the word of god is the perfect law of liberty it's perfect it's god's way and it leads us to complete freedom in jesus because whom the son sets free is free indeed the person who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it which means does it follows after it doesn't stop someone who's not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this one will be blessed in what they do see that so so the outcome of the person who does the word is blessings and he says if anyone who thinks they're religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart that's one's religion is useless so it ties us back into be quick to listen and slow to speak he's saying so if you're religious in the best sense of the word and you do not watch what you say then you're deceiving your own heart and your religion is useless and then james defines what it means to be religious in the best possible sense of the word look at it pure and undefiled religion before god the father is this to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world now notice that pure and undefiled religion you know it's pure and undefiled religion because it's before god not before people that's the big difference religion in the negative sense is i do it for people so that people think that i'm religious some people think that i'm spiritual and jesus talks all about that how the pharisees would love long prayers they'd love all these things they prayed when everybody was there so everyone knew that they prayed no pure under fire is before god it's about a relationship with god but what is it first you visit widows and orphans in their distress widows and orphans in james's culture and jesus culture were the most vulnerable people orphans had no parents widows had no husbands now i know you're saying well let's foose again what do you talk about listen this is before women worked outside of the home a woman who had no husband in the roman empire as like the greek empire before that the beatle persian empire before that the assyrian empire they were completely vulnerable impoverished it was broken but being religious in the best possible senses you find people who are on the margins who are vulnerable and you visit them and that visiting means you join them and you help them that's what it means so the first step in being religious in the best possible sense of the word we're hearing the word and we're looking to the margins to those who are vulnerable and we help them now it's unbelievable to me that in this day and age in a politicized christianity that helping vulnerable people is somehow like negative now that's not you here but if you see what's going on in the church people are like angry about things like hey we help people [Music] and i'm just like only in a political environment like this can people miss the bible so profoundly pure and undefiled you find people who are on the margins who are vulnerable who the system is not helping but hurting and you help them that's pure under fi i didn't write it i just believe it i don't filter through politics i filter it through the spirit of god in the word of god that is good christianity and not only helping people on the margins but keeping oneself unspotted from the world so you realize there is a ministry mission service out working and there is a consecration in working i keep myself set apart from this i am not going to get spotted by this i'm going to be set apart for jesus and i'm going to move through the world in his name and i'm not going to let all that's going on now taint make shady shadow the light of god but i'm going to be set apart and i'm gonna serve and brown sisters in matthew 25 the parable of the sheep and the goats where jesus separates the two groups what was the difference between the sheep and the goats in every case there was somebody who was vulnerable who didn't go and meet them for the sheep when jesus said when i was hungry you fed me and when i was naked you clothed me and when i was in jail you visited me and when i was thirsty you gave me something like lord when did we do that to you so when you did it the least of these my brethren you did it to me for the goats who get separated from jesus eternally what do we do wrong well when i was hungry you didn't feed me when i was thirsty didn't give me something to drink and i was naked didn't give me any clothes fun sisters [Music] where the rubber meets the road god isn't asking each one of us to put feet on our faith now here's what i want to tell you and i want to bring this to a close here and we're going to talk more about this going forward but listen i think what happens is we look at what's going on in the world and all the issues and all and we say to ourselves there is no way i can actually help fix this right we're overwhelmed by the scope and the scale of the issues here's what i tell you god is not asking you to fix all of it he's just asking you to play your part he's not saying you need to single-handedly fix all of this he's saying you need to step in to what i want to have fixed and what god does is we take a step of faith and he meets us on the step of faith and then he surrounds us with other people who see the same thing and then before you know it what becomes one person doing something small becomes a lot of people doing something small and that becomes something big so don't get overwhelmed by the scale of it but really what this teaches is that all of us need to be fully engaged family members and the people of god because for some of us it's about this thing sometimes about this thing it's hey this thing is really important it's broken here it's broken there hey there are people across the globe who don't know jesus there are people across the street who don't know jesus and we have all these different areas that we're all like there's places of pain everywhere and what i believe is that one is not more important than all of them all of them are as important and all of it gets tended to when all of us do what god is asking us to do instead of fighting about it we just step on out i'll be honest with you as a church family that's why we want you to be in groups that's why we want you to be fully engaged that's why we do all of these different projects as a church family through love now because their needs are beyond the scale and scope of even a huge church-like crossroads but we realize we're not going to fix all of it our job is to fix the part that god is inviting us into and to do what we can in that space and we trust that all the people of god and all the different churches with all the different areas of passion and all the different people all over the globe we have all these things that when we all engage ourselves in saying listen we're not going to let anyone be on the margins and be hurt we're not going to let anybody be left unattended to by the system and all this stuff we're gonna engage within it and we're gonna keep ourselves unspotted from what's going on here and then god begins to meet us in the margins right where things are happening and god begins to work in amazing ways and that happens when you and i put feet on our faith when we step out in ways we never have before and so i want to encourage you to simply do the word whatever that is for you because i realize that you've got to do the word for each one of us there's different things that pop up yeah i got to stop doing that i got to step into that god's been talking to me about this and i haven't been doing it i need to go do that whatever that's just do it take the step with jesus and as we continue to take those steps together all of us steps of faith god meets us on those steps and empowers us by his spirit on those steps and then before you know it god starts doing the work and we're like how did this all happen i don't know god's doing work and our job is to keep taking those steps let's power heads in our hearts so we pray together father i want to thank you [Music] for what we have studied today and we just want to thank you for the the fact that you're light the fact that you birthed us by the word of truth by the fact that you have made us the first fruits god and will you help us to be quick to listen slow to speak slow to wrath lord forgive us for not doing the word for for for hearing it but not applying it at street level where we want to be those people who built our houses on the rock we heard these sayings of yours jesus and we did them and father we ask that you would make us religious in the biblical sense that we would be the kind of people who look into the perfect law of liberty and continue on in it people who hear the word we do it we don't deceive ourselves we bridle our tongues and we just step on out to help and we keep ourselves unspotted in the journey so lord do that work in each one of us lead us [Music] show us what the next steps are and now with our heads bowed and our eyes closed i believe there might be many here in our sanctuary many joining us online right now you're hearing this message and you've never before put your faith and trust in jesus and jesus has been inviting you to come to him have your sins forgiven he wants to fill you with the spirit he wants to set you apart but for whatever reason you you haven't said yes before listen he's inviting you right now to come and be changed he says if anyone's in christ through a new creation old things have passed away all things are being made new god wants to make you new today or maybe you're here today in a long life's way you said yes to jesus but you've gotten away from him you've been far from him you haven't been following him and you're hearing this and you're like today's the day i want to recommit my life to jesus i want to start doing the word [Music] if that's you in either those two categories either saying yes to jesus for the first time or today's a day you're going to recommit your life to jesus after some time away i want you to take a few steps of faith with me here today if that's you without you just raise your hand right now to say it's me i'm saying yes to jesus here today just raise your hand up high and say i'm recommitting my life to jesus here today i want to come home today i want my sins forgiven today just raise those hands up i just say it's me i'm saying yes to jesus here today [Music] i guess there's a hand right over here i can barely see us raise your hand if i say it's me i'm saying yes here today oh there you are praise god i see you there praise the lord if you're joining us in your online right now maybe have your hand up in front of your computer maybe you have your hand up in front of your your your mobile device right now and you're online but you're like i'm saying yes to you if that's you i would love to be able to follow up with you just as we would if you're right here in our sanctuary but i don't know that you're saying yes to you so if you're online and you're saying yes just will you pull out your mobile phone text the word ready to five one four zero zero five one four zero zero our thousand house online they're gonna follow up with you just as we would if you're right here in the sanctuary now those of you with your hands raised here in the sanctuary in just a moment some folks for our new believer's ministry they're going to make their way right on over to you and they're going to talk to you after i'm done praying here we are so excited for the step that you are taking here today and we are delighted to make sure you get a bible and to start that journey with him so father i ask that you would help us not just be hearers of the word but we would be doers of the word lord lead us and for the folks who raise their hands here today god seal them with your spirit and we ask it all in jesus name and all of god's family agreed together as we said amen amen let's give these folks a round of applause for those of you raise your hand some folks from new believers ministry they're coming right over to you right now let's all stand together and let's respond to the lord with worship because he's worthy hello thank you so much for joining us we hope that your time with us was meaningful we believe in reflecting on all that god's doing so we encourage you to reflect on these discussion questions either with your small group or in the chat section right now we'll see you next week [Music] do [Music] do [Music] you

Channel: Crossroads Community Church

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Length: 83min 47sec (5027 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 23 2021