Living Out The Message

INTRODUCTION

Have you been around a person who could talk a good game?

They would tell you how great they were at whatever they bragged about.

I have seen this in athletes.

I used to watch boxing, and I remember fighters who would mouth off before fighting Mike Tyson.

I would be respectful if I were going in the ring with Mr. Tyson. 😀

Some fighters with the biggest mouths ended up on the canvass, wondering what hit them.

Some of them retired from boxing or were never the same after the beat down they took from the man they claimed they were going ot destroy.

The lesson is that if you are going to talk the talk, you better be able to walk the walk!

Let's take this thought to our faith; I should have titled this series True Faith because I am not a fan of the word religion.

I do not think many Christians bragged about being a Christian like a prize fighter who will enter the ring.

But, when we clothe ourselves with Christ, something about us has to be different.

That begs the questions such as, what does faith look like?

How does faith change my life?

How does my faith change the world around me for the better?

Today we embark on a five-week series from the Letter of James to answer these questions as we move through James's teachings on faith in action.

This is practical theology for all believers, especially for younger and newer followers of Jesus.

With one teaching from each of James's five chapters, we're encouraged to read through the whole letter and discover what true religion or faith might look like.

James is one of the Bible's most practical books on living out the Message.

James is filled with complex concepts or great theological writing, but rather, simple, down-to-earth counsel.

Our Big Idea for the Message today is: True religion puts words into action.

Let's turn to James 1:19-25.

We will begin with verses 19-20.

James 1:19–20 (NET 2nd ed.)

19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.

20 For human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.

SERMON

I. A difficult command.

I wouldn't say I like passages like verses 19-20.

I hate them because they are so practical yet can be so challenging to practice.

Yet, this passage tells me one of the ways my faith, or religion, should impact my life.

Honestly, on my own, I would not be able to carry out this command because I used to have a very volatile temper.

I would go off like a stick of dynamite if you got under my skin.

I would get so angry that I would not listen to reason, so I would be slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to anger.

Part of me being a new creation in Christ when I was baptized into Him was having the Holy Spirit help lead me away from this type of life.

Let's break down verse 19.

What does it mean to be quick to listen?

Who are we to be quick to listen to?

In the context of verse 18, we are to listen to God's Word.

James 1:18 (NET 2nd ed.)

18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

If we do not listen to God and His Word, we will end up pretending to follow His will because we have no idea what it is.

The command to be quick to listen denotes an eagerness to hear and obey God's Message.

Once we taste the wonderful blessing from God that flows down to us as a result of our obedience and His love for us, we should want to listen more and more!

How many times have we been told something but did not hear it because we were so anxious to speak that we did not listen?

I am glad I have never done that!

It is interesting sometimes to listen to Christians discuss politics, economics, or other matters.

When you listen to these conversations, you can hear many interesting human thoughts, but how often do we ask, "What would God's Word say about this?"

For us to be able to grow in Christ, we have to listen to God's Word.

We are also commanded to be slow to speak.

Proverbs 17:27-28 states:

Proverbs 17:27–28 (NET 2nd ed.)

27 The truly wise person restrains his words, and the one who stays calm is discerning.

28 Even a fool who remains silent is considered wise, and the one who holds his tongue is deemed discerning.

It is hard to listen when we are speaking.

Remember the Book of Job. Job was going through terrible things in his life, and his friends sat with him for seven days and nights.

They seemed slow to speak, but when they finally opened their mouths, they would have been better off remaining silent.

Our words can come back to haunt us, so we must be slow to speak.

A person who is slow to speak would be a person who wants to make sure that they know what God says about something before they say things.

It is making sure that what we are going to say is true before we say it.

The part of the verse tells us to be slow to anger!

Proverbs 14:29 (NET 2nd ed.)

29 Someone with great understanding is slow to anger, but the one who has a quick temper exalts folly.

Ok, that one hits a little too close to home!

Oh my, can't we be allowed to get angry quickly?

I used to let my anger drive me, and when you let anger drive you, it will drive you over a cliff!

When we look at the world around us, we must be careful not to lash out in anger.

Our anger will blind us to what God is trying to teach us.

Lashing out in anger may make us feel better for a moment, but it will solve anything.

Verse 20 reminds us that our anger will not make things as God wants.

Righteousness in this verse deals with works that God approves.

Our anger will not make our conduct right before God.

Let's move to verses 21-24.

James 1:21–24 (NET 2nd ed.)

21 So put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves.

23 For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror.

24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was.

II. A more difficult command.

It does not get any easier.

Verse 21 boils down to ridding oneself of their old nature, way of life, and way of responding to things.

James & Jude (VI. Speaking, Listening, Doing (1:19–27))

Instead of being angry, Christians should rid their lives of evil. “put away” is actually a metaphor of taking off one set of clothes and putting on another.

Thus, Christians are to put off the filthy clothes of hasty speech, anger, and all kinds of evil and to put on Christ.

This metaphor of “put away” and “put on” occurs in many places in the New Testament and may refer to the change of life that takes place in baptism (Romans 13:12; Ephesians 4:22–25; Colossians 3:8; Hebrews 12:1; 1 Peter 2:1).

It is another way of speaking of that new birth and creation that God gives (see v. 18).

Ridding oneself of old habits, ways, and attitudes is hard.

The ability to do this successfully is part of the Holy Spirit's work within us.

Part of ridding oneself of the junk we do not need is to focus on what we do need!

Our desire should be to look intently toward God's word and live out the Message.

In verses 22-23, living out the Message is compared to looking in a mirror.

We usually look in a mirror so that we can correct things.

We look in the mirror to make sure that we look all right.

James & Jude (VI. Speaking, Listening, Doing (1:19–27))

If you look in a mirror, see a smudge on your face or your hair out of place, and do nothing to improve your appearance, then you have forgotten what you should look like or are self-deceived, believing you are attractive as you are with no room for improvement.

In the same way, one who hears the word but does not do it has forgotten the ethical demands of the word and has deceived himself into thinking he is already perfect

One who just hears the Word is one who looks at the Word, then turns and walks away with no intent on fixing what needs to be fixed.

They will continue in the same direction they have been heading.

This is the thought from verse 24.

Let's move to verse 25.

James 1:25 (NET 2nd ed.)

25 But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out—he will be blessed in what he does.

III. The key to successfully obeying the command.

Verse 25 moves us to the issue of focus once again.

The perfect law of liberty is the mirror for the soul, just like the metal mirror of the day was a mirror for the face.

The word "PEERS" denotes one who puts forth extra effort to see something that is not in a line of sight.

The word was used when speaking of Peter, John, and Mary Magdalene as they made efforts to stoop down and look into the empty tomb of Jesus.

The verse gives us a picture of one fiercely searching through the scriptures to hear the Message from God.

The perfect law of liberty is the Gospel of Jesus!

The Gospel sets us free!

Galatians 5:1 (NET 2nd ed.)

1 For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery.

John 8:32 (NET 2nd ed.)

32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

If we are successful in living out the Message, we MUST focus on the Message!

We are not called to glance at the Message; we are to fix our attention on the Message and not forget it!

CONCLUSION

James focuses on the choice to hear the Word or do the Word of God and the consequences of our choice.

As Benjamin Franklin famously quipped, "Well done is better than well said" (Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack [The Century Co., 1898], 88), and it's no less true in our walk of faith.

Of course, James will reiterate his insistence that faith be demonstrated in good works (James 2:14–26) later in his letter.

It's a message that resonates as the world continues to scrutinize how Christians' lives fail to live up to our Message.

This teaching is strongly tied to the Sermon on the Mount (Martin Dibelius, James, Hermeneia, rev. Heinrich Greeven, trans. Michael A. Williams, ed. Helmut Koester [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1975], 250).

The appeal of James is no different than the appeal from Jesus, Paul, Peter, and all the writers of the New Testament.

We must decide if we will allow our walk to match our talk and who we are in Christ.

Application Point: Followers of Jesus are called to act upon the faith they've been given with concrete acts of love and obedience.