James 1

Favorite Book of the Bible…new believer I ate this up, because let me tell you, James gets right to the point. In fact, I always tell new believers, read the Gospels, find out what Jesus did, then most certainly read James...

Not much said about Jesus Life… old creeds He was born of the virgin mary…died under Pontious Pilate… great life… hopefully much more can be said about you...

One of the reasons I love this book of the Bible… its written by His little brother… and his little brother along with the rest of his family watched Jesus grow...

I was a little brother… i loved everything that my brother did, he was like the greatest thing since sliced bread… I watched my brother grow up… and I still love him to this day, but there isn’t any way you could convince me he was the son of god…

Much in the same way my family watched me grow…

Family - we all grow up together… We all know stories about each other that no one knows… my brother could tell yo about the time that he broke my nose… seriously...

So this is such a powerful testimony, because this is his brother, this is the guy that knows all the details about Jesus before he became a public figure… this is the testimony of the family that knew what Jesus would say when he hit his thumb with a hammer… I mean this is the real deal so we can think that James would know much more about Jesus than maybe anyone...

So as James is writing this letter, he is a Pastor… I can’t imagine growing up learning how to be Holy in the house of Jesus and by watching him, but this is the luxury that James was afforded… so he has learned from Jesus, he walked with him he heard him speak, they went to synagogue together to learn and he has heard what Jesus Said in Luke 11:28

Luke 11:28 ESV

28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

when Jesus said Blessed are those who hear the word of God and do it.

So its no surprise when we hear him say this….

James 1:19–27 NIV

19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. 26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

19My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

26Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

This is some awesome scripture right here, and I am going to believe that there aren’t many of you that really like this scripture… I think about this all the time… can I be honest, can I do that? I am way too short tempered with my children… I am doing my best to move past that, I am believing with God help I CAN get past that.

We don’t like this part of scripture though, because it hits some of us really hard… listen, growing up, I learned vengeance… I learned that it was okay to be angry and be cross with people if they really deserved it. You know, like they looked at you the wrong way, or they were rich, don’t laugh at me, thats what I was taught, I have moved past that in my life, but thats what I was taught.

And I felt justified to get angry, but we learn that human anger isn’t what God wants us to have, and can I stop right here for a second, because I know there is some push back right here, because I was with you, some of you might be thinking, well Pastor, what about Jesus… temple tables anger… one thing you have to remember, I believe that was a Godly, righteousness anger… Jesus wasn’t humanly angry, he was mad for God…. think back… David said what makes you angry will make me angry… and this is the same thing… sure be angry if its a righteous anger, but I assure you that God isn’t angry when someone cuts you off in traffic….

The truth is that there is a lot of information out there about God. There are tons of people that know lots of stuff about God. The trouble is most of us do nothing with it. Just having the knowledge and not changing doesn’t help us. We have to use the knowledge we have. Having knowledge that we have a heart problem and need surgery does us no good if thats where it stops… we actually have to do something with that knowledge, we need a doctor to go in and actually fix the damage that has been done.

Really, some of the reason that I love for new believers to start here is from this mere idea here…. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves… do what it says…. see we all get to this place where we say…I know that… I know its in there… okay heres the word of God, now what.

The NKJV says verse 19 this way, “My Beloved Brethren…"

So what do we do with all of this information, and I think all of it begins with that verse right there… we have to realize that we are BELOVED by God… it all starts there… Jenn is here…. she is my beloved…. God loves you that way…. my kids are next door, some are here… some are everywhere.. they are my beloved…. God loves you that way… you need to know this morning that God loves you… everything in your faith walk starts with that… if you are a christian…. God loves you….you need to know that….

So God is telling us his word is a gift… its a gift for you and for me… its not just dos and don’ts its a gift for us to have…. and he wants us to grow together…but there are 5 personalities this morning that resist our growth

1. Be a Chatterbox

One of the worst easiest ways for us to ruin our growth is to be a chatterbox… what’s a chatterbox… you know… the person that likes to talk…too much… Some people say, I’m not a chatterbox… I just like to verbally process what I am thinking…right… well pastor you talk a lot aren’t you a chatterbox… lets just moved past this….

Seriously, ever met someone that can’t just let things be? You know the person… I just feel like I need to say something….They have to always have the last word… like allowing something to end is just the worst thing ever… maybe you’re wondering if you are a chatterbox…. you don’t really seem to think that you are… just ask your spouse… wait…maybe you shouldn’t….

So What does God say to those of us that are chatterboxes? He says, you need to learn to be slow to speak…. Rabbis used to say that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason….

How else can we ruin growth… 1 be a chatterbox…

2. The Bad Listener.

The second personality is the bad listener… are you a bad listener? x2 A Bad listener is the one that is distracted and doesn’t have time to listen or doesn’t process what is going on. Or sometimes they hear what is being said, they just don’t like what is being said. Bad listener. So what Does God say to the bad listener? You need to be quick to hear.

Some of us have heard information, maybe even God’s truth and you haven’t listened… maybe because you don’t like what is being said, maybe because you haven’t really tried to process what is being said from the word…what you do don’t need is more information, what you need is more ability to be receptive to the word.

3. You are short tempered

Now, for all of us there will be one of the 5 that resonates most clearly with you and maybe this is you. Maybe your spouse is saying this is definitely you…we just fly off the hinges for something that is so small...

The single most quoted verse in the bible by other books in the Bible is Exodus 34:6… The Lord, The Lord is slow to anger… not he never gets angry… not is against anger… but he is slow to anger… he’s letting us know that he does get angry, it just takes him a long time to get there… some of us are very short fused…. the smallest of things and we go off the handle… people around you feel like they are in the presence of a grenade with a pin thats already been pulled and if they say the wrong thing you’ll drop the grenade….

TO those of us he says you have to learn to be slow to anger

4. Compromise and be a hypocrite

The Compromiser is the person that knows enough of the Bible to know they can’t stand this certain sin, but the other one they are okay with. That really makes me mad, but I am okay with that one…since its the one I do. These are the people that compartmentalize their life before the Lord… God I am keeping this part… I am keeping that part… you can have that …I mean Nobody Can judge me… who are you to judge… nobody is perfect….

Thats why He says “Put away filthiness and rampant wickedness…” ALL OF IT he says…put all of it away… basically he is telling us to put everything in one basket.. let God deal with it all...

5. The Know it all

The fifth category he gives us is the know it all…this is the person that you can’t teach anything to because they already know everything… as soon as you try to teach them through something they need a lesson on they are quick to tell you their qualifications and how they don’t need your help. “I already thought of that, but thanks…” “I wrote that down last week.."

You know the real problem here with this person is pride…there is no humility so they take no instruction… what does god say to those people? Receive with humility… For the know it all its really the pride issue that keeps you from receiving a gift from God..

So which are you? Maybe you are actually two or three of them. WE can all fit into more than one of those categories….and James is about to transition from KNOW the word to DO the word...

Analogy… letter to clean room… come home… we studied the letter.. it was beautiful… it was fantastic…. we love that you love us…here’s the question… did you clean your room… uh…. dad we were too busy studying what you meant when you said clean your room in greek to do that… but we did have a small group meeting on the letter...

See the problem is too often we can turn christianity into a study instead of an action.

Don’t get me wrong… study isn’t bad. If I study Jennifer’s likes and dislikes and never give her what she likes, what good is that?

So James is frustrated because he has all these religious people that don’t want to do anything, they just know what God said but they don’t do anything with it. And he’s mad, because remember he grew up in Jesus’ household… and this was the exact opposite of Jesus, Jesus got down to business...

He warns us to not be self deceived and starts to contrast real religion with false religion...

James 1:26 ESV

26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.

26Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.

Listen, there are a lot of us here this morning that would consider ourselves religious, I am in that category. IF you have been to church for a long time… here’s what he’s basically saying… if you say you’re religious, that you know whats going on that you know the truth, but you don’t DO anything about it… your religion is worthless… he says that false religion si even maked by two different things… self deception, and forgetfulness...

DAVE

He uses the analogy of the mirror… How many of you before you came to church this morning looked into a mirror… he’s telling us that having this religious view of scripture is like this… look in the mirror walk away…… what do you look like…. got it…

For me, and probably some of you looking in the mirror is not the highlight of my day… I see a shadow of the the man I used to be, and its not all that great… I walk away and I remember what I saw there… the problem is he tells us that all too often we look at the word of God and walk away and see it totally differently… we read it and we see our helplessness.. our need for Jesus, our sin, our mistakes… our depravity… we are convicted… and we close the bible and walk away and think.. wait what did that say… I have already forgotten… oh well...

Then he contrasts that with TRUE religion… he says true religion is helpful and holy… and he says that includes having a reign of your tongue… what fun is that

He is telling us that true religion hears… then does something with it.

IT has come time, that we do something with the word that we have heard.. that we read and hear and walk away changed… Listen, I pray every week that each and every one of us comes here changed….