The Book of James (Week 2)

James 1:19-27

INTRODUCTION

Alright guys first things first, last week I preached James 1:1-8 and talked about counting it all joy for when you meet trials of various kinds. That was James 1:2 and our key verse for the night. I also had you fill out these index cards and made a major mistake while using this illustration. I had you make a list of 7 things and call it your good list. This was anything an everything that was or is good in your life. Then later on I had you cross out whatever number 3 was and then later had you cross out number 1. Now I never shared with you what my list was.

My good list was:

1) Couri

2) Titus

3) Family (brothers & in-laws)

4) Friends

5) my job

6) my team

7) my house

Now you may be asking Thomas where is God and your faith on that list? Well here is the mistake I made last week. In my notes I explicitly say, MAKE SURE TO TELL THEM TO WRITE DOWN NOTHING ABOUT GOD, THEIR FAITH, OR JESUS. And I did not do that. Which lead to many of you yelling at me when I said to cross out 1 or 3 because that one of those had God or faith on it. Now that is funny to think about now because the entire message was about drawing close to Jesus and how we count any and every trial in our life for joy because it is an opportunity to grow closer to Jesus. Which means 1 trial you will never go through is God abounding you. He will never leave you or forsake you. Even if you feel like He isn’t there He real is. Your the one pushing Him away, it’s not Him pushing you away.

Now that was week, tonight we are going to look at James 1:19-27. So open up your Bibles and lets read this together but remember our goal for this series is to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and how He will convict us of our sins.

James 1:19–27 NLT

19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. 20 Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. 21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. 22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. 26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. 27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

***PRAY***

James 1:12 is all about the external. It’s all about what goes on on the outside and around you that you did not cause. James 1:13-27 is all about the internal and what goes on, on the inside. It’s about temptation and sinful behavior and how to respond.

*Describe James 1:19-27 while talking about the box of Oreos and the carrots.

James 1:19 - Listen, and be slow to speak or even don’t speak and be slow to anger.

James 1:20 - Our anger is not righteous.

James 1:21 - Get rid of the sin and the things that make you sin. Let the Holy Spirit work in you.

James 1:22-24 - Don’t just listen to the word of God but also do what it says.

ILLUSTRATION: I look at who I am in the mirror but I live like I look like Henry Cavil.

James 1:25 - God blesses not those who listen but those who do what they have listened too.

Your parents asked you to clean your room. The blessing is a clean room.

James 1:26 - What you say reflects what you believe in.

James 1:27 - Genuine faith is compassionate and steadfast.

Do you care about people enough to share Jesus with them. Sometimes to share Jesus you need to show them Jesus.

CONCLUSION

Students this is what I want you to leave with. Jesus listened to the will of the Father. Imagine if all He did was listen.