Walk the Walk - Answer the Bell

Answer the Bell

Intro -

Last week I spoke a bit about those moments when life gets hard. James really does such a good job of letting us know not only that it will happen, but that it will happen to everyone, and when it does happen, we need to persevere because that bad thing is the very thing we might need!

So we persevere.

But perserverence implies something. There is a lot going on behind that one little word. There are levels of perseverance, there are tolerances and expectations. There is something bigger than just that little idea of putting up with your situation.

For those of you here for evening worship, we filled in some of those gaps, and will do so throughout this series. But to summarize, James goes on from last weeks text to outline what are the common defects of a person of faith. Double-mindedness, pride, assuming God brings those bad moments - all those things that can strangle the faith of even the strongest believer.

All things we need to try to limit in our lives.

James says all that to bring us to this very point. You see, this point, is the very point of the entire letter, at least an a macro scale. This message is the one we must master. Outside of the basic tenets of faith, if we never get anything else right, we have to get this one right.

So lets turn and pick up James’ message in verse 19, and read to verse 26 there in chapter 1.

James 1:19–26 NIV

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 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. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 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. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.

James 1:19–25 NIV

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 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. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 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.

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Pray

PICHERE(joy of victory and agony of defeat?)

Sometimes, we get knocked down. Its just a fact of life. There are moments when we feel like we are doing everything perfectly, the joy of victory if you will, and then there are the others. The moments we don’t think about too often. The moments we fail. When we feel the agony of defeat.

I hope you can relate to that, because I know I can.

In those moments, the moments we get knocked down, what do we do? Well, if you are human, its pretty likely that you get defensive, right? We start swinging for the fences. We look for ways to make us right and the other party wrong. When we answer that bell, we don’t always stand up and take it. No, all too often we lay down and make excuses.

I say it that way because I think it is a practical way to say what James says here in these first few verses, where James tells us that we should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

When I read that, I can’t help but start making excuses. I mean, he doesn’t mean me, I don’t get angry quickly. No, it takes me at least 5 minutes to get full on mad! And I listen, oh sure, I listen, up until someone says something I disagree with, then I just close my ear flaps and act like they don’t exist, or are just too young or stupid to understand the truth.

That sounds more like us, right? You see, the way of life James describes is probably the opposite of what we tend to think and do. Especially when we mess up, and when we get knocked down!

So maybe James means that we act that way when things are going well, or when we are in the right! One can hope, right? No, if you are reading this letter contextually, you will see that he is actually implying that not only should we be that way when things are good, but we should do it all the time! Especially when things get tough!

When should we be quick to listen and slow to speak and become angry?

James is directing us towards the human responses needed to help fortify the Spirit of Christ in our hearts. You see, you can’t allow yourself to fly off the handle and expect to be a follower of Christ! Are you going to occaisionally? Absolutely! But following anything - a diet, workout routine, dress codes, the laws we live by - they all require there to be a change in our condition so that we can fall in line with the expectations. There must be changes made.

Well that answer is about what you would expect! All the time! James is directing us towards the human responses needed to help fortify the Spirit of Christ in our hearts. You see, you can’t allow yourself to fly off the handle and expect to be a follower of Christ! Are you going to occaisionally? Absolutely! But following anything - a diet, workout routine, dress codes, the laws we live by - they all require there to be a change in our condition so that we can fall in line with the expectations.

And being a follower of Christ is no different! How often we like to think that we have made it! Its a great thought isn’t it? It really is! I mean, after all, if we have made it in faith, then we don’t have to change!

But that isn’t the truth. Take note of this, everyone: We should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, James says. That is the way of a follower of Christ.

Listen, if we claim that title, a follower of Christ, then we have to come to grips with the fact that a Christian is one who stops living by their own spirit and instead now lives by the Spirit of God! They have been saved we might say. Saved from themselves.

They are someone who, as James would say, humbly accepts the implanted word that is in them!

pic of something growing?

Such a wonderful picture is painted there. This implanted word. This foreign body that is placed in us, not to be on display, church, but to take root in our souls and to grow until we are overtaken by it!

If you have ever seen a bank that has kudzu planted on it you know what I mean. Eventually, if not chopped back, that plant will overtake the bank! And likewise, if we just humbly accept the implanted word, and by the way, that word here is Logos, which if you don’t know, is the very description of Jesus from ! “In the beginning was the word,” or logos, “and the word was with God, and the word WAS God!” James wants us to humbly accept that, God Himself, the implanted Spirit of God in our hearts. But why?

James 1:21 NIV

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.

James 1:

It can save you.

It will save you.

It will save you in those moments your fall short, the moments James has been speaking about. It will save you from yourself, the moral filth that he mentions. It will save your soul from eternity apart from God!

But you have to accept it.

What does that even mean, to accept God? Well we probably all grew up knowing that answer, at least in part - accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

Well we probably all grew up knowing that answer, at least in part - accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

But for James that isn’t the whole deal. You see, I can accept a lot in this life. I can accept not having hair, I can accept the weather, I can accept lots of things, but they don’t necessarily change me. I think James would agree with that. Church, you can’t just accept Jesus as having existed and said lots of important things, and hear about Him on Sundays. No, you have to be changed by Him! And how do you show you are changed?

You do what He says!

You have to actually do it! And you can’t just do it when life is easy! Listen, being a Christian when everything is going great isn’t exactly difficult! In fact, when life is great, and our needs are covered and we are happy, being like Christ actually comes naturally, because quite frankly, that is just how it feels when you give in to God and live your life for Him! Your needs are covered! You are good to go!

But you see, it is when you get knocked down that your true self shows up.

pichere(basic training)

I remember, during basic training, and many other hard times in life, I would see people get pushed to the limit on purpose. You see, you want to see what a person is made of sometimes. You want to see how they react when they are nothing else left in them, because really, that is when you get to know a person the best!

Just what is left behind when you have given all you have? When you are resting in the corner, feeling like you have given all you have to give, what is the thing that is left in you? How do you answer the bell when it is time to get back in the fight?

When everything you have is gone, all that is left is what you are made of. And time, it keeps on ticking, so when you have nothing left how are you going to answer the bell the next day? How do you react in the next moment?

Mirror pic (foggy)

I think that is the point of verses 23-24. If you just hear the word proclaimed here in church. If you just read the Bible, even if you read it everyday. If your faith is lived out on paper or only in social settings, then when you get knocked down, when life strips you bare, all you will have left is you. But it won’t be a you that you can recognize! You will look in that mirror and something in you, this little nagging seedling will remind you, “that’s not who you are!” You dont recognize that face in the mirror, because you know that isn’t who you are supposed to be! You have been remade! You are God’s!

So you have to get up. You have to answer that bell. You have to become a doer of the word, not just a hearer.

Rocky Pic

You all know my affinity to associate stories, especially movies, with Biblical truth. I do it because I feel like it is something we can relate to. There is a realness that even our real lives sometimes can’t come close to.

One of those places I personally find these truths is in the Rocky movie series. I know, weird right? But it’s there!

There are moments in the films where I am broken down and laid bare! You see, I have been that guy who should have succeded at something and failed! I have been the underdog! I have had to fight for things! I understand just what Rocky goes through!

I think we all do. I think we all can relate, because we have all been there.

On of the biggest truths of the movie series is actually spoken in the last film. Rocky, while speaking to his son, who after getting knocked down by the world blaims everyone else for his failures - just like us right? - Rocky looks at him and tells him what all those movies had been telling us.

“It isn’t how hard you can hit. Its how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

Rocky tie in???? if title stays that way maybe? “implanted word” is Spirit of Christ…Spirit of sacrifice, of doing good for others…not just commentating on the state of their souls....

We don’t just hear the word (watch the game) we do what it says! We answer the bell! We recognize what we are and what we are here for! If you listen to the word…and don’t recognize your purpose then you aren’t looking at what God sees or wants to see! God wants doers not knowers! In fact, the best early Christians, the ones whose words we hold above all others, they weren’t knowers at all! They were doers! Paul…

Story about doers…someone who consistently answered the bell through tought times.

It isn’t about how hard we can hit, or how many knock out blows we can deliver with our great knowledge of Jesus, but how hard we can be hit by this world and keep getting back up!

It isn’t about what you know, it is all about what you do with what you know! It is about how many times we get knocked away from God’s plan and still come crawling back to Him ready to do His work again! This life of faith we live is all about how many times we get knocked down and then get right back up and keep pushing forward doing the work of God!

How many times we get knocked away from God’s plan and still come crawling back to Him ready to do His work again! This life of faith we live is all about how many times we get knocked down and then get right back up and keep pushing forward doing the work of God!

Because let me tell you, if you are here for you, if you are into faith and into God so you can be a part of, or in charge of a social club, or a power broker in your circle of friends, or to somehow feel like you belong to a group of people but not to God, you won’t get back up with you get knocked down. Your heart isn’t in it.

Likewise, if you live this life for you, and you come to this church just to know people, or to be a part of the Christian Club, you won’t fight for anything! You won’t see the need! You will look to blame others for failures, or place the burden on some angry creator that has it in for you! Church, that’s what cowards do! That isn’t us! That isn’t the seed that grows in Christians! That isn’t what this implanted word is all about!

No, when a Christian looks into that mirror, you see the cross, you see eternity, you see the creator of all things, you see the perfect law that has brought you the freedom to not only know God, but to experience Him and to call Him father and friend! And when you look into that mirror, you can’t help but to answer the bell! When you have been emptied of everything else, when you are on your knees ready to give up, what you truly are will rise to the surface to answer that bell!

Then, church, then when you see that giant standing in your way, those smooth stones and that sling are all you need! When you see a great enemy waiting to cut you down, you send your men home, like Gideon - you don’t need 22,000, or 10,000, no, you only need 300 when you answer the bell that God is ringing!

You don’t need it, because even if you had it, it would only get in the way of God! When you are a doer of the word, you rely on the strength of that word planted deep in your heart! So no matter what knocks you down - cars breaking down, losing a job, trouble at home, finances, sickness, even death itself - you will rise from all of that, and answer the bell! Because a follower of God carries in themselves the very strength of God, and the power of the resurrection!

Hear this clearly church from James, and from Jeff - Our faith isn’t about what is in it for us, it is what is in us for others.

1 John 4:4 NIV

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

And what is in us, is far greater than anything we could ever be alone. Greater is the one in you, the implanted word as James puts it, than the one who is living in this world. That is us, the ones in the world, when we rely on our own ways. That is our life apart from Christ. The things that we would do if left to our own devices. But greater is the one implanted within each and every believer who truly lives this life of faith, than the shell that is our lives without Christ!

You see it isn’t about us! If it was all about us, then everything we do would have an agenda, an angle. It would be intended to bring glory to ourselves or to advance our own position or agenda. And if that is what we fight for, we are truly lost. But that isn’t our call! Everything we do must be done for and by God! We must accept that tug on our heart that God has given us, the implanted word, His Spirit, we must listen to it and then do what it tells us to do, even when we feel empty and beaten! When we are tired, when we have been wrong, when we mess up, when we fall short - not matter what we might face, when that stuff happens and we get knocked down, the people of Christ answer the bell! We don’y lay down and let this world win! We stand up! We get on our feet and show this world what we are made of! We are not merely flesh and blood! We are the keepers of the implanted word! We are houses for God’s Spirit! We are His, and when we stand up, church, God stands up! When this world sees Christians who have been laid low by life rise, they see the power of God! They are able to understand what we fight for! And church, when they see it, they become blessed, and we become blessed - everyone is blessed by our answering the bell!

pic here

Whatever that bell is in your life, you have to answer it. You can’t run from it! You can’t avoid it! You have to answer it. Do God’s work. When you read the hard words of Christ, that we shouldn’t judge, or turn the other cheek; when we see the hard lessons of our Savior, lessons that tell us that we will be separated by what we do for others, or that we will be blessed by giving away all we have, we can’t just lay down, church, we can’t. We must stand up. We have to answer that bell. We might not have the answers, we might not be able to live it 24-7, but we will stand up and face it head on. We don’t run away from it. We don’t hide from it.

We don’t quit.

picof greatpeople

Church, think of the greatest people you have ever known. All those figures in your life, or your heroes from times gone. Those immortal folks who people never forget and who we sing songs about, or read about. All those people who did great things. They all had flaws, they all had hang ups, but you what else they all shared - what really made them great?

They didn’t do it for themselves.

Christian or not, those great people in our lives, and in the lives of the world, became great by their desire to see greatness happen for others. But week after week, our churches in this world are filled by people who would never think to help someone if it cost them anything.

But hear this clearly, whether you live for others or you don’t live for others, it costs you everything. If you live for you, you die for you. But if you live for Christ, you die to self and gain eternity! YOU BECOME BLESSED WHEN YOU BECOME A DOER OF THE WORD! YOU BECOME BLESSED WHEN YOU LIFT UP OTHERS! YOU BECOME BLESSED WHEN YOU SEEK TO SERVE THIS WORLD! AND THAT HAPPENS, CHURCH, BECAUSE AS YOU DO IT, THE IMPLANTED WORD GROWS INSIDE YOUR HEART, AND YOU BECOME A MORE CLEAR REFLECTION OF GODS SPIRIT! AND THE MORE CLEAR A REFLECTION WE ARE, THE MORE WE ARE ABLE TO SEE CHRIST IN AND AROUND US! AND WHEN WE SEE IT, WE KNOW THAT THIS GREAT HOPE OF OURS IS REAL! OUR FAITH IS FOUNDED IN SOMETHING GREATER THAN STORIES! OUR LIVES HAVE A PURPOSE THAT HAS BEEN SET OUT FROM THE BEGINNING OF TIME! WE ARE MORE THAN JUST LUMPS OF FLESH, CRUDE MATTER; WE ARE SPIRIT, WE ARE LIGHT, WE ARE HIS!

WE ARE AN ANSWER TO PRAYER! WE ARE GODS TOOLS! SO WE CAN’T QUIT ON HIM! WE MUST ANSWER THAT BELL! NO MATTER HOW HARD LIFE HITS YOU! KEEP GETTING UP!

At the end of the Rocky film, Rocky, as always is getting pummeled. But now he is old, and has nothing to prove. He has made it all ten rounds with this great young fighter. He’s done his job.

Live your life for Jesus. Be a doer of His word. Seek to make His word real in this world.

In the middle of that final round, he gets hit hard and drops to his knees. And as he is down, ready to pack it in, with all the world watching, his words come flooding back. But now they are different. “What did you say to the kid? It ain’t about how hard you can hit, but how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. Keep moving forward.”

Church, the world is watching us. Your kids, your community, everyone, they look to Christians to see what our faith is all about! What our lives are filled with! Listen, our faith can’t just be words. Words are far too easy. You have to live your life for Jesus. You have to answer the bell. You have to keep moving forward.

Our faith can’t just be words. Words are far too easy. You have to live your life for Jesus. Be a doer of His words. Seek to make His words real in this world.

Answer the bell. Show the world what you really are, and whose you really are.

Show the world what you really are, and whose you really are. Be a doer of His words, and seek to make His words real in this world.

Invitation