Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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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:

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!