Listening and Doing

James

A Faith That Works

Listening and Doing

This morning I’m going to start a series on the book of James.

James is one of my favorite books in the Bible.

So I’m going to go through some of my favorite passages from James

I might just reference some verses because I might have done a message already based around that and don’t want to repeat myself.

But first, when it comes to believing Jesus is who he said he was, a good place to look is his family.

If you really want to get to know somebody you need to know their friends and their family!

When you’re wanting to date someone and you don’t know them very well what do you do?

You ask the people closest to them about them.

If anyone knew if Jesus had sinned or had issues, it would be his family.

Which brings us to James.

This James is the half brother of Jesus.

He wrote this book around 45-50 AD

He was basically a Pastor in the Jerusalem church.

James actually doubted Jesus

John 7:2-5 “ But soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters, 3 and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! 4 You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!” 5 For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.”

He did not believe until Jesus showed up after His resurrection.

1 Cor. 15:7 “After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.”

He was stoned to death around 63 AD.

James 1:19-27 “ 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.

James advises us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

How many of you know that for most of us this is the opposite of how we respond?

We tend to be quick to become angry, quick to speak, and slow to listen.

It’s the natural response.

We tend to respond out of our emotions.

Somebody does something or says something that stirs up our anger so we naturally react before we think and before we truly listen.

Because most of the time if we are being honest when we are in a conflict with someone we don’t listen at all.

We’re too busy thinking about what we’re going to say next that we don’t truly take the time to really listen to what the person is saying.

Nothing good comes from speaking right away when you are angry.

Proverbs 15:1 “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

Proverbs 15:18 “A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel.”

I used to be an insurance agent so I had to deal with angry people all the time.

Someone's car insurance would go up and they would call infuriated and I learned quickly that if I responded in a harsh way, It would just make them more angry.

But if I remained calm and really listened to their frustration and even mention how I understand their frustration all of a sudden they would start to calm down.

How you respond to a quarrel WILL affect whether the conversation escalates or not.

James is showing us how to handle disagreements in your life.

We ALWAYS need to be quick to listen.

I don’t get people who just don’t want to hear the other person's side of the story.

I get not agreeing with them but why would you not want to hear their side.

This country is so divided because people don’t want to hear from the otherside.

I’ve heard people on TV talk about how they don’t want to have conversations with people that don’t agree with them.

WHAT?

That’s the problem.

We should always try to see someone else’s point of view and have a civil conversation.

And if at the end you disagree on things that’s ok.

But we get so angry when someone doesn’t agree with us that we just lash out without really listening and we let our anger control us.

Just look at Facebook!

Sometimes it’s better to just bite your tongue and not say anything or type anything.

As believers we should be setting the example to the world about what it looks like to disagree with someone in a loving and respectful way.

Yet so many believers are the driving force behind speaking hate and lashing out at people that don’t agree with us.

That doesn’t mean you can’t stand up for what you believe or share your thoughts on situations.

But HOW are you doing that?

I mean when I see what people are posting right now about this stay home order it disturbs me.

Not that people are upset.

But what they are saying is not what I think God would want them to say.

The moment you start calling someone names and insulting them you know you’ve crossed the line.

You are responding out of anger and emotion and not thinking before you speak!

He goes on to say get rid of all moral filth or moral impurity.

Obviously, he’s stressing the importance of getting sin out of our lives.

Which is the setup for verse 22.

Then he says to accept the word that HAS BEEN PLANTED in you, which can save you.

You see, James is talking to Christians who have heard the word of God.

He’s not speaking to the lost.

He’s speaking to THE CHURCH!

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.”

This is a HUGE problem in our culture and in the church.

We’ll listen to the word of God all day, it’s the DOING part that we struggle with.

How many parents out there would be ok if you told your kids to clean their room and they didn’t do it but they told you, “I was listening though. I heard you. I just didn’t feel like doing it.”

And James is saying that there are people IN THE CHURCH who are HEARING the word but they aren’t actually DOING what it says.

Notice how he says don’t just listen and deceive yourself!

I love what one commentary said, “Hearing” of the word is absolutely essential; but if hearing does not lead to doing, if study does not result in obedience, if attendance at worship service does not lead to a righteous life—then the Word of God has been mistreated and we are deceiving ourselves about the reality of our relationship to God

You see God’s not interested in just your knowledge of Him.

He’s interested in your OBEDIENCE to what you’re hearing.

TALK IS CHEAP!

God doesn’t care how much scripture you can quote if you’re not doing what it says.

Saying you love God and knowing what the Bible says does not make you a true believer.

What does verse 23-24 mean?

Think of when you look in the mirror in the morning and see everything wrong with you.

You see the things you need to touch up and address.

That’s what the word does for us.

It reveals the things in our lives we need to address.

But if we don’t stay in the word and do what it says it’s like looking in the mirror, crazy hair and all, and leaving and forgetting what you looked like.

We do this with the bible.

We read the bible and know what we need to do to change but we don’t!

Verse 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.”

It’s kind of like me watching a work out video like T25 and thinking that’s good enough to get in shape!

Luke 6:46-49 “ “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. 48 They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

Did you notice that it says for both, “everyone who hears these words of mine”?

The problem between the two builders wasn’t that someone HEARD what to do and the other one didn’t.

It was that one actually put into practice what was told and the other did not.

Chuck Swindoll gives us a good illustration of this, in his book, Improving Your Serve: "To make the value of obedience just a practical as possible, let’s play ’Let’s Pretend.’ Let’s pretend that you work for me. In fact, you are my executive assistant in a company that is growing rapidly. I’m the owner and I’m interested in expanding overseas. To pull this off, I make plans to travel abroad and stay there until a new branch office gets established. I make all the arrangements to take my family and move to Europe for six to eight months. And I leave you in charge of the busy stateside organization. I tell you that I will write you regularly and give you directions and instructions. I leave and you stay. Months pass. A flow of letters are mailed from Europe and received by you at the national headquarters. I spell out all my expectations. Finally, I return. Soon after my arrival, I drive down to the office and I am stunned. Grass and weeds have grown up high. A few windows along the street are broken. I walk into the Receptionist’s room. She is doing her nails, chewing gum and listening to her favorite disco station. I look around and notice the wastebaskets are overflowing. The carpet hasn’t been vacuumed for weeks, and nobody seems concerned that the owner has returned. I asked about your whereabouts and someone in the crowded lounge area points down the hall and yells, "I think he’s down there." Disturbed, I move in that direction and bump into you as you are finishing a chess game with our sales manager. I ask you to step into my office, which has been temporarily turned into a television room for watching afternoon soap operas. "What in the world is going on, man?" "What do you mean, Chuck?" "Well, look at this place! Didn’t you get any of my letters?" "Letters? Oh yes! Sure! I got every one of them. As a matter of fact, Chuck, we have had a letter study every Friday night since you left. We have even divided the personnel into small groups to discuss many of the things you wrote. Some of the things were really interesting. You will be pleased to know that a few of us have actually committed to memory some of your sentences and paragraphs. One or two memorized an entire letter or two - Great stuff in those letters." "OK. You got my letters. You studied them and meditated on them; discussed and even memorized them. But what did you do about them?" "Do? We didn’t do anything about them."

This would never fly in the real world!

Why do we think God is so different?

Hearing about God and reading about God isn’t enough. We must do what He says!

Some people think they’re going to stand before God and convince Him that they should get into heaven because they know what the bible says.

Just like the foolish builder who faced destruction in the end, we too will suffer if we choose to not do what God says.

If you want all that God has for you.

You want to walk in HIS path for your life.

You want His blessing and favor on you.

Then you must do what the word of God says.

This is going to set us up for next week where we are going to jump into chapter two and talk about faith without works is dead.

I’m going to address the controversial issue of once saved always saved.

Is it enough to just believe in Jesus and not live a Godly life?

Altar Call