Look At You!
Faith in Action • Sermon • Submitted
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· 6 viewsPeople who are truly following after Christ will be obedient to God's Word.
Notes
Transcript
You have any friends that just seem to not care what they look like? “Hey your shirt is halfway untucked”, and they just say “ok” and move on. “Your hair is messed up” and they just grin. Our oldest son Parker always gets food on his face when he eats and we’ll tell him and he’ll go, “Ha. Hey Alexa, show me Halloween costumes!” It doesn’t do any good to just see something that is off, you’ve got to do something about it!
James started the letter telling us that the testing of our faith is a good thing. To pass a test, we’ve got to look to God. But it’s not enough just to look, to just see what his Word says. James tells us that we have to do it!
Look at your life. Are you a doer of the Word, or a hearer only?
pray and read
People who are truly following after Christ will be obedient to God's Word.
People who are truly following after Christ will be obedient to God's Word.
Humbly Receive the Word
Humbly Receive the Word
verses 19-21
We need to receive God’s Word humbly, not arrogantly.
An old movie called Dumb & Dumber and there’s a scene where they’re driving and one of them has to pee. Well there’s no where to stop and all they have in the car is some empty adult beverage bottles. They get pulled over and the cop sees the beer bottles and tells the driver to give him one and he starts to take a sip and Lloyd tries to tell him not to, but the cop gets mad that Lloyd is telling him what to do and silences him and takes a sip. Of the pee! He should have been slow to speak and anger and quick to listen!
When we hear something we don’t want to hear or that offends us, we tend to get angry instead of quietly receiving it.
Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.
When we hear God’s Word tell us that we need to change or do something differently, so often our first reaction is to get frustrated. It may be at the person who told us and we pop off with “only God can judge me!” or it may be from a preacher and then you don’t like them anymore or you may read it in the Bible and you just get angry, but this should not be our first reaction. We should check our pride and humbly receive it, look further into the Bible to make sure we correctly understand it, and then reject the things of the world and receive the Word that saves!
Do the Word
Do the Word
22-25
Don’t just hear what God says, do it!
Imagine a scenario with me. You’re getting ready for school, but you’re running a little late. The house is hectic. Your siblings are going a little crazy. If you don’t have siblings it’s your pet. If you don’t have that either then it was an earth quake. You’re trying to get your lunch packed and get your homework together. In the midst of all this, you step in front of the mirror to see how you look, see if the fit is good. You make some mental notes and move on. You’re about to leave and you can’t remember what you saw that you needed in the mirror, but you go on to school anyway. You get there and people think you’re really funny today. They’re all looking and laughing. Except for the ones who are gasping. Then you think to yourself it’s a little cool today! And you remember one of the things you saw in the mirror, or didn’t see: no pants! You’re out here at school straight Winnie the Poohing it!
That look in the mirror did you no good!
Just like a mirror shows us what we need to take care of with our appearance, God’s Word shows us what we need to take care of spiritually and we will be blessed for doing it, not for simply hearing it.
If you hear and don’t do, you will likely forget.
A mirror will do a couple things for us that God’s Word will also do…
It shows us things we need to correct.
It reminds us who we are.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
When you look into this mirror (hold up Bible) fix the things that God is telling you to fix. It is so you’ll be blessed. It won’t always be easy. It’ll make you feel bad to hear it some times. But trust God that it will be a blessing to you to make those changes!
And also let this mirror remind you who you are, who God declares you are! And then live that way. Be the person his Word says you are supposed to be!
And because James is a helper, he gives us a few examples of what that looks like!
This Is Doing the Word
This Is Doing the Word
26-27
James tells us a few things that people who are doing the Word and not just hearing it are doing: controlling their speech, ministering to the afflicted, and being in the world but not of the world.
This morning I was trying to teach Dawson the letter P. He was making the sound and I asked him for a word that made the sound and asked him what his brothers names were and he correctly identified that Parker has the “puh” sound. So I told him to ask Parker what letter his named started with and then asked him what letter makes the “puh” sound. Really teed it off for him. James is doing something similar for us here!
Verses 26 & 27 is what verses 19-25 looks like.
God’s Word tells us to be self-controlled in our speech (and everything else).
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
His Word tells us to minister to the afflicted.
learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
His Word tells us to be in the world but not of the world.
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Those who are truly following Jesus will be doers of the Word. He has given us the Holy Spirit to equip us.
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
We do these things and all the other things the God has told us to do. It does nothing for us to hear the Word but not do it. It’s so important that we do this!
His Word reveals to us the Gospel that saves! …