Introduction:
How to Get the Most Out of Church (James 1:19-27)
- Come ready to Hear God's Word. (Jas 1:19-21)
- Leave ready to Apply God's Word. (Jas 1:22-27)
Deuteronomy 6:24 - And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day.
John 13:17 - If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Matthew 12:34 - For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:40-00:45
All right, open up to James chapter one, and we're gonna bow for prayer.
00:46-01:04
I'm gonna ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's word accurately and clearly, and I will pray for you to have a heart open to receiving what it is that God wants to teach us today from his word.
01:04-01:05
These are his words, not mine.
01:08-01:10
So we really need to tune in here.
01:11-01:12
All right, let's pray.
01:17-01:22
Father, let your word do your work.
01:24-01:27
Let your Holy Spirit reign.
01:33-01:48
Father, let today be a new chapter in the lives of many people who are sitting here or watching from home or listening to this digitally later.
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Glorify your name, Father, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.
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James chapter one, are you there?
01:59-02:05
When my wife, Erin, was a teenager, And she went with some friends to Sandcastle.
02:05-02:06
You know where Sandcastle is?
02:06-02:08
How many people here have been to Sandcastle?
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Okay, okay, so you know what I'm talking about.
02:10-02:12
So her and a group of friends went to Sandcastle.
02:13-02:18
And when she got home, they had turned on the news.
02:19-02:28
And on the news, they said that there was a shootout between police and non-police.
02:28-02:32
There was a shootout at Sandcastle that day.
02:33-02:48
And as they were giving the report, Erin was watching the TV and she said, "Wait a minute." She goes, "We were there at the time of the shootout." This is unbelievable.
02:48-02:50
Well, she was continuing to watch the report.
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And I kid you not, you ask her about this.
02:54-03:04
As they were watching the news report, They saw their car drive right through the middle of the shootouts.
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And she had no idea that there was a shootout happening.
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Isn't that crazy to be there and completely missing it?
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Isn't that crazy?
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Well, in a related snippet, let me ask you, have you ever missed church?
03:37-03:45
And I don't mean you were absent because you were parasailing or at the beach or what, I don't mean that.
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I mean that you came to church and you still missed it.
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Have you ever been there?
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Let's be honest, we all have.
04:00-04:04
We've all walked out of church thinking, I didn't really get anything out of church today.
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We've all walked out of church going, yeah, that worship set, that wasn't really for me.
04:14-04:17
By the way, that worship set was awesome I can't wait to do it again.
04:18-04:22
But there's gonna be some people here that walk out feeling that way.
04:22-04:24
Eh, it wasn't really for me, I didn't really care for those songs.
04:24-04:26
More hymns, less, eh, I didn't really care for that.
04:28-04:34
Or, gasp, you walk out of here going, eh, that sermon wasn't really for me.
04:36-04:44
I don't know what the goat-looking boy up there was talking about, but that really, that wasn't, eh, that wasn't really for me.
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And my point here is you can be here and not be here.
04:56-05:08
When you come in late, yelling at the kids all the way from the car to the door, when you're distracted, you got too much on your mind.
05:12-05:15
Honestly, many of us come to church, we're not ready.
05:16-05:20
We're just not ready to encounter God.
05:22-05:24
And that's the message today, people.
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You have to come ready.
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And I don't just mean putting on your church boots or your, I guess, church Crocs.
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What are we wearing?
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I don't just mean that.
05:36-05:40
I mean that you have to make some decisions ahead of time.
05:40-05:43
If you do, listen, here's the thing, you're gonna get the most out of church.
05:44-05:45
Don't you wanna get the most out of your time here?
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You don't wanna walk out of here going, "That was a waste of a morning." Don't you wanna get the most out of your time here?
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I do.
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So that's where James takes us here.
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On your outline, I want you to write some things down.
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This is a life-changing passage.
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How to get the most out of church, all right?
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How to get the most out of church.
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Number one, come ready to hear God's word.
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Come ready to hear God's word.
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Look at verse 19.
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He says, "Know this, my beloved brothers.
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"Let every person be quick to hear, "slow to speak, slow to anger." Stop there.
06:38-06:38
(laughs)
06:39-06:41
Let every person be quick to hear.
06:41-06:45
Do you know that verse is used in a generic sense all the time?
06:46-06:56
You know, I've used like pre-marital counseling curriculum that uses this verse to say, you know, when you're husband and wife, you need to be quick to hear.
06:59-07:08
You know, and then grandma says, you know, God gave you two ears and one mouth so that you listen twice as much as you speak.
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And I guess there is some wisdom in listening more than you speak, but that's not what he's talking about here.
07:18-07:20
What's the context of this passage?
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The context is the previous verse, verse 18.
07:25-07:29
He says that God brought us forth by the word of truth.
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That's what he's talking about.
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This passage is about hearing the word of truth that he was just talking about.
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Literally in the Greek, he says, "Be quick to the hearing." That means take every opportunity you can to go after the word of God.
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Like, why?
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Well, that's what we talked about the last couple of weeks.
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Why?
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Why do I need to be so quick to go after the word of God?
07:57-08:03
Because you're gonna experience trials in your life that seemingly crush you and you don't know what to do.
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You need to be quick to get to the word of God.
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You need to be quick to the word of God because you're gonna face temptation.
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And you're like, how do I deal with this?
08:12-08:16
I don't wanna sin, but I get this strong temptation in me.
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How do I, you gotta be quick to get to the word of God.
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Why?
08:23-08:25
Why are we so quick to the word of God?
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Because you realize there's only one thing the Bible refers to as the power of God outside of Jesus Christ, personally.
08:35-08:40
And I would think it'd be like creation power or judgment power or something like that.
08:40-08:44
No, no, the only thing the Bible refers to as the power of God is the gospel.
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I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God.
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This is the power of God.
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And that's why we need to be so quick to get to it.
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All right, you need to come ready to hear what God says.
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All right, so quick to hear.
09:03-09:04
And then he says, be slow to speak.
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Boy, this is a word for me.
09:10-09:10
Are you like me?
09:10-09:12
Sometimes we're just too quick to speak.
09:13-09:15
We're just so quick to weigh in.
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We're so quick to bring our wisdom to the table that we come into church and you're like, oh, oh, oh, he's talking about trials today.
09:24-09:27
Let me explain to you how you deal with trials.
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I know a thing or two about that.
09:30-09:31
Let me explain it to you.
09:32-09:34
Like it's explain it, what are you talking about?
09:36-09:38
Or all the messages on marriage.
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I'm somewhat of an expert on marriage.
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Let me explain to you how a husband should treat his wife.
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And we're just so quick to speak.
09:45-09:46
All the messages on kids today.
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Well, I know how to raise kids.
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Let me explain to you how to raise.
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And we're just so quick to interject our opinion.
09:56-10:05
And what James is saying here is you need to come anxious not to share your words, but to hear God's words, right?
10:06-10:10
And then he says, "Be slow to anger." Be slow to anger.
10:12-10:18
Now the Greek word for anger there is not outburst of rage, right?
10:19-10:24
Like you get ticked off and you explode and you kick the cat or whatever, then don't kick your cat.
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I don't recommend that.
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But that's not the word here.
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There's different words for anger.
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And this is the slow burn anger.
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This is, we could translate it resentment or seething or bitterness, right?
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That's the word, that's the concept that he's talking about here.
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You're angry, you're bitter, you're resentful.
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It could be over life circumstances.
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You know, maybe you come into church and you're like, you know what, Jeff, I'm in a bad place right now.
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And I'm really not interested in hearing all this Jesus loves me stuff right now.
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I'm just not having it, just not in it, not in the mood for it.
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Maybe it's that.
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Or, gasp, maybe you got a bit of a chip on your shoulder because of a subject that we've been preaching about.
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It's a little touchy to you, right?
11:28-11:32
And maybe the sermon's about money or something, and you're like, "Oh, I knew it.
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That last church I went to, that's all I did was ask for money.
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I don't know why God needs my money." And now we're just like, we're ticked off, and we're like bitter.
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And he says, "No, no, you can't just jump to the default mode of seething." When you hear a sermon, are you asking, "What's God wanting me to learn?" Or are you coming in just bitter and resentful?
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Because if you are, you're only hurting yourself.
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Look at verse 20.
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He says, "For the anger of man "does not produce the righteousness of God." What's God after?
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What's God after?
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What does God want?
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He wants righteousness, right?
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Personal holiness, growing in Christ-likeness.
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How do you grow?
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How do you grow in your faith?
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There's only one way to grow in your faith.
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You know that, right?
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Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
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What is that?
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Romans 10, 17.
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That's how your faith grows, it's through the word.
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And that can't happen if the word is being proclaimed and you're fighting God on it.
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That can't happen if you're bitter, if you're ready to object, or you criticize.
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By the way, criticism is not a spiritual gift.
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It's not listed anywhere in the New Testament, but some people think that's their gift.
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They come in here to evaluate a sermon.
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Like, I didn't really like that, or I didn't really agree with that.
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But what did God say?
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That's what we're going after, right?
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Look at verse 21.
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He says, "Therefore," like, don't come to church like this.
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So what should I do?
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Look at this, verse 21.
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"Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls." You have to come to church ready.
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And part of that is having a repentant attitude.
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It's having a repentant attitude.
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Sin will hinder the work of the word.
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You can't be committed to your sin and think that you're gonna get anything out of the sermon of the day, right?
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It doesn't work that way.
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Like if you were wild partying, you were high Saturday night, don't expect to come in and get what's going on Sunday morning.
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If you're in a relationship that you know is sinful, and you're unwilling to repent, you're not gonna get anything out of the sermon.
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If your heart is full of hatred and unforgiveness, you're not gonna get anything out of the sermon.
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That's why James says you gotta put these things off.
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The Greek word is like taking off and discarding dirty clothes.
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Get rid of that.
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You need to abandon your sin if you want a heart that's ready to hear from God.
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Because a heart full of sin doesn't have room to be filled with God's word, right?
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Look what he says.
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Receive with meekness.
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Meekness.
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That's a, look, be teachable.
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That means you need to come ready to learn.
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That's what meekness is.
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I've come, God, I want to hear what you're saying.
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I'm ready to learn.
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Do you come to church that way?
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You approach God's word that way.
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Many, many, many years ago, previous ministry, a couple came to me for marriage counseling and it was ugly.
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I'll spare you the details, but it was just, it was an ugly scene.
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And you can tell when you're counseling, right?
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The wife, she was edge of the seat, listening to every word.
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And the husband was slumped back, arms folded, rolling his eyes.
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And I said, look, here's the only way marriage works.
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And I just like poured out to them.
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I said, you know what the Bible says, Ephesians 5, that the husband is to represent Christ, the servant leader, lays down his life for his wife in every way.
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The husband has to love his wife in that way.
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And the wife, her job is to be that submissive helper to love the Lord the way the church, or love her husband, excuse me, love her husband the way the church loves the Lord.
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That's what I meant to say.
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But that's the picture in Ephesians five.
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And I just very clearly laid that out.
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Husband represents the Lord.
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I communicate for a living.
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Back up.
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The husband represents the Lord.
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The wife represents the church.
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That's the dynamic.
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And I remember just pouring out to them, waving the pom poms.
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You know, it was a good little sermon for those two people.
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It really was, it was a good sermon.
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I've had a couple.
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It was good.
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(congregation laughing)
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That's not funny.
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At least two, at least two.
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Poured my heart out to them.
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This was, okay, I had one good one.
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This was my one good one.
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And I'll never forget it.
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The guy, he looked at me and he goes, Is that all you got?
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And I said, yeah.
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I said, that is.
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Because if the word of your creator isn't good enough for you, I have nothing else to give you.
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If what God said about marriage doesn't do it for you, it really doesn't matter what Jeff thinks about marriage.
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Anybody wanna take a guess how that marriage went?
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You'd be right.
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And here's the thing, meekness, meekness.
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You're not going to listen to God if you're proud.
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You've got your own answers.
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You don't want God's answers.
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Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice." A true believer is tuned in.
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A true believer, a true believer, their antenna is receiving what God says.
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They're like, "Yeah, that's what God said.
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Yes, that's his word.
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Yes, this is what God is saying.
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A true believer has their antenna up.
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My sheep hear my voice.
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A true believer evaluates a sermon on, is that what it says?
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Is that what God said?
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Okay.
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And if I disagree, if I disagree with what the text says, then I am wrong, God is right, and I need to change.
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So did you come to learn from God?
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Is that why you came today?
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If it is, then you gotta ditch your opinions, your anger, and your pride, and you gotta listen to God with a repentant attitude.
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So how to get the most out of church?
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Number one, come ready to hear God's word.
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Number two, how to get the most out of church, you gotta leave ready to apply God's word.
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Leave ready to apply God's word.
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Look at verse 22.
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He says, "But be doers of the word "and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." Look, receiving the word is great.
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Receiving the word is awesome.
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All in favor, aye.
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All opposed, nobody.
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We're all in favor of receiving the word.
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That's great.
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What really matters is doing the Word.
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That's what matters.
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Now, listen, at this point, I gotta stop for a second because there's always a couple in every crowd that's like legalism.
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Here we go.
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Here we go with the legalism.
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And I would say lovingly, listen, you need to understand what legalism really is.
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Anytime somebody tells you to apply the Word of God, Somebody's ready to throw up the legalism flag.
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I guess throw it down, like the first quarter of the Steeler game.
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Legalism, legalism.
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And much like those refs, you're wrong to throw those flags down.
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This is what legalism is.
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Legalism is there are things that I have to do to make God happy.
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And when I do these things, God approves of me.
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And if I don't do these things, God is mad at me.
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I gotta do things to grow spiritually, like in God's eyes, and to make Him happy and to make Him accept me.
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That's legalism.
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I do to make God happy.
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That is not the gospel.
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Do you know there's only one thing you can do to make God happy?
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And we just studied it in Hebrews 11.
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Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
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The only thing you can do to make God happy biblically is to trust Him, to believe in His word.
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But when you do, when you really believe in His word, then it's gonna show up in your life.
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Don't say that you believe what God said and it makes no difference.
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You don't really believe it then.
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All right?
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True faith believes God's word.
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What that means is you should be able to point to things in your life where you say, "I do this because of what the Bible says.
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"That's the only reason I do this.
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"This is what I do because God said.
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"That's the only reason I do this is because God said." You should have things like that in your life.
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And there should be other things in your life that you say, "I do not ever do this "because God said I should never do that." There should be things like that in your life.
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And if you don't have things that you can point to in your life that show that the word of God is making decisions for you, then you don't know Jesus Christ.
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And that can change.
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But you don't wanna sit here deceiving yourself.
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Right?
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That's what he says in verse 22.
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Look at that again.
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He says, "Be doers of the word, not hearers only." Deceiving yourselves.
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We talked about that before, didn't we?
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You tell yourself a lie and then you turn around and believe the lie that you just told yourself and it's just so tragic.
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And you walk out of here thinking you're a godly person.
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because you heard a sermon.
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Look at verse 23. He says, "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he He looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
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I love this, James gives us the illustration here, right?
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It's a mirror, they didn't have glass mirrors in those days.
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They would, a polished metal would be pounded real flat and polish it, but they used, they used mirrors for the same purpose that we use mirrors, right?
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To check your face.
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Looking out here, I can't speak to the people that are watching this stream, but looking out here, it looks like most of you looked in a mirror this morning.
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We appreciate that.
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James's illustration is pretty obvious, right?
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He says, "Hearing a sermon and not applying a sermon, "hearing the word of God, not applying the word of God." What's that like?
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He says, "It's like looking into a mirror." And you just, you look into a mirror and you just see all kinds of problems, right?
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Your hair looks like a rat's nest.
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You got all kinds of crusties in your eyes.
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And it's disgusting, right?
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And you know, you just, you need to shave.
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You just, you look like an absolute, you got dirt on your face from gardening the day before.
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You got salsa on your chin from eating nachos in the garden.
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But you see all this disaster.
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It's a disaster.
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You see all this, you see all this tragedy.
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We'll go with tragedy.
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Sorry.
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Sorry, it's been a long 48 years.
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You see all this tragedy and you walk away from the mirror going, yeah, I look okay.
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I look all right.
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I'm practically Fabio for those of you old enough to remember Fabio.
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Not when he got hit in the face by the bird, but before that.
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And James's point is, did it do you any good to look into a mirror?
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Did it do you any good?
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No, because you didn't do anything about it.
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You saw the mess and you didn't fix anything.
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So it didn't do you any good to even look.
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And James says the same way.
25:19-25:30
Listen, you hear the word of God, and you see where you're falling short, you see where you need to change, and you walk out the doors and you just forget about it.
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You walk out the door, you're walking to your car, and you're like, "I'm okay.
25:37-25:38
"I heard, yeah, you know what?
25:40-25:44
"I felt really convicted in there, "but I'm really not that bad.
25:49-26:16
"I'm okay." hand, look at verse 25, "But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." All right, different word for look here in the Greek, rather, different word for look. He says to look intently.
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That's to really get in and take a hard look.
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And that's how you need to go after the word of God.
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Take a hard look at the word of God.
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Because my friends, if you will receive it, the word of God is the mirror that reveals who you are.
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You might think that you have a pretty good idea of who you are and what makes you tick, but God's word is the mirror that shows you what you're really like.
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and it's faith that says, "God is right.
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"I'm making some changes right now." I love this.
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He says, "A doer who acts is blessed." I want you to think about this because there's blessing for you when you apply God's word.
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Think about this for a second.
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Why does God want you to apply his word?
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Why?
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Does God get a personal benefit out of you applying his word?
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He really doesn't.
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Is he more God when you're obedient?
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No.
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Is he less God when you're disobedient?
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Is he, when you're having a really good day, is he more worthy of praise?
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Or you have one of those days that the wheels fell off, is God less worthy of your praise?
27:48-27:53
You see, your obedience doesn't give God some kind of personal perk.
27:55-27:59
So why does God want you to obey his word?
27:59-28:00
Do you know why?
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It's because he loves you.
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That's why.
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He loves you.
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And you know, I've been studying the Pentateuch, And this phrase comes up over and over and over in Deuteronomy or some version of this phrase.
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But look at Deuteronomy 6, 24.
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Moses said, "And the Lord commanded us "to do all these statutes.
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"And to fear the Lord our God." Look at this next phrase.
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There's some version of that all through Deuteronomy.
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For our good always.
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Obeying God is good for who?
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Who's it good for?
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Point to who it's good for.
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It's good for me that he might preserve us alive as we are to this day.
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And you're like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, that's so Old Testament." Okay, Jesus, John 13, 17.
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Here's what our Lord said.
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If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
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This is for you.
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This is for you.
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So when we get up here and proclaim the word of God, whoever it is standing up here, whether it's Taylor or Justin or whoever's standing up here proclaiming the word of God.
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Understand, church, this is for you.
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And it does you no good if you don't do anything about it.
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Many years ago, my wife, she got me a gift.
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It was, she got me a set of those Beachbody DVDs.
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You know what I'm talking about, the Beachbody DVDs?
29:36-29:36
I got one right here.
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This is T25.
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It's the 25 worst minutes of your day.
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(congregation laughing)
29:44-29:45
This one's stretch.
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It's all stretching and I'm gonna be honest with you, this winded me.
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It's just stretching.
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It's 25 minutes of realizing how out of shape I am.
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Now, I gotta say this.
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She's gonna be mad if I don't.
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She didn't get these for me, like, here, slob.
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(laughs)
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It wasn't like that.
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I wanted them.
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I said, yeah, I think I would like to try that, and I was wrong, but she got these for me as a gift.
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(audience laughs)
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But could you imagine if, like, a month later, Aaron was like, hey, how's your T25 going?
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And I'm like, oh, sweetie, it's awesome.
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I pop it into the DVD player.
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Explain that to a young person what that is.
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Sweetie, it's awesome.
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I pop that into the DVD player.
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I get the wings out of the fryer and the potato chips.
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And I sit down and honey, I've watched it every day.
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I have watched one of these DVDs every day.
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And I'm not completely not health conscious.
30:59-31:01
Like a couple of times I had a salad while I watched it.
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It still had fried chicken and donuts on it, but I've been watching these every single day.
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Did it do me any good, even if I watched this and thought, wow, that looks like a great exercise, that looks like that would make me healthy, looks like that would make me rip, beach body.
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Did it do me any good to watch it if I didn't do what it said?
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That's exactly what James is talking about here.
31:29-31:30
Why did you come to church?
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Why are you sitting there taking notes?
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Why are you listening at all right now?
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Why are some of you gonna listen to these messages again if you have no intention on acting on what you hear?
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Because it's not gonna do you any good.
31:48-31:52
The way a person responds to the word of God tells you everything about their faith.
31:56-31:57
Like, all right, all right, all right, all right.
31:57-32:00
Apply the word, be blessed, don't apply, deceive myself.
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You're like, "FA, can you be more specific?" Well, James does that for us.
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James gives us three specific areas of life.
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We're gonna close with this.
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I'm gonna go through these very quickly 'cause all of these could be a sermon series.
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But James gives us, for the guy that's like, "Okay, this is a concept.
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"Okay, I get the concept, but can you be specific?
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"Give me something to sink my teeth into." Here's three specific areas of life that reveal whether or not you're applying God's word.
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I'm gonna tell you what they are ahead of time.
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we're gonna look through them quickly.
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Three areas of life that reveal whether or not you're applying God's word.
32:36-32:43
Your speech, compassion, right?
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And I totally lost my place.
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Oh, there it is.
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Worldliness, worldliness.
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Look at verse 26.
32:53-33:01
He says, "If anyone thinks he is religious "and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart.
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This person's religion is worthless.
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You think you're a religious person, you think you're a godly person, well, what comes out of your mouth?
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Listen, if it's perverted joking, words that you wouldn't use in a sermon, Gossip, slander.
33:31-33:37
You know, what if I had like a court stenographer follow you around all week?
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And just with that little tiny typewriter, you know?
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What if I had a stenographer follow you around all week and record every single thing that came out of your mouth?
33:46-34:00
And then we show up to church on Sunday and I pull out your transcript and say, "I'm going to read everything that he said "in the past week?" Would you be okay with me sharing that?
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Or would you be kind of squirming in your seat?
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Right?
34:08-34:09
It's your speech.
34:09-34:13
Oh, and by the way, P.S., what you put on social media counts too.
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That's part of your speech.
34:20-34:21
That's part of your communication.
34:21-34:39
Look, if you're getting on social media, posting perverted memes and dirty cartoons and foul language, what if we said, "Hey, we're gonna put your Facebook feed up on the screen, we're gonna scroll through it and show everybody.
34:40-34:45
We're gonna talk about it, we're gonna evaluate your social media posts." Would you be embarrassed?
34:49-34:51
Here's a good verse to memorize, Matthew 12, 34.
34:51-35:02
Matthew 1, 2, 3, 4 says, "For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." You know, when you open your mouth, you're just revealing what's in your heart, according to Jesus.
35:04-35:09
When you open your mouth, you're sending a bucket down to the well and you're pulling out what's in here.
35:10-35:12
And it shows up in your speech.
35:13-35:36
So if what you say, the things you talk about, If it's tearing people down, if it's perverted, if it's ungodly, James says, "Your religion is worthless." Verse 27, next one is compassion.
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Here's an area.
35:37-35:50
He says, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction." And what do orphans and widows have in common?
35:50-35:51
What do they have in common?
35:52-35:59
It's this, these are people that you help that can give you nothing in return.
36:00-36:01
That's what they have in common.
36:05-36:06
You get that, right?
36:06-36:16
If I help someone that possibly in turn could help me with something down the road, It's possible that I had a selfish motive.
36:17-36:20
I gotta scratch your back right now, you scratch my back later.
36:21-36:22
I might've had a selfish motive.
36:24-36:30
But if I help someone who can't do a thing for me, that's like Jesus.
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And that, James says, is pure and undefiled religion.
36:39-36:45
When was the last time that you helped someone in need and you expected nothing in return?
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If you're like, man, I don't think I have.
36:55-37:00
I can't really remember the last time I did something like that.
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And according to James, going to church didn't really do you any good, did it?
37:08-37:09
And the last one is worldliness.
37:12-37:13
Look at the last phrase here.
37:13-37:18
He says, "And to keep oneself unstained from the world." Worldliness.
37:19-37:24
I don't speak, act, or think like the world.
37:25-37:27
The world doesn't affect who I am.
37:27-37:28
God's word does.
37:29-37:30
That's what James is talking about.
37:31-37:44
And if your friends and your coworkers would be shocked to find out that you go to church and that you call yourself a Christian, if that would surprise them, And then going to church did you no good.
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We can have our worship team make their way back up.
37:49-38:06
You know, the book of James in the Bible has a very special place in my life because I got saved through studying the book of James by a complete stranger at the time.
38:13-38:16
Because this person asked me if I was a Christian.
38:17-38:19
You know, I was 20 years old at the time.
38:19-38:21
I spent my life, I went to church every single week.
38:22-38:23
I was in church every week.
38:24-38:26
And sometimes I'd even pay attention.
38:27-38:29
I went to Sunday school, I went to vacation Bible school.
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When I was old enough, I went to youth group.
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I was offended that somebody would ask me if I was a Christian.
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What are you talking about?
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Look at my resume of church attendance.
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I was like mad.
38:43-38:45
And this person said, "Well, okay, great.
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"Glad to hear it.
38:47-38:50
"Would you be interested in, "oh, let's look and let's just do a little Bible study.
38:50-38:54
"We can study the book of James." I'm like, okay.
38:56-38:58
Didn't take us long before we got to this passage.
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And I realized something.
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At that point in my life, I'm like, I'm no Christian.
39:09-39:11
I am a self-deceived churchgoer.
39:14-39:27
And it was at that point in my life, this was 1995, it was at that point in my life that I realized I could either embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, or I could go back to self-deception.
39:28-39:30
I could go back to being church boy.
39:33-39:38
and sitting in church on Sunday morning and living like the devil the rest of the week.
39:43-39:55
And it's my hope in going through James that some people here recognize the crossroads and that some people here decide, you know what?
39:55-39:57
I'm done, I'm done playing church.
39:58-40:04
I'm done deceiving myself into thinking I'm so holy and religious just because I sit and listen to a sermon.
40:05-40:06
This is life.
40:10-40:12
Well, look, you can walk out of here unchanged.
40:13-40:14
You have that option.
40:16-40:19
And if you do, you're gonna have the same week this week that you had last week.
40:21-40:25
And I would say, well, then coming to church, did you know good, you might as well sleep in on Sunday.
40:28-40:39
Or you can commit to getting yourself ready from God, and you can leave with a clear plan of how this week is going to be different than last week.
40:40-40:44
And hey, if that's you, you're going to get the most out of church.
40:45-40:45
Let's pray.
40:46-41:09
Father in heaven, I thank you, Father, just personally, for the way this portion of your word destroyed me because it ripped open the curtain of self-deception that I was living behind.
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Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters here, and whether they're sitting here or watching the stream or whatever, God, I pray that you bring us all to place where we walk in here wanting to hear from you, and we're ready to put on the shelf all the stuff that distracts from that.
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And then when we leave here, we're saying, this is what I'm doing this week because of what God said.
41:41-41:44
Father, you promised that we will be blessed in our doing.
41:46-41:58
We thank you for the blessing that you give us, Father, And I pray that it brings great glory to your name, and it gives us opportunity to reach others with your glorious gospel.
42:00-42:03
Father, please let us not deceive ourselves.
42:04-42:06
Let us be doers and not just hearers.
42:07-42:09
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read James 1:19-27
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Explain James’ mirror illustration in Jas 1:23-24.
Why is the tongue a good indicator on where your faith is (Jas 1:26)? See Matthew 12:34.
What do you personally need to do to better prepare yourself for church next Sunday?
Breakout
Pray for one another.