The book of James
How to live the Christian Life
Sermon 2
Are you a hearer or are you a doer?
James 1: 19-27
Today its all
about, are you a fan or a follower, a athlete or a spectator, a hearer or a
doer, a come and see or Go and die person?? There are a lot of “come and see”
but there are few “go and die” people when it comes to following Jesus! But as
James says, “to find true Joy” we must Go and Die, and become a follower not
Just a fan.
Lets get right to it!
James
1:19–21 (NIV)
19 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 is like the
proverbs of the New Testament and in this text there are several great truths
that we can learn from!
Quick to Listen! (We are talking about when
the word is spoken)
· Listen to understand
· Don’t listen to be understood
· To many times we are listening to find out
where we are right
· We should be listening to for God to speak to
us
Slow to Speak!
· This
is a warning against an attitude of being too ready and eager to have something
to say without due care and thought.
· To
often we want to condemn someone through Gods word
o
Do we know the test
o
Are we doing it for the right reasons?
Proverbs
29:20 (NIV) Do you see someone who speaks in haste?
There is more
hope for a fool than for them.
It’s simple,
think before you speak, you are a child of God, don’t say things out of haste!
Say things out of love. We can rebuke, but is has to be because we want to
restore and not tear down.
Slow to Anger!
· Is all anger wrong? (Eph 4:26)
· But we must not let it be our nature to be
angry and justify it
Colossians
3:8 (NIV) But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy
language from your lips.
· We are ambassadors of A Holy God, and we need
to represent him well
· Has you mature as a Christian you should
learn to control your temper, and keep your tongue in check
Can you control
your tongue? Can you control your temper? I understand if it gets away from
time to time, but if it happens more often than not, you might not be as close
to God as you think.
Anger does not produce the righteousness that
God desires
· Gods intent is for us to be righteous
· Anger never produces it
· Far to many times the world sees us angry
· Far to many times all the world see is rules
that set us apart, not bring us together
· Far to many times the world sees hate in the
eyes of Gods children, not the love he requires
· One translation says: For
when people get angry they do not do the good things God wants them to do.
Where is your
heart? Is it God driven or world focused? Is it looking for Justice or is it
looking for Mercy? You can tell a lot about a person by their heart. David wasn’t
perfect but God saw what? His heart! What does your heart look like, is it soft
or hard?
You
must turn away from the world, be humble and accept the message that God has
planted in your hearts.
· Get
rid of all moral filth and evil
o
Repent of your sin
o
Any sin against God is filth, its evil!
o
We are all evil and filth apart from
knowing Jesus (Eph 3:111)
· Be
humble and accept the Word God has placed in your hearts!
o
Get humble
o
Fall on your face
o
Bow before a holy God and accept the
word and follow it
o
Let the un-grieved Holy Spirit live and
work in you (that’s the word that’s planted on your heart)
· Then
and only then can you truly be saved!
SO here is point one in a nutshell, come in here (PTCC, the
church) ready to hear the word, listen for God to speak to you when some one is
preaching the word. If it hurts it’s God working on you, if it makes you angry,
it’s God working on you.
Don’t look for your righteous in you, humbly look to God and
let the Holy Spirit (the implanted Word) guide you not in anger but in love.
Lay it all at Jesus feet and let him Save you, only Jesus can do that!
James 1:22–25 (NIV)
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.
Are you a come
and see or a go and die person? Jesus talks about both and we need to determine
which we are?
· There is no advantage in being a Christian
outside of heaven anymore
o
Civil
religion is dying
o
We need
to take a hard look in the mirror and count the cost
o
There
are blessing of living a godly life and loving your church family
§
Living
in peace
§
Joy in
the trials
§
Having
purpose in a fallen world
Come and see people
· You show up Sunday
o
Listen
to the band
o
Sleep
through the sermon
o
Go to
lunch
o
Don’t do
much until next Sunday
o
You
think the church owes you something/always asserting your will
o
You got
the holy hardware, you got the cross, you listen to the right music, you carry
the right bible, but your just a fan, your not in the game
· What
does Jesus say:
o Matthew 7:21-23
o Matthew 13:24-30
o Luke 13:24-28
Its time to take
a hard look at your commitment to God! Its time to take a hard look in the
mirror and start lo listen and stop talking!
Go and Die!
· They live for Jesus
· They are kingdom minded
· Their life centers around Jesus
· They are constantly looking to be more and
more like Jesus!
· They take their faith home
· They aren’t looking to see how the church
will benefit them but how they can benefit the church
· Jesus
Says!
o Matthew 5:10
o Luke 9:23
· We
know what Jesus has called us to do
o 1 peter 5:6
o Matthew 28:18
o John 13:34
There has been a
little grumbling during the change from one to two service, people are
displaced and the have to move a little out of there comfort zone. And with the
new building project we have felt the sting of having to look at ourselves in
the mirror and ask are we doing all we can and some are pushing back not
listening enough and talking to much, getting angry, when they should be
repenting and looking inward.
And some are even
pointing the finger at me! (NOOOO) say it ain’t so! Because I am a straight
shooter and tell it like it is, but luckily I know what Jesus wants from me!
·
2
Timothy 4:1-5
o
Preach the
word
o
The
church size is in Gods hand
o
If he
keeps sending we will keep building, and PREACH THE WORD
o
This is
bigger than you or me, its kingdom building, God serving work!
o
AND WE
WILL PREACH TEHE WORD!
Are you a come
and see or Go and Die person? Are you here for you or are here to serve? Are you here to hear God’s word and be
transformed or are you here to be served and be your own God? Tough questions,
but we live in tough times and you need to hear Gods word and become a follower
of Jesus!
Go and Die people, God will Bless you!
Psalm 128:1 (NIV) Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him.
Psalm 112:1 (NIV) Praise the Lord. Blessed
are those who fear the Lord, who
find great delight in his commands.
John 15:10–11 (NIV)
10 If you keep my commands, you will
remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his
love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy
may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
God the father
wants us to be full of blessings and joy, and to often it’s our own fault when
we aren’t. We look to the world to fill a whole only Jesus can. You want true
Joy be a doer of the word, be a follower of Jesus, take up your cross and die
to self, that’s when true joy comes! Someone ask me how to have a relationship
with God, honestly I can tell you, you have to crave it! you have to want it
everyday. When Jesus finally got my attention and all I could do is look up! I
craved his word like a drug, and my heart hurts when I don’t seek him. I guess I love Jesus so much because my debt
was so large, because without Him there is know way I was ever going to heaven
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