Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Grace and Justification
if you have a bible open to james chapter one we'll start where we left off in verse 19 and as you're turning there by way of um as a pastor i get to share the word a lot and so i get to see a lot of the ways that the word has some parallels to just regular old life and one of the parallels is that oftentimes as you are reading the word or you're sharing it's almost like medicine for the circumstances that you're in you know there's a certain part of the word that's like medicine for a time of mourning a time of hurt or pain or rejoicing and where we are this morning when i read this verse that we'll start with it's like medicine for the just the modern day world that we live in if we were able to take this portion of the word and apply it to our lives i believe just for my own life there would be like medicine there would be healing for some of the ways that oftentimes i'm in the church or in the word but not of it and so consider that and i invite you to listen along with me as i read these first couple verses that we'll cover this morning starting in verse 19 it says so then my beloved brethren let everyone be swift to hear slow to speak and slow to wrath or anger for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of god now that's a verse that you could almost read before every time of preaching when you open the word it's like listen up church you're here to hear the word and i hope in a way that would be received that goes beyond just this short little time we have together every week and that's where this will then flow into as james continues to write to these churches scattered abroad he says listen carefully in other words and when those moments come when you're tempted to respond to the situations of life with anger or frustration know that's not the way that we grow into the image of christ that we're called to so he says therefore verse 21 lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls and there's that the medicine applied and taken correctly you receive the word it gets implanted into you and it will save your soul it will bring health to the person that god's making you to be and then he'll say and we'll also look at the portion of scripture that's going to be introduced with verse 20 22 he says but don't just be hearers only of the word and deceive yourself meaning sometimes you can come and you can listen to the word or you know a time of preaching through all of the ways we consume it podcasts and online and television and church and it says don't deceive yourself because you can hear the word but if you're not doing it's actually doesn't really matter he'll go on to say that it will produce in you a useless religion and then he'll use an illustration which is an illustration we'll look at the end of this as to what you look like when you listen to the word or you hear it in your reading or in the in the preaching that will happen on sunday mornings throughout the country right now the illustration of how foolish it is to hear it and not do it then the chapter will end with what happens when the word plants into your heart and you do it actually will shift towards a proper flow of what james will use as religion or church or your christian experience will then have this outworking of it that works and so the outline from verse 19 to the end if it helps your brain is how we listen to the word and then how we live the word and then how we love by the power of the word so there's this flow and all of them are connected how you listen to anything actually does determine how you live and how you live determines how you love so this morning we'll look at the first two and i'm actually going to save the way that the word grows out of us into religion whether it's good or bad for next week when we talk about that famous verse pure and undefiled religion is to visit orphans and widows in their time of need and it will flow into chapter two really nicely because it will talk about how our response in our religious activity is to show no favoritism in the way that we love and the way that we gather so we'll save that for next week and the good news is we're going to just try to get through two things this morning so uh if we listen well maybe we'll get out of here early that's no threat let's just let's just do our best so isn't it interesting though that the word as we've gone through this has offered us so many invitations to be blessed by god and now james says in a way that almost requires us to slow down even as you just sit there doing nothing he says but you have to listen he says be quick to listen slow to speak and if you just take a minute to allow that to penetrate your mind this morning you allow the all of the ways that we listen with distraction to kind of clear away do you see why this could be medicine for our day and age if we learned how to listen before we speak i already mentioned the conference and i hope that you were all aware and got invited to this conference it was called the to the lgbtq conversation it was so good and if you weren't able to join please reach out and we'll get you in touch with how you can watch it digitally but one of the takeaways in fact i'll give you three takeaways like premiere takeaways from this um the speaker preston was talking about how we just relationally connect with people that sometimes we don't know how to connect with he gave three really good do's and don'ts of relationship he said listen that applied to your obedience in christ will work with any relationship that you find difficult any relationship that you find confusing on how to navigate if we become people that whether it's husbands and wives parents and children neighbors who learn what the bible says about listening to one another we will be blessed as the word says with what that turns into with how we live and love one another now to prove the point on how we're not always good listeners i will uh share with you how i first want to apply this verse and how it's often taught sometimes you want to listen to this verse be quick to listen and slow to anger and that's like is that not a great verse for your next uh wedding or marriage retreat that we do as a church just like husbands wives let's just do this for each other right it's like applied vertically automatically or is that not just when you read that if you're like me you're thinking of that person that just talks all the time and in the digital age talking all the time is now posting all the time and sharing all the time it's just opinion about everything and it's fast to talk and slow to listen and you're like read this you need to read this and apply it to your life well this is actually an illustration on how we get listening wrong right out the gate because it's actually not for the vertical first this whole chapter is teaching us how to have joy in trials when life gets really hard as it is sure to do as a follower of christ god has called us to an eternal perfected relationship with him and each other someday and on the way he's promised us that there will be all sorts of trials that we have to overcome in his name because he overcomes but it's hard and there are trials from without last week we were reminded that we're going towards god and this fallen world is going away from him so we're cutting against the grain and there will be difficult times but james says there's joy in the trial and if you don't see it run to god and allow god to speak to you in words of wisdom so that you can correctly interpret the circumstances of your life with the lens of joy and hope and the sovereignty of god if we're preaching a message for joy in the trial and you don't have it the answer is go to god and listen allow the word of god to speak to you for your circumstances that the wisdom from heaven would open your eyes for the difficulties of earth and then secondly we talked about that second trial which is interpreted as temptation it's the trial from within it's this not only do we live in a fallen world we live in a fallen body and when we go through this life there will be all sorts of things that make life hard because of us and the word last week said don't be deceived know the truth listen to god and last week we draw out this tendency that happens when circumstances sometimes get tough james says don't blame god in other words when we're talking about being quick to listen and slow to anger all of that is first and foremost with your relationship with your creator when life gets hard listen to god and don't get mad at him don't get angry that will not produce in you the joy and the peace and the love and the kindness and the long-suffering that righteousness here is pointing us to that doesn't come when we grit our teeth and get angry at church or god or the word what needs to happen is we have to listen to what the word is saying so that we can see things the way god does and in listening we hear that it is the kindness of god that draws us into repentance and in listening we hear that we are called to be ambassadors of that kindness across the aisle in whatever community that god has placed us in to be listening with his love and grace and patience and when we think about this whole message the reality is it should like much of the book of james hit us fairly square between the eyes it's like listen up and we're all like but i don't like listening it's hard to listen it's hard to take the word of god and allow it to grow in our hearts and as much as this feels like a modern day problem it's actually something that jesus when he came to do his earthly ministry was always teaching his disciples about the difficulty of when we look at james he says this really key word that helps us overlay the teaching of jesus and draw from it he says that we are to receive it as the implanted word we're supposed to listen to the word of god as seeds get planted into our heart so that should give us a picture of a parable that jesus taught that he will teach to warn us against some of the reasons that we get this all wrong so it's probably worth looking at matthew chapter 13 just for a second because when we're given the command to be obedience to hear the word and then do the word we should probably look into some of the reasons that we don't so in matthew chapter 13 it's a it's a chapter that's full of parables one of them is called the parable of the sower and it's really easy to teach the parable of the sower because i can tell you i'm doing it right now the jesus says that the word of god is like the seed and imagine a farmer going out to sow the seed so what i'm doing in a sense is taking truth from the word of god and i'm throwing it into the sanctuary right now and there will be four responses depending on the condition of your heart and he gives those conditions in the picture of how soil receives seeds so remember there's the stony path and the seed falls right on top like seed on top of concrete and then there's the seed that goes out and it's got rocks so a little bit of soil a little bit of rocks and then there's the soil that's got tons of thorns and then there's that rich soil and it's worth looking into these soils and trying to understand why it is sometimes the word of god can go out and does not turn us into people who do anything about it and bear the fruit that comes as a promise from scripture this morning anyone who does the word and continues in it will be blessed so the first soil as jesus goes on to explain to his disciples what do you mean by that he says in verse 16 or verse 18. he says here the parable of the sower when anyone hears the word of the kingman does not understand it the evil one comes and snatches it away whatever's been sown whatever goes out this morning there is a chance that what goes out goes right over your head for a variety of reasons you may not understand anything i'm talking about i actually remember the last time i taught this parable specifically before i taught it to the church i taught it to my kids and as i was teaching them i said listen this first one's like a sidewalk just like i told you guys and i said you know your heart sometimes is more like a sidewalk than a heart and my kids are like oh my gosh that's crazy and we did that at night time that morning we went to the zoo and i was sewing more truth i was telling all my kids i lined them up and i said listen these ropes this is the difference between life and death these ropes on this side it's like enjoy the view on that side you will get eaten alive so please and as i'm saying this one of my children is already over the rope and she's like all she heard was when i said don't cross the rope she didn't hear don't she just heard across the rope she's like got it i'm going right now my oldest daughter said she has a she has a sidewalk heart and i was like okay you got it she does have a sidewalk heart i'm so sorry to hear that and that will be true that's happening right now some of you i've preached you're going through trials you're going through difficulty but by the by the view we have of eternity and the sovereignty of god and the truth of god's word we are called to be so rooted in the presence of god where there's fullness of joy that you we can have joy regardless of what you're going through some of you heard that message and you left and you were like i hate my life i didn't get anything in the sovereignty of god message for me my joy is rooted right here in my circumstances and they're horrible which means i have no joy but the answer for us just like it was given to us in the book of james says you didn't understand it and that's fair often times life will get so hard and you look around you think i'm called to joy i'm called to a hope that is so vibrant that the outsiders want to know about it but i don't see it i don't have it so that the word can get through the sidewalk what does james say go to god if anyone lacks wisdom if you're not hearing from the lord how your circumstances are going to be in fact work together for good because you love him and you're called go to god and now what james is saying and when you go to him listen so intently don't go to god and tell him the list of things that you're so mad and angry about and you just wish that he would get on your program what james is saying is be so quick to listen to the word of god for your life the second the second condition of the heart which will exist right here this morning it says now verse 20. as for one sown on rocky ground this is the one who hears the word immediately receives it with joy yet he has no root in himself the word is not penetrating into the depths of your life but endures just for a while and when tribulation and persecution arises on account of the world immediately he falls away now the first soil condition is true no matter where you preach it can exist but by god's grace we live in a culture in a country in a church age where lack of understanding can be solved really quickly you can listen to a sermon on james chapter 1 verse 19 all day long and you can find much better ones than this one you can find books on it you can find ways to get beyond the sidewalk in our culture this is getting a little bit closer to maybe some of the conditions that might exist right now as i share the hope that we can have in god this morning some of you are going to say awesome i love that i actually needed to hear this message i'm so glad i'm at church this morning because life was hard and that song spoke to me and that sermon was really helpful and i receive it with joy and then when you leave this place something's going to happen you're like actually never mind i like that idea but my life starts when the church ends this is actually getting a little bit more real than that preacher understood about my life and that's gonna happen in times of our life we will love what we hear in the in the in the church and we will hate applying it to our life there's a lack of depth to our life and this is why mixed into the message of james if you want joy you need endurance joy is not some magic thing you get on sunday and then it just follows you around what you're experiencing today is the beginning of your week with the lord may you have time in your life beyond me sharing beyond banned singing beyond all of the ways that the culture can come around you with the resources of the church age where you are able to take the word of god and say lord go deeper still may your word go beyond all of the fast food style church may it sink into my life so that when i leave the joy of the sanctuary i still have the joy in the streets now we come to another condition it says in verse 22 as for what was sown among thorns this is the one who hears the word but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful there is another appeal to be made to some things we've already studied in the book of james and one of them which almost seems out of left field as we're studying it james talks about not being double-minded to listen to the wisdom of god and then to do it so that we're not like waves in the sea going back and forth between god's way and our way and then he says for the rich glory when you're made low for the poor glory when you're when you're brought up or exalted and one of the ways that we drew that text for our time was to say man we are a culture that loves the resources that god has given us and we better glory in the way that he humbles us we better take part in this command of scripture to say in whatever way the lord teaches you humility run to it and one of the reasons that really is for us is because we do live in such a rich time don't we when i read what it says that the thorns represent the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches i think of my own heart i think of being a preacher across this country and we've got cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches in our phone in our pockets everywhere we go everything we turn on is reminding us the contrast of the gospel that this world has got a lot to care about and there's a lot of riches that we can be deceived about and so for us when i think about listening we're challenged by each soil condition leading up to the fourth one where he says that it's sown on good soil and you hear the word and understand it and then you get to bear the fruit and that's what we're going to talk about how we can get to that but as before we get to doing the word can we just take a moment to think about all of the thorns that await us as we leave this sunday morning in fact james will say one of the ways to have the imparted word come into our heart is that we have to make room for it we have to kind of clear the garden bed as it were look what it says in verse 21 therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness so we've got to repent of all of the stuff that lives in our heart outside of the word as i was thinking about this it's interesting because i am the first one to read this and think lord help me with humility and repentance be a better listener of your word and as i'm thinking through that it's almost like i my first prayer is that my ears would get bigger i just need to listen more it's like i read and then i forget but when you think about the soil condition of the thorns it's not that we don't have enough listening here it's that we actually have too much it's not that there's not anything growing it's that too much is growing and in your life with the lord if you're like the average american christian pursuing the richness of god's word coming alive in your heart by hearing his voice your problem isn't that you don't know how to listen your problem's more likely to be that you listen to too much stuff the sermon this morning is going to compete likely with a lot of alternative sermons as you leave this place because every car has a radio it's like what's next what am i listening to now and every living room has a television and every bathroom has a phone it's like where do you go some of you are tracking me where do you go to not listen this is one of the ways that we can begin to say cleanse us lord cleanse us help us understand where it's falling too shallow and help us receive it with joy and endurance but also can we be counter-cultural even counter christian culture and start to listen to you more than we listen to all the other stuff there's a dangerous thing that you can do on your phone and you can look at the time spent on it and sometimes this is a disproportionate study because if you're like me you like to be in the analog bible you know the old school like papyrus bible but if you look at your phone it will actually tell you all of the ways that it has taken your time that could have been spent listening slowly listening to god and it's pointing towards talking when it says be quick to listen and slow to speak and you almost want to insert slow to post slow to tweet slow to share slow to like slow to comment slow to block unfollow delete it's like our response to the world around us is always engagement and my encouragement to you is that if you want to listen to god you have to listen less to things that have nothing to do with his voice i referenced the book last week without actually giving the title so i can share if you're interested because it was about christian discipline and many of you afterwards reached out to me and said what was that book i'm interested in more christian discipline in my life i want to know the word more it was a book by john mark comer called the ruthless elimination of hurry and he shares something that i think we all need to hear the title alone maybe has sparked your interest because hurry is something that all of us can be tempted by to fill up all of the ways that you could listen with noise and he says what you give your attention to is the person you become your listening is connected to your life your life is connected to your love put another way the mind is the portal to the soul and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character in the end your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to that bodes well for those apprentices of jesus who give the bulk of their attention to him to all that is good and beautiful and true in his word your life is what you give your attention to but he says not so much for those that give their attention to the 24 7 news cycle of outrage and anxiety and emotion charged drama or the non-stop feed of celebrity gossip titillation and cultural drive did anyone relate to that second option you are what you give your attention to last week we looked at a really important tension that exists in the life of the jesus follower when it comes to temptation because inside of your heart dwells the capacity for the knowledge of good and evil and we looked at that really important tension as it as jesus presented it in john chapter 10 10 between the thief and a shepherd he says the thief comes to kill to steal and destroy but like all good thiefs when tempted sim with the end goal of destruction and death for your life comes more with a snake oil than with a spear and then he says but the good shepherd the shepherd comes to bring life and life more abundant and so i find that very helpful when thinking about following in the way of jesus however difficult it is knowing that the end is life and life more abundant knowing that listening to his word which points
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.