Hearing and Doing the Word

Cal Jernigan • September 11, 2022

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Well, all right, church. It is great to be with you so glad that you're here. So I want to say hi to you. I wanna say hi to you on any of our campuses, wherever you are, wherever you're seeing this. If you're at your home, if you're seeing this online or you're hearing it in your car, however you're experiencing, man, it is seriously great to have you. So if you would open your Bibles to James chapter one, we are still in James chapter one and we are in James chapter one because we are not in a hurry. To be done with the book of James. So we're just, uh, taking our time and letting, uh, God's words speak to us and whatever God wants to tell us, that's what we're, uh, in for. Okay. So here's, uh, here's the, uh, thing that I love about the book of James. This is one of the most practical books in the Bible. And, uh, what I mean by that is it, it has the, it has the feeling that you're reading, literally the sermon on the Mount. In other words, It it's, it's not telling you all about like, all about Jesus. It's telling you the heart of Jesus and how you ought to live. And that is what makes this, uh, book just so incredible. And so we're, uh, in just enjoying being in there. Now I wanna ask you just a few, couple, a couple of questions, a few questions before we get going. And I, I, I really do want to ask you to play along here. Okay. The simple question one. How well do you listen? now I know we all wanna go. Yeah, I'm really good at listening. Most of you didn't even hear what I just said. So, uh, but typically somebody who knows you needs to be the one to answer that question. Fair fair. We would all go self-serving bias. Yeah. I'm better than most when it comes to listening. How well do you listen? Um, here's the second part of that question though. H how quickly, when you're listening, do you reach a conclusion as to what you already think about whatever the person's telling. , it's kind of a hard question to ask, but do you, do you stop and listen long enough to understand the whole story before you reach the conclusion? I, I don't think we do that very well anymore. We hear a couple of buzz words and we go, okay, I know, I know what this person's all about and we stop listening. All right. So I, I wanna tell you a story. Uh, it was a, it's a story about an old man that was walking down a country lane. He's walking. He is walking with his dog and, uh, he is, he is walking with his mule and all of a sudden this car, this actually was a truck. It comes kaing around the corner and literally sent them all three, the dog, the mule, and the man into a ditch. And, uh, the guy was just like, just totally unaware. And he just kind of. Well, what happened was the man that ended up in the ditch decided that he was gonna press charges against the driver of the truck. So he took him to court. And so literally what happened is the old man was on the stand testifying as to what happened. And, and it went something kind of like this, that the defense attorney got up and he said to the man, the old man, he says, I want you. Uh, I want you to say yes or no to the following question, just yes or no. Did you, or did you not, after the infraction that we're talking about, tell the driver that you were perfectly fine. And then the man said, well, uh, well, one day, um, me and my dog and my mule. We were walking down the road and, and the defense attorney said stop. So I'm not asking you about that. What I'm asking you, did you, or did you not say after the accident that you were perfectly fine? And the man said, well, one day, me and my dog and my mule were walking down the road and the, the, the, the attorney turns to the judge. He says, judge, make him answer the question. He's not answering the question. And the judge said, well, you know, it sounds like he's trying to tell us something, why don't we just stop and listen to what he has to say? And, and so the man said, well, okay, one day I was walking down the road with my dog and my mule and a round comes this guy going so fast. He knocked me, my dog and my mule into a ditch. And, and, and then he stopped and, and he got out. He saw that my dog was. And, and so he went to his truck and he got a rifle and he came and he shot my dog. And then he saw that my mule had broken in its leg. So he shot my mule. Then he turned and looked at me and he said, and how are you? And I said, I'm perfectly fine. I don't know how you hear that, but it's so quick to just assume I got the whole story down before you get the story down. And, and we, we. We need to listen longer to understand what truly happened. So let's just do this. Let's jump into the book of James and, uh, we're gonna finish chapter one today. And so Willis pick this thing up here and we're gonna read from 19 down to 27 and there's three kind of movements through this. So I'm, I'm gonna just kind of, let's read it, get familiar with the terrain and then we'll back up and, uh, we'll look at it a little bit more carefully. All right. So says my dear brothers and sisters take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. So therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly, except the word planted in you, which can save you now, do not merely listen to the word. And so deceive yourself, do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word, but does not do what it says. Like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking theself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks. Whatever looks int, 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 now. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight ring on their tongue, uh, deceive themselves. And their religion is worthless religion that God, our father accepts as pure and faultless is this to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. There is a whole lot in there. Let's just stop and let's pray. And then we'll look at it a little bit more closely. So father, thank you for the practicality of this. This is something that applies to every one of us, every one of us in this room, every one of us on any of our campus, every one of us who are online and every one of us who are listening to this in their car, wherever they're hearing it, there is truth in here to be applied to our lives without exception. God, my prayer is that you help us to not be deceived, to be deceiving ourselves, to think that this doesn't apply to us. And God help us to learn and change and grow. And we pray for this happen in Jesus name. Amen. All right. So let me say this. If you were an alien and you somehow landed on our planet and you were studying the culture of our planet, you would, um, you would draw the conclusion based on what you see. That we are a people who love to communicate with one another. We love to communicate and, and you would, you would discover all sort. uh, all sorts of like outlets of our communication. Like you would discover social media, you would see that we have this thing called Facebook and we do this thing called Twitter, and we have TikTok and we have Instagram and we have Snapchat and all of these ways are ways in which we communicate to one another. You would take a look at our technologies and you would go, these people love to communicate. You would see cell phones that we have. And you would, you see, you know, the whole kind of the whole phone deal, video calls. Then conferencing, teleconferencing, you, you would discover our ability to text and email each other and you would go, they love to communicate you, you would discover things about our culture that are these channels or mediums in which we just, you know, we have television and we have the radio and we have the internet. All of these are incredible forms of mass communication. We. You would just reach a conclusion, but the truth be told. And I want you to hear this. We are not a society that loves to communicate. We are a society that loves to talk. Now, can I get an amen from anybody? We are. We don't love to listen. We love to talk. And the more we talk, the less we are listening and the more we we talk and the less we are listening, the less we are communi. We don't love to communicate. We love to talk. Now let's go back to what James says. Look back down at verse 19 and, uh, see it more closely. Right? My dear brothers and sisters take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desire. 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. All right. The first thing I want you to notice is that he says my dear brothers and sisters take note of this to take note of this is literally in the original language. Listen. My dear brothers and sisters, listen, listen. And then he says three, like major points that we ought to like listen to. Okay. That we are to be one quick to listen, two, slow to speak, and three slow to become angry. I want you to stare at that list for just a second. I don't know if it's come down. It has. Is there anything about that verse? That sounds contrary to our culture and the answer is yes, that entire verse sounds contrary to our culture. We are not slow to speak. We, we are not quick to listen. We are not slow to become angry. Um, it's been said that God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we would listen twice as much as we. The truth of the matter is, is it's kind of like we've got two mouths in one ear and we, uh, use the mouth a whole lot more. Well, what's the difference between talking and listening. Listening is putting the other person's interest above your own talking is putting your interest above the other person. Now, I, I'm not saying all talkings bad, obviously it's not. But if all I want to do is just talk and talk and talk over your conversation. To me, I'm just saying I'm far more interested in me than I'm interested in you. And you'd be saying the same thing. If you wouldn't never listen to anything I had to say, and that's kind of how that works. It it's interesting to me, that scripture just talks about this subject. It says, literally, listen, listen, listen. And it just repeats this theme over and over and over again. Let me just, there are so many verses. I literally, I just, I've just, I plucked three, just three Proverbs that give us wisdom. All right. Let me show 'em to you. Proverbs 10 19, when words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise. It it's, it's the really seasoned person who can not just respond when they hear something. But they can process it. All right. Proverb, 1728 says even a fool is thought wise. If he keeps silent and discerning, if he holds his tongue, if you're ever in a room where there are people that are intimidating you and you feel overwhelmed, like, oh my gosh, I can't believe the smartest thing you can do is just stay quiet cuz nobody will know. But the minute you start talking. Revelation starts to happen. Proverbs 29 20. Do you see a man who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for him. You know, it's interesting. Those verses come to my mind as a pastor. You know, one of the tragedies of our day and age is there are constantly things happening that hit the, you know, this, this tragedy that tragedy, this mass shooting that, uh, and it is astounding to me. How quickly people respond with words about what happened. And I, I feel like what God has, you know, guided me and go, would you just slow down before you start commenting on what happened? Because you really don't know what happened, but we're so sure we know it all because we had an impression of what happened and we start to talk. This to me is the manifestation of this passage. Be slow to speak, get your facts straight before you start making your comments. And I think that might be wise for all of us up. Jesus was very, very clear about why you wanna be careful with what you say. And I don't know if we think about this, but again, in, in our time together, I just wanna challenge you to think about this. You wanna be slow to speak because when you speak, you will reveal who and what you are. And, and, and that's what I'm saying. I, I just wanna be careful. I, I just wanna make sure. That, what I'm revealing is, is, you know, really what I want to be saying. I don't want to be a fool and reveal I'm foolish just because I'm shooting my mouth off without knowing exactly what I'm talking about. So this is what Jesus said. Listen, listen, he said this a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart. And an evil man brings evil things out of the evil, stored up in his heart for the mouth speaks of what the heart is full. I wanna challenge you for just a moment to stop and think about things you've posted. Just things you've said, comments you've made reactions you've, you know, released. If, if what comes out is indicative of what's inside, what's inside. Um, you, we, we, we, we all might be really wise to just take a vow of silence. can I get a silent? Amen. You know, just, it reminds me of a, a, a, a guy that wanted to become a monk. And so he, he went to a monastery and he, he literally applied in the Abbott, the guy that's in charge of the monastery accepted him, but he says, you need to understand the rule of our monastery. And if you understand monasteries, there's kind of an order you have to subscribe, subscribe to. And he said, we are a silent, uh, monastery. And we've all taken a vow of silence and here's how it works. Um, you will be granted, um, two words that you can share every seven years, just two words every seven years. And if you want to accept the calling to our monastery, you will agree to this. And the guy said, I agree, seven years go by and he's invited into a conversation with the Abbot. And he said the Abbott being the head, he's got a little more freedom to speak. He says, well, you've been here seven years and we told you after seven years you would get, um, two words. Uh, what two words would you like to share? And he said, um, bed hard. That was his two words, bed hard. Um, two, uh, uh, seven more years rolls around. He's granted two more words. He goes back after 14 years, a second conversation with the Abbott of the monastery. And he, he said, uh, well, you know how this works? You every seven years get two words. I hope you thought about your two words. And he said, uh, what are they? Food bad. Okay. He goes off onto his third seven year sprint. And at the end of his third, seven years. He comes back into the Abbott. He says, you know how this works? You're granted two words, what are your two words? He said, I quit. And the Abbott says, you know, it really doesn't surprise me because you haven't stopped complaining since the day you got here. , you know, whether it's six words or 6,000 words, whether it's 21 years or 21 minutes, what comes out of your mouth is a reflection of what's going on inside of you. What does it reveal? So we're to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. Now anger is where our speaking becomes incredibly damaging. And I know, you know what I'm talking about all grew up with the adage. You know, six and stones can break my bones. Butt names will never hurt. Yeah. How many of you are carrying? And I, I am. How many of you're carrying. Uh, in your adult, mind, something somebody once said to you that SEAD itself to your thinking. And, uh, what about that sticks and stones thing and words, you know, names and all that. My guess is you have things that just come to your mind, things your parents told you, maybe things, uh, a significant other told you, maybe, you know, things, a teacher told you you're too dumb. You'll never learn. You're never gonna make it. You're lazy. You're so. Often what happens is in our anger, we feel justified to shoot our mouths off that. Now, you know, it's like the fuel behind the fire and we just, you know, let it go. And, uh, the tragedy is that when we're all amped up with anger where they least prone to ever listen, we're the least prone to listen than we ever are. And these go together. So Jesus, again, he says, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, do not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But when I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother Raca, which translated would be like airhead. All right. Empty headed person. Is answerable to the Sanhedrin. That's the Supreme court of the Jewish nation, but anyone who says you fool, which is literally you, moron will be in danger of the fire of hell. Can I stop us again and pause us with a question what's on your social media feed. I'm not applying anything bad. I'm simply going folks. We are losing our minds with our words and the culture in which we live. As if none of the, none of these words are ever gonna come back to Haun as if no damage is being done with the things we've said with sense of impunity and no accountability to every word that we speak is gonna be held accountable. Are you ready for that? We live in a culture that doesn't believe that, but scripture says it's true. Paul said this in your anger do not sin. Let's just stop right. Did you ever connect anger and sin together? How, how mad you get, and then what you say when you are that mad and how many times do you have to apologize to somebody after you ranted and went off on them and you go, you know what? I was just, so Paul says, do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. What does that imp. Don't let the sun go down in your anger. It means deal with it quickly, do not give the devil a foothold. Wow. So that's kind of the first idea that he wants to convey. Now, the other two will come quicker and easier, but to get us there, um, I wanna ask you, and I've, I've asked you this before, but I just think this is such an easy way to illustrate. When it comes to your Bible, how do you, what's your posture to the Bible and what, what do you mean? What's my posture? Well, I wanna suggest there probably more than three, but there's at least three postures you can hold to the Bible. One posture would be that, um, the Bible is above you and you are under it, meaning that this is higher than I. I aspire to rise to the teachings of the word of God that I respect where it comes from. And whenever I'm in the word of God, I'm looking up, I'm listening to God. That's a posture. Another posture you can have is to see the Bible at your side. And that means you and the Bible are peers that just as you and every other peer that you. You have opinions about things and the Bible has opinions about things you have thoughts and the Bible has thoughts and you often think you're right. And the Bible seems to think it's right. And so you just treat the Bible like a comfortable friend and where you disagree, you disagree and you just go, we just don't. We're gonna agree to disagree on that. Jesus, we don't see eye to eye on that. There there's a third way, by the way. That's when you think you're above the Bible and it's beneath. probably nobody who's hearing anything I'm saying right now thinks that, but we live than a culture that thinks that it's beneath him. Why would I ever listen to what it has to say? I know far more about anything than that book knows, and we treat the with contempt. Okay. Now, why is that important? What, I just let's go to James 1 22, cuz what it says do not merely listen to the word. and so deceive yourselves do what it says now, see, here's the point, the only way you're gonna do what the Bible says is if you get underneath it and let it speak into you and you look up to it, anyone who listens to the word, but does not do what it says, just like someone who looks at his face in the mirror. And after looking himself, he goes away and he immediately forgets what he looks. 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. That there is a freedom that comes from putting yourself under the authority of the word of God, because you don't have to be the one who has to make the final decision on every issue. You, you, you just have to submit. To the decision that God's already made about how you should handle yourself in that particular situation, hearing the word. And I think this is fascinating. I don't think we wanna go quickly over this hearing the word, but not doing it is deceptive. How's it deceptive. It's not the word that is deceptive. It's what we are doing with the word. I'm hearing the word, but I have no intention of following anything that says. We start to think that somehow now listen carefully listen carefully. We think that having been in church or, and been in the Bible and hearing what God said was what the goal was that we would hear it, that we, we would hear, I heard it, but that was never the goal. The goal was that you would hear it and then you would do what it says. This is the point that James is making. And that's this whole idea of the message in the mirror. You look at yourself in the mirror. So picture yourself in the morning, whatever that scene is, who knows? I'll tell you what, when you lose your hair, you pretty much look the same. I can just tell you that there are benefits to being bald, anybody in here, anyone amen. Anyone. Amen. Amen. It's the same every morning. It's just, just wanna go to bed with wake up with, but the truth is, is that when you look at yourself in a mirror, the point of looking at yourself in a mirror is to see which you can't otherwise. and you look at yourself and you go, oh my gosh, my hair, oh my gosh, you know, my, whatever. I need to do something about that. Or, or you, you know, you eat a meal and you go, and you look at your teeth in the mirror and you got spinach between your teeth and you go, eh, it's not too bad. A fool is what he's saying. A fool would look at himself in a mirror and not do something about what he discovered about himself. That's talking about you, me and. So this is a reflection that I can see myself in. I sometimes look okay. I sometimes look horrible, but the question is, what are you gonna do? Okay. I look horrible. So I got an, a, I got an anger issue who cares, who cares that I just berate people. It doesn't matter. You, I I'm looking, but I'm not saying, and it's trying to tell me, get that under control. You're you're going to do harm, but we. We believe that, uh, you know, let, let me play how this plays out. Folks. You can go to church all your life and get absolutely no closer to God at the end of your life. You can spend every weekend in worship and at the end of your life, be no closer to God than when you started the journey. Because we think that somehow God is pleased with the fact that we showed up and. and I, I think what James is trying to tell you is don't be so fooled. You, you see, there's absolutely no value to study in the Bible. In fact, I just wrote a list. There's, there's just no point to study in the Bible. If you have no intention of following the Bible, there's no point in hearing it and there's no point in meditating on it. There's no point in memorizing it. There's no point in praying about it. To guys like me. There's no point in preaching about it. If you have no intention of incorporating it into the way you live your life, there is no point to it, but we are deceived because we believe that God is pleased by the fact that we heard it again. I want to show you something. James says, there's a freedom that comes when you submit yourself to the word of God, because you don't have to make the final decision. The word of God will tell you which way to. Jesus said it this way, John eight to the Jews who had believed him. Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free that there is this freedom that comes from being a disciple, which means you're a follower, which means you're a learner, which means you submit yourself under the authority of God. And then the word of God sets you free. Because you can be the person that God wanted you to be. Now, let me say it this way. The only, only truth that is applied okay. Is gonna set you free. So, so lemme just put all of this in one idea, and the idea would be this a truth, not applied is a truth. Not learned. Now I'm gonna pause on that for just a minute, cuz that's something you need to hear. I need to hear a truth. Not applied is a truth. Not learned. I can come to church and I can tell you, lemme show what I learned in church. I learned all this stuff in church, and I can give you along list. All the things I learned in church, a truth, not applied is a truth. Not learned. I didn't learn anything. The only thing I learned is what I allowed for the reflection in the mirror to change my direction, to change my course. and then, uh, I just think James ends this so profoundly, and again, there's so much more for the sake of time. I just we'll just take it as far as we can go. Did you know that scripture speaks about a religion that's worthless and in fact, do you know what he's he's you, you know what the scripture says about a worthless. it talks about how your Christianity can become a worthless religion. Let me, let me show you look at verses 26 and 27. Now those who consider themselves to be religious, I do. Do you, um, and yet do not keep a tight ring on their tongues, deceive themselves he's landing and their religion is worthless. What does worthless mean? What does worthless mean? You have a whole bunch of Confederate bills from the civil war era. What does worthless mean? Okay. Now I'm not talking about as a collector, you know, you think you're gonna cast that $10 bill. Nobody honors that worthless is worthless religion. Now watch us religion that God, our father accepts as pure. Faultless is this to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from becoming polluted by the world so much in all of this. So when we talk about Christianity, I don't like the idea of, I don't like ever saying, well, Christianity's a worthless religion, but you know what? It's worthless to some people who are Christians. It it's it's worthless because they got no value out of it because they didn't do anything that it said to do. It proved to be worthless to them. And, and it's interesting because how many people have lost respect, follow this? How many people have lost respect for the Bible? Because they've lost respect for people who believe the Bible. Wow. I think God loses respect for people who say they believe the Bible, but don't do anything what the Bible says. And by the way, make sure you see this okay. A religion that God doesn't respect is one. That's all about the head, what you know, but not what you do, not about your heart. And then he says, I think this is, he says, you know, what's pure and faultless, religion taking care. And he uses widows and orphans. Now, why would he use widows and orphans? Well, in the time that that was written widows and orphans were the, they were the most vulnerable, the most powerless. See if you were a widow in that culture, you need to understand all the inheritance went to your oldest son. When the father dies, when your husband died in that culture, it wasn't going to go to you. It was gonna go to the eldest son, read the Bible. That's how it worked. And it goes through the Elvis sun. And depending on the heart of the Elvis sun, you're either gonna be taken care of, or you're not. And then, uh, the care of orphans, obviously, uh, seriously in need of help and choosing not to help them. I was always thinking about this. My mind went through the book of Amos and I just wanna share a passage in, in Amos. God said this listen carefully. I hate. God says, I hate, I despise your religious festivals. Your assemblies are in are a St to me, even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them though. You bring choice fellowship offerings. I will have no regard for them away with the noise of your songs. I will not listen to the music of your, but let justice roll on like a river righteousness, like a never failing. What he's saying is the way you treat people, the way you, the way you treat people, makes all the rest of the stuff you do. That looks religious worthless to me. Wow. How much of our religious ritual? God goes to quit wasting your time because we're not doing what we know we ought to be doing. and I think about, you know, gosh, issues of justice in our culture. Well, what's your stance on that? So let me just close. I, I think there's, you know, two primary things that our faith ought to change in us, our, our conduct and our character, our conduct, and our character. I think that's what James is saying. Has the word of God changed your conduct and your character cleaned him up, made him better. I, I, I just ha this is gonna sound like an aside and in one sense it is, but I, I just want to, I just wanna say, I want to put a personal plea out there for you to hear, and it sounds like, but there is a ministry in Arizona called AZ 1 27, 1 27. Look down at verse 1 27, a Z 1 27 is a ministry that's committed to trying to help this foster care crisis that we got in Arizona. and, uh, we are just as a church going, we've gotta do something we have to, who's helpless right now, foster kids. And so we, you know, we're talking about, if we could just get 10% of our church, you don't have to foster a kid, but could you financially help? Could you emotionally help? Could you like become an advocate? Could. help serve. Could you, and I just, again, I feel the need to just let you know about this. We have a website that if this, if you you're going okay, I heard your preacher central AZ for slash foster hyphen adopt. We're gonna have on this campus coming up here, what we're gonna call a find your place event is for everyone hosted by a Z 1 27. It's gonna be on the Gilbert campus on Tuesday, October 25th, again, pure and faultless religion is to care about the helpless. So I encourage you now, let me just final story. I read this this week. It didn't happen this week. I just read about it this week. I read about a man in New York city who died at the age of 63 without ever having had a job. Never once he spent his entire adult life in college. Just take this in. Okay. He had acquired so many academic degrees that they looked like the alphabet behind this name incredibly well educated. All right. So why did this man spend his entire life in college? When he was a child, a wealthy benefactor, a relative who died, uh, named him as a beneficiary in his will. He stated that he's been given enough money to support him every year, as long as he stayed in. And was to be discontinued once he completed his education. So the man met the terms of the will, but by staying in school indefinitely, he turned a technicality into a steady income for life. Something his benefactor never intended. So he spent thousands and thousands of hours listening to lectures, reading books, but doing nothing with what he knew. He acquired more and more knowledge, but it didn't benefit anyone. A truth, not applied is a truth, not learned. What difference will the word of God make in your life today? I don't know. It kind of depends on how you see it. Is it appear? Is it beneath you or is it something you aspire to and you look up to and you go, I gotta do better. You'll you, you and I will both decide for ourselves. Let's pray. So God help us right now, as we've started this message, I pray that you help us with what, what is in this for us. And there's so much more in this that we didn't get to cover, but there's a lot set here. God, we don't want come to church, just fill our brains with information. It does nothing good. Cause we gotta find ways to serve and ways to make a difference. God, you made it really clear what worthless religion looks like and what pure and faultless religion looks like and pure and faultless, religion cares for people who are helpless and powerless and voiceless. And so God, I pray that you would help us to understand what you're saying. And we're only gonna understand if we stop talking and just listen and see ourselves in a mirror as we really are. So help us father. I pray in Jesus. Amen. Bless you guys.

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Well, all right, church. It is great to be with you so glad that you're here. So I want to say hi to you. I wanna say hi to you on any of our campuses, wherever you are, wherever you're seeing this. If you're at your home, if you're seeing this online or you're hearing it in your car, however you're experiencing, man, it is seriously great to have you. So if you would open your Bibles to James chapter one, we are still in James chapter one and we are in James chapter one because we are not in a hurry. To be done with the book of James. So we're just, uh, taking our time and letting, uh, God's words speak to us and whatever God wants to tell us, that's what we're, uh, in for. Okay. So here's, uh, here's the, uh, thing that I love about the book of James. This is one of the most practical books in the Bible. And, uh, what I mean by that is it, it has the, it has the feeling that you're reading, literally the sermon on the Mount. In other words, It it's, it's not telling you all about like, all about Jesus. It's telling you the heart of Jesus and how you ought to live. And that is what makes this, uh, book just so incredible. And so we're, uh, in just enjoying being in there. Now I wanna ask you just a few, couple, a couple of questions, a few questions before we get going. And I, I, I really do want to ask you to play along here. Okay. The simple question one. How well do you listen?

now I know we all wanna go. Yeah, I'm really good at listening. Most of you didn't even hear what I just said. So, uh, but typically somebody who knows you needs to be the one to answer that question. Fair fair. We would all go self-serving bias. Yeah. I'm better than most when it comes to listening. How well do you listen? Um, here's the second part of that question though. H how quickly, when you're listening, do you reach a conclusion as to what you already think about whatever the person's telling. , it's kind of a hard question to ask, but do you, do you stop and listen long enough to understand the whole story before you reach the conclusion? I, I don't think we do that very well anymore. We hear a couple of buzz words and we go, okay, I know, I know what this person's all about and we stop listening. All right. So I, I wanna tell you a story. Uh, it was a, it's a story about an old man that was walking down a country lane. He's walking. He is walking with his dog and, uh, he is, he is walking with his mule and all of a sudden this car, this actually was a truck. It comes kaing around the corner and literally sent them all three, the dog, the mule, and the man into a ditch. And, uh, the guy was just like, just totally unaware. And he just kind of. Well, what happened was the man that ended up in the ditch decided that he was gonna press charges against the driver of the truck. So he took him to court. And so literally what happened is the old man was on the stand testifying as to what happened. And, and it went something kind of like this, that the defense attorney got up and he said to the man, the old man, he says, I want you. Uh, I want you to say yes or no to the following question, just yes or no. Did you, or did you not, after the infraction that we're talking about, tell the driver that you were perfectly fine. And then the man said, well, uh, well, one day, um, me and my dog and my mule. We were walking down the road and, and the defense attorney said stop. So I'm not asking you about that. What I'm asking you, did you, or did you not say after the accident that you were perfectly fine? And the man said, well, one day, me and my dog and my mule were walking down the road and the, the, the, the attorney turns to the judge. He says, judge, make him answer the question. He's not answering the question. And the judge said, well, you know, it sounds like he's trying to tell us something, why don't we just stop and listen to what he has to say? And, and so the man said, well, okay, one day I was walking down the road with my dog and my mule and a round comes this guy going so fast. He knocked me, my dog and my mule into a ditch. And, and, and then he stopped and, and he got out. He saw that my dog was. And, and so he went to his truck and he got a rifle and he came and he shot my dog. And then he saw that my mule had broken in its leg. So he shot my mule. Then he turned and looked at me and he said, and how are you? And I said, I'm perfectly fine. I don't know how you hear that, but it's so quick to just assume I got the whole story down before you get the story down. And, and we, we. We need to listen longer to understand what truly happened. So let's just do this. Let's jump into the book of James and, uh, we're gonna finish chapter one today. And so Willis pick this thing up here and we're gonna read from 19 down to 27 and there's three kind of movements through this. So I'm, I'm gonna just kind of, let's read it, get familiar with the terrain and then we'll back up and, uh, we'll look at it a little bit more carefully. All right. So says my dear brothers and sisters take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. So therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly, except the word planted in you, which can save you now, do not merely listen to the word. And so deceive yourself, do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word, but does not do what it says. Like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking theself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks. Whatever looks int, 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 now. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight ring on their tongue, uh, deceive themselves. And their religion is worthless religion that God, our father accepts as pure and faultless is this to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. There is a whole lot in there. Let's just stop and let's pray. And then we'll look at it a little bit more closely. So father, thank you for the practicality of this. This is something that applies to every one of us, every one of us in this room, every one of us on any of our campus, every one of us who are online and every one of us who are listening to this in their car, wherever they're hearing it, there is truth in here to be applied to our lives without exception. God, my prayer is that you help us to not be deceived, to be deceiving ourselves, to think that this doesn't apply to us. And God help us to learn and change and grow. And we pray for this happen in Jesus name. Amen. All right. So let me say this. If you were an alien and you somehow landed on our planet and you were studying the culture of our planet, you would, um, you would draw the conclusion based on what you see. That we are a people who love to communicate with one another. We love to communicate and, and you would, you would discover all sort.

uh, all sorts of like outlets of our communication. Like you would discover social media, you would see that we have this thing called Facebook and we do this thing called Twitter, and we have TikTok and we have Instagram and we have Snapchat and all of these ways are ways in which we communicate to one another. You would take a look at our technologies and you would go, these people love to communicate. You would see cell phones that we have. And you would, you see, you know, the whole kind of the whole phone deal, video calls. Then conferencing, teleconferencing, you, you would discover our ability to text and email each other and you would go, they love to communicate you, you would discover things about our culture that are these channels or mediums in which we just, you know, we have television and we have the radio and we have the internet. All of these are incredible forms of mass communication. We. You would just reach a conclusion, but the truth be told. And I want you to hear this. We are not a society that loves to communicate. We are a society that loves to talk. Now, can I get an amen from anybody? We are. We don't love to listen. We love to talk. And the more we talk, the less we are listening and the more we we talk and the less we are listening, the less we are communi. We don't love to communicate. We love to talk. Now let's go back to what James says. Look back down at verse 19 and, uh, see it more closely. Right? My dear brothers and sisters take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desire.

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. All right. The first thing I want you to notice is that he says my dear brothers and sisters take note of this to take note of this is literally in the original language. Listen. My dear brothers and sisters, listen, listen. And then he says three, like major points that we ought to like listen to. Okay. That we are to be one quick to listen, two, slow to speak, and three slow to become angry. I want you to stare at that list for just a second. I don't know if it's come down. It has. Is there anything about that verse? That sounds contrary to our culture and the answer is yes, that entire verse sounds contrary to our culture. We are not slow to speak. We, we are not quick to listen. We are not slow to become angry. Um, it's been said that God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we would listen twice as much as we. The truth of the matter is, is it's kind of like we've got two mouths in one ear and we, uh, use the mouth a whole lot more. Well, what's the difference between talking and listening. Listening is putting the other person's interest above your own talking is putting your interest above the other person. Now, I, I'm not saying all talkings bad, obviously it's not. But if all I want to do is just talk and talk and talk over your conversation. To me, I'm just saying I'm far more interested in me than I'm interested in you. And you'd be saying the same thing. If you wouldn't never listen to anything I had to say, and that's kind of how that works. It it's interesting to me, that scripture just talks about this subject. It says, literally, listen, listen, listen. And it just repeats this theme over and over and over again. Let me just, there are so many verses. I literally, I just, I've just, I plucked three, just three Proverbs that give us wisdom. All right. Let me show 'em to you. Proverbs 10 19, when words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise. It it's, it's the really seasoned person who can not just respond when they hear something. But they can process it. All right. Proverb, 1728 says even a fool is thought wise. If he keeps silent and discerning, if he holds his tongue, if you're ever in a room where there are people that are intimidating you and you feel overwhelmed, like, oh my gosh, I can't believe the smartest thing you can do is just stay quiet cuz nobody will know. But the minute you start talking. Revelation starts to happen. Proverbs 29 20. Do you see a man who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for him. You know, it's interesting. Those verses come to my mind as a pastor. You know, one of the tragedies of our day and age is there are constantly things happening that hit the, you know, this, this tragedy that tragedy, this mass shooting that, uh,

and it is astounding to me. How quickly people respond with words about what happened. And I, I feel like what God has, you know, guided me and go, would you just slow down before you start commenting on what happened? Because you really don't know what happened, but we're so sure we know it all because we had an impression of what happened and we start to talk. This to me is the manifestation of this passage. Be slow to speak, get your facts straight before you start making your comments. And I think that might be wise for all of us up. Jesus was very, very clear about why you wanna be careful with what you say. And I don't know if we think about this, but again, in, in our time together, I just wanna challenge you to think about this. You wanna be slow to speak because when you speak, you will reveal who and what you are. And, and, and that's what I'm saying. I, I just wanna be careful. I, I just wanna make sure. That, what I'm revealing is, is, you know, really what I want to be saying. I don't want to be a fool and reveal I'm foolish just because I'm shooting my mouth off without knowing exactly what I'm talking about. So this is what Jesus said. Listen, listen, he said this a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart. And an evil man brings evil things out of the evil, stored up in his heart for the mouth speaks of what the heart is full. I wanna challenge you for just a moment to stop and think about things you've posted. Just things you've said, comments you've made reactions you've, you know, released. If, if what comes out is indicative of what's inside, what's inside. Um, you, we, we, we, we all might be really wise to just take a vow of silence.

can I get a silent? Amen. You know, just, it reminds me of a, a, a, a guy that wanted to become a monk. And so he, he went to a monastery and he, he literally applied in the Abbott, the guy that's in charge of the monastery accepted him, but he says, you need to understand the rule of our monastery. And if you understand monasteries, there's kind of an order you have to subscribe, subscribe to. And he said, we are a silent, uh, monastery. And we've all taken a vow of silence and here's how it works. Um, you will be granted, um, two words that you can share every seven years, just two words every seven years. And if you want to accept the calling to our monastery, you will agree to this. And the guy said, I agree, seven years go by and he's invited into a conversation with the Abbot. And he said the Abbott being the head, he's got a little more freedom to speak. He says, well, you've been here seven years and we told you after seven years you would get, um, two words. Uh, what two words would you like to share? And he said, um, bed hard. That was his two words, bed hard. Um, two, uh, uh, seven more years rolls around. He's granted two more words. He goes back after 14 years, a second conversation with the Abbott of the monastery. And he, he said, uh, well, you know how this works? You every seven years get two words. I hope you thought about your two words. And he said, uh, what are they? Food bad. Okay. He goes off onto his third seven year sprint. And at the end of his third,

seven years. He comes back into the Abbott. He says, you know how this works? You're granted two words, what are your two words? He said, I quit. And the Abbott says, you know, it really doesn't surprise me because you haven't stopped complaining since the day you got here. , you know, whether it's six words or 6,000 words, whether it's 21 years or 21 minutes,

what comes out of your mouth is a reflection of what's going on inside of you. What does it reveal? So we're to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. Now anger is where our speaking becomes incredibly damaging. And I know, you know what I'm talking about all grew up with the adage. You know, six and stones can break my bones. Butt names will never hurt. Yeah. How many of you are carrying? And I, I am. How many of you're carrying. Uh, in your adult, mind, something somebody once said to you that SEAD itself to your thinking. And, uh, what about that sticks and stones thing and words, you know, names and all that. My guess is you have things that just come to your mind, things your parents told you, maybe things, uh, a significant other told you, maybe, you know, things, a teacher told you you're too dumb. You'll never learn. You're never gonna make it. You're lazy. You're so. Often what happens is in our anger, we feel justified to shoot our mouths off that. Now, you know, it's like the fuel behind the fire and we just, you know, let it go. And, uh, the tragedy is that when we're all amped up with anger where they least prone to ever listen, we're the least prone to listen than we ever are. And these go together. So Jesus, again, he says, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, do not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But when I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother Raca, which translated would be like airhead. All right. Empty headed person. Is answerable to the Sanhedrin. That's the Supreme court of the Jewish nation, but anyone who says you fool, which is literally you, moron will be in danger of the fire of hell. Can I stop us again and pause us with a question what's on your social media feed. I'm not applying anything bad. I'm simply going folks. We are losing our minds with our words and the culture in which we live. As if none of the, none of these words are ever gonna come back to Haun as if no damage is being done with the things we've said with sense of impunity and no accountability to every word that we speak is gonna be held accountable. Are you ready for that? We live in a culture that doesn't believe that, but scripture says it's true. Paul said this in your anger do not sin. Let's just stop right. Did you ever connect anger and sin together? How, how mad you get, and then what you say when you are that mad and how many times do you have to apologize to somebody after you ranted and went off on them and you go, you know what? I was just, so Paul says, do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. What does that imp. Don't let the sun go down in your anger. It means deal with it quickly, do not give the devil a foothold. Wow. So that's kind of the first idea that he wants to convey. Now, the other two will come quicker and easier, but to get us there, um, I wanna ask you, and I've, I've asked you this before, but I just think this is such an easy way to illustrate. When it comes to your Bible, how do you, what's your posture to the Bible and what, what do you mean? What's my posture? Well, I wanna suggest there probably more than three, but there's at least three postures you can hold to the Bible. One posture would be that, um, the Bible is above you and you are under it, meaning that this is higher than I. I aspire to rise to the teachings of the word of God that I respect where it comes from. And whenever I'm in the word of God, I'm looking up, I'm listening to God. That's a posture. Another posture you can have is to see the Bible at your side. And that means you and the Bible are peers that just as you and every other peer that you. You have opinions about things and the Bible has opinions about things you have thoughts and the Bible has thoughts and you often think you're right. And the Bible seems to think it's right. And so you just treat the Bible like a comfortable friend and where you disagree, you disagree and you just go, we just don't. We're gonna agree to disagree on that. Jesus, we don't see eye to eye on that. There there's a third way, by the way. That's when you think you're above the Bible and it's beneath.

probably nobody who's hearing anything I'm saying right now thinks that, but we live than a culture that thinks that it's beneath him. Why would I ever listen to what it has to say? I know far more about anything than that book knows, and we treat the with contempt. Okay. Now, why is that important? What, I just let's go to James 1 22, cuz what it says do not merely listen to the word.

and so deceive yourselves do what it says now, see, here's the point, the only way you're gonna do what the Bible says is if you get underneath it and let it speak into you and you look up to it, anyone who listens to the word, but does not do what it says, just like someone who looks at his face in the mirror. And after looking himself, he goes away and he immediately forgets what he looks. 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. That there is a freedom that comes from putting yourself under the authority of the word of God, because you don't have to be the one who has to make the final decision on every issue. You, you, you just have to submit. To the decision that God's already made about how you should handle yourself in that particular situation, hearing the word. And I think this is fascinating. I don't think we wanna go quickly over this hearing the word, but not doing it is deceptive. How's it deceptive. It's not the word that is deceptive. It's what we are doing with the word. I'm hearing the word, but I have no intention of following anything that says. We start to think that somehow now listen carefully listen carefully. We think that having been in church or, and been in the Bible and hearing what God said was what the goal was that we would hear it, that we, we would hear, I heard it, but that was never the goal. The goal was that you would hear it and then you would do what it says. This is the point that James is making. And that's this whole idea of the message in the mirror. You look at yourself in the mirror. So picture yourself in the morning, whatever that scene is, who knows? I'll tell you what, when you lose your hair, you pretty much look the same. I can just tell you that there are benefits to being bald, anybody in here, anyone amen. Anyone. Amen. Amen. It's the same every morning. It's just, just wanna go to bed with wake up with, but the truth is, is that when you look at yourself in a mirror, the point of looking at yourself in a mirror is to see which you can't otherwise. and you look at yourself and you go, oh my gosh, my hair, oh my gosh, you know, my, whatever. I need to do something about that. Or, or you, you know, you eat a meal and you go, and you look at your teeth in the mirror and you got spinach between your teeth and you go, eh, it's not too bad. A fool is what he's saying. A fool would look at himself in a mirror and not do something about what he discovered about himself. That's talking about you, me and. So this is a reflection that I can see myself in. I sometimes look okay. I sometimes look horrible, but the question is, what are you gonna do? Okay. I look horrible. So I got an, a, I got an anger issue who cares, who cares that I just berate people. It doesn't matter. You, I I'm looking, but I'm not saying, and it's trying to tell me, get that under control. You're you're going to do harm, but we. We believe that, uh, you know, let, let me play how this plays out. Folks. You can go to church all your life and get absolutely no closer to God at the end of your life. You can spend every weekend in worship and at the end of your life, be no closer to God than when you started the journey. Because we think that somehow God is pleased with the fact that we showed up and.

and I, I think what James is trying to tell you is don't be so fooled. You, you see, there's absolutely no value to study in the Bible. In fact, I just wrote a list. There's, there's just no point to study in the Bible. If you have no intention of following the Bible, there's no point in hearing it and there's no point in meditating on it. There's no point in memorizing it. There's no point in praying about it. To guys like me. There's no point in preaching about it. If you have no intention of incorporating it into the way you live your life, there is no point to it, but we are deceived because we believe that God is pleased by the fact that we heard it again. I want to show you something. James says, there's a freedom that comes when you submit yourself to the word of God, because you don't have to make the final decision. The word of God will tell you which way to. Jesus said it this way, John eight to the Jews who had believed him. Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free that there is this freedom that comes from being a disciple, which means you're a follower, which means you're a learner, which means you submit yourself under the authority of God. And then the word of God sets you free. Because you can be the person that God wanted you to be. Now, let me say it this way. The only, only truth that is applied okay. Is gonna set you free. So, so lemme just put all of this in one idea, and the idea would be this a truth, not applied is a truth. Not learned. Now I'm gonna pause on that for just a minute, cuz that's something you need to hear. I need to hear a truth. Not applied is a truth. Not learned. I can come to church and I can tell you, lemme show what I learned in church. I learned all this stuff in church, and I can give you along list. All the things I learned in church, a truth, not applied is a truth. Not learned. I didn't learn anything. The only thing I learned is what I allowed for the reflection in the mirror to change my direction, to change my course.

and then, uh, I just think James ends this so profoundly, and again, there's so much more for the sake of time. I just we'll just take it as far as we can go. Did you know that scripture speaks about a religion that's worthless and in fact, do you know what he's he's you, you know what the scripture says about a worthless.

it talks about how your Christianity can become a worthless religion. Let me, let me show you look at verses 26 and 27. Now those who consider themselves to be religious, I do. Do you, um, and yet do not keep a tight ring on their tongues, deceive themselves he's landing and their religion is worthless. What does worthless mean? What does worthless mean? You have a whole bunch of Confederate bills from the civil war era. What does worthless mean? Okay. Now I'm not talking about as a collector, you know, you think you're gonna cast that $10 bill. Nobody honors that worthless is worthless religion. Now watch us religion that God, our father accepts as pure. Faultless is this to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from becoming polluted by the world so much in all of this. So when we talk about Christianity, I don't like the idea of, I don't like ever saying, well, Christianity's a worthless religion, but you know what? It's worthless to some people who are Christians. It it's it's worthless because they got no value out of it because they didn't do anything that it said to do. It proved to be worthless to them. And, and it's interesting because how many people have lost respect, follow this? How many people have lost respect for the Bible? Because they've lost respect for people who believe the Bible. Wow. I think God loses respect for people who say they believe the Bible, but don't do anything what the Bible says. And by the way, make sure you see this okay. A religion that God doesn't respect is one. That's all about the head, what you know, but not what you do, not about your heart. And then he says, I think this is, he says, you know, what's pure and faultless, religion taking care. And he uses widows and orphans. Now, why would he use widows and orphans? Well, in the time that that was written widows and orphans were the, they were the most vulnerable, the most powerless. See if you were a widow in that culture, you need to understand all the inheritance went to your oldest son. When the father dies, when your husband died in that culture, it wasn't going to go to you. It was gonna go to the eldest son, read the Bible. That's how it worked. And it goes through the Elvis sun. And depending on the heart of the Elvis sun, you're either gonna be taken care of, or you're not. And then, uh, the care of orphans, obviously, uh, seriously in need of help and choosing not to help them. I was always thinking about this. My mind went through the book of Amos and I just wanna share a passage in, in Amos. God said this listen carefully. I hate. God says, I hate, I despise your religious festivals. Your assemblies are in are a St to me, even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them though. You bring choice fellowship offerings. I will have no regard for them away with the noise of your songs. I will not listen to the music of your, but let justice roll on like a river righteousness, like a never failing. What he's saying is the way you treat people, the way you, the way you treat people, makes all the rest of the stuff you do. That looks religious worthless to me. Wow. How much of our religious ritual? God goes to quit wasting your time because we're not doing what we know we ought to be doing.

and I think about, you know, gosh, issues of justice in our culture. Well, what's your stance on that? So let me just close. I, I think there's, you know, two primary things that our faith ought to change in us, our, our conduct and our character, our conduct, and our character. I think that's what James is saying. Has the word of God changed your conduct and your character cleaned him up, made him better. I, I, I just ha this is gonna sound like an aside and in one sense it is, but I, I just want to, I just wanna say, I want to put a personal plea out there for you to hear, and it sounds like, but there is a ministry in Arizona called AZ 1 27, 1 27. Look down at verse 1 27, a Z 1 27 is a ministry that's committed to trying to help this foster care crisis that we got in Arizona.

and, uh, we are just as a church going, we've gotta do something we have to, who's helpless right now, foster kids. And so we, you know, we're talking about, if we could just get 10% of our church, you don't have to foster a kid, but could you financially help? Could you emotionally help? Could you like become an advocate? Could.

help serve. Could you, and I just, again, I feel the need to just let you know about this. We have a website that if this, if you you're going okay, I heard your preacher central AZ for slash foster hyphen adopt. We're gonna have on this campus coming up here, what we're gonna call a find your place event is for everyone hosted by a Z 1 27. It's gonna be on the Gilbert campus on Tuesday, October 25th, again, pure and faultless religion is to care about the helpless. So I encourage you now, let me just final story. I read this this week. It didn't happen this week. I just read about it this week. I read about a man in New York city who died at the age of 63 without ever having had a job. Never once he spent his entire adult life in college. Just take this in. Okay. He had acquired so many academic degrees that they looked like the alphabet behind this name incredibly well educated. All right. So why did this man spend his entire life in college? When he was a child, a wealthy benefactor, a relative who died, uh, named him as a beneficiary in his will. He stated that he's been given enough money to support him every year, as long as he stayed in. And was to be discontinued once he completed his education. So the man met the terms of the will, but by staying in school indefinitely, he turned a technicality into a steady income for life. Something his benefactor never intended. So he spent thousands and thousands of hours listening to lectures, reading books, but doing nothing with what he knew. He acquired more and more knowledge, but it didn't benefit anyone. A truth, not applied is a truth, not learned. What difference will the word of God make in your life today? I don't know. It kind of depends on how you see it. Is it appear? Is it beneath you or is it something you aspire to and you look up to and you go, I gotta do better. You'll you, you and I will both decide for ourselves. Let's pray. So God help us right now, as we've started this message, I pray that you help us with what, what is in this for us. And there's so much more in this that we didn't get to cover, but there's a lot set here. God, we don't want come to church, just fill our brains with information. It does nothing good. Cause we gotta find ways to serve and ways to make a difference. God, you made it really clear what worthless religion looks like and what pure and faultless religion looks like and pure and faultless, religion cares for people who are helpless and powerless and voiceless. And so God, I pray that you would help us to understand what you're saying. And we're only gonna understand if we stop talking and just listen and see ourselves in a mirror as we really are. So help us father. I pray in Jesus. Amen. Bless you guys.

Hearing and Doing the Word

by Cal Jernigan • September 11, 2022

In the book of James, we hear from Jesus' brother, as he shares wisdom on what it looks like to be a follower of Christ. In this week's message we are in James 1:19-27, and Pastor Cal teaches what it looks like to apply truth to your life.

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