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You are listening to the podcast of Richland Hills Baptist Church. We are

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located in Richland Hills, Texas. Our desire here is to believe, live, and

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proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. As you're listening to our podcast today, if

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you have any questions, you can find us on the web at richlandhillsbc.com.

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God bless you.

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All right, well this morning, open your Bibles. We're gonna be going through the

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whole book of James this morning. So open your book, open your Bible to the

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book of James. And this morning we are indeed, we are gonna finish this book. And

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we have worked through this book since the really the early part of this year.

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And we walked through really verse by verse, passage by passage. We've been

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going through this book together, seeing what God's Word tells us about this big

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idea. Putting our faith in action. That's something that we've I've mentioned

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almost every week. As we think about James, the idea is this, we are called to

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live out our faith. We are called to put into action the faith that we say we

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believe. And James goes through and he gives us all of these practical things

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that we need and we should do as believers in Jesus Christ. But the

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reality that we see, it's not easy. Difficult. We need God's help. We can't do

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these things in our own strength, but we need help. It does remind me, my first, I

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say real job, but I say a full-time job that you know they they gave you paid

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time off, that kind of job. Right, my first job like that, Jen and I had just

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been married for just a little while and I got a job at Liberty University and

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she was finishing college there in Lynchburg, Virginia. I got a job there in

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the online program. Liberty online. Who's ever heard of Liberty online? Yeah, maybe

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it's big now. There's a lot of people in it. I was what you call a new enrollment

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specialist. That sounds really fancy. It wasn't. I just talked on the phone all

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day. That's what I did and people would call in to ask information about the

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school. I sat in a little cubicle and you talk on the phone. But leading up to

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that as you get this job, you go through this pretty intense training period. It's

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it's it was several weeks and you're with a group of people and I still

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remember all those people. You're there together and for two weeks you get all of

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this information thrown at you and it's a lot. Let me tell you when you are

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working for a university there's a lot of information you have to know. You have

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to know about financial aid, military benefits, you need to know about degree

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plans and degrees, graduation dates and all of this information and all of this

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information at you and then in that training they even let you listen to

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some phone calls and you you take some calls. But after the training they throw

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you out onto the floor, your own little cubicle, and they say okay now you're

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trained and it's terrifying because in this environment you had you're the way

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that you were graded. I mean the way that you were judged as an employee, people

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listened to your calls and make sure that you were saying the right thing. You

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didn't want to mess up and tell someone false information. And how how did you

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get better at it? Well you learned all the information right? You're a pro. No

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how did you do it? You you just began to do it. You just did it. You just learned

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how to keep going and you said okay let me maybe I'm not sure about this little

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area here so you trained up, you learned, you did better. In every day, every day if

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you stuck with it you get a little better. But it reminds me as James as you

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think about there's a lot that James has thrown at us. You may say pastor how

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could I possibly, how could I possibly put all this into action? How can I do all

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this? Well just a little bit at a time. And I'm gonna tell you this as we get

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through it there are gonna be some areas in the book of James that are gonna be

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difficult for you. But those same areas may not be an area a huge area of need

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for the next person meaning that we all are a little different. We struggle in

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different ways. We have our unique challenges and so there are gonna be

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some things in the book of James that you feel like hey I do this. Maybe you're

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not perfect at it but hey I do this. But same area someone else might say that's a real struggle for me.

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So as we look at this I want us to look at some some major some big areas that

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James speaks about. Some big whether he speaks about it directly or indirectly.

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Some big themes that we need to consider about putting our faith into action. If

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you want to live out your faith you really need to consider these big things

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that James is gonna speak about. And one of the things that's implied in this

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book and really most of the letters in the Bible is that if we are going to live

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out our faith we are going to live in a community of faith. What do I mean by that?

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Most of the letters in the Bible the New Testament the book of James they were

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not written to one person. They were not written to just an individual most of

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them a few. Most of them are not written to an individual. Do you know who are they written to?

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A group of people. A body. A church. A community of faith. And so what that means

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implied in the book of James and everything that he's telling us is that

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listen if you want to live this out you need to live within a community of faith.

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You need to be with other like-minded believers so that you can live out these

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things. And the point behind that is you and I we will never be successful in

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living out our faith by ourselves. You can't do it. You're just not gonna be

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able to do it because there's so much that again when James speaks about loving

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people well if you're all by yourself all the time it's gonna be hard to love

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other people isn't it? You need people. If you're by yourself all the time then

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this idea of using your words correctly and rightly guess what that's gonna be

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hard to do so in a community you will learn how to practice these things. You

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will be encouraged by others. You'll be challenged. You'll be strengthened. And so

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James is going to say listen to do this and this is me sort of paraphrasing

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to do this you need to be in a community. Now I'm gonna use that word

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community on purpose and I'm not gonna say go to church. You might say pastor you

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should say that you're the pastor of a church. Here's what I know you can go to

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church and not be in community with other people. You can go and you can come

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and you can sit on a pew and not be in real community fellowship relationship

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with other. So James is not speaking about church attendance. James is speaking

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and implying in here James is speaking to people who don't just come to church

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but James is speaking to people who are in community and relationship with one

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another. And so that's why I'm gonna use that word community. When you are in a

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church it's important that you find a group of people a community that you

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can walk through this life with. It may be one of our Sunday school classes that

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we have. It may be a just a group of people that you are friends with but

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you find several people that you can be in community with and that's important.

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When James says remember we talked about a few weeks ago that we're supposed to

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confess to one another. When we mess up we struggle we're supposed to have people

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that we can confess to. Can you do that if you don't have a community? No. And so

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if you want to live it out if you want to live out your faith you need somebody

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that's going to help you. Do you have that? Do you have community? Do you have

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people that encourage you? Do you have people that challenge you? Do you have

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people that question you? Do you have people that again they applaud you and

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they cheer you on? You need all those things. Now is it all rosy? As being in a

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community, a church community, a Christian community, is it always easy? Is it

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always rosy? Everybody always get along? No. Would you get a church sometimes? Yeah.

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Will some things happen that you don't like or you disagree with? Yeah. But are

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any of those reasons to give up on community? No. You see that's how we

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grow. We grow in fellowship and in community. And in community it's where

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we find encouragement and wisdom. So wisdom is this next big area that I want

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you to want you to think about. So to put your faith in action you need to be in

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community and the two you need to have wisdom. Do you remember what James said

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to us in James chapter 1 verse 5? You can look there. If any of you lacks

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wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and

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it would be given to him. You see you and I, we need wisdom. As we start trying to

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live this out it's gonna get hard and we're not gonna know what to do and

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we're gonna wonder how do I live this out in this hard situation? Who's had a

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hard situation this past week? Anybody? Okay good. Just a few of you. Ask everybody

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else. It's perfect this week. Who's had a situation in the last month that you

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said, what do I do? Sure. We need wisdom. Yeah, every day. We need wisdom. And then

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sometimes have you noticed that it's hard too to say not only what do I do but

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what's the Christian thing to do? Have you ever asked yourself that? Have you

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ever asked you know what? How should I do this as a Christian? And so there's gonna be

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situations like that every day. Almost it's gonna be daily when we are

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confronted with these things where it's hard and then in the world that we live

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in where things are changing rapidly every day it seems like I mean it really

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does seem like things are different every single day doesn't it? And then if

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you're raising children and we are right now and this again this rapidly

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changing world how do I do this? What do we do? How do I answer this question or

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how do I address this issue? Maybe it's the same with your grandkids or whoever

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it may be. But we need wisdom. And James tells you, listen if you lack

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wisdom, if you lack this wisdom, you said you ask God and He'll give it to you. But

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you have to ask in faith, believe it. But the problem is so often we don't ask God

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we ask Google. Isn't that true? We go to another source. And so he's saying

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James said listen you need wisdom. But not only do you need wisdom and you do

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need wisdom but there's a particular type of wisdom that you need because

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there is a wisdom that the world will tell you that would say hey this is

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wisdom but James says now there's a particular type of wisdom and this is in

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James chapter 3 verse 17. But the wisdom from above is first pure then

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peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and

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sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

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You see this is the type of wisdom that we are seeking this wisdom from above.

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It's wisdom that's pure, peaceable, gentle, open, full of good fruits, impartial and

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sincere. And so we seek this wisdom, godly wisdom. And this connects with

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community because oftentimes the way that we gain wisdom we gain it obviously

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from the word yes from God. But do you know how God imparts it so often?

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Through his people. He uses his people. How many times have you been struggling

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and then somebody just shares a Bible verse with you? Sends you a text, says

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something that makes you think about God's word. You see that's how God

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uses this community to help us with wisdom. The other thing is guess what?

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Most likely there's somebody else who's walking, more often than not there's

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somebody that maybe it's not exactly the same or maybe it wasn't them. But

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sometimes there's somebody that could say hey I could help you with that. I know

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there are some unique ones that are unique to your situation but you don't

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know until you share. How many times have you shared something with somebody? Not

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not because you're trying to get something but you just share in your

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heart and they're able to help you. And so we need wisdom and James is gonna he's

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gonna tell us about wisdom. And so my question is in this community that we're

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a part of and I believe we're a community here in our community are we

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offering words of wisdom? Or we offering just words of just nothing really? How are

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we using our words? So that brings up the third big thing. When he being a community,

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a community that offers wisdom but a community that speaks and uses our words

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in ways that glorify God. And so James has had he has a lot to say about word

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doesn't he? James has a whole lot to say about using your word speaking in such a

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way that is going to honor God. And you just you walk through this book all

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through it and you'll just you'll see it over and over. You'll see where he just

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says things. I mean the big one in James chapter 3. Taming the tongue.

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Say listen your tongue, it's like a fire. We were driving we were down and

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will us for just a night for a wedding. We came back up yesterday and we're

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driving through Huntsville and there is thick smoke. I was like what is happening?

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It means like fog but it was sunny. I mean it was wasn't fog, middle of the day, thick.

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I said, Jen what is that? Check that out. There's a fire, forest fire. And this I

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listen it went for miles this smoke. I mean it wasn't just a little stretch of 45.

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It was for miles and miles is thick snow. You could hardly see if you driven

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through Huntsville. Now you can see the the prisons on the side of 45. You

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couldn't see them. It was covered. It is a reality of how devastating and how much

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fires can change things. And we've seen in the news in Maui. Your tongue is like that.

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Your tongue and we talked about this about how our words the things that we

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say can bring other destruction in people's lives. Say it's like a fire.

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It's like a forest fire and it will bring destruction. And sometimes you think man

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why does James have so much to say about words but let me ask you. How have

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words damaged your life? And I wouldn't have to go far if I were to point people

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out and just say well what's something somebody said to you that hurts you? I

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wouldn't have to go far. Sometimes that's things that people have said to you in

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your childhood and it sticks with you through your whole life doesn't it?

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Things that someone said to you maybe something me the kids said on the

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playground maybe something a teacher said to you a parent a friend whatever it

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may be but words I mean they're damaging. And then in the church sometimes we can

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fall into that too when we we hurt people. Gossip has destroyed churches. And

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here's what I've learned in church. None of us think we gossip. We're just

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talking. But let me tell you something. If you're talking to somebody and if you

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see someone coming down the hallway and you have to change the subject or

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lower your voice so they don't hear you that might be gossip. If you wouldn't be

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comfortable saying this in front of somebody else guess what it may be

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gossip. If your mama wouldn't be happy with what you're saying is probably

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gossip. Listen I have fallen into it. I don't stand here. Oh never done it. No I

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have. Let me tell you we have to be careful because it will destroy it will

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take this community that we have and it will destroy.

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We fall into that. The other thing we fall into is we sometimes tear people

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down instead of building one another up instead of encouraging them. We say why

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do they do that. Why they do it that way. I don't like that they did it that way.

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That's that that's not a good way to do that. Or why did they why did they who

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do they think they are. I've done this many other times. I know how to do this

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and we we tear one another down instead of building enough and courage and

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James says listen you have to use your word you you have to tame your tongue

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speak words of wisdom to one another encourage one another strengthen one

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another. Don't build or don't tear them down.

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There's gossip. There's anger harsh words line goes on and on right. That's why

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James says in James chapter 1 verse 19 and 20 be quick to hear slow to speak

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slow to anger for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

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He says listen don't be too quick to speak and I won't ask you to raise your

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hands but how how often have you opened your mouth and inserted your foot.

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A lot don't we have used something out of anger not of love. How often have you

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had that little voice that said you shouldn't say that and you said it

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anyway. James is listen you're not gonna be able to live out your faith you're

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not gonna be able to put your faith in action if you can't control your words.

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Here's the other thing if you say that you're a Christian and yet you use your

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words in a way that don't glorify God what does that say about your testimony.

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What does that say to your grandkids when they see you being angry and mean and

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hurtful and gossip. What does that say to my kids if they see me saying those things.

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What does that say to your neighbor when you tear down people at church and can

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you believe what they're doing in that Richland Hills Baptist Church. What does

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that say to people in our life when we again when we don't encourage but we

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find people's weaknesses. We need to build others up. So James said listen you

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have to use your words and through your words you can show love to one another. So

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there we see another big big part of James I believe kind of under the

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surface is that we are called to love. We're called to be in community. We're

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called to have wisdom. We're called to use our words correctly and then we're

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called to love. And James chapter 2 verse 8 he says if you really fulfill the

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royal law according to the Scripture you shall love your neighbors yourself.

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You're doing well. Then he goes on he says but if you show partiality you're

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committing sin and you're convicted by the law as transgressors. So James say

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listen you're called we're called to love one another. We're called to love

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everybody and what James is dealing with here is he's dealing with a group of

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people hey they love the rich people. They love the people with with money and

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means and prestige and they you know what when the rich people come these

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people that James is talking to they bring them forward and they say hey come

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be a part of our church you sit right up here the good steep they love the rich

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people but then the poor would come. The people that didn't have anything to offer

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and they'd say well you just sit over there. I mean if you have to be here

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sit over there and he says wait that's not that's not love. He's we're called to

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love one another. That's what we do as a community you are called to love each

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other and so in this community we are called to show and share and exhibit

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love not just the people that we love but all people. Are there hard people

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sometimes yeah. Are there people in any place that you ever go listen it's just

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life there's gonna be people that don't always match your personality exactly

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right out there. There's gonna be people that rub you the wrong way that

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irritates you. Does James give you a pass and say hey you don't have to love

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those people. Does the Bible give you a pass on that? Does Jesus give you a pass?

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No. I mean Jesus he's even one that says hey you're supposed to even love your

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enemies. And so in this body if we want to live our faith remember if we want to

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put our faith in action then we had to be people of love. What does it say to the

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world if we don't love each other? What does it say to the community if we fight

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and bicker and argue and we tear one another down it doesn't give a testimony

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does or good testimony. What does it say to your grandchildren and my children

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and my neighbors if we're not people of love? What does it say to them if you

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are just an angry bitter person? What does it say about our faith?

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We follow a Savior.

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When we follow Jesus who gave his life out of love but yet we don't love. What

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does that say? It says a lot but not the good stuff. And so James says listen we

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need to love not because it's easy but we love especially but it isn't easy.

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It's hard. And this is why James also says he says listen built in here we're

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gonna we're gonna go through difficulties we're gonna go through

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trials we're gonna suffer. So he says you need to persevere. If you want to put

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your faith in action if you want to really put it in action and really follow

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Jesus said you're gonna have to persevere. Now the perseverance that James

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is gonna be speaking of is the perseverance that comes because of

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suffering. But I think in a broader way you can also say we just need to

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persevere through this faith journey. When we struggle when it's difficult when

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we lack wisdom we need to persevere. We have to be able to keep going to keep

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pressing on. Remember James chapter 1 verse 2 count it all joy my brothers when

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you meet trials various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith

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produces steadfastness. Let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be

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perfect and complete and lacking nothing. See there through our perseverance

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through our steadfastness God uses them. He says listen this testing is gonna

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actually produce this steadfastness this endurance. So when you meet difficulties

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in trials these tough things he said as you walk through them and you have faith

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it's gonna actually produce this. It's actually gonna build up this endurance

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and this perseverance. But then there's also gonna be spiritual effects that

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happen to you. There's gonna be benefits. As you walk through this life and you

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don't give up and you have faith you're gonna have more endurance. But you know

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what's gonna happen you're gonna get more wisdom. You're gonna learn to love

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more. You're gonna learn what it means to be in community. You see as we walk

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through these things we don't we don't say I forget it. We grow. We grow in our

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faith. We grow in our love and we grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. Let me

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ask you this how are you doing in perseverance? Are you struggling? We all

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struggle in some way. How do you persevere? Do you persevere well? Meaning

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this? Do you complain and moan and grow? You can persevere and moan and grow in the

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whole way. I don't think that's what James is talking about here. Do you

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persevere with joy? Are you living out your faith? Are you putting your faith

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into action? Because James remember James told us something very important very

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deep really two things. One he says that we need to be doers of the word. James

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1.22 he says listen you need me doers of the word don't just hear it but you need

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to do it. But then James also told us in James chapter 2 verse 17 that faith

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without works is dead. Now is James saying that if you work hard and you do a

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lot of good stuff then you're gonna be a Christian? No that's not what James is

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saying at all. It's through faith in Jesus Christ. Not your works, not your

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religious duty but your faith. But James also says he says listen if you claim to

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be a Christian if you say I'm a Christian but your life does not reflect it. If

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your life does not show it then he says then your faith may not be real faith at

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all. It may just be lip service. So he says listen so if your faith is real

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you're gonna live it out. Now does that mean we're gonna all live it out

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perfectly all the time? No. But what's the trajectory of your life? Is it a life

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of faith? A life of putting it into practice? Or is it a life just of lip

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service? You see you can fool me, you can fool other people, you can fool your

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family into thinking you're a Christian but you can't fool God. And that's

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ultimately what matters. Have you trust in Christ? Have you put your faith in

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Christ? Again not just, not asking you if you did something religious, got baptized,

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I'm asking in your heart have you put your faith in Jesus? Have you trusted in

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Jesus Christ? Trusted him believing that he died on a cross, was buried and rose

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again for you? Have you said Jesus I believe in you, I'm following you now.

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See the Lord of your life have you turned from your sin and turned to Jesus?

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Because what happens is there's a lot of people who do religious things but they

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keep, they never changed the course of their life. They never turned to Jesus,

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they just say oh I believe but if you truly believe you'll follow him. Are you

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following Jesus? And if you're not, can't put your faith in action because you don't

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have faith. So I'd say today you need to put your faith in Christ. But for others, what

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area we talked about, we talked about again the big things, we talked about

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community, wisdom, our words, love, perseverance. What area do you struggle in?

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We don't all struggle in the same way. Some of us you know what we use kind words,

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we love and we really don't use our words in a negative way as a whole. But you

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may also struggle with perseverance. But then someone else may be out

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persevering. They've walked through hard things, they've done all this but

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yet they are careless with their words sometimes. And maybe they've really

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persevered but they've also torn down some people in the process. Or maybe

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there's someone else that again they love people really well and they are so

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loving but yet they lack wisdom. And oftentimes their love doesn't come from

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a place of wisdom. Maybe they love people but they can't offer them any

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godly wisdom. So what area in your life do you need to focus on? And I think it

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would be wrong if I were to make this all about your effort. Because the truth is

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you and I we can't really do this on our own. We need the help of the Holy Spirit.

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We need God's direction, God's wisdom. So the only way that we're gonna be able to

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do this not is that we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, not that we try

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really hard, not that we just put more effort into it, is that we focus our

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gaze on Jesus Christ. It's not about self effort, it's about where we focus. And

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so the more we focus our life on the Jesus, the more we pursue Him, the more we

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love Him, the more that these things become a part of our life. And so where is

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your focus? Is your focus on Jesus or something else? What area do you need to

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put your faith in action? Let us pray.

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Father, may you show us our hearts. Lord, may you show us the areas that we have a

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weakness. God, may you show us maybe it's our wisdom, maybe it's our words or our

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love, whatever it may be, God, may you show us this morning where we need to

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spend some time with you so that you can address that in our hearts. God, may you

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direct us this morning in your ways. Lord, our desire is not just to live our

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faith out just for our own selves and our own glory so other people would look

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at us and say how great we are. But Father, we desire to live our faith out

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because that's what you've called us to do. So Lord, may you help us live out. It

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be real. And as we struggle and as we walk through these difficulties, may you

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pick us up. May you lead us by your hand. Lord, you lead us. You guide us. But Lord,

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if there's someone here this morning that's never trusted in Jesus Christ,

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it's never believed, never truly believed. Lord, I pray that this morning that you,

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the God of the heavens and the earth, God who made all the stars in the skies,

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that you'd speak to that soul this morning. Lord, they used to be, let's go and say,

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come. Come to me. And so Lord, if there's somebody, maybe they've been running from

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you, maybe they've been running away. May you draw them back. Or maybe there's

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somebody who's deceived themselves thinking that they're okay, but in reality,

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they're not okay at all. God, may you draw someone this morning to yourself. Lord, you

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use this time as you see fit. Jesus, then we pray. Amen.