You are listening to the podcast of Richland Hills Baptist Church. We are
located in Richland Hills, Texas. Our desire here is to believe, live, and
proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. As you're listening to our podcast today, if
you have any questions, you can find us on the web at richlandhillsbc.com.
God bless you.
All right, well this morning, open your Bibles. We're gonna be going through the
whole book of James this morning. So open your book, open your Bible to the
book of James. And this morning we are indeed, we are gonna finish this book. And
we have worked through this book since the really the early part of this year.
And we walked through really verse by verse, passage by passage. We've been
going through this book together, seeing what God's Word tells us about this big
idea. Putting our faith in action. That's something that we've I've mentioned
almost every week. As we think about James, the idea is this, we are called to
live out our faith. We are called to put into action the faith that we say we
believe. And James goes through and he gives us all of these practical things
that we need and we should do as believers in Jesus Christ. But the
reality that we see, it's not easy. Difficult. We need God's help. We can't do
these things in our own strength, but we need help. It does remind me, my first, I
say real job, but I say a full-time job that you know they they gave you paid
time off, that kind of job. Right, my first job like that, Jen and I had just
been married for just a little while and I got a job at Liberty University and
she was finishing college there in Lynchburg, Virginia. I got a job there in
the online program. Liberty online. Who's ever heard of Liberty online? Yeah, maybe
it's big now. There's a lot of people in it. I was what you call a new enrollment
specialist. That sounds really fancy. It wasn't. I just talked on the phone all
day. That's what I did and people would call in to ask information about the
school. I sat in a little cubicle and you talk on the phone. But leading up to
that as you get this job, you go through this pretty intense training period. It's
it's it was several weeks and you're with a group of people and I still
remember all those people. You're there together and for two weeks you get all of
this information thrown at you and it's a lot. Let me tell you when you are
working for a university there's a lot of information you have to know. You have
to know about financial aid, military benefits, you need to know about degree
plans and degrees, graduation dates and all of this information and all of this
information at you and then in that training they even let you listen to
some phone calls and you you take some calls. But after the training they throw
you out onto the floor, your own little cubicle, and they say okay now you're
trained and it's terrifying because in this environment you had you're the way
that you were graded. I mean the way that you were judged as an employee, people
listened to your calls and make sure that you were saying the right thing. You
didn't want to mess up and tell someone false information. And how how did you
get better at it? Well you learned all the information right? You're a pro. No
how did you do it? You you just began to do it. You just did it. You just learned
how to keep going and you said okay let me maybe I'm not sure about this little
area here so you trained up, you learned, you did better. In every day, every day if
you stuck with it you get a little better. But it reminds me as James as you
think about there's a lot that James has thrown at us. You may say pastor how
could I possibly, how could I possibly put all this into action? How can I do all
this? Well just a little bit at a time. And I'm gonna tell you this as we get
through it there are gonna be some areas in the book of James that are gonna be
difficult for you. But those same areas may not be an area a huge area of need
for the next person meaning that we all are a little different. We struggle in
different ways. We have our unique challenges and so there are gonna be
some things in the book of James that you feel like hey I do this. Maybe you're
not perfect at it but hey I do this. But same area someone else might say that's a real struggle for me.
So as we look at this I want us to look at some some major some big areas that
James speaks about. Some big whether he speaks about it directly or indirectly.
Some big themes that we need to consider about putting our faith into action. If
you want to live out your faith you really need to consider these big things
that James is gonna speak about. And one of the things that's implied in this
book and really most of the letters in the Bible is that if we are going to live
out our faith we are going to live in a community of faith. What do I mean by that?
Most of the letters in the Bible the New Testament the book of James they were
not written to one person. They were not written to just an individual most of
them a few. Most of them are not written to an individual. Do you know who are they written to?
A group of people. A body. A church. A community of faith. And so what that means
implied in the book of James and everything that he's telling us is that
listen if you want to live this out you need to live within a community of faith.
You need to be with other like-minded believers so that you can live out these
things. And the point behind that is you and I we will never be successful in
living out our faith by ourselves. You can't do it. You're just not gonna be
able to do it because there's so much that again when James speaks about loving
people well if you're all by yourself all the time it's gonna be hard to love
other people isn't it? You need people. If you're by yourself all the time then
this idea of using your words correctly and rightly guess what that's gonna be
hard to do so in a community you will learn how to practice these things. You
will be encouraged by others. You'll be challenged. You'll be strengthened. And so
James is going to say listen to do this and this is me sort of paraphrasing
to do this you need to be in a community. Now I'm gonna use that word
community on purpose and I'm not gonna say go to church. You might say pastor you
should say that you're the pastor of a church. Here's what I know you can go to
church and not be in community with other people. You can go and you can come
and you can sit on a pew and not be in real community fellowship relationship
with other. So James is not speaking about church attendance. James is speaking
and implying in here James is speaking to people who don't just come to church
but James is speaking to people who are in community and relationship with one
another. And so that's why I'm gonna use that word community. When you are in a
church it's important that you find a group of people a community that you
can walk through this life with. It may be one of our Sunday school classes that
we have. It may be a just a group of people that you are friends with but
you find several people that you can be in community with and that's important.
When James says remember we talked about a few weeks ago that we're supposed to
confess to one another. When we mess up we struggle we're supposed to have people
that we can confess to. Can you do that if you don't have a community? No. And so
if you want to live it out if you want to live out your faith you need somebody
that's going to help you. Do you have that? Do you have community? Do you have
people that encourage you? Do you have people that challenge you? Do you have
people that question you? Do you have people that again they applaud you and
they cheer you on? You need all those things. Now is it all rosy? As being in a
community, a church community, a Christian community, is it always easy? Is it
always rosy? Everybody always get along? No. Would you get a church sometimes? Yeah.
Will some things happen that you don't like or you disagree with? Yeah. But are
any of those reasons to give up on community? No. You see that's how we
grow. We grow in fellowship and in community. And in community it's where
we find encouragement and wisdom. So wisdom is this next big area that I want
you to want you to think about. So to put your faith in action you need to be in
community and the two you need to have wisdom. Do you remember what James said
to us in James chapter 1 verse 5? You can look there. If any of you lacks
wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and
it would be given to him. You see you and I, we need wisdom. As we start trying to
live this out it's gonna get hard and we're not gonna know what to do and
we're gonna wonder how do I live this out in this hard situation? Who's had a
hard situation this past week? Anybody? Okay good. Just a few of you. Ask everybody
else. It's perfect this week. Who's had a situation in the last month that you
said, what do I do? Sure. We need wisdom. Yeah, every day. We need wisdom. And then
sometimes have you noticed that it's hard too to say not only what do I do but
what's the Christian thing to do? Have you ever asked yourself that? Have you
ever asked you know what? How should I do this as a Christian? And so there's gonna be
situations like that every day. Almost it's gonna be daily when we are
confronted with these things where it's hard and then in the world that we live
in where things are changing rapidly every day it seems like I mean it really
does seem like things are different every single day doesn't it? And then if
you're raising children and we are right now and this again this rapidly
changing world how do I do this? What do we do? How do I answer this question or
how do I address this issue? Maybe it's the same with your grandkids or whoever
it may be. But we need wisdom. And James tells you, listen if you lack
wisdom, if you lack this wisdom, you said you ask God and He'll give it to you. But
you have to ask in faith, believe it. But the problem is so often we don't ask God
we ask Google. Isn't that true? We go to another source. And so he's saying
James said listen you need wisdom. But not only do you need wisdom and you do
need wisdom but there's a particular type of wisdom that you need because
there is a wisdom that the world will tell you that would say hey this is
wisdom but James says now there's a particular type of wisdom and this is in
James chapter 3 verse 17. But the wisdom from above is first pure then
peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and
sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
You see this is the type of wisdom that we are seeking this wisdom from above.
It's wisdom that's pure, peaceable, gentle, open, full of good fruits, impartial and
sincere. And so we seek this wisdom, godly wisdom. And this connects with
community because oftentimes the way that we gain wisdom we gain it obviously
from the word yes from God. But do you know how God imparts it so often?
Through his people. He uses his people. How many times have you been struggling
and then somebody just shares a Bible verse with you? Sends you a text, says
something that makes you think about God's word. You see that's how God
uses this community to help us with wisdom. The other thing is guess what?
Most likely there's somebody else who's walking, more often than not there's
somebody that maybe it's not exactly the same or maybe it wasn't them. But
sometimes there's somebody that could say hey I could help you with that. I know
there are some unique ones that are unique to your situation but you don't
know until you share. How many times have you shared something with somebody? Not
not because you're trying to get something but you just share in your
heart and they're able to help you. And so we need wisdom and James is gonna he's
gonna tell us about wisdom. And so my question is in this community that we're
a part of and I believe we're a community here in our community are we
offering words of wisdom? Or we offering just words of just nothing really? How are
we using our words? So that brings up the third big thing. When he being a community,
a community that offers wisdom but a community that speaks and uses our words
in ways that glorify God. And so James has had he has a lot to say about word
doesn't he? James has a whole lot to say about using your word speaking in such a
way that is going to honor God. And you just you walk through this book all
through it and you'll just you'll see it over and over. You'll see where he just
says things. I mean the big one in James chapter 3. Taming the tongue.
Say listen your tongue, it's like a fire. We were driving we were down and
will us for just a night for a wedding. We came back up yesterday and we're
driving through Huntsville and there is thick smoke. I was like what is happening?
It means like fog but it was sunny. I mean it was wasn't fog, middle of the day, thick.
I said, Jen what is that? Check that out. There's a fire, forest fire. And this I
listen it went for miles this smoke. I mean it wasn't just a little stretch of 45.
It was for miles and miles is thick snow. You could hardly see if you driven
through Huntsville. Now you can see the the prisons on the side of 45. You
couldn't see them. It was covered. It is a reality of how devastating and how much
fires can change things. And we've seen in the news in Maui. Your tongue is like that.
Your tongue and we talked about this about how our words the things that we
say can bring other destruction in people's lives. Say it's like a fire.
It's like a forest fire and it will bring destruction. And sometimes you think man
why does James have so much to say about words but let me ask you. How have
words damaged your life? And I wouldn't have to go far if I were to point people
out and just say well what's something somebody said to you that hurts you? I
wouldn't have to go far. Sometimes that's things that people have said to you in
your childhood and it sticks with you through your whole life doesn't it?
Things that someone said to you maybe something me the kids said on the
playground maybe something a teacher said to you a parent a friend whatever it
may be but words I mean they're damaging. And then in the church sometimes we can
fall into that too when we we hurt people. Gossip has destroyed churches. And
here's what I've learned in church. None of us think we gossip. We're just
talking. But let me tell you something. If you're talking to somebody and if you
see someone coming down the hallway and you have to change the subject or
lower your voice so they don't hear you that might be gossip. If you wouldn't be
comfortable saying this in front of somebody else guess what it may be
gossip. If your mama wouldn't be happy with what you're saying is probably
gossip. Listen I have fallen into it. I don't stand here. Oh never done it. No I
have. Let me tell you we have to be careful because it will destroy it will
take this community that we have and it will destroy.
We fall into that. The other thing we fall into is we sometimes tear people
down instead of building one another up instead of encouraging them. We say why
do they do that. Why they do it that way. I don't like that they did it that way.
That's that that's not a good way to do that. Or why did they why did they who
do they think they are. I've done this many other times. I know how to do this
and we we tear one another down instead of building enough and courage and
James says listen you have to use your word you you have to tame your tongue
speak words of wisdom to one another encourage one another strengthen one
another. Don't build or don't tear them down.
There's gossip. There's anger harsh words line goes on and on right. That's why
James says in James chapter 1 verse 19 and 20 be quick to hear slow to speak
slow to anger for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
He says listen don't be too quick to speak and I won't ask you to raise your
hands but how how often have you opened your mouth and inserted your foot.
A lot don't we have used something out of anger not of love. How often have you
had that little voice that said you shouldn't say that and you said it
anyway. James is listen you're not gonna be able to live out your faith you're
not gonna be able to put your faith in action if you can't control your words.
Here's the other thing if you say that you're a Christian and yet you use your
words in a way that don't glorify God what does that say about your testimony.
What does that say to your grandkids when they see you being angry and mean and
hurtful and gossip. What does that say to my kids if they see me saying those things.
What does that say to your neighbor when you tear down people at church and can
you believe what they're doing in that Richland Hills Baptist Church. What does
that say to people in our life when we again when we don't encourage but we
find people's weaknesses. We need to build others up. So James said listen you
have to use your words and through your words you can show love to one another. So
there we see another big big part of James I believe kind of under the
surface is that we are called to love. We're called to be in community. We're
called to have wisdom. We're called to use our words correctly and then we're
called to love. And James chapter 2 verse 8 he says if you really fulfill the
royal law according to the Scripture you shall love your neighbors yourself.
You're doing well. Then he goes on he says but if you show partiality you're
committing sin and you're convicted by the law as transgressors. So James say
listen you're called we're called to love one another. We're called to love
everybody and what James is dealing with here is he's dealing with a group of
people hey they love the rich people. They love the people with with money and
means and prestige and they you know what when the rich people come these
people that James is talking to they bring them forward and they say hey come
be a part of our church you sit right up here the good steep they love the rich
people but then the poor would come. The people that didn't have anything to offer
and they'd say well you just sit over there. I mean if you have to be here
sit over there and he says wait that's not that's not love. He's we're called to
love one another. That's what we do as a community you are called to love each
other and so in this community we are called to show and share and exhibit
love not just the people that we love but all people. Are there hard people
sometimes yeah. Are there people in any place that you ever go listen it's just
life there's gonna be people that don't always match your personality exactly
right out there. There's gonna be people that rub you the wrong way that
irritates you. Does James give you a pass and say hey you don't have to love
those people. Does the Bible give you a pass on that? Does Jesus give you a pass?
No. I mean Jesus he's even one that says hey you're supposed to even love your
enemies. And so in this body if we want to live our faith remember if we want to
put our faith in action then we had to be people of love. What does it say to the
world if we don't love each other? What does it say to the community if we fight
and bicker and argue and we tear one another down it doesn't give a testimony
does or good testimony. What does it say to your grandchildren and my children
and my neighbors if we're not people of love? What does it say to them if you
are just an angry bitter person? What does it say about our faith?
We follow a Savior.
When we follow Jesus who gave his life out of love but yet we don't love. What
does that say? It says a lot but not the good stuff. And so James says listen we
need to love not because it's easy but we love especially but it isn't easy.
It's hard. And this is why James also says he says listen built in here we're
gonna we're gonna go through difficulties we're gonna go through
trials we're gonna suffer. So he says you need to persevere. If you want to put
your faith in action if you want to really put it in action and really follow
Jesus said you're gonna have to persevere. Now the perseverance that James
is gonna be speaking of is the perseverance that comes because of
suffering. But I think in a broader way you can also say we just need to
persevere through this faith journey. When we struggle when it's difficult when
we lack wisdom we need to persevere. We have to be able to keep going to keep
pressing on. Remember James chapter 1 verse 2 count it all joy my brothers when
you meet trials various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith
produces steadfastness. Let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be
perfect and complete and lacking nothing. See there through our perseverance
through our steadfastness God uses them. He says listen this testing is gonna
actually produce this steadfastness this endurance. So when you meet difficulties
in trials these tough things he said as you walk through them and you have faith
it's gonna actually produce this. It's actually gonna build up this endurance
and this perseverance. But then there's also gonna be spiritual effects that
happen to you. There's gonna be benefits. As you walk through this life and you
don't give up and you have faith you're gonna have more endurance. But you know
what's gonna happen you're gonna get more wisdom. You're gonna learn to love
more. You're gonna learn what it means to be in community. You see as we walk
through these things we don't we don't say I forget it. We grow. We grow in our
faith. We grow in our love and we grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. Let me
ask you this how are you doing in perseverance? Are you struggling? We all
struggle in some way. How do you persevere? Do you persevere well? Meaning
this? Do you complain and moan and grow? You can persevere and moan and grow in the
whole way. I don't think that's what James is talking about here. Do you
persevere with joy? Are you living out your faith? Are you putting your faith
into action? Because James remember James told us something very important very
deep really two things. One he says that we need to be doers of the word. James
1.22 he says listen you need me doers of the word don't just hear it but you need
to do it. But then James also told us in James chapter 2 verse 17 that faith
without works is dead. Now is James saying that if you work hard and you do a
lot of good stuff then you're gonna be a Christian? No that's not what James is
saying at all. It's through faith in Jesus Christ. Not your works, not your
religious duty but your faith. But James also says he says listen if you claim to
be a Christian if you say I'm a Christian but your life does not reflect it. If
your life does not show it then he says then your faith may not be real faith at
all. It may just be lip service. So he says listen so if your faith is real
you're gonna live it out. Now does that mean we're gonna all live it out
perfectly all the time? No. But what's the trajectory of your life? Is it a life
of faith? A life of putting it into practice? Or is it a life just of lip
service? You see you can fool me, you can fool other people, you can fool your
family into thinking you're a Christian but you can't fool God. And that's
ultimately what matters. Have you trust in Christ? Have you put your faith in
Christ? Again not just, not asking you if you did something religious, got baptized,
I'm asking in your heart have you put your faith in Jesus? Have you trusted in
Jesus Christ? Trusted him believing that he died on a cross, was buried and rose
again for you? Have you said Jesus I believe in you, I'm following you now.
See the Lord of your life have you turned from your sin and turned to Jesus?
Because what happens is there's a lot of people who do religious things but they
keep, they never changed the course of their life. They never turned to Jesus,
they just say oh I believe but if you truly believe you'll follow him. Are you
following Jesus? And if you're not, can't put your faith in action because you don't
have faith. So I'd say today you need to put your faith in Christ. But for others, what
area we talked about, we talked about again the big things, we talked about
community, wisdom, our words, love, perseverance. What area do you struggle in?
We don't all struggle in the same way. Some of us you know what we use kind words,
we love and we really don't use our words in a negative way as a whole. But you
may also struggle with perseverance. But then someone else may be out
persevering. They've walked through hard things, they've done all this but
yet they are careless with their words sometimes. And maybe they've really
persevered but they've also torn down some people in the process. Or maybe
there's someone else that again they love people really well and they are so
loving but yet they lack wisdom. And oftentimes their love doesn't come from
a place of wisdom. Maybe they love people but they can't offer them any
godly wisdom. So what area in your life do you need to focus on? And I think it
would be wrong if I were to make this all about your effort. Because the truth is
you and I we can't really do this on our own. We need the help of the Holy Spirit.
We need God's direction, God's wisdom. So the only way that we're gonna be able to
do this not is that we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, not that we try
really hard, not that we just put more effort into it, is that we focus our
gaze on Jesus Christ. It's not about self effort, it's about where we focus. And
so the more we focus our life on the Jesus, the more we pursue Him, the more we
love Him, the more that these things become a part of our life. And so where is
your focus? Is your focus on Jesus or something else? What area do you need to
put your faith in action? Let us pray.
Father, may you show us our hearts. Lord, may you show us the areas that we have a
weakness. God, may you show us maybe it's our wisdom, maybe it's our words or our
love, whatever it may be, God, may you show us this morning where we need to
spend some time with you so that you can address that in our hearts. God, may you
direct us this morning in your ways. Lord, our desire is not just to live our
faith out just for our own selves and our own glory so other people would look
at us and say how great we are. But Father, we desire to live our faith out
because that's what you've called us to do. So Lord, may you help us live out. It
be real. And as we struggle and as we walk through these difficulties, may you
pick us up. May you lead us by your hand. Lord, you lead us. You guide us. But Lord,
if there's someone here this morning that's never trusted in Jesus Christ,
it's never believed, never truly believed. Lord, I pray that this morning that you,
the God of the heavens and the earth, God who made all the stars in the skies,
that you'd speak to that soul this morning. Lord, they used to be, let's go and say,
come. Come to me. And so Lord, if there's somebody, maybe they've been running from
you, maybe they've been running away. May you draw them back. Or maybe there's
somebody who's deceived themselves thinking that they're okay, but in reality,
they're not okay at all. God, may you draw someone this morning to yourself. Lord, you
use this time as you see fit. Jesus, then we pray. Amen.