WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.280 Now, let's turn back today to James chapter 1, and you may have noticed today that our 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:15.800 theme, the theme or the title of this sermon is living through a pandemic. 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:25.199 And also, I was, in doing so, was introducing our theme for the year. 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:31.839 Last year we looked at 2020 being a year of encouragement, if you'll remember. 00:00:31.839 --> 00:00:38.799 And this year, we're going to look at a slightly different theme, but one that's quite similar 00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:39.799 as well. 00:00:39.799 --> 00:00:45.480 It's about being doers of the word and not only hearers. 00:00:45.480 --> 00:00:51.480 So that's kind of the theme for the sermon, being doers of the word and not hearers only, 00:00:51.479 --> 00:00:57.279 with a subtitle, I guess, living through a pandemic. 00:00:57.279 --> 00:01:03.959 And right at the very start, what I want to state and stress is that this is not a try-harder 00:01:03.959 --> 00:01:07.840 theme. 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:16.199 There is never and can't be, and it isn't useful to have an intention in preaching to 00:01:16.200 --> 00:01:26.120 heap guilt on one another by just encouraging us to try and do a bit better, try harder. 00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:30.480 It's not a do-better theme. 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:38.280 And it's easy sometimes to think that that is all that matters and to listen in that 00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:46.079 way, and therefore to feel as we all do inadequate and not up to the task. 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:51.120 Last year, we talked about encouragement, talking, walking and sharing. 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:56.000 And it's very similar in many ways, and I'll break down three things that I hope we can 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:02.719 do as doers from this chapter, doers of the word and not hearers only. 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:09.479 But I guess what I'm hoping that we'll think about more together is how we live our lives 00:02:09.479 --> 00:02:16.599 and how that therefore impacts on our ability to share our faith in the midst of this struggle, 00:02:16.599 --> 00:02:21.000 in the midst of this pandemic. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:25.519 We will be probably in the same position at least six months from now. 00:02:25.519 --> 00:02:29.519 One way, there may be tweaks and changes, but we're going to be living with this pandemic 00:02:29.519 --> 00:02:30.519 for a while. 00:02:30.519 --> 00:02:36.120 And so, in many ways, our theme for the year and my thinking is related to being in that 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:38.879 position. 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:47.039 And how we are presenting ourselves as believers to others and as a church to the world that 00:02:47.039 --> 00:02:51.159 watches or maybe sometimes doesn't watch. 00:02:51.159 --> 00:02:55.800 But my encouragement will be not, it's not a trying harder and do better. 00:02:55.800 --> 00:03:03.120 It's an encouragement for all of us to run back into the arms of Jesus and to know that 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:11.120 He alone can transform our lives against all the odds and enable us to flourish in this 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:19.879 time of drought, suffering, isolation and struggle, leading us to joy and maturity. 00:03:19.879 --> 00:03:25.120 And that's a huge challenge to consider this morning. 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:30.080 How are we going to live as Christians in the foreseeable future? 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:33.080 Tomorrow, one day at a time, let's take it. 00:03:33.080 --> 00:03:40.320 One day, and then tomorrow, if God blesses us with that day, how can we flourish? 00:03:40.320 --> 00:03:42.800 Not just survive. 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:47.720 And what is the calling of the church at a time like this? 00:03:47.720 --> 00:03:51.160 And yes, I'm including you all in the church. 00:03:51.160 --> 00:03:52.560 We're all individuals. 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:55.120 Maybe sometimes you don't feel very much part of the church. 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:59.520 Maybe you think we're the church, the official establishment or whatever, and you're not 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:02.400 really part of that or you feel distanced from it. 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:05.039 But everyone belongs to the church. 00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:08.719 You are part of the family, part of God's kingdom. 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:12.439 You are the bride of Christ. 00:04:12.439 --> 00:04:17.800 Whether we sometimes recognize that or not, or we distinguish between the institution 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:24.160 and the spiritual reality of what the church is, but nonetheless, we are part of this body 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:25.639 of people together. 00:04:25.639 --> 00:04:31.480 Now, there are some leaders in the church, maybe at a national level and in different 00:04:31.480 --> 00:04:39.160 places who have argued that during this pandemic, the church is being denied its right to gather, 00:04:39.160 --> 00:04:41.120 and that is persecution. 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:45.640 The state has overstretched its authority, and we should obey God and not men. 00:04:45.640 --> 00:04:51.240 We should agitate and complain and demand our rights. 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:57.960 Now I would encourage you to read last week's email from the church that's sent out by the 00:04:57.959 --> 00:05:04.199 church with its attachment letter from our moderator, which explains very powerfully 00:05:04.199 --> 00:05:13.959 and very graciously and winsomely a different path to take that we believe as leaders in 00:05:13.959 --> 00:05:21.639 the church is the right one, that we have a higher calling, a spiritual calling, which 00:05:21.639 --> 00:05:28.800 is to be doers of the word, not only hearers and to fix our eyes on Jesus. 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:31.159 Now James is a great book. 00:05:31.159 --> 00:05:35.879 We're going to be looking at it between now and the summer at Engine Room. 00:05:35.879 --> 00:05:41.759 There's enough, there's five chapters, which we're going to take a month at a time that 00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:44.639 will take us more or less up to the summer. 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:46.399 And so we'll be looking at it in more detail. 00:05:46.399 --> 00:05:51.799 Today I'm just looking at this wider theme for the year, be doers of the word, not hearers 00:05:51.799 --> 00:05:58.679 only, but we will base it from sections of this first chapter without going into great 00:05:58.679 --> 00:06:02.039 detail, but we'll do so at our Engine Room. 00:06:02.039 --> 00:06:07.239 So be doers of the word and hearers only, and I'm going to have three elements to that 00:06:07.239 --> 00:06:11.599 as there was three elements to the encouragement last year talking, walking and sharing, and 00:06:11.599 --> 00:06:12.599 they're similar. 00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:19.360 The first is, and you've heard this quite a lot from me recently, is that we are to 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:21.879 suffer well. 00:06:21.879 --> 00:06:25.920 As doers of the word, not hearers only, we're to suffer well, verses two and three. 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:30.360 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, because you know 00:06:30.360 --> 00:06:34.520 that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 00:06:34.520 --> 00:06:40.400 And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, mature 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:43.120 and complete lacking in nothing. 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:52.919 So suffering well, we're to suffer well, we're facing many trials in these days, just as 00:06:52.919 --> 00:06:55.919 those to whom this letter of James was written. 00:06:55.919 --> 00:07:01.879 And James, under the influence and power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God says, 00:07:01.879 --> 00:07:08.120 count it all joy, brothers and sisters, the church, he says. 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:14.560 Right from the very beginning, that shows us the impossibility of this being a try harder, 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:23.759 do better theme and challenge, because you can't legalistically be joyful. 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:33.720 It's impossible just to try harder being full of joy, because joy is something that is an 00:07:33.720 --> 00:07:38.320 act of the will that comes from a changed reality in our lives. 00:07:38.320 --> 00:07:46.360 Joy, the word here, joy, it stems from the same root as the word grace in the New Testament. 00:07:46.360 --> 00:07:52.160 And really, in Bible terms, when it speaks about joy, it's speaking about our response 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:58.320 that comes from an awareness of God's grace in our lives. 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:04.360 It's the response of our hearts when we have come to trust and experience the beauty of 00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:05.360 God's grace. 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:13.240 Now, James doesn't say much about God's atoning work. 00:08:13.240 --> 00:08:21.079 It's not stated in any detail or at all, really, in James, because it's a practical book. 00:08:21.079 --> 00:08:27.839 And it is absolutely the case that God's atoning work in Jesus Christ is the foundation of 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:28.839 this book. 00:08:28.839 --> 00:08:35.199 It's the motivation for the being doers of the Word and not only hearers. 00:08:35.199 --> 00:08:41.879 And so the joy that we have comes from our knowledge of God's grace in us, knowing that 00:08:41.879 --> 00:08:48.000 He suffered to rescue us from our own selves and from our death. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:49.839 He learned obedience. 00:08:49.839 --> 00:08:51.159 He looked to His Father. 00:08:51.159 --> 00:08:52.799 He depended on the Spirit. 00:08:52.799 --> 00:08:59.839 He bore our sins on the cross so that we might know His love, His grace, His compassion, 00:08:59.839 --> 00:09:03.759 His forgiveness, His help. 00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:06.120 And that's our foundation. 00:09:06.120 --> 00:09:07.959 That's our hope. 00:09:07.959 --> 00:09:09.319 That's our perspective. 00:09:09.319 --> 00:09:11.079 That's our comfort. 00:09:11.079 --> 00:09:20.599 That's our strength that we see a purpose in all that He is doing, even in our suffering. 00:09:20.600 --> 00:09:29.639 We know that He is... our faith is being tried and tested in order to strengthen it and to 00:09:29.639 --> 00:09:37.600 remove all from our heart that makes it impure and weak. 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:44.279 We are stripped back at these times to reveal what's in our hearts, to reveal where our 00:09:44.279 --> 00:09:49.240 foundation lies, to make us mature and to remove the idols. 00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:56.000 Just in the next letter, 1 Peter chapter 1, we've got that great section which says, 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:00.680 blessed, and He founds it in the same way, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 00:10:00.680 --> 00:10:03.159 Christ according to His great mercy. 00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:07.759 He's caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from 00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:15.360 the dead and inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you. 00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:22.039 And it goes on to say, and this you rejoice, rejoice the same word, though now for a little 00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:29.279 while if necessary you've been grieved by various trials so that the testing, that the 00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:35.200 tested genuine of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it's tested 00:10:35.200 --> 00:10:40.639 by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor in the revelation of Jesus. 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:45.600 It is exactly the same point that's been made by Peter in the next letter. 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:55.759 And it is this recognition that suffering has a purpose and is being used by the Lord 00:10:55.759 --> 00:11:04.840 to change and mold and transfer us, transform us and to prepare us to be stronger and better. 00:11:04.840 --> 00:11:11.560 So we're encouraged and we're challenged to suffer well because of the joy or the grace 00:11:11.560 --> 00:11:16.800 that enables us to have joy whatever the outward circumstances are. 00:11:16.800 --> 00:11:24.399 He is with us, He is in us, and He is in this circumstance we find ourselves in. 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:33.600 And so my encouragement to you and to myself and challenge is suffer well, suffer well. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:43.320 They to nurses and doctors and teachers and parents and children, the elderly, the isolated. 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:48.320 Those of you who are under much, much more pressure than I am under, for example, I ask 00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:55.600 you to cry out to Christ, to sense His Spirit in His very being, to know His grace and the 00:11:55.600 --> 00:12:02.120 joy of what He has gifted you, sustaining you and leading you through. 00:12:02.120 --> 00:12:05.960 Swear well among your colleagues. 00:12:05.960 --> 00:12:09.480 Lean on Him in the darkness. 00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:17.560 You may feel your stumbling, but may His light from you shine all the brighter as you cry 00:12:17.560 --> 00:12:26.919 out to Him and as you are committed and understand His overwhelming commitment to love you and 00:12:26.919 --> 00:12:29.159 to take you through. 00:12:29.159 --> 00:12:33.799 It will transform the perspective we have in suffering. 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:44.839 And I simply ask myself and you to cast yourself and your burdens and your suffering on Him 00:12:44.839 --> 00:12:53.360 in prayer, to trust Him and know His promises and know that He is molding and maturing and 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:57.720 completing His work in us through these times. 00:12:57.720 --> 00:13:06.480 And may we suffer well as a church by helping one another to build a relationship to Christ 00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:13.000 and trusting ourselves to the Father, praying together, praying for our nation and praying 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:20.480 to see His beauty and His promises so that others might see us suffering well through 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:21.720 this. 00:13:21.720 --> 00:13:22.720 He will take us through. 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:29.560 It's a great theme of Scripture and sometimes we ask, well, I don't know how to witness 00:13:29.560 --> 00:13:30.560 to my faith. 00:13:30.560 --> 00:13:34.279 I'm not great at sharing my faith. 00:13:34.279 --> 00:13:43.560 This will be a...this is a time when our foundations will reveal themselves in our response to 00:13:43.560 --> 00:13:46.080 what is happening around us. 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:54.879 But can I also say in the second place, serve well, verse 22, but...and this is really the 00:13:54.879 --> 00:14:03.920 overarching theme, be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 00:14:03.920 --> 00:14:10.400 Again this can't be a call to buck up or to try harder. 00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:18.519 And it's simply a recognition of genuine faith will be the outwork...will be the outworking 00:14:18.519 --> 00:14:22.799 of the fruit of the Spirit that is in our hearts. 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:29.000 Genuine faith will out what is in and what is in our hearts will come out in the way 00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:30.120 we live. 00:14:30.120 --> 00:14:38.840 It's reflecting the spiritual company we keep and who it is, the influences, how we live. 00:14:38.840 --> 00:14:45.759 You know, because we are all doers, every day we are doing, we are acting, and what 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:55.160 James is simply saying is that we can't be only hearing or listening to the Word and 00:14:55.160 --> 00:15:04.519 not allowing it soak into our hearts and lives, therefore coming out and transforming action. 00:15:04.519 --> 00:15:10.039 Then he goes on to give that illustration of the person who looks in the mirror and 00:15:10.039 --> 00:15:13.799 then goes away and forgets about what he's like and doesn't change. 00:15:13.799 --> 00:15:19.759 And you know, can you imagine this morning if I got up and I went down and had breakfast 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:25.279 in the house and it was wheat of bicks and I dribbled a big lump of wheat of bicks onto 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:32.919 my beard and then I went to the mirror to get ready to come out to the church here. 00:15:32.919 --> 00:15:36.799 And I said, oh, I've got a big lump of wheat of bicks on my beard there. 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:39.079 I'll need to do something about that. 00:15:39.079 --> 00:15:40.079 And then just left. 00:15:40.079 --> 00:15:42.599 I said, I'll deal with that later. 00:15:42.599 --> 00:15:48.240 I came in and put my jacket on, came in and recorded and did this sermon. 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:53.399 This big lump of wheat of bicks on my beard. 00:15:53.399 --> 00:15:58.120 You think, well, it's ridiculous. 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:03.240 You know, looking at yourself and seeing something needing to be done and just not bothering 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:04.519 to do it. 00:16:04.519 --> 00:16:12.919 There would be, you know, this clarity, big bit of wheat of bicks and as you spoke to 00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:16.840 people, it would be embarrassing. 00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:22.840 And we find that Christ's word is like a mirror to our soul, absolutely a mirror to our soul. 00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:28.800 And it shows us where we need to go and how we need to change. 00:16:28.800 --> 00:16:32.840 And He says His word should transform us. 00:16:32.840 --> 00:16:42.160 There's no point in reading, listening to His word or hearing His word but not listening 00:16:42.160 --> 00:16:44.840 in that it doesn't transform our hearts and our lives. 00:16:44.840 --> 00:16:50.360 I mean, that's very much one of the motivations behind the city group. 00:16:50.360 --> 00:16:56.200 Looking at either a previous sermon or looking forward to a chapter that we're going to read, 00:16:56.200 --> 00:17:02.320 the encouragement to remember God's word that we receive in preaching or that we read in 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:09.079 our own Bible studies and moving, allowing it to move our lives forward, allowing it 00:17:09.079 --> 00:17:10.079 to transform us. 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:12.680 So when asking the questions, what's He saying? 00:17:12.680 --> 00:17:16.920 God knows us when we come to His word and He knows what we need to hear. 00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:18.720 And so He said, what is God saying to me? 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:20.559 How does God want to change me? 00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:23.000 How does He want me to move forward and be transformed? 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:29.839 You know, there's a great danger of passivism that we open the word, we read it, we close 00:17:29.839 --> 00:17:32.279 it and we've done our job. 00:17:32.279 --> 00:17:35.559 That we listen to a sermon, we go home, we forget all about it. 00:17:35.559 --> 00:17:38.440 It makes no difference, no transformation. 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:42.120 It's not a living word, it's not an active moving word. 00:17:42.120 --> 00:17:48.000 There's a danger sometimes of bibliography that we worship the Word, the Bible as a 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:52.200 word, as a book. 00:17:52.200 --> 00:17:56.920 But it makes no transformational relational difference because it's a dead word. 00:17:56.920 --> 00:18:03.559 It's not a living word to us in our hearts because it's not...we've ceased to see it 00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:09.000 as the living, transforming, spirit-filled Word of God. 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:15.200 And at a time like this, we can be challenged to ask, are we enslaved to our circumstances? 00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:21.080 Are we dependent on false hopes or are we doers of the Word? 00:18:21.080 --> 00:18:28.120 Because we've been set free, as He says in this passage, and we've been able to live 00:18:28.120 --> 00:18:33.319 by grace, by grace alone, by dependence on God. 00:18:33.319 --> 00:18:36.279 We can love Him and we can love one another. 00:18:36.279 --> 00:18:46.039 Of this servant spirit, this serving well by being doers of God's Word, not just hearers. 00:18:46.039 --> 00:18:53.559 So at a time like this, within the church community and beyond, a selfless spirit, loving others, 00:18:53.559 --> 00:18:59.960 seeing their needs, reaching out in their loneliness, their fears, their confusion, 00:18:59.960 --> 00:19:05.200 being aware of the mental health issues among many at a time like this, the battles and 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:12.319 the struggles, touching lives with simple acts, cups of cold water, comfort, presence. 00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:18.279 I know presence is...I don't mean presence as in Christmas presence, presence as in E-N-C-E 00:19:18.279 --> 00:19:19.920 at the end, our company. 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:27.160 Now, I know that company is difficult at this time, but we can still, through the restrictions, 00:19:27.160 --> 00:19:30.519 connect with people one way or another. 00:19:30.519 --> 00:19:40.879 By reaching out, we can serve well by heeding the restrictions, sensitively, by praying 00:19:40.879 --> 00:19:49.599 for our leaders, by making a meal, maybe for a nurse or a doctor, or someone who's right 00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:57.400 on the front line, by writing a note, by making a phone call to maybe your child's teacher 00:19:57.400 --> 00:20:06.040 or your colleague who you may be aware is really struggling at home to work and to homeschool 00:20:06.040 --> 00:20:13.759 and to cope, setting free to be self-forgetful. 00:20:13.759 --> 00:20:19.560 And in that, there's great reward and great healing for ourselves, the importance of being 00:20:19.560 --> 00:20:25.400 doers of the Word and not hearers only serving well. 00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:31.640 So suffer well, serve well, and also lastly, speak well. 00:20:31.640 --> 00:20:36.519 Verse 26, powerful words. 00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:42.519 If anyone thinks he's religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, 00:20:42.519 --> 00:20:47.320 this person's religion is worthless. 00:20:47.320 --> 00:20:54.000 James has a lot to say about the tongue, about speaking, and that is so relevant in our day. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:21:00.519 I think more probably, maybe it's always relevant entirely, but it seems that there's more opportunities 00:21:00.519 --> 00:21:07.960 to share or to speak or to give an opinion or to comment on everything and the whole 00:21:07.960 --> 00:21:10.759 world can hear that. 00:21:10.759 --> 00:21:18.279 And the tongue, I think, in this verse surely also covers our social media input or output, 00:21:18.279 --> 00:21:27.000 should I say, as doers of the Word and not hearers only, what is the content of our social 00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:29.000 media output like? 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:32.240 It's our conversation like. 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:37.440 How do we speak to or how do we speak about other people? 00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:44.799 How about those in authority and how we speak about them and the motives that we question 00:21:44.799 --> 00:21:46.240 constantly about them? 00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:48.759 What about our fellow Christians? 00:21:48.759 --> 00:21:54.559 What about leaders in the church or our neighbors or our colleagues or our family? 00:21:54.559 --> 00:22:01.960 Do we apply that glorious fruit of the Spirit of self-control and of all the others of love 00:22:01.960 --> 00:22:10.720 and joy and peace and patience and meekness and gentleness and faithfulness? 00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:13.559 Do we apply that to how we speak? 00:22:13.559 --> 00:22:20.559 It's a tight reign that James recognizes we need to have on our tongues. 00:22:20.559 --> 00:22:22.879 It's like the bridle for a horse. 00:22:22.879 --> 00:22:31.000 It's a reign that keeps us from being, not reflecting what's in our hearts because that 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:32.000 isn't it? 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:33.480 It's what comes out. 00:22:33.480 --> 00:22:42.480 What we speak reflects what comes out of our heart and that's hugely instructive to others 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:45.960 about what is there. 00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:53.559 He is arguing against false religion, religion that's worthless, he says, if we are unable 00:22:53.559 --> 00:23:01.160 to see the need for transformation in our conversation and what we say. 00:23:01.160 --> 00:23:06.160 In other words, he's warning the Jewish believers from the twelve tribes in the dispersion to 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:08.880 whom he's writing, not to be fake Jews. 00:23:08.880 --> 00:23:14.280 You know, we speak about fake news and there's so much about it just now in our society about 00:23:14.280 --> 00:23:18.040 untruth and about just making things up. 00:23:18.040 --> 00:23:24.600 It's a pandemic in our world today. 00:23:24.600 --> 00:23:28.880 A different one is not speaking truth. 00:23:28.880 --> 00:23:34.720 And so he's not speaking about fake news so much as warning against being fake Jews, 00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:41.880 fake believers, and maybe if we belong to the flock of God, he's warning us not to be 00:23:41.880 --> 00:23:42.880 fake Jews. 00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:46.240 Sorry, I had to get that in. 00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:50.240 But let's not be armchair believers. 00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:58.920 Let's not be those who don't allow grace to transform who we are and to be full of joy. 00:23:58.920 --> 00:23:59.920 So we speak well. 00:23:59.920 --> 00:24:00.920 How do we do that? 00:24:00.920 --> 00:24:05.360 How do we do it by the best part of speaking well? 00:24:05.360 --> 00:24:07.880 Ironically, it's listening. 00:24:07.880 --> 00:24:12.840 Verse 19, Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to 00:24:12.840 --> 00:24:14.640 speak, slow to anger. 00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:16.320 Listen well. 00:24:16.320 --> 00:24:18.920 Listen well during this pandemic. 00:24:18.920 --> 00:24:24.320 Hear the… listen for the cries of others or their hearts. 00:24:24.320 --> 00:24:29.960 Listen to what might be behind their anxiety, their attitudes, their grumblings. 00:24:29.960 --> 00:24:33.799 Listen well in love. 00:24:33.799 --> 00:24:36.799 And question well. 00:24:36.799 --> 00:24:42.319 Questioning is a great way to get into people's hearts, to find out about their lives, to 00:24:42.319 --> 00:24:45.120 open up their fears and to open up their needs. 00:24:45.120 --> 00:24:52.000 And that requires time and it requires commitment and conviction. 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:58.920 And then speak with courage, with loving, humble courage. 00:24:58.920 --> 00:25:08.160 Speak to each other about Christ, about our needs, about our longings, confessing even 00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:13.480 our sins, honestly, openly, meaningfully, naturally. 00:25:13.480 --> 00:25:19.720 And pray for the courage and wisdom to speak to others about our beloved Savior and the 00:25:19.720 --> 00:25:20.720 joy. 00:25:20.720 --> 00:25:25.400 And we've got to be very careful with that, that we're not insensitive and that we're 00:25:25.400 --> 00:25:30.160 not shallow in what we see or that we're not dismissing suffering. 00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:31.400 We're not dismissing suffering. 00:25:31.400 --> 00:25:36.080 We're not saying suffering isn't real and doesn't matter and isn't something to recoil 00:25:36.080 --> 00:25:42.120 from, but we're saying that we have a foundation in it and through it and it's not randomly 00:25:42.120 --> 00:25:47.920 purposeless and destructive when we have our trust and our reliance on the living God. 00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:52.360 And we are showing people that He is real in our hearts. 00:25:52.360 --> 00:25:55.320 So suffer well. 00:25:55.319 --> 00:25:57.519 Serve well and speak well. 00:25:57.519 --> 00:26:08.839 That is the under theme below being doers of the Word and hearers and not only hearers. 00:26:08.839 --> 00:26:13.039 It's a subtitle, the subtext of our theme for the year. 00:26:13.039 --> 00:26:18.679 Now, James is a huge challenge, is a wonderful book, huge challenge. 00:26:18.680 --> 00:26:28.160 It's a great challenge for us to search for the beauty and the glory of Christ so that 00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:31.000 our lives are transformed by Him. 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:38.400 It's a huge challenge to allow Him to capture our hearts because that's the foundation for 00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:44.720 all our action, for everything that we do, that He's captured our heart amidst all the 00:26:44.720 --> 00:26:50.160 suffering and all the battles and all the struggles and all the doubts and fears. 00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:52.120 We take it into His presence. 00:26:52.120 --> 00:26:54.120 We listen for His Word. 00:26:54.120 --> 00:26:55.519 We are transformed by it. 00:26:55.519 --> 00:26:56.880 We're moved by it. 00:26:56.880 --> 00:26:58.559 We're touched by it. 00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:03.759 And it's living and real and it's relational. 00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:11.440 So if you consider yourself a Christian, but it makes absolutely no difference to your 00:27:11.440 --> 00:27:20.160 life, no difference to your response to this time, for example, no difference to your heart, 00:27:20.160 --> 00:27:29.160 to your speech, to your actions, to your worship, maybe you need to think again. 00:27:29.160 --> 00:27:35.320 And if you're not a Christian, I am delighted that you are watching this morning or whenever 00:27:35.320 --> 00:27:36.440 you're tuning in. 00:27:36.440 --> 00:27:39.120 I'm delighted that you are. 00:27:39.119 --> 00:27:47.479 And I pray that you will see Christ as the spiritual vaccine that you need. 00:27:47.479 --> 00:27:57.839 I don't want to make that sound medical or clinical, but to use the image of what we're 00:27:57.839 --> 00:28:03.079 going through to recognize He alone is the one who's taken the virus of your sin, which 00:28:03.079 --> 00:28:08.879 is destructive and will end up in your death and your spiritual separation from God forever. 00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:15.360 He has taken that and experienced that separation and suffered on your behalf and paid the price 00:28:15.360 --> 00:28:18.200 so that you can receive Him. 00:28:18.200 --> 00:28:26.280 And no life, yes, there will still be suffering, but there will be purpose and hope and promises 00:28:26.280 --> 00:28:32.480 to take you through offering a new life now and eternally. 00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:41.680 And may it be that as Christians this year, we see the significance of joy transforming 00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:51.400 our hearts or transforming our lives so that whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, 00:28:51.400 --> 00:28:57.599 we can be assured that we're not alone, that God will take them and mold them and will 00:28:57.599 --> 00:29:05.799 transform them and will use them to mature us so that we are lacking nothing, to test 00:29:05.799 --> 00:29:11.519 us to bring to the surface like the silver that is heated to a high degree, to bring 00:29:11.519 --> 00:29:17.519 up the impurities so that they can be skimmed off the top and it can be made pure, so that 00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:25.799 our hearts through suffering can have all the impurities brought to the surface exposed 00:29:25.799 --> 00:29:31.559 for the deception and the false hopes that they provide and the poor foundation that 00:29:31.559 --> 00:29:41.159 they are, the sand that they are underneath us and can encourage us to find in Christ 00:29:41.159 --> 00:29:48.000 what we need day to day to day, that we are a people who speak well, who serve well and 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:51.879 who suffer well because Jesus Christ is the foundation of our lives. 00:29:51.880 --> 00:29:58.160 And I guess that's why I'm pleading that even if you've never been as a Christian before 00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:02.040 to our Friday morning that you will either the engine room or Friday morning or that 00:30:02.040 --> 00:30:09.120 you will pray with others, but you will think of coming to be dependent in that very public 00:30:09.120 --> 00:30:18.400 way as we depend together on Him and that we sacrifice in order to do so. 00:30:18.400 --> 00:30:21.880 It's hugely significant and challenging for us all. 00:30:21.880 --> 00:30:27.680 May we be doers of the Word and not hearers only. 00:30:27.680 --> 00:30:28.680 Let's pray. 00:30:28.680 --> 00:30:31.000 Father, God help us, we pray. 00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:33.519 Teach us your way. 00:30:33.519 --> 00:30:36.240 Guide us so that we might do the impossible. 00:30:36.240 --> 00:30:42.860 We read this chapter and it says, be joyful in suffering. 00:30:42.860 --> 00:30:46.680 We find that so hard or counting it all joy. 00:30:46.680 --> 00:30:52.960 Lord, we pray that you would help us to see that that joy can only come when our hearts 00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:59.400 have been transformed and are being transformed by your grace, by the significance of the 00:30:59.400 --> 00:31:08.640 living God coming among us, living our life, suffering like us yet without sin, being tested 00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:18.120 and tempted and yet receiving all that sin on the cross, all our sin and taking the wrath 00:31:18.120 --> 00:31:23.880 of God and the just punishment of God for us in it so that we might live. 00:31:23.880 --> 00:31:26.600 Lord, help us to see that. 00:31:26.600 --> 00:31:29.120 Take away deception from our hearts. 00:31:29.119 --> 00:31:39.439 Take away casual Christian living or rebellious unchanged heart that is self-centered and 00:31:39.439 --> 00:31:41.719 not self-forgetful. 00:31:41.719 --> 00:31:43.439 And Lord, bless us, we pray. 00:31:43.439 --> 00:31:49.000 And help us, each of us, help us to help one another because we need that. 00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:59.720 Amen.