Quick and Slow (Russ Brasher)

Hello, folks.

Good morning.

It's not Buffalo.

That's all.

That's all I gotta say.

It's a great morning because it's not Buffalo, because they are under, I think, 17 feet of snow at the moment.

So the sun's out, it's Pittsburgh, it's a miracle.

Let's get to it this morning.

My uh my name is not Kurt Bjorkland, and uh Kurt Bjorkland is away this weekend.

He is our senior pastor here at Orchard Hill Church, and so today you're stuck with me.

But I did bring out Kurt's trademark uh stand right here.

So uh he is not with us physically today, but he is with us in furniture.

So, Lord, you know, Kurt, we remember you and we miss you and come back soon.

Until then, hold my water.

Ah.

But I want to spend some time uh kind of letting you guys get a chance to know me a little bit.

You know, again, we get the blessing and the privilege to sit under Kurt's teaching um, you know, almost every week.

And it is such a blessing.

Kurt is one of the reasons that when I was interviewing here, uh thinking about coming to work for Orchard Hill, getting a chance to meet him, hear his heart, see how he approaches the Word of God and how he uh has a vision for ministry in a church here in Pittsburgh area.

Um I was I was so excited to work alongside him.

And so uh it is a privilege, but we'll see uh if you say the same thing after I'm done this morning.

But since I'm not up here a lot, you don't get to know a lot about me, and so I thought I would share a little bit about myself, help you get to know me.

I am still extremely out of breath from carrying this thing from there to here.

Man, I did not anticipate that.

I'm I'm next service, I'm carrying that.

Give me a sec.

Okay.

Um, I want to share a little bit with you.

Uh, and here's why I think it's gonna help set up kind of the direction of where we hope to go uh with the time that we have left this morning.

And so uh, first off, I am I've been married for 13 years to my wife Lindsay.

Yes, thank you very much.

Uh, we've got four kids.

You can see them on the screen up here.

This is a picture of us right outside the church, right before Kids Fest kicked off this summer.

And uh to my, what is that?

My my right in the photo, that's our oldest Peyton.

She's 12 years old.

She's in middle school, so please pray for me as often as you think.

If you've got middle schoolers or ever had them, you're like, yes, Lord, we pray for that man.

Um, but uh, all the way to the left in the red is our second.

That's Addison.

She'll be 10 in December.

Uh, that's our one and only boy right there.

He's got a lot on his shoulders with a house full of girls.

That's Bennett, he's seven.

And then uh the feisty one down there with the pose.

That's our youngest, that's the baby, that's Avery.

She'll come into the story uh later today.

Um, you know, me and my wife, we we moved here uh to Pittsburgh and to start working at Orchard Hill back in 2015.

But both me and my wife are from Toledo, Ohio.

And I've got a picture of Toledo, Ohio for you guys to see.

Check this out.

That's that's Toledo.

And I didn't know what to show Toledo.

Toledo has nothing to offer, and really the only time people visit Toledo is to get to a better city, and so I just thought I'd show the turnpike.

Chicago and 475 takes you to Detroit.

I mean, someone told me the other night, like, well, you've got a zoo, and I was like, eh, but you know, whatever.

Um, you know, but in in Toledo, uh, I came to know the Lord.

I began a relationship with Christ uh the sub the summer after my sophomore year of high school.

And if you're like, we want to see that, here you go.

There I am.

Yes, I used to have hair, um, and yes, I used to dye the tips blonde because I wanted to be Justin Timberlake.

I I admit that to all of you right now.

Um, and that's that's forever etched in your brains.

You're welcome.

But I met the Lord uh the summer after my sophomore year through a ministry called Young Life, and that was where I heard the gospel message for the first time, and it captivated my heart in such a way that my life was forever changed from that moment.

And then, you know, some of my favorite things, we all have our favorite things.

Some of my favorite things include sports.

I love watching sports, I love playing sports.

Uh, I'm noticing that I'm I'm tending to do more watching than playing these days as I look at my physique and realize how out of breath I was just from carrying this podium six feet.

Um, I love coffee.

I I love smoked brisket.

I loved Terra, I love Terramasu.

I love good, clean stand-up comedy.

My favorite uh comedian is a guy named Nate Bargazzi.

And if you don't know who that is, or you don't have anything to do because the Steelers don't play till four, and you've got a window after church, go home.

He's got two specials on Netflix.

I promise you will be crying with laughter uh as you watch those.

And my all-time favorite TV show, I think it's the greatest show of all time, period, is a show called The Office.

Thank you.

One guy, thank you.

But The Office is my favorite TV show, and I want to talk to you for a moment.

I want to try to describe my favorite scene from this show.

It's found in season five, episode 14, where Dwight, the guy in the background in the mustard shirt, one of the main characters, uh, he's in the very as soon as the show opens up, Dwight is very upset because no one in the office paid attention to his most recent fire safety presentation.

And so Dwight decides to take matters into his own hands and mock a real life fire.

Like he actually starts a fire in the office.

And to see what the office people will do.

And needless to say, as you can imagine, if you've ever worked in an office setting, all chaos breaks loose when the fire is noticed because each character in the show is unique in everything about them, and they all go about how they think that they should attack this fire or try to survive this fire.

And within a matter of minutes, all chaos is broken loose.

And I like I cannot stand up here and try to describe with words how funny the five minutes of television that this is.

It is worth going home and watching.

But just when it seems like all hope is lost and every character has just given up and they are just ready to die in this office, Dwight stands up on his desk and he starts to blast an air horn, and then he starts to scream attention, attention, employees of Dunder Mifflin, there is no actual fire.

This was all a test, and you all failed.

And I share this story of my favorite scene from the office because I do think that as we begin to look at the text today that we find in James chapter 1, verses 19 through 21, it helps set the tone of urgency of which James is writing to each one of us.

James 1:19–21

Just like Dwight got up on that desk and blew an air horn to draw the attention in amongst the chaos from the employees.

James is now in this text, standing up on his desk, blowing an air horn, saying, attention, attention, uh attenders and members and those who have walked in or tuned into Orchard Hill.

Listen, I have something very important to tell you.

We know this because as we begin to look at our text in James 1:19, James actually starts it off this way: My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this.

James 1:19

And the original language, James, and actually the ESV translation of this has the word there that James would have said, No, K-N-O-W with an explanation point on it.

This is James standing up in front of all of us saying, attention, no, listen, air horn, I have something very important that I need to tell you guys.

You need to lean in.

What am I about to say is of a dear, urgent importance.

And so now the question that we have got to ask ourselves is what is it that James is going to say next?

Because James is saying it's important.

So I know we just had an awesome worship set, but go ahead and elbow a person next to you or make sure that they're awake and paying attention, and go ahead and lean in.

Take a sip of that coffee, let it kick in the system, and let's get at this.

Because you see, we need to look at what is James gonna say next.

And thankfully, I've got some time up here.

I wasn't, I'm not, I don't have to stand up here and give a one-minute sermon, although some of you are like, please do, I got things to do today.

I don't have to get up here and try to summarize all of this in one sentence, but if you put that challenge in front of me, I came prepared.

What James has got to say here with such urgency as importance can be summed up in what we're gonna call today our big idea.

And that big idea is that genuine faith in Jesus Christ is going to require us to consistently take a quick and slow approach to God's word.

Again, the big idea that we're gonna tackle today and look at with the help of James is genuine faith is going to require us to consistently take a quick and slow approach to God's word.

And to help unpack this big idea together again by looking at James, and with his help, we're gonna look to do the best we can to answer two questions.

Those two big questions are what does a quick and slow approach to God's word mean?

And how does this impact our relationship with both God and others?

So as we jump into God's word today, would you guys join me in a moment of prayer?

Lord, thank you.

Thank you for your word, thank you for your son Jesus Christ.

Thank you for Orchard Hill, thank you for technology.

That even if we can't physically be here together as a church family, we can tune in online.

Lord, we ask that you would uh speak and reach into the hearts of each one of us here today and allow us to hear you and know you in a way that we didn't when we walked through the doors or we tuned in.

We ask this in your precious name.

Amen.

I think before we really dive into James by looking at only three verses in his book, I think it will also help us if we just establish a little bit of a baseline context for the book of James.

I'll start off easy.

The book of James was written by a guy named, well, James.

You guys are doing great.

A plus.

But this is not, if you know anything about you know the story of Jesus' life, he had 12 close disciples.

One of them was named James.

This is not that James.

This James is a different James.

This James is Jesus' half brother.

And I know you're going, well, what's that mean?

I said, well, let me help you out.

If you don't know your Bible history, that's okay.

Uh Joseph is not Jesus' father.

God is.

And you know, and if you read the story of scripture, you know, God, you know, through the works of the Holy Spirit, you know, Mary gave birth as the virgin birth to Jesus Christ.

And so Joseph is not Jesus' biological father, but Mary and Joseph did go on to get married and have other children.

One of them was James, making him Jesus' half-brother.

Y'all still with me?

Just nod?

All right, a couple aren't.

That's okay.

So that's who's writing the book of James, Jesus' half-brother.

Another thing you have to understand about James is who he is writing to, because that's important.

James is writing to existing believers or Christians.

Now, if you find yourself here this morning or tuning in, and you would say that I don't know if I would label myself a Christian or a believer, that's okay.

James has plenty to still say to you today as well.

But James in this text is exclusively writing to those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

So this would have been those who have already heard the good news of the gospel message, received it into their heart, have chosen to put their faith and hope in the saving works of Jesus Christ, and are looking to live their life out in a way that would bring glory to God.

And that's who James is writing to.

And it's important to establish that the overall theme of the five books found in James is that of spiritual maturity.

What it should look like for a Christian to live out their faith on a daily basis.

And again, I say it's important to kind of understand a little bit of baseline context to bookend what James is doing here, because he is again assuming and already speaking into things that he is hoping to be established.

A relationship with Jesus is one of them.

An understanding of Scripture, God's word, who Jesus is, and what Christ has done for us would have already been not just known, welcomed, and believed by this group, but trusted and personal to this audience.

And so, with that in mind, let's start trying to answer with the time that we have left our two questions.

Starting with what does a quick and slow approach to God's word mean?

And let's start again by looking at verse 19 in James.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this.

Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

So, what does quick and slow mean?

James gives us three things, one quick and two slows.

And he starts by saying, Everyone, this was the thing that he's saying is of extreme importance.

Listen up, pay attention, know this.

Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

When he says quick to listen, and just those three words, I want you to understand what he was saying.

This was another way that we would say today to someone, be quick to hear or hurry up and listen.

And with James, when he uses the word listen in the original language, he is implying not just sitting and listening, but also a sense of active listening.

Otherwise, when James says be quick to listen, he's saying not just listen, but know that you are to respond, you are to be active, ready to obey whatever you hear comes next.

As Christians, because we know the truth of who Jesus Christ is, and we know that the truth, what Jesus Christ has done, has set us free from our sin, James is now saying that we should be quick to run towards God's word, quick to open it, quick to listen to it, quick to trust it, quick to obey it, quick to do what it says, because again, as believers, we know whose words are found in here.

And they are not foreign to us, but they are from God, our good, good Father.

So we should be quick to listen.

He then goes on to say, we should now be slow to speak.

Slow to speak.

Well, simply what James is trying to say here, this means that we should be very slow to speak, but when we do, we should do it with humility and patience, not with harsh words or nonstop jibber jabber.

And again, what what James is trying to communicate here is a point that Solomon in the Old Testament also speaks to.

If you don't know who Solomon is, he's a character found in the New Testament, and the Bible tells us that he was the wisest man that ever lived.

He's the wisest man because God said, Hey, if I could give you one thing, what would I give you?

And Solomon asked for wisdom, and so God gave it to him.

And here's what Solomon says in the book of Proverbs.

He says, When words are many, listen closely, when words are many, sin is not absent.

When words are many, sin is not absent.

But he who holds his tongue is wise.

And the point that James is trying to make here by saying, slow to speak, the point that Psalm is partnering up against and saying, where words are many, sin is very present, and when the wise people keep their mouths shut when they approach God's word, another guy, another commentator, reflected and said this.

When we talk too much and listen too little, we communicate to God or others that we think our ideas are much more important than God's or others.

David Platt, a well-known pastor and author, he puts it this way when he reflects on this truth.

Don't we often approach God's word talking and not listening?

Don't we often come to God's word thinking to ourselves, here is what I want it to say?

Don't we often come to God's word looking to justify ourselves?

We're often like the people in an argument who are really listening to one, or aren't really listening to one another, but instead we're consumed with formulating in our heads what we're going to say next, having no idea what they just said.

We are not quick to hear and slow to speak, but loath to listen and anxious to argue.

We often hear a verse or look at scripture and already start to think to ourselves, okay, how am I going to get around that one today?

That is what James is saying.

Pay attention to.

If you call yourself a Christ follower, you need to be slow to speak, quick to listen, and slow to speak.

And then he says, slow to become angry.

And we're going to spend a little bit more time talking about anger when we look at verse 20, but it shouldn't take a doctorate-level education or a NASA astronaut to put together that, you know, when you look at if someone who is uh quick to talk and slow to listen, that naturally anger would be something that would follow.

I mean, this makes sense if you if you've ever been in any type of human relationship that you know to exist where this is true, where the other person is constantly talking over you and never ever listening to you, what do you naturally become towards them?

Angry, frustrated, annoyed.

And that relationship is never ever gonna achieve what it was meant to, not at least in a healthy way.

And so when we approach God's word this way, why do we not expect the same result?

When we approach God's word and we are, we are not quick to listen, we are we are fast to talk over.

When we're when we're when we're want to speak into God's word and try to say what we want it to say, and it's saying something different, we are going to naturally become angry towards God's word.

And anger has a way of closing off our hearts and our minds towards who God is and especially his word.

So now that we've we've tried to at least briefly answer our first question of what does a quick and slow approach to God's word mean, or at least what it doesn't mean, let's now try to tackle our second question.

Our second question of how does this actually impact?

How does this approach, a quick and slow approach, how does it impact our relationship with both God and others?

Let's look now at James verse 20.

Again, he says in 19, my dear brothers and sisters, uh, take note of this, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

But then in verse 20, he says, Because human anger, human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

Human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

So God has a desire for us, He wants to produce in us righteousness.

And that's a pretty big word.

That's a lot of syllables in there.

I someone do the clap thing for me, they know how many that is.

But righteousness is something that we have to grasp.

And I would encourage you, if you don't know what that is, this is where I would say it's okay to go home and Google it because you can find a ton of trusted Christian resources and websites that will walk you through a basic understanding of what righteousness is.

But here's what God desires to produce in us that anger will rob us of experiencing.

The Bible's standard of human righteousness is God's own perfection in every attribute, every attitude, every behavior, and every word.

Thus, God's law, as given in the Bible, both describes his own character and the constitute, the plumb line by which he measures human righteousness.

And if you look at the original Greek, the word for righteousness primarily describes conduct as it relates to business matters, legal issues, and the beginning of our relationships with God.

So the contrast, the opposite of this, if that's what righteousness is, the opposite of righteousness would be this wickedness, the conduct of one who, out of gross self-centeredness, neither reveres God or respects man.

So it's important to understand a few things about righteousness.

Again, air horn, pay attention.

I need someone to do that for me whenever I do that.

That'd be great.

That'd be helpful.

Here's the bad news.

We'll start with the bad news first.

The bad news about righteousness, about perfect righteousness, is that it is impossible for man, it is impossible for you and I to obtain it on our own.

The standard, according to scripture, is just too high.

But now the good news.

The good news that when I heard for the first time entering into my junior year of high school, it rocked my world.

It forever changed what I knew to be true about God, about Christ, about me and who I am.

And it's this good news that righteousness is possible for mankind, but only through the cleansing of sin by Jesus Christ and through the work of the Holy Spirit.

You see, the good news is that we have no ability to achieve righteousness on our own and of ourselves, but Christians possess the righteousness of Christ.

Because God made him, Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sinful.

For us, so that we might become the righteousness of God.

That's 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21.

2 Corinthians 5:21

And this is an amazing truth.

Again, the truth, Jesus, that sets us free, the amazing truth that on the cross, Jesus exchanged our sin for his perfect righteousness, so that we can one day stand before God, and he will not see our sin, but he will see his son.

This means that we were made righteous in the sight of God.

That is, that we are to accept this righteousness and treat it as righteousness by God's account given to us as a free gift.

Jesus was made sin, we were made righteous.

On the cross, Jesus was treated as if he was the sinner, even though he was perfect and holy, and we become treated as righteous, even though you and I are the ones that are so broken and sinful.

We have received this precious gift of righteousness from a God who is nothing but full of grace and mercy.

And that's the point.

That's the thing that James is leaning in, saying, wherever you are at in your faith journey, lean in and listen closely.

When we are slow to listen to God's word, when we are quick to talk over God's word, we become angry at God's word.

And anger closes our hearts and our minds off towards God's truth.

And when we are raging against truth, James tells us that there is no room for righteousness to do its work in us, its good work.

And when we approach God's word this way, it quickly and naturally becomes how we start to approach God and others as well.

And everything about us, our attributes, our attitude, our behavior, our words, our conduct, even our actions, no longer reflect God's righteousness and instead communicate self-centeredness, wickedness, harshness, anger, and uncontrolled responses.

This is what James is saying is so important.

And now as we look to try to say, oh, how Russ are we gonna apply that to our lives today?

Let me just also state something.

That what I'm explaining to you, it's important, but the reality is it's very hard to do.

I know this to be true because um when Kurt asked me a while ago to, hey, can you speak on the weekend of November 19th and 20th?

I was like, absolutely, I would love to.

Are we gonna be in a series?

Like, no, this is what we call in the church business a one-off message.

You can talk about whatever you want.

I was like, oh, okay.

But then I've always had this kind of discipline where if I ever get a chance to do a one-off message, I don't want to try to come up with something.

I don't want to try to borrow from something I've done in the past.

I'm gonna take that opportunity to just talk about whatever it is I'm learning as I work through God's word in my own personal time.

As whatever God's putting me.

So for a while now, I've been reading through the book of James.

I remember coming across this passage and I was like, ooh, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

That sounds like a great idea to do towards other people.

I'm gonna I'm gonna start small though.

I'm gonna sample size it.

I'm just gonna try to be that to my wife and kids.

Just them.

How long do you think I lasted?

Why are you laughing?

It's not funny.

I didn't last very long.

I mean, maybe a matter of hours.

Just that day.

Fresh out of the word of God.

Oh, I'm great.

I'm look at me.

Screwed it up.

And I had this moment where I was like, gosh, this is a lot harder than I thought.

And I was still in the book of James, and part of my discipline is I was reading through it multiple times.

It's only five chapters, it's not that hard, even for someone as educated as me.

And when I got to it again, I realized something.

That James was not necessarily talking about we should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and so to become angry towards other people.

Although there's a lot of truth and value to that.

And everyone, if you're married in this room, is looking at your spouse like, yeah, you should definitely do that.

But that's not what James was pointing at.

He was saying that before you can ever become quick to listen, or you know, slow to speak, or what was it?

Quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry towards others.

You first have to start doing that with the word of God.

Because it's only the word of God who is going to be able to do a work in you that is outside of your control to begin to change your heart from the inside out to the righteous production of God in you, that you will only ever be able to start to exemplify this in your life outside.

And so I know that this is important, but I know that the reality is this is hard.

And that's why James says what he says next.

In 19, he says this remember, take note, pay attention.

Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

Because otherwise, human anger does not produce the righteousness in you that God desires.

And here's what James says next He says, Therefore, therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word of God planted in you, which can save you.

He says, if this is really what you want to be about, if you want to actually learn to approach God's word in such a way like this, he says, you've got to do something.

You have got to get rid of the sin in your life.

And when he says get rid, this is where the scripture kind of gets fun.

He's actually using word pictures.

That would have been, again, in the original audience, in the original language, the audience would have picked up on these right away.

When James says get rid, that's a word used to describe or picture someone taking off a heavy, dirty coat, or stripping off or putting off uh raggedy clothes.

I want to tell you a story.

You guys remember COVID, right?

Uh you remember quarantine?

Remember that?

Uh this would happen right after like the quarantine was over, and life was kind of slowly getting back to normal.

And this was like the first outing that me and my family were gonna do, and we're like, all right, we gotta get out of here.

Where are we gonna go?

Let's go eat somewhere.

Where are we gonna go eat?

You know where we haven't been in a really long time.

What do you think we said?

Let's go to Eaton Park.

Oh, some people.

So we go to Eaton Park.

We're the only family in the whole restaurant.

We're in the back corner booth.

This is you know, after church one Saturday night.

And and the the waiter who comes to our table, he right away tells us, like, hey, welcome to Eat Park.

This is my first day.

I've never worked here before.

This is my first time ever in Wexford.

Uh this I really hope to do a good job.

I'm like, you're gonna be great.

This is gonna be awesome.

The standards are low.

This is the first time we've been out in years.

So I need you to understand what happened here, okay?

The waiter brings her our drinks, all right, and then uh he says, Hey, what can I what can I get you to order?

And I had looked at my five-year-old Avery, and I saw her, she's right over there in the booth, and here, and the time it took for me to look at my menu for two seconds, look up at the waiter and go, I think I'll have, I did all I did was this, ready?

You see how fast that was?

I'll do it again, ready?

See that?

In that amount of time, when I looked up at our waiter, his face was white, and he was communicating that something was not right and it was behind me.

And so, in the matter of time that it took me as Avery's father to look at my menu for one last time and look up at the waiter, somehow Avery had stripped off all of her clothes and was standing shirtless, up in the booth, just like having the time of her life.

It's almost as if like we hadn't been out in society for years.

Turns out we hadn't.

My kids have been raised in a study where they didn't know how to act in public.

Because at home, for the last 18 months, that was acceptable at the dinner table.

I mean, it was like Avery, have you ever seen the movie Bruce Almighty, where he's just like clothes off?

And we laugh at that, and we should, because it was a super funny story, except for the waiter.

Like, I think he quit after that.

But that is the sense of urgency of which James is saying, if you want to go after God's word, quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, James is saying then you need to get rid of the sin in your life as fast as you can.

As fast as you can.

And I'm talking about the sin that you can identify, that you know darn well isn't good for you, that you know isn't bringing God glory.

I get that there is sin in our lives that is heavy and it is real and it is complicated and it's addicting, and we need outside help.

We need the work of the Holy Spirit, we need the transformational truth of Jesus' death on the cross and fighting off that sin.

We need other people, we need accountability, we need counseling, we need a lot of help to get rid of our sin.

But James is saying, do whatever you have to do that is in your control.

And what you can't control, you need to be running towards God's word, praying and asking him to do a miracle in you so that you can get rid of the sin.

Another story I'll share is right after that, James says, get rid of all moral filth.

And again, the fun word picture here.

In the original language, when James says the word moral filth, that was a word that was originally used to reference earwax back in the day.

And I'm not a doctor, if you haven't been able to tell.

I'm not a doctor, and I know that earwax serves a good purpose, but in this setting, it's a negative side of earwax, where he is saying sin, known sin in your life, is like too much earwax in your ear.

And if you try to approach God's word quick to listen, if you've got sin in your life that you that you are choosing to ignore or try to work around, it's like saying you can't hear God's word.

There's a, you know, I said that I originally came here in 2015 and I started in student ministry.

I actually can see some of my former students in the crowd.

Hi, y'all.

And in student ministry, I had a huge role to play in Kids Fest.

Kids Fest is our summer-long uh vacation Bible school on steroids.

And um we had this idea one summer.

On the last day of the week, there's a scavenger hunt, and we wanted campers to like dig through inflatable uh pools filled with different things like you know, corn and sand and stuff, to like find these hidden objects that somehow you could trade in to like beat the bad guy.

I don't remember that part that well.

But I had this idea of you know what would be really cool is if we got a pool full of orbees and like campers could dig through orbees.

And if you don't know what orbees are, here you go.

Uh I'm gonna help you out here.

So orbees are like those little squishy ball things that you see everywhere.

Uh, that's what a million orbees, that's actually what a million orbees in a pool looks like.

And I said, hey, before we do this with campers, I we should probably test this on humans.

And so I thought of the best lab rats I could, my children.

Um, so there they are.

And I was like, all right, kids, go have fun.

Let's see if this works.

They're having fun.

You can go to the next picture.

Uh, there you go.

That's my oldest at the time.

She's having the time of her life.

You also need to know this about me.

I'm a huge child at heart.

It did not take me very long for me to my clothes and jump in the pool with them.

And I gotta tell you, it was amazing.

So far, it was like we're definitely doing this at Kids Fest.

Well, a couple hours go by.

I'm sitting at home trying to get my quick to listen on with the word of the Lord, and I'm like, something's off.

Something's going on in my ear.

I can't hear anything.

Deaf as a doornail.

I think that's how the saying goes.

And I'm like, honey, come here.

Look at my ear.

And my wife walks over, and sure enough, she goes, Russ, the inside of your ear is blue.

I think you've got an orby stuck in your ear.

I was like, what?

So I did the only thing we ever do when there's a medical situation, instead of seeking professional help, I Googled it.

And the internet right away was like, you're in trouble.

Because Orbies, the way that they're designed is the longer that they sit in a compressed, uh, wet environment, they will just continue to expand.

Yeah.

I'm like, my head's about to blow off.

Like, I'm gonna die from an orby.

And so immediately it was like, get to the hospital.

And I was like, see ya, honey.

I drove to the urgent care, and I was like, what can they like?

What's wrong with you?

I'm like, I got an orby stuck in my ear.

Hurry, I'm gonna die.

And they're like, what?

What's an orby?

I was like, uh, you know, it's a I'm trying to explain it.

They're like, we can't help you.

So I had to like show them on my phone, like, this is what feel this pool, all those are in my ear.

And so here's what they do.

This is what, actually, I have a picture of it.

They saved my life using a Star Wars lightsaber.

That was the smallest lightsaber I've ever seen.

But she was able to scoop in and get this Orby out.

And as soon as she did it, it was like night and day difference.

I was hearing birds chirping like I've never heard before.

I was hearing people coughing, and I actually was like, Oh, I love to hear the sound of sickness in this room.

And again, we laugh, but that's what James is saying.

That when we have sin in our lives that we are purposely ignoring, we cannot approach God's word and still be quick to listen.

Because it's gonna block it out.

And finally, he says that we are to be get rid of all moral filth and sin and evil that's so popular and well accepted in the world, and we need to humbly accept the word of God.

Humbly accept the word of God.

Jesus tells us a parable in Matthew 13 about a farmer scattering seed, and he's the seed falls on four different things.

It falls on the path, it falls on the rocky areas, it falls on uh, you know, crowded areas, and it falls on good soil.

And only the seed that fell on good soil, a heart is the parable.

So it the good soil is a parable of a heart ready to receive, quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry.

Any other setting, it's not gonna work out.

Righteousness is not gonna be produced, Jesus says.

And so today, this week, this month, this season, what is the state of your heart towards the word of God?

James is saying, pay attention, listen up.

If your heart is on the path, the rocks or the thorns, the only approach that you have to change it is to start to approach God's word quick and slow.

And I'll close with this.

Uh I said earlier that I'm a huge basketball fan.

So I grew up watching Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and having those arguments, and we won't get into that today, although I have an answer that I know is right.

But a few years ago, Kobe Bryant passed away from a horrible helicopter accident.

And at uh his funeral, Michael Jordan was gave a speech.

And in the in the in the speech, I mean, Jordan is just bawling.

But he says this he says, he, talking about Kobe, used to call me, text me.

11:30 at night, 2:30, 3 o'clock in the morning, just wanting to talk about post-up moves, footwork, and sometimes even the triangle offense, which, if you don't know basketball, ignore that part.

This kid, he said, had passion like you would never know.

He then goes on to say, it's an amazing thing about passion.

If you love something, if you have a strong passion for something, you will go to the extreme to try to understand it and get it.

When I heard Jordan say that, immediately I thought of this text.

And for a moment, I want to speak to any folks who would simply identify as non-believers or still on the fence or questioning about faith, or um if you're there, I want you to know something.

It's an amazing thing about passion.

And to help you understand this passion that God has for you.

Don't forget who James is in this story, as the writer of James.

Remember, James was the half-brother of Jesus.

And as a brother, if you've ever had a sibling, you know that your brothers and sisters, your family, they know more about you than anyone else.

You can't hide from them because when you go home, you share a room, you share a bathroom, you share a toothbrush, maybe.

I don't know what your family's like.

But James knew everything about Jesus.

And it took a long time, at least what we've been able to put together historically, it took a long time for James to finally humbly believe and accept Jesus for who he was as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

But there is, there was never, if you think about it, if there was ever one person who could have challenged Jesus' truth, it would have been his half-brother.

If there was ever one person who could have said, ah, you know what?

I question or I challenge this about Jesus.

I remember as a kid, he said this or he did this, or I actually watched and he he was one way in public, but man, at home, punk.

James would have been that guy.

But we see later in the book of Acts a scene described in an upper room in which the resurrected Jesus now stands before James.

And in that moment, James sees, experiences, and feels the extreme passion that God has towards each one of us.

That he would be willing to do anything it took, even something extreme, like sending his one and only Son to pay the price of your sin so that you can be forgiven and be restored again to a relationship with God like you were created and designed from from the beginning.

And while all of us are running around trying to find life, Scripture says life is only found in one place, and that place is the name of Jesus Christ.

And so I encourage you, if you're on the fence, if you're not sure about faith, even though James is saying, be quick and slow to approach God's word if you're a believer, I'm asking you to be quick to approach God's word too, and get to know who Jesus Christ is.

See for yourself if what any of us in the believers in here are saying is true.

But don't base it on us.

Base it on the evidence in here of who Christ is.

Because you will see who Christ is is who God is.

And God loves you so deeply and passionately that he would do anything for you to know him and for him to be known by you.

And if you're a believer in this room, I want to challenge you with this.

It's an amazing thing about passion.

And it's a passion that you have known to be true, that you've accepted.

And I'm not saying it's always easy.

It's hard to live out your faith.

It's hard.

Life is complicated.

Sin is real.

But you know the extreme lengths that God went to demonstrate his love towards you, and may you be quick to run towards God's word.

May you be quick to look at God's word and allow it to guide you to become a permanent, constant, inseparable part of who you are.

Remembering God's word, committing it to memory, and meditating on it.

Again, never forgetting that we are still a work in progress.

Me too.

And I'm gonna need to be reminded on the daily that even though I know this to be true, I struggle to live it out.

And I need to remember God's grace and mercy and his forgiveness.

That I can't outrun sin.

I can't get too far from the cross.

And just when I think I have, Jesus shows up and says, Yeah, I still would have died for you.

To fight to get rid of the sin in your life.

To fight to bring people in, even when it's awkward or embarrassing or confusing, or you don't see how you're gonna ever conquer this.

Bring people in, bring the word of God in, bring prayer in.

But for all of us, forgetting yesterday and not yet worrying about tomorrow, what will be your approach towards God's word today?

Will it be quick and slow or simply something else?

Let me pray.

Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you for your son.

May each of us today approach you, your word and your son quick and slow.

And we give this all to you.

Amen.

Have a great day, everybody.