Generous Listening, Emotional Peace, and Transformative Love (James 1:16-17)

Welcome to the First Love Church Podcast.

This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the Revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala, florida.

In fact, we find ourselves this particular Sunday, the 15th day, 15th Sunday after Pentecost, and I know, like you're saying the same thing.

How long is this going to go on this ordinary time?

And in fact, it is this very reason that the Christian Church has long is this going to go on this ordinary time?

And in fact, it is this very reason that the christian church has given us this beautiful tradition, because it is the ordinary that we have so much of.

We look for grand gestures and big occasions, but there are every day that we are given that we can engage the sacred, the sacred in us, sacred around us, and we can engage the Holy Spirit in allowing us to lead ourselves and the world into what real living is about.

Jesus said to us I have come to set the captives free, I have come to heal the brokenhearted and I have come that you would know life, and know it to the full.

So beloved, why are gathered this morning?

to learn how to live and how to love well you know, uh, I think a lot of times, uh, people get disappointed with being a christian when you read bible stories and you read about these miraculous things that happen to people and then we go well, where's my parting of the red sea?

Where's my feeding of the 5 000?

And you, you must understand that those stories are to show us god's generosity, god's love, god's mercy towards us, but not to show us that that's an everyday occurrence.

In fact, we see it's a very select view of people throughout all of history.

And so if you look and are taught and think all the time just about that extraordinary, the extraordinary, you would miss the daily moments that, the very, very ordinary moments that are so glorious.

I've been on a kick lately.

I just look at clouds and then I comment on how God did them in high def Because we're so impressed when our TVs are clear.

If you go outside and as long as you got decent eyesight, it is amazing the production value out there and I mean it's just glorious for us to look at that.

And oh, that's just the ordinary sky, is it?

Or is it extraordinary, or is God really in the ordinary?

And we miss it because we're looking for this other thing that may never happen to you in your lifetime, but a very moment of consciousness connecting with the creator of the universe is more glorious than all the wealth you could ever obtain, and we're missing that, and so we hope that, that the ordinary time would be a time that we would learn how to connect with god almighty and how to see god in the mundane, in the everyday, and find out that that we can celebrate and be filled with joy, not just on certain days of the year, only be romantic in your relationship on February 14th, but what if all those days we can have the love of God flowing coursing through our veins?

And we as a people need to be reminded that we are already made in the image of love and that love is our true self.

All of the other things that we put on or that we've been handed are not our true and beautiful self, made in the image of God.

And in the next few weeks in fact I think it's five weeks we're going to hang out in the book of James, and James is the brother of Jesus according to legend and history, and he has a lot to say about what it means to really follow Jesus.

What is it actually going to look like?

What is it going to be where you people can actually have evidence of this?

And I love that we can connect with somebody from the early church who says, hey, this is what it's all about and this is what you should actually be looking for in your own lives.

Now, be mindful, because sometimes, when you see this, it's going to be very easy to look at how other people aren't doing it.

And I remind you we just talked about this that the scripture admonishes us to take care of your own eyesight, to take care of the planks and telephone poles in your own eyes, before you start doing surgery on the splinters in others eyes.

Before you start doing surgery on the splinters in others, deal with your own heart, your own belovedness.

And so when we go to the book of James, we go to James chapter one, and I would encourage you, if you feel led by spirit or want to be a part of what we're doing together as a church, I would love for us to read at least this section together every day this week, and so it's just James 1, 16 through 27.

And we all have apps on our phone, or you could even take a picture of the screen and read them there but to read them together, to remind us, so that we would be saturated in this kind of knowledge.

Don't be misled, my dear brothers and sisters, please listen to the language of family.

Your brothers and sisters, all of us, are language of family.

Your brothers and sisters, all of us are.

Whoever reading, whoever here.

We are family, we are God's family, and so this is family language.

And again, this is James, who is the brother of Jesus, and you know, james was in the house when Mary was teaching this, when Jesus learned it.

And then Jesus expounds on this and says this is what the Spirit has revealed to me.

And so James has this really unique viewpoint of really knowing Jesus as family, and in fact the early church calls him James the brother of God, and that's really wonderful.

And then the tradition has had it, he's actually considered James the lesser Because there was a James the greater, and so that's, I mean you sort that out between yourself.

He is not James the son, that out between yourself.

He is not James the son of Zebedee, he is not the one calling down thunder.

This is James, in fact, another name that they refer to him as James the Just.

Wouldn't that be amazing if what you were known for was just living, just thinking, just behaving?

Don't be misled, my dear brothers and sisters just behaving, don't be misled.

My dear brothers and sisters, I would like to call um to mind our attention on this idea of family and and how that could maybe expand in you.

Because, uh, uh, you know, I mean, it's just very natural, uh, for us to think, okay, we, you know, we have our children, we want to leave something for them, we want to take care of them, and so we kind of look in our house, that's where the majority of our money and our attention and energy is going to go.

But then if we can expand out and someone's grow a little bit, all of a sudden we start helping, like at our school or at our church, or or we start expanding into the neighborhood, you know, and then it extends.

Sometimes it can expand out to where someone might want to do good in some other ways of public service, you know, and just how that would expand.

And in the church is the same way for us that we can be very us for no more minded, but I think it helps for us.

I was sharing with Catherine because she's been gone.

She just left the other day for Paris, but I was sharing with her actually when we were driving about my revelation.

If I plan on the people that are cutting me off in traffic.

If that's my brother Danny, then I let him in, because that's my brother Danny, and he missed the sign back there for 10 miles that says it's going down to two lanes, the sign that we all read and we all obeyed and went over.

But my brother Danny, he missed it somehow and so he got all the way up and now he's throwing on his blinker, cutting in front of everyone, and instead of me wanting to use my car as a Mad Max bumper thing thing, car, I slow down and let him, and then the other guy that swerved around him and let those.

And I'm beginning.

What I'm doing is I'm wanting to allow God to let me see the truth that all these people are my brothers and sisters, that all these people are my brothers and sisters.

But we tend to look I got enough on my plate taking care of the people around me and we don't understand that as our heart expands, so does the love of God in us, so does the power of God through us, and so there is a transformation.

And so I'm really challenging you on this thing that I believe God is challenging me on.

Is that could you grow past, wherever your border is, of who is acceptable, who deserves your love, who deserves your generosity, who you know, because think about it If you have some friend or some family member that's gone on to be with the Lord and you miss them so much, wouldn't you let them pass in front of you as many times as it took in traffic?

Because that's you know your brother, your sister, your aunt, your father, your parent.

You know, and these people around us are truly.

What God is telling us is that these folks are really our family and something will transform in you when you allow that kind of love.

And you know what you say to me.

I feel the pushback now.

Oh, I'll just be taking advantage of.

Yeah.

And so when?

When has that ever been a bad deal for us as followers of christ?

When have we ever given and not god returned to us 30, 60, 60, 100 fold?

Well, I remind you, as I remind all of us if we are all brothers and sisters, then we do all have a loving father who, according to Jesus in the book of Matthew, says you don't give a cup of cool water to a child without God seeing it and rewarding you.

So, our loving God, our true creator, the father that all the fathers on earth are named under, is our father and our father.

In fact, jesus teaches us to pray this way Our father, who is in heaven, honored be your name, may your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

But we don't even pray that prayer, my father, it is in our father.

It is this remembering of family.

And then James goes on to say whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God, our father.

Everything that we have that is good is from God.

In fact, this is what the birth of generosity is from is that we recognize that everything good that we have has actually been given to us.

Everything good, even the next breath that we have, it is a gift to us.

And because we recognize that it is not our earning, it is not our working, it is not our striving that allows us to have any of these good things.

It is because of the love of God that is so incredible and is so abundant that we actually have things.

And so, because of that love, when we recognize that it causes in us a generosity and this also confronts, for the people that are listening there, this idea that you can judge whether something is good or someone is good or bad based on their life.

In fact, james is reminding us that only good things are from God, because in this particular tradition I don't know if you can imagine it, but if somebody had some kind of issue, they would assume that it was because they had displeased God and God had withheld or God had taken away something.

If you had a child that died, they believe it was because somehow you upset God, as opposed to saying and James is reminding the people of that every good thing you have is from God.

And then he begins to remind us of who God is, who created all the lights in the heavens.

Beloved, go outside at night, away from the fake lights that we have, and stand under the stars, or use your cell phone or your laptop and look at the James Webb telescope and find the wonder in the galaxies and in the cosmos.

I mean, he's reminding us let nature testify to you of who the Father is, that he created all the lights in the heavens and he never changes or casts a shifting shadow.

He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word.

Again, we see that James is also reminding us that Jesus is the word made flesh, that Jesus is the way that we interpret everything.

In fact, jesus is the lens for flesh, that Jesus is the way that we interpret everything.

In fact, jesus is the lens for how we even understand love and we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters.

At first he calls us brothers and sisters, and now he's reminding us of the affection, our dear brothers and sisters, you must all.

Now, this is the point that I like to go back to the original language, and though I don't speak the original language, I do have an app that will let us go back and read the original language, and I want to tell you that, no matter what language you spoke or you speak now, all means all.

It simply does In every single translation, in every single language, all means all.

And so the choice here the instruction here you must all that includes all of us.

That means no one is exempt from this you must all be quick to listen.

And that's where things got a little hairy for us, because we didn't understand that we were to be quick to listen.

We have been taught to be quick to respond, to speak, to regurgitate, to have prejudice, to do whatever, to quickly judge, to decide what is right.

And the apostle here is reminding us you must all be quick to listen.

Now, quick to listen is a skill, quick to listen is a practice, quick to listen is a ritual.

And quick to listen starts like this.

That's how quick to listen starts by putting your lips over your teeth.

Now, it's a hard one.

I'm not sure you've all worked on that, but that's how you're quick to listen, because you know what we want to do In any situation.

We want to open our mouth and we want the air to flow from us.

Beloved.

The breath that we need is from God, not from you, not from me.

Close your mouth for a minute.

This is how we practice.

Now, this is not the only step in listening is closing your mouth, because you actually have to pause, because for many of us, when we close our mouth, what we do is load up what we're going to say and we're going through a ton of arguments in how we're going to say all these things.

That's not quick to listen.

Beloved, you are arming yourself for an argument and I want to tell you something if you arm yourself for war, you will find it, and the invitation is for us to be people of peace, to be people of love, and so an intention here, a ritual here, a practice here that will lead to true life, is working on being people who can listen.

I wanted to address something that we spoke about in verse 17.

I want to share a quick story.

Over the past couple of years, I feel like God's been dealing with me about like just idols in my personal life that you know, just my ego is so attached to, like my convertible, you know.

And yet you know that desire that I have just caused me heartache Sometimes, the desires and those things that we have, that you know that it's about our ego and stuff, and the heartache it caused me is every time I would go out in the garage it wouldn't start up because the battery was dead.

It needed a new something or something.

And so it was like this thing that I propped up my, my childhood, my ego, everything in just kept failing.

And finally I just felt very clear.

The Lord told me to let go of it, to get rid of it, and so I got rid of it, and with the money that I had I got rid of my old Jeep no AC.

My old truck no AC.

My convertible no AC.

And so I thought, well, I've got enough money, now I'm going to buy something with AC, you know, a truck that works.

And so Heather and I really took a while and we prayed, you know, and we got the truck and I think what happened I don't know accusing anybody, but I think what happened is they put a bunch of this stuff, this thick oil, in it so that the motor sounded good, so that when I first got the next, I got my oil changed and all of a sudden my lifters are knocking and they said it's a $12,000 repair.

But I only paid $13,000 for the truck, so I've got a.

All of a sudden I have this.

I'll keep going.

Okay, that's not irritating, it's church bells.

Just keep going.

Oh, keep going.

Okay, that's not irritating, it's church bells.

Oh, okay, in that case it's good.

So I'm like pretty upset, you know, needless to say that, and the first thing I did was ran through my mind how did I miss it?

Like God must be punishing me.

And it's such a dumb thought because God doesn't punish us.

Any of that has been dealt with through the completed work of Christ on the cross.

There is nothing that you and I have to.

But I've been taught my whole life through church and people well, you must let the door open for the devil.

I do not leave windows and doors open in my life, first of all because I don't got them in my heart.

That's not a thing and my intention is to serve God and my intention was to just Heather and I to look at this, you know, and get the best value and try the best we can.

But guess what?

We live in a fallen world with sometimes people deceiving, sometimes things just guess what?

Sometimes they just get old and break, and sometimes the lifters knock on trucks, you know, and so uh.

So stop that.

I challenge you to stop that, that chasing your tail thing that happens every time something happens in your life where you question your connection with the god who's the god of the universe, by the way who reached down and made connection with you that somehow you're so powerful that you've severed it through buying the wrong truck.

See how stupid it sounds when you say it out loud, but many of us and I know I'm not the only one, in fact I'm confident that almost everyone has this battle inside.

This is all happening because I did something.

You know, sometimes things happen.

And here's what I looked at and I, like you, know what would have been sad is if that was the last thirteen thousand dollars I'll ever have and I bought that truck and now it's not, it's lifters and that'd be a bummer.

But the truth is that's one of the thirteen thousand dollars that I'll earn and it will be taken from me, if not by some dealer, by uncle sam, you know.

So the point is I gotta be less attached to that and more attached to the one that can allow me, in the middle of my trials, to still have joy, and in the middle of my trials, to still have joy.

And in the middle of that, I know all things work together for good.

And I don't just think that.

I know that.

And because I know that I have to push away those thoughts that somehow I've done something that have failed.

You know what, if I've done something, that I need adjustment, that's kind of god's responsibility to tell me.

Not take my truck.

You know, I just don't randomly snatch stuff out of my kids room when they do something wrong and then hope they figure out what the heck they did wrong.

As a father being evil who knows how to do good things, even I can go hey, hey, you know I might be shutting down the video games if you don't get.

You know, get that trash out that we've told you for three days.

You know what I mean.

There might be something that happens in consequence.

I'm not saying that there's no consequence for us, but I'm saying that God isn't not sneaking around breaking your stuff when you step across the line.

And the minute we stop that train of thought, we can live in peace, no matter what comes your way.

Because here's the deal If I have lifters knocking on my truck, good thing that Jesus rides with me, good thing that my relationship is good with God, that I don't have a bad truck and I don't know the peace from the universe.

That'd be a bummer.

And so I'm telling you there's a shift, and I hope my story helps you connect to the thing that you're doing.

That really brings accusation against God.

I've really stood in there and said what are you up to, sneaky God?

Why are you destroying my stuff?

I bring accusation against the one who's provided every good.

So what are you going to believe those feelings?

You have some weird doctrine.

Some dude told you in the hallway after church, or what God's word has just so lovingly communicated over and over, that you're loved, that you're going to be taken care of and that every good gift comes from.

So I can look for the and I can even look in the middle of this and find that it's still good.

There's nothing that's happening to me.

You know and I used to just lose it that it's still good.

There's nothing that's happening to me.

You know, and I used to just lose it.

Man, when those things would happen, yell, you know, can't believe the truck, you know.

But I don't have to live in that type of thing and I don't think I'm the only one that struggles in this.

I think I'm talking to some people.

You all must be quick to listen.

Slow to speak let's talk about that for a minute, especially from someone who talks frequently, who talks quickly and who has a lot of opinions.

And so I speak to you this morning as a person who needs your grace, slow to speak.

Let me talk about the wisdom here in the slow to speak.

Because if you speak quickly, if you speak not clearly, that's not what I'm talking about, but I'm saying if you respond and you don't take the slow to speak, because if you speak quickly, if you speak not clearly, that's not what I'm talking about, but I'm saying if you respond and you don't take the time to think about it, very often we will respond out of an emotion that changes.

We will respond out of something that we're feeling now but we do not feel in three days.

And so this slowness to speak is actually an invitation into the process.

It's an invitation into acknowledging our humanity.

It's an invitation to being gentle with ourselves.

I may have a lot of opinions and I may even have a lot of judgments, but if I am slow to speak, my body actually has a chance, my brain actually has a chance, the spirit of love actually has a chance to guide me.

Rain actually has a chance, the spirit of love actually has a chance to guide me.

And what this will prevent and if it does nothing else, it will prevent this you will have to ask forgiveness less if you are slow to speak.

Oh, come on.

And then it says and slow to get angry.

Because very often we are quick to get angry and we are quick to judge not only our anger but other people's angry.

And we are quick to judge not only our anger but other people's angry.

And so this whole beautiful passage reminds us that maybe we need to consider, maybe we need to interview our anger, maybe we need to make space for it, but we need to be mindful that this particular response needs to be measured and needs to be in tandem with love spirit.

Sometimes anger is absolutely essential.

It is necessary, in fact.

The world around us right now is presenting us with many reasons.

We should be angry If you read the news as I read the news.

Angry If you read the news as I read the news aid food is being stolen from children Beloved.

We cannot say that that is okay.

We must be angry with this, but how?

What we do with our anger, then, is what makes the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness and this invitation to be slow to anger.

To look at this Now, another thing that we often do is see someone else's anger and we say to them you should be slow to anger, beloved, you do not know how long they have dealt with that or with that thing and we should just be mindful about our own anger.

Slow to get anger.

I want to talk about this for a minute because, you know, church even if we stopped right here and didn't preach anymore and just really just, you know focused in on this anger.

This is something that either you are struggling with and is polluting your life, or you're living with somebody is is polluting your life, or you're living with somebody that's polluting your life with anger.

Anger is such a real issue and and and if we don't address this in church and let god go to it, and you know, and go to that, let let god into that ugly place that we're hiding and we're pretending and really let this go.

You know, I got to tell you that something happened to me.

I don't know, maybe it's almost 10 years ago now, but Heather and I went to Chicago and I was just enjoying myself in the city of Chicago.

We're from there, and so when we go back, we just basically go on a culinary tour of all of our favorite restaurants and gain about 10 pounds in seven days and just have the time of our life.

You know, just enjoying this, because the food there is exceptional.

And so we were downtown walking and a guy was, um, you know, one of these bikers uh, bicycle bikers and he had his little shorty shorts on and was, you know, had his bike and and he's riding by and and we were walking this way and in front of me was a guy with a cerebral palsy, and I mean severe, and he had a swing to him and he was carrying his groceries or his bag or whatever.

And as he was walking, the biker was coming on the in the walkway this way and that that dude, just at the moment he came by, he took his swing this way and he whacked that biker with his groceries and that biker got off his bike, threw his bike down and he's like pushing this handicapped dude and pushing and this biker was like you know, maybe 100 pounds, soaking wet or whatever.

And that's not why I did it.

But I saw the injustice of this handicapped guy and I said, hey, if you want to pick on someone, pick on me.

And the guy's like you're not involved.

And I said that guy, you know, and so I'm defending the guy, you know, that guy didn't mean to do that, he was walking and you walked into, you know.

And then the guy's like get out of here, get your, you know.

And then, and pretty soon I realized you know how loud I was being and aggressive that we were at the.

You know, in Chicago there's like 50 people around waiting for the light and all 50 people were like boo, dennis, boo, and they were yelling at me, leave him alone.

And they all of a sudden were defending the biker who threw his bike down and pushed the handicapped guy.

And I'm like what is going on?

You know, I mean and, and so I I'm like I have this righteous indignation from god to call to defend all of the weak and and and and.

You know, downtrodden, and I'm defending and all of a sudden the whole climate is turning against me and I'm like what is going on?

And finally, the handicapped guy didn't have anything to do with my crazy.

He took off and the light changed and everybody dispersed and I'm like and I'm sitting there and I felt like the biggest piece of garbage that a human being could feel, because I had see when anger comes.

It's a door that opens on a train, a locomotive, and some of us willingly get on board and in fact we like to get on board, and wherever that freaking train goes and whatever damage it does, we just go along for the ride, but inevitably you get off the train at the next stop and you're overwhelmed with shame I know I'm talking to some people Overwhelmed with shame and guilt or whatever, and at that moment I could not have felt lower.

I couldn't even look Heather in the face and she grabbed my hand and she said I love you so much.

She said you tried, you tried to defend that man and she goes.

She looked at me.

I looked at her then and she looked at me and she said you did it all wrong.

Because sometimes the truth speaks, love speaks.

That was wrong.

She was not endorsing said behavior or encouraging for one moment that I act like a psycho in the street anymore.

But she knew my heart and I'm just trying to figure this out Ten years ago and maybe I'm a little bit further down the road a little bit.

But I'm telling you, you know, to bully a bully is not how we respond to anger, and that's what I did.

There was a bully in the street and so I said today I'm a bigger bully.

Now, if the guy had been 350 pounds, seven feet tall, I would have said sir, please don't pick on that handicapped fella.

And so we have to look at why we're doing what we're doing and stop just getting on the train that is destroying your family, it's destroying relationships and it causes you nothing but sorrow and shame, and we decide I'm not going to do that, I'm going to do something different.

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And so we had these conversations.

You know and you talk about.

You know, because I'd say I don't know, I just get mad and I black out.

And that was true.

But we started talking about can you find a trigger, can you get back from?

Because I believe there are some people that you go from zero to 10 or so you think, but there is a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, eight, nine.

You just haven't learned to identify them and with God's help, I promise you you can find that place where it doesn't have to just blow up in your face and hurt everyone.

You know how many jobs have you lost because you satisfied that thing.

How many relationships have you broken?

How many people that you love you have hurt Because we have allowed anger to just be.

And here's the rub anger is part of who I am.

I spent so much time being ashamed of me and what I need to distance myself from is my willingness to just get on that train and take it wherever it goes.

But I need to feel the feelings.

What is it like?

Because if I really thought about it for a second, what hurt my heart is?

I remember being a little kid and I remember being picked on like that.

Where was anyone that would defend me?

So where does that anger come from?

It comes from a place of really just desiring protection.

So now, instead of lashing out in the street, I can say God, will you protect me?

Are you going to keep me safe?

Yeah, even when clicking starts in your motor and they tell you you need a new one, you don't have to worry.

You don't have to be afraid that you're going to lose everything, because that's what we think, don't we sometimes?

Oh, this is it.

I've been keeping my nose this much above water financially and now that thing hit me.

And then we just get so mad, we surrender to anger, we start saying things that we can't take back, being slow to speak.

What if we took that and worked on this church together?

I'll help you If you call me.

I'll help you.

If you're too far, I'll ask Courtney to get on the other line.

But listen, we can get through this and, in the power of God, we don't have to do this to people and to ourselves anymore.

Are you listening to me?

There's you know.

Are you listening to me?

Church, there is hope for us in this, but we got to take this, this word to us today be slow to speak and slow to anger, even when we were taught by, by the people that we love, maybe that parent that you so admire, but that's how they took care of anger.

So that's how I'm going to do it.

There's a a better way for us church.

Do you hear me?

This is reminiscent in this particular version, and your story leads me to think about Moses, who's called by God to deliver the people of Israel and he knows that, like this vocation has been in him since he is a child.

I mean, maybe in hindsight the story is much clearer, but he knows that there is purpose for him and he sees an injustice and without training, without the safeguards in place, he simply kills the Egyptian that he sees harming his brother, and I think that's what many of us are stuck in our lives.

We're busy killing Egyptians and let me tell you that that will put you on the backside of the mountain, if it won't end up in jail.

I mean, like, this is the situation where God is saying, even to Moses there's another way to deal with injustice.

Injustice must be dealt with, but not with the same wicked anger that it's actually inflated by.

So this idea, this scarcity that we, that anger comes from this idea, god is saying there's another way, there's an abundance.

And when he is drawing Moses and the children of Egypt out of this bondage, he's saying I need to show you sonship, I want to show you what it's like to be children of a God who is so good and so generous and so abundant in life that there is another way to live.

Human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

In another translation it says human anger cannot be a tool that brings about the kingdom of heaven.

God does not need our human response in that way, in anger.

I want to tell you what changes the world beloved.

It is love.

Love changes everything.

In fact, we see this in the message of Jesus, in how he lives his life.

It is this cruciform-shaped love.

I like in 20, one translation I read it was it can never produce the righteousness of God, human anger.

So we need to be able to understand that there is an emotion of anger and that's part of who you are and that's okay.

But for us to be, you know, I said for so long, you know, I would say, and I've heard other people say it and it's crazy when you say it, but for me I justified it.

It's like you know, I know anger is wrong, but if you push me too far, or I know anger is wrong, but you got to understand, everyone's got a line.

So what I was saying is there's an excuse and there's at some point where my cork gets to blow and whatever damage that does to you, it's kind of your fault because you pushed me there, or it's kind of your fault because your collateral damage hey, just warning in advance, chernobyl is about to blow or at any moment it might because I'm giving myself that kind of leeway.

And the bottom line was I thought that that was okay because the people in my life who I looked up to did it that way and so I was trained that way and so I was trained and I was trained very well, but I had to hear God saying there is another way, that that that human anger will never produce the righteousness of God, and I need that in my life.

And so you know what I've learned?

That that, um, it's okay, and I even kind of need to really set and lean in to those feelings of anger.

Why am I angry, you know, and just kind of sit in my car and be angry for a little bit, not indulge myself in the human anger which manifests in you know, even to the point that, as your pastor, I'm ashamed to say it, but I'm pretty good at profanity.

I'm skilled in the it, but I'm pretty good at profanity.

I'm skilled in the craft.

I'm not Samuel L Jackson level, but I'm right up there.

And the thing is I always justified that.

I know the scripture said your words, but we're freed from all that.

So why am I putting myself in bondage?

But the truth is, I have come to realize this painful truth for me, that profanity is the language of the angry.

When you're angry you'll cuss and what you're doing is you're spinning yourself into an energy.

I've heard recently I don't know if it's true or not, but I think it's cool that bees flap their wings to create a frequency that causes them to float.

They really can't fly physically.

Now, I don't know if that's true, but even if it's not, leave me with my internet fantasy, because I think that's cool sounding, but I'm convinced that I.

Is it true?

You're a bee expert?

Oh, don't tell me.

Don't tell me.

If it's not true, that's right, I want to keep it.

Don't tell me, but I want I.

I'm here to tell you that I buzzed myself into a, an anger frenzy.

That frequency and my cussing just brought me right to that place.

Now, I'm not saying anything about you.

I'm saying saying here, if you look and you'll find these things going hand in hand, why do I allow myself this?

Why do I indulge myself?

If I look over when I start using those words and I look at Silas, he's cringed.

You know what I mean.

He's all tensed up.

He doesn't know what's going to happen next.

He's 11 years old.

What about the people around you?

What is the fallout for us?

Indulging ourselves?

And that's what it is.

It's hard work to go.

Okay, I'm feeling these things.

I need to feel them and then I need to.

Let God help me to take another path, besides the path of human anger.

Verse 21 says so get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives.

Now, this is back to.

This is your job, see, because a lot of times we want God to rid us of things that God has already told us, that that's on us.

I mean, we want God to rid us of the hunger that I still can't believe it.

I mean, I live in this place and I try very hard.

It is my intention not to argue with reality but, beloved, I do it all the time.

I can't believe that we're still here and the children are starving.

Do you know how much food waste there is in the world?

There's plenty.

God gave us all enough, but because of greed and many, many other things, there are still starving children.

And do you know what I want to say to God?

Please fix it.

Please have mercy on us.

And you know what God said Beloved, you fix it.

It's our responsibility.

Do you know?

God does not need us to end slavery.

That's our job.

God does not need to come in and do the things he's saying.

You get rid of the evil.

You get rid of it.

You've been given the power.

Stop behaving in a way that means that you don't understand your scarcity, that you don't understand your abundance, that there is nothing that you have need of that God will not provide.

And so we live in this place and we point our fingers at God and say, well, I don't know why God didn't do it, because, beloved, you're there, do it, feed your neighbors.

That's why we get together and we feed our neighbors and we do the works that we have.

In fact, james says this a little bit later.

In fact, if you haven't already read it, he says if you have faith and you don't have works, your faith is dead.

Don't even say you have faith if you don't have this evidence.

And so the invitation is for us to say what will we do to rid these things around us that we call evil?

And it says and humbly, accept the word that God has planted in your heart, for it has the power to save your soul.

The word of life, the wisdom of Christ, the love of God, has the power to save us.

To save us from ourselves, to save us from the patterns that we're in, to save us from ways that we oppress brothers and sisters, to save us in the way that we can't even imagine.

Beloved, we need the Holy Spirit to give us a holy imagination.

What would it look like for us to live in a world where no child goes to bed hungry?

That's heaven on earth.

Beloved.

What would it look like for us to no longer train our sons for war?

Beloved?

The prophet Amos from Africa, thousands of years ago, said can you imagine this is the way of God, that you would no longer train your sons for war, that you would take your weapons and you would beat them into plowshares, into pruning hooks, so that together we could farm this beautiful land and feed everyone?

He said what would that be?

It's thousands of years later and we're still making weapons and we're still killing our brothers and sisters.

Beloved, what would that be?

It's thousands of years later and we're still making weapons and we're still killing our brothers and sisters Beloved.

This should not be, and it's our responsibility to get rid of the evil, and we do it not through human anger.

We're not going to make a bigger bomb.

We can't bomb our way to peace.

That's not how it works.

The truth of it is we need to allow love to be formed in us, hope to be formed in us, the evidence of God's spirit.

Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, hope, patience, all these things to be so formed in us that we understand what God has always been telling us there is another way to live, there is another path, and it is the path of love.

And humbly accept the word of God as planted in your hearts, for it is the power to save your souls.

You know, I think that we look at this sometimes and go, oh, look at the poor, miserable souls that need to be saved by God.

And so God saves souls.

But I wonder if, with any kind of Bible study at all, you could understand that soul means mind, will and emotions, that God is not talking about the sweet by and by, because in heaven you know what.

You're not going to have an anger problem.

It's going to be done away with.

What you need is help with your mind, will and emotions now.

And he's saying that his word in us, that God, by the power of the Spirit of God coming into us, can help us now with my mind, with my will, because I want to be like Jesus.

Not my will, but yours be done, and we can say that to God Almighty, that my emotions would not be so out of control and just tossing me where some days I can't even get out of bed and some days I can believe that God is instructing us, that these are the offers of following after him and of these practices of the ordinary.

How is it?

I don't know, come to church weekly.

How does that equate to transformation?

I don't know, you know, but it does.

That's one of the practices having regular communion, fasting once in a while, these kind of things, they're not, you know, a cloud coming down, you know, and kissing the mountain and us walking around with tablets of things.

Sometimes it's just, you know.

I showed up for church and pastor said that one thing that stirred in my spirit and it's changing me, you know, and so we can embrace this.

I don't know how those ordinary things do it, but you string those ordinary things together.

I had a pastor come, a friend of mine and he I've known him.

He's been a pastor at several different mega churches and he's the reason why he's went to several different churches.

He'd do real well for a while and then he'd get amnesia and forget who his wife is, and then his current wife will remind him that that one he's with isn't his wife and then he'll fall from grace and then he'll marry that one and just rinse and repeat.

And he came here a few years ago and he just stood here after everybody left and he cried.

He said I don't know what it would be like to have what you have.

You've been here for 20 years and he goes.

Those people love you and they appreciate you.

And Heather, he goes.

I'm from church to church.

Listen, he's been on all the magazines, all the Christian magazines.

He's been on all the Christian recording labels.

He's done all that cool stuff, that successful stuff.

But what his heart was longing for was some.

What do they call that time, good time?

Not even that one Game time.

All the people who have been in trouble with the law don't shout out right now Ain't looking at anybody.

But just that time where we're in the ordinary plugging away and no one sees you, but you decide that you're going to praise him.

No one sees you, but you're not going to flip that guy off in your car, you're just going to decide to be generous.

Those that are ordinary watch the transformation sneak up on you and make you just a different person.

But don't just listen to God's word.

You must do what it says.

And there's the difference, beloved, because we could all listen to a good thing, but who actually wants to do what we're told?

I mean, come on, we want to do what we want, not what we're told.

And here's what the apostle is telling us Listen, if it's going to make a difference.

Do what you're told, otherwise you are only fooling yourself.

The invitation is to new life.

The invitation is actually to remember who you really are.

The invitation is to return to love.

The invitation is to live out of the holy that you are.

Otherwise, we are just fooling ourselves that what we are doing we're entitled to, or this is an excuse for this, beloved.

We are love.

We are to be people trained in love.

Don Don't just listen to the word.

Do what it says.

Now the question is well, what does the word say?

What does the law actually say?

I mean, let's start arguments here, beloved.

We can go back and forth, and that's why Jesus said this is the truth of it Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

The whole law is summed up in love.

And so you must ask yourself, I must ask myself is what I'm thinking?

Love Is what I am meditating on loving?

And firstly, we need to love ourselves before we can even love our neighbors.

And so the invitation is that the Spirit would help us.

For if you listen to the word, will you help us with that?

Will you go to the next screen, please?

To the word, will you help us with that?

Will you go to the next screen, please?

Nope, go back to 24, please Now try 23 for me, thank you.

If you listen to the word and don't obey, it's like glancing at your face in a mirror and the next one you see yourself, you walk away and you forget what you look like.

Now we're at the end of the service and we're going to come to communion in just a moment, and he's reminding the people here, and he says something incredible.

He said it's the perfect law of liberty.

Dennis and I were talking about this this week that one of the core values of Jesus was liberty.

I've come to set captives free.

Liberty.

Love liberates, love always liberates.

Love does not bind us, love does not control us.

Love does not hold over us.

Love is a liberator.

It always has been.

We see this in the message of Jesus.

When you look at the law of liberty, you see who you really are.

But very often we walk away and we forget what we look like.

We forget we are made in the image of love.

We forget whose we are and who we are.

I have a terrible story of something that happened to me and I will remind you of it because it was a humility for me, and in following the saints they ask for one great humility every day.

I have found mine.

It has happened more than one occasion, but we were on a team overseas and we were bringing help to people and for more than seven hours that ride I was standing in the back of a pickup truck holding on to the overhead bar like a city bus, but it was a bar that somebody had rigged up and we were traveling down mountain roads that were filled with dust and terrible things and the exhaust of the fumes and whatever.

And we got to the place that we were going to and I went into the bathroom and I washed my hands and I looked at my face in a very, very old mirror and I tell you that it was old because it was one of those mirrors where you can't see yourself clearly it's.

You know, sometimes they have like black behind them and you see yourself, but you don't really see yourself.

And that's the mirror I looked in and I washed my hands and I looked at myself and I was fine and I went out and I met everybody that was going to be on my team and with joy and with expression I talked to everyone and beloved.

When I turned around, one of the people on my team said turned around.

One of the people on my team said your face is filthy, not dirty, beloved, not just travel-worn.

My face was filthy, like I had intentionally put filth on my face.

It's like a raccoon.

It was horrible.

It was horrible not because I was dirty, because that's fine, but because with such confidence, I went in there like I had a clean face.

I'm not talking about my makeup was moved, beloved, I was just filthy.

I mean, if I would have seen a child, I would have been like let's wash your face before we talk about anything.

Don't go in there telling what you're going to do when you look like this.

Clean yourself up.

But I had looked and what I had looked at it was not the mirror's fault that I looked like that.

That was myself.

That was a fine mirror, I found out later.

But I looked at that mirror and it wasn't an old mirror.

That was the filth that was on me and I said the mirror is wrong.

I looked at that quickly and I thought, oh, that's a broken mirror.

And I continued in my way and this is why I'm talking.

It's a great humility.

I looked at something I said oh, that's, oh God, put a curtain over that mirror.

And you know, this is what we do all the time.

We hear something like don't be angry and allow your anger to harm people, and we're like well, you know, just put a mirror or a cover over that mirror.

That's not me.

Allow yourself.

The mirror should have said to me, because the mirror is just the mirror Wash your face, beloved, you know.

Clean up before you do this.

I mean, this is again what we teach small children.

But I went with such confidence and I would say not just confidence, arrogance I am here to help with a filthy face.

I feel like they would have said you know how about you wash your face first after seven hours of travel like that.

But I had judged that the mirror was not correct, instead of looking at myself and going, maybe I need to clean this.

And I'm saying this is what the apostle is telling us the word of liberty, the word that is truth, tells us that we are loved, that we are always loved by God, and nothing we will do will separate us from God's love.

And Jesus is saying look at yourself.

The Apostle James is saying take a look, go inward and pay attention here and compare it to the perfect law of liberty.

I wanted to ask you to think about.

You know, like, what is the real you, you know, and what is it when you walk away, you know, I think that that's something that the spirit of god, uh, already lets you know, like you don't have to, really, you can fight it and argue it, but you know that you know what when you've walked away from it, and what I'm beginning to really understand at this age, and I'm so ashamed for not, you know, not have been willing to bend my knee to this so much earlier, but there's such arrogance and pride and selfishness in my desires and for me to for whatever, to be noticed by someone, to be recognized, to be valued.

You know, and here Christ shows us, lay down your life, you know, but I want to, you know, just even to say something.

Oftentimes, you know, as a pastor, I want my life to matter for something, you know, but I want to, you know, just even even to say something.

Oftentimes, you know, as a pastor, I want my life to matter for something.

You know, uh, uh, it's all, it sounds good and all, all noble, but there's still that place where I am being recognized, and I think that.

I think that for all of us if we'd recognize.

Where is it that we are pulling away from God's way and we want our own way?

And in that way we walk away and we forget who we really are, because who you really are, you're made by God, from God, all of your stuff.

Where did he go?

Did he go to the Walmart and pick up sage material, or did God himself make sage?

You are God, so if you'll just be you, that's the best version you know and that's the intention he made you.

God knows what he's doing when he made me, but when I try to steer the ship because of what I want, I pull away and I forget who I really am.

Now it's not just me.

Each one of us, church.

We struggle in this place.

Is this too deep?

Are you done?

This is some good stuff now that we walk away and we forget who we really are, and then we start acting like that one that's mean and angry or selfish, and we walk away from who God made us to be.

If you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free and if you do what it says and don't forget what you have heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

If you claim to be religious but don't control your tongue, you are fooling yourself and your religion is worthless.

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the values of this world corrupt you.

This is true religion that we would actually live out when we see this category widows and orphans.

Years ago, thousands of years ago, this was a group of people who were vulnerable.

I can't imagine this kind of thing.

I say this in horrible jest.

Widows and orphans are still in terrible vulnerability and he's saying to us that, as people who follow Jesus, we have to care for the vulnerable and look around, because the groups have gotten larger.

Look for the margins and go to them and be Christ to them, be right there with them.

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring, means the doing, means being a part of that.

I told the story of my humiliation with looking at a mirror and deciding the mirror was broken, instead of the filth on my own face and I want to tell you how I changed.

I was a part of community.

I had some good friends who were also looking at me and said to me she didn't say your face is smudged.

She didn't say you're dusty.

She looked at me and mouthed you're filthy.

I knew exactly what I was when she said that Community actually allowed me to come to a freedom where I could go and wash my face.

Sometimes we need our brothers and sisters.

We have convinced ourselves that we're fine the way that we have.

We convinced ourselves that the measuring tool of God is somehow broken and we need community to look at us and go.

You got to stop.

You have to wash your face, beloved, you have to do what you know to do, and the invitation is that we would come to the table.

This is the message of Jesus.

This is the practice of holy communion.

This is why we come every week.

We enter into the table.

This is the message of Jesus.

This is the practice of Holy Communion.

This is why we come every week.

We enter into the mystery, we practice the holy, we remind ourselves that we are welcomed at the table of God.

In fact, it is, in fact, why Jesus starts the meal, and we're reminded of this, that this is the truth for us.

We are reminded that Jesus removes from us anything that separates us from the table.

Our dirty feet he's washed them for us.

Our filthy hands he has washed them for us.

But we have to allow it.

Very often we are like Peter.

He was like I'm not going to let you do that for me because you are too holy.

And Jesus said listen, if you don't let me do this for you, you can't even eat here.

Let me do this.

And Jesus is offering this same thing for us.

Let these practices in us, let this generosity in us.

If you hear the word and don't do it, your religion is useless.

Beloved, do what you know to do.

Be generous, be loving, be kind, be compassionate toward yourself and toward others.

This is how the world changes, you know, I, I want to, before we move on, and we will here.

Uh, it's just, uh, you know, look at means caring for orphans and widows, those, those that were the lowliest.

This is what God is, you know.

Reminding us is important, okay, and I wanted to share a quick story as we close in.

And there was a lady that was a shut-in at a church in California.

She was connected with the church, but she could never come because she just was so depressed, and so she wouldn't leave her house to go to church or go anywhere.

In fact, people were bringing in her groceries.

She was very wealthy and inherited money and could function financially, but as far as emotionally, she just was trapped.

And someone in the church said if you'll just come meet with the pastor, we believe that you'll get a breakthrough.

And so somehow this woman mustered the courage to come to the church and the pastor said I'll meet with you in the kitchen in a moment.

And she was standing there waiting for him and he came in.

And when he came in, he had a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jelly and a couple loaves of white bread, and he said I want you to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and uh, so she took about 20 minutes and made the sandwiches and she says, oh, he said okay, get in the van with me.

And uh, they got in the church van and they drove like about a block from the church and they just stopped and they got out and there was all these homeless people right there on the corner, just right by the church, and they started handing out these sandwiches to people and she said I couldn't figure out what you were doing, but I mean, this is incredible.

I am enjoying myself so much and just think, just a block from where we worship, these people are here and look how grateful they are.

So she goes, can we do this again?

He said, yeah, if you'll meet me here, I'll do this every day with you.

And so she met every day and go back and do this and eventually led to her running and taking care of one of the largest food banks there in the city in California, there.

And what had happened is she found the purpose Because she can have all the stuff and have all the provision, but there's something missing and for us that you know, the secret is is is kept from us, it's, it's taking care of other people.

It's not about you when you make it about you, and you're the idol.

God's not on the throne and it's never going to go well with you and you and and so, uh, if Jesus is on the throne, that means we got to get off, and and if we're off the throne, that means we're a servant, just like everybody else, and servants do what they serve.

And so I'm asking you, if you don't already know who are your widows and orphans, who are the marginalized, who are the people that that God is sending you to to pour out on them as a drink offering.

Who is it?

Because the people that I do know that are satisfied at work are the people that have found their place to just give for people.

Wherever you are, I'm telling you that that god has probably put you there and there, and the and those widows and orphans, those, those people are around you.

You know, that's one thing I've noticed about thomas.

You know you, thomas, been missing for a while.

You know he's living in puerto rico now, but but my son Thomas, no matter where he goes, he's got his congregation, his friends, his workplace, you know, and he's always roping me in to help in his congregation.

Remember one time he goes, get in the car, we gotta go.

I'm like, where are we going?

And we showed up at this little girl's house that had a baby and she couldn't put her crib together.

And so all of a sudden, I was in the back room of this hot house putting a crib together, and there was no place I wanted to be on the earth more than with my son serving some one of God's daughters who couldn't even put her crib together.

What did it cost me?

A couple hours I sweat in the back room, but she's got a crib.

Now she can put her baby in Because we use the little gift that we have that we can put some stuff together.

Between the two of us, we figured the directions out, but you know, will we go anywhere with this message today?

Will we look for who is it that we can serve and where is it that we can hold our tongue and not allow that human anger to continue?

And let God move through us church.

We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon.

If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurchorg.