IS YOUR FAITH EVEN WORTH ANYTHING? | PASTOR LUKE LEZON

all right anybody grateful for our

family advocacy

ministries we got things happening on

multiple levels uh we got local national

international just a beautiful thing to

see the way that God is using this place

to make an impact on the world and so

kudos to everybody in here that has in

some way shape or form been a po a part

of really the point of what it is that

we're going to get into a little bit

here today and so uh welcome to Life for

Church everybody how's everyone feeling

we doing all right we're doing

well it is so great to see you and to be

here with you all this morning i am so

grateful that we are gathered together

in this house and I'm grateful because

we are continuing in a collection of

conversations that we've been in over

the course of the past several weeks

that we have been calling Walk the Walk

and Walk the Walk is simply a collection

or a discussion that has us living and

lingering within the book of James and

James wants to make sure that we're a

people that practice what we preach and

so we've taken this title for the

collection from a famed phrase that says

"Don't just talk the talk but rather

walk the walk." And we understand that

James understands what the Christian

walk looks like he realizes that we live

in a broken and a fallen world that is

sick with sin sin which separates us

from a holy and a perfect God so much so

that Romans 6:23 would say "For the

Romans 6:23

wages of sin is death which is more than

just a physical death but an eternal

spiritual death eternal separation from

a holy and a perfect God who cannot be

wholly perfect or just if he allows sin

in the camp." We had no way to hope

outside of radical rescuing and

intervening much of which we ended up

celebrating this past week together that

we needed some kind of redemptive work

on our behalf because we could not do it

ourselves and the beautiful thing is

that in a merciful demonstration of

sacrificial love and grace we see that

in Jesus Christ there is salvation yes

uh that Ephesians 1:7 would say in him

Ephesians 1:7

is redemption the forgiveness of sin and

so we're here today with this

understanding we cannot be saved by our

works we do not achieve our way to God

but rather the good news of the gospel I

is that we receive the free gift that

Jesus Christ has paid for on our behalf

that the good news of the gospel is not

that you and I now have the ability to

kind of make our way up to God the good

news of the gospel is that God came down

to us in the flesh in the person of his

son we're not saved by our works and at

the same time those who have been saved

and are being sanctified will

demonstrate works of an individual that

is walking with the Lord in their life

that we have renewed hearts but we also

have engaged heads and hands in the work

that God is doing in this world on earth

in Orlando as it is in heaven amen and

so we are going to jump into James uh

James 1 26 and 27 is where we're going

to be we're going to go through more

than that uh but we are going to

certainly end up in that spot and find

ourselves making sense of everything

that James is saying at this point

despite the fact that we've had Easter

in between are we recovered from Easter

where are you guys seem like a little

little sleepy i get it not a whole lot

not like you should be sleepy like I'm

sleepy but I get it you know what I mean

uh listen there's people in this place i

almost made a joke last week i want you

to know this i shouldn't tell you this

but I'm going to do it anyway uh there

there I almost made a joke last week but

thank God for plurality and elders and

other pastors because I almost got up

there at the end of every gathering at

Easter and said "See you guys at

Christmas," but they wouldn't let me say

it uh and so here we are gathered

together in this place and if that's you

we're grateful you're here but hey also

this is a place where we're serious

about commitment so uh we are grateful

congratulations to you guys for being

back here the week after Easter the true

saints you

know let's talk about pride james

James 1:26

1 verse 26 and 27 says this if anyone

thinks he is religious without

controlling his tongue his religion is

useless and he deceives himself pure and

undefiled religion before God the Father

is this to look after orphans and widows

in their distress and to keep oneself

unstained from the world let's pray

together uh Lord in all seriousness I am

uh grateful for the faithfulness of uh

this house and the people that are

committed to seeing your work happen and

so Lord I'm grateful for these missions

efforts that we are putting forth lord

would we continue to see your hand at

work in the world and would we have a

hand in that that we wouldn't just be a

people that are like if there's issues

in the world then where is God well you

sent us and so Lord would we partner in

that and then Lord today just would we

be a people that gather around your word

with the seriousness of seeing it do a

work within us that we're not just

people that are here to say like "Yes

we're we're aware of what your word has

to say but we we actually want to do

what your word says." And so Lord as we

find ourselves navigating it today would

we look a little bit more like you as a

result of our time in it lord we love

you we praise you and we thank you we

ask these things in Jesus name

amen well uh between 1190 and 1180 BC

the Trojan War ended up being ignited

between the Trojans and Greek allies and

this would be a decadel long siege now

here's what you got to understand is

that uh the Trojan War is somewhat

historical but also also mythological in

nature that uh you'll see that it will

make many appearances throughout history

that you see the Trojan War ends up

appearing in things like Homer's Iliad

and Odyssey it makes a stronger

appearance in Virgil's Anid but it's

historical from the standpoint that yes

there was a city of Troy yes there were

wars that they were engaged in but

somewhat mythological in the sense that

people don't really know about all the

tales that surround them the heroes that

were involved and what we'll see today

even is the utilization of horses in

those battles but for the sake of the

conversation that we're having today

what we know to be somewhat true is that

the Trojan War ends up being ignited

when Paris of Troy ends up eloping and

escaping with Helen who is the wife of

Menelas the Greek king of Sparta he does

not really love the idea of his wife

running away with this individual that

is taking her back to Troy and so as a

result he wants to rally these Greek

kings to go and make war on Troy for

multiple reasons outside of his own

pride and so we see that he'll do so

he'll rally his brother Agamemnon and

others to go and make war on the beaches

of Troy as this happens we see that this

war ends up being ignited over romance

but also over pride honor and super

fragile alliances we see that there will

be famed death after famed death that

Prince Hector of Troy will end up

perishing in this battle the Greek

legend Achilles will end up perishing in

this battle but what we also see is that

the battle actually won't be much of a

battle uh that it's kind of reached a

stalemate after a decade because

relentless Greek determination is

meeting these impenetrable Trojan

defenses and so they're just kind of

skirmishing here and there until one day

something that's pretty unprecedented

ends up happening one day the Trojans

end up going down to make war on the

Greek allies and what they recognize is

that they are not there they've left

that the Greek allies seemingly have

just abandoned their post they're

nowhere to be found they've sailed away

but they haven't left them with nothing

they've left behind a huge wooden horse

as a gift for the Trojans which is

essentially signifying and saying to

them "Hey this is a peace offering we

surrender we want you to know that we're

done with this thing and so can we be

done after a decade?" And in that the

Trojans are feeling victorious they take

this as their own triumph they're like

"Yes we are victorious y'all could do

nothing against us look at us go." And

so they want to bring this wooden horse

this wooden gift into the city gates and

as they do so they want to drink and

celebrate heavily on that evening about

the fact that this war is over and the

problem is that they will but that the

Greeks had actually not left and gone

very far they went far enough away to

look like they had deserted but they

were also close enough to where they

could sail back under the cover of

darkness and they will within that horse

that is now brought into the city gates

what emerged were all of these Greek

soldiers that were hiding on the inside

of it and so they emerge they end up

opening up the gates of Troy which allow

all of the Greek allies that have sailed

back to enter into the city and we see

that they will kill everyone in their

path and they will end up bringing the

women and the children captive under

their regime and the city is sacked

burned and destroyed all in a single

night that we see that previously they

had made no progress none greek soldiers

and swords had not made any kind of

progress against Trojan defenses and

what we see is that there would be one

option that was left on the table and so

they will utilize it that there was one

tool that they could use that could have

a devastating effect and impact words

that they will leave behind a gift that

essentially said to the Trojans "You're

right you guys win we lose we're done

with this thing and because the Trojans

believe this we see that smooth words

will create for them catastrophic

struggle that we see with the Trojan war

and this Trojan horse that will come to

be known as that within it we see

something happening that James is

proclaiming it looks impressive on the

outside like one who thinks he's

religious but on the inside there's

something that you cannot see that we

see that Troy would not fall because

that horse is used like a battering ram

on the city gates but rather we see that

it will end up being something that is

able to sneak into the city when they

previously could not it is not going to

be a sword that creates the advantage it

is going to be speech that creates the

advantage that we see the city will not

fall because they fell to brute strength

but rather because they believe a

beautiful lie and something small ends

up creating something that is more than

a struggle but ends up sacking the whole

city as a result of them believing this

lie and we see that James is going to

really get at the heart of that in this

first verse that we read that small

things that end up happening with our

mouths can end up creating devastating

effects if we're not careful and it can

also indicate who we are and so you see

that in James chapter 1 26 it will say

James 1 · chapter mention

this if anyone thinks he is religious

without controlling his tongue his

religion is useless and he deceives

himself uh which is really something

interesting to note whenever you think

about everything that's been written up

to this point which I'll be honest with

you I don't think there's many of us

that recall what has been written up to

this point can I just be honest with you

like with Easter in between I I think

there's a lot of us that are like "How

did we get here i don't really know what

happened." Uh and so I'm going to take

the liberty today of doing a little bit

of backtracking so we can do some

homework to trace patterns of things

that I said really three weeks ago

things that Pastor Brian said two weeks

ago as we skipped kind of Easter and now

landed here i think some of us get to

verse 26 and 27 and like why are we

talking about widows and orphans and

controlling the tongue how did this

happen and so I'm going to do that as

long as we're okay with that does that

work for us today here a little bit

that's great because that was a

rhetorical question and so James chapter

James 1:18

1 verse 18 if you recall he will say

this james says "The Lord by his own

choice gave us birth by the word of

truth." James says "The word of truth is

what the Lord brought us forth by it's

what we were birthed with." What is the

word of truth the word of truth is the

gospel message of Jesus Christ that we

are a people that came to understand

what's been revealed to us in the

scriptures and what that means for us

that we have been saved rescued born

again birthed and brought forth by the

word of truth that the Lord James says

the Lord by his own choice gave you new

life by the word of truth which I think

many of us we can kind of take that

lightly we can be like yeah okay what's

next like I know that obviously and it's

like whoa what wait a minute wait a

minute that's a big deal and I think a

lot of times we don't recognize the

significance of what's being said

because often times we can have a little

bit of slothfulness around our

sinfulness that that we just kind of act

like it's not that big of a deal do you

know how in trouble we were before we

encountered the word of truth like the

scripture does not say I was a smidge

off just just just tad off here just

need a little course correction right

there just No no no it says you were

dead in your sin it doesn't even say

that you were bad in your sin it says

that you were dead i'd rather be bad

than dead it says that you were dead in

your sin but the Lord by his own choice

come on brought you forth gave you life

by the word of truth that's everybody's

testimony in a sentence here i was dead

in my sin and I was made alive again

because of the finished work of Jesus

Christ because of the word of truth that

all of us were made alive we were

forgiven we were made new because we

encountered the word of truth minus all

of the other messy gory details of your

testimony and can I just tell you it

doesn't matter what life was like before

this like your testimony could be the

most chill thing in the world where

you're like I was born in a Christian

home Christian parents went to Christian

camp went to Christian church went to

Christian school even went to a

Christian college look at me go and then

I found myself in a place where it's

like I think I actually need to be a

Christian in order for this to make

sense yes or you could be all the way

over here and you could be like that is

so good for you we would not have hung

out in high school i was drunk stoned

high strip club all things like I was

over here and so we wouldn't have been

friends here's what's crazy you were

both dead in your sin like like you were

both dead in your sin and the truth of

the matter is you realized when you

encountered the word of truth I am in

need of rescue and I'm hearing that

there's a rescuer so as dead as I was in

my sin I am more alive than I ever

imagined that I could be because of the

grace of God available to me in Jesus

Christ that my sin might be more dire

than I care to have

admitted but grace is better than I

deserve and by his own choice the Lord

made us new alive again gave us birth by

the word of truth he goes on to say in

verses 19- 20 "Brothers and sisters

understand this everyone should be quick

to listen slow to speak slow to anger

for human anger does not accomplish

God's righteousness." We're all good at

that

right

no james says "Hey the Lord chose to

give you new life birthed you by the

word of truth you're changed and you're

being changed you're being sanctified

you've been saved and born again but

remember the context of what James is

saying that doesn't mean that you got

Jesus dust sprinkled all over and you

and now you float and just are like you

don't do that like that all happened

within the context of knowing and you

still go through trials that bring with

them temptations and James is saying the

way that you respond to those things is

going to be indicative of the level that

you are living your life in submission

to the Holy Spirit's work in you see how

do you respond to those trials and

temptations and so what we see is he

says "Be quick to listen slow to speak

slow to anger which we're not good at

i've read your

Facebook it's embarrassing."

We have a phrase that we'll say here uh

at the church often and it it really

mimics what snipers in the military say

slow is smooth and smooth is fast i

think the world would be a lot better

off if we weren't interested in

reporting things first but reporting

them accurate and so we don't just want

to say stuff or do stuff just quick

quick and get get all these shots fired

off well who who wants to just pull the

trigger when you actually have a target

like you want to actually hit it what

you're aiming at and so yes could you

shoot quickly yes but rather rather than

making quick decisions make good ones we

want to react in such a way that the

world would know yes there is something

different at work within me yes before I

encountered the word of truth I would

have absolutely gone crazy in this

situation even sometimes I still might

but I will have to apologize for it that

we find ourselves in those circumstances

repeatedly and so he says "Hey be quick

to listen slow to speak slow to anger."

He talks about what doesn't accomplish

God's righteousness and then he talks

about what does accomplish God's

righteousness he says here in verse 21

"Ridding yourselves of all moral filth

and the evil that is so prevalent humbly

receive the implanted word which is able

to save your souls." One of the better

books that I read over the past like 10

years is a book called Educated by Tara

Westover it's a memoir please don't go

buy the book and be like "Do you endorse

everything that she No I don't endorse i

just like to read books sometimes y'all

i know it's a crazy concept sometimes

you can read people who disagree with

you and learn from that and so what we

see is that in this book it was a crazy

tale about how she grew up in the

mountains of Idaho and her family was

super anti-education super doomsday

prepper energy like like super

survivalists like the world's coming to

an end all that stuff and so in the

midst of that though something crazy

happened her mom got really into

essential oils like some of you are

really into essential oils and and we

see I saw the funniest thing somebody

said the other day "Hey let someone

believe in God you believe in essential

oils like it's fine." uh like that that

she got into essential

oils and then she started a business off

of it and it started like profit a lot

and and which was crazy given the

context of where they live and what they

believe and and so Tara Westover talks

about how there was like really crazy

work that she and her family would have

to do in order to live on this mountain

and it would be brutal sometimes and she

said it would not be crazy for us to

come back to the house and we have like

a thirdderee burn or our femur's been

snapped in half and we're like "Mom help

us." And she's like "Let me

think a touch of lavender to the temples

ought to do it." And it's like

"No no that's not that's not helpful my

femur's in half like I need a cast or an

antibiotic i need something helpful not

just what you know the best." The truth

of the matter is that she was providing

superficial remedies to much deeper

wounds and the Lord is not just saying

"Y'all have been birthed by the word of

truth." Now good luck out there kids he

said "No no no there's something deeper

that he's doing in you still." That yes

you've been birthed by the word of truth

but how many of you know you got to have

it buried in you too that it says that

he birthed us but then it says "Humbly

receive have buried in you the

implanted

word." That we've been birthed by the

word of truth but the word of truth is

also buried within

us i think it's one thing for us to

recognize like yeah we've all received

the word of truth we've heard the word

of truth it's another thing to receive

that humbly can I get a witness uh you

ever encountered someone and it's like

hey I I I think you have encountered the

word of truth but I feel like you

received it arrogantly

it's really

pheriseical where it's like I I think

you actually do have it buried within

you because you are spewing stuff out of

your mind i just don't know that it's

written on your heart it reminds me of

the most haunting parable that Jesus

will tell when he talks about how there

were two different individuals that went

to pray a Pharisee and a tax collector

and he says the Pharisee went up to pray

and he said "Lord I thank you that I'm

not like all these other

losers greedy adulterers unrighteous."

He said "Thank you i'm not like this tax

collector you seen the things that he

does things he doesn't do so I I I fast

twice a week i give a tenth of

everything that I get and then the tax

collector that this guy was just making

fun of and saying he doesn't love the

Lord because of this this and this he

goes up to pray and he says "Lord have

mercy on me a sinner." And Jesus says

"Which of them do you think went down to

his home justified?" The latter there's

different ways to receive the implanted

word and it will produce things in

different ways uh you'll actually see

that 1 Peter chapter 1 vers 23 would say

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

this because you've been born again not

of perishable seed but of imperishable

through the living and enduring word

notice that the word of God is like a

seed pastor Brian said that a couple of

weeks ago and you see that it very much

will end up mimicking things that Jesus

has already said in Luke 8:es 5-8 that

you remember Jesus would give the

parable of the soils and it'll say that

a swer swed seed the word of God some

fell along the path and it was trampled

and the birds devoured it other seed

fell on rock and it grew up but then it

withered because of the lack of moisture

other seed fell among the thorns and the

thorns grew up with it choked it out

other seed fell on good ground and

produced fruit a h 100 times what was

sown what is good soil an honest and a

humble heart that receives the implanted

word is a good

soil you notice James goes on to say "So

be doers of the word and not hearers

only deceiving

yourselves." In in Jesus magnum opus as

he's preaching the sermon on the mount

he beautifully demonstrates to these

people that there's something different

about him his wisdom is beyond belief he

obviously is someone different than just

any other prophet in Matthew chapter 5

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

all the way through Matthew 7 you see

that he goes through the biatitudes and

the sermon on the mount it's amazing but

what I love the most is the way that he

ends up ending it as a way of just

saying "Okay that's great that you all

just heard that but now what are we

going to do about it?" And he'll end up

saying those who hear my words and do

something about them that individual is

like someone who's a wise man they built

their house on the rock and when you

build your house on the rock when the

storms of life come your home will still

stand but those of you that hear the

things that I'm saying you hear my words

but you don't act on them you're like a

foolish man that built his house on the

sand that when the storms of life come

then their home is going to crumble he

says one of those lead to flourishing

and the other one leads to failure jesus

is saying here how are you building your

life h how are you constructing your

life we're all building our life and and

Jesus is just the voice that James is

the echo of here he says "Hey storms are

going to show up they're going to happen

doesn't matter if they're big small

they're going to hurt on some level it's

not if it's when and what are you

building your life on are you building

your life on your

feelings are you building your life on

your career are you bu how are you

building your life it's all going to go

away at some point and is the word of

God a mere suggestion when you get to

these types of things and it's like

"Yeah I'll use that for this." Uh but

then whenever you ultimately find

something it's like "Ah this feels a

little bit controversial." You're like

"Just disregard it i don't know why it

says that either." Or is it the

foundation upon which you construct

everything in your life jesus is saying

"Hey it doesn't make sense to listen to

what I have to say and to not do

something about it." Because when you do

what I've said you'll notice that not

only will you flourish but others around

you will as well and if you don't it

ultimately ends in failure it doesn't

make sense to say "Hey I know something

but I'm not going to do anything about

it." Imagine that I collapsed right now

with a medical issue please no but

imagine that I collapsed right now with

a medical issue and somebody in here had

the sense to say "Is there a doctor in

here?" Which by the way is there a

doctor in

here all right well I really hope I

don't drop dead then uh like

And don't just random people be coming

up doing CPR let me go all right

so like it would be bizarre if I

collapsed right here and someone's like

I'm a doctor and they looked at me and

they're

like that's tough and just walked away

but that's how you read the word of God

as dumb as that

sounds that's how dumb we live our

life chief offender right

here we all struggle with this and so

James will take it further he doubles

down he doesn't let up he says "If

anyone's a hearer of the word and not a

doer," he's like someone looking at his

own face in a mirror he looks at himself

goes away and immediately forgets what

kind of person he was what's James

saying he's saying "Don't look in a

mirror like I look in a mirror when I

look in a mirror I don't really care

what's going on i'm ready to start the

day." If Lindsay and I need to be

somewhere on

time some somebody said

"Careful." A death

sentence is if she finds her way back

into the bathroom with 15 minutes to go

because she'll find like a single strand

no strand left behind is her tag and

she's tucking it in singing a lullabi

make sure it's good like it's happy like

she runs a full diagnostic on her outfit

she runs a full diagnostic on her hair

and her look and if I step in front of a

mirror I'm like "That's a mess but let's

go." Uh and I just don't care and here's

the thing i'm not knocking her i'm

knocking me that's the way you're

supposed to use a mirror

like it's bizarre to look in a mirror

and be like "That's off that's off

that's hideous can't do nothing about

that you got a face for radio right now

like we got to figure this out." Like no

no no you like if you see issues then

you got to do something about it it's

bizarre to be like "Man there's a whole

lot of issues there let's just go out."

That doesn't make sense and James is

saying it doesn't make sense why would

you do that he says "One who looks

intently into the perfect law of freedom

and perseveres in it and is not a

forgetful hearer but a doer who works."

This person will be blessed in what he

does listen to me the word of God can

bring you forth give you birth by the

word of truth it's buried within you

implanted and then we also see that it

will

bloom but notice James says something

weird he says "The perfect law of

freedom." Laws and freedom feel like

opposites

how how can you have laws and freedom

i've said this before but it's like the

greatest illustration

ever swamps and rivers are the same

thing

technically the difference between a

swamp which just looks like hideous

chaos and a river that looks like it

brings life is that rivers have banks

that's the technical difference

laws things that push the river forward

bring life but where there's no law

there's lawlessness that brings no life

and so what the word is really trying to

get us to understand is that the grace

and the power of God laid out for us and

revealed in his word is going to

absolutely set up some things for us to

see life flow forward rather than us be

in a position to where we just feel like

I'm going to live without any

restriction and just sin as I

please he's saying look into the perfect

law of freedom and that's how we get to

what it is that we began reading here

today

if anyone thinks he's religious without

controlling his tongue his religion is

useless and he deceives himself so James

is saying real faith and

religion will not only hear things but

do things and he will list out the

things that will be done but but what's

interesting here is he'll list a couple

of different items he'll talk about

controlling the tongue caring for widows

and orphans but what's interesting is

not just what he says but how he says it

if anyone thinks he is religious that if

there is really important it's a first

class conditional conjunction which is

not why you're here today but what it

means is that he's assuming that what

he's saying is true he he's not saying

"I don't really know if there's anybody

that thinks they're religious but I'm

just going to throw this out there

anyway." He's like "No I know that there

are many of you." This is calling for

self-examination you've already failed

the test if you've started thinking

about other

people you already failed bad start do

not pass go like like you you you've got

to this is calling for

self-examination i love what one

commentator had to say about this text

it has transformed the way that I read

what it is that's written here he says

"James is not talking about a conscious

hypocrite that's

repentant he's talking about a

self-deceived religionist who thinks

they're always right

he's not talking about a conscious

hypocrite he's talking about a

self-deceived religionist let's put it

like this he's not talking about the

person that you heard say a cuss word

that's

repentant he's talking about the person

that says a cuss word or causes division

or lies and always justifies why they do

those things and why other people are

off can I be honest with you i'm going

to so thank you um

so I have two

sons pray for us uh Judah and Elijah

judah is my oldest son and Judah loves

golf more than life okay uh like I don't

know how i hope he gets good at it good

enough to let me be done retire early

whatever it is that needs to happen like

just do it that's fine he loves golf and

there was an evening uh three weeks ago

a month ago something uh where we had

like the most picture perfect situation

going on at our home we have a small

backyard but it it's plenty for us and

it's amazing like uh like the birds are

chirping the sky is blue the grass is

greener uh Lindsay is sitting on the

back deck reading the Bible and books

about parenting and one of our sons is

just playing in the water and just he's

just behaving and obedient and my son uh

is playing golf with a a fake club a

plastic club with plastic balls i am

chipping with real golf balls and I

decide that I am going to chip towards

the

home and

um our bedroom windows back

there and I am distracted by something

at this point and I chip the ball and I

don't really look at where it's going

i'm looking at Judah and I just hear

crash i think we have a picture of

it

um and when I tell you my my wife who

was reading these

books I'd rather be in open water with a

great white shark than be on the

receiving end of that look

and what didn't help is that she looks

at me and Judah's looking at me going

"Oh." And I'm just

like and I wish as your pastor that I

could say to you and you know what I did

in that moment i said "Gee Willickers

good golly gosh Luke you silly goose you

silly milly i can't believe you did

that." Like and instead I said a bad

word i was mad at me i was mad that it

was 459 on a Friday and so nobody could

come out and fix it i wondered how much

it was going to cost i know that my wife

was mad at me my son's making fun of me

it is just a nightmare of a situation

and so I say a bad word that I shouldn't

have said and at that same moment it

becomes his favorite word for the next

three

[Applause]

days hey sir can you get here i can get

there on Tuesday no no no marriage is in

trouble i need you to get He can't make

it happen me and my wife are like duct

taping trash bags to the window and my

kids just shouting bad words at me and

I'm just like I

just And I wish that didn't

happen but I thought you know I can lie

to you or I can tell you the truth

pastors aren't supposed to say stuff

like that

what would have been wrong is if I said

"No I was just if you knew the day that

I had if you knew if you knew the things

I was dealing if you knew what I was

carrying I just I got Easter coming up i

got like if I had tried to justify it

but instead I had to own it and I had to

repent to my wife i had to repent to my

kid who I am still repenting to." Like

you you have all these things right

the

problem is when you try to make sense of

it rather than just owning it and saying

"Lord would you continue that

sanctifying work in me?" It's amazing if

anyone thinks he's religious we all do

on some level we tend to really take

issue with the sins that we don't

struggle with and we tend to be really

critical of the ones that we don't

struggle with we legitimize every single

thing that we do in our life that's

sinful but man you can call out somebody

who struggles with something that you

don't if anyone thinks he's religious if

he

supposes religious means external

behaviors not internal devotion it looks

like you do this it looks like you don't

do that if they look like that we all do

on some level and James is saying the

issue is not that you can see someone

else's struggle the issues that you

can't see your

own it reminds me of what Jesus says in

Matthew 7:3 and 4 he says "Why do you

Matthew 7:3

look at the splinter in your brother's

eye but don't notice the beam of wood in

your own eye how can you say to your

brother let me take the splinter out of

your eye and look there's a beam of wood

in your own eye?" Jesus is being funny

you're supposed to laugh at this he's

saying "Hey man you're really concerned

about the speck in their eye but we are

dodging the 2x4 that's coming out of

yours while you're talking to us about

it he's saying "How can you do that how

can you not even see that the thing

that's impaling your skull is fixing to

impale us if you don't do something

about it but you're concerned with the

speck in my eye what's wrong with you?"

And listen James is going to talk about

controlling the tongue at length in

James chapter 3 so I'm trying to not rob

James 3 · chapter mention

him of what we're going to get to there

but we see there are absolutely things

that we should do but listen I would

much rather be a conscious hypocrite

than be someone that's a self-deceived

religionist anytime somebody says "Man

church is full of hypocrites." I'm like

"You should join in you'd be perfect for

it." It's the self-deceived religionist

where I'm like "Exits are that

way give me all the conscious hypocrites

why did God stay with

David he'd be so canled

because he's a conscious

hypocrite i did sin i did mess up i am

sorry i am repentant it's the other guys

that aren't

repentant king Saul's rap sheets nothing

like King

David's and yet he's not the one that we

rever because he's not

repentant jesus says here "How in the

world can you look at your brother and

be concerned with the speck in his eye

and you have got a 2x4 in your own eye

how can you do that we tend to have an

unbelievable tolerance for our own sin

and an intolerance for other people's

sin and Jesus is saying "Hey let me help

you with something you should trade your

magnifying glass for a

mirror you get so enamored looking for

all the issues in other people and man

you can find them." And you're here's

the crazy thing you're not even

wrong but now you're missing how you're

sick

and so you can find all of the issues in

conscious hypocrites and miss that

you're becoming a self-deceived

religionist sometimes we can get so good

with a magnifying glass that we start to

point out things in other people that

also start building up within us but

it's when you get before a mirror where

you will hit your knees and say "Lord

there's an issue there there's an issue

there there's an issue there do a work

in me that yes I would call your church

to holiness and purity but wow it would

be a lot more holy and a lot more pure

if I started here versus

here so he says in verse

27 pure and undefiled religion before

God the Father is this to look after

widows and orphans in their distress and

to keep oneself unstained from the world

he compares and contrasts religion and

he says "One's worthless one's

undefiled." He says "Not controlling the

tongue can make your religion useless

but to take care of widows and orphans

can leave you unstained from the

world." What's interesting is there's an

outward focus in the work of caring for

widows and orphans but there's also an

inward focus that to do that is to be

unstained here undefiled work unstained

from the world and it's interesting

Jesus will sum this

up in Matthew where we see that an

individual will come to him and sayte

teacher which command in the law is the

greatest and he says love the Lord your

God with all your heart with all your

soul with all your mind it's the

greatest and most important command

second is like it love your neighbor as

yourself all the law and prophets depend

on these two

commands caring for widows and orphans

is good practice in both of these how

there's no personal gain that comes from

taking care of those individuals that

the world sees as lowly there's no

personal gain from that and so you know

that it's pure you know it's undefiled

you know that it makes you unstained

from the world because there's a lot of

people where they want to do work for

Jesus and they want to say that their

whole life is about Jesus but the truth

of the matter is they kind of want their

name to rise with Jesus'

name and wouldn't be all that mad if it

surpassed it in some way in their own

mind

but pure and undefiled

religion is that you would take care of

widows and orphans that there's an

inward purification and an outward

living jesus would say "Whatever you did

for the least of these you did for me

whatever you didn't do you didn't do for

me." And we see that James will put on

display particularly in his context at

that time in history what would be seen

as the lowest of the low widows and

orphans will you care for the least of

these and here's the thing as believers

in Jesus that should be the easiest

thing that we do because no matter

what's in your bank account or what's

going on in your life at one point you

hadn't been brought forth by the word of

truth and in your spiritual poverty you

didn't have the word of truth buried

within you there was nothing blooming in

your life that you would look back on

and be like that's going to last till

kingdom come that we're a people that

understand we were the least of these

before an almighty God

and that we see when we could do nothing

for him in his son he did everything for

us that we see that Jesus Christ lived

the perfect life that we could not and

died the death that we deserved that he

would rescue us so that we could be a

people where many of you you flip

through this book and you just feel like

you're constantly like I don't do that i

don't do that i don't know how to do

this this is ain't going well i just

don't want I don't really know i just

like things are not going well when it

comes to Hey here's here's the deal

because of him

you find yourself in a place where it's

like all of these beautiful things are

happening in the context of your

struggles brought forth by the word of

truth the words buried in you and

beautiful things will bloom but keep

on keep stepping keep staying in step

with the spirit like Galatians 5:2 says

Galatians 5:2

because you will see that so long as you

go to your death as a conscious

hypocrite you can know and the Lord did

a beautiful work in me but Lord don't

let me become someone that goes to my

grave thinking man I am so glad that I

helped purify the Lord's church on his

behalf uh we want to be a people that go

"When I could do nothing for you you did

everything for me and I will continue to

surrender my life to you with all of who

I am and all of what I have." Lord would

we be

that those people your people kingdom

people that understand this word for

what it actually

says lord I don't know if there's anyone

in here that feels like they are just

going in circles today and they are

chasing everything that the world's got

to offer only to find out that all of it

will come to a screeching halt at some

point that feels like they're building

their life on sand but they want to

build on

rock and put their faith in you but I

would just say if you're someone who's

never taken that step and put your faith

in Jesus Christ but you're like "Today I

want to know that I am his forever and

will live in eternity with him but

you've not taken the plunge of actually

being serious about this." Would you

raise your hand if you're someone that

says "I want to put my faith in Jesus

today for the very first time." I see up

there

yep

yep and if that's you would you just say

"Lord I repent of my sin a sinner in

need of a savior i believe that you

lived the perfect life that I could not

that you died the death that I deserved

upon the cross jesus I believe that you

willingly went to the cross and shed

perfect innocent blood that will take

away my sin past present and future i

believe that you were buried in the tomb

for three days but that you rose to life

again and because you're alive I can be

alive in your name and praise

God Lord for the rest of us would we be

a people that want to walk in a manner

of holiness and

love but are

uncompromising that are quick to

repent quick to recognize the grace that

covers our

life quick to be a people that are doing

all that we can to honor and glorify you

loving our brothers and sisters that are

around us in a way that shakes the world

to its foundations of recognizing what

it means to bow before a

Lord we love you we praise you and we

thank you we ask this in Jesus name amen