Is It Real?

You know why they're not listening? Because they're watching what dad is doing. Right? They're watching me. Kids kids are experts at doing what we do.

And this is what James is saying. He's saying, listen, just be real. Let your words line up with your actions. Let your yes be yes, your no be no. Don't don't just say it, but live it.

Hello, friends. Welcome to the Life Tabernacle Church podcast. It's an honor to be with you today. This podcast serves as our church's weekly sermon archive. Tune in each week to hear what God is speaking in our community.

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So it's a pleasure to have him in the house as I was preparing the the series for James. The verse James five twelve, which you'll be, preaching on today stuck out to me. I'm like, I gotta get Randy here for this. I feel like he has a word for this. And I can tell you this, he has a word.

So would you please give a warm Life Tabernacle welcome to Reverend Randy Lawrence Junior. Amen.

Amen, amen. Well, thank you, Pastor Dallas. It is an honor to be here with you this morning and wow, isn't baptism day just so special. I mean, it is incredible. You know, a couple of weeks ago, months ago now actually, I was blessed to go and speak in The Philippines.

And as a part of that conference, I got to watch 1,200 people get baptized at one time. I mean, it was like the book of Acts. It was like watching a miracle unfold before my eyes. And I just stood there in awe as they were going out by the hundreds. I mean, just hundreds upon hundreds into the ocean and professing their faith and getting baptized.

And I just stood there and cried like a baby. And then about one week after that, I was in Podunk, Idaho, somewhere where there was no cell phone reception, no stoplights. And there was one. There was one teenager who God changed his life, and he said, I gotta be baptized. Take me down to the river.

And it was just as powerful to watch one. Amen? Because there's nothing like the blood of Jesus that redeems our soul. Amen? So let's give God praise for that one more time this morning.

Amen. Well, tell you what, if you got a copy of God's word, if you wanna go ahead and open it up or turn it on, whichever your pleasure, we're gonna go to James chapter five, and we're gonna look at verse 12. Now pastor Dallas, I did get the honor of being his homiletics teacher. All right. Which homiletics is the art of preaching.

All right. And so I can't take credit for his preaching because he is an amazing preacher and there's many voices that have shaped him. I can only take credit for one thing and that is this, I made all my homiletics students promise an oath that they would preach short sermons. I made them promise me that, right? Because how many knows, the mind can only deal with as much as the bottom can endure.

Right? And so Dallas, I'm proud of you. He he he's got enough wisdom. He could probably preach an hour and a half, but I listened to him. He's keeping it short and concise and good.

So I'm proud of him. I say that to say, I think when he called me up to offer my first invitation to come and preach, he said, you have to preach on this verse. He gave me the assignment this time. Did you see what he did? He flipped it around.

He flipped the script, but it is an honor. And, and I I I love your pastors. You know, the Bible says that those who labor in word and doctrine, they're worthy of double honor. And, I don't say this just because I know them, but, you know, I'm thankful that your pastors that were here for so many decades, pastor Tino and Brandy, who are in the house, and I honor them. They were my district youth directors that when when their season, not of finishing, but when their season of transition came, which comes for all of us, I'm thankful that Dallas and Emily said yes, right?

Because, you know, I don't know if you know this or not, but in The United States this year, we will close thousands of churches, unfortunately. Thousands of churches will be closed because of a lack of people willing to say yes. And Dallas and Emily could have went anywhere in the world to take a church job. And I'm thankful they came to Vinton, Virginia. Aren't you thankful?

Amen. Amen. So James chapter five, verse 12, I counted it. This is part 16 of this series. That's a long series, guys.

Alright? But this is part 16. I'm praying it'll be sweet 16. Alright? You with me?

One verse is all we're gonna read. It's my assignment today. James chapter five verse 12 says this, but above all, my brethren, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no no, least you fall into judgment. Let's pray. Father, I thank you today for your word, which is precious, your word, which is holy.

Thank you, God, for this incredible time of worship and baptism that we've had. Now, God, as we open your word, we invite the spirit of God to come and do what it does best, and that is make the word come alive inside of our hearts and our lives. And I thank you for it today in Jesus name I pray. And everybody said, amen. Amen.

The title of today's message is simply this, is it real? Is it real? Can you say that with me? Is it real? You know, James, the half brother of Jesus, just it it's it is my favorite book in the Bible.

I mean, because it is just full of it's full of such amazing things. But James is really this this whole book been really pointing to one thing and that is this, is will our faith, our faith, if we are believers, will it really work when it matters most? You know? Is our faith really real is what he's been talking about. Is it real?

Is our faith accompanied by works? You you can say one thing, but do you have the works that back it up, or do you have the action steps that back it up? You know what today was? Today was a celebration of action steps. Right?

It's obedience to get in, to be baptized. And that is really what James has been talking about this all through five of these chapters is, you know, is our faith real? Is will will it be backed up? And, you know, why is this so important? Because our faith will be tested.

Right? It's gonna be tested. And here's what we have to understand, and I want you to write this down this morning. A faith that can be tested is a faith that can be trusted. Alright?

A faith that can be tested is a faith that can be trusted. And that is really what James has been talking about all throughout all of these chapters. And then he gets to chapter five, and James is like, let me sum it all up again. And James is like, really what's gonna happen is our our faith is really gonna go on trial, and we're gonna wonder is it real? Right?

I don't know, any of you ever seen a trial before? All right. We got any Dateline fans in the house? Okay. I love me some Dateline.

All right. That's when I'm on long road trips, that's how I stay awake. I put Dateline in. All right. Keeps me fascinated.

But you know, if you've ever seen a trial, there's always witnesses that are brought to the witness stand. And in James chapter five, that's what James is like, hey, listen, your faith as a believer is gonna go on trial. Alright? And here's what he says is gonna come to the witness stand in verse one through three. He says, it's it's gonna be your wealth.

Pastor Dallas talked about that. Remember? He had all this money up here. Right? He talked about our wealth.

Meaning this, he says, you're gonna have to give an account for how you handled God's resources. Right? Then the second witness is gonna be injustice. You're gonna have to give an account for how we handled, what was right and what was wrong and how we treated others. And then in verse seven, he says, you're gonna have to give an account for patience.

Patience is gonna come to the witness stand and you're gonna have to give an account for how you responded in life and how you responded to others. And then in verse 10, he talks about suffering. He says, suffering is gonna come to the witness stand. You're gonna have to give an account for that, how you persevered and then you endured. And then finally, the fifth and final witness.

Everybody say, uh-oh. Uh-oh. That is called to the witness stand. And don't we wish it would not be called. Right?

And that is this, our words. Our words. James is like, listen, here's how we're really gonna find out if our faith is real. Is it real or is it fake? You know, when you look at this money, Dallas told me about this money and my goodness, that looks real.

Right? How do you know if our faith is real or not? James is like, well, listen, this is the final witness that's gonna be called to the stand. And that is our words. That we will give an account for the words that we speak.

They will be kind of the final witness. I wanna give you three simple points today. If you're taking notes, I want you to write these down. And if you're not taking notes, I want you to write this down. All right?

I don't know if you know this or not, but note takers go to the front of the line in heaven, right? They just go right to the front. Okay? Plus nerds take notes and nerds rule the world, somebody. Come on.

They rule the world. Alright? So number one, write this down and that is simply this. The standard say the standard. The standard is the standard.

Can you say that with me? The standard is the standard. You know, God has a standard for living, and that standard is ultimately what you and I it's what we'll stand before God and we'll be judged by. We'll be judged by God's standard. You know, I I know we got some parents in the room.

It was awesome seeing all the kids in here. You know, kids when they're young, what what's their favorite question to ask? Why? Right? Why?

Why? Why? Why we gotta do this? Why we gotta do this? I've got four kids, that's why I'm losing my hair as well, okay?

It's why what I have less stands up straight, all right? That my youngest daughter, Callie, I always made our kids a promise and that is this because I traveled a lot. I said, I will always try to take one trip that it's just you. It'll be dad and you, it'll be a special trip. And so her time came and it was a trip that I was driving on.

I had about a twelve hour drive. We got up, we were living in Dallas Fort Worth. We were headed out early in the morning. She was so excited. We got in the car and it was just, Callie is my social butterfly.

Okay. She just, I mean, had not even made it out of the city limits and she wore me out. I was like, I'm never gonna make it twelve hours. Right? And finally I said, Hey, Callie, I've got a great idea.

Right? And she said, what? I said, we're gonna play a game. She's like, I love games. And I said, this game is called the question game.

Okay, how does it go dad? I said, you get to ask three questions between now and our final place where we're driving to. Okay, that's all you get. You can only ask three. She said, why are we playing this game?

I said, that's number one. You got two left. Right? That's all that's all you get. But kids always love to ask the question of why.

Let me let me, share with you the most important question you can ever ask. Alright? This is the question that Pilate, the Roman governor, when he was putting Jesus on trial before Jesus went to the cross, Pilate looked at Jesus in John 18 and he said this. He said, what is truth? What is truth?

See, if we're gonna talk about the standard and the standard being the standard, then you have to ask the question, what is truth? Why? Because truth will establish what the standard is in your life. What you establish as truth and you know there's a lot of people in our world today claiming that this is true and this is true, and and it it actually gets confusing in our culture today because one person will stay up, they'll stand up and they'll say, this is the absolute truth, right? And then the very next day, somebody that is very intelligent with lots of degrees and lots of accolades, they will say, actually this is true and it's completely opposite of what you were just told.

You know, for example, when I was growing up, you know, my dad was a coffee drinker. He had coffee for every meal. Right? And I would ask, can I have coffee? And I knew don't touch my dad's coffee.

Because if I touch my dad's coffee, I was gonna get grounded. Okay? That's a bad dad joke. Alright? But is this still the truth?

If I touch his coffee, I'm gonna get grounded. But listen, they would say, you can't have coffee because coffee is bad for you. Right? That's what they would say. They would say you can't have coffee because coffee is bad for you.

Do you know that a report came out just the other day that said three to four cups of coffee a day is strongly linked to reduced mortality, lower risk of diabetes, and an improved liver and heart health. That is better for you now, right? So listen, if you're in the room and you're a coffee drinker like Dallas, my advice is keep drinking before they change their mind, right? Keep drinking before they change their mind. And so how do we know?

How do we know what is true? We look no further than Jesus' words in John 17. John Jesus prayed this prayer over his disciples. He said, sanctify them by the truth because your word everybody say the word. The word is truth.

See, truth has to be an objective standard. Truth has to be something that was there that it's fixed, it cannot change. You know, our culture today will say that, well, is relative. It changes from generation to generation and and we choose our truth. And we're struggling with this in our culture today because what we're doing is we're saying, how about you choose your truth and I'll choose my truth.

And the the the truth is is simply this. Everybody say, the standard is the standard. Right? The standard is the standard. That we look to God's word for truth.

Meaning this, since God was the originator, since he was the creator, that means that there was no one or no thing before him, then that everything starts with him. He he is the standard of truth. He is our reference. You know, that there is I don't know if you've ever known this before, but we'll put a picture of it. In Boulder, Colorado, there is an atomic clock.

Have you ever wondered, you know, like who tells our phone what time it is? Who tells our iPad what time it is? There is an atomic clock. It's located in Boulder, Colorado at the National Institute of Standard and Technology. It's the crown jewel of timekeeping.

It is the standard. Listen, I have never got a call from Boulder, Colorado saying, hey pastor Randy, we're just wondering, do you mind looking at your watch and telling us what time you got? No. Why? Because they are the standard for timekeeping.

Right? They are the standard. See, we don't conform to the truth. The the truth that we conform excuse me. We conform to the truth.

The truth does not conform to us. The truth doesn't call us up and say, hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about abortion? What do you think about homosexuality? What do you think about this?

That that's not how the truth works. The truth works is that there has to be a standard. There has to be a set of principles, and we have to decide is this the truth for me? And see here's where we're struggling in America today because in America today, we like to choose our truth. Right?

We like to choose what's good for me, what's not good for me. When it comes to churches, we sometimes say, well, I I'll I'll I'll go with that church as long as it it it's kinda preaching what I like to hear. And what we have to understand is there is only one standard. Right? And that is God's word.

So God has a standard for living, and this is really what James is getting down to. And that standard is what will judge us. John's chapter 12 verse 48. This is what Jesus said. Jesus says, the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.

So this is why this is so important is that it's this word is what we will actually give an account for. And so in context of our verse from James today, when James is saying, listen, be careful what you say. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. What James is really reminding us is simply this, we will give an account for our words. And then James has already been given a master class on our words.

Right? James chapter three, he talks about the untamable tongue and all of those things, but he's once again, he's trying to remind us, hey, brothers, sisters, be careful how we use our words because we are going to one day be held accountable for them. You might say, well, which words will I be held accountable for? I'm gonna read you from Matthew chapter 12 verse 36. These are words of Jesus.

Matthew 12:36

Jesus says, but I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it on the day of judgment. Listen, this is why we must watch our words. You know, I love things that are free. Right? Anybody else like free things?

I kinda got a saying like, it's free, it's for me. Right? If it's free, it's it's for me. My favorite price to pay is free 99. Free 99 is my price.

Right? And here's the thing we gotta understand about words. Words are free. Words are free. But depending on how we use them, they will cost us something.

They will cost us something. And so this word right here is the standard by which our words will be judged. So what should we do? This should become our filter. This should become our operating system through which our words come out, through which we talk to each other, through which, we talk to, each each and every single one of us.

You know James is often called the proverbs of the New Testament. Well Proverbs gives us some really practical things like, you know, he who guards his lips guards his life. Right? Proverbs tells us that the words that, of our tongue, they have the power of death and life. So So here's what we have to answer, tell ourself or remind ourself and that is this, is that if the standard is the standard, are the words that are coming out of my mouth, do they line up with this right here?

How many knows God has a way that we should use our words? Amen? Even my daughter who I will not call out which one it is because everything goes online these days. Right? But even this morning as I'm leaving the house, she had some choice words for her father and mother.

And so I politely reminded her, we will revisit this conversation when dad gets home today. Right? What am I reminding her, hey, words, they mean something and that is a standard by with which we are going to be judged. You with me? Say yes.

Yes. Number one, the standard is a standard. Here's number two, write this down. And that is this, preach what you practice. Preach what you practice.

You know, typically we we say that we should practice what you preach. But what if we flipped it around and we preached what we practice? In other words, we were real. We were authentic. That that that we were genuine.

That our yes was yes and our no was no. That we weren't fake. That we were real. You know, I've always, I just told you I like free things. So by by my nature, I'm a sucker for deals, man.

I'm a sucker for deals. You know, my kids the other day told me about this stupid app called Whatnot. And, if you've got on it, get, you know, if you've not got on it, don't get on it. Alright? It is like a it just it reels you in because everything is is sold for for so cheap.

And I think the reason is is because, you know, when we man, when we were young, we just my family were pastors. We didn't have a lot of money. You know, we were kind of poor. We'd go to the park and the ducks would throw bread at us. I mean, it was just, it was what it was, you know?

And so I've always been a sucker for a deal. I remember when I went on my first cruise in the early two thousands, we got off at some port in Mexico and I'd always wanted real Oakley's. I could I've never made have Oakley's. I'd always have like Dollar Tree glasses and and and there's some guy selling Oakley's for like $5. And I'm like, this is a miracle.

I'm like, real. I'm like, are these real? They're like, oh yes, they're real. You know, he tells me in broken Spanish. And I buy like three pair of Oakleys and I'm so excited to get back to America and you guys know how this story ends.

It ends with me having five pairs of broken glasses and like a week, know. They were not real. They were Foelys. They were fake. They were not authentic.

So James is basically saying, listen, when it comes to our words, we should preach what we practice. We should be real. Our yes should mean yes. Our no should mean no. You know, so many times we overcomplicate Christianity, you know.

But really Christianity is simple. And this is why James, the half brother of Jesus, he's like, listen, this is what it's like to be a believer. Just let your yes be yes, let your no be no. You're not gonna be perfect, but be real. Be authentic.

You're gonna mess up, but when you mess up, you know, claim it, to take ownership of it. Let your yes be yes, your no be no. And then here's what he says. He says, lest you fall into judgment. So let your yes be yes and your no be no unless you fall into judgment.

Notice swords fall into. Here's what he's saying. He's saying if you don't want your words, you know, if you're just spouting out real quickly and not even thinking about what you're saying, and your yes doesn't mean yes, your no doesn't mean no, says you're actually getting ready to fall into something. And what does he say? He says you're falling, you will fall into judgment.

Some translations of the bible say condemnation. The Greek word that is used there is hypocrisis. Hypocrisis. And you might say, man, that sounds a lot like an English word that I know. And you're exactly right.

It's where we get our English word hypocrite from. So catch this. James is saying, listen, if you don't watch your words, if you don't let your yes be yes and your no be no, you are headed down a path and that path is gonna end in you being a hypocrite. You being someone who is really not who they say they are. And listen, friends, when we read the Bible, Jesus had some of the harshest criticism ever for people who were hypocrites.

Matthew 23 verse 33. Jesus confronting the scribes and pharisees, he said this, he called them serpents. That's not what you call somebody you're happy with. Right? He says serpents, you brood of vipers.

Matthew 23:33

How can you escape the condemnation of hell? I don't know about you my friend, but I don't wanna be on that side of those words from Jesus. But that's what he said. So so what does that mean for us? It means that listen, we have to give careful attention to our words so that we are real, so that we are authentic.

James has actually already touched on this multiple times in this book, but in James one verse 22, he brought it up to start with. He said, listen, don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. He says, don't just hear God's word, but do it.

That's what makes us real is is not just the hearing, but the doing. What what makes our faith real? It's it's not just hearing. It'd be nice if just hearing was all that it took. You know, because in our culture today, you can go home today.

You can open up your phone or your computer, and there's a lot of hearing, right? You can hear Bible teaching and we're thankful for it. You can hear it on TV, you can hear it on your phone, you can hear it on your radio. You know, we got Facebook prophets, we got TikTok theology. You know, we got Instagram apostles.

I mean, it's everywhere. We got scriptures on shirts, scriptures on bumper stickers, all that stuff. There's a lot of hearing. But what James is pointing out is listen, the difference is really in the doing. The difference is in the doing.

You think about when you raise kids, you know, kids love to ask that question, why? Right? Did you also know about kids? Kids are experts at something. You may tell what they're experts at.

They're experts at not listening to what we say. Right? They're experts at it. Right? Why why aren't you listening to what I'm telling you?

You know why? Because they're experts at it. Right? Let me tell you what else they're experts at doing. They're experts at doing what we do.

They're experts at doing what we do. You know, I can ask my kids a thousand times a day, why aren't you doing what I say or what I tell you to do? They're experts at not listening, but they're also experts at doing what dad does. You know, my wife has worked hard with our four kids. Two of them are 18 now, okay.

Well actually 18 and 19, all right. But their whole life she's like, listen, we're not gonna raise slobs. She's like, we are gonna raise kids who know how to clean up after themselves. So we're always, always trying to help them like, hey, who ate this food right here? Who left the dish out?

We don't have servants in our home, Clean it up. And the other day it just hit me, you know, I was right there. I was being a good dad. Hey, who left this mess out? Why aren't you guys getting this?

You know, we've been talking about this for years. And then I realized it was my play. Right? You know why they're not listening? Because they're watching what dad is doing.

Right? They're watching me. Kids kids are experts at doing what we do. And this is what James is saying. He's saying, listen, just be real.

Let your words line up with your actions. Let your yes be yes, your no be no. Don't don't just say it, but live it. Don't just say it, but live it. You know, when we stop and think about it, James, the half brother of Jesus, he's echoing all the things that he's observed in his brother's life growing up.

He probably remembers the teaching of Jesus, which a lot of us have heard in Matthew seven where Jesus tells the story about the wise and the foolish builders. And Jesus says, listen, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them. Notice Jesus connects. It's not just the hearing, but it's the doing. You gotta hear it and you do it.

If you just hear it, you are a foolish builder. But if you do it, he says, you're a wise builder. And then Jesus says in Matthew Matthew seven, that's what he says, therefore whoever hears it and does them, I liken him to a wise man who builds his house on the rock. Well, here's the thing that we gotta stop and process, and then I'll wrap this up. I'll give you point number three and we'll wrap up, is that when Jesus is telling this story of the wise and the foolish builder, the person who heard the words of God and they actually did them, they put them into action, that was a wise person who built their house on the rock.

The person who just heard it and didn't do it, they were foolish, the house collapsed. When Jesus is telling that whole story in context, he also is telling this story. The very verse before that story, he says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father in heaven. Then some of the most sobering words you'll ever read in the Bible. Many will say to me on that day, what day is that?

It's the day of judge judgment. Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Very next verse.

Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them. You know, it's sobering to think that Jesus says there will come a day called the judgment day, and a lot of people are gonna come up before God. And in all appearances, it looks like they're on team Jesus. It looks like they belong to team Jesus. And Jesus is gonna look at them and say, look, it looked like you were on my team, but I never knew you.

Because you heard the sayings of mine, but you didn't do them. There was a disconnect between what you heard and what you did. And this is what James is saying. He is saying, listen, we just have to be real. We have to make the connection of not just hearing but doing.

Let your words be real. Let them mean something. Yes is yes and no is no. So number one, the standard. Everybody say the standard The standard.

Is the standard. Number two, say preach. While you practice. And then here's number three. Keith, you can go ahead and come, brother.

And that is simply this is this. I wanna just leave this with you. Give God your yes. Give God your yes. Give God your yes.

Give God your yes. You know what keeps us real? You know what keeps us authentic? It's just saying yes to Jesus. It really is that simple.

Told you we overcomplicate the Bible. It's just saying yes to Jesus. Meaning there's a full surrender to him. And this is all that God's this is all that God needs. He needs your yes.

He just is looking for your yes. When when God speaks to your heart, will you say yes? When God says go here or go there, will you say yes? When God says go, would we say yes? When God speaks to our heart, will we respond?

When we were living in Texas, and by the way, we have some great friends right here in the back, miss Angela and mister Jacob, who they just moved to Virginia this week. Alright. This week. Let's give them a big Virginia welcome. Alright.

All the good Texans are coming to Virginia. Alright. And when we were there, a lot of homes in Texas, not all, but a lot of them do have swimming pools. We were in one of those for a short time. And it was the dead of winter, which doesn't mean much in Texas, I'll just tell you.

Okay? But on this particular weekend, a really abnormal cold stretch for Texas came through. We had about five days where it was below freezing, which for Texans makes them feel like, you know, they're in Canada or something like they thought they were gonna die. So we're sitting out with our kids and our kids were younger. They got the bright idea.

We wanna do a polar plunge is what they said. They said, we wanna do a polar plunge into the pool. I said, that's a great idea. I said, that's awesome. I said, you guys should totally do it.

I'm not doing it, but you should do it. Right? I'm gonna sit right here in the hot tub and watch you do it, cheer you on. So they built up enough courage. You know, the water was about 42 degrees and they went over, like, we're all gonna do it.

We're gonna, hey, let's do it. You know, they go over and what they wanted to do, they went over and they're like, we're just gonna dip our little foot in first. And then we're gonna And I said, no, that's not how a polar plunge works. I said, you plunge. I said, dad's gonna count to three and you gotta jump in, right?

You gotta go all in. Listen, when it comes to our faith, if our faith is real, does our faith mean something? We just have to give God our yes. Not half a surrender, but a full surrender. Not half a surrender, but a full surrender.

Half surrender is not gonna do anything, but a full surrender to God does something. That's what God's looking for. He's just looking for a yes. And listen, God just doesn't want a place in our life. He wants first place in your life.

And so many times we worry about, well, how do I put all these pieces together? Know, as Dallas was saying, we get the great privilege of pastoring a church now. And, it's it's such an honor to watch people's lives getting changed. And, we were getting ready to have a baptismal service a couple weeks ago. We have three services on a Sunday.

Just by God's grace, people are rushing in and coming, and we're trying to find seeds for them. And we're just grateful for all that God is doing. But we were talking about baptism happening the next weekend. And we finished service and a young man, we're getting packed up, ready to leave. And he shows back up.

I already said bye to him. He was there. He said, I tried to get away. I tried to drive down Route 11. And he said, God just won't let me do it.

He said, I need to get baptized. He said, I need to make a public confession of my faith. He said, but I'm struggling because I just don't have my whole life together yet, but I'm trying. I'm trying. And I said, come on.

Let's go back in my office, and let's talk. And I said, who do you think told you to turn your car around down on Route 11 and do a u-turn and come back up here? He said, God did. I said, who do you think is challenging your heart to get water baptized? He said, God did.

I said, well, then listen. You gotta give God your yes. All of those other things, they'll work out because guess what? God will speak to your heart about it. He'll speak to your heart.

But you're not gonna hear him if you don't give God your yes right now. Right? You gotta give him your yes right now. He said, I'm we're doing it. I'm doing it.

He called me the next morning, very next morning. Pastor, I I'm I'm getting baptized Sunday, he said. And then I need you to marry me after I get baptized. And I said, not me, but he said, I need you I need you to conduct the wedding for me and my fiance. That's what he was struggling with.

He knew he knew he needed to get his life ordered out. But I said, you gotta give God your yes first. You gotta give God your yes. That's really all Christianity is. You give God your first yes, right?

And then you just keep saying yes to God. And that's what James is saying is just let your yes be yes and let your no be no. Let's just be real authentic Christians. Do you know as Christians, none of us have life figured out. We got a saying at our church, there's no perfect people allowed in our church, no perfect people.

Why? Because it doesn't exist, right? Perfect people don't exist. The Bible says in Proverbs, a righteous man, he falls down seven times, but guess what he does? He gets back up and he just keeps saying yes to Lord.

Would you stand with me today? And would you just bow your head just for a moment? If you're able to stand, if not, you just stay seated. But here's what I would like for you to do. I would like for you to take a moment and steal your heart before the Lord.

And I would like for you to ask this simple question this morning, and that is this. God, what are you speaking to me today? Can we all do that in this room? God, what are you speaking to me today? And then would you just listen to what the Lord may be asking you to do?

And then what I want you to do is right there where you're at, I just want you to respond to the Lord. I feel like there are some in the room who maybe maybe you've been struggling with giving God your yes. And I want you just to feel the drawing of God today. There's somebody in the room today, and you're just like, well, I just don't got it all figured out yet. I gotta get it figured out, and I gotta do this and this and this.

And once I do that, I'm gonna give God my yes. Listen, my friend, it does not work that way. You gotta say, God, I give you my full surrender. I give you my yes. And then the rest, you and me will figure it out.

You wouldn't get a lot of things right in a lot of things we can get right in life. But if we get this wrong, everything becomes wrong. So God, I give you my yes. I give you my rightful place in life, and that is you. You're first, and I say yes to you.

If that's you, just just say yes. Just say yes to God. Yes. God, what you're asking me to do, I'll say yes. I'll say yes.

I'll say yes. Spirit of God is in the room. It's such a sweet presence of the Lord. Please take another moment, just linger. Maybe you're here today and maybe the Lord is just gently convicting you.

He does this with me often, and that is this on our words. Maybe if the Lord is convicting you about how your words are, just in this moment, Lord, help me in this area. I want this area to be surrendered to you. I don't want my mouth to be like a cannon that just is always firing off. I don't want those who I love most, my family members.

I don't want them to walk in pins and needles around me just always afraid of me murdering them with my words. God, would you help us? Help us, Lord. Lord, when when our words get called to the witness stand, God, may it be settled in a favorable way, and we need your grace to do that, Lord. We ask for that.

In Jesus' name.