Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / James 1:19-27 - A Doer, Not A Hearer Only

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James 1:19-27 - A Doer, Not A Hearer Only · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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Good morning, Calvary Chapel, good morning.
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There's a lot happening here, as you can see, or as you can hear
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rather. But we thank God for His
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goodness, and we're going to be talking a lot about that today.
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I'm going to ask that you turn in your Bibles if we can just
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look at that right now with James chapter 1, and we're going
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to be looking at verses 19 through 27.
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I just want to reiterate the welcome to Calvary Chapel for
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those of you who are new to our church this morning.
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If you're visiting for the first time, we thank you for choosing
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us to worship with this morning, and we pray that you have a
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wonderful worship experience. Pastor Clark is suffering on the
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beach. Poor thing.
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Yeah, he's suffering on the beach, he and Cindy.
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Yeah, please, let's lift him up in prayer.
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But we pray. We're one body, right?
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We should be there with him, right?
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That's right. But we want to pray that he and
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Cindy and all those on vacation with them, that they make it
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back safely without any hurt, harm or danger.
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So why don't we pray and let's get into get into the words.
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Morning, our Father and our God. We do Thank you.
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You are an amazing God. There are no words to define or
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to be able to describe just how good you are to us, how good You
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have been, Your patience with us, Your love for us, Your
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forgiveness of our sins. All of those things come out of
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Your goodness. And this morning, Lord, we just
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want to thank You for all the blessings that you bestow upon
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each and every one of us every day, and the dangers that You
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keep us from, both seen and unseen.
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What a mighty and awesome God you are.
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So we have worship through song, we have worship through
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fellowship, and we have worshipped even with our giving
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this morning. We thank You for the opportunity
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for all those things. But now, Father, it's time that
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we worship You with a hearing of Your Word, and we pray that Your
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Word would just penetrate our hearts and that it takes up
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residence in our hearts, Lord, not just come to visit, but to
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take up residence in our hearts, cause us to walk in the very
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things, Lord, that we hear. We thank You for the blessing
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that Your word is in our lives, how it changes us, how it
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comforts us, but also how it warns us and how it corrects us.
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We thank you. In Jesus name we pray.
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Amen. As I was studying for this word
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this morning, the whole time that I was preparing for this
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word, there are things that just become illuminated.
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I did a lot of repenting as I've gone through this particular
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word. I did a lot of repenting because
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of things that the Lord has shown me about me, but also as
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he began to open up to me, the understanding of where we're
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going. And James, he reminded me that
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back in the Old Testament he presented himself, he introduced
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himself to Moses on the mountain.
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Moses said, Lord, show me your glory.
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Can you imagine how comfortable Moses must have been with the
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Lord to say, Lord, show me your glory?
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And the Lord said, you can't see my face because no man can see
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my face. And live, however, I will put
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you in the cleft of the rock. We are in the cleft of the rock
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this morning in Jesus Christ, aren't we?
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He said. I'll put you on the cleft of the
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rock. And when I walk by, I'll cover
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your face so you can't see my glory.
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However, I will remove my hand and you'll be able to see my
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back. And if you read that scripture
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back in Exodus of 30 chapter 34, looking at verses one through
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about 7, when God walked past and Moses was able to see his
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back, even that was glory that he couldn't look directly into
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to the point where it singed his face.
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But as God walked past him, he introduced himself and presented
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himself to Moses. And I just want to read to you
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in your hearing. Please turn to it if you choose
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to, back in Exodus chapter 34. And I'm going to be reading
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verses 5 through 7. But as I read this, please think
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of the goodness of God to present himself to mere man, to
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cause Him and us to know just who He is.
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You see, God is His name. He is His name.
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We know that people get names today, and the names have
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meanings and their personalities may be totally different than
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what that name means, but with God, not so.
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He is His name. And this is what He said
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beginning in verse 5. He says, now the Lord descended
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in the cloud and stood with him there, God coming down in the
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cloud, and proclaim the name of the Lord.
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And the Lord passed by him, and proclaimed that this is what the
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Lord said to Moses. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful
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and gracious loves, and long-suffering, and abounding in
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goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving
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iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the
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guilty, visiting the iniquity of the Father's upon the children
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and the children's children to the third and 4th generations.
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God, said Moses, this is the God who is sending you.
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This is the God who is with you as you go through the
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wilderness, as you go through all the things that you're going
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through. This is the God who is with you,
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the God, the Lord God who is merciful.
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Our God is merciful. He's gracious, He's full of
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grace, He's long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth,
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keeping mercy for thousands and forgiving iniquity and
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transgression and sin. I wish that that could have been
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based in my heart, that somebody would have shared that with me
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and open that up to me in my heart when I was younger.
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Then I may, maybe I wouldn't have been such a rebel because
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he has presented himself as the way he is in all of his goodness
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in this verse. God is good, and he's not just
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good sometime, He's good all the time.
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He's good when we have our mountaintop experiences and he's
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good when we go for the valleys. He's good all the time and I
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just felt it was really important to bring that out
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today. Somebody might be struggling and
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want to be assured that if I give my life to this God that
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you're all talking about, will he not just be a, a God who
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looks at me like a, a mean old man and just wants to send me to
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hell or, or, or just want to judge me and, and, and, and
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destroy me? No, I'm appealing to you this
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morning. Whoever's listening, I don't
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know who this is for, but I'm appealing to you this morning.
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Give your heart to him. Give your life to Jesus Christ,
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whom he sent to embody all these things that we just read.
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Jesus Christ walked and lived out all these things that we
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just read about the Father. Jesus was gracious, He is
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merciful, he is long-suffering and he is abounding in goodness
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and truth. The scripture says God is good.
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Taste and see that God is good and his mercy endures forever.
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So I just want to say if anyone here is thinking about giving
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your life to God, but you just don't know, can I trust it?
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He's good and He wants to save you more than you want to be
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saved. He wants to give you salvation.
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He wants to take you out of the suffering of affliction of sin
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and to bring you into his peace. He wants to love on you and for
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you to be able to experience that love in a way that you
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never have before. So we take this, don't think
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it's disjointed. We're we're not, we're not
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disjointed. So we take that and we go now
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over to James. In the last couple verses that
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we talked about connects those things that we just talked
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about. The last couple verses that we
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read was in James one verse 17 and 18, and it says every good
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gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from
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the Father of light with whom there is no variation or shadow
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of turning. We just got finished saying that
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God is good and He's good all the time.
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He doesn't change just because our circumstances change.
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He doesn't change. I think some people believe
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that. You know what?
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When I'm going through the good times, when I'm feel like I'm
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being blessed, God is good, but it's a bad God that allows me to
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experience suffering and allows me to experience affliction.
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No, no, because even that in that he works good.
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We read back in the 1st chapter, back in back in the the first 3
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verses that he says that the suffering, the affliction, the
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trials that we go forth produce patience.
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Patience is the fruit of the Spirit.
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It's good. Romans 828 says that all things
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work together for good to those who love God and are called
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according to His purpose, He's good.
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So here in verse 17 he says all these good gifts.
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That's right. Even the trials, even the
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suffering, even those temptations that we get and we
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struggle with. But if we trust in him that when
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we come through those things, we come out stronger, we come out
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more faithful, we come out more blessed and able to help
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somebody else. We come out more useful because
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he's good. And then verse 18, he talks
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about the greatest gift that he's given to us.
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Eighteen says of his own will he brought forth, he brought, he
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brought us forth by the word of truth.
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That's our salvation, that that we might be a kind of first
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fruits of his creatures of his own will.
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He didn't do it because we deserved it.
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He didn't do it because he was incentivized to do it.
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He didn't do it because he was going to get something back.
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He did it of his own will because the God we serve is a
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good God. I can't say it enough.
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So now we go to verse 19 and we go to get into what we're going
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today. So in verse 19, he says so then,
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now that's so then is a phrase that connects everything that
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you just heard. It connects all that to the next
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step of where we're going and what it is he wants to share
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with us. James is basically saying, look,
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God is good and everything he gives to us is good, even in our
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trials. Because all this, the backdrop
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of all this, remember, are the trials and that we should count
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it all joy. And he said, This is why we
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should count it all joy, because out of those things come good
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things. So now we move from the fact
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that all his gifts and everything he gives us is good.
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And the greatest gift that he gave us is salvation, which is
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good. And now he says, so then so how
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do we respond? How do we live in these trials?
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What is the instruction that he's given us?
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And the fact that He gives us this love letter, that He gives
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us these instructions written to us that we can have every single
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day. We can wake up to it, we can go
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to bed by it, The Word of God, because He's good to give us
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this and we have it, and we know Him through His word.
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So he says so then, my beloved brethren, so he's talking to
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those who are in the church, those who are saved.
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Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to
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wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of
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God. James could have just put a
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stamp on that, put my address on it, and just mail that directly
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to me. Because if there's anybody who
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needs to hear that, it's me. Man, Be quiet sometime.
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Just listen and stop talking. We're going to dig into that in
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a minute. In fact, all through his letter,
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he goes back to talking about being swift to hear and slow to
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speak and controlling what we say.
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So he says be swift to hear. Be swift to hear what?
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Be swift to hear the word of God.
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Be swift to hear the word of God.
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Be swift to hear the word of God.
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Be swift to hear the Holy Spirit speak to us when we think we
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need to say something because we, we get into this thing
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sometime we feel like we got to have a counter, a counter
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speech. You know, I got to, I got to
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have something prepared against what you just said because I
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didn't like it. I didn't like what you just said
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and I definitely didn't like how you said it.
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So I got to get you told. And while you're talking, I'm
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thinking about what I can use to come back at you.
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Instead of doing that, let's listen to hear what the word of
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God says. What is the Holy Spirit trying
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to say to us? Jesus told the disciples back in
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Matthew. He said listen, when they bring
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you before in the temples and they drag you in the temples and
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they bring you before the magistrates and they bring you
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before the leaders, you don't have to think about what to say.
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The Holy Spirit will give you what to say.
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And we need to try to depend on the Holy Spirit to give us what
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to say when we feel attacked, when we feel like we're being
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spoken to in a way that we don't deserve or, or when we feel like
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we're being offended and we feel like we just have to strike out
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and, and, and, and get my saying told, Ah, you need to hear what
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I got to say. No, no, no, no, no.
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If she ever talks to me that way or if he ever talks to me, I'll
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be the last time she talked to anybody that way because I'm
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going to let them know how I feel.
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You know, we're going to give a piece of our mind.
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I don't have much mind left, so I can't give you a piece of my
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mind because I ain't got much left myself.
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So be swift to hear, but be slow to speak.
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The other thing we need to be swift to hear.
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We need to be swift to make sure that we're hearing the voice of
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the Lord and not our flesh, not the enemy.
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We need to make sure we're hearing the Lord and not
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responding to something because it's our flesh.
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I know, you know, I, I, I, I bet if my mother was here today, she
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would say, boy, you should have had this when he was a teenager.
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And I'm sure parents can relate because teenagers get to the
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point where they feel that they can just explain.
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They, they become, you know, prosecutors and, and, and, and
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defense attorneys. They can explain anything.
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But I'm going to tell you something.
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I'm going to give you a lesson for free in here.
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Kids. Be quick to listen and slow to
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speak because even if you're right, sometimes just being
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quiet helps the matter not be so bad.
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I have made things worse by speaking too much rather than
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just being quiet. And can anybody relate to that?
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Anybody had that experience other than me?
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Yeah. So be swift to hear and slow to
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speak. And then he said that if we are
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swift to hear and if we're slow to speak, guess what?
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We'll be slow to wrath because the same the very same fruit of
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self-control that we use with our hearts or our tongues.
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The self-control. It's the same thing that we can
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use with our wrath, not to jump to conclusions and be wrathful
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right away. Judge, I'm bringing it down.
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If we are swift to hear and slow to speak, if we can control
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that, then the Lord can work in us to control the wrath that
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comes out of our hearts. To control that, be swift to
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hear. So being that we are swift to
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hear and if we are slow to speak and we will become slow to
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wrath, but we have to understand something.
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One of the reasons why God doesn't want us to just give our
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wrath is because, well, first of all, let's understand this.
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There are two types of wrath. There's godly wrath, which he
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does. He has, and in his human wrath
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now godly wrath is good because godly wrath.
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The purpose of godly wrath is to bring forth repentance.
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It's to bring us to repentance. It's not to punish us.
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It's to bring us to a place of humility and repentance so that
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we can slow down and hear Him, to walk in obedience to Him, so
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we can be protected by Him when we give ourselves the sin.
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And it gets to the point where He has to bring wrath against
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the sin, which is what He's bringing wrath against.
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It's not for the purpose of destroying us.
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It's the purpose of bringing us to humility and repentance.
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You see, this wrath that we're talking about here is opposite
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of the patience that we talked about over in verse 3.
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It's opposite of that patience. You know, when you know when
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someone is quick to wrath, then that means that they're not
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experiencing the fruit of patience, which we all need the
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fruit of patience. We have need of that.
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There are actually a lot of examples in the Bible of people
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who were quick to wrath instead of slow to wrath and they were
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quick to speak instead of being slow to speak.
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And I just want to give one example.
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I don't know if you, if you recall in the Bible, in the book
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of Luke, Luke Chapter 9, James and John was with Jesus.
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They were going through, so they needed to go through Samaria to
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get to where they were gone. And the Samaritans say, no, you
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can't come through here. James and John.
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See, there's a reason why James and John is named the Sons of
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Thunder, because they had short tempers, very short tempers.
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And the first thing out of their mouth was, Lord, should we
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demand that fire come down from heaven and consume them?
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Quick to speak, slow, you know, quick to wrath.
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And Jesus just simply said, you don't know what spirit you're
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of. I didn't come to destroy men's
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lives. I came to save them.
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We have to understand when we speak out of our flesh, we are
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not demonstrating the righteousness of God.
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We are not demonstrating the grace and the mercy and love of
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God. That's not what spirit we are.
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We're being influenced by another spirit, an evil spirit,
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a wicked spirit, an angry spirit.
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There's a story also in the book of Acts where Paul did the exact
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same thing. Paul did the exact same thing.
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He was, he was brought before the the, the governor, the high
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priest. Actually, he was brought before
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the high priest and Paul was, you know, was defending himself
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and the high priest commanded that he be smitten on the side
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of his face. This is over in Acts chapter 23.
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And Paul said you will be smitten also you white washed
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wall. He insulted the high priest and
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the person that was standing next to him said do you not even
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respect the high priest? And Paul says, I didn't know
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that he was the high priest. It is written we do not speak
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evil of the leaders of the people.
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He knew the law. But because he was so angry and
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that that that tongue just came out of that cage and whoosh
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quickly. And how many times that happened
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with us, you know, God even in his love for us, he says, look,
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I'm trying to, I tried to tell, I'm trying to tell you that
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you'd be slow to speak, that you don't speak more than what you
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should. Listen.
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And I even did that by the way, I created you.
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How many? I gave you one tongue and I put
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it behind your teeth. I put it behind your lips so
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it'd be caged up. I gave you 2 ears and they're
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open because I want you to hear the things that we know are
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caged up are dangerous animals, aren't they?
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What the Bible says that our tongues can be dangerous and
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unruly evil, full of poison. We'll get to that over in
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chapter 3 though. But anyway, so the righteousness
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or the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God.
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So God's wrath is to bring repentance, to bring us to
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repentance and, and, and also it's to it's to humble us.
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It's a good rather it's, and his wrath is always against evil,
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always against evil. And the one thing that we know
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is that when God judges, his judgments are true.
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Over in Psalm 19 and 9, it says that the judgments of the Lord
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are true and righteous all together.
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God's judgments are righteous, but ours are not.
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Our judgments are not righteous. We judge and we act based on our
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feelings, based on our flesh sometimes.
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And God never does that. You know, one of the things that
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God never has to do is that he's never to the point where he acts
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uncontrollable or he acts out of sudden, of a sudden fit of
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anger. But we have done that.
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We do act out of anger sometimes sudden fits of anger.
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You ever get frustrated so and before you even realize what
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you're doing, you, you've already gotten to the height of
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where you want to, you know, like you've already, you've
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gotten so angry so quick that you don't even realize that you
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know that the danger of what you just said or what you just did
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because you just got so angry so quick.
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And they can get you there sometimes, you know, sometimes
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things that people do can get you there.
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But we allow that to happen because our righteous or our
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wrath is not righteous. But but what you have to
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understand that God's wrath is our wrath is for the purpose of
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bringing punishment, retaliation.
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You know, I want to retaliate against you.
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So I'm going to say some things to you, do some things to you
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that you know that you can't do that to me.
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But God's wrath is not like that.
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It doesn't bring forth those kind of things.
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So then we understand now that, OK, let's be slow.
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Let's be swift to hear the word of God.
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Let's be slow to speak, and let's be slow to getting angry,
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be slow to wrath. For we understand our wrath do
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not work the righteousness of God.
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So because of that, he tells us in verse 21, therefore lay aside
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all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with
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meekness the implanted word which is able to save your
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souls. So James is saying, in order for
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you to be able to receive the Word of God and to really hear
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it and have it benefit you, you got to clean out your heart.
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You got to clean out your heart. You got hardness in your heart.
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You got some things that shouldn't be there.
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You got bitterness in your heart, you got anger in your
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heart, you got clamor and wrath in your heart.
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Those things are filthy. They defile us.
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Those things defile us. And he said, lay aside those
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things, Get rid of those wicked things, and receive with
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meekness, receive with a teachable spirit, receive with
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humility, with gentleness, the implanted word of God.
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And I love the fact that he used the word implanted because many
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places in the Word of God, he talks about the Word as being a
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seed. It's a seed that is planted in
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our hearts right now as the word of God has gone forth.
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It's a seed that's coming forth. And it should be planting in our
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hearts. It should be resting or find a
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resting place in our hearts, a place where it it, it can grow
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and bring forth fruit in our lives.
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So he said that this implanted word and, and there's many
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places where he uses this example of the word as being
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implanted, this word that he that he sows over in Mark four,
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he talks about sowing the, you know, the parable of the, of
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the, of the sower. And what is it He's sowing?
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He's sowing the word and he gets four different grounds of the
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word, four different types of, of soil.
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In other words, it, it represents our hearts, the four
30:37
different hearts. First of all, it's the hard
30:38
heart that nothing penetrates and that falls by the wayside.
30:42
Anything can come and grab it and take it away.
30:44
So the word has no effect. Another type of heart that we
30:48
can have can be a Stony heart. Well, you can plant the, you can
30:51
sprinkle the seed on that, but it doesn't take up any growth.
30:55
And as soon as some hard times come, like the trials that,
30:59
that, that, that James is talking about, because there's
31:03
no growth, it's scorched and we walk away from the Lord because
31:08
there's no growth, there's no grounding.
31:11
Then of course there's a the word that can be sown and
31:14
thorns. But then the cares of this life
31:18
and the deceitfulness of riches and, and, and, and the cares for
31:21
other things, though the desire for other things chokes that
31:25
word and it causes it to have no effect.
31:31
So that's why he's saying, look, clear these things out of your
31:33
heart. So when you receive the word,
31:36
you can receive it with meekness or with gentleness.
31:40
And this word can literally work effectively in you.
31:47
You see, when we first heard the word of God, it worked for our
31:50
salvation because we trusted in it.
31:52
We believed on it and it worked for our salvation.
31:55
But we have to continue to receive the word of God.
31:58
So it works for our sanctification as we continue to
32:03
grow in our Christian life to look more and more like Jesus
32:07
Christ. We continue to receive the word.
32:14
So he said, let's take that. So now he's goes to verse 22
32:18
through 25 and he now talks about what we do with that word.
32:24
Oh, oh, one of the things that we realize as a church, any
32:31
church or the church, he says here be doers of the Word.
32:37
Verse 22, Be doers of the word and not here is only deceiving
32:40
yourselves. Verse 23 For if anyone is a
32:45
hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like a man observing
32:49
his natural face in the mirror, For he observes himself, goes
32:54
away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
32:58
But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and
33:03
continues in it and is not a forgetful here, but a doer of
33:10
the work, not the word, but the work, this one will be blessed.
33:16
And what he does, so he shares with this, there's two types of
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people that sits in church every day, every Sunday.
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There's those who hear the Word and there are those who are
33:25
doers of the Word. Those who hear the Word, attend
33:29
church every Sunday, come and listen to what's said, but then
33:35
walk out and that's it. That's the end of it.
33:38
And then there's doers of the Word hears it, It goes into the
33:42
heart and we begin to work on it.
33:45
You begin to work on what it is that you heard you, you, you,
33:48
you pray and ask God to to help you in those areas that he
33:53
pointed out through the word that you're not quite there yet.
34:01
Like this. Be slow to speak thing that I've
34:04
got to stay before God with slow to speak.
34:10
Be swift to hear all that. You know, those are things I got
34:13
to stay before God with patience.
34:17
Those are things I got to stay before God with.
34:20
So we have those things, right? So basically what he's saying is
34:24
that when you receive the Word, you need to know what to do with
34:27
it. Not to be just a hearer of the
34:29
Word, but to be a doer of the Word.
34:32
I want to be a disciple. We want to be disciples of the
34:35
Word of God. We want to be disciples of Jesus
34:37
Christ and not just come in and be hearers, not just come to be
34:41
hearers. He said, if you're just a hearer
34:42
of the Word, you're just deceiving yourself.
34:45
Over in Matthew Chapter 7, verse 21, he begins to speak about
34:52
those who are just hearers of the word and not doers of the
34:57
word, and this is what he has to say about that.
34:59
I'll just read it to you. He said, not everyone who says
35:02
Lord, Lord, I'm sorry, let's go down.
35:05
Let's go down. Verse 2024.
35:07
He says, therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and
35:11
does them, whoever hears the word of God, whoever hears my
35:15
teaching and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who
35:20
built his house on the rock, and the rain descended, the floods
35:25
came, and the winds blew and beat on the House, and it did
35:29
not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
35:33
So he says, look, if you're a doer of my word, then you're
35:35
going to have a good foundation that can stand up in trial, that
35:41
can stand up in times of tribulation.
35:43
You'll be able to stand in temptations and when the hard
35:46
times come. But if you're not a doer the
35:49
word, listen to what he says here, but every in verse 26.
35:52
But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do
35:57
them will be liking, will be like a foolish man who built his
36:01
house on sand. So he's talking about the
36:05
significance of hearing the word and being a doer of it.
36:10
Now he now he, he, he, he mentions this illustration,
36:14
which I think is just awesome because we can all relate to
36:16
this. He gives the illustration of a
36:20
mirror. Most of us have more than one
36:23
mirror in the house. Will we agree on that?
36:25
Most of us do. I know we do.
36:31
OK. And actually I'm looking because
36:33
we need to get a full length mirror.
36:34
I don't have a full length mirror in my house.
36:36
Anybody got a full length mirror?
36:38
You can say, oh, many. OK, I got to get a go.
36:41
I got to get a full full length mirror.
36:44
Let's get back to the point. I digress.
36:47
The point I'm trying to make here is that James uses a very
36:50
interesting illustration to talk about those being a doer or
36:54
hearer, the word only, and those being a doer.
36:57
And he used the illustration of a mirror.
37:00
So we walked this morning, every one of us when we got dressed,
37:04
we went to that mirror and we looked, does this go with this
37:08
outfit? Do I need to change my shoes?
37:12
Does this shirt go? I know what y'all thinking.
37:15
Stop it. I know what you're thinking that
37:18
I'm. I'm thinking about how I match
37:20
up my shirts with my shoes. I know that's what some of you
37:22
guys are thinking. So we look at other things,
37:30
right? Do we have fuzz in my hair?
37:33
Do I need to shave men, you know, women, is my hair done
37:37
right? We look at those things.
37:39
So we see the flaws. We look in the mirror and we see
37:42
the flaws, but then we go and do something about it.
37:46
If we think we need to change something in our outfit, we
37:48
will. If we think we need to do
37:51
something different with our hair, we will.
37:53
If we think that there's, you know, we need to wash our face a
37:55
little better because there's a little coal in the corner of my
37:57
eyes, We will. When we see the flaws, we do
38:02
something about it. James is saying, when you look
38:06
into the mirror of the word and the Lord points out those flaws,
38:11
those things in your life that are not good, those things that
38:17
are not of him, we too should be doers of that as well and do
38:23
something about it. Let's come to him.
38:26
Say, Lord, I lay this before you, I need to change this.
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The Bible says that we are clothed with Jesus Christ, Amen.
38:37
So we're closed with Jesus Christ.
38:38
What is it in our hearts that don't go with that outfit?
38:43
What's in our hearts or in our lives that don't go with the
38:47
outfit that we're wearing of Jesus Christ?
38:52
So then he goes on, he says, but those who look into the perfect
38:55
liberty, the law of liberty, and continues in it, and he goes on
39:00
to tell you what that means. That means not being a forgetful
39:03
here, but to be a doer, OK, but to do a doer of a work of the
39:09
work of salvation. Now see, we don't work for
39:12
salvation, but we do work in our salvation.
39:17
There is work in our salvation, good works.
39:21
Bible says we are created unto good works in Christ Jesus that
39:25
we should walk in them so we're a doer of the work and he said
39:32
this one will be blessed. This one will have happiness and
39:36
and divine favor if we're a doer of the work.
39:41
I'll just want to share this, you know, when, when, when, when
39:43
we are truly seeking the Lord in heirs of our lives that are that
39:51
are wanting areas our lives. We may be slacking a little bit
39:55
areas of our lives that take us kind of take us away from him.
40:01
When we start to seek the Lord in that we feel so much closer
40:04
to him when we're walking in that obedience to him, we're
40:09
loving him, we're fellowshipping with him.
40:13
We, we, we endeavor to please him in the way that we walk, in
40:18
a way that we speak in the things that we do.
40:21
With through other people, there's such a closeness that we
40:25
feel to Him. There's such a fellowship that
40:29
we feel to Him. There's such peace that we have
40:32
in Him because we have that communion with Him through
40:40
obedience of His word. I'm not talking perfect
40:44
obedience, honest, I'm not. None of us are perfect.
40:47
None of us. We are constantly seeking to
40:52
mature in Christ Jesus. Every day, every Sunday we come
40:56
here. We want to hear something to
40:57
help us mature in Christ Jesus, not go backwards, but to move
41:03
forward in Him. And when we're doing that, it
41:06
brings us so much peace, so much joy.
41:13
Even in the midst of trial, we can have that peace.
41:19
But then in verse 26 and 27, are we about to come in for a
41:21
landing? Believe it or not?
41:23
See, see, I know what some of you are thinking.
41:27
We're about to come in for a landing.
41:29
So in verse 26, he says, if anyone praise and worship team,
41:32
you can come forward. I'm sorry.
41:34
So if anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle
41:40
his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is
41:46
useless. Hear that word useless.
41:51
It's the word he used here. Pure and undefiled religion.
41:55
Verse 27. Pure and undefiled religion
41:58
before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and
42:03
widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the
42:09
world. So now he moves from being a
42:14
hearer of the Word to being the doer of the word and he's about
42:17
to mention three things or three areas in which our evidences
42:26
that we are doers of the word or evidences that we are in Christ
42:30
Jesus. The first one, he, well, first
42:33
of all, he talks about religion, not know.
42:35
When we hear that word religion, we get a little turned off in
42:38
the New Testament church. And there's a good reason to
42:41
because to be religious or to be called to be religious is not
42:44
necessarily a ever, you know, not used as a positive thing.
42:49
If someone says, you know, you're religious, that usually
42:51
says to me that, you know, there's not much depth to what
42:55
you practice. There's not much depth to what
42:57
you believe. And the reason why is because,
43:01
and I'm just going to give you a quick definition of religion
43:04
here or being religious. It's the outward appearance or
43:09
the outward practice of serving God.
43:13
It's the appearance that we're serving God, not really
43:17
necessarily serving God. There's nothing in our hearts.
43:19
The heart is dark, but on the outside we look like we are this
43:25
religious righteous person. I come to church every Sunday.
43:31
My Bible is a nice sized Bible and I got a cross on that you
43:36
can see, you know, from a block away.
43:39
And you know, I, I, I wear the right clothes and, and, and I do
43:43
the, I say the right things, but that's not, that's, that's the
43:46
Pharisees. Jesus said that's the Pharisees.
43:50
They look why? You know, they look good on the
43:52
outside, but inside they're full of dead men's bones.
43:56
He says woe to them, He said, unless your righteousness
44:01
exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees.
44:04
It's got to be more than just looking good on the outside.
44:07
It's got to be about what's going on in that heart.
44:10
And that's why he says be a doer of the Word because that deals
44:13
with our hearts. James was called James the
44:17
Righteous for a reason, not because he was a perfect man,
44:22
but his desire, his desire to live out the word of God, the
44:30
walk with God. So he says.
44:33
So here when we talk about religious, we talk about
44:36
something that looks good on the outside, but necessarily not
44:40
having any depth on the inside. And James said that really, he
44:43
said if you are religious, if you say you're religious, but
44:47
yet you can't even control your tongue, you can't even bridle
44:51
your tongue. You speak to people in ways that
44:54
are belittling or or or or demeaning.
44:58
You attack people with your tongue.
45:00
You use language that's, that's unbecoming of someone that's in
45:06
Christ Jesus. The jokes that you're telling,
45:09
but yet you want to talk to me about coming to church.
45:11
You want to talk to me about being righteous.
45:14
And I'm I'm listening to this conversation that you're having
45:17
and it just doesn't sound like it's of the Lord.
45:23
Many testimonies have been destroyed by ungodly
45:28
conversations. Ungodly conversations.
45:34
So he says that if, if, if anyone thinks that they are
45:37
religious, but yet they came bridle their tongue or even
45:41
tries to bridle their tongue, but they deceive their own
45:45
heart. This one's religion is useless
45:48
if we don't have a religion that speaks or that deals with the
45:52
word of God, that obeys the word of God, that's endeavoring to
45:56
obey the word of God, and we act the same way as the world acts
46:06
that we're trying to minister to.
46:09
That religion is useless to them and to us and to us doesn't
46:17
benefit anybody. But then he goes on and he says,
46:21
but true and pure and undefiled religion before God the Father
46:27
and the Father is this. In other words, be a doer.
46:31
Listen to what he says here to visit the orphans and widows in
46:34
their trouble. And he says the widows and
46:37
orphans in their trouble, because that was the population
46:39
of people that was the most neglected in Bible times.
46:43
Orphans and widows kids were made orphans because both
46:47
parents or died or either can't afford to take care of them so
46:50
they had to give them up. They had nobody to take care of
46:54
them. Widows husbands died.
46:57
Maybe they died before they even had kids.
47:00
The husbands took care of the wives.
47:02
Now there's no one to take care of her.
47:04
She's a widow. And those were the 2 neglected
47:07
and the two misused groups of populations in Bible time.
47:13
But yet Jesus tells us or the word of God tells us that God is
47:16
a defender of those who are orphans.
47:20
And he pleads the case of the widows.
47:24
He, he, he's, he's not someone who looks over and looks past
47:28
them, but he deals with them, he helps them, he serves them.
47:32
So he said, the first, you know, the second, the first evidence
47:35
is to keep our tongues, but the, the the second evidence is to
47:40
care or to give service to those who can't help themselves to be
47:45
doers of the word of God. Matthew 25 as you've done it to
47:49
the least of these, you've done it unto me.
47:54
Psalm 68 and five says the father of the fatherless, a
47:57
defender of the widows is God and his holy dwelling.
48:03
And then he says the third thing is to keep yourself unspotted
48:08
from the world. One of the biggest things that
48:12
we can do is to keep ourselves separated from the things of the
48:16
one looking like the world, but to keep ourselves unspotted from
48:20
it. And sometimes when we talk about
48:23
our speech, go back to that for just one second to talk about
48:27
the speech. We see that there are times when
48:30
we post, I mean, even in our writings of emails or text
48:33
messages, not just things we say, but what about the things
48:35
that we write? We got to be mindful of those
48:38
things too. How do we respond in a text
48:40
message? How do we respond in emails?
48:42
What are we putting on Instagram?
48:43
What are we putting on Facebook? When we read that, what are we
48:48
seeing? What's the image that the people
48:50
see of us, the pictures that we have?
48:54
What do they say about us? What do they speak of us to be
48:59
mindful of those things? It's what he said to have
49:02
control, that self-control and to be able to keep ourselves
49:05
unspotted from the world. Well, you know what?
49:09
We we were all orphans at one time.
49:12
And then it was the Lord Jesus Christ who adopted us, right?
49:15
We're now adopted into the beloved.
49:18
And I thank God that we have a heavenly Father, regardless of
49:23
what the earthly father did or doing.
49:25
We have a heavenly Father who loves us and who cares about us.
49:31
And as we go into communion, I just want to mention that maybe
49:36
you here today, maybe there's someone here today that feels
49:39
like, you know what? I'm saved.
49:43
I've given my life to Christ. But I still feel like an orphan
49:47
because after I got saved, I was just left to myself to try to
49:51
walk through this, this, this walk with Christ.
49:55
I mean, no one discipled me, you know, no one really shared with
50:00
me. No one took me in.
50:02
I, I don't feel included in the body of Christ.
50:05
I don't feel connected to anybody.
50:08
I just want to say to you, if that's you today, come and join
50:12
us here at Calvary Chapel. You're welcome to walk with us.
50:18
We don't want you to have Bill Orphan.
50:20
We want to walk with you as we all are walking in this walk to
50:25
become, to become more like Jesus Christ.
50:30
We do it together, not in isolation.
50:33
We do it together. If you don't feel connected to
50:37
anybody in the faith, come and connect with us.
50:42
Come and connect with us. No one has to do this by
50:45
themselves. But I'm so grateful that Jesus
50:49
Christ himself embodied all those things, the mercifulness,
50:57
the goodness, the truth, the long-suffering or patience.
51:04
He embodied all those things and He showed it as He walked for
51:08
the 3 1/2 years in His ministry on earth, even to the point
51:14
where He showed His obedience to the Father by giving His life.
51:22
So today we want to just remember that.
51:28
We want to remember that. Yes, we'll remember it in the
51:32
table as we take the table, as we take the bread, eat the bread
51:36
and we drink the wine. We'll remember that this is His
51:40
broken body that He gave for us and His obedience to the Father.
51:44
We'll remember that it's the blood that He shed for us in his
51:48
obedience to the Father that we would have salvation.
51:51
We do want to remember that, but we also want to remember it when
51:54
we walk out of here, after we put this cup into the bag and we
51:58
throw it in the garbage can. Let us remember the sacrifice
52:03
that was made for us to have salvation.
52:08
The the, the, the work of sacrifice that was made for us
52:13
to have eternal life, to be forgiven for our transgressions
52:18
and our sins. Let's remember what was
52:22
sacrifice for us and may we consider that we give our lives
52:28
to him. And the night in which Jesus was
52:35
betrayed, he took the bread, and after he gave thanks, he broke
52:41
it and said, take, eat this is my body broken for you, Eat
52:48
this. And remembering to me in the
52:56
same manner he also took the cup.
53:01
And after supper he said, This cup is the new covenant in my
53:06
blood, which is shed for the forgiveness of sins of many.
53:16
Jesus came to give His life a ransom for many, and His blood
53:24
still cleanses us. Those of you who have not
53:28
trusted in Christ Jesus, the blood that he shed, it is still
53:33
cleansing our sins today, and it can still cleanse yours if you
53:39
trust Him. Give your heart to Him.
53:45
So this cup is a new covenant in My blood, which was shed for the
53:49
sins of many. Drink this in remembrance of Me.
53:57
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
54:02
show the Lord's death till he come.
54:04
Amen. The Lord bless you all.
54:06
The altar is open if anyone wants to come and share your
54:12
heart with the Lord. There's people here who will
54:15
pray with you. If there's any areas where you
54:17
want to give to Him, If there's someone here who says, you know
54:21
what, today I want to give my life to Jesus Christ.
54:24
You are welcome to come forth and to pray with someone that's
54:28
up here, but you can also do it right from your seat.
54:33
He hears it. He knows your heart.
54:36
I pray someone does. The Lord bless you.
54:38
Amen.