It is customary for a pastor to take a text from the Bible and use that as his text for a sermon. If you've listened to me speak, you know that I usually take more than a verse. I take a paragraph. Well, today I'm going to do something real different. My text is the entire book of James. Now, I'm going to do this for two reasons. One is that We've gone through the book of James paragraph by paragraph. And I think it would be helpful if we had an overview of the whole book. The second reason I want to do this is that I think that you ought to think about the Bible in those terms. What we've done is the Bible was written in books. There are 66 books. It's actually a library of books. But we've taken those books and chopped them up into chapters, and then we chopped up the chapters into verses. I've often wondered, who did that? And the answer, by the way, in terms of chapters, is an archbishop who did it in 1227. And then Wycliffe, the first to translate the Bible into English, followed that chapter division. The verses were not put in the Bible until 1550, when a printer decided to chop up the chapters. Matter of fact, he did it riding a horse as he was traveling, and some suggested that every time the horse hit a bump, that's where he put a break. because some of them are just not logical at all. His son, however, said that he did his work when he stopped for the night in an inn, and he did his work then. At any rate, the Bible was originally written in books. No chapters, no verses, just the book, now. It is natural and normal to take any kind of written material and divide it into chapters and paragraphs, I should say. So what I do when I come to the Bible, I leave the chapters as they are, but then I try to isolate the paragraphs. Some modern translations print now in paragraphs. If you're using a New King James, which is what I recommend, They print it in verses, but they designate the paragraph by printing the first verse of the paragraph in bold print. So if verse 10 starts a new paragraph, they'll print that in bold print. At any rate, the way I study the Bible is I divide it into paragraphs. I look at the topic of each of those paragraphs. and try to put the topics together to see what is the subject of the whole book. What is the one subject that's the umbrella that covers all of those topics? And then how do those topics explain, or those paragraphs I should say, explain those topics? Now, I want to go through the book of James like that, but I want to suggest that you think of all the books of the Bible like that. Like, what is the subject of that book, and how does the author develop that subject? How does he deal with that subject? Matter of fact, I'm doing a series of recordings called the 10-Minute Bible, and I answer a couple of questions about every book of the Bible. I take one book at a time and I ask the question, what's the subject? That is, what's the author talking about? Number two, what is the structure? How is he developing or dealing with that subject? And then what's the situation? What provoked him to write that book in the first place? So the subject, the structure, and the situation is very helpful in studying any book. Now, a good study Bible will give you some of that information in an introduction. If you go to the app I have and look at the 10-minute Bible, I'm currently going through every book. But today, I want us to do that with the book of James. What is the subject of the book of James? Well, it's very obvious that he starts by talking about trials. After giving his name and saying something about who's receiving the book and greeting, he then says in verse 2, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. So clearly the subject of the book of James is trials. Now, what's going on? What provoked him to do that? Well, if you read the book and try to pick out what's going on in their lives, you will discover they are having problems. Matter of fact, it's very clear that they're having some relationship problems. Chapter 4, there's conflict among them. If you keep reading, you will discover that there are some money problems in chapter five. They're actually being cheated out of their just wages. And then on top of those two, there's some other things that are involved. There are some things like physical sickness. That's covered in chapter five. They were treated unjustly. in several kinds of situations in chapter 2 and chapter 5. Now let me ask you a question. You ever have any problems in those areas? Relationships? Physical sickness? How are we doing? Money? And all the people said, Amen. Well, all of those things are dealt with in this book. The subject is trials. And what provoked him to do it is the original recipients of this book were going through those kinds of trials. Sometimes life has a way of dealing us lemons, not just in a car you bought. But you get lemons in all kinds of areas of your life. So I'm going to entitle the book of James, How to Make a Lemonade out of a Lemon. How's that? In other words, how does he deal with that subject? What is the structure of that book? How do you put it all together? What's the overview? Well, if you look at the first chapter, there's a long introduction. In verses 2 to 12, The subject is trials. I just read you verse two. When you fall into various trials, some trials are minor, others are major. So he says in those verses, look, you need to trust the Lord. You need to trust the Lord and remain steadfast. Don't bow out of your relationship with the Lord just because there's a trial. Matter of fact, he says, if you do that, that leads to spiritual maturity. And for that reason, you ought to count it a joy that the trial has come. Not that it is a joy, but you count it a joy because you're going to gain some maturity out of this. I've sort of give a motto to that saying, trials are for your training. I said that years ago when I first preached through this book, and as late as this week, somebody who heard those sermons 20 years ago recited that back to me. Trials are for your training. But if you keep reading that paragraph, he also says, and if you do, you get a crown of life at the judgment seat of Christ. So I've added to trials are for your training the little phrase, trials are for your training and A trophy, if you respond properly, you get maturity now and you get a crown of life later. The second paragraph in the introduction immediately discusses temptation. That's beginning in verse 13 and going to verse 18. And in those verses, he says, don't blame God because temptation doesn't come from God. God may allow the trial, but the temptation is not from him. He goes on to explain the temptation is from us. And if we don't respond properly to it, The result could be premature physical death. Now, those are the two opening paragraphs of this book. Trials, temptation. Trials are for your training and a trophy leads to life. Temptation, if not responded to properly, could lead to physical sickness and even physical death. Now, that's the introduction. The question then is how do you deal with a trial? I mentioned a minute ago that trials are like lemons. How do you make a lemonade out of lemons? Would you like to know the answer to that? That's physical lemonade. How about spiritual lemonade? Turn to the book of James. And look at chapter one, verse 19. It says, so then my brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. Now look at verse 20. For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Now here's what he's saying. He's just mentioned trials. He's just mentioned temptation. And he's saying, now look, when those things come along, here's what you need to do. Be swift to hear. Be slow to speak. Be slow to get angry. Why? Well, he explains in verse 20. Because if you get angry, that's not going to produce spiritual maturity. It's called the righteousness of God in verse 20. So, let me take those two verses and put them in a little different order. When you have a trial, how do you respond? Do you get angry? Isn't that usually first? All of you look guilty. And then what happens? Yes, spout off at the mouth, complaining, right? And then what happens? Well, you're not listening to anybody because you can't talk and listen at the same time. So if you're talking, you're not listening. So James says, put it in the kind of order we experience it, be slow to get angry. Be slow to speak, but be swift to listen, be swift to hear. Now, we need to explore that. I think, and so do many others, that that verse is the outline for the rest of the book. What's the subject of James? Trials. How does he develop it? The way to handle a trial is be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to get angry, because if you don't do that, you're not going to get the value out of the trial, which is spiritual maturity. So he takes those three things and he develops them through the book. Now, Whether you are a small child, teenager, or a senior citizen, we all have trials. Life has a way of dealing us lemons. Here's the recipe for lemonade. Swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. All right. Let's talk about that. When you say swift to hear, what does that mean? Swift to hear who? What does he mean, swift to hear? Well, is he talking about being swift to hear in a general sense of the term, that you should listen to other people? That's not a bad idea. Frankly, we don't hear each other as we should. Matter of fact, I came to the conclusion a long time ago that one of the greatest needs people have is just to be heard. You agree with that? I've had situations where as a pastor, somebody asked if they could meet with me and I said, sure. And they met in my office and talked for 45 minutes. I didn't say a word. I just listened. At the end of 45 minutes, they would say to me, Pastor, you have helped me so much. He got up and walked out. Whoa, all I did was listen. I say people need to be heard. Once a little boy shouted loudly at supper, pass the potatoes. His mother insisted that he was acting rudely. And she sent him to his room. The father had bought a tape recorder, and without the family knowing it, was recording the conversation at dinner. And when they played it, they could hear the little boy saying, pass the potatoes, please. And nobody did. So he said, pass the potatoes, please. And nobody heard. him. So finally he said, pass the potatoes, please. And his parents thought he was rude. He was just not heard. So could it be that he is saying we just need to listen to each other more? Not a bad idea, but not the idea that James has in mind. Keep reading. He goes on to say that we should, well, look at verse 21. Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wilkiness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls, which should be translated life. And then he says, but be doers of the word, not hearers only. So it's very obvious in this passage that what he's saying is you ought to be swift to hear the word of God. Ah, very important. No matter what difficulty you're going through, Be swift to hear what God has to say about that. By the way, back up. Remember in the first paragraph he talked about trials and he said, trust the Lord, count it all joy, remain steadfast. What he says in verse five is, and if you lack wisdom, ask. Now, keep in mind that God allows trials to come into our life to bring us to spiritual maturity. Well, what is it he's trying to teach me? Well, ask for wisdom if you don't know. And now he's saying, be swift to hear the word of God. And he quickly adds, now I don't mean by that just hear it, I mean heed it. You know, it's like a mother saying to a child, did you hear me? She doesn't mean, did you hear what I said? She knows he heard what he said. She means, did you do what I said? And that's the way James is speaking of it here. So when our plans get interrupted, we erupt. When we experience inconvenience, we are incensed. And when one of us tries to tell us anything, we just don't listen. We don't listen to them. and we don't listen to God. I'm calling trials a lemon. The Word of God is the recipe book on how to make lemonade. That is, you can have a desire for the most fabulous dinner, filet mignon. You can have a cookbook that tells you how to do it. You can have all the ingredients in the refrigerator, but if you don't follow the instructions of the cookbook, you're never gonna end up with filet mignon. So you can have a Bible in your lap, you can read it, but if you don't do it, you're never going to make lemonade. So you have to follow the directions. You have to follow them strictly and entirely to get the maximum result. So some just read the book. They start, and then they stop. Some finish, but they don't follow the recipe exactly. For the guaranteed results, you must follow the instructions completely. Now, just exactly what are his instructions? If I'm to be swift to hear the word of God, what is he trying to teach me? Well, he says in verse 21, lay aside all filthiness and the overflow of wickedness. One of the things God is trying to teach us is to eliminate sin. But if you go and Look at that passage in its entirety. You'll see that after he says that, and he says it rather emphatically, he gets to the end and he says, verse 22, be doers of the word and not hearers only. And then drop down to verse 26. If anyone among you thinks he's religious and does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his own heart, is religious, is useless. Pure an undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit the orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep yourself unspotted from the world. So, he's clearly saying in this first chapter, be swift to hear the word of God. And that means eliminate the wickedness, don't be spotted by the world, and go visit the fatherless and widows in their trouble. Now isn't that interesting? The chapter starts out with you having a problem and it ends with go help somebody else in their problem. That is the recipe for making lemonade. You follow the instructions. In other words, you love people. That's exactly what this amounts to. Matter of fact, he calls it the royal law. It's the law that rules all other laws. It's called the royal law of liberty. It's the one that really sets you free. He uses all those expressions in this book. So, you really want to grow to spiritual maturity? Be swift to hear. Be swift to hear the Word of God. Be swift to do what the Word of God says. And the bottom line of that is simply go love one another. Go visit somebody else who's having a problem. Don't just think about yourself. Think about other people. Be amazed at how that will help you in your own problem. Furthermore, that's how you grow to spiritual maturity. Because frankly, spiritual maturity is growing into Christ-like love. Now, it's unfortunate there's a chapter break here, but there is. But the next paragraph in chapter 2, starts at verse 1 and goes through verse 13, all of a sudden changes the subject, or does it? If you read that paragraph, it's talking about an usher who showed some favoritism toward a rich man and gave a poor man a poor seat. Matter of fact, he didn't even give him his own chair, didn't even give him his footstool. They told him to sit basically on the floor. So what James is dealing with is prejudice. He says in chapter 2 verse 1, My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. Now, what's the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ? It's that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sin, for the sin of the world, everybody included. And so if you believe that, that God loved us and Jesus died for us and paid for all of our sin, then how could you show partiality to somebody? How could you be prejudiced? If you're having Christ-like love, prejudice has no place. Then he ends the chapter with that very famous thing of faith without works is dead. That's one of the great battlegrounds of interpretation of the whole New Testament. People misinterpret that passage more than any other, it seems to me. What is he really saying in that passage? Well, I want you to open your Bible to James chapter two, and I want you to look at verse 23. The scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Stop. What do you have to do to be declared righteous? Trust Christ, right? Matter of fact, the Bible says, he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He gets our sin, we get his righteousness. Translate it. To be forgiven, you have to trust Christ. Period. Don't add anything to that. Just trust Christ. It's called the gift of God. Romans 6.23, the gift of God is eternal life. So you want to go to heaven? Trust Jesus Christ. Well, then why is faith without works dead? Because you can have faith and not works, and that means your faith is not active. You're not believing what God said do. You're not visiting the fatherless and widows. You're not loving people. You're not helping people who are in need. Now that's very clear that if you trust the Lord, like he said in the very beginning of the book, you'll go love people. You'll do what the word of God says. You'll grow. You'll become spiritually mature. Your faith will be alive, it'll be active, and that'll produce maturity. That's the point of faith without works is dead. He's clearly said you've got faith, that's verse 23. Now, look at verse 22. Do you see that faith works together with works, and by works faith was made? Perfect, which is the way the Bible talks about spiritual maturity. So he's saying, look, if you do what the word of God says, it's going to produce what? Spiritual maturity. So let's back up and review. What's the subject of the book of James? Do you forget that already? Most of you didn't. I heard it. All right. How does he develop that subject? Be swift to hear the word of God, which means love people. And if you're prejudiced, you're not going to do that. So if you're exercising faith, which is what he told you to do in the very first couple of verses of the book, then faith works together with works to produce spiritual maturity. which is what he said in the opening verses of the book. So be swift to hear means swift to love so that you can grow to spiritual maturity. And if you don't have the works, which is love, matter of fact, he gives an illustration of it. If you saw people hungry and thirsty and all you said is naked and all you said is, you know, be filled and clothed, you're not loving them. His whole illustration is about love. So, if you love people, you'll grow to spiritual maturity. Amen? All right. So far, so good. What's the second way you make a lemonade? Be swift to hear. What's the second? Slow to speak. Lo and behold, look at chapter three. He starts out, my brethren, Let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive the stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things, but if anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man and is also able to bridle his whole body. Ah, he then says, look, you need to be slow to speak. You need to control that tongue. Matter of fact, if you control that tongue, you could have self-control. You could control the whole body. This illustration is put a bit in a horse's mouth. Control that mouth, control the whole horse. Wow. And what will it produce? Well, he says, you'll be a perfect man. So again, he is stressing in this book, if you follow the instructions, you will end up spiritually mature. Now, in this paragraph, What he does is he talks about the fact that the tongue can do great, great things, great good things. And then he talks about the fact and the tongue can also do very bad things. Can do good things and bad things. Which one you got? Well, he discusses a third. It can be inconsistent. Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing, he says. You could do both. And he argues, that's very unnatural. And you shouldn't do that. There's a second paragraph in chapter three, and this one talks about wisdom. And what he says is, if you have wisdom, don't talk about it first, show it. Now you see, I think the context is the tongue. what you say. And I think the Bible says be slow to speak, but you say, yeah, but I have wisdom. They need my wisdom. So you're quick to talk because you think you've got wisdom. James says, if you got wisdom, demonstrate it first. People learn more by your actions than your words. Children learn by what their parents do more than they learn by what they say. as all parents know that to their chagrin. So, chapter three deals with the tongue. And as he says in the very beginning, if you control that tongue, you'll become spiritually mature. So, be swift to hear, be slow to speak. Now, The next thing he does is in chapter 4 he says, and where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your own desire for pleasure that war in your members? Now, he does not use the word wrath beginning in chapter 4, but beginning in chapter 4 he talks about conflict. This is why I say the book is about relationships, getting along with one another. He talks about the fact there's a war within us, a war among us, a war above us with God. And he's saying, in essence, that that all becomes from pride. God resists the proud, 4-6, and he gives grace to the humble. So when you have a conflict, what you're to do is come to the Lord and ask for grace to handle it graciously. But if you don't, if you're proud, you'll leave God out and do it your way. And that is not the thing to do. So be slow to get angry and do it your way. That's the point. Now, there's another short paragraph in chapter four where he talks about judging. And he says, in essence, if you go around judging people, we're now dealing with relationships. It's because you left God out. Matter of fact, God's the only lawgiver. And if you go around judging people, you're putting yourself above the lawgiver and the law. Then he talks about a businessman taking a business trip, and he says in essence, you know, you make all these plans and you go, but what you should have done is say, I'll do this if the Lord wills. In other words, don't leave God out. So, Chapter four is saying don't leave God out of your conflicts, your relationships. Don't leave God out of your judging and don't leave God out of your planning. To do so is pride. And instead of having pride, have a little humility. In the context of the book, I think he's saying be slow to get angry. Because if you get angry, then what's going to happen? You're going to have conflicts with people, you're going to judge one another, and you're going to leave God out of your planning. Now that takes us to chapter 5. Chapter 5, the first 12 verses, are really, really interesting. It's interesting for this reason. In the first six verses, he addresses unsaved people. Now, that's rare in the New Testament. It happens in the Old Testament where God addresses unbelievers. Well, in this case, there are rich unbelievers who are defrauding believers out of their just wages. And what he says to them is, there's coming a day when you will be judged. That's one of the great messages of the entire Bible. That is, God is the judge. And one day, all of us will stand before God as the judge. Now, he tells that to unbelievers who are treating believers unjustly. But the point to believers is, and it's written to them, is you need to remember that. If you're treated unjustly, you need to remember, God's going to judge that. You don't have to seek revenge. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, Romans chapter 12. So don't you get even, let God deal with it. So the first thing you need to do is remember God deals with injustice. Now, Then he addresses the believer who's experiencing that kind of problem. Look at chapter five and look at verse seven. Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Ah, you need to remember, that's the first six verses in chapter five. The second thing you do is just be patient. Be patient. How long do I have to be patient? Can I just be patient till dinner time? How about till summer vacation? How about till I die? No. Here's the rule. Be patient until the Lord comes. Now, why does he bring that up? Well, what's going to happen when the Lord comes back? He'll do the judging. So you just need to be patient. Now, the other thing that's going on here, and this is super important, is what is He trying to do? Why does God allow these trials to come into your life? By now you all know the answer to that. To produce what? Maturity. And maturity is like what? Love. And how about patience. Ooh. As a matter of fact, remember back in chapter three, you should control your tongue. And if you could control your tongue, you could control your whole body. As part of spiritual maturity, self-control. Matter of fact, Paul says in the book of Galatians chapter five, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, long-suffering. He goes through the whole list, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, grace, faithfulness, and self-control. When the Spirit of God is producing spiritual maturity in your life, that'll produce things like love, patience, and self-control. You want to know how mature you are? Here's the test. How loving are you? How patient are you? Oh, moving right along. How much self-control you have? Oh, that's worse. But that's what this book is teaching. The way to make a lemonade out of lemons of life is to be slow to get angry, slow to speak, and swift to go do what God says, love people. because that's what will produce spiritual maturity, and the likes of that is self-control and patience. Wow. Does that put it together or what? One more paragraph in this book. Paragraph is, well, what happens if you're sick? I bring that up. Well, in the context of the book, it seems to me that he's saying that if you've not responded properly to this, you could be physically ill. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, because some people were acting in an unloving way at the Lord's table, some were physically weak, some were physically sick, and some were asleep, which is a biblical way of talking about being dead. So we're right back to chapter one. Instead of the trial, there's a temptation. If you don't become the it, if you don't deal with it properly, and wow, you could end up sick. Matter of fact, he closes the book by saying, brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he turns a sinner from the air of his ways and saves a soul from death. So we're right back where the book started. There are trials and there are temptation. The trials lead to life. The temptation leads to death. And he ends the book. by covering both of those. So he says in chapter 5 verse 13, is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? That means you're responding properly. Let him sing psalms. Then he says, is anyone sick? So he's dealing with both things he dealt with in the very first chapter. Some are dealing with trials of life properly. They've made a lemonade, and they are full of joy. And some are not doing it properly, and they are sick, and that could lead to premature physical death. All right. We're done with the book. You got it? Now it's pop quiz time. What's the subject of the book? Music to my ears. How does the author develop that subject? Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to write. Why? So you can produce spiritual maturity. That's the book of James. And I think That's the way you ought to understand every book of the Bible. Matter of fact, I'm currently putting on tape the 10-minute Bible where I go through all those. I've already written the book called The Books of the Bible, and I lay out the subject, the structure, and the situation of every book of the Bible, and I do it in one page per book. Wouldn't it be terrific if you could think through every book of the Bible like that? Maybe if you just knew the subject of every book, start with that. Interesting. So I wanted to give you a feel for the way the Bible was written in the first place. But I also wanted to cover the book of James. So let me go back to it for a minute. It seems to me that these three things deal with, be swift to hear, that's your actions, meaning be swift to do. Be slow to speak, that obviously deals with your speech, and be slow to anger, that obviously has to do with your attitude. So, what you need to do is in any trial, make sure that your actions are right, that your words are right, and that your attitudes are right. May I make a suggestion? It's been my observation as a pastor that as people come to Christ, trust Christ for salvation, and they begin to grow, one of the first things that happens is some of their habits stop. They stop doing some things they used to do. It affects their behavior. Then it seems to me that It affects their speech. When I became a Christian, I was 18 years old, and I often said, I lost half my vocabulary. Because I used to cuss like a sailor. After all, I was in Pensacola, Florida, the Navy base is there. And then what happens? The more you grow, not only affects your actions and your words, it affects your attitude. I'm not angry. I'm at peace. Amen. That's the ultimate. And that's what this book is talking about. This is my favorite book of the Bible. It's because I think it lays out so clearly how to handle life. So I've given you the recipe. Life gave you the lemons. Go make a lemonade. I have a confession to make. I haven't always followed the recipe. But on one or two occasions, I have. So I want to tell you a story. When I first came to L.A. many decades ago, we bought some furniture, a living room set that had three pieces. Bought it from a national furniture company. And we were told when we bought it that it would take six weeks to be delivered. No problem, we can wait. Several months later, several months later, the first of three pieces arrived. Then another month or so, And the second piece arrived. The third piece just never came. We tried to be patient and kind. On several occasions, I called the company and was told repeatedly that it was not in yet. I, you know, was patient. Now, could you get irritated at that? Could you get angry? Well, I decided that I wasn't going to do that. So, I wrote a letter. I didn't write it to the salesman who sold it to us. I didn't write it to the manager of the store. I wrote it to the president of the company on the East Coast. And here's what I said. I'm writing to inquire about a tree that you're growing for me. How is it going? Would you say that it has a natural growth rate? When do you anticipate it reaching maturity so that it can be used? I trust that it is being watered, fertilized, and cared for properly. Let me explain. Last summer, I moved to Southern California, and we bought tables at your local outlet. After six weeks, we only, after several months, we only received one piece. Then after another month or so, we received the second piece. The third piece has never arrived. It's now April. We've tried to be patient and kind, On several occasions we've called only to be told repeatedly that it's not in yet. So I'm certain that you must be growing that tree for that last piece of furniture. And I was just curious about how it's growing. In the meantime, I think you should know people come to my house and when they see that one odd piece missing, I have to tell them that you haven't delivered it yet. Now, I realize it takes a long time to grow a tree, but at least knowing that you're thinking about when it might be ready would give us some kind of hope. So could you tell me, sir, when will the tree be ready for service? Sincerely, Mike Kirkoros. Would you like for me to tell you the result of that letter? I didn't get an ulcer. I didn't get angry. I wrote a letter. Number two, I learned a little patience. Think you could learn a little patience? That experience, I really decided I'm not going to get upset. I'm just going to be patient. One of the other things I learned is just go to the president. By the way, that last piece of furniture arrived in seven days. That's great. Hey, life is going to give you lemons. I just gave you the recipe for lemonade. But you gotta make it. Let's pray. What are you struggling with right now? What's going on in your life that you need to give to the Lord? Ask him for the grace to handle. That's the real issue. He gives grace to the humble, according to James. And these moments are between you and the Lord. Give it to him. Father, may the Spirit of God put his finger on that wickedness that needs to be put away. and that love that needs to be incorporated. Lord, may the Spirit of God use this message to move believers toward spiritual maturity. In Jesus' name, amen.