Go ahead and take your Bibles and turn to the book of James. And as you do that, just one item of kind of family news here. They are bringing in hospice care for Diane Seitzman. And so her liver is just not in a good place anymore. And so they are at the doctor's here at the end of the week. And that's kind of where things are heading. And so I had the opportunity to talk to Gina yesterday. You get up here and pray today is a testament to his faith. But it could be weeks, could be months, but said she's doing well. And I said it was almost relieved in a way just to know that there's some answers and just okay, you know. And I asked Jim, you know, how are you doing? And he's like, you know, it's all right. And I believe him. Some people say that. You know what he means by that. Jim's obviously saddened by this, but he's been dealing with her health for a long time, and they know what this means too. She'll go home, and she's so faithful, and she's meant so much to this church, and my family, my kids, and just so many older people just kind of tune out sometimes as they get older and release, and man, they've stayed so plugged in. And so instrumental. So just keep them in your prayers. And we had a chance to pray around Jim here in first service when he was here. And so just keep them in your thoughts. A great example of faithfulness. And man, if I could be like Jim when I get his age, you know, I'll consider myself pretty—I've done pretty well. Just his faithfulness and willingness to just continue to serve. And even when we put drums up on stage, he's still stuck around. James chapter 1. Let me read here, starting in verse 19. I'm actually going to be reading out of the NIV today. We have kind of this, you know, we had the speakers here when Jeff was on sabbatical and Jeff came back, this little two-week mini-series on Sabbath. And we have kind of a couple weeks here before we start into our fall series. So, you know, we're kind of like, oh, whatever. And one of the goals our family had this summer was to memorize this passage of scripture. So I was thinking, well, I've been memorizing this all summer and been thinking about it and had my myself taken to the woodshed by it all summer. James is incredibly practical and And I thought, what better passage to preach on than one I've kind of been meditating on this summer. And so we memorized it in NIV, so that's why I'm gonna be reading it to you today. My kids are sitting down here today going, you should be quoting it from the NIV, Dad. But I'll read it just to make sure we don't mess anything up here. I'll start in verse 19. My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent. And humbly accept the word planted in you which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it, they will be blessed in all they do. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves. Their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. God, we pray your spirit today to take your word. As we were just saying, God, take your word, take your truth, and plant it deep in us, deep in our hearts, God, that it would bring forth fruit, sanctification, life change. God, again, I humbly acknowledge standing here. I have nothing to say, nothing to give of my own wisdom, my own strength, God. So please be your spirit. work, take your powerful word, your powerful truth, and apply it to our lives. We trust him for this. In the name of Jesus we pray, amen. One of the things that, I was gonna say students, but not just students, some adults as well, like to do to their youth pastor, They like to take my phone, if I leave it laying around, and they think it's funny to take pictures of themselves. A lot of pictures. They leave it, and I find it. I've always told them that one of these days, this practice of yours will come back to haunt you. And I was thinking of our dear missionary, Dan Kohak, in Brazil. And Dan's got this great statement. Dan's kind of guy, he immediately kind of puts our students at ease. And they feel freedom with him. They like starting to joke around with him. And he plays tricks on them, and they play tricks on him. And he has this great phrase. You know what it is, Matthew? Do you remember? No, you don't remember? I don't get even. I get ahead. That's great. And this passage here, it just lent itself to something. And so I grabbed my phone and I started flipping back through it. This whole concept of images, seeing images of yourself. And what's happened over the years is this, I've had these images and I've gone back and I've put them on Facebook or I've shown this, and they're like, oh man, I can't believe, can you get rid of that? I'm like, oh no, no, no. So I want to share a few of these with you this morning as we think about James' illustration here of looking at ourselves in a mirror and maybe not liking what we see and want to change it, right? Here's a couple as we start out. Mr. Hoime on the left and Mr. Schellenberg on the right. There you go, that's actually, the one on the left is in Brazil. Lindsey Nickel dove under the seat today in first service. That is my brother-in-law in the back. I want to emphasize in-law, he is not blood related to me. But yes, Lindsey's like, oh, I hated that, I did that. My own flesh and blood, Zach. This actually became my wallpaper without me knowing it, and I told Zach that this will show up on his wedding day. That is barbecue sauce on his face. And then Hannah and Grace, and Hannah looks like she just woke up from sleeping on her face there. Like I said, not all students. uh, Jimmy, and uh, yes, that is one of our deacons, Jason Dow. Um, this is why the seminary had to take a good hard look at whether or not they would admit Jimmy, because I sent this picture along with his pastoral recommendation. Um, so, uh, there, yeah, there's that, and, uh, again, I think this may be show up on Jimmy's wedding day someday. Uh, my last, uh, one, and, and, um, it's—Luke Shellenberg's not here, is he? It's so unfortunate. Um, Yeah, Luke has seen this, and he was like, oh my goodness. And again, begging me to get rid of it, and I was like, no, no, pal, that was a bad move on your part there. Generally speaking, right, I'm just going to leave that there for a minute, is that okay? Generally speaking, we see a bad image of ourselves, and we want to change it, right? Greg, are you taking pictures to send to Luke? Thank you. That's great. Good, good. You know, whether it's like, OK, I can take this and Photoshop it, which we can do today, or, you know, yeah, I walk in, and I look in the mirror, and I'm like, oh, look, there's some whipped cream on my nose that my wife didn't tell me about, or, you know, something with my hair sticking straight up. Generally speaking, we're looking at it like, oh, I've got to fix that before I go back out to the meeting, or whatever. do we want to change it that is a significant concept here in the opening part of james epistle that the people who name the name of jesus that the people of god who claim to be followers of christ that they would look at the mirror that is god's word and they would see something that's not right that it's kind of like cringy and they would take active steps to fix it. The epistle of James is highly, highly concerned with this relationship between faith and action, between faith and works. As a matter of fact, and I didn't count this for myself, but one commentator claimed that there are 54 imperative verbs in the book of James. Pretty significant number given the size of this epistle. 54 imperative commands. James very concerned with action. James does not simply accept mere words in professions as evidence of one's faith. This is the point of the mirror illustration. You also see him unpack this a little bit more as the epistle goes on he talks about abraham and what does he say? Justifies abraham. He says it's not just his faith It is was his faith and that faith was demonstrated by obedience right faith and action. That's authentic christianity In fact, he takes it even a step further. He says, you know what he said even the demons believe in god Even the demons will make a profession that God is real and God exists. At this point, it's not just about an empty profession. It's about action. What James is critical of in his epistle is the person, the believer, who looks in the mirror of God's Word has the ability to change and simply does not do it. So as we begin, I want to get you thinking about the possibility that God may want some of you to change this morning, specifically in some of these areas we're gonna unpack here in just a moment. Some of you need to look into the mirror of God's word this morning and be challenged by what you see there, and then take active steps to correct it as you leave here this morning. So that leads us to the statement of theme. The theme of James. Authentic faith demands action. And there's a lot of words we can maybe substitute there for action, obedience or whatever, but that's the gist of it. Works. Okay? Authentic faith demands action. Since we're not doing this as part of a series, we don't have the luxury of taking a whole sermon to kind of unpack the background, so let me briefly just throw this at you. First of all, the authorship of the book of James. Most likely, it was James, the brother of Jesus. Okay? And as we know from reading the book of Acts that James the brother of Jesus Became a very very significant figure of leadership in the early church We also know that James the brother of Jesus at least throughout most of Jesus's earthly ministry really wasn't buying The whole Jesus as Messiah thing Jesus's family weren't necessarily on board with him that said what we can say is that James at least would have seen a and had a front row seat to what authentic Christianity looks like, right? I mean, he watched his brother, right? Which, by the way, how terrible would that have been, being the younger brother of Jesus? Why can't you be more like your brother? Good grief, mommy's perfect, stop it, you know? But James knows what he's talking about here. As he presents, he has seen this modeled. He understands these concepts, these commands that he's putting out there. The book of James contains many characteristics of wisdom literature, such as you have exhortations in quick succession. And there's a loose structure to the book of James. Now, there is structure. Much like Proverbs. If you read Proverbs on the surface, Proverbs doesn't look like it has a whole lot of structure. There is structure. You just have to look a little bit more, you know, a little harder to find it. And James is the same way. But James is almost like a New Testament version of Proverbs. It's very much considered wisdom literature. It shares a lot of those characteristics of wisdom literature. The audience, and this is going to have some significance, I think, for us in a very tangible way. The audience is the people of God who are scattered among the nations. So who is he writing to? On the surface, you know, most people say, well, at the very least, he's writing to, yeah, ethnic Israelites who are scattered out of Jerusalem, you know, believers, and that would be correct. Others, though, disagree with that a little bit and say, you know, it's not just that. James is using metaphorical language, and in reality, his audience is even broader than that. And I would say it's probably a mixture of both. If you take an early writing for the book of James, which I think would be accurate, then yeah, the majority of the church was still Jewish. Started there in Jerusalem and kind of exploded out from there. So yeah, certainly ethnic Jews make up the majority of who's reading this book, okay? But there's also Gentiles in that mix as well. And if you look at other places in the New Testament, which we won't take the time to do that at this moment, but Galatians chapter six, and in places like Romans chapters nine through 11, you have Paul. using the terminology of Israel, true Israel, to describe the people of God. In 1 Peter 1-1, Peter uses the same terminology of the dispersion of the diaspora as describing the Gentiles, just the people of God in general. So I think it can be both. Regardless of where you come down on that, what we can agree on is that James is speaking to a people, who are experiencing difficulty in trials because they are exiles. And that principle applies whether it's Jews or Gentiles. That's who he is talking about. I think that context is significant. People who are not at home in this world due to its conflicting values and beliefs. And that speaks well to our context today as well. James speaks to us. Because in a way, that's what we are as well, right? We are citizens of heaven. We live here on this earth. But our allegiance is to another kingdom, right? So in a sense, we're not in line with the prevailing worldviews. We're not in line with the prevailing values. And in a way, we are strangers and exiles in this world. And sometimes that makes life difficult, right? So I think that aspect of the context of James speaks to us in a powerful way. And then lastly, this is the last thing we'll touch on as far as background, difficult circumstances. Right away in James 1, verses 2 and 3, it says, Why did he say that? Because they were facing trials of many kinds. You get the sense as you read that probably the majority of his readers were poor, which makes sense because if you're exiled, especially in that culture, if you were forced to leave your home and your land, you were at the mercy of wealthy landowners in other places. The connection to the land was huge, and all of a sudden that's taken away. That's like your identity's wrapped up in that. Your ability to make money is wrapped up in that. So you've got all kinds of stresses in your life and trials, and as you go on to the end of the book, It addresses that and talks about, hey, stay firm in the midst of trials. Again, I want you to kind of tuck that away because that aspect of the context I think is significant as well as we talk about some of these exhortations now that James is going to give us. So let's turn to some of those. As we turn the page here, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen slow to speak and slow to become angry So the first thing your first kind of mark of authentic faith the first Action that James is saying this should mark you as a follower of Christ says I must pursue meekness and not be controlled by emotions and pride I must be quick to listen and I think that the term listening here is broadly describing a character quality that we need to work hard to cultivate. I think his concept of listening here applies, yes, to my horizontal interpersonal relationships, my interactions with you. I also believe that he is saying you need to be a listening person because he's also concerned with my being able to hear from God and my receptivity to the word of God and God's truth. So in both my relationship to others and in my relationship to God, I am a listener. I seek to understand. Some of us have a problem being good listeners. Whether it's the Word of God convicting us, or whether it's someone else. We're quick to be defensive, aren't we? We're quick to want to give our own reply, our own answer, our own story, whatever it may be. We do it with our spouses. When my wife or my husband comes to me and starts to point something out, do I really listen? How about my kids? My kid comes up to me and says, hey, dad, you know, this is bothering me. Am I like, hey, hey, I'm dad, okay? Right? And someone calls us out and says, oh, we don't like that at all. Craig, I've been noticing this. Yeah, but? We start our list of excuses. Listeners, are you a good listener with others? Do you rush to get your own point across, or do you seek to understand? Do you ask questions? In regard to God and His Word, do you stop, do you contemplate, or do you just jump to the defensive? There's a difference. We'll practice a little bit. There's a difference between hearing and listening, isn't there? Any of us who have wives understand that? How many times have any husband ever heard from their wife, you are hearing me, you are not listening to me. I'm the only one. I knew I was the last. All right, we do that. We do that with God. Being a listener. Listening implies understanding. Understanding implies action. which is what James is concerned with here. Cultivate the quality of listening. Listen, James says, quickly. My first response is to shut my mouth and open my ears and open my mind and say, what can I learn from this interaction? Be it with my brother, Ted, or be it with God, or be it with my wife, Kathy, or be it with my daughter, Megan. Listen. The next thing, be slow to speak. Slow to speak. This is a major theme in James. It's a major theme that he introduces here. He comes back to it immediately at the end of the chapter, and then he comes back to it again in chapter 3. And if you look in chapter 3, it's about 12 verses, give or take, about 12 verses dedicated to the tongue. That's a huge amount of space in a letter this small. Why is James saying, be slow to speak? Because he knows the tongue. He calls it, it is a deadly poison. It is evil. He knows the power of our words. He knows how dangerous the tongue can be. And that's not just true, James. I gave you several verses here. Proverbs 17, 27-28. Proverbs 1019. Sin is not ended by multiplying words. Otherwise, the more you talk, the more chances of you getting into trouble. More opportunities to sin, the more you're on your mouth. But the prudent hold their tongues. Proverbs 11, 12, whoever derides their neighbor has no sense, but the one who is understanding holds their tongues. Slow speak. Extrabiblical literature even addresses it. The book of Sirach, which is an intertestamental book. Be quick to hear and be deliberate in answering. If you have understanding, answer your neighbor. I love this. But if not, put your hand on your mouth. Glory and dishonor come from speaking, and a man's tongue is his downfall. I agree. He's saying, look, if the filter in your head doesn't work, then put a physical one on. If you don't have the sense to shut your mouth, put your hand there and stop yourself. I don't think we really need to unpack what this looks like. I think we kind of know, don't we? What sins of the tongue look like. We know what it looks like. It manifests itself in a lot of ways, right? Words. that are shot back in the heat of the moment. Words that are shot back in the heat of the moment. Sarcasm. It amazes me how many people are proud of their sarcasm. I'm a sarcastic person. Yeah, you're a jerk. Sometimes sarcasm's okay. a conversation with someone right afterwards. And they just, they said, man, that's it. And I've seen so much damage come from sarcasm in the context that I've been in. And that's the other thing here too, right? We tend to, we think of this sin of the tongue and the mouth, and we tend to think, yeah, it's the person who cusses like a sailor and blah, blah, blah, bleep, bleep, you know. The more deadly aspects of that are those subtle and sarcastic. How about this one? Just thoughtless words. Just thoughtless words. walking into church or work or something and saying something thoughtless to that new mom who maybe hasn't gotten a good night's sleep in two weeks, and you shoot something out about something she did or forgot or didn't do, you know, generally speaking, that is just not helpful. In the church, the people of God, we're supposed to be just really tuned in and more sensitive, right? Gentle, compassionate, and loving to one another. It's amazing to me how just clueless we can be sometimes. A new couple who's been married for two years. So when are you going to start having kids? Did it ever occur to you that maybe they can't? We've all been there. We've offered it and we've seen it. The mom of that... That's going to sound self-serving. The mom of that special needs kid. Why can't they control their kid? You know they try. and that kid is just, their mind doesn't work, and we gotta try to hone it. You know, Phil and the boy, we know the situations. Just thoughtlessness. So we can just be more thoughtful in our speech, right? Slow to speak. Lying. Gossip. Criticism. Right? Some people are just critical of everything. Like, you just know when they open their mouth, like, oh, here it comes. Slow to speak. Slow to become angry. Slow to become angry. Again, here's some other verses, just so you see, this is a huge thing throughout scripture. Proverbs 16, 32, better a patient person than a warrior. One with self-control than one who takes a city. Actually, most other translations, the ESV, the KJV, whatever, they actually use the terminology there, whoever's slow to anger. is better than the mighty, or whoever's slow to anger is better than the warrior. That's a powerful statement. Think about it, right? In view here would have been these Roman centurions. I mean, these guys are jacked and, you know, they're full, you know, they get their swords and their helmets and, I mean, struck fear and, hey, better. The man who can control his anger is stronger than that, right? Proverbs 29, 11, fools give full vent to their rage. but the wise bring calm in the end. Ephesians 4.31, get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander along with every form of malice. Colossians 3.8, but now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language from your lips. 1 Timothy 2.8, therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing. I think, as I think back on just situations that I've dealt with in counseling and everything else, I think that I would maybe be tempted to say that anger is probably the top thing that we deal with as far as sins amongst the body of Christ. Especially in men. You know, we'd be quick to say, oh, it's probably pornography. It's right up there, but I tell ya, you just see it all the time. No one understand and look I've been there. I've had times. Yeah, we get angry, but I Why is it especially that men do we think it makes us look stronger? Do we think it makes us look cooler I can get what I want I exert my power and my strength through anger and everyone bows to me Because it doesn't make you look strong. It makes you look weak It's weakness Shut your mouth. Control yourself. Use gentle words with your wife and your children. Grow up. We let it fly, though. It's so prevalent. It's so prevalent. Men. Anger does not make things right. James says it right here. It doesn't bring about the righteousness of God. It doesn't bring about righteousness in me, and it doesn't bring about righteousness in the situation that I'm dealing with. It doesn't produce behavior that pleases God. Anger may change something in the short term anger may modify a behavior in the short term It may get me what I want in the short term, but it does not bring about true justice It does not bring about true life change. It does not truly accomplish Anything and in the long term anger generally hurts more than it ever helps Anger Usually ends up just switching out a new set of sins My kid responds to my anger. I haven't reached their heart. Responding because they're afraid of me. Responding because they want me to shut up. Responding because they don't want to deal with the stress that this brings in the house. There's no righteousness being accomplished there. And I'm not accomplishing any righteousness because I'm not teaching my kid how to deal with struggle and disagreement and stuff that they get older. Right? Man, it's just so damaging. Go back, remember a minute ago I said, don't forget the context, right? People who are exiles, people who are struggling, people who are facing tension. Because what do we do with these sins, particularly sins of the mouth and anger, what do we do? Excuse it. You're just having a bad day. Had a bad stretch at work, the finances aren't good. There's a lot of tension and a lot of stress right now. And we use those things to excuse our running mouth and our quick words and our angry responses. I just had a bad day at work. Therefore, it gives me the right to sin against my wife through angry words. It gives me the right to sin against my child. I had a bad day. The finances are tight right now. So that gives me an excuse to sin and let you have it with my words. Context of James. Talk about financial struggles they had. lost their homes, exiles, persecution. Nowhere in here are you going to say, James, go, I get it, I get your circumstance, so I understand every once in a while, if you kind of lose it with your kids, it's okay. No. No excuse for it. James is not a mark of authentic faith. He moves on, talking about this authentic faith. So verse 21, therefore get rid of all moral filth and evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you which can save you." I love the King James terminology here for moral filth. It's actually a superfluity of naughtiness. That's funny. This is like a bad punk rock band or something. Like, welcome to the stage, superfluity of naughtiness. My wife rolled her eyes and I knew that that was a bad joke and I needed to get you out. Put off filth, moral filth. The terminology put off, you know what it is? It's actually, that terminology is talking about taking off dirty clothes. Taking off dirty, filthy clothes. Don't worry, I'm not gonna do that, though these are pretty funky right about now. But that's the terminology. Now here's the example. A couple years ago, Jimmy and I were digging around downstairs and we came across this box. And in this box, this church before us, before we bought it, was White Hills Bible Church. And then before that, it was called Bethany Bible Church. And they're the ones who sold us the building. They had a softball team, apparently. And we found this box downstairs. We found their old softball uniforms. And I don't have the shirt, but these are the pants. And Jimmy thought it would be an awesome idea because our sponsor this year got us Cutting Edge Builders. Shout out to Tom. The shirts are basically this blue, and Jimmy's like, let's wear the pants. Worst idea ever. Now, some of the guys, and I tried it one time. I put on the pants one time. It took me three days to get out of them. I played a softball game in these pants right here, and let me tell you, I could not wait to get home and get these off. And it took everyone in my family in a crowbar to do that, but I couldn't wait to get them off. Like, they were like, I don't even know what, I was looking, I can't, I don't know what they're made out of. It's some kind of polyester that sticks and holds in wetness and stink, and I could not wait. Now, some of the guys continue to wear these. Dow, do you still wear yours? He's laughing. He doesn't want to answer that question. Jimmy! Jimmy loves wearing these. I'm like, okay, that's fine. Not me. I cannot wait to take these things off of me, never to go on again. And that's the terminology that James is using here. Like, go home and take the stuff off. Stop doing what you were doing. Stop wearing it. No problem. Gone, right? wearing it, strip it off, cast off. You look at other places, they have the same terminology as using Paul in Romans 13, cast off the works of darkness. Paul in Ephesians 4, put off your old self. 1 Peter 2, 1, put away. It's all that same terminology of casting off and getting rid of our sin. But the problem is, some of us, we kind of like it. The moral filth, the sin that's so prevalent. What is that? What is James talking about? Most commentators think that what James has in view here is these vice lists that appear throughout the New Testament, mainly in 1 Peter 1, Romans 13, and Colossians 3. And I kind of compiled a list of words from the vice list. So this is probably what James has in mind here with this moral filth is malice, deceit, hypocrisy. Envy, slander, orgies, drunkenness, sexual immorality, sensuality, quarreling, jealousy, anger, wrath, obscene talk. So it's kind of that. And James goes on to call it, it's prevalent. It's prevalent sin. And that list of things around us, it's woven throughout our culture. And we're bombarded with it all the time. And the problem with prevalent sin, and even for us in the body of Christ, is that we just stop seeing it. It becomes acceptable. Right? Some of these sins with our mouth, our anger, this is acceptable. What I watch on TV, the moral filth that I see there, the immorality, this is acceptable. I see sin. And sometimes you cross the line to actually enjoy it. I started enjoying it, right? Jimmy loves weenies. This is very good for him. Matt, you like weenies? It's all right. That's okay. This is moral filth. We start liking it. Start enjoying it. Cast it off, James says. Cast it off. Strip it away. What does that look like? I had a guy a while back walk to my office, and he dropped a bag on my desk. And I look at it, and I'm like, is that like an iPhone or an iPod? He's like, yeah. What did you do to it? That's like Randolph's car or something. to hit it with a sledgehammer. I'm like, why? He goes, that whole purity thing. You know, so I need to access the internet on it. He says, Scripture says, right, if your eye offends you, pluck it out. He goes, if my iPod offends me, hit it with a sledgehammer. I'm like, wow. Never heard someone take it that literally before. And then my next thought was like, could have given it to me. I would have sold it on eBay. But yeah. But I appreciated the action there, actually. I can't get rid of it. Taking steps to actively get rid of sin. A couple weeks ago, we came back from TLC, and we came back, and on the beginning of that next week, Kathy was going to go down to Indiana with my kids, the grandparents, for a couple days, and I had to do some stuff here, so I was going to come join them. So I was going to be by myself for two nights. And she left that morning and I wasn't feeling I mean, I can't. I can't get on. I can't get on stuff that even if I wanted to. But I know how it works. Sometimes you're by yourself late at night. He's fine. And I know he's cunning. And I introduce him to new ideas. So I'm like, I don't even want to deal with that. So at the moment, I wasn't feeling any temptation, no thoughts, no nothing. But I texted a bunch of guys. I texted Greg. And this is what I love about it. There's several guys in the interview. I said, hey, by myself the next two nights, I just want you guys to know. And so I don't want to take a weapon out of the enemy's hands. I'm getting texts back from these guys. Amen. I'm praying for you. Stay strong. Keep fighting. It's not worth it. That's garbage. You know, remember what sin is. Stuff like that. You know, active steps to get rid of sin. That's what James is talking about here. Be active in the fight. Be active in the battle. Strip it off. Get rid of it. Don't let Satan have a fool. As I get rid of the moral filth then, James goes on, It says, get rid of this stuff, and the end of verse 21, humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. So I'm going to put this stuff on, and now James is saying, open my heart humbly to God's truth. And humbly is the key word there, right? This is going back to that listening thing. I have to be willing to be told and to hear that I'm a sinner and I have weakness. and be corrected. And so I have to hear from God here. Humbly accept the word of God. Humbly accept God's truth. An interesting terminology of the word that's implanted in you. What does that imply there? Implanted means it's already there. These are people who have already received the gospel. And this speaks to the ongoing need for us as believers to continue to act on the truth that we know. Even after I'm saved, even after the word of God is there, I still have to hear it. I still have to keep learning and keep growing. This word, save, which is able to deliver your souls, it doesn't necessarily come across in the NIV, but it's there, and it's this idea of to keep alive, to rescue, to deliver from bondage, to deliver from oppression or disease. This word which can save you. This is a hope-filled statement. This is a hope-filled statement. What James is saying here is, like, you don't have to be a slave to the tongue and to anger and to moral filth. Like, receive the Word of God. It can change you. And I get it. Sometimes that process is long and hard, and sometimes we're tempted to give up, but the Word of God can change us. The Word of God can transform us and make us new and give us victory over sin and over our failures. If we continue to daily seek and fight, leaning on God and His word, we can be rescued. We had the opportunity just this past Wednesday, we had a Paula walk, a youth group activity at Trey and Jodi Bruno's house. And I knew aspects of their testimony, and they were like, we're gonna share our testimony, and we're just gonna be honest. I said, have at it. And they shared, and let me tell you, it was honest and it was raw. And our kids were sitting there with their mouth, and they talked about their lives before Christ, they talked about their lives after Christ. Trey talked about addictions, struggles with alcohol, even after he was involved in ministry here. He told me, he said, I've only told a couple people this. But he said, it's been six years since I had a drop of alcohol. He said, God has changed me. And I'm thinking of this past moment, that's it, right there. And you talk to Trey, yeah, I mean, there was battles, up and down, up and down, and victories and defeats, victories and defeats, but you incrementally continue to win and win and win. He said, you know, I stand here now, God's in our marriage, I got my daughter going off to Bible college, there it is, that's what God does, it saves us. It transforms us. Doesn't stop there, though. Verse 22, do not merely listen. That word merely is important. Yes, listen to it, but then also act on it. This is the next step. Humbly accepting the Word of God means that I allow it to change me. So don't merely listen to it. He says, if you merely listen to it, you deceive yourselves. Let me tell you, one of the greatest problems in Christianity and in Christian discipleship today is self-deception. Right, we think because we come and sit here on Sunday morning and because I listen to WCSG and I know Chris Tollin and because we watched Dove Foundation family films and I know I love Kirk Cameron, you know, that I'm good, that I'm spiritual. There's a lot of Christians who are self-deceived in regard to their walk with God. They think they're okay, and James is like, no, if you're not acting on this stuff, if you're not living it out, if you're not, you need to take a good look at yourself, because chances are you're self-deceived. Do what it says, and this leads back to the illustration that we started with here, looking into the mirror. I look at myself in God's Word, and I do what it says. James says that's when the self-perception stops. When you honestly look and you start changing. And I love the terminology he uses here, right? Go down, he talks about the person who forgets is like the one who looks in a mirror and walks away. The end of verse 24 there, right? Immediately forgets what he looks like. See, I think this is one of Satan's most dangerous weapons. Oftentimes, it's not this out-and-out rebellion. It's not that I sit here in church and I hear Jeff or Craig or John or whoever say something to me and go, I'm not doing that. I know what's wrong and I'm not doing it. No, more often than not, we sit there and go, yeah, I agree. That's right. I do need to work on that. What does he even say happens? Walks away and immediately forgets. I think oftentimes Satan's okay with us sitting here and hearing and even thinking, wow, I need to change. Because what that does is it goes to that self-deception thing. It almost gives us a sense that, hey, I'm okay, I'm growing, I'm learning. We walk out of here and we forget it. It was one of the big things we stressed coming out of TLC with our students. We said, you have to go home, you have to start right away, even on the bus ride home, and start applying stuff. Because Satan wants you to procrastinate. When he gets you to procrastinate, You need to forget. If you forget, you forget, and it keeps from changing. Don't forget. Don't look into the law, into God's Word, and forget. Do what it says. James says, the person who looks in the mirror, sees what needs to be changed, and continues in it. That word continues implies difficulty, struggle. Challenge. Continue. I have to keep fighting to do this. There's no shortcuts. We like shortcuts. We like the easy way out. There's none of that with this. It's hard work. It's me fighting every single day. Continue in it. To act on it and not deceive myself. And James closes that intersection with this. He closes by summarizing true religion. Again, here you get an aspect of how the wisdom literature works. But he summarizes true religion as caring for others and avoiding the world's pollution. And in a way, this is kind of what he's been talking about, right? I'm the type of person who's going to keep my mouth shut and be a listener, and I'm going to be the type of person who's going to care for people. And I'm going to put off moral filth. I'm going to keep myself unspotted from the world. And the point is this. James is saying authentic faith is an active faith. What do you need to change? What is the mirror of God's Word telling you today? I'm going to play a song here as we close. I'm not going to sing a song. We're just going to play this. It's a song called Clear the Stage. Most of the words will kind of be up there as part of the video. I love this song, and I love kind of the refrain in it. You can sing all you want to. In other words, worship. Worship. I could sing all I want to, I could still get it wrong. Because worship is more than a song. It's about stopping, it's about hearing from God, and about changing. So why don't you just listen, in the way of application, think about what God would have you to change, and I'll come up with a closing prayer and be done.