We're continuing our series in the book of James, picking up where we left off last week in James chapter 1, verse 19. And before we go to our Bibles there, I thought about this. I thought about a movie that came out recently that depicted a group of magicians who called themselves Masters of Deception. And what they attempted to do was to rob a bank in France while performing in Las Vegas. And in kind of a Robin Hood-esque move, they showered the audience with the money supposedly that they had stolen to raise the ire of the FBI who then came after them for that reason. So I thought about the fact that you do not have to be a magician to be good at deceiving people, sometimes even yourself. At the beginning of the trailer of that movie, Morgan Freeman adds his voice to this comment. He says, come in close, because the more you think you see, the easier it'll be to fool you. And I honestly believe that we sometimes fail to see how often we fool even ourselves. We can be masters of deception in our own everyday lives. The Bible tells us that we're capable of deceiving ourselves, and there are many ways that we do that. One of the ways that I can think of is when we consider ourselves to be good people, and realizing that Christ's death on the cross and the blood that He shed for us that when we place our faith and trust in Him, we are fully forgiven for our sins. Right? Make no mistake about that. And don't misunderstand what I'm saying. But there is sin that is still sin in our lives. God does not like sin. In fact, He says He hates it. And so sometimes we forget, when we compare ourselves with others, that sin is not honoring to God in our everyday lives. we often will read the newspapers or we'll watch news and we'll see really bad things that really bad people do and we automatically kind of associate ourselves with not being like them, therefore we must be good. And when Jesus was asked or actually approached about being good, he said, why do you call me good? There's only one who is good, right? So that leaves the rest of us out of that. The Bible clearly indicates that we ought to recognize and admit our sinfulness. We need to own up to it. John tells us in 1 John 1.18, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So we can deceive ourselves about being good. We can even deceive ourselves about being saved. Well, one of the most difficult passages I find in the Bible is the passage that shares that there will be people who call upon the name of the Lord, and they do not know Him as Savior and as Lord. That's found in Matthew 7, verses 21 and 23, where Jesus says, Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. Watch what He says next. It's very important. But only he who does the will of My Father. who is in heaven." He goes on to explain, "...many will say to me on that day, the day of judgment, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons, and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" Jesus mentions in that passage in the book of Matthew that only those who do the will of God will enter His kingdom. And Jesus uses that phrase another time when he's told that his mother and brothers are waiting to see them. And after he's told that, Jesus says in Matthew 12, verses 48 through 50, Who is my mother? And who are my brothers? Then pointing to his disciples, he said, Here are my mother and my brothers. And then listen to what he says next in verse 50. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my mother, brother, I'm sorry, brother and sister and mother. So I think the real question here is, what is the will of the Father? And this is what we're telling you this morning. The will of the Father is to believe and trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. But Scripture indicates that it does not end there. The will of the Father in a believer's life doesn't end with belief alone. So we added, and to seek Him with all of our heart and serve Him with all of our might in our everyday lives. One of the greatest deceptions that Satan may use is for people who may have thought that they were doing amazing things in the name of the Lord and realizing later that they never really ever knew Him. And then likewise, he can twist things so well that people who knew him never ever really did anything great in his name. And Jesus warns us in that same chapter of Matthew chapter 7 that we read earlier, that you and I are not appointed judges of those people. And I hope you understand, we're not called to leave here today and go, that person is saved, that person's not saved, that person's doing good, that person doesn't do much good. That's not the purpose of where I'm heading today. It is not what I believe James is teaching. James is telling each one of us to take account for our own selves, for our own lives, making sure that we're doing what the Bible tells us individually to do, so that others may know the name of Christ through our lives. And we're to be discerning about those decisions. We're to be discerning about the things that our leaders tell us to do. We're to be discerning about what the Word of God says to us through God's inspiration, through His Holy Spirit. So, because there are people who are fooling themselves, even about their own Christian lives, we need to be discerning about that. Sometimes they occasionally speak as if they're leading lives that honor God. But unfortunately, often they're not. Their daily actions don't reflect the Lord's righteousness. God is in control, but he establishes an opportunity for free will in man. to be obedient and do what he tells us to do or not, and to choose for ourselves. And make no mistake about this, folks. We all make mistakes. There is no perfect person in here, even those who have been saved for a very, very long time. In no way am I suggesting that you are to no longer ever sin again after you're saved. We just know that that doesn't happen. But there is a huge difference between doing things deliberately that violate God's will, which the Bible does define to sin, and making occasional mistakes, and then later admitting them when we become aware of it. It's a good thing for a believer to recognize their own faults. And I believe it's a mark of maturity when a believer realizes that he or she is in desperate need of God's daily guidance and nurture. I mean, even the Apostle Paul said this. He said in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 31, I die every day. And he goes on to say, I mean that, brothers, just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. So while Paul is celebrating the incredible, abundant life that believers around him are living, cheering them on, he says, before I even begin that, I have to die to myself. When I wake up each day, Paul is telling us, I have to say, I am no longer mine. God, I'm yours. Take me, shape me and make me more like your son, Jesus Christ, today. And he said he does that on a daily basis. Immature believers. They may believe that because they're saved and they're destined for heaven one day, that they can have full control over their lives while they're still on this earth. You know, God, I believe in your son and I've placed my faith and trust in him. Thank you for heaven. I will see you when I get there. Right? And then they lead lives that they believe they need to lead, doing the things that they believe they need to do, taking control of their own actions and even the way that they live, believing still that they have placed their faith and trust in Christ. And often they become inundated and too busy with following their own pursuits. You see, it's that kind of indifferent, noncommittal, self-sufficient, it's that kind of attitude that God has a real problem with. He tells the church in the book of Revelation this. He says, so because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, I am rich. I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor and naked. Those are strong words from our Lord. And I want to point something out to you this morning. And I hope you go home and think about this. But I'm going to ask you this question. Does God spit believers out of his mouth? Would God spit a person who's been purified and sanctified and saved by the blood of Christ? Does he spit them out of his mouth? I don't think so. I don't think that happens. So here is a church in Laodicea who believes they're saved, and yet one day God will spit them out of his mouth because of their ambivalence towards the things that he's telling them to do. And that concerns me greatly, and I hope that concerns you as well. You see, the Lord is in control, and yet he allows each one of us to choose who we will follow and how we will live our lives. And when we fully surrender our lives to him, that means that we accept the opportunities that he gives us to seek him on a daily basis, to hand over our lives, our wants, our wishes, our needs to him on a daily, regular basis, asking him for his will and our lives over our own. And the Holy Spirit is the one who guides us and directs us by offering us counsel, direction, wisdom, along with power to fulfill the instructions that we find in God's Word. Therefore, a Christian who hears the Word and acts upon it will reflect the glory of the Christ who lives within them. Does that make sense? When we hear the Word, and we do the Word, that's a reflection of the power of God working through our lives. And I believe this, being rightly related to God's truth, keeps us from being hypocritical. Now last week, we talked about how God uses trials to strengthen us, right? Things that we would never invite into our own lives. And it's not unusual for us to say, God, why this? Why now? Why? Why? Why? And God has a reason that He allows these things to happen. Not that He creates them, not that He even had planned them originally, but He knew that they were coming. And He allows them to happen so that you and I can be conformed into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. And so we talked about this. The faith is basically the bridge between where we are today and where God is leading us to go, and who He is leading us to be. He calls us, in verse 18 of James chapter 1, He calls us His first fruits, which means we are His prized and treasured children. What a wonderful comment. What a wonderful thought. Being God's special children means that we're given an opportunity to reflect His glory, and his righteousness in our lives. So let's pick up where we left off last week in verse number 19 of James chapter 1. And would you stand with me in the honor of reading God's Word together this morning? James chapter 1, verses 19 through 21. Here's what James tells us this morning. My dear brothers, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. For man's anger does not bring about the righteous life 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." Father, I'm asking right now that you would teach us what this means, God, so that we not only understand it and know it in our heads, But God, that it grows to fruition through our hearts and in our outer lives. God, I'm asking that you move in a powerful way, in a way that really only you can, so that we leave not just with greater understanding, but with a desire to do exactly what you're telling us to do. So make it clear to us this morning, I ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You can be seated. I think people can attend church services and they can go to Bible studies and I think you can probably even open and read the Word of God on even a daily basis and see the words that are found on its pages. But if we are not seeking the divine imputation of the Word of God in our lives and desiring to apply that word once we hear it, I think we may be fooling ourselves. about our walk with the Lord. It's possible to experience a decay and a decline in our daily walk with the Lord. Just think about your journey. Have there not been times where you have felt closer to him and been more obedient to him? And have there not been times when you feel more distant from him and maybe not as submissive? And I would ask the question, who do you think moved? Right? It's us. We sometimes go through a decay and a decline. And often, I think we can trace that back to our lack of responsiveness to what God has shown us and told us and even spoken to us through different avenues of His Word being offered to us. The author of Hebrews, he rebukes Christian immaturity. by saying in Hebrews 5.11, we have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. Our apprehension of divine truth can be limited by our own spiritual condition. Being slow to learn, or in some of the translations that you may be using today, dull of hearing, means that our own spiritual growth can be hindered by our disregard of the truth. It's a question of milk versus meat diet. You see, dull ears cannot receive deep truths. And the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 10-17, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ. But hearing with ears alone is not good enough. A person must be willing to hear with an open heart and an open mind, desiring to be shown the truth that's being revealed through those words and through that particular teaching. I love how people respond naturally to the ones that they love the most. Right? Caleb, our grandson, is staying with us this weekend or this week, He came down with a double ear infection, right, so he's miserable. Last night and all day yesterday with a high fever and we got him to the doctor and got medicine going, you know, we've been praying for him. But I was amazed last night in the fatigue that both my wife and I had in being Cato's grandparents that while we were asleep, just one little whimper would wake Cindy, right, the grandmother. And so I would wonder this. I would wonder, like, I didn't hear Caleb when he cried. I have to admit this. You did. I heard you get up. But I didn't hear Caleb. And I realized that a mother's hearing, and a grandmother's hearing in this case, very sensitive to the cry of a person that they love very dearly. Right? A sheep tends to respond immediately to the voice of its master, the shepherd. I don't know how sheeps can discern the difference, but sheeps do, don't they? I'm not a huge expert on shepherding, but I can tell you that the things that I've read tells me that shepherds lead sheep well, and they respond well, even though they're not highly intelligent animals. They respond to the cries of their master. Slaves, they're taught and trained that they have to respond immediately to what a master tells them to do, or suffer the consequences. and the repercussions for not being quickly obedient to that. And I even find it pretty amazing how all of us have an opportunity to be obedient and yet we're not always quick to respond. I remember a time growing up. My dad had a technique for calling us home for dinner. He would whistle. And he had a very unique whistle. And I don't know how this happened. I can't make it happen today. But it didn't matter where we were in the neighborhood. We would hear his whistle. And when we heard his whistle, we better come running for dinner. The response wasn't, I wonder if I'll hurry or not. Maybe I'll play a little longer. There was no thinking involved with that. When Dad whistled, we came home running. And I think that's very much like what James is teaching us here today, because his first point in verse 19 is this, a believer who is quick to hear what the master is saying, responds quickly. I think that's the definition of quick hearing, is quick hearing is hearing that leads to quick responses and obedience to what we're hearing. And a great example of this is found in 2 Samuel 23. Here's the background of that story. David grows up near Bethlehem, and he's got a well that he remembers fondly, the refreshing water that came from that well. And so he's back there now. Unfortunately, Bethlehem is under Philistine rule right now, and so he can't freely go to the well. They'll kill him if he does that. And so David makes this comment about longing for that water in 2 Samuel 23 15. This is what he says. He says, Oh, that someone would let me get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem. And what I love about this story, the reason that I'm using it today, is three of his mighty fighting men, they hear the sigh of their king and they immediately respond, risking their own lives to secure a cup of water from that well to bring it to David. You see, those men, they were quick to hear, and the evidence of them hearing the king's words was found in their immediate and obedient heroic response, even putting their own lives on the line. Jesus makes an interesting comment about proactive hearing or listening in Luke 8.18. He says, therefore, consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more. Whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has, will be taken from him. Apparently, God gives more to those who listen and respond. And the suggestion is that you can hear without really hearing. Receiving begins with listening well and responding to what we're being told. Just showing up does not score any points with Jesus. There must be a desire and a hunger to hear, to know, and to do more. Matthew 13, 13, Jesus tells us, this is why I speak to them in parables. Though seeing, they do not see. Though hearing, they do not understand. I think James is suggesting that a quick key to listening begins by not speaking. To really wanting to hear God speak to us and not moving away until that happens. We recently talked about this in a secret church session, which, by the way, if you are doing nothing this Wednesday night, I promise you, you will be blessed by the teaching that goes on there. Wednesday night, 6.30, room 211. It's a wonderful time of study of God's Word together and the David Platt theme that we're using right now in context to the cross. is just absolutely outstanding. But we were having this discussion after David Platt made a few comments about this, but he said, you know, it's common for us when we get in our Bible study groups that we go, okay, what does this message say to you? What do you believe it means? And we'll go around the room, right? We'll pick people and we'll say, you know, what does it mean to you? What does it mean to you? What does it mean to you? And Platt says, you know, I understand that we're to apply the word and it's important to discuss it, but that shouldn't be the ultimate question. The ultimate question should be, what is God saying? What does God mean in this passage? Because what I think and what you think and what others think, that's always going to fall short of what God thinks and what God means. And so this is what he suggests that we do. And I concur with this. I think we dig in and we study and we study and we listen and we listen and we do what it says the way that he tells us to do it so that at the end of the day, we know what God means. And it's applied to our everyday lives. We don't walk away going, I have no idea what that is. All that means is that we haven't studied it enough. Because it's not like God doesn't want us to know what it means. What he says in that parable is, yeah, they show up. They're there. They think that they get bonus points or brownie points for listening. That's not what counts. I'm sharing what I want them to do. And in order for them to honor me, they must do what I tell them to do. not just show up and act like they're listening or pretend like they hear. And I think that's a good, valid point in our day-to-day lives. We've got to stay connected. This is what I'm suggesting to you. As we study the book of James together, it is impossible for you to go home and go, I got it. It is impossible for me to read the book of James, five chapters, one time, two times, three times and go, got it, what's next? I've read the book of James so many times and I still don't have it. So before I come before you and share this information to you, I look at it forwards, I look at it backwards, I turn it every way that I can, read it, re-reading, studying, studying, studying, so that when I come here this morning, I'm telling you this is what God is saying. And you can debate that, but don't you dare debate that unless you go home and study it as much as I study it. And when you study it and God speaks to you, then you correct me if I'm wrong. Okay? Because it takes daily study. And it takes a lot of time to know what God's saying and what He means, and then it takes a concerted effort to go do it. To live it out in our everyday lives. Because we want to go, got it, that's good, that is good stuff. Either Pastor Rick, Lord, James, good stuff. Thank you for that. What's for lunch? And that's typical. I do that sometimes myself, but it doesn't end there. It begins there. When we open the Word of God and we study it together, it's marching orders for you and I. So Jesus is clearly telling James, you tell them that just knowing it or hearing it and even acting like they're listening is not enough. I need them to do it. I need them to go out there and do that. And he's going to say that in a few minutes as we read on. The key is staying connected. That's the benefit. And Jesus says in John 15, 5, I'm the vine, you're the branches. If a man remains in me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. James lists speaking too much and anger as two primary problems in verses 19 and 20 of James chapter 1. When anger erupts, it reveals what's already lingering inside of us. He goes on to explain only, he explains why it's very important to know what's being planted on the inside. Because whatever is planted on the inside of you, eventually comes out. Jesus said in Matthew 12, 34, for out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. So any good thing that we do is done through the seed of God's Word and through the empowerment of His Spirit as He guides and teaches us. The true evidence for authentic salvation is the bearing of good fruit. That's what James is telling us this morning. In James, verse 21, James points out the value of having the seed of the Word of God planted so deeply in us that it bears good fruit. And it just makes an obvious lead-in to the parable about the soils. Right? So let's make sure that we're familiar with the characters in that parable. You've got the seed, which is the Word of God, in the parable of the soils. You've got God as the sower. and you've got our hearts as the soil. And the Bible tells us that there are four kinds of soil. The first kind is the hard heart. And I dare say none of us believe that we have hard hearts. But the evidence of having a hard heart, whether we acknowledge it or not, is that when that seed, the Word of God, hits the soil, nothing comes from it. In fact, the Bible talks about it just lays there dormant and birds pluck it up. Right? Just nothing gets planted in that soil, in that heart. Right? The next one, some of us may think we have, it's an emotional soil. It's a soil that when the seed hits it, we feel emotion, but the seed never gets deeply in the soil, and therefore it never creates a root that connects it to the heart, or the soil in this case. And it's not unusual for people to go, I need Jesus today. I'm making Him my Lord and Savior." And when that situation goes away, we go, yeah, I'm all better now. You know, things are okay now. And there just doesn't seem to be authentic following. And potentially not authentic believing as well. The third kind of soil is that soil that it gets planted, but it grows in the midst of weeds all over, right? And it's kind of like the overcrowding nature of our lives. We've got all these things that we feel like we have to take care of. And that's true of all of us. Just so you know, you're not the only one that's experiencing the chaos in the world that we live in today. So you're being pulled this way and you're being pulled that way. And Jesus is saying, what way is most important to you? My way or your way? My way or the way that those weeds are pulling you towards? Right? Because none of those things fall out of the auspice of my authority and my power to change. So you have to remain in me in order to handle those things. And when you let those things pull you away from me, you're going to come uprooted. and you're going to get choked out. That seed's going to get choked out, right? So this is the one we want to be. We want to be the soil that's soft and fertile and fallow. And so that seed gets in there. Here's what it does. When it gets in there, it's deep enough, it's planted deeply enough, potentially from reading and studying and hearing God over and over again. It's planted deeply enough that it takes root, so it is in that soil. It is in your heart. And when that happens, it produces fruit. Fruit comes from that procedure. So James tells us that the Word of God works best in a humble heart. And here's the connection with what he's saying. He's saying, you know, when you get angry, sometimes you get angry at God. And we evaluate whether the things that are happening are good or bad. This can't be God. God wouldn't let something like this happen. God shouldn't let something like this happen. Now I'm angry that God let something like this happen. Why would God let these things happen in my life or in the life of the people that I love? And so suddenly we think we know better, and that anger is steered towards God. The difference between the opposite, if you will, of anger is peace and patience. The fruit of the Spirit that God grants believers where the Word is deeply planted in their hearts is, I can handle this because Christ gives me strength through all things. So I don't like it. I don't like what's going on now, but He grants me peace in knowing He's in control. And He grants me patience in walking through this so that when I come out on the other end, I look more like Jesus Christ than I did before I went in. James clearly tells us that we are to do some weeding in the gardens of our lives by getting rid of all the moral filth and the evil so that our hearts can become more soft and more fertile. while the seed of God grows and becomes more fruit-bearing. Weeds in our life, they can choke the life out of the things that want to grow. And the garden that's overgrown with weeds, it is an out-of-control garden. Our hearts need to be protected in order to be fruitful. So how do we do that? Well, first of all, the Bible suggests that we admit our sinfulness. We read 1 John 1-8. Listen to what he goes on to say in verse 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Now this is what I think, I believe, we're reading in 1 John 1.9. If we're already forgiven for our sins, do we have to confess our sins in order for our sins to be forgiven? The answer is no. Because our sins have been forgiven by what Christ did on the cross. So why would we confess them? So that we can notify God that we recognize the lack of righteousness in that sin. You see the difference? We go, ah, this isn't of you. This is sin. And even though I'm a believer, and even though I'm saved by grace, and even though I'm going to spend eternity in heaven with you, this isn't a good thing. And so God, I'm sorry for this. Will you remove this, and will you grant me the ability to steer away from this, the strength to turn away from this, so that I don't act like that anymore? And I think that when we bask in God's love and we bask in God's grace, we still are called to study God's Word and apply it so that our hearts can become softened. We ask God to help us pursue an attitude of humility before Him, rather than an argument of nature. Meekness acts in an opposite way to our wrath and our anger against him and against others. When you receive the word in meekness, you accept it without trying to argue about what it says. You don't try to twist it. You don't deny its true intent. You act upon it once God speaks. And that's what James tells us in James 1, 22-25. He says, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourself. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does. Those are James's words. Many people have been mistaken by thinking that hearing a good sermon or a good Bible teaching is what will make them grow and grant them a blessing from God. James tells us that not merely hearing the word, but doing it, is what's pleasing to the Lord. And you can mark your Bibles, but I believe what's even more important is that our Bibles mark us. Evidence of actual hearing of the Word can be found by what we do. In a previous passage, James compared the Word of God to seed, but here he compares it to a mirror. This is what he says. He says, you know, when you look in a mirror, you see floss. And so, you know, let's say you're in front of your mirror, and you realize you haven't combed your hair, and you haven't washed your face, and you haven't brushed your teeth. And he says, it would be bad of you, poor of you, Not discerning of you to walk away and pretend like you didn't just see that. Right? Be not so good for the rest of us either. You know, what he's saying is once you see what's revealed to you, you act upon it. You don't act like you didn't see that. You don't pretend like it's not there. Go ahead and comb your hair. Go ahead and wash your face. Go ahead and brush your teeth. Do what you see in the Word of God because it reflects what's there as it's revealed to you. And when we do that, when we put into practice the Word of God, we lead changed lives. The Word of God, it not only examines and reveals our sins, it acts as a mirror, and it also cleanses us. I love how Paul tells husbands about this. Listen to what he suggests every husband do with his wife. He says, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Here's how Jesus did it, men. to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word. So this Word of God, it not only reveals the flaws, it cleanses us. It washes our face. It combs our hair. It even brushes our teeth. When a sinner trusts Christ, he is washed and he's cleansed by the washing of Christ's blood. But let me say this to you this morning so that you understand exactly where this is leading. A believer who exists in the muck and the mire of this world gets dirty. It's impossible for you not to be impacted in some way by the evil and the filth that we're surrounded by. That's why James told us earlier, we've got to get rid of that. If we didn't have to get rid of it, James would not have to tell us to get rid of it. Obviously, we're impacted by it in some fashion. So there's a huge debate about whether or not a saved and sanctified person can become dirty. And this is what James says. Here's exactly how he addresses it. I'll let him do the talking in verses 26 and 27. James says, If anyone considers himself religious, and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself, and his 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. Now, if we need to keep ourselves from being polluted by the world, can we not be polluted by the world? The word translated here as religion, that word means the outward practice and service to God. And it's only used five times in the New Testament. It also means authentic worship. Pure religion has nothing to do with ceremonies. It has nothing to do with tradition. It has nothing to do with programs. Pure religion isn't bad, even though we've made it out to be something bad, because it means putting God's Word into practice and sharing God's Word with others. Jesus says this about our pursuit of righteousness. He says in Matthew 5, 6, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. I recently read a Facebook post that I liked. It said, I want to be so full of Christ that if a mosquito bites me, he'll fly away singing, there's power in the blood. Christ's power lives within a believer. And the righteousness of Christ is revealed through our love and our care for others. That means that we can begin to live in and with righteousness. That is, in a way that pleases God and fulfills His purposes for us. We can do that because He gives us the ability and the strength and the guidance to do that. Rather than trying to prove ourselves good enough for Him or live up to any impossible moral standards, we can relate to Him in love, expecting Him to help strengthen us and guide us on His path. I am a fan of the psalmist who wrote Psalms 119-105, who said, Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path. Getting away from living the word means getting off the beaten path, and many go the wrong way, according to Jesus. As I invite Pastor Steve and some of our Praise Band members up here to close out our service this morning, I want to tell you a quick story about a cross-country runner who had an interesting experience. He is in an NCAA cross-country event in California. 128 runners are running in this event. And so as they start running, suddenly the runners branch off in two directions. Some go one way, and a few go the other. Now, 123 go the wrong way. They actually get off the beaten path, the path that was marked out for the course. five runners go the correct way, and they end up finishing and placing in this college event. And so at the end of the race, the reporters had two major questions for a guy named Mike Delcavo, who was the first one that went the right way. And they had these questions for him. They said, number one, how did you know to go the right way when everyone else went the wrong way? And question number two is, what did they say to you when they thought you were going the wrong way, which turned out to be the right way? And he said, well, in answer to question number one, the reason that I knew what the right way was was because I studied the map before I ran. I knew the course that was marked out for us. And so when they went right, I knew we were supposed to go left because I studied the map. before we ran. He said, in answer to your second question, what did they say to me? They wondered why in the world I didn't follow the crowd. What led me to go what turned out to be the right way? And he said, you know what led me to do that? Because I knew it was right. And so rather than going ahead and running ahead of everybody, I actually stopped and wait people to follow me. And even though 123 went the other way, four followed me, and they ended up going the right way. And this is why I share this illustration with you today. I love what the Apostle Paul tells his protege Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 2, I'm sorry, 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 7 and 8. He tells him, he says, Timothy, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord The righteous judge will award to me on that day. Folks, my heart in studying the book of James, and especially with today's message, is that I steer you the right way. Because there are churches, there are believers, there are non-believers who think they're believers, and there are bad people thinking that they're good people that are heading in the wrong direction. And this morning, you and I have an opportunity to study James chapter 1, verses 19 through 25, where James is telling us, go the right way. And the evidence of going the right way is doing the right thing once you know the right way. And that's my prayer for you this morning. Let's pray together. Father, in Jesus' name, I am grateful for this teaching. I'm thankful that we have an opportunity to really dig in deep and study this book together. I'm asking right now, Lord, that you will place inside of our hearts a desire to know even more. I pray that what I shared this morning, God, I pray, first of all, that it's truth, as I've prayed throughout this week, but I also pray that it be simply, God, a morsel of what they discover later. when they invest time and energy in the study of your Word. I'm asking you right now to reveal in their spirits that we haven't even scratched the surface of what you want them to know. And I pray that they will devote time and effort into finding out what meaning you offer them today, so that our lives can be changed and reflect your great glory. God, thank you for this time that you've given us. Thank you for the opportunity to study your Word. Thank you for the Word, and thank you for Jesus who died for our sins so that we may be able to live into that. May your Spirit move throughout the rest of our time together and as we go out into the mission fields of life that you send us through. And we pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.