Prayer: Father, there are people here who have forfeited a goal they had for themselves and are probably feeling guilty about that right now. Help them to receive your forgiveness and a fresh start. There are others here who are on the verge of quitting something that they once felt called to. Help them to find the patient endurance to continue on another day, another hour, another minute. There are also people here who have chosen joy in the face of their trial. Thank you for their courage. Might you continue to give them the strength to press on to the other side of their trial. Use us all to show the world how you are a God of restoration. 14
Don t Be Such A Hypocrite Part Three: Two Forces at Work 1. We all have an inner force that moves us toward selfishness. 2. God offers a different force: the word of truth that gives us new life. 3. One of the primary fruits of our evil desires is hurtful words. 4. We are blessed for obeying God s word, not listening to it. 5. True religion is lived out in moral living and helping others. Going Deeper: Use the following questions for personal reflection and/or to discuss with family, friends and small group. 1. What did you think about the video with the boys and the chocolate cake? Can you relate? 2. Read James 1:14,15. Do you understand the picture he presents? How have you seen this play out in your life? 3. Read Romans 7:15-23. Paul addressed the same problem as James. Does this add any insight? 4. Read James 1:18, 21. Why are these verses crucial to dealing with sin in our life? 5. Read James 1:19,20. What did Remy say is active listening? What are the benefits? With whom might it be helpful for you to be doing active listening? 6. Read James 1:22-27. Why is it so easy to hear and not do what we here? Are you guilty of being a hearer only? What does James say we ought to be doing? 7. How might you and/or your circle be more engaged in helping others? Would your circle be interested in helping at Winter Haven? Or the Foster Closet? Message One of the quickest ways to sin is to simply open your mouth and say something. Have you ever noticed that? Today we are going to look at why that is and what we can do about it. This is week three of looking at the letter written by James. James was an early leader in the church, and most notably, the brother of Jesus, so he spoke with a lot of authority. James wrote to believers who were scattered throughout the Middle East after they were persecuted in Jerusalem. James got reports back, hearing that Christians were still gathering for meetings but they weren t living out their faith. They weren t obeying the teachings that Jesus had given them. He was concerned about that, so he wrote a letter to encourage them to get back to what Jesus had taught them. Now, this letter is great because many of us are in the same boat. Maybe something changed in your life...you are going through a hard time, and it s impacted your faith...not what you 15
believe as much as how you live out your faith...or don t live it out. So pay attention because God might be speaking directly to you through James. Last Sunday we read that James readers were blaming God for their trials. And therefore blaming God for their bad behavior...like, God, I wouldn t be sinning if you had just kept these trials from happening in the first place. But James said that God wasn t to blame for our behavior. We are. The truth is, there s a force within us that causes us to disobey. each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. James 1:14,15 James made it clear that the person responsible for sin is the person in the mirror. More specifically, it is our evil desires. The word tempted here means to be lured or baited, like an animal. The analogy he makes is to an animal hiding in safety. It is drawn out by bait to their own destruction. But notice who is doing the baiting. It s not God. It s not the devil. The devil didn t make you do it. It s not a temptress...some other person who is at fault. James says here that what tempts us is our own evil desire. The apostle Paul said something very similar in his letter to the Roman church: For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7:19,20 Both James and Paul agreed that we have a force within us that is greater than ourselves that leads us to sin. This is important to know. We like to think that we are above temptation. But given the right conditions - trials being one of them - our desire to sin often overcomes our desire to do good. Show video : boys told not to eat a chocolate cake. So they smell it, touch it and lick it! These boys prove my point! We have this force within us that wants to please ourselves at the expense of others and God. Now, James is about to confront a number of sins his readers were guilty of committing, but before he does that he tells them about a different force working within them. He chose to give us birth through the word (logos) of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all the created. James 1:18 And a few verses later he said:...humbly accept the word (logos) planted in you, which can save you. James 1:22 16
I ll explain these verses in a minute, but let me first say that when James corrected them, he didn t want them doing what people typically do when their sin is exposed. You see, when someone corrects us, we often have two responses. The first response is to feel shame. We feel like a bad person. The second response is to reform ourselves by trying harder. I m gonna go to church more and to the bars less. I m going to watch my language and be more positive. Initially it works we feel good that we changed our behavior. But then life happens and we are back to our old habits and the cycle starts over again. Disobedience - Correction - Shame - Try Harder - Disobedience Many people, even Christians, live their entire life in this cycle. It s a very defeating way to live. True transformation never comes from shame and trying harder. Shame forces you to look at what YOU can do and not what God can do in you. Transformation comes by allowing God to birth something in you. James said that God s word is like a powerful seed planted inside of you. When it germinates, it gives birth to a whole new life. Then it grows and has the power to overtake your natural sinful desires. When James references God s word, he s not talking about the Bible. Many people wrongly think about it that way. James uses the word logos which means a life giving force. The gospel of John opens by referring to Jesus as the logos of God: In the beginning was the word (LOGOS). And the word (LOGOS) was with God. And the word (LOGOS) was God...And the word (LOGOS) became flesh and lived among us. John 1:1,14 LOGOS is a force from God and it s set in contrast to the force of our evil desires. James is saying that if we want to become the person Jesus called us to be, we need to receive God s logos into our lives...that is God s power, life, and Spirit. I saw a picture of an oak tree that had grown up underneath a large cemetery monument and the tree split the monument in two. The tree started as a tiny seed years ago. But it slowly grew and over time it overcame the power of the cement. That s what God s LOGOS can do to sin in your life. It might seem small and insignificant at first, but if you keep nourishing that seed it will destroy the power of your evil desires. So, as James transitions to talk about specific sins, please keep this in mind. Don t leave here today in shame or committed to trying harder. If you are convicted about any misbehavior in your life immediately ask God to fill you with his life and power. 17
Now, the first problem James addressed was how they spoke to each other. Their evil desires manifested in hurtful words. 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. James 1:19,20 When you are slow to listen and quick to speak, you get into trouble. You are making wrong assumptions, jumping to conclusions, and getting angry when you don t need to get angry. James was way ahead of his time because there is current research showing that when people lack all the information they need to assess what someone is saying they jump to a conclusion. And we do this because our brain rewards us with a burst of dopamine (a chemical in your brain that provides a sense of satisfaction and happiness) for reaching a conclusion, even if it s wrong. Reward: dopamine Insufficient information + false assumptions & speculation >>> Wrong conclusion >> Unrighteous Anger So our brain is prone to jump to conclusions. It wants to reach a verdict. So to get the verdict it will supply false assumptions and speculation to make it happen. And we feel so good when we do this. So smug and righteous. But James said this isn t the righteousness of God. This good feeling you have isn t from God. It s not because you are right. It s from the dopamine kicking in! Did you know that when you get angry your brain doesn t look for truth? It is done listening. It looks for ways to justify your position for ways to prove yourself right. That s why you can t trust the decisions you make in anger. The researchers say that better decisions require more data. James says we get that data by listening: Insufficient information + Listening >> Correct Conclusion >> Peace I think 90% of our arguments would be solved if we listened 50% more. Rather than give people the benefit of the doubt we assume the worst, jump to conclusions, get defensive and react with nastiness. Here s a simple solution to that problem: When someone does or says something that makes you mad, instead of reacting in anger, ask this simple question: Can you help me understand why you said that or did that? Then listen. And then, just to be sure that you heard them right, repeat back to them what you think you heard them say. Don t respond to them until you fully grasp what they just said. This is called active listening. If you and the other person both listen actively, there s a good chance you will resolve your difference and not make things worse. 18
James wanted believers to get back to the teaching of Jesus. That s why he said: Therefore, get rid of all filth and malice that is so prevalent... James 1:21 In other words, get rid of the attitude. Cleanse yourself of the disrespect and contempt that you have for people. Quit trying to prove yourself right at the expense of others. Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers. These are people who work to bring people together. They look for ways to bring about understanding, not drive people apart. Treating people with dignity and respect is basic Christian teaching. That s what Christians used to be known for. But James readers weren t following this teaching. That s why in verse 22 James said: 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 what they do. James 1:22-25 You can read your Bible everyday, pray everyday, attend worship services every Sunday and a Bible study during the week. But there is no blessing in that if you never obey what you hear. In fact, James puts it stronger: Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. James 1:26 Their religion is worthless. That s pretty strong. He s saying that if your faith hasn t changed your behavior...specifically in how you speak to people... then you are wasting your time. Your religion isn t fooling anyone but yourself. So far James has been talking about what NOT to do. He s saying, Don t be hypocrites. Now he gets real specific about what it should do: 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. James 1:27 James said that we show that our faith in God is genuine when we do two things: we help others and we live morally pure lives. That s not what saves us. That s what shows we are saved. Jesus taught these same two things in his Sermon on the Mount. Helping others and living morally pure lives is what results when we receive the LOGOS of God into our lives and let it grow. This teaching about orphans and widows isn t anything new for God s people. The Old Testament repeated these two ideas over and over. Old Testament writers typically referred to helping three types of people, immigrants, widows, and orphans. Collectively these three groups were known as the poor. For example, God 19
If you do not oppress the immigrant, the fatherless or the widow,...then I will let you live in peace...jeremiah 7:6,7 Immigrants were often homeless because they didn t have any connections to the people or the land. So immigrants, orphans and widows were all living on the margins of the community. Jesus put it more generically: So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12 In the first century, if a woman couldn t take care of her baby, she d leave it on the side of the road and hope that someone would take it in, and the Christians often did that. The same is true for widows. When a woman s husband died, there was no social security. If she didn t have any sons to support her, she was forced to beg for money, and so the Christians would support the widows. This was true of immigrants as well. Christians were known for sharing their wealth with the poor. In fact, to be a follower of Jesus was synonymous with helping the poor. It was synonymous with people who inconvenienced themselves to serve others. Today, people s needs aren t as obvious. You aren t going to drive by widows begging along the road or see abandoned babies on your way home today. Government agencies and non-profits have taken care of that. But that doesn t mean that the poor are no longer with us. If you want your religion to be worth something you have to go out of your way to help the poor. You have to take initiative. This is why we offer so many opportunities to help the poor. We take a benevolence offering every month to help people in crisis. We support Stepping Stones and Bridge to Hope, and many other things. Individuals here are doing many things as well. Too many to list. For example, some of you support kids overseas on a monthly basis. Many of you have adopted children and taken in foster kids. We have a woman here, by the name of Tammy Garr, who has such a big heart for the needs of foster kids that she started a non-profit organization called the Wisconsin Foster Closet. Foster kids often leave their birth families with very little and the foster family can t always afford to give them all they need. So Tammy is making it easy for us to help these kids. And you can help her. But I want to close our time today by giving us a very practical opportunity that could make a huge impact in this town. Some of you may not be aware that there is a homeless 20
population in Menomonie. You don t see them because they live under bridges and in the woods. But as you can imagine, those aren t great places to live in the winter. My guess is that few of us are going to go looking for the homeless and invite them to live with us. Maybe if they sat along the road we would, but they are out of sight and therefore out of mind. But Stepping Stones has done something amazing. They bought a house to house the homeless in the winter, called Winter Haven. And they make it available from 7:30pm at night to 7:30am in the morning to give people a warm place to sleep. They ve filled it with furniture. They clean it. They offer hot showers and laundry facilities. The only thing they need to make this a success is to have people cover four six hour shifts every night to monitor the house. In other words, they ve done all the heavy lifting, and they ve given us the opportunity to make our faith meaningful. The directors of Winter Haven came to us and asked if Cedarbrook would sponsor a week of volunteers...we can pick the week...but they would need 28 volunteers over a seven day period. And Kyle and I said that we didn t know if people would respond to this or not. But we d ask. I put it in the newsletter twice and one person responded. I was tempted to tell Stepping Stones that we didn t have any interest but then I got to reading James and I thought, no, this is a great example for us to not just be hearers of the word, but doers of the word. And it s not my job to simply put a notice in the newsletter. That s so lame on my part. It s my job to inspire people to see why this kind of opportunity is central to what it means to be a Christian. Jesus said that people will know us by our love. So we had one person agree to do this. Lisa and I will sign up. That makes three. We just need 25 more people. That shouldn t be too hard from a group of 500 people. Will it be inconvenient? Absolutely. We are all busy. Will it take you out of your comfort zone? Possibly. But this is the kind of thing that God is looking for from his people. This is the kind of thing that shows the world that we are the firstfruits of creation. I m pretty sure 25 people will volunteer for this. I have great confidence in your generosity! But I m getting greedy. I think we can do more than a week. Can I challenge us to think a little bigger? If everyone here volunteered just one shift over the next four months, we d cover all the shifts for Winter Haven. Wouldn t that be a blessing? Or, if just 100 of us volunteered four times, we d cover all the shifts. 21
Now, I don t know if we can do that. But I think covering a month is very doable. Lisa and I will volunteer four times if others will. If you know you want to help, fill out a connection card. You can learn more online or there is a flyer at the information desk. Or you can visit the Stepping Stones website. Now, as always, please don t volunteer out of shame. The Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver, not a shame-based giver! So only volunteer because you want to do this. 22