Living Out Faith: The Wisdom of Action

1) "How do we find joy, like James says, in all of our circumstances? And we do so by faith. We do so by asking for wisdom, right? It was such a good reminder that God is there, He's present, and He's giving us wisdom generously, right? When we ask Him for it. But this week, we're going to move on to the end of chapter one. And we'll be looking at what it looks like to find wisdom in doing. That's right, wisdom in doing. We're going to see that there is wisdom in actually living out our faith, right? Being doers of the Word." [06:54] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "Because God's Kingdom is built on the foundation of love. It's built on a foundation of a love that is so deep that it will actually ilngue the actually save us. In fact, the entirety of the Bible is teaching us that we are to lead with love in all of our relationships, in all situations, in all of our circumstances. We are to be leading with love. Love for God and love for our neighbors. And why does that matter? Well, James says it. He says, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires." [11:46] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "And if God wants to use us, which was an amazing thought that God wants to partner with us, and if God wants to use us to get involved with it, we will be far more usable if we've got a posture of love and grace for someone else. If we approach others as needing grace in the very same way that we need grace, then we are quite literally more aligned with God's heart. Like the human anger that James is talking about, that's based in our inability to, or maybe our unwillingness to, prioritize others by choosing to listen, right?" [13:21] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "Because the word of God wholly points out to you, right? It's the word of God that points us to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. The word of God that once it penetrates you, it actually changes you and ultimately saves you. Like a seed sown in you that desperately wants to grow, right? And flourish. But it needs to be fertilized. It needs to be watered in order to do so, right? So James is saying, guys, be patient. Be patient with one another. Listen more. Speak. So that you become less angry and you can become more loving with each other." [16:27] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "And then he gives us an example of how to understand this. He 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. He's like, if you are a listener of the word only, if all you do is listen to the word and you don't do it, if you're not a doer of the word, it's like looking into a mirror, fixing up your hair, you know, fixing up your makeup, putting some lipstick on, checking it out, right? Then you walk away and you completely forget what you look like." [19:13] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "And the final verse kind of speaks into this. It speaks into what does it mean, what does it look like to be actual doers of the word and not just hearers of it. Because James tells us what worthless religion looks like, but then he, but then he comes back and says, what, what, what good religion looks like. Check this out. He says, 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." [24:56] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "Faith is practical. Our faith is practical and needs to be lived out. It requires a purpose in our lives, right? It requires action as we live it out with one another. And so what does that mean? It means we study God's word together. We come to church. You come here to church, at home, right? We open God's word. We study what it has to say. It means we read it for ourselves throughout the week, right? You wake up in the morning, spend 15 minutes a day, an hour a day reading it, studying it, meditating on what it's saying." [30:29] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)