Transforming Faith: The Power of the Implanted Word
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1. "The solution to an angry, biting tongue is found primarily in the heart. We need to deal with a heart problem by humbly accepting, accepting the implanted Word of God in our hearts. We need a heart implant. Not a transplant, a heart implant. And James says that the word implanted in our heart will save us. He says that it doesn't mean that salvation comes by memorizing scripture. That really wasn't what he was talking about. He means that salvation comes Word made flesh, Jesus himself, comes into our hearts." [37:52] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
2. "The Word is implanted in our heart, when we, and only when we read the Word, or hear the Word, with the intention to obey. That's the only way it is planted into the fleshly tables of our heart. You can try this. You can sit down with your Bible and try to read it, and make up your mind, I don't really, really, whatever it says, I'm not really going to do it. I just want to learn stuff. So you can sit down and try to read it, and you'll read the same word like 20 times. You'll get nowhere. It won't make any sense to you." [43:34] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
3. "The Bible was not given to us to increase our knowledge, but to transform our lives. It is a change agent. It's a catalyst. It's not for information. It's for transformation. A.W. Tozer, in his book, This Word, Playground or Battlefield, said this, We can prove our faith by our commitment to it and in no other way. Any belief that does not command the one who holds it is not even a real belief. It is only a pseudo-belief." [46:54] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
4. "Living out the implanted word will control our speech and our anger. Verse 26 says, If anyone considers himself religious, right with God, and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself, and his faith is worthless. Later on, James deals with this danger of a loose tongue as it pertains to faith. Gossip and slander. But here, James is touching on angry words intended to hurt and wound another person. James is saying that the tongue is a mirror of our heart." [47:36] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
5. "Anger is dangerously contagious. It's contagious in a church. It's contagious in a home. It's contagious everywhere. One person gets angry, and you feel the spirit of anger invade the space. You can walk into a space when there have been angry words, and you feel it in the air. You walk in, and it's just there. It's so thick. There's a spirit of anger. And anger is hard for us to justify. We often attempt to excuse our anger as Christians. Well, they deserved it, or they were in the wrong, or our favorite Christian excuse, my anger is just righteous indignation on par with Jesus clearing the temple." [51:50] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
6. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is not about rules of behavior. It's about knowing and becoming like Jesus. James defines a genuine Christian as a person who has allowed the word, Jesus himself, to be implanted in our heart. How can we know what a Christian looks like? It's pretty simple. A Christian with a word-implanted heart has a controlled tongue, exhibits moral purity, and actively seeks to help those who are in need. And that is what a real Christian looks like." [57:21] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
7. "The implanted word is a person who takes up residence in our heart and will demand that we act like he acts. We will find ourselves naturally gravitating to the outcast, the poor, the disenfranchised because that is the nature of Jesus. That's what he did. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is not about rules of behavior. It's about knowing and becoming like Jesus." [56:38] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
8. "The Word of God comes alive to you. It is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It lays us open. It exposes us, and it transforms us. It washes us. It renews us. It energizes us. Soren Kierkegaard wrote, When you read God's Word, you must constantly, be saying to yourself, it is talking to me about me." [44:21] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
9. "James is advocating an examination that will burn deeper, be more ruthless, more intrusive than we could ever be with ourselves. He's advocating an examination brought on by the implanted Word. According to James, it's the Word that examines us, exposes us, and demands moral purity. And when necessary, it demands repentance. Kathleen Norris writes in her book, The Cloister Walk, repentance, turning away from moral impurity, is not a popular word these days. But I believe that any of us recognizes this. When it strikes us in the gut, repentance is simply coming to our senses, and seeing, suddenly, what we've done that we might not have done, or recognizing the problem is not really in what we've done at all but in what we've become." [53:48] (64 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
10. "The implanted Word, though, for it to really be implanted, needs to be received with the intention of being not just hearers, not people standing off to the side, sort of judging whether or not it's true, but doers, the intent of doing what the Word says. Verse 22, If all you do is read the Bible with no intention of ever conforming, you're deceiving yourself. You're lying to yourself. Increased knowledge of God's Word, in other words, just memorizing Scripture can deceive us. It can make us believe something that's not true." [40:55] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
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2. "The Word is implanted in our heart, when we, and only when we read the Word, or hear the Word, with the intention to obey. That's the only way it is planted into the fleshly tables of our heart. You can try this. You can sit down with your Bible and try to read it, and make up your mind, I don't really, really, whatever it says, I'm not really going to do it. I just want to learn stuff. So you can sit down and try to read it, and you'll read the same word like 20 times. You'll get nowhere. It won't make any sense to you." [43:34] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
3. "The Bible was not given to us to increase our knowledge, but to transform our lives. It is a change agent. It's a catalyst. It's not for information. It's for transformation. A.W. Tozer, in his book, This Word, Playground or Battlefield, said this, We can prove our faith by our commitment to it and in no other way. Any belief that does not command the one who holds it is not even a real belief. It is only a pseudo-belief." [46:54] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
4. "Living out the implanted word will control our speech and our anger. Verse 26 says, If anyone considers himself religious, right with God, and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself, and his faith is worthless. Later on, James deals with this danger of a loose tongue as it pertains to faith. Gossip and slander. But here, James is touching on angry words intended to hurt and wound another person. James is saying that the tongue is a mirror of our heart." [47:36] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
5. "Anger is dangerously contagious. It's contagious in a church. It's contagious in a home. It's contagious everywhere. One person gets angry, and you feel the spirit of anger invade the space. You can walk into a space when there have been angry words, and you feel it in the air. You walk in, and it's just there. It's so thick. There's a spirit of anger. And anger is hard for us to justify. We often attempt to excuse our anger as Christians. Well, they deserved it, or they were in the wrong, or our favorite Christian excuse, my anger is just righteous indignation on par with Jesus clearing the temple." [51:50] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
6. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is not about rules of behavior. It's about knowing and becoming like Jesus. James defines a genuine Christian as a person who has allowed the word, Jesus himself, to be implanted in our heart. How can we know what a Christian looks like? It's pretty simple. A Christian with a word-implanted heart has a controlled tongue, exhibits moral purity, and actively seeks to help those who are in need. And that is what a real Christian looks like." [57:21] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
7. "The implanted word is a person who takes up residence in our heart and will demand that we act like he acts. We will find ourselves naturally gravitating to the outcast, the poor, the disenfranchised because that is the nature of Jesus. That's what he did. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is not about rules of behavior. It's about knowing and becoming like Jesus." [56:38] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
8. "The Word of God comes alive to you. It is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It lays us open. It exposes us, and it transforms us. It washes us. It renews us. It energizes us. Soren Kierkegaard wrote, When you read God's Word, you must constantly, be saying to yourself, it is talking to me about me." [44:21] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
9. "James is advocating an examination that will burn deeper, be more ruthless, more intrusive than we could ever be with ourselves. He's advocating an examination brought on by the implanted Word. According to James, it's the Word that examines us, exposes us, and demands moral purity. And when necessary, it demands repentance. Kathleen Norris writes in her book, The Cloister Walk, repentance, turning away from moral impurity, is not a popular word these days. But I believe that any of us recognizes this. When it strikes us in the gut, repentance is simply coming to our senses, and seeing, suddenly, what we've done that we might not have done, or recognizing the problem is not really in what we've done at all but in what we've become." [53:48] (64 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
10. "The implanted Word, though, for it to really be implanted, needs to be received with the intention of being not just hearers, not people standing off to the side, sort of judging whether or not it's true, but doers, the intent of doing what the Word says. Verse 22, If all you do is read the Bible with no intention of ever conforming, you're deceiving yourself. You're lying to yourself. Increased knowledge of God's Word, in other words, just memorizing Scripture can deceive us. It can make us believe something that's not true." [40:55] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)
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