If you have the Bible, grab it. Turn to James, chapter one. We hope you've been enjoying this study of the Book of James as we dive in a lot deeper than we have in the past. Hope it's been transforming your life. And the question that I want to ask us today, have you ever got a Christmas present? And I want you to be honest with me because we're going to have a hand raising session here in a couple minutes. Okay, well, seconds. All right. Have you ever gotten a Christmas present or something at the store that came all wrapped in 30 different plastic bags, but it had this little packet of paper in it? Have you ever received a gift that had a little packet of paper? Oh, I mean, they're called instructions. Have you ever done that? Have you ever taken the instructions? Be like, who needs those? Yeah, right? Men, all men, 100%. You need to raise your hand. Women, 60% of you just need to be honest right now. Okay. All right. We're going to talk about lying. We're going to exodus. No, it's tough. Like, you get those instructions, and some of the stuff seems so basic, right? And you're like, do they think I'm foolish? And I kind of had that situation happen to me this weekend, actually. I am a cyclist. I love to ride my bike. And a couple of years ago, a few years ago, I decided I'm going to get something to try to help me ride all winter long, because riding in the winter is awful. Okay. And you can buy a bike trainer, and they're awful. And you sit in your basement. It's terrible. Okay. So I thought I'd get something to kind of spice up this winter riding. And so I got a bike, and it came with a book of instructions. And I thought, how easy can this be? I mean, there's a flywheel up front, and there's a stand in the back, and there's a seat, and there's handlebars. Who do they think I am? And so I took the book and I threw it over there, and it was really complicated build, but I was able to get the bike together, and I thought, I was so proud of myself. And then I came to this screen. And so you can have a subscription to differing programs online, and you can hook this bike up via Bluetooth to these programs, and you can ride, and it keeps track of your cadence and your power and your distance. And so I had this, and every time I would hook this thing up to these programs, three options would come up. You guys recognize this Bluetooth? When you go in to try to hook up your headphones or something. You get like a million options, and you have to find yours. You tracking with me? Well, when I had hooked this bike up, I'd get three options, and it named my bike three times. And I'm like, what on earth? What do I choose? And so I knew that if I picked after a while, 21 00:21 that would just get me half power. That one wasn't good. But if I picked, I think, twelve, 0588, then it would be like, okay, these stats are kind of making sense. And so I would figure them out. I never remember those numbers, but I did it a thousand times and finally remembered them. And then there was this third option, and sometimes on a wild night, I'd be like, I'm picking that one. And it would work, kind of. So I'd get some stats. Sometimes it didn't seem to work as well. I couldn't really figure out, why do I have three options? I've got one bike, three options. And so I did that. I think that was 2020. And then last year, I did it again and just kind of winged my way through it. And it was always so frustrating because I would load my ride and I would start pedaling, and I'd be like, oh, I picked the wrong power meter again. Like, this is only showing half of what I'm putting out, and it's making me seem like I'm going 3 miles an hour. That's incorrect. And so then I would have to log out of the program, and then I would have to scratch my ride because I don't want that showing up on Strava to mess up my stats. And some of you don't know what Strava is, and you should check it out. It's awesome. Okay. But then I would throw that away, and then I would have to go back to the settings, and I'd have to change these Bluetooth connections around because I couldn't figure it out. Well, year number three, last Friday, the weather's been kind of bad. It's been beautiful, too, but it's been not great for riding. And so, you know, this is the year, Matthew. This is the year we're going to figure out how to do this right. And so I Googled the instructions. The books have long since disappeared, and I realized I learned so much stuff. And it's always interesting when you come to instructions. Like, the first instruction is, hey, plug it in. And you're like, do I look like a fool? But they start there. And so I had a much more complex problem with that. This fall, when I started, I had issues with my computer that I had to get ironed out, and I had issues with this thing. And so it's got sensors on the pedals to see how much for your cadence and how much power you're putting out. And so I took the batteries out and I threw them away, and I loaded new batteries in them, and I threw those ones away, too, and I loaded another set of batteries in them. And I'm like, what is going on? I've got the power meeting showing up, and I don't even have the whole bike showing up. Like, how doesn't the whole bike show up? How. What is going on here? And I wrestled with that thing. It was just driving me absolutely crazy. When I was so close, I'd gotten my computer fixed and now I'd changed my batteries and I was getting that. But those instructions were so helpful. And after spending 3 hours on this, on Friday night, I realized something. I didn't have it plugged in. So batteries in the trash, all the things. But I learned a lot about this bike. In fact, I learned that those numbers that pop up on the screen, I can turn the pedals and I can see what number I want. It's right on the back of the pedal, and I need only the left pedal. And I learned that my bike is named this certain thing with these certain numbers, and I need that. So it puts pressure on me, so it challenges me. And it was right in the book, this book that I had the whole time. And not only did I have the book, I had access to it through the World Wide Web. I had access to YouTube videos that helped me do this. And here all this time, for three years. Maybe I shouldn't have told you this story about myself. Three years. I had access to this information and I had rejected it. I had just walked past it. I was certain I could get this figure out, or after enough attempts, it would just work. And I kind of made it work for a while, but it didn't work consistently. I never knew what I was going to get. And actually, the Book of James is kind of talking about this as we dive in today in verse 22. But James isn't just talking about a bike that you ride through the winter or he's not talking about your television or the shelf that you've been trying to build. James is talking about stuff that involves obedience and obedience to God. And so the question is like, are we following the word of God in life, or are we pushing it off to the side, much like the instructions that we push to the side every Christmas and every birthday. Are we just taking those things and pushing them off to the side? So join me in James Chapter one. I'm going to start, actually in verse 21 today as we walk through this text. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers or a listener or a disciple, only deceiving yourselves. So this text that we're going to cover today is really hard. And it's interesting. The first audience that would have heard this, you've heard this from us before, that they're in the dispersion, they've been under persecution, and James has been encouraging them as they face trials of various kinds, to even count it joy. Like, don't just bring it up to neutral and say, hey, you're going to survive, but I'm going to tell you, it goes past neutral, even to the point of joy. And then he begins to flesh that out and give them the hope of that. But I would say in about verse 18, he starts to change and get really practical. Practical both for them as first audience and for us as millionth audience, like giving us some tips, some pointers, some truth that we need to really meditate on and reflect on in our own lives. And in verse 18, he says of his own will, of God's will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruit of his creation. And there's this realization for us as Christians, right? James was writing to Christians who were of the dispersion, and I'm preaching to Christians, okay, you who claim that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that's who I'm talking to. The rest, I'm glad you're here, but he's challenging them and encouraging them with these biblical truths. And there's this reality that when God calls you, when the God moves into your heart, it's transforming. I mean, the Scriptures compare it from death to life. That's what this looks like when you're in Christ, when you're called as a first fruit of God and this life that dwells within you, it changes the way you face trials. Trials are no longer the same things. We no longer view these things at work or with our health or in life as things that could end us. But we say, God, what are you doing? It doesn't make them easier. Don't hear me saying that. But we can say, because we know that there's more to life, we can say, God, what are you doing with me? God, what are you teaching our family right now? What are you teaching me about who you are? We know as Christians that the world just doesn't end for us in 60 to 80 years. We have an awareness of this truth, that things are eternal and that this life is but a vapor and that these things are shaping in us glory. So we are going to understand God better because of what he walks us through. Okay. And so it's not just a temporary thing that we're going through and that changes our perspective. Right? And in verses earlier that Michael covered last week, it changes how we do anger. It shifts things. We have this perspective that is so much greater than our little MondaY situation or our little Sunday situation. It draws things back to eternal. And we're not just hearers of the Word, we're doers of the Word. Like, we could just say that and just be done. Hey, don't just be hearers of the word be doers. Let's pray, right? We could just go, it's so easy to be a hearer of the Word and just be like, oh, it's so good, I don't want to do it. No, not going to do it. No way am I going to actually follow through with what that word says. And that's the challenge as Christians. God has given us a guidebook, God has given us examples through the stories of people who were just like us to learn from, to see how he is faithful, to see how he loves, to see how he cares for his people. Very Practically. It's not just in this ethereal spiritual sense, like, oh, God was spiritually helping this guy? Like, no, he physically gave him money. No, he literally healed him. Hey, he rose the dead. He raised that man to life. God is practical. Are we following the guidebook or have we crumpled it in a ball and thrown it away or stashed it in the back of that closet? What are we doing with it? And so, James, give us a warning here at the end of verse 22. I'm just going to read all the 22 again, but be doers of the Word, the implanted word, and not just hearers or listeners or disciples only deceiving yourself, James, deceiving yourselves. Why did you say deceiving yourselves? Let's go on to verse 23, for if anyone is a hearer or a listener of the word, a disciple of the word and not a doer. So here kind of treads into warning land here so if you hear it and you're not a doer, you're like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. Oh, okay. I look in the mirror. Wait. Verse 24. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he's like. What? I mean, that's borderline insulting. Who looks at themselves in the mirror and walks away and just. I don't even know. I don't even know what I look like. And maybe some of you. This might be a painful story. I know it is for me. You think about those times in middle school where you wake up and you have the mountains of Everest on your nose, right? The zit. It's called the zit, right? And you're like, goodness gracious, how am I going to survive this day? I mean, that thing is so huge. I think I see skiers at the top, right? And you're just, like, wrestling with it, too. And you stare in from the mirror, and sometimes your mom is like, you must get out of the house now. And you're like, if I stare at it longer, maybe it'll shrink. Maybe it'll just go away, right? And then you step out of the bathroom, but then you step one more time back in just to make sure it's still there or it's not still there, or you're preparing. You're equipping yourself to survive the day, maybe, right? That's what I think of, like, this. This inability to step away from the mirror because he doesn't say that. He flippantly looks at himself in the mirror. There's some intentionality here. He looks intently at himself in the mirror, and he walks away just forgetting what he looks like. Are you kidding me? It does almost seem insulting. But James goes on to tell us what the issue is here. And he talks about the tongue being religious, claiming all these things about God and his truth, but your tongue is terrible. He goes on to talk about having showing favoritism. That's not to be. And he goes on to talk about saying something and doing nothing about it. And he goes on to address quarrels, and I don't want to steal the other guy's thunder as they preach through those texts. So I want us to jump over to the Book of Mark real quick, and I want to explore a story that is about a man who knew a lot about truth and didn't do text. That's the context that we're addressing here. This ability to have so much Bible knowledge, to attend so many church services and walk out the door and deny Christ by your lifestyle. That's kind of what we're dealing with. So turn with me to Mark chapter ten. And your Bible has these little headers on it, and sometimes they're accurate. But this One, it titles the Rich young ruler. So Mark chapter ten. And I'm going to start reading in verse 17. Mark ten, verse 17. So see if you can pick up what this guy does and what he doesn't do. It says this. And he was setting out Jesus on his journey. When he was setting out, a man runs up to him and kneels before him and asks him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus kind of deviates a little bit here. There are many messages in here that we're not going to get to. But Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, don't murder, do not commit adultery, don't steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother. And the guy says to him, teacher, all these I've kept from my youth. And Jesus looked at him and he loves them. And he said to him, you lack one thing. Go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me. Come and follow me. And so you're. Well, what's, what's wrong with this guy? I mean, he has kept the commandments. And it's interesting, as Jesus repeats the commandments back to them, he doesn't mention the First Commandment. And I think that's kind of the point that's being brought out in this text to those hearers is that you should have no other gods before you. If there is anything else in your life that you cling to more than God, it should be removed. And this man didn't murder. This man didn't steal. This man apparently had not committed adultery, nor did he defraud anybody. And apparently he honored his father and mother, but he lacked one thing. And Jesus doesn't just pause and be like, you know what? Let's ignore that sin. You know what? You've done so great on these nine. Let's just forget the tent. Like, let's just stay over here and celebrate land. No. He addresses the issue of the man's heart. You lack one thing. There was this issue that this man had that if God touched it, he would say, heck, no, go sell all you hAve. I don't think this is a message about the poor. I think this is a message about trusting God. And if you were to sell all that you have, if you were to take your retirement and give it up, would Jesus take care of you? And this guy said, no, no, he can't take care of me. Are you kidding me? I've worked hard for this. I've planned, I've saved, I've been shrewd. Like, I'm invested here. And you want me to do what? Yes, I want you to come. Follow me. Come and follow me. Verse 22. Disheartened by this saying, the rich young ruler, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And I suppose to some extent, this man could have mustered like, you know what? It's going to be hard, but this week, I'm not going to murder no one, nobody. I will not murder. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And I'm not going to commit adultery either. No way am I going to do that. I know better than that. Praise the Lord. Don't. But what would Veritas Church look like if Jesus came to you and said, give away, give it all away? Give it all away. Your retirement, give it all away. What would that level of trust look like in a body of believers? Jesus, you want it? It's yours. Anyway, this guy wasn't having it. This guy knew the law, clearly, right? He knows the law. He's well aware. Like Jesus, I've done those things. So there's been a knowledge of the law, and there's been an attempt to follow the law. That's pretty awesome, right? He's done a whole bunch of really great things. This one thing he says, you are not touching this. You are not Lord of my finances. You are not Lord of my successes. I want you to let me follow you in the way I want to follow you. And Jesus says, you can't follow me in the way you want to follow me. You must follow me in the way I call you to follow me. And this man had Jesus Christ right in front of him, and he said, no. Is knowing the Ten Commandments bad? Is having wealth bad? No. Is having a plan bad? Absolutely not. But if Jesus asks of it from you, would you say no? This man was deceived. He had so much head, knowledge. But there was a part of his life he was over here, and he was maybe even succeeding. But when Jesus calls for his heart, he's like, no. These things should have been drawing him to his need of a savior. He shouldn't have been murdering because he was satisfied in Christ and knew that God would do the judging. He shouldn't have been stealing because he knew that God would provide all his needs according to his riches and glory. So he needed nothing. He shouldn't have been committing adultery because he knew that the spouse that he had been given was exactly the spouse that God ordained for him to get. And he was satisfied in God and knew that he was being transformed by God as he engaged his spouse. That's why he shouldn't have been. And so when Jesus says, hey, come and follow me, he should have said, it's all yours. I'm going. Where are we going? He rejected. He was deceived. He knew a bunch of Bible knowledge, but it didn't permeate his heart. There's a Second Story, and I have fallen in Love with this story over the last couple of years. It's found in John, chapter four. I am going to skip through it. You need to read it this afternoon. Okay. But if you want to, you can turn with me to John, chapter four. And the little heading says, it's about the woman at the well. And so Jesus is out doing ministry, and he's at Jacob's well. And the Samaritans were left over after Babylon had hauled the Jews off to the Iraq area, Or Babylon, they had Hauled them off, and the Samaritans were Some of the People that were left, and they had intermarried with the People of the land, which they were not supposed to do, actually. And so the Jews, when they had come back from that time, hated the Samaritans. And so Jesus is near Samaria, and he's up by this well. His disciples had gone to get food. And there's a Woman who comes up at noon, and you come up at noon to get water in Israel because you don't want to be with other people. It's hot, it's miserable. And she comes up and Jesus says, hey, could I get a drink? And she's like, what? Why are you talking to me? You're a Jew one. I'm a Samaritan and I'm a woman. What is happening right now? Mind blowing. And so they engage on that level, and in verse ten, Jesus answers her. This is John Four, verse ten. If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink. You would have asked him, and he would have given you water. She's like, this is interesting. I come up here at noon. It's hot, these jars are heavy, and you don't even have anything to draw with. Are you greater than our father? Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it. What are you talking like? I think sometimes we come to these Bible stories, and we're like, oh, they're like little fairies, and they're just fluttering around and they don't make any sense. These are real people with real questions, how are you going to give me water? And in John three and John four, I think Jesus is displaying to the people that this is far more than just practical things. This is spiritual stuff that I'm up to, and I'm after your heart. And so she's talking about water, and Jesus is talking about her soul and living water, and she doesn't quite grasp that yet. So in verse 13, Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water, they're going to be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. And the woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I might not be thirsty or have to come out to this place to draw water. Like, there's a spiritual aspect to it, and there's a practical aspect to it. I don't want to go out. There's this reality that people know stories about this Woman, and she doesn't want to be around them. She's probably been mocked and ridiculed, and I think the story goes into why she would be mocked or ridiculed here in a minute. But this is peace. He's offering her peace, both spiritually and practically, and she wants some of this. And when you come to Jesus, you need to realize that Jesus isn't just like, you know what? Let's celebrate you, and let's just celebrate the things you do. Awesome. No. He addresses sin in your life. He addresses sin. The roadblocks that separate you from God. And so he addresses this. Go to verse 16. Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. And Jesus says to her, you're right in saying, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. Like, picture that conversation. Okay. I perceive you're a prophet, right? How awkward would that conversation be? Like, you're doing this stuff good, which a lot of people like. Look at all the good things I'm doing. But this sin has crept into your life. She has an awareness of who Jacob was. She knows her family history, and she knows more. Let's check this out. So he's like, yep, you're committing fornication. You're living with somebody who's not your husband. What you've said is true. The woman said to, let's. Let's talk about me for a while. Let's talk about you. Okay. Yeah, I perceive that. You're a prophet. You told me all these bad things. You. You're a prophet. You're a prophet. Yep. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. Right. Let's talk about something else. I have this sin issue. You don't touch it. You're a prophet. And I've got a question about worship, man worship, boy. I mean, the Samaritans, we've moved over here to this. The Jews come back, and they say Jerusalem and Mountain Zion is where we need to worship. Like, boy, prophet, who told me everything I ever did. I need you to answer this question, because we've been fighting for years over this worship problem, and now I have. You tell me the answer, and Jesus is like, listen, there's a time coming where that ain't gonna matter. People will worship in spirit and. Okay, so I skipped few verses here, but I want you to see what she knows. Okay, so she knows there's a worship war between the Samaritans and the Jews. She knows there's a prophet standing in front of me. I mean, she's got some truth, right? And then it's at verse 25, after Jesus expresses that the hills aren't a big deal. She says, the woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. He who is called the Christ, when he comes, he will tell us all things. And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. So she knows there's the Messiah coming. Look at the spiritual head knowledge that she has, and look at how she ignored the spiritual truth when it came to her marriages and to her current relationship. How could the hope of knowing that the Messiah was coming impacted her troubled marriage? How does it. Yes, it does. Yes. Because of the hope we have in Jesus Christ. It should fuel the way we argue within our marriage. It should fuel our reconciliation or asking for forgiveness. We can't just say all these things are awesome about God and then have this part in our life where we're like, no, I will not let God into this part of my life. That's not a good place to be. These people are deceived. They're looking intently in a mirror, and they're forgetting their faith. These fools. Now, I want to be careful here, okay? Because I'm not preaching to you that we will all be perfect in all areas of our life all the time. And that is not an excuse for you, but it's a challenge for us as believers. Where you're over here, maybe fighting this battle more intensely right now, what areas of your life might you be ignoring? What areas of your life are you hearing? The truth? God is sovereign, God is loving. God is kind and ignoring to apply that to your life. Are there other areas in your life that you need to take the battle to, or are there any areas in your life that you will not apply the truth of God's word to? I will not reconcile with my brother. I will not address the issues of grief in my life. I will not address sin issues in my life. Are there any areas in your life? There's deception living out there. And in this woman's case, Jesus cuts through the deception. Right. He doesn't just celebrate like, man, you know a lot about church history. Awesome. You know, the Messiah is coming. I'm him. Let's celebrate that. Because you can't fully celebrate God unless you address the sin issues that are a problem in your life. And rather than beat around the bush with you, I'm going to address these. We're going to address this, and it's going to be awkward. You got to grasp the awkwardness in that conversation. Yeah. You've had five husbands, and the person you're living with now, they're not. I feel like it got really personal in here. Is it hotter up on this mountain? I mean, this is really weird right now. Did I just meet you? I mean, how do you know me? And Jesus cuts through the fluff and addresses the issue. Sin doesn't belong in a person's life who is a Christian. It must be fought, right? And so let's go back to James here real quick, and let's see. I'm just going to read it all to us again. Okay. This is verse 22. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he looks like. So there's the one that looks in the mirror and walks away and forgets. But then there's the one who hears, and he takes it past hearing, right? The other one is the one who hears only. And it's like looking in a mirror. And here's the one who hears and he digs into the word. He digs into the word, right? He goes to the Scriptures. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, I'm back further than I want to be. All right. Verse 24 25. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. There's this implication for us as Christians, for us as creation, that you belong to God. There Is a manufacturer out there who is above every manufacturer in the world because he made from dirt. Because he made dirt and he made from air. And he actually made the air. He is God. He is creator. You do not exist to be an awesome spouse. You do not exist to be a parent. You do not exist to be educated. You do not exist to dominate at life. God is God, and you are not. You exist to follow God. And some of the pain that we walk through, some of the trials we even create because we've tried to hold God at bay and do whatever the heck we want to do. We sit through Sermon after Sermon and podcast after podcast, and we sign up for Bible study after Bible study after Bible study. And we don't let anybody lean into our own life. We don't let anybody lean into the hard situations that we love to ignore. It shouldn't be. You were created for God. You exist for the glory of God. You exist to in your life, in your trial, in your anger, in your angst, to say there's a God. In fact, even in your mourning, we don't mourn like those who have no hope because there's God. And saying those things flippantly, it doesn't make the pain go away. I'm not saying your battle is just over. There's a God. Problem solved. No, but it changes your focuses. It fuels your fight. But there's one who hears and walks away, looks at himself in the mirror, walks away. It's like he does. And then there's one who leans in. He loves the law of God. He meditates on his word day and night. He looks into it. You should be looking into what I'm saying right now. Study and do. He follows the Scriptures, the word, the law of God, in order to follow more of it, in order to glorify his God. He's looking at the manual, not boxing up the manual or crinkling it up and throwing it away or putting it up in the closet. He's doing it. He's doing it. It doesn't just say that here. Let's go to Romans, Romans 213, for it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. And Jesus says in John, chapter 13, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. There's a tension in the church world. Some would say that you're saved because you act, because you're doing these things. God is happy with you and he saves you. And those of us who are Protestants, we say, no, it's by grace, by unmerited favor. You have been saved through faith. It is a gift of God, not a result of works. So that no. 1 may boast, but there's this reality that if the Holy Spirit moves in you, he is going to permeate all aspects of your life. What areas don't you want him to be involved in? What areas of your life are you ignoring that you refuse to do what God calls you to do? And I want to stress to you there's liberty in the law because it's doing what you were meant to do. If I took my smart bike and I put it out on the sidewalk, it would be a very frustrating ride. Why? Because it ain't meant to do that. It is not what it is designed to do. And some of us are doing that which we are not designed to do. We're designed to lean into Yahweh when anxiety rises in our life. We're desired to grieve like those who we don't grieve, like those who have no hope because of what Yahweh has done. We're just like our neighbor, but we have a hope that's outside this world. And yet some of us are dragging the bike up and setting it on the sidewalk, and we're upset that it doesn't work. It's not what the manufacturer made it to do. That bike finds freedom and fulfillment in doing what it was created to do. And you are an image bearer of God. Created to image God on this earth, not live for your own selfish ways, not to live to numb your pain by yourself. You're created to lean into your creator. And in leaning in, you give him glory. And as you study his word and as you experience his freedom, it is the blessing. You're going to persevere like some of us. Sadly, me, I learned through trials continuously. I'm hit. And I'm like, whoa, God, and I'm hit. Again. And I'm like, whoa, God. And I learned that, but it draws me close to who he is. And he beckons You. He even says, come to me, you who are weary and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. And we're like, nope. I need control. I need YouTube. I need alcohol. I need busyness. That'll give me rest. That'll help me be where I want to be. That's not perseverance. Perseverance is leaning into God, knowing who he is, knowing what he calls us to do, realizing what he's done for us. And when you realize what God has done for you, it fuels obedience. God saved me. God saved a religious zealot like this guy. Judgmental, nasty, mean, crazy story in my life that exemplifies this is. I remember in middle school, such glorious years growing up, being a part of our youth group. Loved our youth group. Our youth group was huge. Our youth pastors had a huge impact in my life. And I remember being in amazing Bible studies and coming down the parking lot and talking about all the kids. You believe how dumb they are. What ignorance. To hear a message preached on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to walk down and criticize most everybody who came to that room. What a fail to not even embrace the love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and expend it even to the people who attended alongside me. Hypocritical. And that's what the world sees in so many of us. You claim Christ here, but I see you on Friday. You claim Christ here, and I hear how you treat your wife. I hear how you treat your husband, and they don't like it. They call us hypocrites, and they're dead. Right? What areas in our life are we not doing? And here's our message. The message I want you to grasp from today is this. To persevere. Be a hearer who acts. Be a hearer who acts. If someone runs in this room and yells, fire, we need to act. We need to go through these doors and get out to the gathering area. We need to act. We need not sit and be like, what really is fire? Is it as hot as they say it is? Will my face melt off my body? No. We need to go. Let's go. And when we come into the perfect law of God, and he urges us and pleads with us to follow, we need to say, yes, Lord, I'm in. I will follow. I'm going. So how do we do this? Practically? There are a billion different ways to do this. Practically. And I want to bring up a few things to you that I hear quite often, and I want to challenge you. And I know in doing this, I'm going to eliminate some of what you're going through. And I really want you to reflect and see where is your heart at? Where are you following God in a bunch of areas and ignoring him in another area? Are you excited about a bunch of Bible studies but fail to get in a connection group because you don't want someone to ask you if you're doing your Bible study? Like when you study the Book of Romans for the 12th time in your life, are you living the Book of Romans not just to the others in your Bible study, but to your neighbor, to your friends, to your coworkers? Romans is a really awesome book, but do you need another Bible study? Do you need more head knowledge about the Book of Romans to live out the Book of Romans? Think about that. The point of Connection group is to have people speak into my life. There are areas in Matthew's life that I want to ignore, and I need people to challenge me. I think one thing that has the church pretty fired up these days is Israel. And the thing I get concerned about our church when it comes to this is, are you so passionate about that? You'll notice I only mentioned good things. But are you so passionate about that that you are not sharing the Gospel with your adult children? I mean, you're watching all the YouTube clips, all the news channels. You know more about it than they do. But do your kids know the Gospel, even the ones that are living in your home as high schoolers? Do you know where they're at with Jesus Christ? As much as you know about Israel or eschatology or the study of end times. You're into the end times and you're studying revelation. You're tearing the book apart. Do you tell people more about the Antichrist, or do you tell them more about Jesus Christ? Are you studying good things and failing to apply the hope of the gospel? Friends, consider these things. What about your mental health? Does the Gospel, the truth of God's word, impact your wrestling with your mental health? Is there truth that the Scripture can interject into that battle that you might be facing? Friends, consider this. The Scriptures don't just call us to hear. It's a call for action powered by God himself through the Holy Spirit. Let's follow and obey. And one of the ways that we do this practically is with communion. Communion Christ called us to in the Gospels. He says, this is my body which is broken. For you. Do this in remembrance of me. And he shares the cup as well. There's this practical calling. The Bible studies that you are a part of aren't just for your head knowledge, they're for action. When you study Romans, when you study Galatians, when you study revelation, it should cause action, hope filled gospel action in your life, to your spouse first, to your children next, and then your neighbor. Don't miss those steps, but apply the word like we're going to do literally right now, in a very brief way, we're going to apply the word. Jesus calls us to practice. Jesus calls us to remember. And to those of us who have been saved, who have confessed our sins, even the ones that were revealed this morning, we're going to come and we're going to say, Jesus, you're king. Thank you for reconciling a hypocrite like me back to my creator, back to my manufacturer. Thank you for setting me in my place. Thank you for calling out these sins and not just partying over these sins. Thank you for calling me to holiness. And thank you for loving me when I'm not holy. Let's pray. Father, I do pray for us as a church, God, that we would be a church that doesn't just hear and study God, but we would put those truths into action, God, that your fame would spread through our cities because there's a group of people doing crazy things for Jesus Christ, may you be the center of our hope, God. May you be the message that we proclaim, God. And Would you give us a boldness to share it with our children, God, to share the gospel with our spouse, God, would you give us the boldness to call out a brother who's doing well in a few areas but failing in another area. And may we see the power of your reconciliation first in our relationship with you and secondly in our relationships in the body, because you've done a great work. In Jesus'name we pray these things. Amen.