AM Sermon Outline: 11/13/2022
But be ye Doers of the word, and not Hearers only (James 1:22)
Bro Avery Hines
Am I …
A Christian
A Good Christian
A true Christian
I have asked myself that question because, and I believe I have said this before, when I self-examine, I usually fall short. In other words, there is always something I could have done differently, and surely, I could have done it better.
So, I have been attempting to self-examine why I do the things I do. If we remember, Paul, he gave us a good example of why.
Remember Paul is drawing out how “the law” redefined sin. As I think about that I find that my spiritual walk can almost be defined the same way; for my Christian life is supposed to be a spiritual life even though I am carnal; much like Paul said, “sold under sin.” I must understand that since I am carnal… well, Paul says it better…
Rom 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
Rom 7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Now, I'm not sure about any of you, but I need to understand everything I just read and know for sure that it is a truth in my life. It seems that no matter how much I want to do right maybe I take the wrong path to righteousness?
Wouldn't it be great if the Christian life had a check list?
You know what, maybe it does and I’m just not smart enough to run all the right scriptures together to be able to follow it?
Maybe there is a recipe of sorts to provide instructions that we could follow to ensure we were being "good Christians"?
In my spare time, when I had spare time, I have attempted to make bread. That did not turn out very well; why?
- The first time was the first time was the first time I ever used yeast.
- I followed the directions I had, but did not know the instructions for the yeast, or that yeast had its own instructions; and it does.
- So, even though I followed the instructions my dough did not rise.
I blamed the instructor because it was her recipe; I blamed her without considering she knew how to use yeast.
So, even with instructions there are often things you need to know; other ingredients you need to add to the main ingredient to get the result the instructions are looking for. Oh, had I wished Christianity was like a recipe, and that someone had it, and they could give it to me; with all the side notes and add-ins.
Putting the bread saga aside, for now, I wondered what does it take to be a good Christian?
- Is it reading your bible daily?
- Is it praying some once or so many times a day?
- Is it serving at the building? (in the past I’ve been in studies about using gifts and not using gifts; which gifts do you use and who decides that; you or someone else? Or, what happens if you are multitalented, and you do not get the use the talent you want?) Is the missing ingredient the definition of serving?
- Is it tithing?
- Maybe supporting a missionary work or evangelizing?
Is this the recipe that makes a good Christian?
I want to recall the scripture verse; James 1:19; which I believe is a key ingredient to being a good Christian. But I do not want to start at the end so I will start at the beginning; maybe to add some other ingredients we might miss otherwise. Please turn with me to James chapter 1 and I’ll begin reading at verse 2…
Jas 1:2 My brethren,
(Brothers and Sisters)
count it all joy when ye fall into divers’ temptations.
(Count it all joy when you befall numerous trials, many test, or a proofing)
In the next verse James says something I believe we often miss…
Jas 1:3 Knowing this,
(See, if you don’t know this then you might miss all together what James is trying to tell you)
that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
(Remember patience is an ingredient of the “fruit of the spirit” and surely having the “fruit of the spirit” helps us to be a good (true) Christian?)
Then James does it again. After he tells you why we count it all joy, being tested, he tells us what we get from being tested, patience, then he adds to the instructions of the recipe by adding a key ingredient…
Jas 1:4 But
(So, James wants us to slow down; he wants us to know what to do with the yeast before we even start adding the other ingredients)
He tells us to…
let patience have her perfect work,
(In other words, let the yeast activate; give it some time to do its thing first)
that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
See, see, if you allow the yeast to activate once you add the ingredients to the recipe your bread might rise instead of sitting there for hours looking like separated goo in a pie pan.
Jas 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom,
See, right here, I believe James was referring particularly to the kind of wisdom which Christians would need in their trials, to enable them to bear them in a proper manner. Look, there is nothing else I can think of that I need as a Christians more than heavenly wisdom, especially regarding the way I should bear trials.
The things I need to say and do…
with the perplexities, and disappointments.
with the bereavement that comes upon me.
I need that kind of wisdom which we all need in trials is to enable us to understand their design and tendency.
Why, to perform our duty under them or the new duties which may grow out of them.
I believe this shows that patience to let perfection have her perfect work; as we get wisdom, we understand that perfection is not ours in this lifetime, thus James guides to process of being tested.
How do we get that wisdom?
Let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraided not.
It is without finding fault in the NIV
It is He will not rebuke you in the New Living Translation
It is without reproached in the English Standard Version, and the Amplified Bible states it without rebuke or blame…
and it shall be given him.
If you follow James 1:6-8 James, give us the condition of how to ask God for this wisdom…
Jas 1:6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
Jas 1:7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
Jas 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: but the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also, shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
What does James say after that?
Jas 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
What does James say after that?
Jas 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
See, we are tempted by our own lust, our own desires; these are the things that draw us away from God. We are tempted by an allure that becomes the lure (fishing; the tackle), that thing which attracts like a carrot dangled before our eyes and we appeal to it rather than the word of God.
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.
James reiterates; “know this” …
Jas 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
(You know how your shadow twist and turns as you move away from or closer to the light that brings it out. One minute your shadow is 7’3” and then you turn a corner and suddenly it is 3’7”; James is saying the gifts he is referring to comes from a God that never changes)
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures; meaning of all God’s visible creatures, believers are the noblest part, and like the legal “first-fruits,” sanctify the rest; for this reason, often, we are tried even the more now.
How are we tried? I was listening to a song a while back; it dealt with portions, and the chorus went something like this…
Years of pain
It is not your portion
Failure
It is not your portion
Sickness
It is not your portion
Poverty
It is not your portion
Listen, I’m not 100% sure of what the singer was trying to say but it seems James was using part, or, all the 1st 18 verses of this chapter to tell us if these things are what you are going through even if you didn’t imagine you would have to; this is how to count it all joy.
How, by asking God for wisdom, where is that wisdom, it is in the very bibles you carried in here with you this morning. For when you read the bible you can say I have the “good news!”
As a matter of fact, that song I was listening to said the same thing in the 2nd chorus…
It went something like this…
Your portion is the good news, and with the good news comes good health.
Your portion is abundance, and with abundance there is increase.
Your portion is the promise and through the promise you have hope and no matter what you’re going through if you got God, you got the right portion!
Now, the chorus didn’t go exactly like that, but that’s how I took it, because it is true. You know, the greatest thing we all have is our testimony. However, the saddest thing we all do is get our testimony wrong. My testimony in Christ is the good news; its eternal life with He and the Father. It is sanctification and justification and heaven and the tree of life and no more tears…
What does the song say “no tears in heaven bear, no tears no tears up there; sorrow and pain will all have gone; why, because no tears in heaven will be known.
Why, because glory is waiting, waiting up yonder, that endless day; there with our Savior forever, where no more sorrow can dismay.
That is my testimony. That’s what I want to tell people when they ask me why I have joy in my trails, or I’m given a bad portion when I thought I deserved a better piece of the pie. I have the good news.
James gives us that Godly advice…
Jas 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
These three things…
- Swift to hear - Jas 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
- Slow to speak - Jas 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. Jas 3:7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: Jas 3:8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Jas 3:9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
- Slow to anger - Jas 1:20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
See, when you come to Christ you become a Christian and a Christian is someone who has been made new in Christ and restored to relationship with God. The Christian life is about getting to know God, enjoying Him, and bringing Him glory. It is true that when we know God certain actions will naturally result.
Jesus said “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete in John 15:11. Obedience is what we think about when thinking about living the "good Christian" life, which flows from a loving relationship with God. And obedience helps us remain in God's love and therefore experience His joy.
So, how do we come about?
How do we make our joy complete?
How do we have that loving relationship with God?
What do we need to abide by?
James says what?
Jas 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he, being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Then James finished up…
Jas 1:26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
Jas 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Being a "good Christian" is not about performing certain actions. It is about growing in love for Christ and allowing His Holy Spirit to transform our hearts and lives. Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith, the recipe-writer and taste-tester for our lives.
So, much like James was saying; I can hear how to make that fresh bread from scratch that I was talking about a little earlier, but if I don’t do what I have heard then the bread isn’t going to turn out the way I thought it was supposed to. So, what do we do; we keep at it, we make sure to do what the recipe says until the bread looks like the bread in the picture. Then we make sure it taste like we imagine that bread in the picture taste like and we do that until we know that recipe through and through, and that’s how we glorify God as well, and as we seek to know God and glorify Him, we also get to enjoy Him because the good Christian, the doer as well as the hearer, knows God, enjoys God, and grows in grace.
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