Every Action Matters Series

26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.

27Religion 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.

Introduction:

James the ½ brother pf Jesus was called “Camel Knee’s’ because his knees became deformed for always praying on his knee’s!

James is my favorite book of the New Testament – It is filled with encouragement and the message to not just hear sermons! Christianity is more than just hearing what the Word of God says – but – we actually must do it! The first verse I ever memorized was James 1:22 “Be a doer of the word and not a hearer only deceiving yourself.” I heard the Lord shortly after my conversion experience ask me the question: “Mike are you going to just be a listener or are you going to go to the next level and be a doer?” I choose to do it for Jesus – So this is my challenge to you this morning -“Let’s Do it for Jesus!” Let’s put our faith into action! By the way I have never looked back on that decision – to “Just do it!”!

James is a powerful book if you internalize it and apply it to your relationship with the Lord. My wife even memorized the whole book when she was in Bible College – it’s message is very clear don’t just listen to the Word of God – Do it! Maybe that is why my wife is such a hard worker for the Kingdom! She is the hardest working person I know!

By the way yesterday was her birthday!

T.S.- So, let’s dive into James chapter 1 and discover some amazing choices and truths from this chapter of the book: Remember we are talking today about how every action matters!

1. We put faith into action when we persevere under hardship, grief, trauma, and trials.

a. James the brother of Jesus gives us practical insight into to how to handle the storms that will come rushing out of the night and into our lives. He gives good sound advice on what to do and what not to do during spiritual and physical hurricanes and severe storms.

i. The reality of life is this - Reality Check - times of trouble and difficulty will blow across our paths. It is a fact of life! Most of God’s saints have known times of trouble in their lives. Life on earth always must deal with a phenomenon called storms. They blow in –they blow out – they upset the sunshine of life and most of us have learned that we must deal with them. We need to just press through them because we know the sun is always shining on the other side.

ii. Real life Illustration: I recall a couple of summers back when we were driving across the country, and we kept running into severe storms. I off course never quit driving – I just pressed on through the down pours and the lightening then we would eventually break out of the storm bank and drive into the sunshine. It was always so refreshing and relieving to break out of the storm. I remember thinking to myself these storms are like life’s storms they blow in and blow out. If you stay on your path, you eventually drive out of the storm and into the light. The key is just press on through the storm.