Getting The Word To Work

Getting the Word to Work

James 1:22-24

8/7/06

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 observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

Overview of the last three weeks from the book of James:

1. Being a Bond Servant ¡V Being sold to Christ and doing his work and will.

2. Asking in faith ¡V Getting rid of the unbelief that my be hindering you.

3. The Reward ¡V Five crowns that you can obtain so you can lay them at the feet of Jesus!

The question is how do we get the word of God to work for us. The answer is the problem lies with you and I! We need to get right first before the word will work in our lives!

We are truly living in the last hours before the rapture of the Church. There is a small window of oppurtunity to accept Christ as Lord over your life. Do not wait or put that decision off. When Christ returns for his bride, it will happen so quickly, the bible says it will happen in a twinkling of an eye. You will not have time to say a prayer of repentance and you will miss the rapture and will go through the tribulation period. Revelation 5-7 tells of the horrific events that will happen on this earth during the tribulation ¡V You do not want to be here. Please settle your sin debt today!

Any situation, hardship, problem, uncertainty that you may face in life, the answer can be found in the word of God.

First we need to define what a doer is: Actor: a person who acts and gets things done.

I like the last part of the definition where it says ¡§and gets things done ¡§That is what I want to be known for and I trust you do to ¡V Getting God¡¦s work done!

In II Chronicles 28 = David give a charge to his son Solomon "Consider now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong, and do it." God is giving his Church the same call today - To do it and get things done! Time is winding down. The things we want to do for God must not be put off - But must be done now!

Word here in this text is speaking of Jesus. So putting it together I must be an actor of Christ. To be an actor ¡V There must be a script. The body of the script is the commands of Jesus documented in his word for his children.

What are the commands of Jesus? Here is my top ten:

„« Obey my commandments

„« Love God and others

„« Go and preach to all the world

„« Don’t delay, do it now

„« Give to God what belongs to God

„« Don’t waste time on argumentative people

„« Invite the poor to eat with you

„« Don’t use vain repetitions when praying

„« Love, bless, and pray for your enemies

„« Forgive others

Do not let Satan deceive you and tell you everything is ok with you spiritually! You will be deceiving yourself! Look into the mirror of God¡¦s word this morning.

When we look in a mirror, we have 3 possible responses:

1. Smash the mirror - likewise men try to destroy the Bible.

1. Men like Pharaoh, Egyptian Empire, Roman Empire, Darwin, and Hitler all tried smashing the Word of God. However, the fact is that they are all dead and the Word of God is still alive!

2. Weather you like it or not the Word of God will be the only standard that will last forever!

3. Isaiah 40:8 - The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever."

2. Ignore the image - like knowing what the Bible says we should do, but not doing it.

1. James 4:17 - Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

2. Do not ever sin away your conscience! When you choose to do wrong that little voice becomes even more quite over time.

3. The old saying that ignorance is bliss is not true. Spiritual ignorance will bring death.

4. When we have our spiritual understanding, we will not fall for Satan¡¦s tricks - II Cor 2:11 - lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.

5. We need to pray that are eyes and mind are enlightened to God¡¦s word ¡V Eph 1:18 - the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.