Just Do It Series

In 1988, the advertising agency of Wieden & Kennedy met with a client to discuss campaign ideas on how to grow their client’s market share in the sports apparel industry. Borrowing their inspiration from the last words of a prisoner on death row, the Just Do It campaign was launched and was wildly successful, helping Nike grow their market share from 18% to 43% in just 10 years. Just Do It.

Throughout this campaign, Nike enlisted people from varying ethnicities and races, as well as numerous athletes (such as Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan) in order to get people to NOT just listen to and watch sports, but to get off the couch and go out and achieve their own greatness.

While Nike thought they had come up with a novel campaign that grew their annual sales at the time by over $8 billion, Just Do It was actually a campaign that was first launched over 2000 years earlier in the Jerusalem Church led by none other than the little brother of Jesus. And so turn with me this morning to the book of James as we continue in our series called Faith and Works. And James’ message to HIS church then, and OUR church now, is Just Do It – stop being just a listener and go out and put your faith in action.

We learned in week one of this series that the first chapter of James (and really the entire book) contains a series of tests that we can use to determine the genuineness of our faith. Test #1 was how to respond rightly to trials. Test #2 was how to resist temptation. And Test #3, which we’ll explore today, is how to receive and respond rightly to Biblical truth. In other words, how do we put legs under the truths we hear from Scripture…quite literally, how do we put our faith into action?

James 1:19-27

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 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 a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 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. 26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

James starts out this section by saying, “Beloved brothers.” He’s literally talking to his brothers and sisters in Christ…his spiritual family…his church. And he’s giving them some commands as a test of their response to God’s Word. And as James challenges them AND US to get off the couch, the first thing he tells us TO DO is to…

1. RECEIVE THE WORD HUMBLY – vs 19-21

Look back at the second half of verse 19: "let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger…"Basically, James is telling us to “hurry up and listen.” And this is a good word, because can you guess what my natural inclination is? It’s to do exactly the opposite.

So he starts with the challenge to be “quick to hear.” I’m sure we’ve all been around that one person who just talks too much. They listen just long enough to quickly formulate a response so that the second you take a breath, they can jump in and start blabbing. If you know someone like this, don’t point any fingers. But a person who is quick to hear is a person who is eager to learn. They’ve learned that the best form of communication is listening.

James also says that this person is “slow to speak.” They are humble enough to know that THEIR thoughts and THEIR words aren’t the most important thing going on. This is all about becoming a good listener. In fact, leadership experts will tell you that one of the MOST important aspects of interpersonal communication is listening.

So James says to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and finally, be slow to anger. This doesn’t mean that all anger is sinful…there are times that we should be filled with a righteous indignation. But the quick-tempered, selfish anger of the world betrays lack of trust in God and lack of love for others. James is literally saying that a lack of listening, combined with a lack of restraint in speech, leads to ill-tempered action.