Introduction

Welcome back to our 5-week series called James: Faith & Works. If you were here last week you’ll remember that each week we’ll be looking at two interrelated ideas from the book of James. Last week we tackled the ideas of testing and persevering.

From the very start James is encouraging us to rejoice in the midst of our trials and sufferings. In the first half of chapter 1 we learn that adversity calls us to go higher, to be greater, and to trust deeper as we journey through life towards the eternal promise we have in Christ. This is an incredibly important message for believers all over the world and especially those who are in areas where there is ongoing persecution.

This week we’ll be finishing up chapter one as James encourages his readers to be both hearers and doers of the word. His main point here is that it’s one thing to listen and receive the word, and it’s another thing to act upon it. James doesn’t have much patience for those who only listen and never act. He develops this theme and expands his thoughts throughout the rest of the book of James, but the section we’ll be looking at today is where it all begins.

And, it’s important to remember over the next few weeks that James was a good pastor who deeply cared for his church. At times he may sound condescending or harsh, but his letter is motivated by love and compassion for the health of his church. His seeming lack of patience for apathy may be motivated by the persecution his church was daily facing from the culture around them. The truth was that they simply didn’t have the time or luxury to engage in a lukewarm faith. In many cases it was truly a life or death choice for those in the early church.

Which begs the question for us today, would we be more inclined to act on the teachings of Jesus if our lives were on the line? Would external persecution motivate our faith?

I know we won’t fully answer these questions today, and maybe not even throughout our series. But we’ve got to start somewhere. Please open your bibles or bible apps with me to James 1:19.

His main point here is that it’s one thing to listen and receive the word, and it’s another thing to act upon it.

Main Teaching

If you have kids, or you’ve at some point in your life been a kid, then this next example is going to make a lot of sense.

Have you ever asked one of your kids to do something and you were pretty certain they heard you… In fact you even got a verbal confirmation or head nod… Only to find that many hours later the thing you asked for never got done. Or, have you ever been the kid in that scenario?

Either way, there’s something specifically annoying about being ignored. Or in this case, being heard, possibly even acknowledged, and then ignored. This is a bit of the idea behind listening and doing that we’re going to cover today.

Listening & Doing

You may have heard this parable before, but instead of getting into our James passage for the day I’m going to start in Matthew 21 with the parable of the two sons.

Read Matthew 21:28-32

In this passage, Jesus is making a powerful point about listening and doing. Jesus says that the “tax collectors and prostitutes” will be entering the kingdom ahead of the chief priests and the Pharisees because they listened and responded to the message of John the Baptist.

With that in mind, here’s an important question that comes directly from the two sons' parable; “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” I don’t know about you, but this parable invites me to think long and hard about which son I most resemble in the parable ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium