INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• How many of you when you were children would dress up like a super hero or pretend you were some action hero?
• I never knew girls to do this but I know but many little boys at some point would come running out of the house in our underwear with some sort of cape flowing off our back with mom chasing us down the street trying to get us back in the house.
• How many of you put on the cape and jumped off the house?
• I have a friend who used to be in a youth group I worked with that wanted to be a Ninja even in his teen years. He is a preacher now, I guess that is close.
• Over the years there have been a lot of movies, television shows and comic books which featured some sort of super hero.
• Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, the Hulk are a few of the old school ones.
• There are a couple of newer movies, The Green Hornet and the Green Lantern.
• Then you have the whole “Action Hero” genre. Stallone, The Rock, Bruce Willis are but a few who star in those movies.
• There are many more. What is the appeal to these movies?
• These movies for the general public give us the opportunity to watch someone be what we would like to be. Many folks want to be heroes.
• They want to be the one who saves the earth from an asteroid that is about to destroy the world. We want to be that person who can stop evil in its tracks, who can make sure the bad guys pay for their crimes.
• Do you think folks would go see a movie where the hero both dies AND fails to accomplish the mission?
• I love the movie Armageddon. When Bruce Willis stays behind on the asteroid to set off the nuke, what a bummer if he failed and the earth was destroyed. I do not want to see that!
• A Hero is defined as follows- somebody who commits an act of remarkable bravery or who has shown an admirable quality such as great courage or strength of character. Somebody who is admired for outstanding qualities or achievements.
• WE all have the opportunity to become a faith action hero, one who is admired for living out the outstanding life that Jesus wants us to live.
• Living out the message we believe in may not keep an asteroid from hitting earth, but it can help keep someone else from spending an eternity separated from God when they see our example and want to follow it.
• SLIDE #2
• James 1:19–20 (NET)1:19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. 1:20 For human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
In order to become a Faith Action Hero we need to grasp:
I. The aura of a faith action hero.
• Every action hero or super hero has an aura about them.
• You know a characteristic or distinctive impression.
• What kind of aura do we need to present that will attract people to Jesus. What kind of demeanor should one who is guided by faith possess?
• When we are impacted by God’s word our demeanor will be different, but how?
• We will be known for three things found in verses 19-20
• SLIDE #4
• First we will be quick to listen!
• If we do not listen to God and His Word, we will end up pretending to follow His will because we have no idea what it is.
• The command to be quick to listen denotes an eagerness to hear and obey God’s message.
• Once we taste the wonderful blessing from God that flow down to us as a result of our obedience and His love for us, we should want to listen more and more!
• How many times have we been told something but did not hear it because we were so anxious to speak that we did not listen.
• It is interesting sometimes to listen to Christians discuss politics, economics or other matters. When you listen to these conversations, you can hear a lot of interesting human thoughts, but how often do we ask, “What would God’s Word have to say about this?” In order for us to be able to grow in Christ, we have to listen to God’s Word.
• Another characteristic we would be good to be known for is..
• SLIDE #5
• Slow to speak!
• Have you ever been around the person, who had all the answers, they would never let anyone else get a word in edgewise.
• SLIDE #6
• Proverbs 17:27–28 (NET) 17:27 The truly wise person restrains his words,
and the one who stays calm is discerning. 17:28 Even a fool who remains silent is considered wise, and the one who holds his tongue is deemed discerning.
• It is hard to listen when we are speaking.
• Remember the book of Job. Job was going through some terrible things in his life and his friends sat with him for seven days and seven nights.
• They seemed to be slow to speak, but when they finally opened their mouths, they would have been better off remaining silent.
• Our words can come back to haunt us, so we must be slow to speak. A person who is slow to speak would be a person who wants to make sure that they know what God says about something before they just say things.
• It is making sure that what we are going to say is true before we say it.
• A third characteristic that we need to master to be a faith super hero is…
• SLIDE #7
• Slow to anger.
• When we look at the world around us we have to be careful not to lash out in anger. Our anger will blind us to what God is trying to teach us.
• Lashing out in anger may make us feel better for a moment, but it will solve anything. Verse 20 says that our anger will not make things the way that God wants them.
• Righteousness in this verse deals with works that are approved by God. Our anger will not make mans conduct right before God.
• SLIDE #8
• Proverbs 14:29 (NET)14:29 The one who is slow to anger has great understanding, but the one who has a quick temper exalts folly.
• In his autobiography, Number 1, Billy Martin told about hunting in Texas with Mickey Mantle. Mickey had a friend who would let them hunt on his ranch. When they reached the ranch, Mickey told Billy to wait in the car while he checked in with his friend. Mantle’s friend quickly gave them permission to hunt, but he asked Mickey a favor. He had a pet mule in the barn who was going blind, and he didn’t have the heart to put him out of his misery. He asked Mickey to shoot the mule for him.
• When Mickey came back to the car, he pretended to be angry. He scowled and slammed the door. Billy asked him what was wrong, and Mickey said his friend wouldn’t let them hunt. "I’m so mad at that guy," Mantle said, "I’m going out to his barn and shoot one of his mules!" Mantle drove like a maniac to the barn. Martin protested, "We can’t do that!" But Mickey was adamant. "Just watch me," he shouted.
• When they got to the barn, Mantle jumped out of the car with his rifle, ran inside, and shot the mule. As he was leaving, though, he heard two shots, and he ran back to the car. He saw that Martin had taken out his rifle, too. "What are you doing, Martin?" he yelled. Martin yelled back, face red with anger, "We’ll show that (guy) son of a gun! I just killed two of his cows!"
• SLIDE #9
• James 1:21–25 (NET) 1:21 So put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls. 1:22 But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves. 1:23 For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror. 1:24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was. 1:25 But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out – he will be blessed in what he does.
• SLIDE #10
In order to become a Faith Action Hero we need to grasp:
II. The ambition of a faith action hero.
• Another part of becoming a faith action hero is having the right ambitions. Imagine if Superman or Batman decided to use their powers for evil or selfish purposes? What about Ironman. What is Stallone decided to sell his services to the highest bidder?
• Our ambition should be to put aside all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the message implanted in you!
• If this is our ambition then we will follow the passage which literally means to get rid of filth and evil excess like we would remove a dirty garment.
• It will be our ambition to rid ourselves of any moral indecency and malicious attitudes.
• SLIDE #11
• 2 Corinthians 7:1 (NET) 7:1 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that could defile the body and the spirit, and thus accomplish holiness out of reverence for God.
• We are to clean out the things that God does not want in our lives so that we can receive His word.
• The Word can save us be transforming us into the image of Jesus.
• We are to humbly receive the word verses being quick to speak and quick to anger. We are to let God’s word penetrate our soul.
• We should have the ambition to look intently toward God’s word and live out the message.
• In verses 22-25 we have the Word of God being compared to a mirror. We usually look in a mirror so that we can correct things. We look in the mirror to make sure that we look all right.
• One who just hears the Word is one who looks at the word and then turns and walks away with no intent on fixing what needs to be fixed. They will continue in the same direction they have been heading. Verse 24 says this.
• A faith action hero looks at the Word of God, they see what they need to fix and they go to work on it. They do not get angry, they do not make excuses, they humbly receive what God’s word is telling them and they go to work with the help of the Holy Spirit.
• In Verse 25 we are encouraged to live out the Word, not just take a glance at it, but rather fix our attention, which means with contemplation and reflection, we are to look hard at the Word.
• Notice that James calls God’s Word perfect. This means that it is complete; it cannot be made better.
• SLIDE #12
• James 1:26–27 (NET)1:26 If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile. 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
• SLIDE #13
In order to become a Faith Action Hero we need to grasp:
III. The actions of a faith action hero.
• One of the actions of a faith action hero is the ability to control the tongue.
• In the ancient world, controlling the tongue represented exhibiting self-control. I
• For today, we need to understand that if our faith is genuine we need to exhibit self-control in what we say and how we act.
• One who has a real relationship with Jesus will be working on controlling the tongue.
• We are told that if we cannot do this then our walk is worthless. We need to give our speech over to Jesus.
• James is saying that true religion, is more than an outward show, true religion will manifest itself in what we do for others and what we do with ourselves.
• In the ancient world, unwanted children were many times left for dead. Most women were supported by their husbands, so when they died, they were left without support.
• Most of the hospitals that were started, most of the orphanages, most of the Crisis pregnancy centers were started by the church to help.
• James tells us faith action hero will keep themselves unstained by the world.
• Our action and super heroes are right in the midst of evil but they never sell out to it.
• As we live our lives, we do not sell out our Jesus for anything!
• We are to stay as far away from sin as possible. Many times Christians will walk as close to sin as they can. Our attitude can be more of “How far can I go”, than “How far can I get from that.”
• If you spend all day polishing your new car next to a mud puddle, do not get upset or be surprised when it gets splashed.
CONCLUSION
• As we look at this passage, the message to us is this. Hearing the Word of God or just coming to church on Sunday no more makes you a Christian than sitting in your garage makes you a car.
• If we want to be someone that others look up to and that others want to emulate, we need to allow God’s Word to be the center of our life and we need to let it change our life.
• DO you want to be someone’s hero, the one who help being them to Jesus?
