We have heard the word of God…. Now what?
8/28/2004
Introduction… Well, didn’t we have a fantastic series of revival services this past week…
These last few weeks have been somewhat difficult for our family on a personal level… as with many of you. We all go through our own trials and difficulties in life.
But on a spiritual level, I have been completely overwhelmed by the love of God…
Between the week long cottage prayer meetings a few weeks ago, then going with a group to the prison one evening the following week and speaking to and preaching to men who were truly hungry for a touch from God…
Then six days of messages from God brought to us through ---------… it has just been overwhelming….
Haven’t we heard from God this week?
Haven’t we had our lives touched by the spirit of God this week?
We have… we have heard from GOD we have been touched by God…we have heard God’s word proclaimed…..
NOW WHAT?
It has been such a meaningful time…. But where do we go from here?
Take your Bibles if you would and turn to the book of James and chapter one with me if you would.
Read James 1:19-27
Illustration… I heard a story about a man who walked into a church service one day near the very end of the service…
When he walked in he saw an usher who was greeted the man and offered to help him.
The man looked at the usher and asked…“is the sermon already done?”
To which the wise usher replied…
“Sir, the sermon has been preached… but it has yet to be done…..”
Friends, in our country today and with the advancement of computers and the Internet, there is so much information out there.
I have somewhere around two hundred electronic books loaded on one biblical program on my computer… and if I want to spend the money, there are over 3500 books available for that program…
But with the advancement in technology, the company that makes this program has reported that soon, they hope to have tens of thousands of electronic books available for that one program…..
Today friends, there are so many books, there are so many lectures, there are so many sermons, there are so many conferences there is so much studying we can do about the word of God and celebrating the Word of God… that it seems like we don’t spend any time applying Gods word to our lives…..
The debates are raging….
The devil himself is laughing as we fight and argue over King James, vs NIV, vs New American Standard, vs New King James, vs Holeman Christian Standard….
I personally study out of at least 23 different translations of the Bible including original Hebrew and Greek Bibles…
You see, I have to answer to God for the messages I present…
And to the best of my knowledge and ability, I will always do what I can to present to you an accurate representation of Gods word…
But we say there is a reason for the argument and debate…
We say that, as evangelical Christians it is our duty to DEMAND BIBLICAL teachings…. And then listen to that teaching….
and this is true...
But, as we sit here together this morning, the statistics tell us that divorce rates are just as high among Born-again Christians as they are among the rest of the population.
Other studies show that our moral standards are not much higher, if at all higher, than the rest of the world.
I am afraid friends, that Christians in America have become hearers of the word…. and not doers.
I want you to know, that I really like tinkering with computers….
I can swap basic components in computers, I like to mess around and see what different programs do…
I don’t want to just use them, I want to know HOW THEY WORK.. you know what I mean?
I read a lot of stuff about computers…
Now, If I were to purchase the brand new, latest and best available model computer that is out there for home use… It would cost about 4 to 5 thousand dollars… to get the newest and best…
If I were to do that, it would come with books and pamphlets on how to use that computer…
And friends, I could spend hours and hours studying and engrossing myself in those books and pamphlets that tell me what that new computer does and how the programs work…
But listen, if I were to spend hours and hours studying about that new computer and studying how to use that new computer but I never pushed a button and turned on that new 5 thousand dollar computer, you would think that I didn’t have much since wouldn’t you….
Well friends, how much more ridiculous is it that we have GOD’s very own spoken and revealed word, we have the creator of the universe spelling out to us how to live a happy and fruitful life, we have our savior that tells us how we can spend eternity in paradise…
We spend hours and hours reading, we spend hours and hours studying, we spend hours listening to messages about Gods word… but how ridiculous is it that we do not heed his messages and go out and apply them to our lives today!
We are in danger of becoming faith spectators rather than faith filled people.
How many of us are DOERS of the word today?
How many of us have taken the responsibility for our own sin before God… How many of us have said “Yes Lord, I am a sinner, and I ask your forgiveness”
Have we allowed doing to follow the hearing in all areas of our lives today…
We hear the word: "the tithe is holy"...We receive the word, we believe the Word…but do we obey the word?
We hear the word: "and ye shall be my witnesses..." We receive that word too...we believe the word…but do we follow it?
We hear the Word of God that says, "Study to show thyself aproved"... we hear the word, we recieve the Word, we even accept the Word... but do we obey....
Again we hear the word "be ye holy, for I am holy"...the word is true, the word is accurate, we receive the word of God….but do we obey it?
Christ himself says that if we love Him we will obey Him….
And then we can come back to the passage of scripture we have started with this morning…
James 1:19-27 (NIV)
19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. 26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27 Religion 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.
Focus on verse 27 there for a minute… If we look at that verse we see that we as Christians are to look after orphans and widows in their distress…
Well, we would surely want to do that would we not… it we knew of any orphan or if we knew of a widow in need, we would want to take care of them would we not… we would want to help meet their needs right… we would want to be doers of the Word of God in this aspect…
But a real study of this verse shows us that this is relating to the whole of humanity… we are to look after the needs of all mankind to the best of our ability and to use the resources God has given us to meet those needs…
What does that mean?
Well, our Lord and Savior Himself said in Matthew 25:31-40
Matthew 25:31-40 (NIV)
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
To feed the hungry….
To give drink to the thirsty…
To give clothes to those in need
To invite a stranger in….
To care for the sick,
To visit those in prison…
Are we doers of the WORD?????
Do we truly care for the whole of humanity…. Or are we only looking out for number one…
There are so many things we know that the Word of God says,
Pray for those in need,
Confess our faults one to another…. On no…..
Come in humility before the word…
Exhort and lift up others…
Consider others more highly than we consider ourselves…
ARE WE DOERS OF THE WORD…. Or just hearers….
Ok… lets just say there may be someone in here this morning who cares for the sick..
Who feeds the hungry, who visits the prisoners, who clothes the naked who gives water in the Name of Jesus Christ…
Lets say there is someone in here this morning who falls on their knees before the throne of God daily and confesses the awful sinfulness of their life….
If it would just so happen that there were someone in here today that could say yes, I have done all of those things… let us finish the last few words of this last verse….
“and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world….”
That word polluted means to remain unspotted, to be continually unblemished by the things of the world around us today…
Remember, we are to be in the world but no of the world… we are to bring light to humanity, not let humanity bring compromise to our lives….
Can we stand before God this day, and say that we have not in any way been polluted by the world…
I can not……
Conclusion:
The Bible is probably the most bought, and least read book in the world.
And the reality is that most of us do not obey half of what we do know from the scriptures.
Karl Wallinger sang this great line in the ’80s…. it was a take off on Jesus prayer from the cross: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do,"
except he sang
“Father forgive them for they do not what they know.”
Friends, We need to do what we know.
You know, one of the things we would say about our Church if we were trying to tell a friend about us is that we are a Bible believing Church….
But I would much rather we be known, as a Bible DOING church….
We have heard the word of God brought to us in a tremendous way this week….
Friends, the sermons have been preached…. But they have yet to be done…
WILL THEY BE DONE IN OUR LIVES……..
