Believe & Know - James 1:1-16-27 // Nick Serban IV

Message Transcript

"Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith develops perseverance."And he, and he, he starts off saying thisSorry, my, my notes are all jacked up in here.There's a difference between a trial that God will allow for your faith to be purified and strengthened, and then he goes into temptations, which God, whichReally, God is never the author of temptation, right?We get that and we see that in this, this, in this verse.God cannot be tempted, therefore He is not tempting anyone.Um, the Bible cannot tempt you.God cannot tempt you.And we're not tempted by God.The devil does this to destroy you.And then it's interesting, James starts to shift this conversation from trials and temptations, and he begins to, to start talking about the Word of God.And so we're gonna jump down to James 1, starting in verse 16, and I'm gonna try to do this expositorially.I'll kind of go verse by verse, um, and, and, and get at it, because this is just all so good.Somebody say, "So good."good.It says this in verse 16.It says, "Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers."So just, just right out, right out the gate, he's saying, "Hey.This is something that most people, if not all people, when, when hearing it for the first time, they may be deceived."Right?Uh, so he's, he's giving this caveat right at the, right out the gate.Like, "Hey, don't be deceived.This is prob- you're probably not gonna see this the way that you're supposed to right when you get into it."He says this.He says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."So every good and perfect gift is from above.Amen?So if it's good, God did it.If it's bad, God didn't do it.Right.And a lot of people don't see it this way.A, a lot of people will say, like, "No.God'll bring these bad things into your life, you know, to, to mess with you."Or, or maybe, "The trial that you're facing, it's this really awful, this really bad thing."And it's, it's not the case in this regard.Every good and perfect gift is from above.Listen.God, God, He can't be bad.He's just, but He's not bad.The devil is a liar, and God is always truth.You may not like the truth.You may think the truth is, is not great, but it's the truth.So again, looking at this.Coming down from the Father."Every good gift comes from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change.Light shifting shadows, so shadows change, but God, He's light."And I want you to do this.If, if you'reI don't know about you, but I love to add sticky notes and highlights and underlines in my Bible.If you have a Bible, or maybe on your Bible app, I want you to, to go with me and underline this as we get into this.There's 5 times that James mentions something really, really important, and I want us to, to highlight this today.In verse 18, it says this."Of His own will, He brought us forth by the word of truth."Underline word of truth."That we should be kind of a first fruits of His creatures.Know this, my beloved brothers.Let every person be quick to hear"Which is, is very difficult, "slow to speak, and slow to anger.For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness"Underline this." the implanted word, which is able to save your souls."2 times, he's mentioned the word, and he says it again here."But be doers of the word."Underline that."And not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.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.For he, he looks at himself and he goes away and at once forgets what he was like.But the one who looks into the perfect law"Underline that.That's the word." the law of liberty and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."Verse 26."If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless."And we're not gonna talk about the tongue today.We're gonna save that for a couple weeks from now, okay?"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."5 times in this, in this scripture, James mentions the word.He mentions the Bible.He mentions the, the, the perfect law and the, and the Word of God.And, and he, and he goes into not just talking about the word, but our attitude when we approach the Word of God.It, it, it's one thing to say, like, "Yes, this word is true!"But it's another thing to look at how we approach it and apply it to our lives.Because again, this is, this is just a book without the Holy Spirit leading us in application.Amen?Amen.The Bible is vital to our lives, and it's really what God says in print form, in Scripture.It has the power to anchor you when your life is in chaos, but only if you have the right attitude towards it.When you're reading it, believing it, the Bible talks about how it anchors you, how it secures you, how it's your foundation.Like, there's tons and tons of verses in the Bible that say, "This thing is awesome.You should read it.You should apply it.You should live it."And there's a massive attack right now on the Word of God throughout this world.Amen.And it's not just in the world, but it's even in the church.We, we see it so often.Again, and, and when we come at it with this attitude, it taints our approach to how we s- read Scripture and apply it to our lives, 'cause many people don't know the Word of God.They're not reading it or believing it.Or maybe they're, they're only reading it when they see somebody post about it on TikTok or Instagram.The world has called into question the validity of this text and the validity of this word.And, and, and it's really scary because many people, many, many times will try to extrapolate new meanings for scripture that's existed for thousands of years.Uh, uh, as if God didn't have 2026 in mind when He wrote this.We can't interpret scripture only through culture or only through our feelings or only through our, our, our worldview.Questioning the word of God is, is not a bad thing, but it leads into a place where we're, when we're constantly questioning and interpreting and not actually doing what it says, right?Like, we'll try to interpret our way out of actually following scripture.Here's what's interesting too.We're talking about questioning the word of God.The very first words out of Satan's mouth in Genesis 3 when he's talking to Eve in the garden is this.He says, "Did God really say?"Is that really what he said?Let me read it again, maybe with a different set of glasses on.Let me, let me read it again and, and let me get someone else's interpretation or let me, let me read it again.LetUh, I don't like what this is saying right now and how I need to apply it to my life, so maybe I should soften it a little bit.Maybe I should make it sound a little bit different or maybe I should get a different translation that, that makes me feel a little bit better.You can find the translation.I'm not gonna knock any translations today, so don't, don't get onto me about that.But the, the enemy is always questioning the words that God has spoken He's always questioning His word and when God, when God speaks to you in your life, the enemy comes in and, and gets you to doubt.There's been many times in my life where I've, I've read scripture or I've, I've even heard audibly from the Lord and I walk away from it and immediately, the enemy's like, "That's not really what it said.You're crazy.You're, you're, you're convoluting this into something that it's not.And I, but I would say to you, if Satan's first message recorded in scripture is to question the word of God, it sets the tone for everything moving forward of who he is.He's always trying to remove the power of the word of God.Again, we can, we can say this again.We can, we can think, man, did God really have this year in mind?Did God really have this culture in mind?How are these writings and poems and songs and stories actually helpful to my life?Like, is this actually accurate?Like, we've been handing down translation after translation.Like, we can, we can play this game, like IUh, if I can't read it in Greek or I can't read it in Hebrew, then I guess I don't really know what it says.What's really interesting is how the hand of God has been on the passing down of these scriptures for thousands of years.When we were in Israel, this was so cool, I don't, I don'tI can't remember if you were, you were with me, Dad, when we, when we heard this, but it was one of the, one of the rabbis was saying that whenever they find a single letter that is out of place or miswritten within the Torah, because they've got, you know, all the different Hebrew characters and things like that.If, if there's a smudge on a page, if, if a letter is out of place, they throw the whole thing away.Because the word of God will not be corrupted.And, and, and so when I, when I come to the word of God, Iexactly what God intended for it to be.Yes.And I, and I can get deep into the Greek, and the Hebrew, and all those different things, and God begins to reveal more to me, but the truth is still the truth.The word of God is still the word of God for us today.And this is important, again, for us to grapple with.Knowing that the word is the most important discipline that we need as believers.Yes.Especially in the trials that we face.But again, for generations, people think they know more than God.And we pick and choose the scriptures that we like.If this verse makes me feel a certain way, then, then I can ignore it.Or I can accept it.Or maybe I, I can find an article or, again, another interpretation that makes me feel better.And, and let me just say this.I'm, I'm not sorry to say this.But God's character and who he is, is not based on our feelings.Yes.Our feelings, our flesh, our hearts are corrupt.We cannotIt, it cannot be trusted.Because, again, we talked about it last week, when, when we're faced with a trial, the temptation comes to comfort us and make us go down a different pathway.And if, and if we have our way, we're gonna pick the temptation because it's more comfortable.The world wants us to scrutinize and to interpret scripture in a, in a way that alleviates us from having to grow and change.How can, how can I make this scripture say something that makes me happy?God doesn't care about your happiness.He cares about your holiness.Like, happiness fades, but holiness produces joy.Yes.The difference between joy and happiness, is, you know, happiness is just a feeling, but, but joy is something that even in the midst of chaos, I can go, "God, you're so good."Yeah."I trust you."Amen."I may, I may feel like I'm going to hell in a handbasket right now, but God, you are with me along the way."Yeah.And I can smile.And I can walk with him.I can carry that joy through trials even when I'm not happy.And James is saying, once you understand, again, the difference between a trial and temptation, you need to start having the right attitude towards the word of God.Because this right here is what gives us joyYeah.in the midst of the trials, because there's truth in this that even though I'm facing all of these difficult things in my mind, in my job, in, in my relationships, I can still stand firm on the word of God.And, and receive the truth and I can hold onto it.We read it in Psalm 119 before, like, "I, I, I feel like I'm under attack from all sides, but your word is true.""And that's all that matters to me."When we can hold onto this, it feeds our spirit and it tells our flesh to shut up.The word of God is a powerful force that brings us hope in these trials.Again, I, I'm gonna kind of re-read this, just in a different translation.But IWe talked about Psalm 119.It has 176 verses and all of them are about God's word.It's, it's, it's the biggest, longest chapter in the Bible.It's kind of funny that the, the longest chapter in the Bible is about the Bible.Yeah.In Psalm 119 it says in verse 80, "My soul is weak from waiting for you to save my life, but my hope is based on your word."This is how we receive hope.That when all of the other voices are saying one thing, this is saying the right thing.Right."My hope is anchored in your word."Like, again, I can't always change how I feel in my soul, but I can change my attitude towards what I'm going through.Right.We can, we can face a trial with a different attitude.We can complain the whole way or we can say, "God, I'm in this, so I'm gonna trust you."Like, I can feel the kiss of death, but the word of God gives me life.It changes my whole outlook.It changes my whole attitude and how I follow Jesus.I love this in Matthew 7:24, "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does notDoes them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on the house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock."Somebody say, "Amen."Amen."And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against the house, and it fell.And great was the fall of it."We need to let our foundation be on the rock, the rock of his word.Like, a- a- as a pastor, as your friend today, like, I want you to love this book.I want us to love the word of God because this truly is what changes.I want you to love reading it.I want you to love believing it.I want you to have the right attitude in approaching it.Where we're not just constantly scrutinizing it and trying to get out of what he's trying to tell us to do.I want you to see this as life-giving, because it's not just a book, it's God.It is God.The Bible is God.In, in John 1, it says, "In the beginning was the word."And the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and He was in the beginning with God.Again, he's talking about Jesus being the Word, but this is the Word.All things were made through him and without him, was not anything made that was made.In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.Yeah.Our attitude has to change towards the Word of God.And I want to talk about 3 attitudes here today.If you're taking notes, I hope you do.Again, I- I- I say this often, but if you don't take notes, you're only going to get about 8 or 9% out of what I'm saying when you walk away.But if you take notes, you're going to get up in the 40s, somebody.And if you start clapping back at me and, and saying, "Hallelujah, amen," like you'll get 90%, okay?Somebody.Get Pentecostal today.Let's go.Write this down.Be grateful for the truth that saves you.We know that Jesus saves you, but the truth of that is found in His word.Like, like none of us were there with Jesus when He says, "I'm the way, the truth, and the light.And no one comes to the Father except through me."But we have those words today in scripture.In James 1, again, going back to the beginning in, in, in 6, verse 16, it says, "Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above."Like God isn't asking you to restrict your life and be religious and bored.He has good things for you.He has perfect gifts for you.Yes.Like, like, like, th- there's this attitude that I, that I've witnessed before and I, I've even walked in it in seasons of my life where I go, "I know I'm going to end up in heaven, but the journey is going to be hell to get there."And we come into it with this attitude of suffering constantly or, "This is just my lot in life.I'm just, I'm just made to suffer."No, there's good and perfect gifts for you.I'm not saying that everything's going to be sunshine and rainbows the whole way, but I can have joy in the middle of the storm.right.Everything about God is good.Serving God is not a duty, it's the delight.It's a delight.Like, fear is boring.God is love.So let the perfect love cast out all fear.Right.Right?Can I say that again?Because that was really fun to say.Fear is boring.God is love.So let His perfect love cast out all fear.His perfect love is a blast.It's an adventure that we get to go on, where we continue to become more and more like Jesus.I love this verse.This is really fun.James 1:18, "Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures."What is a first fruit?This is, this is going to go deep here today, so I hope, I hope you, you got your seatbelt on.This is awesome.Today when I want some fruit, where do I go?I go to Aldi.I go to Walmart.If I'm feeling healthy, I might go to the farmer's market, right?If I'm feeling fancy, I might go to Whole Foods, you know, it's just how I'm feeling for the day.But in that day, most people grew their own food.They grew their own fruits and vegetables, and raised livestock and that, they, they didn't just eat that, but they also sold it.It was part of how they, you know, accumulated resources and, and built things and all, all these different things.And, and what's so interesting is when he talks about the, the first fruits, what they would do is they would take the, the first, the best, the, the 10% and they would give it to the Lord.This is where we get the principle of tithing, right?That, that, I'm going to give the first of the resources that God has, has given me.Some of y'all are clamping up right now because I'm talking about giving and I'm talking about tithing.Get 'em.Get 'em.But again, it's not about money here.It's about first.Anything that I produce with my, with my life, not just my money and my job, but anything that I produce with my life, I want to give the first of it to God.This is why we go to church on the first day of the week.'Cause we're saying to my week, "I'm gonna give God the first day."Yeah.Right?When we, when we, when we begin to, to walk with the Lord, there's all these different moments where we say, "God, I'm gonna give you this first.I'm gonna, I'm gonna pray first.Before I start worrying, before I call my friend, before, before I do all theseI'm gonna pray first."Yes."When it's time to worship, I'm gonna worship first.When I begin my day, I'm gonna read the, the truth of his word first.That in everything that I do, I wanna continue to be a first fruits of his creatures in my l- with my life.That I give him everything first.And by this, through the word of God, we ourselves should be a first fruits.That God, before I give anything to anyone else in this world, I'm yours.Yeah."God, you gave me the ability to grow and produce, and so I'm gonna give you first."Why?Because God gave me his first.God gave me his best in Christ Jesus.Like, like it, it's a complete attitude shift when we go, "God, you gave me your, your one and only son.You sacrificed him to die so that I could be saved.I shouldI just wanna give you everything.Because it's because of you that I'm drawing breath right now, that I know my name is written in the Lamb's book of life in heaven."James is saying, "God saved you."So instead of just saying, "God saved me.You know, I prayed the prayer.I guess I won't sin anymore, so I don't have to go to hell."Instead, we shift that mentality and say, "God, I, I gladly give you every part of my life.You can have my time, my money, my heart, my identity."And this is the heart posture that we should have when we approach the word of God.That I'm so grateful for what God has done for me, and I just wanna know more and more about him.I just wanna become more and more like Jesus.And this is the pathway to become like him.And, and this is kinda funny.I, I, I w- I was talking to a buddy about this this week.But it's like, you can be saved and go to heaven and not read this.You can be saved and not pray.You can be saved and not tithe.You can be saved and not share the gospel with anybody for the rest of your life.And not disciple people.You can be saved and not pursue to become more like Jesus.Like, we can talk about once saved, always saved and Baptist versus Pentecost, and all the different things.But at the end of the day, like, scripture is pretty clear when, when we confess with our mouths, we believe in our heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, we'll be saved.But here's the thing.If you wanna live worthy of the gospel, if you wanna bear fruit, if you wanna be a first fruits, it all starts with a heart transformed.'Cause it, it's really interesting, because we can say, "I don't have to do any of these things."But it, but it, but if I'm not praying, if I'm not reading my word, if I'm not tithing, if I'm not growing in, in generosity with my time and my resources, it reveals where your heart truly is.Yes.Right?Amen.Where your treasure is, there your heart is.And, and we can get into this place where truly what we're doing is we're just worshiping an image of God that we've created in our minds, because it's not based on scripture.It's based on our feeling.We can worship this imaginary version of, of Jesus that suits our feelings, but God is calling us to treasure the truth and allow it to transform us.The heart tran- untransformed makes every ask from the word of God feel like a demand.It feels like religion w- when we don't have a transformed heart.It feels like a burden.It's one more thing that I have to do.And this is what James was talking about when he said it's, it's worthless religion.But a transformed heart for Jesus makes obedience a joy, no matter the cost, because Jesus paid it all for us, and all to him I owe.Sin no longer stains me because I'm washed white as snow.When we revel in the fact that Jesus saved us from our sins, my heart's cry is, "God, I'll do anything for you.I'll do anything for you.What do you, what do you want, God?I'll give it to you.Everything I am is yours."Like, aren't you grateful today for a Savior?Amen?Amen.Th- this is how we should be approaching the word of God, with gratitude."God, thank you for saving me."And we begin to read scripture in this way.And I promise you, if you will approach the word of God with gratitude for the salvation of your life, it's going to change the way you read this book.I promise you.I dare you.Then in James 1:21 it says, "Receive with meekness," which is humility, "receive with humility the implanted word which is able to save your souls."Receive the word with humility.Write that down.With meekness and humility, we, we must accept the truth.Why, why humility?Because for many of us, when we have pride, we have pride when it comes to what is true."I know what's true.I know what's right.I know what's wrong.And nobody can tell me otherwise."Or maybe the pride of life has been rejecting the truth that we need to be transformed because we're, again, we're prideful.We're stubborn.But if we go back before this, what does it say in James 1:19?It says, "Know this my beloved brothers.Let every person be quick to hear.Quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger."These are, these are 3 areas that I can guarantee you, myself included, we are not very good at.I would take a show of hands, but every hand would go up."For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness and, and humility the implanted word."When you read the word of God, we need to open our ears, close your mouth, and don't get offended.James says it nicely, but really this is hostile to, to how we operate, right?It's hostile to our flesh.This is the word of God, really in this moment, getting up in our face.Basically saying, "Hey, don't catch an attitude and get prideful when the truth smacks you in the mouth, because you don't like what it says."Again, the devil is a liar, but God speaks the truth whether you like it or not.There are times, again, when we read the Bible and it will tell you how to live your life.And your soul and your body and your mind won't want to do what it says.You may not agree with it, or you may know someone who feels strongly about how this makes them feel.But then you have to make a decision in that moment.James is saying, "You better humbly accept this."Why?Because if God is God, he's the one that says what's right and wrong.Let me say that again.If God is God, he is the one that says what's right and wrong.If I say what is right and wrong, I'm God.I'm the god of my own life.Um, um, um, and we see this so much in the world where we see all of these little gods propping up and people saying, "No, this is right.No, this is right.No, this is wrong," instead of coming to the word of God and letting God be God.Yeah.I kind of said this earlier, but it was, it was Pastor Tim Keller who, who passed away and, and is in heaven right now.He said, "If your god never disagrees with you, you might be just worshiping an idealized version of yourself."Wow.I could just drop the mic now and walk away.My gosh.James says we must receive the word of God with humility.And that word receive in the Greek means welcome.I'm gonna welcome it into my life.I'm gonnaUh, it also means accept it.I'm gonna accept it.I'm gonna welcome it.gonna welcome it.I'm gonna open up my doors wide open and just say, "Come on into my life."It's kinda funny.When we've had friends over at the house and they have a, a bunch of kids, weMy wife and I, we already have 4 kids, which is, which is enough for us.But when there's like 7 or 8 kids in the house, we just accept the fact that our house is gonna be a mess.Right?Can we just accept the fact that when the word of God comes into your life, he's gonna mess it up?He's gonna make a massive mess of it.And, and, and you can try to stop it and you can, you can play, you know, defense all the time, or you can just let it happen.And then just know that at the end of the night, all the little kids are gonna help put everything back where it needs to be.It may not be where you want it to be.This is what I love about God.We need to welcome him, receive the word of God.This is an attitude shift.The word of God saves me and I'm grateful a- but, but now I need to accept his word with humility and welcome his commands.And enjoy it.Because we, we consider it joy when trials come into our lives.Because it's in the trial that God is working to transform me.Yeah.And even when it confronts me, even when it offends my way of thinking, when, when God tells me to do something in the Bible, our attitude should be, "I wanna do it."Because it's for my good, because he is good.In James 1:22, it says, "But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."So good."If anyone's a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror."How many of you looked in a mirror this morning?I can tell who didn't.No, I'm just kidding."For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like."I don't know how you can forget what you look like unless you weren't really looking at yourself."But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres"That's a great word to underline.Perseveres." being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."The Bible is comparing itself, comparing the Bible to a mirror.Like, you think you look fine until you look into it.And then you see all the boogers and the hairs that are in places they shouldn't be.Yeah.And our attitude needs to be, "I, I enjoy when God holds the mirror up to my face and says, 'We got some work to do.'" Like, it's, it's, it's fun because I know that, that everything that God has for me is good.It's for my good.It's so that I can grow.It's so that I can become more and more like Jesus.And so when he holds the m- when he, when he holds the scripture up to your face and he begins to show you, like, "You've gotta grow here.You've gotta change here.If you wanna become who I've, I've saved you to be and who I've created you to be, you, you have to apply this to your life and not just read it and walk away."Because that's, that is religion that is worthless.The word of God reveals like a mirror, where we are weak, where we are lacking, and where we still need to be transformed and sanctified.When you, when you think you look good and you realize that you don't look good, we start putting work in.And I, IThere's been many times in my life if, uh, if I'm being honest, where I've read the word of God, I've looked into the mirror, and I, and I did it just, almost just like as I'm going through the motions.Or with like 0 intentionality, I'm just like, "Okay, I'm gonna read that today."I know you've done it too.Don't lie to me.But I can't tell you how many times I've read the Bible and I've walked away, forgot what it said by the end of the day.I have forgotten more sermons than I can remember.Y'all, some of y'all are nodding your heads.Yeah.You forgot the one I preached last week.That's okay.I love you.I've forgotten more sermons than I can remember.I've been to all these leadership conferences.I don't remember anything.But I can remember the times when I humbly accepted the word and the, the Holy Spirit drawing me in in those moments and convicting my heart.I can remember those vividly.It's been many times 'cause I'm not perfect.I can remember the times where his kindness, the Holy Spirit's kindness, led me to repentance.I can remember the, the places in this room and even around the world where I have dropped to my knees and I've stained the floor with my tears.When I've wept for the sins that I've committed and the feelings, I remember the feeling of sorrow turning into joy.When I, when I repent for the things that I've done wrong, not because I am wrong, that's condemnation, but when I've committed thing, I've done things that are wrong, I've said things that are wrong, and the Lord leads me to that place where I begin to repent.And then he starts to, to move in my heart and I begin to sense and, and, and experience the salvation.I experience the, the blood that was shed for me so that I could be set free.And I get up from that place filled with joy and filled with gratitude because it was Jesus Christ that saved me.Yeah.I've read the word and it's changed me.And that's really what it's meaning in this.Like, you can look intently at your life.You can observe it, you can criticize it, a- a- and you can go deep into scripture, but you can walk away and not apply it.Or, you can persevere, as the scripture tells us, and act upon it.Let it transform your life.Last point, and I- I'll invite the worship team here.Write this down.Perseverance brings deliverance.Yes.That's supposed to be our attitude towards the word of God.If I w- if I will persevere through this, if I will allow it to, to speak to my heart and change me, if I, if I, if I keep coming back to it again and again and again, "Oh, that scripture came up again."Or, uh, I, this, God keeps reminding me of this verse, or God keeps reminding me of this word again and again and again.It's because he's trying to change us.Yes.It's be- it's because he's trying to, to point at something and say, "Would you give this to me?Would you allow this word to transform your life?"Perseverance, abiding, staying connected to it, highlighting it, underlining it.I've got so many Bibles that I have ruined, that I can't read anymore.Mostly because I like this translation a little bit more, but that's just me.That was a joke, guys.We meditate on it and we continue to allow it to be like a mirror that God holds up in front of our face.And he says, "I have so much more for you."Read it and ask God, "What are you trying to say to me?What needs to be changed and fixed and improved?"Make it your prayer.Say, "God, do a work inside of me through your word."Love, love these words.James 1:26, "If anyone thinks he's religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless."Again, I think many times we have a lot to say about the word of God.But how are we applying it?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.It's really funny because these are 2 different things.There's widows and orphans, and being unstained and righteous.A- a- and, and so many times we see in the world today, we see it in churches where, where, where this church or this movement or this political party, we're all about justice, right?We're all about righteousness.They will point out quickly when you are in the wrong.Right?But they won't do anything to help the widows and the orphans and those that are oppressed and afflicted.But then we got, on the other side, we got, w- we're only focused on the widows and the orphans, we're only focused on the oppressed and the afflicted and the mentally ill and those that are struggling.But we don't care what you do.Do what you want.Live your life.But James, he points at both of these things, that you are in this, in this way, when you live by the Word of God, you become a person of justice and righteousness, but you also live it out and you serve those that are oppressed.When we're living worthy of the Gospel, in a manner worthy of the Gospel, it touches every area of your life, not just the areas that you want.We care about those that are oppressed and we keep ourselves from being polluted by the world.And today, today is supposed to be Vision Sunday, but I really feel right now, I, I mean, I got, I got all kinds of things that I could keep sharing.But I really feel right now that the Lord is drawing us to Himself.That there is, there is an opportunity for healing, there's an opportunity for forgiveness, there's an opportunity to allow the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts.And you don't have to boohoo and cry and, and, and do all the things, but, but would you just take a moment right now and ask yourself, "Have I really allowed the Word of God, have I really welcomed it into my life?Have I truly accepted it?"I don't care how long you've been a Christian.It doesn't matter how long you've been in church.E- today, right now in this moment, is this the word of life to you?'Cause I'll be honest, there's been moments where I've struggled to make this the centerpiece.I'd rather go listen to sermons and podcasts than actually engage with the Word of God.Why?Because it's tough.It shows you for who you really are.It confronts you, but it calls you higher again and again and again, and says, God says, "I have so much more for you."So today, just allow the Holy SpiritWould you receive the word with humility?Would you begin to lean into the gratitude?Gratitude, thank you, God, for saving me.Thank you, Lord, for saving me.Thank you, Jesus, for dying for me so that I can even read these words today and allow them to transform me to become more like you.And maybe you have your Bible, maybe you just wanna p- hold it close.Holy Spirit, would you speak to your people today?We draw near to you and you draw near to us.It's your kindness that leads us to repentance, Lord.Would you show us the areas where we've tried to go our own way?There's trials that we're facing right now where we need the truth of your Word to anchor us.