Are you a hearer or a doer?

James: A Christian's Guide To Living From Jesus  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Good morning. So glad to have each of you here with us this morning.
Don’t you just love the old hymns? Thank you Barb and Monte for leading us in hymn Sunday every month
Reminder tonight is our Worship night....we worship Jesus together starting at 6 pm then have a fellowship dinner with the theme of Mexican....Tacos....y’all know my feelings about tacos
Congrats to our very own Sydnee Baldwin who finished her wrestling season at the state tournament this past week. Sydnee finished 3rd becoming only the 2nd female state medalist in school history! Congrats favorite....we love you.
I shared with the men’s discipleship group on Wednesday something that God is doing in my life and I want to share with you as well this morning.
Some of you may have seen some of my daily devotionals on tiktok......now before we get going this is not an endorsement for tiktok....there is lots of bad on there but there are also lots of Christians proclaiming the Gospel
I have toyed with tiktok before in the past but about 2 or 3 weeks ago really felt God laying it on my heart to be committed to sharing the Gospel on that platform and other social media platforms.
I tell you all that so I can testify about what God is doing
I was contacted by a young man in Kisii, Kenya. At first I slow played it, contacted Mike Schrage for advice and things to look out for as this young man, Ian, was looking for a spiritual leader, discipleship and someone to help via video teach the young church that God is building through him
This is Ian. Ian’s passion is the fatherless. He and his congregation are ministering to children and are trying to build the children a building as right now they are staying in members homes.....be prayerful about that
Ian also said they were in desperate need of Bibles in their language. Be prayerful about that. I am contacting Mike Schrage and others to find out how to make that happen......once I do find out how to make it happen I will let you know as well so if you would like to support Ian by helping us get the Bibles into his hands that would be a true blessing to him
Ian and I will be meeting at 6 am our time, 2 pm their time every Wednesday morning via video chat and throughout the week. Ian called me yesterday and I got to meet some of the kids he ministers too......God is so good. Please be in prayer for our brother in Christ Ian and the work God is doing through him in Kenya
Let’s Pray
START RECORDING
Today is week 5 in our James: A Christian’s guide to living from Jesus
The message today is Are you a hearer or a doer?
I pray that each of you are open to God’s Word and the movement of the Holy Spirit this morning
Today will be heavy for most
extremely encouraging for others
and for some unfortunately it will be useless and worthless.
It all depends on your heart relationship with Jesus this morning
Hearer only or a doer
That is the question and it has only two answers this morning
The answer is determined by your eternal home
if you are a true Christian this morning you are a doer
Doing is the result of salvation not how you become saved or obtain salvation but is the result of you being saved
This is not a go to church message.....should you go to a Bible preaching church every week......yes you should....Hebrews 10:25 addresses that but this is so much more than that
This is not a go to Bible study or Sunday School or Discipleship group message.....should you go to those things ABSOLUTELY......you want to grow get plugged into a true Bible study and discipleship group
This is about are you…through the Holy Spirit putting the Word of God into action in and through you
You can’t be saved and be a hearer only
Let me say that again.....you can’t be saved and be a hearer only
This is eternally important
Turn with me to

James 1:22–27

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“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
God loves you so very much
He proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt by sending Jesus to earth to live with those He created and to die to pay for your sins and my sins and the sins of the whole world.......Jesus became those sins for you and me
All that is required is you accept that payment
You have to chose
Make Jesus your Lord and Savior because the Holy Spirit awakened you to your sinful nature
the fact that your sin requires your death and eternal separation from God in hell
But
Jesus willingly died in your place and freely offers His spilled blood to pay for your sins!
or
Chose to reject Jesus and salvation
That is why this section of scripture is so important

1. Doing reveals your heart relationship with Jesus vs 22

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As I said being a doer cannot earn your salvation
Salvation can’t be earned by works
Salvation can only be obtained by accepting Jesus’ gift and making Him Lord and Savior of your life
Being a doer, however, is truly the only response to Jesus
When you truly realize what the cross means
How Jesus willingly became your sin
willingly endured all He endured for you
Willingly gave His life for your
When you truly realize that
you have to become a doer
You owe Him everything because He gave everything for you
Being a doer is about being real
Being authentic
Not about being perfect but doing anyway
The enemy also understands this passage and it’s implication so he fights hard to get you to justify away this truth and stay deceived as a hearer only
Hearers are deceived
They hear the truth....usually are moved by the truth....they may even come to the altar but never move past that moment
They stay where the enemy lives…hearing and knowing but refusing to do
Change.....
becoming holy as God is holy
Doing
Moves you to action
Doing is a direct reflection of your heart relationship with Jesus
Jesus addresses what hearers have waiting for them

Matthew 7:21–27

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“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
7:21 is the scariest verse in the Bible
This is truth
Jesus spoke it
The question is do you accept it as truth and if so will you be a doer as a result?
Jesus explains that while you should be in church
being in church doesn’t mean He knows you
While you are doing things that appear to be Christian your heart doesn’t know Jesus
He explains what the foundation of doing is.......
HIM
His words and putting those words into action by doing
What is your foundation....the rock of Jesus
or
The sand of the world and you
If you are a hearer only you are building upon the sand and you will fall and that fall will be great
If you read God’s Word and leave changed
Leave with actions that follow
you are a doer and have Jesus as your foundation
Many want to claim Christianity......
Many want to claim they are a disciple of Christ
but they are hearers only because they refuse to do
I want to give you a personal example from this week.
As some of you know I have been doing a lot more with social media trying to spread the gospel to as many people as possible
During that I have made some new brothers and sisters in Christ remember Ian I introduced you to earlier....what a blessing and gift from God and all glory to God not me
With that said there is also a lot of evil in the tiktok world. I am pretty naive growing up here in Nevada Mo and God taught me a very valuable lesson this week
I followed two pastors on tiktok as I really liked the truth they shared
Low and behold they followed back....well at least I thought they did.
First one reached out via a message on tiktok and what he said really hit me.......really got personal......he said he was looking at my profile and praying and that God laid somethings on his heart and low and behold I was struggling with those things
As I was messaging him the other pastor reached out with a very similar message
I broke.......I cried out to God that I got it.......I was in......you see God has really been working on me to be all in all the time
To be His son 24/7 365.......to truly die to myself and lay aside some wordly things I was hanging on to........
I went home and addressed some of those very things. I have been a video gamer for quite some time and that was a battlefield and I was fighting and holding on to some games that were very worldly and I had been convicted of and God told me to get rid of them and I refused......they are now gone..deleted never to return Praise the Lord!
Now come to find out they were not those pastors but people searching for money.........
They were imposters that used a handle very close to the real thing but they were not the real thing
I tell you this because it was real.....God really spoke to me and broke me through them

Romans 8:28

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“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
The enemy meant that for my harm
he wanted to lead me away from God
he wanted me to chase him and the world
but
God had different plans
God worked through the evil to move me where He needed me
I have made some significant changes in my life since then....... as I said my video games look different as that was one area I was fighting with God and justifying things that were not okay.......
I began to truly seek the good of others instead of my good
I fasted for a while and God showed me some very real things and I am closer to Him as a result of a spiritual attack by the enemy
Praise God for that
I had a choice however......I could have written all that off as just my thoughts instead of being a doer
Some of you are in bondage
Some of you are slaves to you
to your pride
to your lack of action
to your lack of forgiveness
to your hard feelings
to others who have hurt you
You are slaves because you are a hearer only not a doer
look at vs 25

James 1:25

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“But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”

2. Jesus set you free

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Galatians 5:1

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“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
Christ died to set you free
Your only freedom is from and in Christ
Sin wants to entangle you and many of you, including me, run to be entangled
We fight to stay entangled
God wants more for you
I want to explain this a little more in scripture

Romans 8:1–4

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“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Why is there therefore no condemnation?
In Christ you are no longer bound to the physical law......which you have already broken and guilty of
Without Christ you deserve death and eternal separation from God because of your sin
Christ moved you from physical to spiritual
setting you free from the law
free from sin
free from death
true freedom
The law is limited by the flesh.....physical
anyone under the law.....that is without Christ....is in bondage to the flesh!
So does this mean because you are free you can live and do whatever you please?
Nope

1 Peter 2:15–17

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“For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.”
Your freedom is to be used as servants to God
Helping others
serving others
Honoring others
Loving your brothers and sisters in Christ
Respecting and fearing God
Honoring Jesus
Is that what you use your freedom for?
What happens when you feel wronged?
What happens when you feel neglected?
What happens when you are lied to or about?
What happens when someone persecutes you?
What happens when evil hits home?
Do you live in freedom and still choose to serve and love and honor or do you return to your vomit and bondage and sin?

Galatians 6:1–3

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“Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.”
Bearing one another’s burdens this is the law of Christ and this is what you are free to do because Jesus set you free
Doing life together
Serving God together
Remaining humble regardless of the circumstances and looking to love and serve those around you
I love each of you very much but I refuse to lie to you.....I will let you down
I will never intentionally let you down but I am human, I am a pastor, and some feel that means I will never let them down....I am sorry but I am human and I will let you down
Maybe I don’t notice you being gone and I don’t send you a text or call
Maybe you posted a testimony on social media and I missed it and didn’t like or comment on it or mention it to you
Maybe you had an expectation of me and I failed to meet that expectation
I will fail
I will sin
I will let you down
Anyone other than Jesus will let you down by the way
We are all human
We all sin
We all make mistakes
We all react out of pride and selfishness
We all put worldly things before others
We all fail each other all the time
The question is how do we choose to handle that failure
Do we continue to carry each others burdens or do we get mad and take our ball and go home
Failure hurts
I am not trying to say that it does not
You will feel it when I fail you
You will feel it when others fail you
You will feel it when you fail others
Not trying to belittle that but I am saying you must stand on scripture and be a doer regardless of your feelings and emotions
If you are hurt by someone what does scripture say

Matthew 5:23–24

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“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”
If you have something against someone go to them
Most of the time you are angry
You are hurt
You are upset
You are struggling and hurting and wrestling with things and the other person has no idea they hurt you or offended you
Go to them......seek reconciliation
Forgive them
If someone has something against you.....go to them and seek reconciliation

Colossians 3:12–15

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“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”
Church scripture is clear here.......are you being a doer or a hearer only
You are to be merciful
kind
humble
meek
longsuffering
forbearing one another.....putting up with each other espeically in their faults
forgiving as Christ forgave you…quickly and fully
Church people are dying and going to hell and we are bickering and fighting among ourselves
......that should not be church
Be a doer!
As we grow both in numbers and spiritually we must be ready for spiritual warfare and this is one of the areas the enemy loves to attack churches
offended members
hurt feelings
real pain
real issues
real failures
but
non-biblical responses
If I have failed or hurt you please come to me
if someone else has failed or hurt you please go to them
Love as Jesus loves
Forgives as Jesus forgives
Finally

James 1:27

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“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

1. Pure religion is action vs 27

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1 John 2:15–17

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“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
What do you love?
Do you love God or the world?
You can’t love both
If you love the world you do not have the love of the Father
if you love God you cannot love the world!
The world is physical
full of lust
full of pride
What fruits are in your life
worldly
fleshly
lustful
prideful
or
Godly
spiritual fruit
love
joy
peace
longsuffering
gentleness
goodness
faith
meekness
temperance which is self control
Be a doer!
So many are driven away from Christ because of hearers
posers
those claiming to be Christians but no living as Christians
So many today argue that if God is love then there is no absolute truth
there is no absolute right or wrong
there is no absolute path to heaven
I have news for you there is absolute truth
there is one who defines absolute right and wrong
and there is only ONE path to heaven His name is Jesus!

So What Now?

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Ephesians 4:25–32

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“Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
Put away lying
speak only the truth to everyone
how refreshing would that be
If everyone always told the truth
You can point people to Jesus by always speaking the truth....put away lying
Handle anger quickly
as we said today and last week the longer you are angry and sit in your emotions the more room you give the devil
If you steal stop.....if you sin stop.....do the opposite and point people to Jesus!
No corrupt communication
Corrupt here is from a Greek word meaning rotten and worthless
Your words matter to God and others
Your words either point to Jesus or satan
Look to edify
to minister grace
Let all these go
bitterness
so many are bitter because someone upset you
failed you
didn’t live up to your expectations
You have done all that and worse to God and He forgave you
He sent Jesus to die
He didn’t become bitter He choose to love
When someone hurts you don’t respond to them respond to Him....God
Let me say that again
When someone hurts you Don’t respond to them....respond to Him
Wrath and anger
we talked about that last week and today.....let it go
Be kind
Be tenderhearted
Forgiving just as God for Christ forgave you
Are you a doer?
Do you quickly and fully forgive?
Does kindness define you?
Are you tenderhearted?
Are you a doer?
STOP RECORDING
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