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True faith isn't just about hearing God's Word — it's about receiving it. Pastor Joseph unpacks James 1:19-21, calling us to create the right conditions to hear God, remove what resists His Word, and let it take deep root in our hearts. Scriptures: James 1:19-21, Proverbs 18:13, Ephesians 3:14-19
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We're going through the first chapter of James, which was revolutionary in my life, and I felt God drop this on my heart to walk through this first chapter where there is just so much gold for us as followers of Christ and it actually gives us the reality of having a faith in Christ, that just because you follow Jesus does not mean that, that your life is going to be now easy, doesn't mean it's going to be trouble free, doesn't mean that it's going to be exempt from suffering. That I'll tell you, if you hear preachers preach that that's a false doctrine, it's going to lead you to a place of disappointment in your faith. But the good news is this, is that Christ will supply you with strength to overcome anything that you face, that His Holy Spirit will fill you with a discernment to lead you through anything you face. And that the result of that is that you would have a strong faith in your life. There is a description of how we get hope in the Bible actually goes through suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope. Whereas like, my prayers are like, oh my hope would be so good if you just answered all my prayers just like, just like this. But God wants to send us on a journey because I'll tell you, you treat things well for that which you've paid a price. I remember like the peace that I received in the first little while of getting sober ten and a half years ago when I was able to feel that little drop of peace in my life and it took work like it was, there was no miracle for me. It was a commitment, it was a character developing moment. But when I felt that peace at around seven months, seven to nine months, I was like, man, this is the most precious thing in the world. I'm never letting this go, I'm never throwing it on the roulette table, not going to gamble this. I'm going to stick my life right in the center of the Word and live this out. And, and that's what happens when we pay a price, when we've felt the pain, when we've experienced the storm and then we've experienced Jesus actually walk us through that and meet us in the middle of it. That's why I love the book of James. So I love this first chapter because it teaches us this. And so we are coming around to James Chapter 1, 1921 in this really focuses in, on us receiving the Word well in our life, receiving God's living and active word. Well within our souls. And I think it's a good thing to not just receive something. I mean, because you can receive something without a grateful spirit, right? You can receive something and not really receive it on the inside of you. You can receive something and not receive it well. And so we should really learn how to receive the word well. Because once this word gets in your soul and in your spirit and in your heart, man, it'll revolutionize your life. But we can't just hear it and do nothing with it. We can't just look at it and study it and admire it from afar, but not apply it to our lives. And so James is encouraging us that when you face trials and you walk through this and you ask for wisdom, and then we've actually got to put the word of God to use within ourselves world. So he says in James 1, 1921, he says, know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, 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 the implanted word which is able to save your souls. Amen. The power of God's word is never limited in its ability to transform your life. Blanket. It's never limited in its ability to transform any of our lives. Revolutionized. Going this way, all of a sudden going this way. Living low, all of a sudden living high. But the power of God's word is, however, limited by our willingness to receive it in our world. We can, we can know it. We could have read it on grandma's wall, in the bathroom, on one of those crochet things. Home sweet home, you know, for God. So love the world. But if we did not receive it within our hearts and we just know it in our minds and we don't apply it to our lives, then it's kind of going to do nothing in your world but frustrate you, but cause you to start questioning God's faithfulness. God is such a good God that he gave us this manual for life. Like, that's incredible. We're not wandering out here alone. He hasn't sent us into uncharted territory. He's given us a word to follow. So for us, we've got to learn how to receive it. Because one of the deceptions that we would have in the modern church, in our modern Christianity is that just knowing truth or having access to truth is going to transform us. But I think that we might see that even with all of the access we have today, all of the podcasts, all the sermons, all the online church, all of the Bible study tools, and all of these are great. I'm not speaking against it, but with all of this access, I would say that we have now become a comfortable Christian culture. That the ability of our lives being transformed is kind of instead of action, it's about consumption, instead of stepping forward, it's about receiving. I heard a statement this last week which I totally agree with, which is, for us as mature Christians, we shouldn't be coming to church empty and leave filled. We should come to church full and leave empty because we've poured it all out. Because you have something to give. This is going back to this prayer against timidity. You've got to recognize you have the light of the world living within you. When you come here and we worship together, you worship beside me. I want you to know we're unifying in faith, right? Then we're unifying in spirit. If there's anything that we need in this world, it's a unified faith that worships our God. Says, oh, man, all week I've been filling up my soul so that I could come and pour it out towards God. So I can come and I can help minister to the person to my left or to my right, that I could put a smile on my face for that, for the person who's struggling to find joy in that moment. So we've got more access than any other generation. But it just feels like there's a lackluster to our faith. Hearing the Word and receiving the Word are not the same thing. We've got to recognize, how do I not just hear the Word, but I also receive it within my heart. And the difference, I believe, is the condition of our heart. It's the condition of the soil within our life. It's the condition of how we have worked our spirit and worked a receiving nature within our world. I now have a prerequisite for anyone that would come to me and say, hey, can you disciple? Can you pour into my life? My prerequisite is just one, which is this. If you do not pray and encounter Jesus every day, I cannot disciple you because it's actually not me who's discipling you. I'm pointing you to Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life. I am not the way, the truth and the life. I can help direct people towards it. I will continually point people towards that. I want to challenge people towards that. But if you don't meet with Jesus, there's two things that'll happen. The word of God will offend you at one point. And I don't want to bring light, correction into people's world. We. We've got a short time to live here. Like, we should toughen up a little bit, get out of our sensitive states and be like, man, I want to be sharpened. I need a flint next to me. And there's going to be some sparks and there's going to be some challenges. But, man, I want to stand up strong and I want to move forward with this. So, number one, I need you to be tough within the spirit, but also, like, receptive in the soul. You know, I have no agenda but Christ's agenda. That's the point of me praying is, man, anytime Joe's agenda comes up, I want to weed it out of my life. I want to see it. And I got strong people around me who are able to guide me in that, but also in prayer. God, just weeding your heart, tilling the soil of my heart so that when rebuke comes, it's in a soft, beautiful place. Oh, man, I receive that. Do you know, like, Jesus was a pretty mean discipler, right? Like, when Peter walked on the water, I mean, that's pretty flipping incredible, right? If you're one of the other guys at the boat, you're kind of like, oh, my gosh, Peter's walking on the water right now. He looks at Jesus and he starts sinking down. And what does Jesus say? He says, you doubted. He didn't say, oh, man, you got like three steps. No, he said, you doubted. He said to Peter right after calling him a rock, get behind me, Satan. I'm sure that there were people on the outskirts that were coming up to Peter and being like, man, there's a couple of rabbis that are so much more nicer than Jesus. Like, you can find a softer word and a more encouraging, you know, space over. And it's not that Jesus wasn't encouraging. It's not about that. Strong leadership is not harsh leadership, but the element of truth has to be present in our world. And it takes a receiving heart to actually see the fruitfulness of what truth can do. Amen. So how do you respond when God speaks? How do you respond when someone in the church comes to you and starts pouring into your life, starts speaking truth and say, man, let's get up higher, start lifting and raising up the bar. Let's start changing and correcting and pruning these areas of our world so that we can live entirely in the purposes that God has for us. So James begins with a command that could seem kind of simple, easy to overlook, and we've heard it a million times. What's the title of my message? Did you put it up there? Oh, yeah. Receive the Word. Pretty simple. Point one is you got to create the conditions to hear God. You got to create those conditions in your world to hear from God. You got to organize your atmosphere, organize a space where faith is actually allowed to grow. Create a space in your life where the spirit of God is able to lean in. And so in James 1:19, he says, know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. It's good marriage advice, right? We kind of like throw it into that little marriage advice box. And, oh, yes, it's good for relationships. And wives are nudging husbands, and husbands are nudging wives in that moment. But James is talking about something, I would say, that is a little deeper. He's talking about the posture required to receive the word of God. Because before God changes your life through His Word, he's got to deal with our posture towards his word. Quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. This is humility, and this is teachability. This is the posture that says God. Before I tell you what I think, before I explain and justify my actions and defend myself, before I do any of that, I will listen. I mean, it's pretty easy to do that, right? We got a lot of married people here. I'm not going to do a marriage thing because Father's Day, we all got to celebrate and everything. You know, how many times is it just that. Ooh, it's just that bait on the trap. Bait on. Oh, that sounds terrible. Bait that is out there. That is like, oh, I'm going to justify myself right now. I'm going to defend myself right now as opposed to just slowing down and listening. I'm going to be slow to anger. I'm going to wait in that moment. And I believe that this is becoming increasingly rare in our society. It's becoming so rare in our world because we are living in a culture that trains us or that we have that's given us this license to react immediately to any situation. It's like the world has said. Yeah. Have you got an opinion? Then do it straight away. Say it straight away. Proverbs 18:13. It says this. If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. Man, that's a slap in the face to me. You know how many times Christine's been saying something and I've already got my defense coming up within me, right? We've already got that little thing that's coming up. And I just want to answer before I finish even hearing, and I'm so intent on what I want to say that I'm not even listening to what's coming out of her mouth, man. Terrible, right? So for us, when God is speaking, maybe it's time to stop saying, no, no, no, God, I wanted this in my life, or no, no, no, God, I wanted it this way in my world, or no, no, no, the reason I'm doing it this way is because of this. Because God's, you know, voice isn't only going to come just in these times of prayer and reflection. It's going to come from the people around you as well. It's the importance of the assembly and having. Having yourself be attached to the body. That's why serving is so important. I don't understand, like, there's this culture of, you know, burnout and all of that. And I get it, there are very unhealthy ways that you can serve. But I'm telling you that if the whole thing is like, oh, because this was happening over here, that I'm never going to serve again, then you got to twist it. When you were connected to the body and you were serving the kingdom of God and you were seeing his purposes, when you were serving the only plan that Jesus put forth and died for, he didn't have a plan B. He didn't say, if the church doesn't work, then go and start your own ministries and don't depend on the assembly of people around you. If the church doesn't work, then just go and live isolated in the. In the jungles and be monk. He never said that. He said, I have one plan. I'm putting all my eggs in one basket and it's the church. So we got to attach ourselves to that. We got to. So that God can speak into our lives, so that there can be a derooting of things that don't need to be there and a planting of things that do need to be there. We live in a world where everybody has an opinion, everyone has a response prepared, everybody has a platform, everybody is speaking, and very few are listening. We become so quick to speak and slow to hear, just cutting people off. God gave you two ears and one mouth for one reason. Baby, listen twice as much as you speak. The kingdom works in the opposite direction. The kingdom begins with listening. How many times did Jesus say, he who has ears, let him hear. He's not talking about he who has ears. Everyone's got ears, right? And the hope is, is that, yeah, we want everyone to hear who has ears. What he's saying is, is, man, everyone who is humble will receive this. Everyone who has this teachability and surrender in their life, man, he who has those ears, man, let him hear it. Because Christ doesn't want lukewarm Christians. He doesn't want half in and half out. And I've said it before, I'll say it again. Some of us are so uncomfortable in our spiritual walk is because we're living our life on the fence and you've got a picket stuck up your spiritual butt. And it's the reason you are so uncomfortable. Like, get on one side of the fence, be on fire, or don't be on fire. Look, when I wasn't in church, I was not in church. Like, I wasn't trying to live two lives. I was out. And I can assure you that being out sucks and that being in is amazing for your life. So we've got to get this temperament within our world where we're like, I'm going to slow down. I want ears that hear. I want a heart that is surrendered. A proud heart listens to respond. And a humble heart, it listens to receive. And James says there is one thing, one thing in particular that destroys this posture. He says, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Why anger? Because anger closes the ears to your soul. You know, when you get angry, like, real, really angry, and all of a sudden nothing makes common sense. There's only one sense that is made, and that's a red paintbrush. And you're ready to paint the town red, baby. Like, let's go. Have you ever tried correcting someone who's already decided that they are right? Have you ever had kids? Yeah, there you go. Have you ever tried helping someone who has already built their defense up? It's not always this explosive anger. It's just this internal rebellion just against being corrected, being built up. You know, you can be built up in love. You can be corrected in love. It's not always this scary thing. The conversation, though, is over before it starts. If we just got this anger within us. Oh, no. My way or the highway. No one else. I know what I'm doing. I know what I'm doing, right? Spiritually, this same thing happens when anger takes root. Correction feels like an attack. Conviction feels like rejection. Truth feels threatening. And the heart becomes defensive. It's got a defensive line instead of receptive James says, the righteousness God wants to produce in your life will never be produced through a defensive spirit or an angry spirit. We gotta be open and be like, oh, man, what's my cap in this life? And ask the person around you, who's got wisdom, man, what do you see as my ceiling? Like, where can I break through? Can you believe with me? Is there an area in your life where you feel like, needs to be, like, shaped up within my spiritual walk, what needs to be sharpened? What area can we pray into? What area can we lean into? What questions can we be asking one another? And I believe that a big part of probably what I would call the greatest man. It's like the strongest prayer in my life. In Ephesians 3, he says, for this reason, I bow my knee towards the Father in heaven. Did I send this through? Oh, that's awesome. For this reason, I bow my knee before Father in Heaven, from Whom every family in heaven on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. Why? So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you've been rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth of length, height, and depth of his love? That's what it's. That's what it's laying out. Dwell means reside in. Dwell means to live within, take up a residence within. Now, if you come to my house, I love you, but you don't have access to, like, go through my drawers and stuff, right? Like, I'm not. I'm not saying, hey, Alan. Yeah, Come around. And then if he's wandering through the house and looking through, I'm going to be like, bro, what are you. What are you doing? It's not like I got stuff to hide. I don't have anything to hide. But it's like, you know, that's my stuff. It's my wife's stuff. You're not looking through it. Alan, what are you doing? Okay. And I think sometimes we have this mentality with Jesus in our lives. Okay? Now, I know we've probably heard this before. You got to open up all the doors and every room within your house. Now, some of us live a life where we've allowed God to speak into particular areas, but not other areas, because we know that there is going to have to be a transformation that happens. You know, it like, come on, you can't hide it. There's just that. Just that little area where we're hiding or it's a big area. The reason why I think Paul is saying, man, this, you would be strengthened in your inner being by the power of the spirit is so that you wouldn't. I mean you don't. I get it. You'd need strength to comprehend all the bigness of God's love, all the mercy. And I've heard these testimonies that. What I do believe though is that in the fullness of his love would you also receive his correction and rebuke. You're going to need a spiritual strength for that. There's going to need to be this planting with all the saints in understanding that Jesus has your best interests at heart and it's going to be found through his purposes. I believe that we need that strength within us to become receptive to the word of God. God. Amen. Point number two says this, remove what resists the word. James, in verse 21 he says this, therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness. There's a little progression. He doesn't just say receive the word. He says, create the conditions, create the atmosphere in our life. Slow to anger, I'm slow to speak, I'm quick to listen. I'm doing this. I'm going to submit myself to this. And now I'm going to remove all the obstacles that stop the word of God from landing in my life. Because there are things in this life that compete for the ground and the soil of your heart. And God is trying to plant in here and we've got all these other stuff that is kind of going on and we're allowing to happen within our world. Nobody plants seed into weeds, right? You pull out the weeds first. Nobody plants seed into thorns. Nobody plants seed into ground that has not been prepared like hard clay. You don't just throw the seed on top of that, right? You till it up. The issue has never been, I'm telling you, the power of the seed. The issue is the condition of the soil. James says there are things in the human heart that resist the work of God. Bitterness, pride, unforgiveness, hidden compromise, self reliance, offense, unrepentant sin within our world. And here's what makes this so dangerous is that most people want transformation while protecting the thing that is resisting it. We want God to heal us, but we keep feeding the offense in our world. We want God to change us, but we protect pride. We want freedom, but we refuse surrender in our life. James says put it away, don't manage it, can't manage sin. I'm just Letting you know that don't manage it. Don't justify it, don't explain it. Don't try and curate a little space for it. Put it away. Cut it out of your life. If you've got a porn problem, you're addicted to pornography. I say this to everyone that would come to me. The Bible sometimes uses particular wording. It says, chop off your right hand if it causes you to sin. Go get a dumb phone, I think they're called. You can't look on the Internet. You can't. And it's like, oh, but no, I got to do this. And that man. Cut off your right hand. Cut off the Internet in your house. Oh, but then I won't be able to do this. Cut off the sin. Like, just get rid of it in your world. It's too important that you would receive the word of God in your life, which changes your world. Whatever it is, cut off the source because the word grows strong in a clean heart. Jesus taught the same thing in the parable of the Sower sowed. And there was the one that landed shallow and it was choked out by weeds really quick, sprung up really quick. But as soon as there was a trial, it was gone. It was hard ground, thorny ground, ground that the birds could fly over and take away. And then there was good soil. Let's be a people who prepare good soil in our lives. Amen. I want you to go home and start asking yourself what in me is resisting what he is already saying? Is there an area of my life that I need to weed out? Man, I'm telling you, get people. This is why the community of God is so awesome. It says, confess to one another your sins. Pray for one another, and you will be healed. Confess to one another. We don't have to be the Joneses. I know it's Orange County. Everything's perfect. My life is fine. I have a halo on my head. It's floating like, three inches. And my response is, yeah, I know how that halo's been held up. There's two horns next to it. Just kidding. But you don't have to be perfect. That's not. It's not the expectation. But we do have to keep our eyes up and we have to keep our pursuit high towards God. And it's the people to your left and to your right that will help you. Amen. James goes on and gives us the answer for how to remove these blockages and how to open ourselves up for the Word to work on our lives. Point number three is here. And I'll finish up. Receive the implanted word. Receive it. Receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. This might be one of the most beautiful phrases in all of the book of James. The implanted word. It's not the admired word. It's not the recited word. It's not the known word, it's not the memorized word. It's the word that's been planted in your life, it's been planted in your heart. It's a rooted word that is going deep within your heart and it's sustaining and holding together and providing fruit in your life. That's the word I want. I know you don't remember everything that is said on a Sunday, okay? I know you don't. It's okay. I'm secure about it. But you gotta remember something and you gotta start putting it to work in your world. I don't want to hold TED talks. It's just like, guys, nice little bit of inspiration. Then you go on a Monday and you hit your first speed bump and you go, what am I, what am I going to do? Know that you would receive the word and you would say, man, the one thing I'm going to do this week is be slow to anger. And every time the anger comes up, I'm just, man, I'm going to prepare the conditions of my heart. It's too important to live this life with a. With a living and active word out there and a dead faith that exists in here. And so it's important that this word gets implanted within our soul because the word of God is pregnant. It's pregnant with new life, it's pregnant with fruit. And if we would just put it to work within our life. I'm telling you, it's not even just that it's good for your life. It's good for the lives around you. Fathers, it's good for your children, mothers, wives, husbands, it's good for your households, Teachers, it's good for your students, Plumbers, it's good for your toilet bowls, for your clients, real estate agents, good for your business. It's good for our lives when we start putting the word of God to use. This is where the kingdom of God is. It's not just known, it's experienced by people. The word of God was never, ever meant to sit in your notebook. It's meant to be planted in your heart. That's why my biggest encouragement is, if this is your only word of the week, then it's not enough. You have got to take this as Your manual for life. Open it up and read it. If you don't know what to read, you're like, oh, man, it's so confused, confusing. Start with a psalm and a proverb a day. Start reading the Gospels. Start reading John. It's the easiest one to read. I was like, oh, wow. This guy's like, so imagery. I see all this imagery as he's. As he's writing this out, as I'm reading this and read it out aloud. Don't read it in your mind. Start just speaking it as you read. But whatever you do, don't just read. Neglect the seed that God has given us to plant within our heart, that we would put it to you say, man. So stand here today. Thank you, Father, that you are a good God. Thank you, Lord. That your word would ever be planted within our soul. And it would be done with meekness, Father. That's not weakness. That is strength under control. That God, we would be a strong people in receiving your word. That God, we would put to use the truth that you have given us. I pray that if there are areas that have been neglected in our lives, areas that we have just kind of have closed the door on or have kept hidden in secret or maybe even it's an addiction that we do not want to give up. Like, it's kind of like a. It's. It's the candy in the hidden drawer in our house. Like, we love. We love stashing it there, and we love going there. But, God, I just pray that there would be a conviction. Not condemnation, but a conviction and an empowerment to overcome these things. I pray that your spirit would fill our inner being with a new strength. And I pray that we would actually be receivers of your word and the revelation would come to life in our world, that it would not just be dead or put to the side. So, God, I pray, pour out your spirit on us. Fill us with your living word. That it would activate us in our faith, that it would revive. Revive us in our faith. That we would be quick to listen, we would be slow to speak, we would be slow to anger. That we would put away all wickedness in our lives, Father. And that we would receive with a surrendered heart the word of God. That it would be implanted. That there would be fruit that grows up in our life. And God, I speak to old trees. I speak to trees that have brought no fruit, but they are like vines that are wrapping up their weeds. It's like lantana. It's like poison ivy. It's like poison oak that has gotten in the garden. I pray that just as Jesus cursed the fig tree, we curse those plants which bear no fruit in our world, there bear no fruit in our heart, Father, and that you would enlighten our eyes, enlighten our hearts. That we would see and we would prepare ourselves. And God, I just pray that we would be a people who were linked in arms and linked in heart. I pray that we would be a people who fight for the unity great, who stir ourselves up for good works, who stir one another up towards good works. That God, we would shine brightly like a city on a hill in the mighty name of Jesus. Hey, thanks for tuning in. There's a bunch of different ways that we connect throughout the week, including Sunday mornings, and we would love to see you there. You can check out all the details@c3oc.com.