Don't Just Listen, Take a Step

Have you ever watched enough how-to videos on YouTube that you start thinking you could probably do it? If you watch enough cooking videos, you might start thinking you could compete with Bobby Flay, but then someone hands you a skillet. Watching someone cook doesn’t teach your hands how to cook.

Learning is a great place to begin, but a terrible place to stop. Learning prepares you to actually do, it was never meant to replace doing.

And this might be the greatest spiritual danger in the American church because we’ve never had more access to the Word of God than we do right now. The problem isn’t that we’re learning too much, it’s that we’re comfortable stopping there. Access is not the issue, change is.

We assume that because we’ve heard something, we’ve done something, or that because we agree with something, we’ve applied it.

Follow
Sunday is full of information, and we learn so much, then Monday comes, and nothing changes. We think we’re following Jesus, but we’re not. And maybe part of the problem is that we’ve redefined one of Jesus’ favorite words – follow.

Think about the word “follow.” Today we “follow” tons of people online. Following is casual, convenient, and completely on our terms.

We say we’re “followers of Jesus,” but what we really mean is that we like His content. Following Jesus has never meant casually consuming His teaching. It’s always meant to obey and do it.

What happens when hearing becomes a substitute for doing? Why is it so much easier to hear God’s Word than to obey it?

It’s not that we don’t know what Jesus said, it’s that we know exactly what He said, and we know it’s going to cost us something.

Every time we’re faced with that decision, whether we’ll stay comfortable or become obedient, that’s where the gap is created. The gap between hearing and doing isn’t knowledge, it’s obedience.

How To Receive
There’s a process to gardening. You have to pull out the weeds, break up the soil, and prepare the ground to receive the seed. The seed isn’t the issue, it’s the condition of the soil, the foundation.

Before James tells us what to do with God’s Word, he first asks whether we’re actually prepared to receive God’s Word. The issue isn’t that God’s Word lacks power to transform our lives, the issue is whether the soil of our hearts is prepared to receive it.

James 1
19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness 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.

Humility
Have you ever had a direct or difficult conversation with someone and you start by saying, “Now before I start, I don’t want you to get angry?”

• Be quick to listen
• Be slow to speak
• Be slow to become angry

All of those things share a common trait: preparation.

James says: Come to the Word of God and God’s direction in your life with the same posture. Lord, what do You want to say? Lord, you have the floor, I’m listening.

James tells us we need this approach because if we don’t, we don’t become people who can receive what God has for us. Real faith begins when we stop arguing with God’s Word long enough to let it speak to us.

Therefore
A good rule in studying the Bible is that anytime you see “therefore,” go find out what it’s “there for.” How do we prepare to receive the Word humbly?

James 1
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.

First remove, then accept. You can’t do one without the other. Our hearts were never meant to be storage units for two competing voices. You can’t cling to your sin and fully receive God’s Word simultaneously.

James uses strong language here: moral filth and the evil. He’s describing anything in our lives that competes with God’s authority and voice. This means we need to get rid of the obvious sins in our lives that make the news every night and then get rid of the ones that no one knows about.

Sin in our lives isn’t just open rebellion against God’s Word, it’s a reasonable explanation for why we think some things are okay when Scripture tells us they’re not.

James 1
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 someone 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 whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

Mirrors
When you get ready in the morning, do you do it without a mirror? Probably not. Imagine getting ready for church without a mirror, then heading over to the mirror, only to see a project. Then imagine walking away and doing nothing about it. The mirror isn’t the problem, ignoring what it showed you is.

Don’t just look into the mirror and admire it, do what it says.

James 1
 22 Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

James doesn’t say you’ve fooled other people. He doesn’t even say you fooled God. He says you’ve fooled yourself.

You can’t see clearly because you’ve distorted the truth for yourself. The real danger isn’t ignoring the mirror, it’s thinking you responded when you really didn’t. That’s self-deception.

James 1
25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. 26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their 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.

Chatter & Compassion
The first place you’ll see God’s Word is in your words.

Luke 6
45 Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Your words are a window into your soul. But it also changes how you see people, widows, and orphans. Widows and orphans because in James’ time, they represented the most vulnerable people in society. And today, we still have widows and orphans. But James isn’t asking us to identify broken people like they’re projects, He’s asking us to move towards vulnerable people.

If we want to live out a religion that God accepts, we need to be a people who embody love towards those who are vulnerable or in need of relationship. Become a family where someone doesn’t know what family feels like.

Character
In verse 27, James isn’t talking about isolation, he’s talking about the world's influence on us. If someone spent a week with you, would they conclude your life is being shaped by Christ or cable news?

God’s Word changes what comes out of your mouth, who you move towards, and who you become.

It’s almost as if James is saying that he doesn’t want to hear another sermon, he wants to see one. God is calling you forward, which means there’s probably something you need to leave behind.

When we obey God’s Word, that’s how real faith grows. And it’s not in one giant leap, but one obedient step after another.