Sunday 09:28:14 Calvary Baptist Church - Canyon Texas - David Crump, Pastor

Hearing and doing are what make the difference. - Andy Stanley

James 1:22-25

22. Do not merely listen; do. Listening without doing is deceptive.
We can come to church, sing the songs - even feel emotion.
But if we don't put into practice what we're learning, there's no real growth.

23-24. a word picture - we fix the outside but not the inside
Coming to realize after being in Gods word yourself or hearing Gods word and realizing you need to make a change
Honor God with your body,
Invest more time in your kids,
Or more in your marriage,
To become aware that something needs to change and then to leave and do nothing is like looking at a mirror, and forgetting what you see.

It'd be like getting up in the morning and looking in the mirror and see you need a shave, your hair is flat on one side and standing on the other, your teach need brushed, but you immediately forget and do nothing and go to school or work.

You stand in front of the mirror until you're better - until it's fixed
You do something about what you see.

James says when you read or hear the a Word of a God and become aware that you need to confess, or forgive someone, or address an addiction, or honor God with your body or your finances, or your marriage, or a relationship, an apology I need to make - if you become aware of the need for change and do nothing...
It's as foolish as looking into a mirror and forgetting what you've seen.

There's no credit for just being aware - God lovingly calls us to change.
We'll spend hours in a week on the outside, but it's the heart issues, habit issues, relationship issues, forgiveness issues, attitude issues that cause moral or relational or financial crashes in our lives.
Why wouldn't we dare to walk away from an issue in our appearance, but we refuse to deal with the internal issues we've been confronted with?
25. God's law gives freedom
The younger we are and the less time we've followed Christ, the more baffling this is. Seems like the Scriptures are filled with "NO" - not freedom.
God' sword seems restrictive, not freeing.

But then you gain some life experience and you find its true.

Money: Bible teaches us to be generous, don't spend all your money on yourself. Your money is not your money. Don't go into debt.
Give, save, then live on the rest. If you do that, you'll have financial freedom.
It works because the Bible is true and if you follow its teachings - if you apply them - if you put them into practice you'll find freedom.

Forgiveness: the perfect law that gives freedom says when someone hurts you, forgive. But we don't want to. Someone hurt me. I'm going to hold it against them. I'm not going to let them off. Why would I give them the gift of forgiveness?
The Bible says, cancel their debt. Forgive.

You know people who haven't forgiven. They are angry, bitter. And people around them suffer. People wound them get all the venom from some other relationship.

But we know that when we forgive, the person being set free is us.
We know that forgiveness removes the shackles - not from the person who hurt us - it removes the shackles from our own hands and feet.
There's freedom when you apply Gods Word and forgive.

The Bible teaches to honor God with your body and with what you put in your body. When you're young that seems so restrictive.
Honor God with where you take your body,
Honor God with what you look at,
Honor God with your relationships - with your sexuality.

There is freedom in God's perfect law, but only when we practice it.
Only when we do something with what we hear.
Jesus Christ died to set us free.
But you're only free when you do something with what you hear.
There is blessing when we hear and do.