John Lloyd - Authentic Christianity Pt. 3

Authentic Christianity

Building a Healthy SoulJames 1:19-25

October 8, 2017

Pastor John Lloyd

Passage: James 1:19-25

My prayer is that God will use the truths from this passage to help us develop a spiritually healthy soul in our walk with God and others.  

Big Idea: Our souls are the healthiest when we apply what we hear.  

I. Healthy believers ______________ well to God and others.

James 1:19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

“Beware of the dialogues of the deaf.”  Paul Tournier

“If we can’t listen well, we will be spiritually impoverished.”  

“Lord, speak to me!  You have sixty seconds.”   

Mark 4:24 And he said to them “Pay attention to what you hear:”

Luke 8:18 “Take care then how you hear,”  ( Mt. 13:13, Hebrews 5:11)

Some suggestions: 

1. Work at listening to others. Repeat what you hear them saying. 

2. Limit our exposure to visual media. 

3. Read God’s word. listen as we read. 

4. Slow down to listen. Pray I Samuel 3:10 “Speak for your servant is listening” 

5. Prepare your heart and soul to hear God’s word.  

II. Healthy believers ____________ words that edify God and others.

James 1:19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, 

Proverbs 13:3 Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.  (Proverbs 15:1)

Proverbs 10:19 When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.  (Ecclesiastes 5:2)

Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.  (Philippians 4:8, I Thessalonians 5:11, Ephesians 4:15)

Questions to ask:  Are these words necessary, helpful, or healing?

III. Healthy believers allow the Holy Spirit to ________ their emotions.

James 1:19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

“If you are not growing spiritually, one of these three things of James 1:19 is holding you up.”  Warren Wiersbe

Proverbs 16:32 Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

Proverbs 29:11 A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.

“An angry spirit is never a listening teachable spirit. When we feast on anger and bitterness—the feast is us.”  Kent Hughes

• All anger is not bad.

• Allow anger to be a signal that something is wrong.

• Justified or not, anger is never to control me.

• I become a slave to the person who causes my anger.  

A. Lay aside the ______________________ of our fallen hearts.

James 1:21a “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness”

Romans 13:12b So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.  (Hebrews 12:1, Zechariah 3:1, 3:5)

Mark 4:19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

B. Receive without reservation the ____________ of God.

James 1:21b and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

John 15:3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.  (Psalm 25:9, Mark 4:20, Acts 17:11)

“Speak, your servant is listening!”  I Samuel 3:10

I. Healthy believers ______________ what they hear.

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

“Too many people mark their bibles, but their bibles never mark them.” 

Warren Wiersbe

James 1:23 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. 24For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

“To hear and not take action is worthless. To hear and not take action is to lie to oneself.”  

James 1:25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

“Looks”- more than a casual glance, looks carefully and closely Jn.20:5

Prayer:  Lord, help me to have a soul absorbing study of your Word.

“Satan portrays sin as the greatest freedom and God’s Word as the greatest bondage, but just the reverse is true.”  Roger Ellsworth

James 1:25b “being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”  John 13:17

Blessed is not just being happy, but it is being fulfilled, whole & healthy! 

We were made by God and for God.  Doesn’t it make sense that we can only find fulfillment in God? And living for God?  

Our souls are the healthiest when we apply what we hear.