Spring City Fellowship
260816Sunday
Sunday August 16, 2026 10:15AM Service

      • Psalm 150:3NIV2011

  • God You're So Good
  • Fairest Lord Jesus (Schönster Herr Jesu) V4
  • Great Are You Lord
  • Worthy
  • Build My Life
  • Let It Be Jesus

      • Philippians 4:19NIV2011

  • Our theme for 2026 is “Embrace Transformation”
    And our New Testament book study for this theme is in the book of James.
    I am calling this series on the Book of James, “Faith that works.”
    Faith has to work.
    It’s not enough to believe it, you have to do it.
    It has to change you in fundamental ways so that you embrace transformation.
    Faith is not just a belief system, it is the application of that belief system to our lives, to our daily choices and to what we consider to be important.
    Last week we talked about how faith is a process.
    It doesn’t start out fully formed -it’s tested.
    As you get it right repeatedly, that becomes endurance.
    When you endure, you are in a positive spiral - that’s what it means to be complete.
    It’s not a place that you arrive, but its a life characterized by sustained spiritual growth.
    We’re still in James chapter one -but we are going to build on this idea of sustained spiritual growth.
    We know it is a positive spiral of turning our tests into endurance.
    Maintaining a good attitude-
    Keeping God at the center of our spiral keeps us headed in the right direction.
    What does this look like on a more personal level?
    I hear what James is saying, but how do I actually do it?
    I’m glad you asked - your already at step one!
    First we need to become observant listeners.
    Don’t assume that you know everything.
    Then we need to become responsive followers.
    Understand your identity in Christ.
    And learn how to operate from that identity.
    This turns our whole understanding of faith or religion around.
    Instead of doing what we do to try to become something.
    We internalize what God says about us, and that becomes the source of both our thoughts and our actions.
    Toward the end of the chapter, James mentions religion:
    For many, religion is a system of belief with corresponding practices.
    Some people don’t even know what they believe, they just practice religion without really knowing what its about.
    Other people know what they believe, but they are confident that their knowing is enough - they minimize the practical part.
    Faith that works is not one or the other - it’s both.
    It has to be both - because one without the other is really nothing at all.
    Let’s pick up in the second half of chapter one with James's description of faith that works.

    Observant Listeners.

    James 1:19–21 ESV
    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. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
    For scholars reading these verses in Greek, the very first word grabs their attention - know this!
    Why, because there are different words in Greek for knowing.
    The one most often used is ginosko - it is a knowledge based on experience.
    Most of our knowing comes from learning and we are constantly growing in our knowing.
    This word is iste from the root word oida - it is knowing by observation.
    Its often translated as knowing with certainty - it’s a fact “jack!”
    Based on everything that has already been said about the positive spiral and he negative spiral - James gives us a solid conclusion.
    The one thing you can know for sure is just how much you don’t know!
    I don’t care how smart you are - if you were really smart, you would also be humble.
    I have had the privilege of a higher education - I can tell you that what I have learned from a higher education is that there is even more that I don’t know than what I previously thought!
    Real knowledge is humbling.
    It begs the question:

    How much do you really know?

    There is a model for evangelism that asks a person to draw a circle representing all that they know. Then they are asked to draw a circle representing all that they don’t know. If a person is intellectually honest, the second circle should be much larger than the first. Then you ask them, “Is it possible that God exists in the circle of what you do not yet know?”
    That is a question we should consider, not just in coming to faith, but even after.
    Ok, so God is in the circle of what you know, but how much about God is there yet to discover?
    I remember when I began studying for the degree of Master of Divinity - the irony hit me - does anyone ever master divinity? One of my professors suggested that the degree title should be “mastered by divinity” We never master God, the goal is to be mastered by God - to be more fully surrendered to Him.
    Nobody likes a know-it-all. Why would anyone want to be one?
    Why do I insist on saying whatever comes to mind as if I actually know what I am talking about?
    Well, I guess someone needs to start the conversation, and as one time, that person was usually me.
    The problem was that I also wanted to be the one to finish the conversation...
    Can anyone relate?
    Somewhere along the way I learned that what I don’t know is far more interesting and often far more important that what I already know.
    I learned to listen more than I speak.
    After all, God gave you two ears and only one mouth.
    Some would say its a sign… that we should listen twice as much as what we presume to speak.
    Notice that already in this verse, we are moving from a self-centered perspective to an other-centered perspective.
    The repetition of the word “slow” (slow to speak, slow to become angry) reinforced the idea of what it means to really listen.
    The words quick and slow are purposely contrasted.
    Anger is usually something that arises quickly.
    Listening only comes as we slow down.
    So listen quickly only happens as it is transposed with our anger response.
    That leads us to another question:

    Are your responses really helpful?

    In his book “Overcoming Emotions that Destroy” Chip Ingram declares that anger is a secondary emotion. That is to say, it is often an immediate reaction, but it really represents something else. I could be an unmet need, an unmet expectation or something that we perceive a threatening. I could also be a real sense of injustice. The point he makes is that anger becomes an opportunity to explore what is really going on in our hearts.
    James mentions anger specifically for precisely that reason - anger represents so many different kinds of emotional responses.
    Anger is the catch-all emotion.
    As a counselor, I often say, anger is what you feel when you don’t know what you are feeling.
    It’ like the warning light on your dashboard, telling you something is wrong.
    Anger is not the problem, it just tells you that you have a problem.
    What’s the problem? I don’t know - that why we have to learn to slow down and to listen!
    That’s not all James say about anger - he makes a profound statement right here in verse 20.
    James 1:20 NLT
    20 Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.
    Remember how we said last week that becoming who God made us to be is really a process.
    There is the positive spiral of letting the tests of life shape us until we learn to be consistent in growing spiritually.
    And he negative spiral is just the opposite - its just going along with your own selfish desires.
    It’s going with what you feel and blaming God for whatever happens.
    You gradually mess up your own life all while declaring that it’s not your fault.
    You end up a bitter, angry person - mad at the world - mad at God - not taking any responsibility for yourself.
    That’s not the way it’s supposed to go - it’s just the opposite of what God intended.
    Our default emotional responses are not going to point us in the direction of becoming all that God wants us to become.
    There has to be a turning around.
    What is needed is just the opposite of our human nature.
    The Bible calls it repentance - it literally means to turn around.
    Acts 3:19 ESV
    19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,
    Anger comes naturally, listening takes intention - moving from one response to another requires turning around.
    Our orientation toward God, ourselves and others needs to completely change.
    In the upward spiral, God is at the center.
    But we are at the center of our own downward spiral.
    And that’s not all, James talks about making a radical choice to turn form what we now know as “filthy” and “wicked”
    Keep in mind, that he is talking about the same sin that was the object of desire just a few verses ago.
    That is what it means to turn around - the same things that you used to want to do, you no longer want to do them.
    You see things differently.
    And there is a new humility which results in a n increased receptivity.
    We become better able to listen, to really hear and to grow.
    Observant listeners become responsive followers.

    Responsive Followers.

    James 1:22–25 ESV
    22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 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. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 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.
    Life is not lived in a vacuum - words and ideas are only as good as he actions that they produce.
    Faith is like that too.
    So you have faith - so what?
    What does your faith actually do?
    SO when I was in seminary, there was always a component of our studies where we were supposed to apply what we learned to our ministry context.
    Without that part, you are just creating scholars who don’t know how to function in the real world.
    Education without practice means that you are releasing people into the workforce who have no idea what they are doing.
    If all they have ever work with is theoretical, their education is only good in theory.
    Try doing something with what you know - that's the only way you can know what you are doing.
    It’s not enough to know something, you have to know what to do with what you know.
    So what is it that God wants us to know?

    The Word of God shows us who we are.

    James gives this analogy of looking in a mirror.
    Looking into the Word of God is like looking in the mirror.
    There are a couple of things about this analogy that were different when James was writing this.
    First, mirrors are very common today - they were not so common in ancient times.
    You probably looked in the mirror this morning _ I hope so!
    In fact you may have a mirror in just about every room of your house.
    So when you read that person looks in a mirror and forgets what hey look like - our minds go to - well they can just look in another mirror.
    The other thing that is different is that the Word of God is also more common today in America.
    Most of us immediately think of the Bible.
    Most of us have just about as many Bibles in our home as we have mirrors.
    We might hear this verse saying that we should read the Bible as often as we look in the mirror - that would be a good thing - but that’s not what it is saying.
    Just as mirrors in ancient times were rather special, having a copy of the scriptures - the OT in this case - was also very rare and special.
    The point that James is making - is exactly opposite of what we would think - you are not going to forget looking in a mirror because it doesn’t happen every day.
    Neither are you going to forget what God says about you - it’s that special!
    In fact the Word of God is a sort of mirror - it actually shows you who you are.
    Or more accurately, who God made you to be.
    The average person in ancient times only had a general idea as to what they look like.
    But the rare time that you got to see your reflection for yourself was a real eye-opener - you got to see the truth so clearly!
    This is who you really are! - This is what you really look like!
    You get to find out if everyone else was exaggerating or not.
    The word of God is like that- it shows us the beauty and the flaws.
    It’s an objective standard- and what we see is often startling!

    Our actions come from our identity.

    They say seeing is believing - I can’t help but think that that the reason many people do not become all that God meant for them to be is that they never really looked into that mirror.
    They read the Bible just to say they did it, but they haven’t understood what they read and hey never apply it to themselves.
    We should read the Bible expecting to be challenged in the way that we think and live.
    There is a method of Bible study that had long been used in missions and among unreached people groups called “Discovery Bible Study”
    The idea is to read a passage, often with a group, reading multiple times - just as in Lectio Divina.
    However, in discovery Bible study, you learn to ask the questions - what does this passage say about God, the world and myself?
    You learn to recognize that the whole purpose of the Bible is to show us who God is and how he relates to us as humanity.
    The final question we ask is “how can I obey God with what I have learned?”
    Learning about God and ourselves is incomplete without obedience.
    We have to do something with what we know, otherwise - what’s the point of knowing?
    Let’s go back to the mirror - who does God say you are?
    You are His child - His son or daughter.
    God has a plan and a purpose for you life.
    You are in Christ - a new creation, a saint, an ambassador.
    You are called, chosen by God joining Him on His mission.
    What does it change to change the way you see yourself - it changes everything!
    Remember I said last week that James is reiterating Jesus’s sermon on the mount?
    Does what we just read sound like this passage?
    Matthew 7:24–27 ESV
    24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
    Knowing and doings becomes the foundation of our life.
    Knowledge by itself is a weak foundation.
    You think you know what you look like, but you don’t really know.
    But a knowledge that is coupled with obedience is a sure foundation.

    True Religion (Faith that Works).

    James 1:26–27 ESV
    26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
    I don’t know about you but the phrase ”true religion” calls to mind images of hippies, new-agers maybe a song or two by that name.
    When people talk about “true religion” they are usually protesting what they see as false religion.
    That has led some Christians to claim that they’re not religious, they just love the Lord!
    James is countering a specific religious context as well.
    He’s writing from Jerusalem the center of Judaism to a dispersed group of people who encountered the risen Christ,
    received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost
    and then traveled back to their communities,
    now a minority of a minority in their Jewish communities in Gentile cities.
    How do they show their religious communities that what they have experienced is real?
    They need to demonstrate a faith that works.

    Faith that works begins with aligning your words to those of God.

    We already talked about how words must lead to action.
    It’s not enough to say you believe, it has to change the way you live.
    Now James is saying that sometimes it may be best not to say anything at all.
    Why would he say that?
    Probably because religious forms often do just the opposite.
    Religion says “If you say this and do this, then you are approved by God”
    There is no way to really know if it is genuine, as long as you say and do the right things.
    That’s all fine and good, but sooner or later you slip up and say what you really think!
    And you show that your religion is merely a facade.
    Words are powerful things both for good and for evil.
    Back in verses 19-21, angry human words are contrasted with the living Word of God which brings salvation.
    The implication is that your own choice of words are likely to make things worse.
    Only God’s Word makes things right.
    The picture of religion that James is portraying here is someone that speaks God’s words but they are not coming from the heart.
    Why is that a problem? Because is an unguarded moment, you are going to speak other words which show what’s really in you heart.
    James is going to going into a lot more detail about this in a later chapter.
    Our words have to align with God’s word - if not, they may work against what God is doing.
    God’s Word is alive and formative.
    Hebrews 4:12 NLT
    12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
    Earlier in this chapter he talked about God’s Word being implanted, like an embryo attaching itself to the womb.
    Or like a plant taking root.
    From there is grows and changes everything.
    And that is the picture that contrasts with religion - religion begins with outward forms and tries to change a person from the outside in.
    Real faith starts from the inside and works its way out.

    Faith that works begins on the inside and radiates outward.

    All of Israel’s laws - the 613 rules that were derived from the Torah.
    The whole goal and purpose was to make people pure - clean and acceptable to God.
    James drops a bomb on this idea -
    all those rules and rituals couldn’t really cleanse you
    all God really wanted was your heart!
    And the evidence of a heart toward God is how you treat people made in His image.
    When Jesus died on the cross, He did what religion could never do - He gave access to God.
    Mark 15:38 ESV
    38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
    There it is - you’re in.
    Unfortunately, often times religion does more to keep people from God than it does to reconcile people to God.
    Jesus dealt with that at the cross.
    So if religion is not rules and fancy curtains, what does it look like.
    It looks like people and access.
    Widows and orphans, in James’ society were people without access.
    This is tribal society, everything goes through the family.
    If you don’t have a family, you don’t have a voice.
    You have no one to stick up for you and no legal rights.
    James says that if you have a faith that works, this is becomes your family.
    God is the Father of all of us; everyone has access.
    This is not anything goes religion - the world is still opposed to God and His plan.
    But what God is doing is not coming from the world.
    It’s not coming from the outside, it’s coming from the inside and radiating on the outside.
    If it were merely external, it could fade or stain like a garment.
    But this is the real deal - not a fake cover up.
    It’ the glory of God - no longer concealed behind a curtain but dwelling in the hearts of people - all kinds of people everywhere.
    It’s faith that works because its real from the inside out.

    Questions for reflection:

    How are you doing with listening? Can you slow down enough to hear what people are saying before you become angry? Can you turn a negative spiral into a positive one?
    What do you see when you look in the mirror? How about when you look into the Word of God as a metaphorical mirror? Who does God say you are? Is that how you see yourself?
    Are you a religious person? What does that even mean to you? Does it mean that live your life according to certain rules and expectations? Or is your faith something that comes from deep inside you and radiates outward through your actions?

      • James 1:19–21ESV

      • James 1:20ESV

      • Acts 3:19ESV

      • James 1:22–25ESV

      • Matthew 7:24–27ESV

      • James 1:26–27ESV

      • Hebrews 4:12ESV

      • Mark 15:38ESV

  • May The Words Of My Mouth
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