RelationSHIFT | Part 4 | From Information To Transformation

Well, hey, my name's Ryan, if we haven't met yet. I'm the lead pastor here and I just want to say welcome home, welcome to all those that might be watching from Commons or you're traveling and watching online, but especially our Liberty Correctional TC fam. Would you give it up for our Liberty Correctional family that's joining us today? We are in week three of a series that we've called Relationships and I want to kind of lead with this question that I want you to consider a little bit. Have you ever realized or come to be aware that there's a big difference between knowing that something works and actually doing what you know, right? Like knowing versus doing. I think about exercise, I think about getting back in shape, oftentimes that's something that many of us are hoping to be able to do and most of us know how to do it. We know we got to quit going through McDonald's drive-through, we know that we got to start moving a little bit more, we know we got to be more consistent with that movement, but just knowing the things to do doesn't get us healthier or in shape because we've got to do those things. I think about our relationships. Many of us know that we need to be a better communicator, right, in our relationships, but what does that require? Well, you know, we all know that we've got to listen more, right? We got to be slower to get, you know, offended or rubbed the wrong way. We've got to be quicker to apologize. I see some of you ladies like elbowing your husband next to you. We know the things that we got to do to be a better communicator in relationships, but knowing doesn't do it. You got to live it out. You got to make the decision to practice it. And the reality is in life that knowing isn't enough, that you have to take what you know and apply it and do it. And that's not just kind of a law of how we live our lives to experience things, but it's

also very similar in our spiritual lives that we can know what to do. We can know all about God. We could be around church. That's why many times we can be around the things of God but never really experience God because we know about Him but it's the doing part that we struggle with. And so, you know, we have these moments, these seasons where we get confused at, you know, why am I reading my Bible but nothing is changing in my life? Why am I making these good decisions but nothing is shifting? Why am I going to church but I still feel stuck? And today, if you've been in a season like that, if you've been in a time where you've struggled with some of those questions as I have too in my own life, then today could be the answer that you've been praying for. And the reason why I say it could be the answer is because sometimes the shift that God is inviting us into isn't a shift to know more about Him. It's a shift to start applying and doing what we already know. And so today, I want us to lean into a topic. We're going to be looking at James chapter 1 today but I want us to lean into a topic and as you know, all shifts are difficult when we are going from what we're currently doing to what God is inviting us into. It's always a challenging shift but it also comes with a blessing. And so we're going to talk about that today in James chapter 1. I want to talk to you from this, about this shift in our life from information to transformation. How we go from information to transformation. Turn with me to James chapter 1 and while you're doing that, I want to invite just the Holy Spirit into this moment. Father, today as we open Your Word, Lord speak to us. Lord, today we don't want to be inspired by information. Today we want our hearts to be stirred to see how we can take that information, apply it in our life so we can experience all that You have for us. So Lord, we just, we invite You into this moment, into our hearts, into the space.

Speak to us, move through our lives, in Jesus' name, amen, amen. So James, if you didn't know, James is the half-brother of Jesus. And essentially he's the pastor of the church in Jerusalem. And James is writing this letter and he's writing the letter, I kind of think about this as like a modern day church-wide text message. Like it doesn't matter if you're on the Transformation Church, if you've stopped by guest services or whatever, like we got your phone number and every once in a while something big's going on and so we'll send a text message. And that text message goes out whether you're coming every week, whether, you know, you come once a month, or maybe you've even moved out of Tallahassee area but your number is still connected to your time here. And no matter where you are, you end up getting this text message about whatever the announcement is. And this letter that James is writing is kind of like that. It's like that because the believers, which that's who he is specifically writing to, the believers are experiencing all of this pressure and persecution. And so what's happened is they have began to disperse out around the region. So it's not like James can just walk into his church and preach a sermon one time and touch everybody that he is influencing. He's having to get this message out to not just believers in Jerusalem, but believers that have began to move out into the regions around. And this letter is coming from a heart that is worried because James is, he's observing the way that these believers are responding to the pressure and the persecution, and he's not as concerned that they're going to start believing the wrong things. That's not what James is writing this letter for. He's more concerned about what he's seeing. What he's seeing is that the things that they believe about the Word, about what they have experienced with Jesus is not translating into their everyday lives. And so they have this belief, but yet the way in which they are responding and living out their life doesn't align with that belief.

And when you think about just human nature, but you think about even the culture that we live in today, you know, not much is different. You and I live in a culture that is saturated with spiritual content. Like you and I have access to sermons and podcasts and YouTube videos, right? Powerful reels, quotes that we see on social media that we could share, like Christian merchandise and Christian radio, and like we're saturated. In fact, we're so saturated, I think that we have access, we can access more spiritual content in 24 hours than Christians throughout history could in their entire lifetime. And so the challenge is, is not that we don't have access to it. The challenge is, is we can believe in the Bible, we can believe in what God says, we can be immersed in it, and it's still not changed us. And so, so James is seeing that kind of thing happen with the believers in, in his area. And I want you to see what, what he writes. He says, my dear brothers and sisters, again he's talking to believers, not unbelievers, take note of this, in other words, hey, this is, this is pretty important. He says everyone, so even the ones that have been hurt, even the ones that are justified, you know, technically in, in their responses, he's like listen, everyone, no matter where you've been, what you've done, what has been done to you, everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Now let me, let me ask you a question. If we had to grade how the United States of America is doing with being quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to become anger, if you had to, if you had to give a grade, how many would give, give America an A? Anybody? All right. How many a B, C, D plus, D, D minus, F, any Fs? Yeah, okay, so here's where it gets a little bit more challenging. How are you doing? Like what grade would you give yourself if you went back and looked at your social media post over the last 12 months?

What grade would you give yourself with this if you had to think about some of the conversations that you've had with friends in the last month or two months? How well would you do with this? And James has seen something here that he's really concerned with and here's what he says. He says, because human anger, that it doesn't produce the righteousness that God desires. He's like, listen, this is a big deal. This isn't just a self-help like letter that you can choose to do if you want to. Like this is a big deal as believers in Christ. We've got to quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to get angry. And this word angry is interesting because, you know, it would be easy for us to read that and kind of disregard it because in our mind we don't see ourselves as an angry person. But if you're anything like me, like it's kind of my wife gets on to me a little bit because I almost refuse to say that I'm angry. I use the word frustrated because frustrated sounds a lot better. It doesn't sound as significant and bad as angry does. And we have a joke kind of running in the house that whenever I die, I want my tombstone to just say I'm frustrated. Like I'm frustrated, that's like the phrase that I say all the time. And when you look at this word in the original language, it's, yes, it can ultimately mean like this internal rage that leads to violence, but that's not the heart of what this word means in the original language. It's more of a simmering. It's more of when somebody offends you or does you wrong like you might not go throw fists and, you know, beat them up, but you're having conversations. You have this like feeling towards them that is constantly there. It's like a crock pot that's just constantly simmering. Maybe somebody kind of wounded your ego or your pride and so you have this response. And that's what James is referring to when he uses this word angry. And he says, listen, it's a big deal because if we allow that to continue to simmer in

our life, then it ends up producing the kind of life that God doesn't desire us to have. And I think this last part is huge because it could be easy for us to look at grace as, you know, an excuse to live however we want to live our life. And this helps us see that from God's perspective, it's not just about salvation. It's about the kind of people we become and the kind of life that we live. And so he goes on, James goes on and he says, listen, therefore because it's producing a righteousness that God doesn't desire, here's what you got to do. He's like, listen, you got to get rid of all the moral filth and the evil. Look at this that's so prevalent. He's talking to believers, right? Like you see this word evil and moral filth and so prevalent and our natural instinct is to think about other people but who James is writing this to are the church goers. They're the Bible readers. They're the ones that are listening to worship in the car on the way to work. And he's saying, listen, you've got to get rid this word or phrase get rid meant to do away with like old clothing or dirty clothing. I like to kind of use this analogy. It's kind of like a snake that sheds its skin in order to continue to grow because if it doesn't shed its skin, then it can never get beyond its current growth of what that skin will allow. And in essence, what James is saying is, listen, you all, we all go through. through this journey and process in our life where we've got to continually get rid of the old in order for us to be able to step into the new. This idea of growth, and he says, you've got to be able to humbly, the position of our heart matters, the way that we view God's Word matters, but we've got to humbly accept the Word that's been planted in you, that when you came to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that He plants His Word in your heart, and I think what's interesting about what we see here is that he says this, he says, listen, that Word, that it can save you. Now if you notice, he uses the word can because at the end of the day, it's not about

whether the Word that's planted in us is powerful or not. It's about whether we're obedient enough or not. And he says, he uses this word save, and this is a cool word. It's in the original language, it's sozo. This word sozo means that it is a rescuing and then a restoring. It's this idea of in our lives, the selfish, the worldly decisions that we make, right? It creates problems. It creates challenges in our life, and this idea of sozo is that when we take the Word that is planted in us and we humbly accept it, and he's going to unpack what that looks like here in a second, that it is a rescuing out of the damage that we create in our own life, but it's not just a rescuing out of, it's an aligning into God's ultimate purpose and plan for our life. And he says this, he says this next, listen, don't merely listen to the Word. This word listen, it means to, it's like when you go to class, you audit a class in college and you sit in it and you're there for the knowledge but you don't get credit for it, and that's what this word means, and he's saying don't just, don't just listen to what the Word says and so deceive yourself, but you have to do what it says. And that's the shift that God is inviting you and I into, a shift that moves from just listening and being exposed to the things of God to actually doing what it says. I find this fascinating that James says, and so deceive yourselves because most of us would probably make the assumption that it's Satan that is deceiving us, but when we, when we listen to the Word but we don't do what it says, we're the ones deceiving ourselves. He says this, he says listen, anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says, look at this analogy he uses of the mirror, says it like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, isn't it interesting in our culture when we think about laws, we think of restrictions, but in the kingdom of God, law brings freedom, right, and continues in it, right, so you're looking intently into the mirror which represents the Word of God, His truth in our life that when we look intently

into it and we continue in it, and it's so valuable for us that we're not just constantly forgetting it, and we do it, that it's those people that will be blessed in what they do. Friend, do you know what the blessing is? The blessing's not a bigger bank account, it's not nicer cars, bigger homes, the blessing is sozo. It's the things that you look at in the rear view mirror of your life that you feel like there's, there's no hope, that when we begin. to align ourselves with God's Word and we begin to live it out that God steps into the old mistakes and the things that we have done and He redeems us from that and then He restores us back into alignment of His purpose and His plan for our life. Maybe you came today and you're like, you're thinking, you're looking in the rearview mirror of your life and you're looking at all the mistakes and the shortcomings and the regrets and you're wondering if anything could ever change. Like this is the best that maybe life has to offer because of what I've done and what I've been through. And James would argue with that point. James would say, no, if you begin to listen to the Word, if you begin to take that and then begin to apply it in your life, the blessing ultimately that you start walking in as the blessing of Him rescuing you out of your past and redeeming that for a better future. See ultimately what, what James is, is getting at here is he, he wants us to see that when it comes to the mirror of God's Word that you and I, there's really only two responses to His mirror. That the first response is that we can glance at the mirror and go. The second response is that we can gaze at the mirror of His Word and do. James is like, listen, if you live your life this way, you're going to deceive yourself. You're going to think that your relationship with God, you're going to think that you're spiritually more mature than you really are and ultimately that's what James is going after in this text is it's not about perfection in the way we live our life, it's about maturity. And he says if you just kind of glance at, at the Word and you go about your day that

you're ultimately going to deceive yourself, but if you'll gaze, if you'll look intently into His Word and do what it says, then the promise there is that we'll be blessed. So the question that you and I have to wrestle with every day of our life because it's not a one-time thing is which response are we going to choose to have? Are we going to choose to glance at His Word and go or are we going to choose to gaze at His Word and do? You see, I want to take a minute and I want to get, I want to get practical because, because if James was right, then how you and I respond to the mirror of His Word in our life, it's going to determine the kind of life that you and I experience. And so, if we're going to respond in a way, if we're going to respond by gazing and doing, then, then the first thing that we've got to do is that we've got to look intently into His Word. Now, James uses this analogy of a mirror and I'm sure that your house is similar to my house. I have really two mirrors that I use every day. I have a big mirror that's in our living room and I have a smaller mirror that is over my sink in the bedroom. And those two mirrors have two different functions for me. The mirror in the living room is, is one that I just kind of, I kind of glance at. Like I get in front of, I make sure that, you know, the fit looks okay. Like this morning I got in front of it and I thought the jacket that I had on before this one just didn't look right and, and so I changed jackets because some mirrors are designed to just kind of glance at. And the only thing that you notice when you look into those mirrors are the obvious things. But then there's, there's some mirrors that you look intently into, that you gaze into. That mirror in, in the bathroom, like I, I look into that mirror and I look at this 50-year-old face and I begin to, to see the gray hairs and I begin to see some of the other things. that start coming out of places in your face, and I'm only able to see those because I'm closer to the mirror. And that's what James is getting at in this text, that if we want to experience the blessing

that God has for us, then we have to look intently into the mirror of His Word. Here's what it kind of looks like in our life, that distance, when we're glancing at the living room mirror, glancing at it, that distance allows things to remain comfortable in our life. The only things that we've got to address are the obvious ones. But it's the closeness to the mirror that makes things become clear. Those are the mirrors, the gazing that helps us to be able to see what really needs attention in our life. You see, from a distance, we can hear a sermon, we can nod our heads, we can say amen, we can even sit and think, man, send text messages, man, you should have been here for the message today or the worship today, and we could be thinking about other people and how the experience today could impact their lives, but when we get close to the mirror, when we begin to gaze into it and look intently, that's a whole different thing. It's beginning to look at the Word and asking the question, how does this speak to me? What is in my life that is out of alignment with what I see in this mirror? How is my attitude not aligning with what I see? How are my thoughts not aligning with what I see? What is it in my life when we get up close to the mirror? What is it that we're permitting or allowing in our life? When we look intently into the mirror of His Word, those are moments that we are asking the question, not what do they need to change, but what do I need to change? You see, the difference here is that from a distance, His Word, it inspires us. We get excited about it, and we go about our day, but it's up close where His Word confronts us. It confronts the things that are in our life that don't look like Him, and that leads us to the second point, that as God begins to reveal those things in our life, the second point is this, is if we're going to walk in and experience His blessing, then we can't just look intently into the mirror, but we also have to respond immediately. I don't know about you, but when you get up close to that bathroom mirror and you begin to see like the nose hairs and the ear hairs, and chances are you're not seeing that stuff

and saying, I'll get to that next month, right? You take care of it right then. And here's what I've kind of learned in my own journey with the Lord is that when there is a large gap, a large space between what God is showing me in my own life and what I choose to do with it, that that gap, it matters. It matters because the longer that I delay doing something with what He's revealing in my life, the quieter His conviction gets in my life. And here's the danger of that. The quieter the conviction gets, the harder our heart becomes. We become calloused to what God is speaking to us, and the harder our heart becomes, the more obedience starts to feel optional. And man, that's a dangerous place because when obedience becomes optional, disobedience in our life feels acceptable. That's why James is trying to help them see and us see the transformation in our life, that it doesn't happen because we hear His Word, it doesn't even happen because we read His Word, it doesn't even happen because we believe in His Word. It happens because we apply His Word. And so friend, when you and I get up to the mirror of His Word, we begin to look intently and He begins to reveal some things in our lives that don't align with what we're seeing in His Word. And my challenge to you is don't… dismiss it, don't, don't delay it, don't rationalize it, but respond to it. And here's why that's so important, is because delayed obedience doesn't just postpone change in our life, it ends up creating a version of faith that looks mature, but it isn't. And friend, I'm telling you that this is, this is one of the biggest problems with, with our society today, and why faith in God gets such a bad rap, it's, listen, it's, it's because so many of us in our lives, we, we know all about God, but we just don't do much with it. And so the people that we encounter and, and we experience, they have this, this perception of us that, that we're followers of Christ and that we're, we're mature in our faith

because of what our social media feed looks like, or what we wear, what we pose, like, like all of that stuff, when in reality the, the real indicator that James is getting at here is not what we know, it's what we choose to do. So we've got to look intently into the mirror of His Word, we've got to respond immediately, and then, and then here's the third one, we've got to return consistently. Listen, it's not, it's not hearing one sermon, making one decision, and then you're good. Like, I, I don't know about you, but when I go to the mirror, I'm probably sharing way too much information about the mirror than I need to, but I'm telling you, when I go to the mirror and I see the ear hairs and I pluck those babies out, it don't mean that there's no more ear hairs for the rest of my life. They're like right back all over again, like two days later, right? And the same is true in, in our spiritual lives, like, like just because we got offended, somebody hurt us and we forgave them a month ago doesn't mean that that offense isn't going to try to raise its head up again in our life this week. And so we have to return back consistently to that mirror to be asking the Father, what, what are You saying to me? What, what is in me that does not look like what I see in the mirror of Your Word? Because it's not one-time obedience that walks in blessing, it's consistent obedience that walks in blessing. And this is one way that you can kind of, kind of think about it, is that transformation in our life, it's more of a rhythm than a moment. And here's what I mean by that. We can have moments that radically touch our heart. They can change the directory or direction of, of our life even. Whether it's a powerful worship service or church service or encounter with a friend or listening to a testimony like Courtney's today, we can, we can have moments like that but that ultimately doesn't produce transformation in our life, it just gets us started on the right path. It's the, the rhythms that we choose to continually return to. It's us when, when we come back to, to the mirror and, and God brings up that habit again

that we're not dismissing it and, and moving on. We're not assuming that yesterday's obedience is going to fix today's situation that we're facing. We all know that old, old reactions, they, they resurface in our life, that comfort has a way of creeping back in and, and habits in our life definitely have a way of, of circling back. The unfortunate truth for all of us is none of us drift towards the righteousness that God desires in our life. We all drift towards convenience and comfort in what's easy and not just spiritual. That's why we're not in shape the way that we want to be in shape. That's why our relationships were not as good as communicators as we want to be. That's why our finances aren't where we hope they would be, not because we don't know but because we're not in shape. don't apply what we know. And at the end of the day, you and I, we never outgrow the mirror. God is in shape. He's in shape. We never get to a place where we're, we're so mature in the faith that we don't need the mirror anymore. Now, I don't want you to miss this as I land the plane. I don't, I don't want you to miss the point that James is trying to communicate here. Here's this point, is that this isn't about becoming a better Christian. It's about becoming a mature one. A mature one. Maturity is so important because what maturity does is it, it moves us from knowing God to walking with God. And when we begin to walk with God, we don't, we don't just believe in Him, but we begin to experience Him. We begin to experience His peace and His grace and His mercy and His freedom in our life, His sozo. And as we begin to experience Him, the beautiful thing is we're not the only one that experiences it because God works through us to help those around us experience Him too. And friend, I'm telling you, that is the greatest blessing there is. Not the stuff, not the material stuff, not the bank account, but having the kind of relationship with God where you are close and experience Him and He uses you to make an impact and a difference in the lives of others. And so before we rush out today, before we, before we step into the next thing

that is, is on our calendar, I want to challenge you today. Let's, as a church body, let's not glance and go. Let's be a church. Let's be a people that gaze and do. Would you bow your head with me today? I want to invite you into a moment of reflection. A moment of gazing into the mirror. And I want you to say just between you and the Father, say, God speak to me today. Like what's He inviting you to take a closer look at? Maybe it's an attitude. Maybe it's a habit. Maybe it's a conversation that you need to have. Maybe it's a step that you've been, been putting off. Is there an area of your life today that you've been sensing the conviction of the Holy Spirit in, but, but obedience to that conviction hasn't followed? My question is, what would it look like if you didn't just wait till next week to address it, but you addressed it now? Maybe for some of you today, it's sending a, sending that text message and apologizing. Maybe it's a deciding to, to forgive even though you don't want to. Maybe it's deleting that app that keeps dragging you back into the habits that you don't want. Or maybe for you today, it's choosing not to gossip the next time the opportunity comes up. Or here's one, surrendering control. Instead of trying, trying to win the day, instead of trying to win the argument, you surrender control. Maybe for some today, it's opening up your calendar and intentionally creating a 10-minute block tomorrow morning. where you look into the mirror of his word before you ever grab your phone. Maybe it's confessing something instead of continuing to hide it. Or maybe for you today, it's what you keep defending. It's what you keep rationalizing and God keeps bringing it back up again and you keep deflecting and you keep coming up with reasons why you don't have to. And maybe for you today, it's finally responding to that conviction. Brent, I wanna encourage you, don't overcomplicate it. Just simply say, God, what are you speaking to me today?

What truth, what are you showing me in the mirror of your word today? For in the blessed life, the sozo life, ultimately the life that you dream of, that you desire, it's not on the other side of knowing. It's on the other side. Of doing. Thank you so much for tuning in with us. If you enjoyed today's message, go ahead and subscribe because there's content like this every single week. And if it spoke to you in any way, make sure you share it with a friend because you never know whose life you can change with just one simple share. Listen, we hope to see your face in the place this Sunday. Go ahead and check out our website for our service times at transformtlh.com and we hope to see you soon.