James - Wk 4: Be Doers of the Word

Amen and amen. If you got your Bibles, and I hope you do, grab them. We're going to be in the Book of James as we continue in this series. We're in week four of a 14-week series. We're four weeks in, we're still not going to make it through the first chapter. Because how many of you know, the point is not to make it through the Bible. The point is that the Bible makes it through you. Do you know this?

This is what we're doing today. Today, for the first time, I have the easy part. I just get to say it. You have to do something about it. That's what we're talking about. In fact, years ago, I was at this ministry event thing, and there was an intern in this ministry. He was a podcast listener and all that kind of stuff, and he asked me this question. He said, "Pastor Joby, what's the best advice you can give me as I start the ministry?"

I thought about it for about a second, and I went to John chapter 2, verse 5. I think John 2:5 is some of the best advice in all of the Bible for anybody that claims to be a Jesus follower. And in this, this is where you probably know this well. This is the, uh, the wedding at Cana. Jesus shows up, they run out of wine. Mary comes to Jesus. His sons, they're out of wine. He says, "Woman, what does this have to do with me?" Don't quote that. And then Mary gives some of the best advice. She gets the servants together, and she says this in John 2:5. She tells the servants, "Do whatever he tells you to do."

That's the best advice I can give for what it means to be a follower of Jesus: to do whatever it is that he tells you to do. That's what we're going to look at today. And the reason that we do these things is not to earn our salvation. The reason that we do the things that Jesus has told us to do is because he has already saved us, and we have turned our life over to him as our Lord and our Savior. And what it means for him to be your Lord is that he gets to tell you what to do, and you do what he says.

James chapter 1, verse 22 starts out this way. But and this connects what we've been talking about for the past few weeks. It's a continuation of last week. Remember last week he said, "Be quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to anger." He says, "Put away filthiness and put away wickedness." Because anger will make you do some filthy and wicked stuff. And he says, "Instead, with meekness." And the word meek means like to turn over the reins of your life to your master. He says, "But with meekness receive the implanted word." So he's saying, instead of being ruled by your emotions, why don't you be ruled by your Lord? That you should pay attention to that implanted word.

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." See, this is, this is basically the point of all of the rest of the book of James. He is going to tell us what the gospel-infected life looks like. We're not to be merely hearers of the word. We're not even merely to be believers of the word. Believing comes through hearing, but we take what we hear, we believe it, and then we do something about it.

You see, the whole book of James is not really that big, man. It's only like two and a half pages in my Bible, and I use the ELP version, the extra-large print. So for some of you, it's like a half a page in yours. God bless your eyes, eyesight, and flexibility. But what James is going to say when he starts out in verse 5, he says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it wisdom will be given to him."

Wisdom is simply applied knowledge. Wisdom is simply faith in action. Oftentimes, what we ask for is not wisdom. Oftentimes, what we ask for is knowledge. And there's a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is, "God, what do I do tomorrow?" Wisdom is, "Who am I to be so that I know what to do when I get to tomorrow?" You see, very rarely will God tell you what to do tomorrow, because new mercies come in the morning, and you don't have the mercy to deal with tomorrow until you get to tomorrow. Maybe this is why Jesus says, "Don't worry about tomorrow. There's plenty to do today." See, the Sermon on the Mount. You see, because being precedes the doing. This is why last week we talked about the fact that James, before he began to give marching orders on things like, "Don't be angry," or "Be slow to anger," and "Be doers of the word," he is going to call us, "Beloved brothers." The, uh, who you are precedes the what you do.

And think about this. James was actually the brother of Jesus. And he grows up knowing what it's like to be the brother of Jesus. And for anybody that believes, he says that you are the beloved brothers. And so because of who you are, now we are to do what the Lord says. And if we don't do what the Lord says, then by definition, he is not our Lord.

So he says, "But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer." Now, let's just stop right here. It's easy in modern America to be a hearer of the word and not a doer. I mean, people listen to sermons all the time. People listen to podcasts and books, Audible books, and sermon podcasts. And I can't tell you the number of places I go, and people all over the place are like, run into me in airports. "Oh, I listen to your sermons." Cool. "I want to go. Do you do what they say?"

Because here's, we've got this obsession with information intake. But it doesn't seem to me that we have this obsession with doing what the word of God says. And the point is not hearing. The point is not even feeling. The point is not showing up and engaging emotionally and taking some notes and mooing at the good parts. That's how white people say amen. I don't know if you know that. Especially like, Presbyterian. You don't know how to amen good. The point is not retweeting. That's not the point. The point is application.

Imagine there's this little group text in my little family, okay? And on Thursday, I see on the group text from Mama JP, "Come downstairs and take the trash out." That's what the word said. Can you imagine if I got home and said, "Son, did you take the trash out?" And JP said to me, "Dad, as soon as I got the word, I went up to my room and I began to memorize the word. Come downstairs and take the trash out." And then, "Dad, I began to study the word. Did you know that the modern waste management in America began in the late 1800s? Dad, did you know that the type of trucks that they use are diesel trucks? Get 35 miles to the gallon. And they're even looking at the type of truck today that is unmanned, that can just do it without a person. Do you know what the, do you know what the wages are for the American trash worker? Do you know how many square feet of landfills there are? Dad, did you know that the whole recycling thing is a sham? It all goes into the same pile." Got, Dad, did you know all of this information?

"I don't know any of that, son. But let me ask you this: Did you take out the trash?" No. That's the modern church. Just memorize information and listen to what everybody else says about the information. And listen, man, I'm pro-memorizing scripture. I'm pro-study in the Bible, okay? I am. However, man, even the demons believe the word of God, but they have not submitted and surrendered themselves to the lordship of Jesus Christ, and they don't do anything that it tells them to do.

"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 the mirror." That word "natural face" means it's that face you woke up with this morning. That's what your natural face is, okay? James is going to get it real practical. He's going to give us an illustration here. "For he looks at himself and he goes away and he wants forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law."

What he is saying is that the Bible is like a mirror. He calls the Bible the perfect law. I need you to understand this. The law of God is the will of God. Now, are there times that you look at the perfect law and it doesn't seem perfect to you? Maybe because you're not perfect. It's unbelievable to me that we live in a society today where people that claim to be Christians sit in judgment over God's word. And for some of you, it took you two shots at the eighth grade, let's be honest. You have to get your grandchild to program your iPhone, and you want to try to sit in judgment over God's word. Listen, man, he is the author and the creator of life. The author of life probably knows best how to live it. And of course, there's going to be some things in his word that you don't like. You know why? Because you're a, you're a crooked and depraved, lost, wretched, black-hearted, selfish, idolatry-worshiping sinner. That's who we are. Do you know how I know this? Because I'm the worst one in the room. And so surely there's going to be some things in this word that rub us the wrong way.

And yet, James says, "It's the perfect law." The law of God is the will of God. He says, "For he before he looks at himself and he goes away and it wants he forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty." Do you realize that obeying God's word leads to life and liberty, and not the pursuit of happiness? God offers way more than happy. Okay, I hope you have a wonderful Fourth of July. Pro-America all the way. Blow up everything you can blow up that's relatively legal. No problem, man. But the pursuit of happiness is a very low bar. You know why? Because happy is based on happenings. And as soon as the happenings change in a bad way, then there goes happy. We've all seen this from our friends that have moved here from Ohio. You're out there just having a grand time on the beach, everybody's happy until they start feeding the seagulls. There goes happy. It's a fact, is it not?

No, no. The law of liberty leads the life and liberty, freedom, and life abundantly in Jesus Christ. And so, you see, the reality is this, man. When, when the Bible talks about obedience to the scripture, I need you to think about this not as right and wrong, not as good and bad, but it's life and death. Now, it is good to follow the word. It is right to follow the word. It will just never be enough to sustain you. The way you have to think about it is this: is every single time we take a step in the direction that the scriptures cause us to take, it always leads to life and life abundantly.

Remember John 10:10. We're in this thing together, right? That the enemy's vision statement is in our Bible. That the thief, first of all, he's a thief, which means he's trying to take from you something that does not belong to him. That is his MO. "And the thief comes only to steal, kill, surely." He's not just offering you a way of life, and then Jesus offers a better way of life. That's not how it works whatsoever. The only thing that he has for you is he wants to steal everything from you that belongs to the Lord. He wants to kill everything good and godly in your life and he wants to utterly destroy you and any kind of godly influence that you have. And then Jesus, the Good Shepherd, he says, "But I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly." He goes on to say, "I am the Good Shepherd, and my sheep hear my voice." Implicitly, this means that the shepherd speaks to his sheep. One of the primary ways that the shepherd speaks to his sheep is through the word. And God is never going to tell you to do something specifically that contradicts his word generally.

And every single time, here's why, here's why I need you to think about it this way: every single time, especially when you don't fully understand it, that you by faith decide to take a step of obedience in the direction of the Good Shepherd's voice, you were always marching towards abundant life. Every single time. Cost you your life to get there. It's abundant life. And every single time we reject God and say, "God, I know you're saying this, but forget you, I got this," and you begin to go in your own direction, it always leads to death. Every single time.

You see, this is more than just feelings, right? How many of you can identify with the old hymn, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love"? Anybody testify on that one? I mean, I love him in my heart, but I don't know what's wrong with me. Prone to wander. Like I know this direction leads to life, but for whatever reason, I'm prone to wander over here. How many of you have seen that YouTube video where the shepherd is digging the sheep out of the ditch? Have you seen this thing? This shepherd is digging the sheep out of the ditch, and the moment it gets out of the ditch, it does this one big arc and a nice jump, boom, straight back in the ditch. And you look at that, you'll be like, "What a dumb sheep. What a dumb sheep." Then you begin to realize one of the primary metaphors that the Bible uses for the children of God is sheep. You know why? Because you're dumb. Me too. "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love."

And yet, Jesus says, "I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly." An abundant life is not an abundance of possessions. I mean, haven't we figured this out by now? How many VH1 Behind the Musics do you have to watch? No, I know you don't know this. There used to be this channel called VH1, and they had this show called Behind the Music. And the crux of the show is rock and roll and fame. It ain't all what it's cracked up to be. And you would watch it and be like, "No way. Bon Jovi was it fully and finally satisfied by fame and fortune?" Say it ain't so. Then you turn on the Axl. "You mean Axel wasn't full?" These are worship leaders back in the '80s. Yeah, man. Did it.

Abundance of stuff will never fully and finally satisfy. An abundant life is found in obediently following the voice of your Shepherd, because what you get in obedience is you get him. This is what he's saying.

"So if anyone's a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and he goes away and it wants he forgets what he was like. 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."

You see, what the Bible is saying is that the Bible is like a map and a mirror. That when we look into the perfect law of God, when we look into the word of God, it is a map to show us the direction that we ought to go in, in line with who God is, what it looks like to live with a holy and perfect God. But it's also a mirror, because very quickly you find out, uh oh, there's a problem. And the problem is me. And the problem is I can't pull this off on my own. And the moment that you get to that place in your life, "What should I do then?" Then you realize you're spiritually bankrupt. And Jesus says, "Blessed are the pure in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God." You begin to realize, uh oh, I need a Savior.

You see, it's not just, it's not just the fact that you read your Bible. The question is, do you allow your Bible to read you? That's the difference. It's like a, it's like a gym membership. Anybody ever got in shape from a gym membership? It's not the membership that does it. You've never come strolling into church and somebody like, "Girl, look at you looking good. You've been working out." And be like, "I got a gym membership." "What time do you go?" "No, I don't go. I just got a membership." And that ain't how it works. You got to do this. This is what he's saying.

And I got bad news for you. If you go to 11:22, it's easy to be deceived in a church like this, not because we're saying things that are untrue, but it's easy to be deceived to think that the point is to show up and feel. To just show up and believe. Did you show up and engage? Here's why it's easy to be deceived here, okay? Because you can come here and feel all the feelings, and then leave this place and not do anything that the Lord told you to do. And the Bible says, "In doing so, you will be deceived."

And here's why. Because the music is so good. It's so good, man. And all the programming is so good for kids and students. And it's so good. And the Holy Spirit happens to just be right here every time. Every time we preach, because I know when I preach, it's moderately delivered, but it's exceptionally received. And you can amen, and you can like, feeling all the feelings. But if you don't go and do something about it, James is like, "That'd be dumb."

How dumb would that be? That would be like somebody that got up in the morning, looked in the mirror, and didn't do nothing about it. Here, I got a mirror. So here's what he's talking about. You see, the point of the mirror? What's the point of the mirror? The point of the mirror is not the mirror itself. The point of the mirror is it points back at you, and it points out what's wrong with you. And every single one of us, every single one of us, got up this morning, and we looked in the mirror. Now, there's always some people like, "Not me." We can tell, okay? And you have issues, man. You need friends. You should join a disciple group. That's your next step. You need accountability in your life. People that love you enough to tell you you need to look at mirrors, okay? But for all the normal humans, we all look in the mirror, and you know what we do when we look in the mirror? We assess the situation. And we all have the same thought: we go, "Uh oh, there's a problem."

Now, let me tell you what no sane human does. No sane human looks in the mirror and then abdicates responsibility of what the mirror tells you. I didn't wake up this morning and look at me like, "Grant said we need new pillowcases. Look what it's doing to my face." No. And you know, everybody looks in the mirror the same amount of time. Not the same amount of minutes and seconds, but everybody looks in the mirror. You know how long you look in the mirror? As long as it takes to do something about the situation that's looking back at you. That's what every single person does. You look in the mirror as long as it takes to do something about what is looking back at you. And so you brush it, and you straighten it, and you moisturize it. And if it's curly, you make it straight. And if it's straight, you make it curly. I don't know why you just don't trust what the Lord gave you. That's a different sermon. And you shine it, and you floss it, and you, and I'm talking about the men of 11:22, okay? You understand what I'm saying? You just skinny jeans and your perfumes. It's a problem, boys.

So yeah, man, that's what he's saying. Now, here's the thing, man. Here's the thing. If you don't do anything about it, maybe not the first time, but eventually, after a long time, it would begin to show itself. And if you looked in the mirror every single morning when you got up and you didn't do anything about it, and you just kept showing up in public that way, eventually somebody that loves you very much would walk up to you, maybe in your disciple group, and they'd be saying, "Hey, are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm doing great. Why do you ask?" "I mean, I'm just, we're praying for you. We're praying about you. Are you sure you're okay? Are you sleeping in your car? What's happening? Are you trying to go to Jerry?" "It's just on this one side." "Like, help me understand what the problem is, because we love you and we're here to help." And if you said, "Oh, you mean this? Oh, oh, oh, don't worry about it. I looked in a mirror." You'd say, "All right, that's step one. Now you have to do something about it." That's the whole point.

It's not just enough to read your Bible. You got to let the Bible read you. And then do whatever he tells you to do. The opposite of this is also true. This is a little creepy and voyeuristic, but just go with me for the sake of illustration. Imagine if all of us were in your bedroom this morning when we saw you wake up, and we saw your natural face, not the current one you have on, but the natural face. If we saw that picture of you, and then we all left and showed up to church, and then however many hours later, we saw you come walking in the door, and we saw your natural face, and then what walked in the door. You know what we would all collectively say to you? We would say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Not because you looked in the mirror, but because you did something about it.

You see, the point is not to evaluate the mirror. Whose point is that the mirror evaluates to you? I can't tell you how many people pick up a mirror and evaluate the mirror. Like, "I kind of like this mirror. I like the way it kind of flips around like this. I like this side way much better than that side." That's crazy. Who needs all that? Okay, so we'll keep it this way. My mirror has a light. I love this light. I love how stable it is. I love I can twist it this way and this way. I love the color of the mirror. And that's 90% of Bible studies in America right now. That's it, man. Get together in Bible study and be like, "Oh, I like this version. I like your version. I like this version. I don't like this chapter so much." James kind of gets all in your business, okay? Let's just, let's read some other thing. Let's read some parable. I like that better. And instead of allowing the Bible to read us, we just think reading it is enough.

Now, you got to read it, or you won't know what the Lord is saying to you. But the key is, you hold it up like a mirror, and it is going to reveal some things in you. And then the question is, "And what am I going to do about it?" You see, again, the point, man, the point is that the mirror points out all these things in us, and then the Spirit of God prompts us to do something about it.

I don't know if you've ever paid attention to this. I'm sure you have. But when I preach, here's what I do virtually every single time. I answer three questions for you. We always go through the scripture. And what you're not going to get here from me, you're not going to get like, "Hey, here's five tips on how to be a better version of you." Well, I'm not that smart, and I'm not that good. But what we're going to do is we're going to hold up the mirror of God's word and allow the word of God to read you. And I'm going to answer three questions about the text, every single, every single week. What? What does it say? So what? What does it mean? Now what? What are you supposed to do about it? Every single week. That is what we do so that we can be a doer of the word.

In fact, being a doer of the word is a pretty good definition of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. In fact, early on, the disciples were called followers of Jesus, followers of the Way. Now, this isn't rocket science here. They were just called followers of the Way. And the reason they were called followers is because the very first invitation that Jesus ever gives to the earliest disciples was this: "Follow me." And wherever he went, they went. And so they were in step, following step by step, in the footsteps of Jesus. This is what it means for you and me to be a follower of Jesus. Which means, by definition, the moment you quit taking steps of obedience in the direction of the Good Shepherd, you were no longer following after Jesus. Like, if you think you're finished, you are, but not the way you think you are. Then we never graduate from this until we go to heaven.

You see, this is what theologians call progressive sanctification. Progressive sanctification. You see, early on, when the disciples begin to follow after Jesus, they had no idea all that they were getting into. All they did was simply take one step of faith at a time, and then another faith step, and another faith step, and another faith step. You see, and that's what your salvation is. When you get saved, when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are saved in that very moment from the penalty of sin. That's called justification. And then over a long time, you are being saved from the power of sin in your life. That's called sanctification. Sanctification is the Holy Spirit takes the word of God like a hammer and a chisel and just chisels out everything in you that doesn't look like your son, Jesus Christ. And then one day, you will be saved from the very presence of sin. That's called glorification. And all of that, justification, sanctification, and glorification, is what the Bible talks about when it talks about salvation.

Sanctification is an invitation where discipleship is an invitation from "come and see" to "come and die." That's what it means. There's some really good news about the idea that our sanctification is progressive. It means he ain't done with me yet. Amen. It's not like the moment that you get saved, he perfects you. That's not how it works. And I'll tell you what's really, really good news is because our sanctification is progressive, I may not be all that I'm going to be, but I ain't who I used to be. Amen. I don't have to do the things I used to do because I'm not the person I used to be. And he's still not finished with me yet. That I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in me will bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus.

This is what we see with the disciples. Like when Jesus invites his very first disciples, he goes up to Peter. This is like Matthew chapter 4, and he says to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And they didn't know all that they were getting into. They didn't know they were going to change the whole world. And they surrendered. They dropped their nets. And Peter begins to follow after Jesus. In John chapter 1, when he calls Philip and Nathanael, he says to Philip, "Come and follow me." And Philip runs to his buddy Nathanael. Nathanael was his one more. And he says, "Nathanael, we have found the one that we've been waiting for, the Messiah. It's Jesus of Nazareth." And Nathanael says to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" It was kind of like, "Dylan." And Philip simply says to him, "Come and see." That was the initial invitation. The initial invitation is to come and see. And then over time, you get to the place where you come and die. And you lay down your life for Jesus.

We saw it in John chapter 11, several weeks ago, when we were studying the miracle of Lazarus being raised from the dead. When Jesus says, "Hey, I'm going to go to Jerusalem, and the disciples of my boss are going to kill you there." And Thomas stands up and says, "Let us go that we may die with him." Thomas went from "come and see" to "come and die."

When we see this most clearly, I think, in John chapter 21, we see the progression of the discipleship of the Apostle Peter. The first thing Jesus ever says to Peter is this: "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And then Peter does. And Peter follows Jesus and does ministry with Jesus. He has super high highs, he has super low lows. And one of the lowest lows of his entire life is they're sitting around at the Lord's table, and Jesus says, "One of you will betray me." And Peter says, "Not me. Not me. I would never leave you. I would never forsake you, Jesus. I would die for you." You ever make big, bold claims? You ever like, "Come down here and pray, God, I'll never do it again"? You ever do that like two weeks in a row, right? You can make a great disciple. That was Peter's problem. He makes these big, audacious claims, and then sure enough, Jesus is like, "Look, dude." But he didn't say that, but you know what I mean. He's like, "Hey, before the alarm clock goes off in the morning, you're going to deny me." Sure enough, three times that night, Peter denies that he even knows who Jesus is. And it wrecks him, man. It torments him. He thinks he's disqualified.

So after the death and resurrection of Jesus, Peter's like, "Well, I don't know what to do anymore with my life." So I'm going to go back to my old way of life, and he goes fishing. This is not like a hobby. This is not like, "We don't have anything to do on a Saturday, let's go fishing." He was a fisherman before he knew Jesus. He was going back. He was returning to his old way of life. A bunch of guys go fishing with him. They fish all night. They don't catch anything. The resurrected Jesus shows up on the shore at the Sea of Galilee, which, by the way, is the place where he meets Peter for the very first time. He calls out to the guys. He actually says, "Children, do you have any fish?" He calls them children. He didn't have to call them children. And here's the other thing, man. He knows they ain't got no fish. The Bible says that he knows the very hairs on our head. Now, for some of us, it's easier to count than others, but he knows, okay? He knows. He knows your thoughts. He knows how many hairs you have. He even knows which hairs are yours and which ones you're renting right now. He knows the difference, okay? All right. He knows. And yet, he calls out, "Do you have any fish?" And he knows they ain't got no fish. He's jacking around with him. It's like when you go fishing and your wife says, "Y'all catch anything?" You're like, "Woman, you know if we'd have caught a fish, I'd have been on Instagram like, hanging that thing out there. Don't ask me questions like that." So anyway, and they're like, "No, we ain't got no fish." He goes, "Well, try the other side of the boat." These are professional fishermen. They got to be thinking, "Does this man not know that under the boat, there aren't sides? It's just one Sea of Galilee." I'm carrying. And they throw it over, and wham, 153 fish. Peter puts his shirt back on, swims to go be with Jesus.

And Jesus has, he's built a little fire, he's cooking some food over it. And what he's doing is he's recreating the same scene like where Peter denied that he even knew who Jesus was. And he asks him three times, "Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?" And Peter's like, "I see what you're doing here. I denied you three times, but apparently I can't out-deny your grace, because your grace poured out at the cross exceeds whatever sin I can bring to, to the equation here." And so after he does these things, here's what Jesus says to him. Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. But when you were old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. And after saying these things to him, he said, "Follow me." It's the very first thing he ever said to him.

Here's what he's saying: You want to see the progressive sanctification in the life of Peter? The first thing he says is, "Follow me." It was a "come and see" invitation. And now, at the very end of his life, he's saying this: "Peter, if you follow me, it's going to end on a brutal death." Church history tells us that Peter was on his way to be martyred at the cross and to be crucified. And he said, "I don't deserve to die the way my Lord and Savior died." And said, "We can fix that." So they just flipped him upside down. And Jesus is saying to him, "It would be better for you to die a brutal death with me as your Lord and Savior than to live a long and comfortable life and spend eternity in a Christless hell." That's what he's saying to him.

Discipleship is that. It goes from "come and see" to "come and die." You see, faith is not a feeling or mental consent. Faith is acting as if you actually believe. James says, "Be a doer of the word and not merely a hearer, because I don't want you to be deceived." The Hebrews is going to say that that faith is the evidence of things unseen. So my question to you, church, is simply this: So what is he telling you to do? What is he telling you to do? Whatever he tells you to do. Be a doer of the word.

Now, for many, many, many of you, the moment I even brought up the subject, you're like, "Oh." Because you already know, man. You already know you're supposed to join the disciple group. You know you're supposed to start that ministry. You know you're supposed to pick up the phone and begin the hard work of reconciliation with that family member. You know you're supposed to walk out in the water and get baptized and declare that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior. So why aren't you doing it?

And if you don't know what to do, here's a good question. A mentor of mine asked me a long time ago: "If you could do anything for the glory of God, and you knew it wouldn't fail, what would you do?" Now, for the glory of God matters, because you can't be like, "Well, I'd buy lottery tickets." That's not for the glory of God, that's for the glory of you. So what would you do for the glory of God if you knew it wouldn't fail? And the moment, the moment you know the answer to the next question is, "Then why aren't you doing it?" What's holding you back? Fear? The applause of man? The approval of somebody else?

Because I can tell you how I would answer that question. About 12 years ago, I answered that question. "What would I do for the glory of God if I knew it wouldn't fail?" I'd plant a church, and I'd make sure that it was a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And I know you're like, "Well, that's easy for you to say now. I know it's going real good." But 12 years ago, I didn't feel easy. It felt like the craziest thing in the world. What are we thinking? All I could tell you is here's what we're thinking: "I want to do whatever it is that he told me to do."

You see, because the crazy thing is, he don't need you. Think God's up in his up in heaven ringing his hands right now. There's so much ministry I'd like to get doing if they would just get after it. No, he could do whatever he wants. And yet, he's a good dad, and he calls his children into partnership with him. I mean, we've studied this all throughout the "Anything Is Possible" series. Like when he turns water to wine, if one of the servants isn't obedient to take the, the wine to the Master of Ceremonies, nobody knows. When he feeds the 5,000, if the disciples don't hand it out, nobody gets fed. When he raises Lazarus from the dead, if nobody rolls the stone away, Lazarus is going to die again in the tomb. If the friends aren't there to carry their friend to the house and tear a hole in the roof to lower him down, then the man's sins aren't forgiven, nor are his legs healed.

So the question is, what is he telling you to do? And if you don't know what to do, start with the Great Commission, because he's told every single one of us to make disciples. And so get going in that direction. And then trust that as you are on the go, if you are heading in the wrong direction, he will get you headed in the right direction, even if he's got to send a big fish to swallow you up and puke you on the shores of Nineveh. He'll do whatever it takes.

So I want you to download our app if you haven't done that yet, okay? I'm going to show you some pictures on this television. And for those of you in the back, no problem, you can sit up there, you just won't be able to see it good. So I need you to download our app right now. Uncross your arms. Get out your phone. Kids, show your parents and grandparents what I'm talking about. And download the coe22 app. And once you open it up, there's going to be a button on there that says "Connect." And when you hit that connect button, what you're going to see is what we call the Discipleship Journey. Because every single one of us, by definition, followers of Jesus Christ. The key question that we have to consistently ask ourselves is this: What is my next step of obedience in the direction of the Good Shepherd?

You see, we built this thing because we are in the disciple-making business. I hope you know this. We are not in the crowd business. We're in the disciple-making business. If I was in the crowd business, I'd quit doing church. I'd do monster trucks. It's the biggest crowd in Jacksonville. Well, we're not here to just gather crowds. We're here to make disciples that make disciples that make disciples. And the reason I didn't make this up: Jesus said these are our marching orders. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 28, he starts it out this way: "All authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me." All authority. So whatever he says next, you better be very, very serious about. He says, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me. Therefore, go and make disciples." Well, in Greek, the imperative is not "go." The imperative is "make disciples." In fact, probably a better translation is, "As you are on the go," or "Wherever you go," whether that's on mission to the Congo or on mission to the PTA. We're supposed to make disciples. By the way, just in case you're taking notes, the PTA is exponentially more dangerous than the Congo. All right?

Now, now the question is, how do you know if you've ever made one? How do you even know what a disciple is? And so we want to define what a disciple is so that we know what it is that we're trying to make. Well, if first and foremost, a disciple, it starts with the cross of Jesus Christ. Your discipleship begins the moment you surrender your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. The moment that you believe that somehow, when Jesus pushed up on his nail-pierced feet and says, "It is finished," that that counted for you. The moment that you admit, "I'm not just a mistaker that needs to try harder. I'm a sinner in need of a Savior," and you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, then you put your faith in Jesus, and your discipleship journey has begun.

And so here at the Church of 11:22, you hopefully know this, that we are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. The whole thing hovers around the cross, over and over and over. And one of the reasons I put this thing together this way is because although it begins at the cross, you never graduate from your discipleship journey. You just continually take steps of obedience in the direction that the Lord calls you to take.

Well, what is a disciple? We believe that a disciple is someone that loves all people. That loves all people. This comes from the Great Commandment. When, when Jesus is asked by a lawyer, "What's the greatest commandment in all of the Bible?" He takes two verses. One is the Shema out of Deuteronomy, and then another verse out of like Leviticus 19, and he jams them together. And he basically says this: He says, "The greatest commandment is this: that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second one is like it: you would love your neighbor as yourself." And so part of what it means to be a disciple is that you would love all people. And one of the ways that you can love all people is to serve.

Now, the reason I'm showing you this is because we are trying to put into action what James said: to be a doer of the word. And your key question that you're trying to ask in your own discipleship, whether you just became a Christian four minutes ago when I just described what the cross is, or if you went to Sunday school with Moses and you've been a Christian forever, okay? You never graduate from taking steps of obedience. And the question to ask is, "What is my next step of obedience?"

Well, maybe it's to step in and begin to serve some people. Now, you could do that right here at the church. You can, you can join our serve staff. That, that we have thousands of people every weekend at all of our campuses serving. They make all the things happen. Their kids ministry, student ministry, in this room, people are a mess when you leave. There'll be a group of volunteers that come in and straighten it up for the next crew that comes in. And the reason that we do this is because the Bible says in John chapter 13, that Jesus, knowing all authority in heaven and earth have been put under him, he gets up from the table and he shows his disciples the full extent of his love. And he didn't do a miracle, didn't preach a sermon. He washed his disciples' feet. And he says, "You'll be blessed if you do likewise." That Jesus said, "I didn't come to be served, but to serve. You give my life as a ransom for many." So you could serve at church, at one of our campuses. You could serve in the community. I mean, we are in the 1010 life. You saw videos about all the different ways that we are fighting for every image bearer of God in Jesus' name, from womb to tomb.

Now, see, here's how you can deceive yourself. I get up here and I talk about every single human being deserves the abundant life, or at least to hear about the abundant life in Christ. I mean, from conception to casket. And you say, "Amen," and then do nothing about it. It's like looking in the mirror and not fixing your face. You got to do something about it. If you'll text the word "NEXT" to 441122, we will help you figure out what your next step is. Maybe it's an area of service.

Another way that we love all people is this: is that we share. We share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Have you identified your one more? That's the language we.

Use around here. The reason we use that language is this: I put a verse on my arm, Acts 11:24. It says that he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. You know what a great number is? In the Kingdom of Heaven, it's not the tens of thousands of people that call 1122 home. A great number in the kingdom of God is just one more, because we serve the kind of Shepherd that would leave the 99 and go after the one. Every single one of us needs to identify that person that God has placed in our life that we think he might use us to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus, that we would share our faith.

Now, that could look a whole bunch of different ways. It could be your own little Billy Graham, and you do the whole thing. Like, you go to work tomorrow and you share the whole gospel. You start—I wouldn't start with sin. I'd start with creation. God created you in His image for you to be in right relationship with Him. That sin broke that. Jesus came to fix that on the cross. And if you will admit, "I'm a sinner in need of a savior," believe when Christ is out on the cross, encounter for you, confessed Him as Lord, the Bible says that you will be saved. And then you can bring your saved one more here and make it easier for me, okay?

Or sometimes you share an invitation. That you share an invitation for them to come to church, so that they can hear me present the gospel. Thousands of people have come to Christ that way. Sometimes you just share a burden. You say, "How can I pray for you?" Because I don't care how atheist a brother is, when their life's on fire, everybody believes in the Lord, right? Let me tell you what happens. What begins to happen when the, when, when the wheels are about to fall off somebody's life, they ain't gonna talk to Tammy in the cubicle that gossips about everybody. They're going to go to you because they heard you're a praying person. And just in case it works, why not?

And sometimes you just share one more cup of coffee. Because this is a person that you love. This is not a project you're trying to accomplish. And so you need to identify your one more and be praying like crazy. Share your faith with your one more. That may be your next step. So we believe the disciple loves all people and discovers their identity in Jesus Christ, first and foremost. Have you surrendered your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ? For some of you, that may be your next step. That's the step that begins your discipleship journey. If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, then my question to you would be, have you ever gone public with that and told the whole world? A few weeks ago, we celebrated 1125 people taking this step of obedience through water baptism and proclaiming that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior. Amen. Maybe that's your next step.

But discovering your identity in Jesus is not just a one-time thing. I don't—if you've been a Christian a minute, do you notice how you just, can you just continuously rediscover and discover new things about what God has in store for you? And so we are called to be stewards of everything that God has given us, that it all belongs to Him. I hope you know that everything we have is a blood-bought grace gift of Jesus Christ to us. And so we are, if we are followers of Jesus, we are to be good stewards. Maybe you've heard people talk about time, talent, and treasure. This is what they're talking about. Are you a good steward of your time? See, serve. Are you a good steward of your talent? See, serve. Are you a good steward of your treasure? This means that because He is first, because He loved first, because He went first, and Jesus says, whatever we do with our money, it will aim us as to what is most important in our life. And what we are supposed to do as believers is bring to Him our first and our best. If you've ever heard me talk about the word "tithe" in the Bible, tithe does not only mean ten percent. It means the first and best. That's what it means. And the reality is, every single one of us are tithing to something. We take our first and our best. And most people put in their house, in their car, looking for security and satisfaction that it will never bring. And God Almighty can be trusted in His, and is worthy of us bringing to Him our first and our best.

Now, listen. Here's the thing. Our church is extremely generous. Extremely generous. But that's not the point. That's not the point. The point is, are you being generous? Are you being obedient to what Christ has called you to do? Maybe your next step of, of obedience in the direction of abundant life is what He has called you to do in regards to stewardship. So a disciple loves all people. A disciple discovers their identity in Jesus. And a disciple deepens their relationship with Jesus. And the primary way we just do, we deepen is in two ways. One is you connect to the faith family. That you're not saved by the church, but you were saved into a faith family, into a church. That we were wired for relationships. We need one another. Being a Christian is not a solo sport. It is for sure a team sport. I mean, if you, if you came across a guy with a baseball uniform on, I said, "Hey, who are you?" And he said, "I'm a baseball player." And you said, "What team do you play for?" "I don't have a team." You'd be like, "No, you're just a weird dude in tight pants, man. You got issues." Okay? We're in this thing together.

One of the primary illustrations that the Bible uses for the church is the body of Christ. I've told you this a million times. If you walked out in the parking lot and you saw a foot by itself in the parking lot, you would think, here's what you would think. You think something has gone horribly wrong. There are people today, they're like, "I don't need a church to know Jesus." I get what you're saying. You just cannot find this in the scriptures. You just can't. A disconnected body part is not okay. You would not walk up to that foot and be like, "Who am I to tell this what part of the body that they have to be a part of? You find your own truth." No, the foot does not have its own truth. The foot stinks. It's going to shrivel up and die. You would look at that and be like, "Oh." Even a connected foot isn't awesome, if we, if we can be honest. A disconnected foot is nasty. I think heaven looks at the disconnected believer and it's like, "That's nasty." Something has gone horribly wrong. Not even just for the foot. There's some footless body hopping around. They've got a problem too. You need to get connected. Join a disciple group. Join—it doesn't even have to be one of ours. You need discipleship relationships. You need people praying for you and loving you, and that you can study the Bible together as you allow it to study you. Ask this question: Who's praying for you? Don't say to your mama, because you don't tell her the truth. Ain't no way you told her what you did Friday night. Ain't no way.

And listen, and some of your life, well, I tried a disciple group, but it wasn't really for me. Come on, man. You've tried it. You've had a bad meal, but you didn't give up eating, obviously, right? Sometimes you got to try it out a little bit till you find your people. This matters like crazy. You know why it matters? The Bible says that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Ever watch the Animal Planet? Who do they take out? There'll be a whole bunch of impala, and then there's that one over here that woman with a little bit of limp by himself. You're flipping channels and the kid's like, "Let's watch this." You're going, "It's going to end poorly for the impala, baby. I've seen this one before." You know? And I'm telling you, isolation is a tool of the enemy. A tool of the enemy. And can I just warn you about this? The church has done a horrible job with the people that need community more than anybody else. So many times the church has excluded the people that actually need to be in the middle of the herd. What we are going to be at 1122 is the kind of church that goes out there to the gimpy one, puts our arm around you, drag you in the middle, say, "You'd be mad if you want to, but you heal up right here in the middle, and we'll help you fight off the enemy." Amen. Right?

And listen, man, if you're looking for a perfect church, just save us all some pain and go somewhere, somewhere else. This is not a perfect church. You know how I know? I'm the lead pastor. I don't know why you're laughing. You hurt my one feeling, but whatever. Okay? We're so imperfect. Oh, we're gonna beat you up. We're gonna, we're gonna let you down. We're gonna disappoint you. You know why? Because we're some disappointing human beings. That's who we are. You know how I know? The Son of God had to shed His blood on a cross because of my sin. You understand? So you gotta, some of the grace that you want to receive, you gotta extend to one another, okay? And get plugged into the body. Join the disciple group. And one too far.

And not only do we deepen our relationship with one another, we deepen our relationship with God so that we can grow in our faith. Historically, what this has been called is spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines. Listen, when we gather together here on the weekends at all of our locations and online, it's a really big deal. I'm not making light of coming to church together. It's a really big deal. This is what the church fathers would call the thin place between heaven and earth. Miracles happen in this place. Marriages are restored. Bodies are healed. Addictions are broken. Souls are saved. This is a really, really big deal, man. But if the only meal you get is one time a week, you come up to this grand buffet and fill yourself up, but you don't feed yourself for the rest of the week, it will never be enough to sustain you.

You see, the Bible says Paul says to the Corinthians, he's like, "Some of y'all need to grow up." Some of y'all have been Christians a long time, but you're still acting like a baby. Look here, baby, it's time for you to grow up. And here's what I mean. I hear people all the time, they show up to church, say, "Well, I didn't go to that church anymore because I wasn't getting fed." Now, I know what you mean. And you better be in a Bible-teaching, Bible-believing church, and there's seemingly less and less of those as the years go by. However, if you're a brand new Christian, man, look at me. Look at me. You're so cute with your chubby cheeks, and I'll spoon-feed you every single week, okay? And we ain't just doing applesauce in here. We're doing bacon, rat, filet, gospel meat. And I'll feed you, feed you. But, but if you show up and you always think it's somebody else's responsibility to feed you, I'm telling you, you're like a fat baby. You're like a baby that just shows up here with just milk crust on your lips and a big diaper full of crap swinging your umbilical cord, looking to plug in, going, "Feed me, feed me, feed me." All right, fat baby, at some point, you gotta pick up the knife, pick up the fork, and cut your own little steak and feed yourself. This means like Bible study on your own, prayer on your own, med—do the things that stir your affection to Jesus. And then watch what happens when you show up to the buffet on the weekend. I guarantee you, it'll feed you more than you've ever been fed in your entire life, okay?

So now, here's the thing. Here's what I need you to do. I need you to just circle one of these. Like, what's the one step right now that the Good Shepherd is calling you to take? And you don't do it at the expense of—it's not only one at a time. You're going to add to this over time. And so maybe your next step is to serve, or maybe your next step is to join a group, or maybe your next step is to be generous. Whatever it is. And please don't try to do them all this week. People that are regular gym attenders, remember what January looks like. You're like, "What are these people doing here?" All right, here's what happens, man. Here's why they don't come back because they hadn't worked out since George W. was the president. And then they're like, "You know what? I'm gonna get in shape today." And they try to do everything. And then the next morning, they're in traction. They can't move. And I ain't doing that no more, okay? It's right. It's not what He's calling you to do. Just, just, there's just one step. One step. What is it? What is it?

If you'll download that tool I just told you to, there's a, there's a series of questions that you begin to ask yourself. And I believe if you say, "All right, Lord, you're my shepherd. You speak to your children. What's the one thing that you are calling me to do?" And then don't deceive yourself. Don't just hear it, but do it. And here's why: you have no idea what hangs in the balance. You have no idea what hangs in the balance. You see, the point is, intentions are useless. Being a follower of Jesus means that you take the next step of obedience in the direction that He is calling. Right now, you still think it's about you. You still think it's about you. What if, what if, what if eternity hangs in the balance?

You see, there's some of you right now, and you've been in a disciple group for like three or four years, and your next step is to launch your own disciple group. And you leave the disciple group, and if you just threw up in your mouth a little bit, that's the manifestation of the Spirit of God confirming what I'm telling you. And it's not because we're in some kind of disciple group crisis. That's not what we're talking about. We're not talking about that. We're just talking about what is He calling you to do? Because here's what you don't know, okay? And I know you're like, "Well, I'm not equipped." We'll help you with that. But the pressure is never on you. The power is always in the word of God. This is why you don't have to, like, heap up a bunch of pressure on yourself. But here's what you don't know. Some of you being called to that next step, it could be serve, it could be stewardship, it could be connect. But for some of you, man, is to start that disciple group. And here's what you don't know. There's a couple right now. Right now, they're in Ohio. There's a lot of lost people in Ohio. And they don't know Jesus. And their marriage is on the verge of divorce. And she's beginning to try this church thing right now up there. And he's probably playing golf or something. And he works all the time. And they just, I mean, dude, they're just off. And if something doesn't change, they're going to get divorced. And their kids are going to be impacted forever. And he's going to get transferred. They're going to move to Jacksonville. And they're going to move into your neighborhood. And they're going to show up on one of our campuses. And she is going to convince him to show up to the brand new disciple group that you started with all your fear and all your trepidation. But because of the Spirit of God calling you to take a step of courage by faith, you just moved in the direction that the shepherd is calling you to. And that man and that woman are getting saved in your group. And their marriage is going to get restored because of that salvation. And their kids' lives will be changed. And little do you know that the direction of the great, great grandchildren of this couple will be forever changed. And all of that can be traced back to this moment right now because you were a doer of the word and not a hearer only. And so deceiving yourself.

So my question is simply this: Listen, He's a good shepherd. Whatever He calls you to is towards abundant life. What is your next step in the direction of obedience of the Good Shepherd? Would you stand? Let me pray for you. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we love You more than anything. And Lord, I thank You that You are a doer. For God so loved the world that You didn't feel something for us. You didn't just send a prayer. You sent Your only begotten Son. And You gave it all. And Jesus, every single moment of Your life, You only and always did the will of Your Father. And Your Spirit lives inside the believer. And so, God, may we, though we are prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God we love, may we by faith and courage take steps in the direction of You, knowing, knowing, knowing that it leads to an abundant life. God, I pray that You would speak as clearly in the hearts and minds of our people right now as You spoke to Moses through the burning bush. So it would not be a matter of discernment, it would be a matter of obedience. And then, God, we trust You because You're a good Dad and You love Your kids. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Church, we're going to respond. We're going to sing. And all the songs that we sing are going to just back up everything we've been talking about for an hour. And we're going to bring our tithes and offerings, our first and our best, because He is worthy of it. And we're going to pray. And you probably need to pray about this one. There's a bunch of you that need to sprint down here and get on your knees, get on your face before your Good Shepherd and say, "Here I am, Lord, send me. My yes is on the table." I'm just asking you to put it on the map. So let's sing. Let's bring. Let's pray. Let us respond.