Everyday Faith | Week 2 | Joshua Paul | Echoes Church

So a few years ago, my dad and my stepmom gifted my family with a trip to Hawaii. It was an awesome vacation, and one of the days we went to a place called Hapuna Beach State Park on the big Island. It was beautiful. That's it. God's creation. Thank you, Lord.

So we're there, having a good time, enjoying the sun, swimming in the waves, all the good stuff that you do while you're at the beach. And we noticed some signs on our way in that said the following, dangerous shore break,

rip currents, you could be swept out and drown if in doubt, don't go out. So we noticed that on our way into the beach. I mean, we set up camp, have a good time, and a little bit into it, my dad comes over to our family and says, hey, there's a sea turtle

over here, we should go swim over to it. And what he's talking about is we're kind of over here, central middle of the beach, he's talking about over by this massive rock face to the left. Now my wife looks at our family, looks directly at my stepmom, and says, I don't think that's a good idea.

Now my stepmom is an incredible woman. She was a great mother to me growing up. She loves the Lord. She's an awesome grandma to my wife and I as little girls, but she's not the greatest swimmer.

Now my dad and stepmom paid for the trip, so we're not gonna tell them what they can or can't do, but they choose to go over there, we minded our own business and kept swimming where we're at. Shortly after, we look down the beach line and we see some commotion.

We notice what looks like a live action scene of Baywatch unfolding. The

lifeguard in the short red shorts running in what felt like slow motion out into the water, you know, holding that life preserver with him. My wife and I look at each other, and I think even without using words, we knew what each other were thinking. Man, I hope that's not our family.

Well, we keep doing what we're doing, hanging with the girls, enjoying the sun, and a few minutes later, said lifeguard starts walking towards us, and right behind him is my dad and my stepmom.

They get over to us, he shares, hey, she was swimming out there, got caught in a rip current, and was literally getting pulled out into the ocean. Now, our immediate reaction is it's kind of those moments you think, I just wanna say, I told you so. But that wouldn't be loving, that wouldn't be kind, non affirming, and

honestly, we were just excited that she was safe, she was healthy, she's with us still, she did not float out to sea. But so many times, so many times in life, someone tries to tell us something, or something tries to tell us something that's intended to be helpful. It's positive information. It's supposed to help us,

yet we choose to disregard it. Now this was just one example of us trying to say I wouldn't swim over there, or the actual signs on the beach saying don't do that, but we do it all the time. Maybe for some of us it's we go to the dentist for our routine cleaning,

and the dentist there says, hey, need to start flossing your teeth every day. Then six months or a year go by and you then go back to the dentist for another routine cleaning and he reminds you, hey

you need to floss every day. Maybe that's me. If you're a dentist in the room, I apologize but I'm helping keep you in business. I'm not listening to the very thing you're telling me to improve my health, am sorry.

But for others of us, maybe it's something different. Maybe it's you look at your bank account and you wish there were more zeros in there, and don't we all? But you're looking at that and it's actual data information telling you something about your life, and instead

of actually listening to it, you choose to go eat out for dinner that night instead of staying at home and just eating the groceries you already have. Maybe you're on your phone one evening, and you're reading an article, and it says excessive screen time will rob you of rest, focus, and genuine connection.

You read that, and then you just keep scrolling for a few more hours. Like, you are disregarding the very thing that's intended to help you. And that's what this passage, the back half of chapter one from James, is gonna actually break down for us.

That the most dangerous thing we can do is listen to the word of God and then not do what it says. And it's not always because you're rebelling necessarily, sometimes you're just living a passive lifestyle. It might not even be because you disagree with what it's saying, but you're just delaying your obedience.

And here's the point I want us to lean into today. The most dangerous thing you can do with your faith is nothing. The most dangerous thing that you and I can do with our faith is nothing.

See, James wants us to know the Bible, but that's not it. He wants us to actually live it out. And I love what this pastor says in New York City, John Tyson from Church of the City, the gap between information and transformation is often just obedience. So the gap between the information that you know,

the transformation you can experience by doing the very thing you know to do, is just on the other side of being obedient enough to actually do it. And this is how James is gonna start as we pick up in verse 19. Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters,

you must all be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to get angry. See the first thing we're acknowledging is we should maintain a posture of humility and active listening, yet the world and culture has taught us different. We start to think of our response to someone

before we even allow them to finish what they're saying in the first place. See, we're we're bad at it in person. You have a conversation with a friend, a coworker, a spouse, a child. They're literally trying to tell you something. You will start processing your response, your rebuttal,

your answer before you even allow them the space to finish saying what they want to say. So we're bad at it in person, but we're even worse at it on the Internet.

I think everyone has probably seen something like this, and maybe some of you have actually done it yourself, but you'll take a quote or a clip or a segment of something that someone said that you maybe don't agree with, you will comment on it or repost it and just absolutely rip them apart

with zero context of how or why the statement was made in the first place. See, we've begun to be more eager with being heard than actually just listening. See, we're more concerned about now trying to be right than we are with actually continuing to learn. See, in these instances, whether it's in person or online,

let's call it an argument per se, we want to be right. We want to be right, and you might be. That's the thing, you might be, but in wanting to be right, you may actually lose the person you're trying to be right with. So the Lord tells us what this leads to. Proverbs eighteen thirteen, let people finish speaking

before you try to answer them. That way, you will not embarrass yourself and look foolish. I think all of us need to take this passage to heart, but I specifically am thinking about those people that like to hide behind a computer screen or hide behind their phone,

those keyboard warriors, those internet trolls, and I think you need to take this passage seriously. Let people finish speaking before you try to answer them why? That way you will not embarrass yourself and look foolish. I mean, did anyone else's grandma ever say there's a reason God gave us one mouth and two ears?

You know, she wasn't just joking around. It's humorous, but it's accurate. So James continues in saying this, we must be slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Now it's not saying that we won't get angry, it's not saying that we can't feel or experience

certain emotions, but what it's actually encouraging us to do is learn how to control said feelings. So I heard this statement years ago, and I've held onto it so closely for years. It's this, we can't always control what happens to us, but we can always control how we respond to it.

We can't always control the things that happen in our lives. Yes, there are instances where we make a bad decision and we reap the repercussions of it, but there's also instances where something happens to you, upon you, that you never wanted for yourself, and I'm not minimizing those things.

But what I'm saying is, we can't always control what happens to us, but we can always control how we respond to it. And I think the danger with anger specifically, as James is highlighting, is that it's not only killing us spiritually, it's actually killing us physically. Harvard Medical School compiled

these notes and these different studies correlating human anger and our physical health. Upon this collection of studies, one of them stood out to me, it was a gentleman in his early forties. Overall, a healthy individual. He ate well, he didn't smoke, he didn't drink excessively,

he worked out, he lived a healthy lifestyle by the world's standards, but his anger was always up here. His baseline stress was always elevated at all times. And through this study, as they're tracking this, he actually ended up having a heart attack. At 42, he had a heart attack because of anger.

He survived the heart attack, and upon doing so started going to counseling, went to his routine doctor visits, and the cardiologist is quoted in saying this, in this study, Harvard Medical School, your anger almost killed you, but your humility might save you. See this doctor, maybe knowing or unknowingly to him,

he just used scripture because it was already proclaimed thousands of years ago that this is the truth, and now science has now proven it. See, anger doesn't just hurt others around us, it actually harms us, it harms you. See, anger by itself won't just ruin your relationships, it'll actually start to erode your health.

The emotion of anger won't just rob you of your joy, anger will actually rob you of your life. So what do we do?

Well, James is a very practical teacher in this book. James 21. So get rid of all the filth and all the evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.

So getting rid of all the evil and filth in your lives, it's like it's cleansing yourself, it's making yourself presentable before the Lord. Now, none of us are perfect. None of us will be on this side of heaven. We are all broken individuals. We are sinners, you and I alike, but what he's talking about is intentionally

choosing to rid yourself of the things that don't actually grow you closer to the Lord. So what's something in your life right now that you can rid yourself of? What's something in your life right now that the Lord's bringing to your attention that you could rid yourself of? For some of us, maybe it's bitterness.

Maybe it's bitterness from a past relationship years ago, but you're still holding onto it. And because you're holding onto it and you're not rid yourself of it, it's the very thing poisoning your ability to love others well. Maybe for others it's an account on social media

that you're following that you thought was harmless. It's just entertainment. But what was harmless then is now the very thing that's distorting your mind. It's the very thing that's feeding into your insecurities. You need to get rid of it. Maybe for others it's a habit you picked up, and it was something

that you did you thought was gonna provide freedom and help you just cope with the hardships of life, but the very thing you thought was giving you freedom is now bringing you into slavery. It's the very vice that's actually controlling you.

Whatever the Lord is bringing to your mind right now, every single one of you, myself included, whatever it is, I promise you the Holy Spirit is bringing it to your attention, not to shame you, but to save you.

The Holy Spirit is bringing whatever that is, fill in the blank, to your mind right now, and he's not saying shame on you, he is saying shame off of you.

So what's a thing we can lay down? One thing we can lay down to then, as the passage goes on, humbly accept the word of God into our life. And this is beautiful because we don't achieve it, we receive it. You don't achieve a relationship with Jesus. You don't achieve the salvation that Jesus gives us, we receive

that free gift. You don't achieve the Holy Spirit being present in your life, you receive the Holy Spirit filling you, being upon you, being around you. And when this happens, you just receive and accept the word of God. Everything will begin to change.

You rid yourself of evil things, and you humbly accept, receive the word of God, and everything will change. The way you think, the way you speak, the way you act, it will all change for the better. James doesn't confront something in us though, because he knows this is simply said than done.

He knows that yes, we want to accept it, but he recognizes for a lot of us, we're actually not gonna apply it. So continuing in verse 22,

don't just listen to God's word, you must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. See, the trap for us is thinking we can come to church on Sunday and listen to the word of God expecting transformation Monday through Saturday without ever doing a thing. But information without application

produces imitation, not transformation. I know that's a lot. Let's break this down. Information, the things you know, the word of God, what it tells us, without application, actually doing said things will produce imitation, a fake version of ourselves, not transformation, true life change. See we can imitate a very surface level

facade of being a Christian just by knowing some things, but it takes application of doing what it says to experience the transformation that Christ offers us. See, we don't just come together on Sunday mornings to feel better. Do I want that for you? Absolutely. Do I want that for me and my family? Absolutely.

But we miss the point. We don't just come to church on Sundays to feel better. We come together as the church body on Sundays to then go out into the world and live better Monday through Saturday, and there's a distinct difference. I don't need to raise the hands, but maybe just answer this yes or no question in your mind.

How many of you have a gym membership? Alright, so we're already chuckling, I like where it's going. Alright, in your head, no raise of hand, yes or no, you have a gym membership, awesome. Next question, yes or no, no raise of hands, no pointing, how many of you actually go to the gym regularly?

See there's data that tells us only 20% of people with an active gym membership, they literally pay for it every month. 20% actually go to the gym regularly that they pay for. So one out of five, every people in here, every person that thought, oh I have a gym membership, only one out of every five actually go to the gym.

See there's this massive difference between having access to something, and then actually putting in the work to apply it to your life. See, we all have access to the word of God. We all have access to the Holy Spirit.

We come on Sunday and we listen to what he has in store for us, but then how many of us step into the world Monday through Saturday and then never apply a single thing? That is what James is referencing to us right now. Don't just listen to the word of God, do what it says.

And this is a tough one to swallow, but James, I believe he wrote these words on purpose, and it happens multiple times in this passage. If you don't do this, you are a fool.

Don't just listen to the word of God, do what it says. If you don't, you are fooling yourselves. And here's how he continues to get more practical, and I love it because he knows that we need it. Continuing in verse 23, for if you listen to the word and don't obey it, it's like glancing at your face in the mirror.

You see yourself, you walk away, and forget what you look like. Alright, so for all of us this morning, the Lord put breath in our lungs, we woke up, and we're here. I assume at some point everyone stepped into a bathroom, looked at a mirror,

and upon doing so, this helps identify areas in your life that you want to improve yourself. There's nothing wrong with that. That's natural. That's what James is using as the example.

What he's saying is, you woke up this morning, looked in the mirror, and were like, man, I really need to shave, maybe I need to put some makeup on, maybe I need to do my hair, maybe I need to pick out a different outfit, fill in the blank, and then you left and said, nah, I don't need to.

That's what James is saying with the word of God. You look to it, you don't obey it, and you choose to ignore and forget it. And I know that we read a passage like this, and myself included, man, maybe we think, well I would never do that. I know myself, I wouldn't do that. But psychologists

have studied something called self serving bias. Self serving bias, it's a tendency that we all have to minimize the things in our life that are unflattering or broken to protect our own ego. See, we do this, and then we say things to try to justify it.

We're trying to protect ourselves, we want to justify the things that we know are flawed. We say, well, that's just how I am. Well, that's how I'm wired. You might even try to bring God into it. That's how God wired me. That's how I was raised. For some of y'all, well, that's just my Enneagram number.

What you're doing when you try to justify those things is you're bending reality to preserve your own self image, and you know what that is? It's like looking into the mirror of God's word, seeing something that needs to change, walking away, forgetting it, and convincing yourself it wasn't a big deal. It's not a big deal.

And James confronts this because he's trying to paint this picture that the Bible is not a mirror for admiration, it's a mirror for transformation. The Bible is not a checklist for us to look at and be like, man, I've got it all together.

I pray every morning and every night. I read my Bible every day. I'm reading 13 different devotionals. I'm in 16 different small groups. I go to every church in the East Valley Of Phoenix, Arizona every single week. None of those things are bad. So don't hear what I'm not saying. Those aren't bad things,

but don't use the bible as a mirror to affirm and admire yourself of everything you're doing well. Use it, as James is saying, as a mirror to actually receive transformation

that the Lord has in store for you by humbly accepting the word of God into your life. Don't just look at it and walk it away, look at it and then apply it to your life. Because we have to know that the Bible will always tell us the truth if you're willing to receive it, and we can't fix what we won't admit as broken.

In your life, you cannot fix what you choose not to admit as broken. Maybe it's that relationship in your life that you're just continuing to hold onto, but man, you know a fact that you're just pretending it's fine. It's not really fine.

Maybe for others, you you can't continue to grow in your faith, and the reason why is because you continue to act like you know it all. Maybe for someone else, you you can't actually experience this true freedom that scripture tells us about because you're choosing to still live in hidden sin.

See, healing, it always, always starts with honesty. Healing always starts with honesty. And you can't fix, and God can't heal what you won't admit is broken. And here's what I want. I want for all of you, but for some of you, I think this is really, really gonna be practical for you this week.

If there's one verse you write down today, one passage, Psalms one thirty nine, verse 23, 24. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Man, you want a bold prayer for transformation.

You want to actually use the word of God as a mirror in your life. Pray that prayer. Pray that passage back to the Lord boldly, authentically, honestly, and then see what the Lord does in your heart and your mind. And we'll continue in James chapter one verse 25, but if you look carefully

into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. See, most of us don't associate maybe the word or term law with freedom. Maybe for you, it's laws are restrictive, they're rules, they're punishments,

but James is emphasizing something here, the perfect law that sets you free. Why do you think he called it the perfect law that sets you free? Because true freedom is not found in doing whatever you want. True freedom is found in obedience and surrender to Christ.

True freedom in our world today is not doing whatever you want, thinking whatever you want, acting however you want, and telling yourself your feelings are right. They are not. Your feelings will deceive you. Your feelings are helpful indicators, but terrible navigators. See, sin will sell us freedom.

It'll try to sell us freedom, but it will deliver you into slavery. It's obedience and Christ where we experience true blessing. James is telling us this, blessing is not attached to information, but application.

What he's breaking down in this passage is that blessings from the Lord are not attached to just knowing about God. Blessings from the Lord are attached to us actually applying the things about God in our life. That is where you experience true blessings from God. Verse 26, if you claim to be religious

but don't control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. So you can memorize a bunch of scripture, a good thing, but then you can still weaponize your words. So you can claim to be a Christian, a good thing, but then actually behave like a heretic or a Pharisee.

So you can read your bible every morning. We can do all the things of the checklist of affirming myself as the word of God is telling me how good I am, but James is saying, you are fooling yourself if you have no control over what comes out of your mouth.

You can do every right thing, but if you can't control your tongue, he's saying you are a fool.

Man, the tongue is our test. Our tongue is our test of the transformation happening within, and the bible is riddled with examples of the power and the weight of our words. Quickly, these verses. Proverbs eighteen twenty one, the tongue can bring death or life.

That's pretty black and white right there. The tongue can bring death or life. Colossians four six, let your conversation be gracious and attractive so you will have the right response for everyone. Ephesians four twenty nine, let everything you say be good and helpful so that your words will be an encouragement

to those who hear them. So this last week, my family went down to Mexico with a bunch of our friends. It's our annual trip. We always go the same time of the year. We absolutely love it. There's a bunch of us. Every night ends with us all collectively getting together and playing some type of card game.

Well, I'm a pretty competitive person. I'm not good at everything. I'm not that arrogant. I'm good at some things, but here's the thing. With competition, whether I'm good or bad, I will always play to win. So the first two rounds happen, and my team is crushing it. And I'm just like, Mexico.

Like my team, I'm up here living on cloud nine. We are just running the game. Well round three happens, kinda take a little bit of a pivot, and I may or may not have used some language that I should not have used, that would be frowned upon in lots of places. Now here's the thing, I'm in a safe space.

Literally on vacation with my family, with my friends, people that know me, people that love me, people that know my heart, people that forgive me when I'm acting like a big dumb animal. The very next day, I'm preparing for this message that I'm speaking right now, and I get to this point, and it's telling us,

if you can't control your tongue, you're a fool, and your religion is worthless.

Thanks God. I get it. So here's what I do, I literally text the group, I apologize. I say, hey, last night was a blast. Sorry about that one guy that was being a jerk. I apologize about the words I used. I just ask for your forgiveness. Why do I do that? Because your theology is only as deep as your vocabulary is loving.

I felt the room right there just go. Theology, your knowledge of God, your understanding of the bible is only as deep as your vocabulary and the words you use are loving.

If you claim to be a Christian, what you say, when you say it, why you say it, how you say it, where you say it, they all matter. And James is saying if you can't control it, then you're a fool, and your religion, your faith in God is worthless.

So my question that I had to ask myself, and my question for you is what do your words reveal about this day to your soul? What do the words that you use at home, by yourself, at work, at school, in your everyday life, what do they reveal about the state of your soul?

And James concludes, verse 27, pure and genuine religion in the sight of God father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. Most simply put, our pure genuine faith in the eyes of God is caring for others and refusing to be corrupted by culture. See, our faith,

our religion should have a natural reflex towards compassion, not away from it. You can't claim closeness with Christ and keep distant from the people that he loves.

If your heart does not break for the broken people that the Lord loves, then your faith in God is broken.

It doesn't matter what side of the political aisle you sit on, it doesn't matter what you think about culture of the world today, doesn't

doesn't matter what you think about our country or anything else in the world. If your heart does not break for the broken people that the Lord loves, then your faith in him is broken.

And we the church, man, we should be emotionally healthy, morally pure, radically compassionate and generous, but you go outside the walls of this church and you ask the world what they think of us, they would never use one of those words to describe us.

You know whose fault that is? That's our fault.

We gather together and listen to the clear, truthful, encouraging, empowering word of God, and we don't apply because of it, and it's not because of Jesus. He was perfect. They hate us because we're hypocrites, and we have to cut it out. We listen to the word of God, and then we do what it says. That's it.

Listen to the word of God and do what it says, and bring it back to our first point. The most dangerous thing you can do with your faith is nothing.

The most dangerous thing you can do with your relationship with the Lord is just sit on the sidelines and do nothing.

So my ask as we close today is, what would the Lord ask you to stop today and start this week? What would God ask you, every single one of you, to stop today and start doing this week? Some of y'all need to stop gossiping.

You need to stop tearing people down behind their backs and start elevating them in prayer asking God to bless them radically.

Some of you need to stop sleeping with the person you're not married to. I made bad decisions before I got married, so I get it. I've heard every excuse under the sun that you think you have, but you need to honor the Lord, start actually respecting yourself, and set up some biblical boundaries before marriage.

And all of us in different times of life, we need to stop living in isolation and start living in community. You can only have authentic relationship if you're giving authentic self to other people. You can't experience authenticity if you're always gonna give someone a fake version of yourself.

You'll never experience true life change or transformation. And community is something we all need. Every single one of us, no matter your background of faith, your upbringing, your economic status, demographic, your skin color, where you live, we all need community.

The Lord represented it in himself as a triune God, one God, three persons, relational, and we need that as well. And I'm so excited as we head into the fall,

not only for the weather that will come in the fall, but what I'm hoping and excited about is we're gonna launch Echo's Cruise, and Cruise are our form of small groups. They're a place to experience genuine connection, to grow in your faith, and experience real community.

And my hope is that all of us get plugged into this, but right now, right in this moment in time, I need to ask something specific of some of you. Now the Lord has gifted and wired some of you specifically to be hospitable and relational,

and if that's you, I believe the Lord might be prompting you to help lead this thing. Help lead this thing with us. We need cruise leaders. If you'd be compelled to find out more information about this, you just scan the QR code or text leader to 31707.

Here's what a crew leader is. They love God and they love people, and we will help you with everything else. You don't have to have it all together, you don't need to be a bible expert, I certainly am not one. Just love God and love people and allow God to do the rest.

So if that's you, would you would you be a part of the church body? Don't just come to church, come and be a part of the church and then we go live better together. And for all of us, whatever the Lord brought to your mind today, to stop doing now and start doing this week, don't miss the opportunity.

Let's move from listening to actually doing. God, come before you now. Lord, we thank you for your word, your God breathed word, the Bible. Lord, that it's not intended just to inform us, Lord, but it's intended to transform us into a likeness of Christ.

So God, will we move away from just having a Sunday faith to having an everyday faith when we actually begin to apply the things that you are speaking to us right now. Lord, receive all the glory, all the honor, and it's in the most powerful precious name that we pray. Amen.