Leading The Way

Guest (Female): Getting cleansed by the word. Next, on Leading The Way.

Dr. Michael Youssef: How can the seed of the word of God be deeply planted into our lives? How can that happen? How can we keep these weeds from coming back all the time? I can tell you that. It certainly is not by a quick ten minutes on reading the scripture. It’s by spending time, taking time, reflecting deeply on the word of God.

Guest (Female): Thank you for joining listeners across six continents for Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Would you like to talk with a pastor or a counselor about life or faith questions? Consider speaking with a Leading the Way pastor or counselor today and begin your conversation at ltw.org/jesus. Right now, though, listen with us as Dr. Youssef shares a message from his life-transforming series, The 12 Evidences of Faith.

Dr. Michael Youssef: It was a number of years ago that I read this story that really caught my attention and I have never forgotten it. And it's about a man who was 63 years old in New York City. He had never had a job, not even once in all his 63 years. He spent all of his adult life as a professional student. He earned one degree after another, probably got more degrees than the alphabet.

Why did he spend all these years on college campus? The answer is very simple. When he was young, his very wealthy uncle made him the beneficiary of his estate. And the stipulation in the will went something like this: that he is to receive this very generous monthly stipend as long as he stays in school. And the money will be discontinued when he finishes his education.

So to meet the conditions of his uncle's estate will, he spent all his life in college. I mean, he spent thousands and thousands of hours listening to professors, reading books, but never worked a day in all his life. His education benefited no one. It works the same way in the Christian life. It works the same way.

There are so many people who are professional listeners to sermons, so many people who are professional readers of Christian books. They watch Christian television programming, and I'm not against them. But they live all of their life literally in disobedience to the word of God. And James is so adamant about those who have faith or claim to have faith is to prove it. He is adamant that the person who claims to have faith must show evidence of that faith.

We have begun a series from the book of James on the 12 evidence of faith. We saw the very first evidence of faith. Count it all joy. That is showing joy in the midst of the trials of life. Secondly, we saw that those who are with genuine faith must have the power of the Holy Spirit working in them to be able to fight temptation, not give into it all the time.

And thirdly here today, the third proof or evidence is obedience to the word of God. But before James could talk about obedience, he points his finger on some of the things that could be hindrances to obedience. I want you to try to imagine your mind as a field. And that field is left to its own devices. Never been touched. What's going to happen? It's going to be filled with weeds and thistles.

And so he's saying before you start planting the seeds of the word of God inside of you so that they may grow and produce good crops, you have to dig up the weeds. You have to plow that field. You have to cultivate the soil. Only then can you be sure that the seed of the word of God is going to get deep into your heart, going to get deep into your mind, going to get deep into your will, and then transform your life.

Now, I want you to think with me. Think of the Bible studies or the groups, outside groups, and all the so-called fellowships and even some churches that you may have been to. They never talk about confession. In fact, the word confession is almost an anathema in some evangelical churches. And yet, that is the very thing that you must begin with to cleanse and prepare the soil of your heart for the planting of the word of God.

Begin with confession. Why is that so important? Listen carefully, please. Because when you confess, God already knows. And so when you confess, you're agreeing with God. But if you say my parents made me do it, my wife made me do it, my husband made me do it, and so blame somebody else, you will never go to stage one.

How can you plant the seed to take hold into your soil of your life? Confession. It's a cleansing operation. And that is why before James talks about obedience to the word of God, verses 19 to 21, he says, "Know this, my brothers." Know what? Know that there are some weeds and thistles that are filling your heart and your mind that needs to be dug up. You need to deal with it.

What are some of these weeds? He goes on to tell you. You don't listen very well. You fly off the handle, then find out what the facts are. When you are easily and constantly fussing and fuming and complaining about everything. When you are full of your own importance and the importance of your ideas and your views and your opinion.

When you get easily angered when things don't go your way, and you get frustrated. When all of that happen, and when you do that, you can read the Bible all day long. You can hear to sermons all day long. You can watch Christian television all day long. And it does not affect you. The seed is basically falling on fallow ground. It is not going anywhere.

But you have to plow the soil first. You have to dig up the weeds first. You have to prepare the soil first. Remember, all of what James is saying in this third evidence of faith, all of them actually go back to the first one. Count it all joy. Having joy in the midst of trials.

Why? Because when things get tough, and it get tough for all of us, when we go through testing times, the natural reaction is to say things that you wish you didn't say. I have to confess to you there are things that I have said, I would give anything to get them back. But I can't get them back.

When we complain about God, when we accuse God of unfairness, when we accuse God of abandoning us and not loving us and why he's not doing this and why he's not doing the other thing, the seed is not going anywhere. As a matter of fact, this is the very sin of the first generation of God's people when they came out of Egypt.

They saw with their eyes the amazing things that God did. All the plagues that came on the Egyptians but they were spared. Parting of the Red Sea, getting in the wilderness, and there they found the manna. I mean, God just kept providing. But the moment they faced one challenge, where is God? Moses, did you bring us here to die? What happened? They started murmuring and complaining and winging.

And so God basically had enough. And he gave them 40 years to keep walking around and walking around and walking around the wilderness until every one of that generation was buried in the wilderness. And then the new generation was able to get into the promised land.

Question: why do quick tempers, thoughtless speech, and anger prevent the seed of the word of God from going in and taking hold? I don't have the answer, the Bible does, verse 20. "Man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires." Underline it.

You see, you cannot become what God wants you to be when you're constantly foaming at the mouth, spitting and sputtering. Throughout the scripture, we see how anger caused people to lose the blessing. We see example after example in the scripture. Cain got mad at God for not accepting his offering, the way he wanted to offer it, not the way God taught his parents.

And he got mad at God and he took it out on his obedient brother, Abel, and he killed him. Moses, man of God, when he lost his temper and would not do what God said and to speak to the rock but he whacked it with his stick instead, God said, "Okay, Moses, you will see the promised land, but you're not going to go into it."

Jonah was mad at God for his own success and for God saving Nineveh. I mean, think about this. And he spent the rest of his life sitting under a tree pouting. Be careful, lest you spend the rest of your Christian life sitting under a tree pouting and lose the blessing.

Anger that's the result of injury to our pride is going to blind us to the will of God in our life. It's going to blind us to the grace of God. It's going to blind us to the plan that God has for us in our life. Verse 21. You have to pull out these weeds of anger so that the word of God can be implanted in your heart.

How do you do that? First by confession. Confession is a beautiful word. Because through it, the Holy Spirit comes in and begins to do his cleansing of our hearts. The next important question is this: how can the seed of the word of God be deeply planted into our lives? How can that happen? How can we keep these weeds from coming back all the time?

I can tell you that. It certainly is not by a quick ten minutes on reading the scripture. It's by spending time, taking time, reflecting deeply on the word of God. And let me share with you the little bit that I am learning. And believe me, I'm learning. When I sit with the scripture, first thing in the morning, I ask myself the following questions: Is there an example for me to emulate?

Is there a command for me that I need to obey? Is there an error in my life that I need to avoid? Is there a sin that I need to renounce? Is there a promise that I need to claim? Is there a new thought about God that I have not learned before? Is there a new thought about the Lord Jesus Christ that I have not learned before?

Is there a new thought about the Holy Spirit and his ministry in my life that I need to understand? That's how the seed gets in and implanted deeply in our lives. But there's something else that I don't want you to miss. It is so small in that verse 21. It's a keyword. Humbly. Some translation says meekly. You receive that word humbly or meekly.

Why is that such a big deal? It's a huge deal. Listen to me very carefully. Because what that means is that don't argue with the word of God. It means don't twist the word of God to make it conform to what you want it to mean. But rather honor it. Honor it as the absolute truth of God. Accept it and obey it fully.

Why? Verse 22 to 25 tells us why. Because it will help transform your life. "Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." Remember this: back in the first century as the apostle James writing, like all the New Testament writers, most people were illiterate. They could not read.

They only learned the gospel by hearing. And that's why Paul says "comes by hearing" because very few of them really could read. But it doesn't matter, really. Hearing or reading, it makes no difference. You can hear all the sermons in the world. You can hear all the preaching and the teaching in the world until and unless you want to obey and willing to obey.

Allow the seed to go deep so to transform your life, change your life, become more like Christ every day. It's like the guy who spent all his life in college. Didn't help anybody. Why? James said, these professional hearers or readers are like someone who gets up first thing in the morning and looks at a mirror, but he never does anything about it.

The truth is when the word of God confronts us with our sin and our shortcomings, and oh my goodness that happens every morning for me, it is not just to make us feel temporarily bad. And a lot of people do. They feel temporarily bad when they hear a convicting message or they read something in the word of God and they just temporarily felt bad.

God does not want you to feel bad, temporary or otherwise. Did you get that? God wants you to come to him for cleansing, for empowering, for strength, for forgiveness. Is there an issue that I need to repent of? Is there an issue that I need forgiveness in? Is there an issue that I need strength to overcome? Is there an issue that I need cleansing and removal from my life?

See, that's what the mirror calls you and calls me to do. Here's a warning: the person who hears or reads the word of God and does not obey it, he will live a frustrated life. Maybe even I'd dare say a depressed life. It's like someone said, "Impression without expression leads to depression."

And so the third evidence of real faith manifests itself how? By weeding out the things that don't belong, planting the word of God deeply into the heart and the soil of our hearts so that obedience to that word does its transforming work. It does its transforming work.

Takes away the frustrations, takes away the anger, gives you joy in the midst of trial. Question: what does the fruit of obedience look like? Again, James tells us, verses 26 and 27. He said first it will give you the ability to control your tongue. He touches on it. The importance of the speech. Why our words are important.

Jesus answered that question. He does in Matthew 12:34. He said, "From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." Or the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart. What's in the well comes out in the bucket. When someone says, "Oh, well, you know, his bark is really worse than his bite." Well, his bark is the bite.

So the mouth speaks what's in the heart. That's why it's important. So the question is: do you praise God all the time, do you bless God, or do you complain all the time thinking of something that's just not going right and complain about it? Do you bless or do you curse? Do you criticize or do you encourage?

Do you put people down or do you lift them up? And the second fruit of that obedience to the word of God is showing kindness. Why? Why is that important? Because showing kindness is love in action. It's no use saying I love somebody and I see them in distress and I do nothing about it. Showing kindness is love in action.

Showing genuine compassion is an indication of a heart that's experienced the power of the word of God and transformation. Expression of authentic caring to those who most desperately in need is evidence of faith. Remember, back then, the reason he mentions specifically the widows and the orphans, back then they were the most desperate people in society.

They have no social security, no government programs, and no child care. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The issue is the same. The point is the same. If you show kindness to the desperately needy, it gives evidence of the fruit of obedience to the word of God. Third thing he says as a proof of obedience to the word of God: what is it?

Separation from the world. Okay, Michael, we're all going to go up to the mountains, live in bubbles, or we're going to go to the nunneries and the monasteries and—no, no. That's not what he's talking about. The Bible talks clearly about living in the world but not of it. So what does it mean? Simply this: don't read the junk that non-believers read.

Don't watch the raunchy stuff the non-believers watch. Don't use filthy language that they use. Don't contaminate your mind with their filth. And I was thinking about this and I thought about the example the Bible gives us of Lot. Lot was Abraham's nephew. He got into altercation over greed, his shepherds, Abraham's shepherds.

Abraham said, "Take what you want. You and I are not going to fight." And God blessed Abraham even more. And the Bible said that Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom. Oh, no, no. A man like me is not going to go over there. I'm just going to be near enough so I can just take a look at it. I want to admire it from a distance.

Oh, I wonder these people having a party every night. I wonder what it's like to be there. Day after day, he pitched his tent towards Sodom. Be very careful. Be very careful if your tent is towards Sodom of this world. And the next stage, the Bible said, he was in Sodom.

Oh, probably thought to himself, "You know, I'm going to witness. I'm just going to be a good light to these people and I'm going to—" You get the third stage in the Bible. He is part and parcel of that miserable culture. He was sitting at the gate, which means that he became part of it.

And as a result, he lost his testimony. He lost his family. He lost everything. In the end, the angels had to drag him out because of the intercession of Uncle Abraham. Contrast that with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible said it is for whom and through whom all things were created.

He was in the splendor and the glory of heaven. But out of obedience to the Father, he came to Earth, lived as the poorest of the poor, did everything in his life in obedience to the Father. And the Bible said that's why today he sits on the rim of the universe. He's in control. He owns everything. Not just the Earth, but also all the galaxies, because of his obedience to the Father. The question I want you to think about: am I like Lot or am I like Jesus? Am I like Lot or am I like Jesus?

Guest (Female): Getting cleansed by the word. That's the title of today's message from Dr. Michael Youssef on Leading The Way. If you're not sure where you stand spiritually, we invite you to speak with a Leading The Way pastor or counselor. Start that conversation by filling out a brief contact form at ltw.org/jesus.

If today's message was encouraging to you and if you'd like to help make it possible for others in your neighborhood and in neighborhoods just like yours all around the world experience the truth of God's word through the teaching of Dr. Youssef, then please consider partnering financially today. Right now is the perfect time. Here's how to get in touch: 866-626-4356.

Ron: My name is Ron and I’m calling from Tecumseh, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Youssef has been tremendous. He has just given me such encouragement through his messages, his absolute boldness and clarity to deliver the gospel message. Dr. Youssef, thank you so much for being so faithful to the cause of Christ. And I am so thankful that I have committed myself in what way I can to support your ministry.

You’re a blessing. Your ministry of outreach does a tremendous job, both domestic and abroad. Thank you so much again how you have remained faithful in all parts of the world that need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you so much, Dr. Youssef. May your ministry continue to be blessed, emboldened with the power of the Holy Spirit. And I will continue to listen and be encouraged. God bless.

Guest (Female): You're invited to stand with Dr. Youssef and the worldwide Leading The Way ministry team so that more people can experience the transformational power of the gospel. Won't you consider participating in this month's Giving Challenge? Get details when you call and speak with a ministry representative at 866-626-4356 or ltw.org. This program is brought to you by Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.