Deception from Within

Well, good evening.

Good to see everyone tonight.

Glad you guys are here.

I know the Lord has a special blessing for you guys being here on your Wednesday night after you're tired from working half the week, and so you're halfway there.

So anyways, if you have your Bible tonight, turn to James, chapter one.

James, chapter number one.

James, Chapter number one.

I don't know why I'm a little, like, especially nervous tonight.

I usually get nervous every time I preach, but I don't know if for some reason tonight I'd be more nervous.

So I'm hoping that the Lord will just take over and he'll use me the way he ought to use me and all that.

So I pray that tonight this would be a blessing to you.

This would be a challenge to you.

At the same time, if you have your Bibles into James chapter one, and we're gonna read just verse 14 through 16, just to kinda start, our main text is going to be 19 through 27.

But if you look at verse number 14, it says, but every man is tempted.

How many of y' all have ever been tempted before?

Right?

But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin.

And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Do not err, my beloved brethren.

You see, the context of the book of James is a pretty interesting one.

Right now, the church of Jerusalem is facing tremendous persecution.

There's some estimates of when kind of the Book of James is written, but a lot of people believe it was written right after the stoning of Stephen and during Paul's persecution of the church.

Is a lot of people speculate where this book kind of may have been written or at least started to be written.

But James is the pastor there at the church of Jerusalem, and he's writing to his congregation.

You got to think about what they're going through at this time.

The church is being persecuted.

They're scattered.

Like how it says in verse number one, it says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes are scattered abroad, right?

He says greed as his greeting.

So they're scattered right now.

They are facing various trials, they are facing various temptations.

They're confused, they're hurting.

They are facing tough choices.

James is writing the book of his letter.

He's writing it from a caring and burdened pastor's heart.

And I think that it's very interesting when we get to verse 19, he kind of gives a charge.

It's one of his many sermons.

And verse 19 it says, Wherefore, my beloved brethren.

This is after the fact, everything he said so far.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Wherefore I lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls.

But be ye doers of the Word and not hearers, only deceiving your own selves.

For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man beholden his natural face in a glass.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for bringing this sermon to me, Lord.

I'm preaching to myself tonight, Lord, I pray, Lord, that you'd hide me behind your cross and that I would not get in the way of your message, Lord, that it would be your message and not mine.

We love you.

In Jesus name I pray.

Amen.

Have you ever made a blunder in your life?

Have you ever made a mistake and asked yourself, where did I go wrong?

Every day we're faced with choices, actions and reactions.

Some are easy to make, but other choices, they have a little more weight to them.

You see, I have this game on my phone.

It's called the game of chess.

Have you ever played the game of chess before?

Well, the game of chess is a strategy game, right?

And on this app that I have, if you have the subscription that I forgot to cancel after each match, it will actually give you kind of a breakdown of your kind of match.

It tells you where you went wrong or if you did a good move.

Like that was the proper move to make, right?

And every so often, actually not very.

It happens a lot.

To me, it says you made a blunder right here, right?

And basically what a blunder is is that you made a terrible mistake that is going to cost you, right?

You've made a blunder.

You see, we oftentimes make blunders in our life.

And the thing is, is that it often comes from deception from our own selves.

We believe that we know what's best and in our own minds.

And we often turn to, you know, the self motivation books, we turn to the YouTube influencers.

You know, we want to get the TikTok people to give us the advice that we need, right?

But in reality, they are human, just like you.

Now, I'm not saying that all those things are bad.

I'm not saying that you can't use some of that stuff, but what I am saying is, is that it should be coming from one place and that's the word of God.

And if you look at verse number 19, it says, wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

You see, I have three steps to avoid our own deception tonight.

Step number one, react slowly, be swift to hear.

I love what the Bible says.

Right here in verse number 19 it says, wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear.

Now that sounds pretty easy.

I can listen pretty good.

Except when my wife's talking to me, I can listen pretty good.

Listening is not the problem for me.

It's the response a lot.

When's the last time you actually took someone's very words?

Maybe they were saying something very important to you.

Maybe they're telling something that they didn't like or disagreed with.

When was the last time you sat there and pondered the words for a moment and then spoke?

I have a very reactive personality.

My wife will attest to this.

When things don't go my way, I get very frustrated very easily and it comes out right.

I often time when me and my wife are having intense fellowship, we will, I will cut her off.

Right.

And this kind of goes with that.

I'm not quite listening.

I'm just being, I'm being, I'm not being swift to hear, I'm being swift to speak.

And it says right here, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

How many of you have a temper problem?

Now don't answer that, but think about it.

Where does that stem from?

How many of you struggle with the reactions of the so called.

We'll say it this way.

How many of you react to the bad five minutes that you are saying it's been a bad day.

How many of you have sat there and said, well, I'm just gonna throw myself a pity party.

I'm gonna put a hole in this wall because I'm frustrated.

I'm going to throw this object across the room because I can't contain myself.

But even more so, our words also come out in a way that they shouldn't come out.

Maybe you curse, maybe you say something to stab at somebody else.

Maybe it's true and maybe it's not.

But maybe it wasn't the right time to say it or the right way to say it.

And too often us Christians have a hard time with this for some Reason.

We're so slow to listen and we're so quick to give an answer.

I like to think of James and John, the disciples of Jesus.

Jesus calls them the sons of thunder, right?

It's a pretty awesome name.

But it's because their wrath was so quick.

They were ready to bring the hammer down as soon as they had the opportunity.

And how often in our churches are we so desperate and so quick to bring a certain judgment on somebody?

Maybe you don't have the full story.

Now, I'm not saying you should not go to someone in the faith, in the heart of a friendship, and in the spirit of Jesus Christ would give you and say, hey, I've noticed some things.

Is there any way I can help you with some of this?

But oftentimes, what do we like to do?

We like to gossip.

We like to talk behind their back.

Maybe when we're not doing it, we're doing it to them.

You're wrong.

You're just full of sin.

Sad, isn't it?

I have a hard time picturing Christ Jesus doing that sometimes.

Now, yes, Jesus did call others out on their sin, and that's not what I'm saying.

But there's a certain gentleness to it.

There's a.

The pride was gone.

And you see, we are so slow to hear, but we're so quick to respond.

You see, in Proverbs, chapter number 15, verse number one, it says, a soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.

Are you the type of person that the words calm somebody down, or does it sit there and just stir the anger?

You see, we're supposed to be slow to respond.

Restrain your words.

That's what that slow to speak means.

We should not allow emotion to control our tongue, our actions, right?

But so often our emotions are what control our choices, and our emotions bring out the blunders in our life.

And we've deceived ourselves.

We viewed ourselves as spiritual, but we can't control our own emotions.

We can't control our own tongues.

We can't control our own actions.

Guess what?

When other people that aren't Christians see that, what do they see?

They see there's no difference.

Oh, typical Christian getting mad at me.

Typical Christian bringing judgment and damnation onto somebody.

Restrain your wrath.

Human anger does not produce the righteousness of God.

Now, I'm not saying that you can't be angry.

In fact, the Bible says, be angry.

And sin, not anger, is an emotion that God gives you.

But anger left unchecked is what brings the Evil.

How many times have we let our anger get the best of us?

Trust me, I have a two year old son.

My anger will get the best of me sometimes.

And he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

You see, number one, we need to be, we need to react slowly.

And number two, we need to act proactively.

Look at James 1:21 right here.

It says, wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls.

Verse 22.

But be ye doers of the word and not hearers, only deceiving your own selves.

You know what the problem with a lot of churches in America today?

Every single member that walks in the back door are just a bunch of hearers.

Now the interesting thing is that the Bible doesn't say that that hearing is wrong.

It says when you're only hearing.

That's the problem.

You see, we deceive ourselves because we paint this picture in our minds.

Because we show up to church and say, well, check that box.

I can do all this, I can do all that, but I can't do that.

I'm too busy.

And I'm guilty of this too.

So often I'm the hero, I'm the bystander.

And unfortunately it's made blunders in my life.

I've deceived my own self.

I view myself, oh, I'm a pretty good Christian.

I do this, this and that, but I don't do that because I'm too busy.

Well, I know I'm supposed to act this way outside church, but no one really sees me.

It's not a big deal.

Excuse me, doesn't God see you?

We like to paint this picture in our heads, right?

Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees that they were hypocrites, they were white unto the sepulchers.

Man, they look beautiful on the, on the outside, man, pretty.

But inside was just dead man's bones.

And how often in our own lives do we look the part?

But we, when we really take a look at ourselves, it's just dead man's bones.

I would even dare say that a problem with our churches in America today is that the Christians that come in and they do do all these ministries, they do do all these things, but it's for the wrong motive.

It's all for self.

And they say, look at Me?

Look at the picture I've painted for you.

I am the picture of spirituality.

Sad, isn't it?

Matthew 7:24.

Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man.

Is it interesting that Jesus said, whoever hear these things, say these sayings of mine, and doeth them, he's like a wise man.

That almost implied that the problem is people aren't hearing the sayings and acting upon them.

The well, what did Jesus say?

Oh, the harvest is plenteous, but there's no laborers.

Maybe there's no laborers because we've deceived ourselves that we're a laborer, but we're really just a bystander.

You see, we should, when we receive the Word, it's not to be.

Yes, we should hide God's word in our heart.

Yes, that is part of it.

But then we should be sharing that in our heart.

We should be telling others about the gospel.

Every time you go to Walmart, someone there may just look at you and say, I think they're a Christian.

Just because there's something different about them.

That person you hand a gospel tract to at Chili's, that waiter or waitress, they take and read that and say, huh, this is the first time someone's ever handed this to me.

This is interesting.

I think I'll read it.

What about that person, that co worker you share the gospel with, and they look at you and say, no one's ever told me this before, but too often the Christian at Walmart looks like everybody else.

They look at that Christian, they say, I can't tell that they're a Christian.

There must not be anything special about the word of God.

There must not be anything special about God's promises.

There must not be anything special about the Gospel.

That waiter or waitress at Chili's, you left them a nice tip, but that's normal.

Nothing else stood out about you.

That co worker that you never shared the gospel with, they look at you one day in heaven.

They say, how come you never told me?

You made it seem like there was no issue.

You see, we're supposed to be proactive with our action, not waiting around.

Oftentimes Christians are too reactive with things and not proactive about most things.

It's amazing.

I played basketball in high school and middle school, and my coaches would always say, be proactive with the ball, not reactive.

Know what you're doing with the basketball.

Know what you're doing when you're dribbling down the court.

Know what you're doing.

Think about it in your mind.

What is your plan?

What are you hoping the outcome is supposed to be when you're making the pass?

Are you.

Is it.

Is it to benefit or is it.

Does it.

Is it not accomplishing anything?

And in our own lives, we have to be proactive with things.

Not reactive.

Cause reactive.

It can be too late.

And that word, keep it is that they maintain it, they're upholding it, they're showing it out, they wear it on their chest.

They're doing what they're supposed to be doing with it.

There's a lot of Christians that they hear the word and they hold onto it and they're not willing to give it.

Have you deceived yourself tonight?

Have you looked the proper part?

But you just.

You've never given it fully to God.

Have you let God have control of your life?

And here's the amazing part.

You have to do it every single day, every moment, just like Billy McCracken said.

You have to give yourself over and over and over and over again to the Holy Spirit.

And yielding to the Holy Spirit's word.

But too often we say, well, I yield to the Holy Spirit's word here, but I'm good now.

I'm good for the month.

It's amazing the things we justify in our own minds and deceive ourselves.

A form of holiness, but it's just filled with dead man's bones.

Look at your compassion.

Genuine religion produces care for the fatherless, the widows.

We'll see that here in a moment.

Are you genuine about your Christianity?

So, number one, we need to be slow, to react, react slowly.

And secondly, we need to act proactively.

Thirdly, we need to review constantly.

Look at James 23.

It says right here.

For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in the glass.

That's like looking in a mirror.

For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

It's like if you are just a hearer and not a doer.

It's like you're looking in the glass and you see all the nastiness, you see all the imperfections, and you say, well, I guess I'm good because I don't look like so and so.

I'm not just talking about physically speaking.

I'm talking about there's a spiritual aspect to this.

The doers, they look at themselves in the mirror and they say, oh, I need to fix all of this.

And guess what?

That mirror is the word of God.

We often look at ourselves.

How many times in the mirror per day?

Probably at least three times, right?

You probably at least look in the mirror three times a day.

If you looked in the mirror and saw, oh, man, I have a big old blackhead on my face, I probably should do something about that.

Oh, I have some grime and dirt there.

I'll just leave it.

Man, my hair looks atrocious.

It'll be all right.

No, that's not our reaction.

Oh, we want to do something about it.

We want to be proactive about it, and we want to change things and we want to fix things.

We want to make sure we maintain a proper look so that we look like we take care of ourselves and are hygienic.

But we are so worried sometimes about our physical hygiene that we forget about our spiritual hygiene.

How many times do you review yourself in God's word?

Some of you were obviously working, secular work, and oftentimes you have employee reviews, right?

Probably at the end of the year or halfway through the year.

I don't know how often you do it, but usually they'll give you, like, a number.

It's like one out of five.

And like one, you're doing a terrible job.

Five, you're doing above and beyond what's expected of you, right?

Have you done that to your spiritual self?

Have you looked in the word of God and said, God, I want you to measure me.

I want you to grade me by your word, not by what other people think.

But what does the Bible say that is wrong with me?

You see, in 2nd Corinthians 13:5, it says, examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves, examine your results.

Look at verse number.

Verse number 25.

But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

If a man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

It's empty.

That last verse says pure religion.

And undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

You see, we're supposed to be serving one another.

That's what that Verse means if you're living the true Spirit filled life.

If we're being doers of the Word and not hearers only, this is what you'll be doing.

You'll be looking at your face in the glass and you'll be trying to fix yourself.

You'll be going and serving others.

You'll be telling others about the Gospel.

You're not going to let the world get to you.

But the problem today is that we have so many Christians that walk through the back doors of a church building and, and they are filled with the spots of this world.

And they come just for one cleaning a week, two cleanings a week, three cleanings a week.

They look good.

I'd be honest with you, if I only took a bath three times a week, you would probably notice.

I know that's a silly illustration, but has the world left a stain on your life?

You know what the best form of Oxiclean is?

It's the blood of Jesus Christ.

You see, our theme this year is in his steps.

If we're only hearers, are we truly walking in his steps?

If we're not doers of the word of God, are we really walking in the steps of Jesus?

Can we even call ourselves Christians?

You see, in Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24, it says, Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me.

Have you prayed that to God recently?

Be careful.

It's kind of a scary prayer to pray.

Why?

Because this is what God's going to do if you're genuine about it.

He's going to hold that glass to your face.

He's going to say, here is where you've gone wrong.

Here's the blunders in your life.

This is what's causing you to fall and stumble.

This is what's causing you to not be spirit filled.

And we have to give it to him.

Say, okay, Lord, make me clean, fix the spots in my life, remove the blunders, remove the deception I've given myself.

It's amazing.

A lot of times we give Satan all the credit for deceiving us.

But the Bible says right here we have an even bigger problem with deceiving our own selves.

How are your steps?

Have you given yourself a fair review lately?

I think too often when we give ourselves a review, we don't do it by the word of God.

We do it by our own standards.

And then there's a sense of holiness about us that we like to exumerate.

But are we really reviewing ourselves by the word of God?

Have you been proactive in your instructions, being doers rather than just a bystander?

I know when I was playing football, baseball and basketball, there was one thing I hated about playing sports that was sitting on the bench.

I did not like to be on the sidelines.

I did not like to sit on the bench.

I didn't like to be on the dugout.

I wanted to be out on the field.

I wanted to be scoring touchdowns, making tackles.

I wanted to be shooting the hoops.

I wanted to be making great passes to my teammates.

I wanted to be hitting home runs and doubles and triples and making big plays in the outfield.

But so often God gives us those opportunities in our own lives, and we'd rather stay in the dugout.

We'd rather sit the bench.

We'd rather stay on the sidelines.

Are you experiencing a lack of self control with your reactions?

It's amazing because we act like punching a hole in the wall.

Some people act like that's a normal behavior.

But I did not see one instance in Scripture where Jesus Christ punched a hole in the wall.

Now, you may say, well, but no, he flipped tables.

Yeah, he flipped the money changers tables that were defiling his house, the temple.

I think that was very appropriate.

But too often we act like our actions of anger or lack of self control are just normal.

No big deal.

And I'm preaching to myself tonight.

My reactions I have not kept in check.

My proactivity has not been proactive.

The review I've constantly given myself has been, oh, I'm doing enough.

I wonder what Jesus Christ what would happen if Jesus Christ just said, well, right before he went to the cross, well, I've done enough.

But it wasn't.

It wouldn't have been.

If we're truly going to walk in the steps of Jesus Christ, we got to be doers and not hearers.

Only.

I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.

I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments.

Philippians 4:9 those things which ye have both learned and received, and heard and seen in me do.

Have you deceived yourself tonight?

Have you deceived yourself of your own true spiritual state?

I know I have.

And are you taking the steps needed to avoid deceiving yourself?

I think too often we have a lot of Christians that are quick to react, that are not acting proactively, and their reviews are invalid.

Let me ask them I wonder what review the world would give you.

I wonder what review your family members would give you.

I wonder what review your best friend would give you.

Your wife, your husband, your kids.

If they were being honest with you, what kind of review would they give you?

And more importantly, if Jesus Christ was in this room tonight, which I believe that he is, Holy Spirit's here with us.

What kind of review would he give you?

Would he pat you on the back and loving?

He'd probably say, we got a lot of work to do.

At least that's what he'd say to me.

I've got a lot of work to do.

But there's hope.

And that hope is found in God's word.

It's found in Jesus Christ.

Too often we turn to other things when the answers that we need are all right here.

They're all in our time of prayer.

They're in our time with Jesus.

How's your walk with Christ today?

As the musicians get ready.

How's your review tonight?

Have you given God control of your life or are you still holding on?

Are you still just a hearer or do you want to be a doer for me?

I don't want.

When those pearly gates open to me one day, I stand before God.

I definitely don't want him to look at me and say, you are a hearer rather than a doer.

I want him to tell me, well done, thy good and faithful servant.

You are a doer, not a hearer, As we all stand.

Verse invitation.

How's your review tonight?

Maybe you need to come tonight and get your review done with God here at the altar.