We both play an active part because preaching is a partnership. The Bible has more to say about the hearers' part of the partnership than about the preachers'. Hearing and heeding the preached Word is essential for our relationship with God. Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.

SERIES:  The Gathering: Why Sunday Matters
TEXT: James 1:21-25
TITLE:  Partnering with the Preacher
PREACHER: Derek Overstreet

POINTS:
1. Prepare Your Heart
2. Listen with Humility
3. Apply with Confidence

SERMON EXCERPTS:
All quotes are taken from the pastor’s notes.
”What is James doing here? He wants us to prepare our hearts to receive God’s Word. Preparation isn’t a foreign concept to us. Think about how many things you prepare for every day. James knows preparation is paramount when receiving God’s Word, privately or publicly. He understands this because he understands the heart.”

“James knows that in our pride, we can be slow to hear, figuratively speaking, living with our Bibles closed—because we know what we know what we know—instead of living with our Bibles open, eager to hear and apply God’s Word.”

“James knows we can be quick to speak the truth of God’s Word to others, criticize the preacher, or preach excuses and justifications to ourselves when the preaching hits home.”

“James knows how quickly idolatry can choke out our appetite for the truth of God’s word. He understands how self-righteousness and doctrinal pride cloud our understanding of God’s word. James is aware of how unchecked sin stunts us spiritually.”

“So, James's words are a gift from God! Repentance and faith in Christ’s forgiveness and the Spirit’s power to prepare our hearts to receive the preached Word on Sunday morning.”

“James says believers are to put away pride and receive the word with meekness. The word for receive means to welcome or accept. That’s what authentic listening is—Accepting God’s word, not only in my head but in my heart.”

“James says the key to listening is putting off our sin and putting on meekness, which is humility. Meekness is expressed in a submissive spirit. It’s the opposite of a defensive posture, a self-righteousness attitude, or an apathetic spirit, all of which slam the door of our hearts shut to the preached word.“

 “That’s the opposite of receiving the word with humility. Christians should be E.A.T., eager and teachable, so we EAT up the Word of God. Why? Because there’s so much for us to learn about our Lord and Savior!”

“What hinders humble listening on Sunday? Give it to the Lord. He is merciful. He is full of grace. He is mighty to change your heart. He loves and delights in you. He wants you to gain and grow all you can from the preaching of His Word.”

“Listening continues long after the message concludes, not with your ears, with your feet. James has just instructed the believers to receive the word with humility. Now, he puts the proverbial bow on the package with a powerful and unforgettable picture—read verses 22-25.”

“Now, the phrase looks intently means to observe carefully and contemplate what you see. This is not a glance. This man is studying his face in the mirror, and the more he looks into the mirror, the more the mirror reveals, blackheads and all. But then, in verse 24, he goes away, forgetting what he saw. Forgetting is not forgetfulness (growing old). Forgetting is disregarding. This man sees his face but ignores what he sees. He fails to make the needed adjustments before he gets on with his day. It’s an absurd metaphor. But that’s the point.” 

“We come every Sunday and get a good look at ourselves. James says if we sit here for 45-50 minutes but do nothing with what the mirror of God’s Word has shown us, we are a HEARER of the Word but not a DOER of the Word—spiritually, we are this guy. We can enthusiastically nod in agreement and shout out a hearty amen to the preacher, but we are this guy if we fail to make the required adjustments in our lives. I can preach my heart out, but if I’m not practicing what I preach—I’m this guy. If you are here every Sunday, listening intently to the sermon, but leave everything you hear in these four walls—You’re this person.”

“Assuming the mirror imagery, the second man looks intently at the Word and perseveres in it. The word for perseveres means it stays with him.”

“Persevering is the opposite of forgetting, and instead of being under deception, this person experiences God’s blessing. Not because he earned it but because the fruit of hearing and doing God’s Word is experiencing the freedom to be who God created you to be.”

“James's view of God’s Word went far beyond the law of Moses and the prophets. It was the whole of God’s redeeming revelation interpreted and fulfilled by Jesus—for us, that’s the Bible. James believed it could do what the law couldn’t and was never intended to do—liberate us.”

“As a mirror, Scripture liberates us by revealing our Great Liberator Jesus Christ. That’s what preaching is about: the gospel of Jesus and the glory of God connected to and weighing in on every aspect for our lives according to the Bible.”

“This is the blessing James speaks of at the end of verse 25, a life that began with the implanted word bringing new life, that new life being expressed through freeing obedience to God that will be consummated at His return! Sunday morning preaching is a God-ordained means of grace to this end.”

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE:
Mark 4
Psalm 1
2 Timothy 3

QUOTES:
Charles Spurgeon - “We are told men ought not to preach without preparation. Granted. But we add, men ought not to hear without preparation. Which, do you think, needs the most preparation, the sower or the ground? I would have the sower come with clean hands, but I would have the ground well plowed and harrowed, well turned over, and the clods broken before the seed comes in. It seems to me that there is more preparation needed by the ground than by the sower, more by the hearer than by the preacher.”

Jay Adams - “Christian, do you listen to preaching with a heart wide open to truth, a heart unprotected from thrusts of the Spirit’s sword? Or is your heart hard, resistant to certain teaching? Have you so rationalized your sin that your conscience rarely, if ever, accuses you of certain sins anymore?...It is time to crack open those compartments of the heart that you have so successfully barred. Instead, bare them to the preaching of the Word. Listen with a willingness to hear, apply, and obey. Until you do, preaching will be virtually valueless.”

J.I. Packer - “Congregations never honor God more than by reverently listening to His Word with full purpose of praising and obeying Him once they see what He has done…and what they are called to do.”

Charles Spurgeon - “Oh, with what ears ought men to listen to a word which can save their souls! With what open mouths ought they to drink in this living water! How wisely might we wish to be like sponges, to suck it all up....How we ought to wish to be like the ploughed ground which is broken up and pulverized, so that every drop that falls may soak into it! This is how to behave at sermon.”

APPLICATION:
- Join me, praying for your own heart as the preacher steps into this pulpit every Sunday.

- For the unbeliever, believe the gospel word by faith TODAY. For the believer, true freedom is the ability to give expression to who we truly are—not according to our fickle and fleeting feelings—but as people created in the image of God, rescued by and redeemed to Christ so that we can experience the highest call of our humanity—glorify and enjoy God in this life and forever. We walk in our blood-bought liberty when we live by God’s purposes, which are revealed in Scripture.

• Spend time in the Word during the week—The more you are in it the more you hunger for it

• Book Reccommendation:

Expository Listening: A Practical Handbook for Hearing and Doing God's Word

By Ramey, Ken

Buy on Amazon

• Don’t miss the obvious: Pre-service prayer, the Call to Worship, Singing, the Pastoral Prayer, each one is a unique expression of worship that, if we allow them, is used by God to soften and prepare our hearts to receive the preached Word. Get to your seat just a little early to prepare your heart for the preaching with a prayer.

Where there is prayer, there is power because when we pray, the power of God is unleashed. Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.

TEXT: James 5:13-18
TITLE: A Passion For Prayer
PREACHER: Derek Overstreet
BIG IDEA: A prayerful church is a powerful church.

POINTS:
1. Prayer is Powerful
2. Prayer is Effective

SERMON EXCERPTS:
”As we begin the new year together, my goal is not to tell you HOW you should pray, WHEN you should pray, or WHAT you should pray for. My PRAYER as we begin the new year is that God would rekindle and refresh a fresh passion, perhaps for some a new passion, to be a person and a people of prayer. Whether your prayer life is robust as ever, on life-support, or non-existent, God wants to stir our hearts to more sweet communion with Him.”

“Everything in this text is connected to prayer. James is trying to persuade his readers that faith-filled prayer is always the truest and most powerful response in life.”

“The truth is, we are too weak not to pray. We are too needy not to pray. We are too busy not to pray. Whatever else we do, prayer is always the best response for a believer.”

“Let’s be honest, there is a mystery when it comes to prayer. Prayer is not magic. Prayer is useless apart from God’s power. It’s God who delivers. It's God who heals. It's God who is working all things according to His perfect purposes. The God of boundless and endless resources does not stand in need of our prayers. Yet, Scripture stresses repeatedly that the release and experience of God’s effective power comes through humble, faith-filled, God-centered prayer.”

“When we depend on God through prayer, we get what God can do!  We get the God who can do more than we can ask or imagine. We get the God of infinite mercy, and grace, and power who avails Himself to us in the most intimate, all-caring, all-powerful way.”

“In times of unanswered prayer we should not grow doubtful of or weary in prayer but continue to pray as we trust in the mercy of God and His promises that in Christ he will never forsake us and His mercies are new every day and His grace is always sufficient for every situation.”

“We should continue to pray knowing the God we pray to has made it clear His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8). This means he may not answer our prayers the way we would like or in our timing.”

“This promise that our prayers are powerful and effective is for everyone who believes in Christ. What qualifies you as righteous is not what you do or how you do it. It’s who you know.”

“That’s the promise of Hebrews 4:16. We can draw near to God through prayer assured we will always find mercy and grace from God because we come in the name of Jesus who is our eternal high priest who has secure this promise and privilege of prayer for us.”

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE:
Acts 4 - Under strict orders not to evangelize, the early church gathered to pray for boldness and they were immediately filled with the Spirit and continued to do the will of God which was to boldly preach the gospel under threat.
2 Chronicles 7 - The Lord said when my people humble themselves and pray, then I will work in their midst.
James 1:5 - Take something as practical as wisdom
When it seems as though we face so many unanswered prayers, we are in good company: 2 Samuel 12, 2 Corinthians 12, Luke 22
There is always mystery involved, but James gives us reasons for unanswered prayer:

• Absence of faith— James 1:5-8

• Prayer not in accord with God’s will—James 4:3

• Absence of humility— James 4:6

• God has a better plan—The life of Joseph

QUOTES:
Charles Spurgeon - “My own soul’s conviction is that prayer is the grandest power in the entire universe, that it has a more omnipotent force than electricity, attraction, gravitation, or any other of those secret forces which men have called by name, but which they do not understand.”

Robert Murray McCheyne - “O believing brethren!  What an instrument is this which God hath put into your hands!  Prayer moves Him that moves the universe.”

Charles Spurgeon - “Because God is the living God, He can hear; because He is a loving God, He will hear; because He is our covenant God, He has bound Himself to hear.”

J.A. Motyer - “That is part of the wonder of the way of prayer. Those who by grace have been given the status of righteousness in God’s sight have been brought into the realm where effective prayer operates and have been given the right to exercise a ministry of prayer.”

APPLICATION:
1. Create time to pray your way
2. Resolve to put a few words of prayer between you and whatever you do
3. Replace I will pray for you this week with Let me pray with you right now
4. Plan to pray with your church

• Pre-service prayer 9:30

• 5th Sunday Prayer/Worship nights a priority (Jan 29)

• Attend CG with a heart ready to pray

5. Grow your understanding of prayer—Blog series, A Passion for Prayer

James 4:21 clearly calls us to “receive with meekness the implanted word.”  Last Sunday we learned that when God saves us, He puts new desires for His Word within us by the Spirit. Then we were challenged with this thought – if you don’t have a desire for the Word something is wrong.  

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What if I don’t desire the Word?

Three possibilities come to mind.  All three involve some serious examination.

First, examine yourself to see if you’re in the faith. 2 Corinthians 13:5 states this very clearly.  One evidence that God has regenerated your soul is the desire for His Word.  Many people can get involved in a Church, say and do all the accepted Christian external behaviors but inside not know God personally. (Matthew 7:21-23)  

Think about the closed Bible illustration. If I say I’m a Christian but have no desire for God’s Word, my life is stating I don’t want to hear anything from God.  I don’t want to hear about who God is and how I’m united with his Son Jesus Christ.  I’m not interested in God’s Word and what I’m called to do as one of His children. 

Examining yourself to see if you’re in the faith will be the toughest but most fruitful examination you can do. If you have any concerns in this area, contact your Pastors, a Community Group leader or a trusted, mature believer you know. 

Second, examine your desires.  I would submit that for most regenerated believers the desire for meeting God in His Word is there but possibly buried.  Buried down deep below other desires that dominate your life right now. 

That image of God’s Word being closed to us like an unopened Bible is powerful.  For most of us it’s simply examining our lives to see what else has taken desire into our lives.  Maybe multiple things have risen in our hearts so that what is most important - opening God’s Word on a regular basis- now is secondary or only occurs only when it’s convenient, etc.  Picture God’s Word closed yet you are zipping by it numerous times a day desiring/chasing other less important things that have captured your heart.

Third, examine your season.  If you are typically hungry for God’s Word yet sit under a message like James 1:19-21 and sense the Spirit say “you’re that person”, maybe you’ve simply drifted and allowed other desires to temporarily bury your desire for God’s Word.  We all drift, we need to guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23- in fact just read all of Proverbs 4!) and grow to ruthlessly guard the desires of our hearts.

For every believer, God has not only implanted His Word in us but give us His Spirit.  The Spirit of God is there to help us grow in understanding what a gift His Word is to us and for us.  He will transform our desires and bring us to a place where we eagerly desire His Word.

If you read the first 2 chapters of Genesis carefully, you’ll quickly see that what makes us distinct from the rest of creation is our ability to interpret the facts before us and respond in ways that glorify our Creator (or not.)  We don’t just live by the facts, we live by how we interpret those facts as we see in Genesis 3 where Eve listened to Satan re-interpret the facts of what God said.

Fast forward to James 1 and now we are instructed how to respond differently to trials.

Christians who follow James’ wisdom can be transformed in how they respond to the facts of their trials.

What we have learned is that looking inward instead of outwardly blaming God is an important part of the process.  It’s not the only part we’ve learned so far but it’s an important part.

By the grace of God we can resolve to resist the temptation to outwardly blame God and spend much more fruitful time examining our hearts. As God instructs us to be steadfast in James 1:4, 12 , one aspect is to grow and learn to know when we are tempted and to avoid being lured away.  This is fruitful work especially as we grow to “count our trials” pure joy knowing God is at work.  

We heard last Sunday that temptations aren’t sinful.  They simply bring us to a point of decision (Galatians 5:14-16).  What fantastic imagery we get from God’s Word!  An untreated temptation can quickly be like a lure to a fisherman.  Most fish have God given instincts to be nervous Nellie’s as they seek to feed all day long.  Fish just won’t eat something that doesn’t look perfectly normal. When fly fishermen attempt to create a fly they go to great detail to make sure it looks organic and matches the bugs in the river.  If not, they will never “lure” the fish away.  Fish instinctively avoid flies that unnatural, inorganic, etc. 

That’s a great picture for us. As we heard on Sunday, we need to engage with our temptations allowing God’s Word to inform our response and like fish, be extremely careful so we aren’t being lured away into sin. That’s step one on the road to “let steadfastness have its full effect.”

Step two is for many of us who do get lured away.  God gives grace to those who realize they have been lured away and given birth to sin.

Repentance allows us to put off being lured away and turn to God in forgiveness.

What’s the key? Sobriety and intentionality (Hebrews 3:12-13) when it comes to examining our hearts and making sure we aren’t “enticed by his own desire.” Let’s not be lured away!