“Hearing and Doing”

Rev. Dustin Largent

5/18/2025

 

Here's what his main point was: he said that when we go through trials—and you're going to go through trials—we are supposed to consider it pure joy when we go through trials 📖 (James 1:2).

 

You say, “Well, that doesn't sound right.” The reason we're supposed to do that is because, as you go through a struggle in your life—whether it's a job thing, a family thing, or a financial thing—the temptation will be to not trust God, to not have faith. And as a result, you won't persevere. You won't stay faithful through the trial.

 

Let me lay out what I’d call a misnomer: the idea that God just saves you, that He predestined you, and you're saved, and therefore everything is fine. “God predestined me, so I can do whatever I want.” That's just completely not true. James is very adamant that we have to persevere in our faith. That's the reason why trials come into your life—so that you'll go through them, you'll learn to trust God, and by trusting Him and having faith, you will persevere. It will keep you faithful until the very, very end.

 

It's important that you finish the race and not stop halfway through. When you go through a trial, you’re going to be tempted. And sometimes, you’ll be tempted to blame God for it and say, “God, You brought this temptation on me.” And James says, “No, no, no, no, no.” You can't blame God for that.

 

It's not God. Yes, God allowed the trial to come into your life because He wants you to grow. He wants you to persevere. He wants you to become stronger and to persevere to the end. But the temptation that comes as a result of the trial—that’s a result of your own evil desires within you that drag you away and entice you. So, I say to myself, “Well, I don’t want to be the one who gets dragged away and enticed and doesn’t persevere to the end. I want to be the person who is solid in my faith, who stays faithful to God—even through the trials, even through the cancer, even through the pain. I want to stay faithful to God through all of that and persevere to the end.”

 

Then I ask, “Well, how do I do that? What am I supposed to do?”

Here’s the great thing: James—and the Bible—are practical. God is practical. He doesn’t just say, “Stand firm.” That’s not all. He gives you how to do it.

Now, if you want to grow spiritually, you're going to need two things.

First, you're going to have to go through trials. You will not grow spiritually if you do not go through trials. You have to. That’s why he says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” 📖 (James 1:2). Because that’s what develops perseverance. That’s what grows your faith.

 

But the second thing you need is the Word of God. The Word of God is critical for you to grow. So, you need trials, and you need the Word of God.

 

Now he's going to focus in a little more on the Word of God. Here's what I find: we show up to church, and we listen. You're all very attentive, right? You're all listening really closely.

Well, sometimes there's a little bit of this going on, right? But normally, you're really attentive.

 

And you're like, “Yeah, I hear you back there. You're real attentive. You're listening.”

But are you really listening? Are you hearing it? Are you applying it? Is it doing any good?

Because you can come and sit in church every week. You can read your Bible every day and still not hear it. Not take it in. Not accept it.

 

You could come at it with the wrong heart—with the wrong kind of soil. The seed of the Word can be planted into the field of your heart, and your heart could be so hard and closed off that nothing grows.

 

So, watch what it says here. We're going to jump in where we left off. This is in verse 19 of chapter 1 of the book of James:

 

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.” 📖 (James 1:19–21)

 

Let’s rewind for just a second. It just said, “Humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.”

 

Now, the Word of God is necessary for us to be saved. But when it says it “can save you,” what does that mean? Save you from what? Is this talking to believers or non-believers?

Primarily, it’s talking to believers. So then, what does it mean that the Word “can save you”?

It means it can save you from what could happen in your Christian life if you don’t persevere through the trials. Understand this: persevering through the trials in your life—being faithful to God—is of the utmost importance to your faith. Because the temptation, when you go through a major struggle, is to say, “Well, you know what? I’ve got a good excuse to fall into sin. I’ve got a good reason to stop following God. I’ll just blame God.”

But that is critically important—for your eternal faith, for your eternal soul. It is so important that you remain faithful to the very end.

 

So, it says, “Humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you” 📖 (James 1:21).

 

Salvation comes by the seed of God initially—by His Word. But if that seed isn’t continually watered with the Word, it dies. Some of you have planted already, but if you don’t get any rain for a while, then we’re like, “Uh-oh—we’re in trouble.”

 

You remember the Parable of the Soils? Let me just remind you of it. We find it in a couple of places, but one is in Luke chapter 8.

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” 📖 (Luke 8:5–8)

 

When He said this, He called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” Listen—listen to what He just said. You can have ears and still not hear. Those of you who have ears—how many of you have ears? Alright, a couple of you don’t have ears. But everybody who does have ears—it’s not saying you’re going to automatically hear. You need to hear. That’s what He’s saying.

 

So, skip down to verse 11:

“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.” 📖 (Luke 8:11)

Okay—now you know what the seed is. Very plain.

“Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved.” 📖 (Luke 8:12)

 

So, they hear right away, but then the devil is right there and takes it. Something happens.

You know that person, right? You talk to them, and they’re kind of excited about it—they’re ready to go. But then they leave your meeting, and they’re done. “Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root.” 📖 (Luke 8:13) You know that person too. What happens? They believe for a while, but in the time of testing, they fall away. That’s what we’re warning ourselves about. In times of testing, in times of trial—they fall away. We don’t want to be that person.

That’s the person who puts their faith in Christ, they’re trying to follow God, they’re all jazzed up—they’re singing louder than everybody else. But then a trial comes into their life, and they’re done. Because there’s no foundation. They didn’t have the Word. They weren’t watering themselves with the Word. They weren’t feeding themselves spiritually.

So, they fall away and don’t finish to the end. And so—why bother?

 

“The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by life’s worries, riches, and pleasures, and they do not mature.” 📖 (Luke 8:14) I deal with this person all the time. The person who comes to church, gets involved, says, “Oh, I’m a Christian—I love this,” and then you don’t see them for a year. And when I talk to them—“How come we never see you?” “Well, I was really busy, Pastor.”

Really? You were busy every single weekend for a year? “Well, there were all kinds of other things involved…” Their life was choked out by life’s worries. Choked out by riches. Choked out by pleasures. And they never matured.

 

But… “The seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering, produce a crop.” 📖 (Luke 8:15)

 

See, that’s the key. We need a noble and good heart. It has to do with our heart. If we’re going to receive the Word of God and we’re going to grow, it depends on the condition of our heart. It says those with a noble and good heart hear the Word. You’re hearing the Word right now. Retain it. And by persevering—produce a crop.

 

So, you say, “Alright Dustin, I appreciate that. So, what do I do to make sure that when I hear the Word—whether in my private Bible time, in my Bible studies, at church, or listening to a sermon online—how can I humbly accept the Word planted in me?” Because if I don’t, my faith will die—like the plants on the path. I’ll be dragged away and enticed by sin, and I won’t persevere.  Right? We’re all on the same page?

 

So, let’s go back to James 1:19:

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” 📖 (James 1:19)

 

Alright, that sounds about right. That’s pretty good advice, isn’t it?

Be quick to listen. We tend, as people, to be really quick to talk. Somebody starts talking, and while they’re talking, you already have what you’re going to say ready. Right?

Because what I have to say is way more important than listening. So, you’re talking? I butt right in. Because I can’t hold it. I’ve got so much to say. Why? Because I know more than you? Isn’t that the attitude? That, or my story is more important. It’s about me. I need to say what I want to say.

 

So, it says: Be quick to listen. Pay attention to people. That’s just good, practical advice.

Then: Be slow to speak. I mean, the person who talks the most sins the most. Because they’ve had the most to say—the most opportunity.

 

I’ll be honest with you. In my personal life—and I’ll be candid—the sin that I am most often convicted by... nine times out of ten, it has to do with what I said. I spoke before I really listened. Then I go home and I’m convicted because I know that person heard me. They believed what I said. They trusted what I said. They might have even changed their life based on what I said—and I’m horrified. So, I go to God and say, “God, help me hold my tongue. Help me to shut up, and only say what is good.” And sometimes I have to pray, “God, everything I just said to that person—I don’t know if it was right. God, sift it like wheat. Let the bad fall away, so it doesn’t lead them off course. I don’t want to be the reason someone’s spiritual life falters.” That’s the hardest thing for me. Not just as a pastor, but as a person.

 

But I don’t think this passage is talking primarily about that kind of speaking. What is it talking about? It’s talking about how we hear God. When I come to God—when I come to His Word or I come to church—how do I really hear Him? What keeps me from hearing?

I’ll tell you: we’re not quick to listen. If you want to be able to hear God, then when you come to Him—when you come to church—you need to come quick to listen.

I open my Bible in the morning—I am quick to listen. I come expecting God to speak. I’m not just reading. I’m listening. I’m quick to listen.

Along with that, I’m humbly expecting God to talk to me through His Word.

 

Look again at Luke 8:15:

“But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” 📖

 

One of the things we have to do is be very, very quick to listen to God. And then we have to be slow to speak to God. You say, “I thought I was supposed to pray about everything.”

Yes—pray. But sometimes, it’s okay to be silent before God. To come to Him and not say a word. We come to God, get on our knees, and it’s just, “Yap yap yap yap yap...” And God’s like, “Hey—would you let Me talk?” Talk to God. Pour out your heart. Yes. But sometimes... be still.

 

The book of Habakkuk says:

“The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.” 📖 (Habakkuk 2:20)

 

Understand whose presence you’ve stepped into. Understand who is on the other side of your prayer. Maybe come with just a little bit of silent awe. And say, “God, I just want to sit in Your presence. You speak first.” You speak first.

 

And then it says to be slow to anger. Now, why would I get angry with God? Why would I get mad at God when I come to His Word or come to church? I’ll tell you—it happens all the time. I’ll say something in church, and somebody’s mad. And it’s not because of what I said—it’s because of something I read from the Bible. And now they’re all mad. “Well, I don’t like that!” “He’s a horrible guy!” You know how many posts there are about how evil I am online? You’ve seen a couple of those, haven’t you? People get mad.

 

They hear the Word of God, and they get angry. Why? Because the Word of God comes, and we want to fight God. Why? Because God is coming at us with a two-edged sword. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” 📖 (Hebrews 4:12)

 

He’s coming with the intent of cutting you. He wants to cut the sin off your heart. He wants to dissect your heart and remove the evil—the things that are going to keep you from following Him and loving Him. And when He comes at you with that, your natural reaction is to say, “Hold the phone! You keep that knife away from me.”

 

So, the Word of God is right there, and I don’t want to listen to it. I don’t want to hear it—because I don’t want the pain. I still do this myself. I’ll be reading God’s Word, and even as I’m praying, I’m nervous. I’m nervous because I don’t know what God is going to ask me to do. I don’t know what He’s going to ask me to surrender.

 

I don’t know. And so, I get scared. Is that bad? Maybe. I don’t know. That’s just the way I am. I get nervous when I come to God’s Word because I don’t know what He’s going to do. And He’s going to cut something. That’s how He is.  And people get mad. And James says not to. Because if you do—if you get mad at that—you won’t be able to hear the Word of God. You won’t accept it. You’ll be too defensive.

And people get defensive—and for good reason. God’s trying to do surgery on your heart. And that’s painful.

 

“Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.” 📖 (James 1:21)

Now what does it say to do? Remove moral filth. Here’s the deal: if you’ve got moral filth in your life—if your life is filthy—if you leave here and your life is full of filth, if what you look at, what you say, how you talk, what you’re doing—if it’s all full of things God hates—then your ears and your heart are plugged up. You can’t hear from God. You’re not hearing from God. Because if you were hearing from God, you wouldn’t be living in all the moral filth that you're living in.

 

So, he says: get rid of that. So, your ears are clear. So, your heart is clear—and not deterred and held back by all the moral filth that’s in the way. So that you will humbly accept the Word. Humble yourself. Repent. So that God will be able to work in you.

 

Now, what’s the proof that any of this worked? James is going to go on. What’s the proof that when God’s speaking to me, I’m actually doing something with it?

Watch this:

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” 📖 (James 1:22)

 

That’s your fifth point: Do what it says.

If you want to hear from God, you have to do what it says. Here’s what we tend to do—we come to church, we hear the message, and we say, “Yes! Dustin, that was awesome!” You come up to me and say, “Pastor, that was an awesome sermon.” And I say, “You’re right!” (Just kidding.) I say, “Well, thank you.” But the point is: What are you going to do about it?

I don’t care whether you liked it or not. That doesn’t help me. That doesn’t help you.

So, “That was a great sermon.” Okay. Good. But what are you going to do about it? Because the fact that you liked it doesn’t mean anything. All that matters is if you take that Word and allow it to penetrate your heart, and you change. You repent. You do what it says.

 

In the moment, you have really great intentions. I know you do. I love it when you come up and say, “Oh, I appreciate that. That was nice. I guess I did an alright job.” But in the moment, you have these great intentions. And by the time you hit the parking lot—you don’t see the need for change anymore.

 

Now watch how James describes this: “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror, and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” 📖 (James 1:23–24)

 

Do you like that picture? Anybody ever been to a really important meeting? I’ve been to some kind of important meetings. Maybe you were dating somebody. You’re dating this girl, and finally, she wants you to have dinner with her parents. That’s an important meeting—especially if you’re really into her.

So, you dress up. You might even put on a tie. You take a shower. You put on deodorant. You’re looking good. You’re feeling alright. And you show up to the dinner, and you’re suave. You play it cool. You shake her dad’s hand nice and firm. You drink too much pop—that’s just me, and halfway through the meeting, you’ve got to pee.

 

So, you go to the bathroom. And when you look in the mirror—you see the biggest honking booger hanging out of your nose. Now here’s the thing: the whole time you were sitting there, you thought you were good. You thought you were fine. You were playing it like everything’s cool. But when you looked in the mirror, you finally saw the reality of what a jackwagon you were—with the booger hanging out of your nose. That’s what this passage is talking about.

 

And some of you say, “Well, that would never happen.” It happens every Sunday. You show up. You sit here. You listen. Some of you online—you watch. You go, “Yeah, I’m doing good.”

Then you realize... the sinful booger hanging out of your nose. The mirror—the Word of God—reflected to you the truth of who you are. That’s what the mirror is. The mirror is the Word of God. And when you hear the Word of God, it’s telling you the truth about what you really look like and who you really are.

 

And you look into that mirror and go, “Wow—I have a big booger in my nose.” So, what do you do? Do you clean it up? No, you get up and just leave. You go back to dinner with your girlfriend’s parents with that thing still hanging there. You can’t go back to the table with that bat in the cave. But that’s what we do.

 

James is saying: you come to the Word of God, you come to Bible study, you come to a church service on a Sunday—and you take a good look in the mirror. You’ve heard it. You’ve said, “Yes, I need to change. I need to repent.” The Bible has shown you that you fall short of who God wants you to be. And you’re like a sinful, booger-laden mess. But then—you don’t do anything about it. You don’t wipe your nose. You don’t clean it. You just get up, and once you leave the bathroom, you forget. So, James says: What good is that?

“Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in the mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” 📖 (James 1:23–24)

 

James says that if you don’t do what the Word says—it’s like you left the bathroom and forgot all about it.

 

But “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.” 📖 (James 1:26)

 

Now, we’ll get to the tongue in a couple chapters. When we get to chapter 3, we’re going to go nuts on the tongue. He spends a lot of time talking about how we speak—so we’ll really dive into that then. But here, James is making a transition. He’s wrapping this up with a conversation about religion. How many of you have ever heard someone say, “Well, we don’t believe in religion—we believe in relationship”? You’ve heard that, right?

And there’s truth to that. What they mean is that our faith is based on a person, on a relationship with Jesus—not on a set of rules or rituals. But let me give you the real definition of religion. By definition, religion is a system of beliefs, values, and practices that often relate humanity to the spiritual or supernatural.

 

So, God doesn’t really hate religion. It’s not that He hates religion itself. God wants a system where we are able to come to Him, grow in Him, love Him, and connect with Him.

What God does hate is works-based, hypocritical, empty religion. Rituals that become more important than righteousness. Traditions that become more important than faith.

He hates when the structure becomes more important than the grace. And He especially hates when religion keeps people from truly seeking and receiving forgiveness and grace from God. That’s why Jesus freaked out on people in the temple—when He flipped tables and cleansed it—because what they were doing was empty religion. It was keeping people away from hearing the truth and from actually receiving God.

 

So, let’s look again at what James says:

“Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.” 📖 (James 1:26)

 

Now, notice—he doesn’t say “religion is bad.” That’s not what he said.

Instead, he gives us a picture. He gives us a look in the mirror of what good religion, pure religion, faultless religion actually looks like. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” 📖 (James 1:27)

 

If you’re really into pollution—into stopping pollution—this is for you. He says there are things in the world that pollute you. They pollute us. Don’t let the world and its sin pollute the place that God lives. Because God has chosen to inhabit His people, to live within His people. And yet we pollute ourselves with all kinds of things. If Jesus is in you, and then you go and involve yourself in things that are completely evil and wrong, then you're dragging Jesus into that. He says: don’t let the world and its sins pollute the place where God lives.

And what’ll happen, then, is—you’ll start doing what the world says, instead of what the Lord says.

 

So, pure and faultless religion is going to manifest itself. One of the ways it manifests is in compassionate response to those in need and distress—like orphans, widows, the hungry, and the poor. It shows up in that. God often says to take care of the poor. Take care of the widow. Take care of the fatherless. So, if you’re in a place where you don’t care about any of that—if you don’t care about poor people, about people who are struggling, about the widow who can’t take care of herself—then that says something about your heart.

And you need to open up your heart. You need to start allowing the Word of God to penetrate your heart and change who you are.

 

“Whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.” 📖 (James 1:25)

Now why does James call the Word “the perfect law that gives freedom”? Because as we sit here, we find ourselves in bondage. And so we’re looking into the mirror because this booger—this sin—keeps us in bondage. Sin causes bondage. We become slaves to it. It ties us up. It keeps us from living for God the way we were created to. And so, the Word of God is the one thing that will allow us to be free. It’s the only thing that can do that.

So, the way to persevere—let’s have the band come up—we’re going to do a last song.

So, I get an extra point this week. Anytime we do the last song, that means I finished on time. And I get a point. And Grace loses. So—I win.

 

Okay, let’s bring it all together: The way that we persevere in our faith, because that’s what this was all about, is to truly hear the Word of God and do what God says. You say, “How do we do that?” The proof of that is that the seed of God’s Word is growing in your life—and it’s changing what you see in the mirror. It’s changing who you are.

 

A person whose religion is pure and faultless—what’s that going to look like?

It’s going to manifest itself through: Compassion for the needy, and an unwillingness to be polluted by the world. So, we need to follow the five steps that James lays out for us:

Be quick to listen, Be slow to speak, Be slow to become angry, Remove the moral filth.

Do what it says

 

We apply this—and here’s the big irony: The big irony would be if you leave here today and immediately forget everything that you just heard. That would be the big irony. Hopefully,  that doesn’t happen. So, let’s apply this.

 

CLOSING PRAYER:

God, thank You so much for Your Word. Thank You that You’re good to us. We want to be people who persevere to the end. We want to be people that You’ve got a good hold on. We want to be people who are growing in our faith. So, when trials come, help us consider it pure joy. Help us be careful that we don’t fall into sin, that we’re not dragged away by our own evil desires. Help us apply these things: To be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. Help us to get rid of the moral filth. God, some of us right now are making a commitment—while we’re standing in front of the mirror. We’re standing in front of the Word of God. We’re standing in front of the mirror. And we’re saying: We’re going to do what You say.   Amen.

 

​

*Feel free to use this information any way that brings glory to Jesus and leads people to faith in Him.