that he gives us and praise God for his grace to us. I wanna sing about our love for him for what he's done for us. In my darkness Jesus found me. Touched my eyes and made me see. Broke since chains that long had bound me, Gave me life and liberty. O glorious love of Christ my Lord divine, That made Him stoop to save a soul like mine, Through all my days and then in heaven above, My song will sway and sweat her, I'll worship Him forever, And praise Him for His glorious love. amazing truth to ponder whom angel hosts attend. Lord of heaven, God's son, what wonder He became the sinner's friend the glorious love of Christ my lord divine that made him stoop to save a soul like mine through all my days and then in them not all my song will silence never I'll worship him forever and praise him for his My song will silence never I'll worship Him forever And praise Him for His glorious love And praise Him for His glorious love And praise Him for His glorious Praise God for his glorious love for us. All right, let's turn to Bibles, James chapter one. James chapter one. I appreciate our church. I thank God for what he's doing in our ministry. These are exciting days and days to really just look up to God and Give back to him. He has blessed us tremendously and been so very good to us. And truly, I guess we can say with David, the lines have fallen into me in pleasant places. And so we rejoice in the grace of God. James chapter one and verses 21 through 25 is our text this morning. And what I want to do this morning is introduce our church to the theme for the year. and the theme is Thou Art Worthy, O Lord. Okay, we're gonna have a banner, and it's gonna be up with that, and maybe from now on, every year we'll have a theme, but I did think it was important, coming into this year, the new property that God's given to us, ways that God's blessed us. I've thought about this building, and I thought, you know, we're not worthy. It's a little church. You know, it's such a great facility that God's given to us. Well, I'll tell you this, God is absolutely worthy. Thou art worthy, O Lord. So what we do here, we do to the best of our abilities. I pray that you bless Our theme verse is Revelation 4 11 and that's where this statement comes from. It says thou are worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power. For thou has created all things and for that pleasure they are and were created. Okay, and I want to define some terms for us this morning from that verse as we begin. And so that statement thou are worthy. Worthy means deserving or due reward. You might have seen in the news this past week, we were talking about it on Wednesday night a little bit because it was happening during the week, but a story about Luke Littler. Luke Littler has kind of become a name that could maybe be a little bit of a household name because he's been popular on the news because as a young person, 16 years old, in a professional darts tournament, the World Championship that was taking place, he made it not just into the World Championship, he was thrilled with that and he said, I was just hoping I could win one round, but he made it clear to the final. And just defied maybe the ideas that someone had and just did extremely well in what he did. His semifinal broke records with 2.32 million people. tuned in, whether he liked darts or not, did well at darts or not. The reality is, wow, that's incredible that he achieved that. So we're not surprised that news agencies looked at Luke Littler and thought, he's newsworthy. Why? I mean, he's newsworthy because of what he has done. There's a reason. You know, people thought him worthy of their time. You know, a lot of people around the world, you know, taking time to pause and watch Luke Littler. Again, they thought him worthy of that. So when someone is worthy, There's a reason they are worthy, okay, and that makes sense. This morning I'm gonna preach a first message in a series entitled Thou Art Worthy. And so we're gonna look at reasons why God is worthy. And then we're gonna also consider what God is worthy of because of those reasons, or because of his worthiness. And so our theme text, again, says thou art worthy, O Lord. Again, defining terms, O Lord. It means supreme authority, or, So the main reason God is worthy is because he has the supreme authority. And what we're going to look at this morning, what God is worthy of is our obedience because again, he is Lord. Children correctly understand that their parents are worthy of their obedience because they are their authority. Ephesians 6.1, children obey their parents and the Lord for this is right. This is correct. Why? Because parents are worthy of that respect, and they're worthy of that obedience. As citizens, we ought to correctly obey our government. That's our responsibility. You understand that? Because they are worthy of our respect and obedience, because God put them there. 1 Peter 2.13, Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king and supreme or to governors, as unto them that are sent by him, God, for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well-doing he may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." So, God's will is that we obey our earthly authority, they are worthy of our obedience because God put them there. So again, if we think about God, God is the supreme authority, He is worthy of but of all men obeying him because he is the ultimate authority. Jesus himself took that position in the temptation when he's tempted by the devil to worship him and Jesus responded. He said, get thee hence Satan for it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. There's an exclusivity to our ultimate authority and that is God. and we ought to obey him because he is our Lord. And so God is worthy of our obedience because he is our authority. And so you ought to obey God because he's worthy of your obedience. And so are we truthfully saying to God this morning what Thomas, Downing Thomas said? Does he recognize Jesus for who he was? He said, my Lord and my God. And we understand he's God, but is he our Lord? Did we submit to him as our ultimate authority or what Jesus say to us today Luke 6 46 why call you need Lord Lord and do not the things which I say all right so we ought to be in that position before God say okay God I want to obey you because you're worthy of my obedience so let's begin with that and let's go to the word of prayer and ask for his blessing upon this series and this first Bible study in it father we thank you for the grace that gift thank you for the opportunity that we have as a church to this morning. And I ask that you speak to each one of our hearts, encourage us in our obedience to you. And Father, I pray that the Spirit of God grant us ears to hear this morning to consider truth. And I pray, Father, that you give me liberty as I preach the word of God this morning to express truth. And it's already been a good morning in the house of God. We're already grateful for your blessings upon our day. We commit this time to you, submit it before you and ask Lord God that you just breathe upon it and speak to our hearts. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. And so we do praise God for his grace that's here to get to the word of God. James chapter one again, verses 21 through 25. And just two main points this morning as we talk about obedience and the and the first one's a first step as far as I know this audience has already followed this step it's important for us to consider it and it's this the Lord is worthy of your salvation okay he's worthy of your salvation so you ought to obey the gospel James 1 21 it says wherefore the engrafted word, which is able to save your soul. So obviously we talk about salvation of your soul, that's referring to being saved and having your eternal destiny switch from hell to heaven. And so John 5, 24 says, truly, truly, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed for what? death unto life. So that's the salvation verse. All the scripture here is speaking about that. I'm no longer going to hell, but that my eternal destiny has changed to heaven. John 10, 28 says, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. John 3, 15, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. but have eternal life. Now I want us to step back and just think about it. Our salvation would never have taken place without our obedience, right? Our obedience was absolutely necessary to God for us to enter into all the wonderful things that God has done with regard to salvation. And so someone cannot continue in disobedience and get saved. That's not possible. It's not possible for somebody to think that, well, I'm just gonna continue on this path and that I can have God's salvation as well. Notice what it says in James 1 verse 21. 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. Okay, so there's two statements that are commands that are in the text. And the first is lay apart. The second is receive, okay? So, the first command again, lay apart. So, continued disobedience does not lead to God's mercy. So, wherefore lay apart these things, if you wanna get saved, and receive with meekness in grafted word, okay, which is able to save your souls. So, continued disobedience does not lead to God's mercy, is what Proverbs 28 says. In verse 13, it says, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." I've all seen cartoons where the child takes the broom, and mom says, go clean up, and takes the broom and sweeps it under the rug, or sweeps it into the corner, or hides it in the cupboard, or hides it in the closet. I'll say this, we're cleaning here yesterday. I thought about it. We're gonna be building a platform over a place that can contain a lot of dust. You can just pile it all into that corner, or something like that, and hide it. You can't sweep your sin under the rug and expect God to be merciful. So somebody wants to get saved, I wanna be born again, I wanna have God's gift of everlasting life, but they can't cover their sin and say, well, I'd like to take that from God as well. It says to lay apart, and it says all filthiness and superfluity, if not even. So just again, to break down the terms, all means complete clean out. All means, I mean, a willingness to let go of everything that is being about, and then it says filthiness. That's the dirtiness of moral filth. The definition that we give to the kids during MBT or Hall Day Bible Club is sin is anything I say, think, or do that breaks God's law. Sin is a transgression of law. filthiness, and then it says superfluity of naughtiness. When's the last time that you used that in a sentence in real life, right? Parker came up and read the scripture and I kind of felt bad, you know, giving him something like superfluity of naughtiness that's just difficult to say even. But what does that mean? It means superabundance of badness. Wow, what a definition for so much that is in our world today. A superabundance of badness. Many people in our day believe that sin is okay. But we understand from the scripture, they've got to change their mind about that, repent, and believe the gospel. And again, that Bible term is repentance. That means to change one's mind that where they thought my sin was okay, where they thought that this was okay, that they've got to recognize that for what it is, and therefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and we'll look at the next commandment in a second, okay? But first thing, lay apart. You know, again, that's repentance. Did Jesus believe repentance was necessary for man's obedience to the gospel? Did the Lord preach a gospel of repentance? Mark 1 15. And saying, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. This is Jesus. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Change your mind and put your faith in God. Luke 13 3. I tell you nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Jesus preached that you've got You've gotta turn aside and get right with God. The forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ, his message, John the Baptist, was a message of repentance, saying to the people of his day, you need to get your life in order for the kingdom of God is at hand. And I think it's easy for us, if we preach the gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, to forget that there has to be in the heart of that person a turning away from the way they thought before so that they can put their faith in Jesus Christ. Again, did the New Testament gospel preachers believe in the gospel of repentance? Acts 2.38 Peter at Pentecost is the spirit of God's coming. Now for the gospel, and he's boldly preaching to thousands of people as they've assembled to ask themselves, why are we hearing every man speaking in his own language? And the scripture records the message of Peter, when Peter said unto them, as they cried out, men and brethren, what must we do, right? And ye have taken by wicked hands and crucified and slain, they became convicted in their heart, and they cried out, and Peter said, repent and be baptized. Every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, change your mind and turn to Christ. Acts 3.19, repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Acts 8.22, repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God, perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee, said the sign of the sorcerer. And the question is, was he saved or was he not saved? Well, a man has to repent of their sin and put their faith Obviously, in our day, there's a lot of ideas that you can get right with God, but just continue as you are, especially as. attack of this world has been on the doctrines of the word of God with regard to marriage and human sexuality and purity and things like that because of the pressure that the world has brought to bear upon the church. Many churches have capitulated away from this idea of standing for the truth of the word of God. Some of these churches would not believe as we believe and yet they are changing their position. The Catholic church, did you see that in middle of December? Pope Francis has allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, a significant advance for LGBT people in the Roman Catholic Church, this news article said. The leader of the Roman Catholic Church said priests should be permitted to bless same-sex and irregular couples under certain circumstances. And again, you look at it and say, wow, I mean, a church that stands for the truth of the Word of God, no longer identifying sin for what it is, no longer saying to people this doctrine that the Bible speaks about, lay aside all superfluity of naughtiness and wickedness, right, and believe the Word of God. The Anglican Church, you might have seen it last year. voted again to bless same-sex unions, whether weddings or partnerships. The church in Scotland, what was it, two years ago? Again, the same-sex marriages that are allowed in the church and same-sex ministers in the Church of Scotland. You know, it's a very, again, sad day. And so you ask yourself, how does this teaching affect the gospel? Well, it rips the heart out of the gospel. It takes away the need to turn away from anything to find mercy with God and get right with God. And so how does it impact those who believe it? It secures them in their position against God. It secures them in their rebellion against God. Matthew 23, verse 15 says, won't you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you encompass sea and land to make her one proselyte when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. And so you have the Pharisees in Jesus' day teaching a false doctrine, they're teaching it, and what's happening? They're making their followers even that more secure in their damnation. Matthew 15, 14, Jesus said about them, let them alone, they be blind, leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. And so what is the first thing that we see? You can't continue in disobedience and be saved. You've got to turn away from your sin, as the scripture here teaches. Secondly, you cannot reject God's word and get saved. Okay? You cannot reject God's word and get saved. James 121, it says, wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to Winters in Scotland can be treacherous. Praise God, we're into some calmer weather, but cold weather. But a lot of times, obviously, we have very unsettled weather, and that, up in the highlands, could mean a blizzard comes in very quickly to people that are hill-walking or things like that. Now, somebody could be a great hill-walker, and they're caught out, and I saw a BBC article this past week warning people of the real danger that's out there, and there are people that are mountain rescue people. We were somewhere, I guess we were down enjoyed a little hill walk ourselves down there on that hill on the way to Moffitt, right? That's beautiful. You got that deep valley that's there, and I think there was a sign somewhere the kids saw Mountain Rescue. I think it might have been in Moffitt. They saw that. But it takes meekness for somebody. In a situation like that, they suddenly realize they're in danger to pick up the phone and to call Mountain Rescue and get the help that they need. You know, according to this text, where should men meekly look to find salvation? What should they meekly receive so that they could have the salvation of their soul? And the answer is? The Bible. The word of God is exactly where men should look. Well, what does teaching on evolution, gender identity, redefinition of marriage, ecumenical worship, why does it matter today that these are popularly taught in our schools, popularly taught in society? Well, it matters because people are turning away from the Bible to a false theology, a false understanding. Receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your soul. Again, if people turn away from that, they reject the creator, they reject the lawgiver, they reject the family planner, they reject the worship creator, and that's just the first four chapters of the Bible, right? Genesis one through four. It's the very foundation of the Word of God. And sadly, because people reject the Word of God, they can't be saved. unless they receive the word of God. 2 Thessalonians 2 10 says, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. It's a wonderful thing when somebody can change their mind from all these things that they believed in, that was what they understood, but then they look at the word of God and they see, wait a second, God teaches this, God teaches this, God teaches this, and they repent of their unbelief and they receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save their soul. And so again, you cannot reject God's word and get saved. So somebody has to come to the point where, man, I believe God. I believe what God says about this, especially in the gospel, what Jesus Christ did is he died on the cross for our sin, that he didn't stay in the grave, but that he rose from the dead. But we also have to correctly identify our sin as an offense to the Holy God. And again, there's a great attack against that in our day. And so you cannot reject God's word and get saved. You must obey the gospel. and asked man to repent of our sin and believe on Jesus. As supreme authority, he's commanded it. He's commanded men to get right with him through the gospel. Romans 6, 17, it says, but God, we thanked that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine, which was delivered you. All of us that are saved at some point recognize, man, I'm a sinner, I'm in need of a savior. And God says to get right through the gospel, through what Jesus Christ did when he died on the cross for our sin, that he didn't stay in the grave, but that he rose from the dead. And you and I, when we got saved, that was us obeying the gospel and what God had said. Romans 10, 16 says, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed a report? Acts 17.30 says, in the times of this ignorance, God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. And people can say, well, why did God command it? God commanded it for our good and for His glory, but it's not just a suggestion. It's not just that God has said, this is maybe a good idea that you could add on to your life. It's God has said, no, this is necessary for you. I command you to believe on the word of Jesus Christ and be saved. So when someone's heart is not right with an authority, how do they view commands? Well, if you're out shopping and you see a child that is there, you can tell that their heart attitude is against their mom. and by their face, maybe, or a look that's on it, and the mom says, Tommy, or sorry, Tommy, come over here. I don't know why I chose Tommy. Tommy, come over here. Okay, what do you expect little Tommy to say if Tommy's heart is not right with his authority? No. No. And maybe not just no. Maybe you might see it a little bit more than that. You know, the sad thing is, today I'll just say it this way, a lot of people's heart is against God. A lot of people are really resisting God. They don't want to obey God. They don't want to yield to God. There could be some people that just feel, I can't submit to God. You know, I praise God if somebody is willing to let God do it. God has a way of changing our heart. No, I'll tell you this, a mom has a way of changing her heart as well, right? Helping that child to get right with the authority. Sometimes people say to me, you know, why does God let bad things happen in my life? but to take place in our life, to bring us into a submissive point where we can obey as we ought to obey, and he'll help us even more as we get saved because he'll do this. Ezekiel 36, 26 says, a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them and that's really a continuation of what we're going to look at this morning is that we got saved God makes it possible for us to be in obedience to God before that our heart is against God against God against God but we got to obey the gospel to get saved but when we obey the gospel God takes away the hard heart God takes away possible through the Spirit of God for us to do what we're going to look at next and that is continue in obedience to him. So the first thing we see this morning is you cannot be saved without obeying the gospel and so God is worthy of our salvation. We ought to submit and obey God in the gospel. But then secondly, the Lord is worthy of your Okay, now, on Wednesday nights, we're studying the life of David. It's a good study, seven o'clock, and looking at that life of David, but David had a difficult position of King Saul just hating and despising David and trying to kill David and pursuing David into the wilderness, but David is continually submitting himself to God and he's putting himself under that earthly authority. And he's a great example of the heart of God. Psalm 119.32, David said this, I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart. As we study David, it's like David just wanted to do what's right. He just wanted to please God. He was gonna obey God. However God spoke to him, I've gotta got my running shoes on, I've got my trainers on. As soon as you speak to me, that's where I'm going to go. As we come into 2024, We need to be ready to listen to God with our trainers on. We need to be ready to run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge our heart. And so this morning, and again, the second point is gonna be our final point this morning. You gotta be a doer of God's word, a doer of God's word. Moses says in James 1 verse 22, it says, but be doers of the word. Okay, so we obey the gospel, praise God that we got saved. We also need to obey the other truths that are in God's word as God speaks to us and helps us to understand them. And so the wisest man ever, Solomon, summarized it like this, Ecclesiastes 12, 13. He said, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Wow, okay, let me just summarize what our life's about. Fear God, respect God, and obey God, and please God. Jesus, on the Sermon on the Mount, he said it like this. He said in Matthew 7, verse 24, therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock, And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock." Now, I've stood on the hillside where historians believe that Jesus Christ preached a sermon on the mountain out there. It's kind of a sloping hill down to the Sea of Galilee, a little bit of a natural amphitheater, and Jesus could speak and be very easy to hear there. You know, as you go to Israel, one of the sad realities is Jesus isn't there. You know, you go expecting to be there, all these places where Jesus was, but there's kind of an emptiness, like Jesus isn't present, but to think that on that day, people sat there and they listened to God in flesh speak to them the truth of the word of God. And so Jesus said, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, from his very lips, these words were put forth. You know, as you think about that, are you jealous of that privilege? That, I mean, they had the opportunity to listen to Jesus Christ himself and to think, wow, you know, I wish I would have heard Jesus Christ on that day. And Jesus said, he that heareth my sayings and doeth them. And if we were there, I would hope that in our hearts something would say, man, I wanna listen, this is Jesus, this is God in the flesh speaking. And so whatever he has said, I desire to do that because that is the very word of God. And so we could ask ourselves, how would I have responded to that statement as Jesus said it? Well, Jesus had preached on prayer, he preached on fasting, he preached on tithing, he preached on being the light of the world, enduring persecution, he preached on not hating, dealing with sin harshly, keeping your promises to God, loving your enemies, laying up treasure in heaven, trusting God for your needs. The Sermon on the Mount encompasses a lot of territory as Jesus preached. Again, would I have responded quickly to what the Lord said? Because he said it. I guess we consider the words of Christ what we have this morning. the very Word of God, and it's no less the Word of God because it's imprinted, and I didn't understand it this morning, it's our church, this is the Word of God, this is exactly what God says, as much as if Jesus himself were to stand here and speak to us, this morning we have in our hands the Word of God. And I think we'd all think, wow, that would've changed my life if I was sitting there on the hillside, Jesus said, he that heareth my words and doeth them, that we would've responded very quickly, but I wonder this morning, is that the same way that we read the Word of God? change our life and so would we be prepared to obey it. And then secondly, you ought not just hear God's Word. We should be a doer of the Word. You ought not just hear God's Word. Notice again what it says. It says in verse 22, but be doers of the Word and not hearers only. Okay, so some heard Jesus and did what he said. Their house would stand ashore and be strong, but there were others that just heard Jesus like they heard the birds. You know, Jesus used an illustration about the birds that were probably around. At that moment, they could hear the birds singing, they could hear Jesus speaking to them. It was no different because it didn't at all change their life. If that was the case, how foolish that would be to be there to hear Jesus and not to respond to his preaching. And so Jesus said in Matthew 7, 26, All right, I just have a question from that story. Did the house fall right away? No, they built it. And so the house is there. I mean, they probably feel secure. It's kind of like, you know, I know I'm not really obeying what Jesus said, but my house, it seems pretty good. Marriage seems pretty good. Finances seem pretty good. Kids are doing all right. But the problem is that there's gonna come a storm. And Jesus said, if you don't follow my word, don't do my sayings, then you're not prepared. When that storm comes, it's gonna flatten the house to that person. no intent of obeying what God says to do. I read my Bible this week of Ezekiel and I'm here enjoying reading Mark. At some point during the day we're doing Mark 6 through 10 this week, one chapter a day, Monday through Friday, and that's where we're at in the church Bible reading. But I was also reading in my Bible the book of Ezekiel and of Ezekiel's struggle as a preacher of the Word of God, declaring the Word of God And God said about the preaching of Ezekiel that Ezekiel was getting the word of God out, but the way that the people were receiving it, it wasn't benefiting them. And that wasn't to Ezekiel's bad, that was the bad on the part of the people that were listening. Ezekiel 33, 32, God said, lo thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument, for they hear thy words, but they do them not. And for our encouragement today, we might share the gospel with somebody, speak to somebody about God, and they're like, oh, that's good, you know, that's fine, and whatever, but it's just kinda, it's kinda empty because they're not taking it as from God. There's no desire to really obey that and apply that to their life. Again, are we here this morning? Because, just to hear, you know? And I praise God, I want an audience, I want people to hear the word of God, and I want those opportunities to present God's truth I'm here because I want something more than just hearing. And that's what the next truth is. You ought to observe what needs changing and change it. Observe what needs changing and change it. So verse 23 says, for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's likened to a man beholding his natural face in the glass, for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. Have you ever looked in the mirror and been surprised by what you saw there? Oh, okay, you didn't know that. I didn't see that, you know, until I looked in the mirror. My kids laughed at me this past week because I had some food apparently in my beard, you know, and I'm thankful for mirrors because I was able to confirm it and take care of it and fix it. A lot of times as we're out and about, I'll put my sunglasses on. I've got prescription sunglasses and In many ways, I feel like they're better than my glasses, so I enjoy wearing them. They're comfortable, but I can get done driving my vehicles. I try to tell my family, remind me that I've got them on, because I just forget they're there until I look in the mirror, and I go, now I've got to walk back out of the van, put them back out of the van, because I keep them out there. But the thing is, sometimes we're not aware of what's going on until we look in the mirror, and the mirror reveals the truth, and we go, oh, there's a problem there, and fix it. The Bible is our mirror for us. 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, but we all with open face beholding us in the glass, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. The word of God is that mirror, like a mirror, it reflects our life and says, you know what, this is about our attitude, this is about our actions, this is about our heart, and it convicts us, but we've gotta go from the reflection and say, okay, What do I do about that? How do I change that? How do I sort that to make it what God intends? And so praise God, is our time in the word of God, is it like that? And we're enjoying as a church starting this year doing some Bible readings together. But as we do that, is it the kind of thing, and to me, that's been one of the benefits this past week of the time in the Word of God, realizing at 10 o'clock on Sundays, we're gonna talk about it, is I've kept a journal, and it makes me focus on, okay, what is there, and let God use that in my life. Is our Bible reading impacting us? Does it impact us when we come to the house of God? Are there things that God reveals through preaching the word of God and opening up the scriptures together that actually has that life change upon us? Are we observing it? And then you ought to continue as we observe it, we ought to continue in obedience to God's word. It says in verse 25 again, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueeth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed." Okay, so you look at the word of God, you continue in it, and not a forgetful hearer, let it change you, that person is blessed in their deed. Are you forgetful? They call it what, senior moments? I'm 47, I'm getting close to 50. I don't know if they're senior moments or not, but sometimes I forget things, and it happens more and more, I'll go downstairs, get downstairs and I say out loud why am I down here I get upstairs why am I up here you know and then I'm like you know I pray about it Lord please help me remember what the problem is then I go back upstairs right I get back into my room and I say pops in my mind And then I'm doing this. I'm like a man on a mission. You know, I'm like repeating it. I go back upstairs. I don't want the cycle to continue. If Max says something to me or someone tries to say something, I'd be like, just a second. You know, I've got to finish what I'm doing because I don't want to forget what I'm thinking about. If we're gonna take and obey God's word, it needs to be in our mind. It needs to be something that we focus on and say, I'm not gonna be a forgetful hearer. You know, God spoke to me about this today. And so I really wanna apply this to my life. And so I'm gonna meditate on it. I'm gonna keep it in my mind so that I'm actively applying it to my life. Psalm 119, 11. says thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. It's not just I heard it and let it go, it's like, oh, that would fix a problem that's in my life, a sin issue that I'm dealing with, and I need victory there, and so I'm gonna meditate on that scripture, I'm gonna keep it in my mind. Are we continuing in God's word? a doer of God's work. It says in James 1.25, it says, 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 should be blessed in his deed. And when you first read that scripture, you think doer of the work. I've heard that before, but it was actually in verse 22, if you look back at it, it's a little different doer statement. In verse 22, it says doer of the, Word, in verse 25 it says, doer of the work. A doer of the work. Work means toil. It means labor, as in effort or an occupation. Okay, so the Christian that actually strives, the Christian that actually invests effort into their walk with God, that person is gonna be blessed in their deed. You know, there's blessing to be had, but it's not without effort. In science, Can anyone get ahead without effort? Is it possible just to, I mean, invent incredible things without really striving to do those things? You know, Thomas Edison, they say he made a thousand attempts to make a light bulb before he succeeded, right? For 999 times, I mean, he's laboring, he's working, and finally he breaks through. Can you succeed in business without really working that hard? You know, we stand in a building that we praise God for, we bought it from Trust Ins, and it was owned by, that company was owned by Trevor Hemings. And I was kind of interested, I thought, I want to know a little bit about this man, because I heard he was a billionaire, and I wanted to know a little bit about him. Hemings began work on the railways while studying business studies at night school. He then became an apprentice bricklayer and made his initial fortune through house building businesses, the first of which he sold in the early 1970s, and the second of which was bought by Barrett Developments for 5.7 million. And you can read more about his life, but it's like he just was, he started, I don't know that he was poor, but he certainly wasn't rich, but he just started working. I mean, he's going to night school. I mean, he's trying to get, he's trying to get ahead in business. I mean, he's, he's working hard physically at what he does until he starts his own building business. Then he's got people working for him and he's working his way up and he succeeds at it. Can we give our Lord the service he deserves without effort? It's impossible for us to be a great Christian without us saying, well, I'm gonna work at it. I'm gonna actually do something of discipline to get it done for God, get the work done. The Apostle Paul. was a great servant of the Lord, but if you look at Paul's life, I mean, he was very disciplined in his work ethic. One great thing is 926, he said, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. It's kind of like this, you look at Paul as a Christian athlete, and you're like, man, you are running marathons, you are succeeding, and Paul would be like, hey, You know what? I just stick with the basics. I discipline myself. I stay in there, I invest, I work at it. Why? Because I don't wanna be a castaway. You look at Paul and say, Paul, how did he accomplish so much for God? Well, it wasn't by being lazy. It wasn't by not looking at his Christianity and saying, what kind of a Christian am I? He looked at his life and said, I'm gonna bring my body under subjection to the obedience of God. That's the way Paul could say it in 1 Corinthians 15, 10. He said, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me. So the grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. And it's kind of like Paul saying, God saved me, God gave me everlasting life. I'll tell you this, it was not in vain that God did that. I have fulfilled the purpose for which God saved me. How did he do that? By hard work. Not to belittle us today, but how much effort went into our Christianity this past week? I mean, how disciplined were we in our walk with God? We've set a very low goal for our church. Let's read one chapter of scripture together each day, and then we'll talk about it at Sunday school at 10 o'clock on Sunday mornings so that we can edify each other and encourage each other in the Lord. You know, by God's grace, we gotta look at it and say, man, I wanna be the best Christian I can be. I wanna achieve something. to do something for God, there has to be a willingness to say, I am gonna put some effort into that for God. Can you say with Paul, I labored, you may not be able to say more abundantly than y'all, but can you say I labored? I labored for God. God was worthy of that, wasn't he? Of that effort, of that obedience of the servant because of the servanthood that God has given to us. And so our sanctuary, it's nearly done. We praise God, we're getting there. Expect to see this as we get into the sanctuary. Somewhere in there, a banner that says, thou art worthy, O Lord. And as we begin our series, we're just speaking about God is worthy of obedience. He's worthy of the obedience of the gospel. And I would just say this, sadly, there's very few people obeying God in our day. But at Southside for Baptist Church, we wanna be different than that. We wanna be full of people that want to obey God, want to please God, and that begins with the gospel. Somebody obeying Him regarding salvation, that they would repent of their sin, receive God's truth through the word of God, obey the gospel, and put their faith in Jesus Christ. Praise God, that's where it starts. But then that takes us into servanthood and obeying God. And so this morning as we conclude, Are you a doer of God's Word or just a hearer? It's one thing to come to church and to hear it, but it's another thing to say, man, I want to do what the Word of God says. It's one thing to read your Bible. It's another thing to read your Bible and do it. And so are we observing what needs to change, looking at it and saying, okay, God, I see it. I've got the mirror right there in front of me. I see something in my life. I need to change that and letting God Letting God do that by participating with God in obedience. Are we meditating on God's Word? I'm not gonna forget it or hear the Spirit of God spoke in my heart. I'm gonna meditate on that, let you take that with me, let it change my life. And then are you doing God's Word? Looking at that and saying, you know what? I'll tell you, it's effort. It took the effort today to get up and come to church. It took us effort to get up and come to church. It does, it takes effort to get in the Word of God. It takes effort to do evangelism. It took effort yesterday to do some of the work that we did here at the church with cleaning it and things like that. Ministry takes effort, but God is worthy of that. There ought to be something in our heart that just says to God, okay, the obedience thing, now we're worthy, oh Lord. Father, I pray that the Spirit of God would touch our hearts. I need this, Lord, we need this. To be reminded that Thou art worthy, supreme authority, master, Lord. And Father, I just pray this morning, maybe you spoke to a heart about salvation, but we pray, Father, if there's anybody that needs to obey the gospel, that they be saved. It might be you spoke to a heart about obeying the master, that we're a servant, and that when you speak, that we don't go to church or read our Bibles just to have information, but that is for transformation. And Father, whatever it is that the Spirit of God has in before us just now that we could change, May we, in sincerity, deal with that before you and just ask you by grace, God, change that. Help me change that. But Lord, it's both letting you change us and obeying. And so may the spirit of God help us. Would you bless the truth that the word of God is referred to this morning. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. Let's stand for evil, sin, and heaven.