Throw away to receive

I have been about to continue with our study based on the Letter of the Apostle Santiago for a long time, we are using this epistle as the foundation and basis of our meditations on Wednesday nights, when I can be here. I want to continue with the study that we have been following in chapter 1 and last Wednesday we talked about these verses 19 and 20 where the Apostle James says that:

“…For this, my beloved brothers, that is, because of the mercy, the goodness of God, the fact that he is so generous with us in specific ways, that James points to verse 17 and 18 – for that reason, my Beloved brothers, every human being, every man and woman, be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to get angry because the anger of the human being, the anger of man, woman, does not work the justice of God..."

Then the Apostle Santiago continues saying, "... for which - that is, he is developing his thinking more, he is looking at it from another perspective of how we have to react in that life of sanctification, of increasing surrender to the Lord, of giving more to him of our being for the great and the good, the merciful that he is, then he says, − therefore, discarding all filth and abundance of malice, receive with meekness the implanted word, which can save your souls…”

There is a contrast here in two words, two verbs, rejecting and receiving. We could say, discarding and receiving, one is rejecting and the other is ingesting, receiving, bringing towards us. One drives away certain things and another attracts certain things.

I have here some notes that I took, that I did, it must have been about 20 years ago, I was about 5 or 7 years old when I wrote them, that was a study... what are you laughing at? Did I say something that you guys can laugh at? Well, later they're going to explain to me why I don't know what they're laughing at.

This was in Cambridge, years ago, when we did a study of the epistle of the Apostle Santiago and these notes are here, there were no computers then, in yellow and yellowish pages, they are like old parchments. But I wrote some verse notes as an expository thing.

In verse 21, this idea of discarding and receiving I say here, as a consequence of all of the above, we have to throw away, definitively throw away, once and for all, everything that hinders the free entry of the word of God into our lives. . Because Santiago is emphasizing this of the word. Later he will continue talking about the importance of the word. Already in verse 18 he has said that he of his will made us be born by the word.

And this is what I want you to imbue in your mind the importance of venerating the word of God, the Bible, of giving it great importance. What characterizes a man, a woman, filled with the Holy Spirit, a hard-core Pentecostal, is that they love the word of God. Amen. Who venerates the word of the Lord, takes it seriously, reads it, ingests it, meditates on it, chews the cud like cows, - not that I am telling you that they are cows or anything like that - but meditates on the word of the Lord. Mister.

It says, day and night, there is a psalm, blessed is the person who loves the word of the Lord and meditates on it. One of the great shortcomings that exist in our time and of the great losses, I believe that is why the church of Christ is declining so much and heading towards heresy and sometimes falling into errors, not specific errors but errors of attitude, of posture which then prepare it for specific mistakes. It's that lack of reverence and continuous standing in the word of the Lord, and looking at the word of God almost with amazement and with fear and trembling.

Until you get to that point, brethren, of loving God's word, reading it, memorizing it, worshiping its patterns, its chosen verses, its main themes, its prominent characters, its fundamental doctrines, and you know it like a soldier knows his weapon, which he disassembles and reassembles in any situation, even with his eyes closed. This is how we should know the word of God, brothers. Our goal as children of God throughout life should be to become experts in the word of the Lord.

Now we are going to see later that just being an expert is not enough, you have to do more. But I believe that true maturity, spiritual greatness, power, authority against demons and against the struggles and terrors and threats and traps of life, give way when a man and a woman are continually grounded, grounded in the word of God.

Sometimes we say the word of God and we think, oh, something great, no, the Bible, this here, this little book that is a big book. This is a universe. The mind of God poured into human words. And that is why it is infinitely malleable and variable. The word of the Lord has no end. You read it and each time it is new, it is different. You take a verse and you can see it in a thousand different ways because that is what is beautiful. It is the word of God, it is alive and always reveals a new facet. It's like a diamond with a thousand facets, every word, every letter, every verse.

That is why the Hebrews, now as I say that, saw the word as something almost magical, like objects, they were like physicists, that is why the Kabbalah and other mystical doctrines of Judaism even count the number of letters and draw deductions from all this, because It is that... I believe that when one, like the Hebrews when they loved and adored the word of the Lord, when one is inside the word, one realizes its multidimensionality and almost its physical presence, life. It is alive, says the Bible. And that is not a metaphor. I think it's real. There is life in the word, it is alive and when you eat it, that life enters you and manifests itself through you.

That's why you have to love the Bible, don't tell me that María went to wash and ran out of soap. Read the Bible. study it. Know her. The Lord says to examine the Scriptures because it seems to you that there is testimony about me in them. So, Santiago talks a lot about the word, because his letter is an eminently pastoral, practical letter, about the Christian life and its fundamental bases.

Do not expect great theological and mysterious truths from Santiago, like the Apostle Paul in the Romans or in Ephesians, Santiago is bread with butter and a little coffee with a little sugar, which is not bad, right? Perhaps you leave the great delicacies to the Apostle Paul, to Peter perhaps a little here and there, Hebrews. But Santiago is at ground level, Santiago is there potatoes and meat for the people of God.

So, he talks a lot about the word. And then he says:

"...Therefore casting off all filthiness, abundance of malice, receive..."

So I said that we have to throw away from us everything that hinders the free entry of the word of God into our lives, everything impure, everything inappropriate. Many Christians don't grow because they forget this important principle, that before we put on the new man, we have to put off the old man and the old woman, just in case, and the old, old, whatever, but separate, walk away

We have to get rid of the old young man, including the old immature child in faith and we have to dress again, we have to get rid of everything that hinders us in the race of faith.

There is a lot to get rid of in the Christian life, brothers, there is a lot to die to be able to live, there is a lot to get rid of to put on, there is a lot to forget about and leave behind in order to move forward. Romans, chapter 12, verse 1 says:

“…Therefore, we too, having such a great cloud of witnesses around us, let us strip ourselves…”

There is that idea of discarding, getting rid of, "... let's get rid of all weight..." What is the weight? All those things that we carry from the past, those bad habits, those bad attitudes, that which prevents you from running, he says, “…every weight of sin that besieges us, − that surrounds us like an army and wants to strangle us and prevent nutrients from entering of God into our lives, or that God's blessings go out to others from us, − and let us run with patience the race that lies ahead of us.”

let's get rid of You have to get rid of Brothers, we have to be continually asking the Lord, "Lord, strip me of everything that does not please you." There is a lot of conformism in the people of God, we believe that we came to church, we punched out the card and we already did everything we had to do. Much of the Christian life is that, the most painful thing is to get rid of, including things we love and things that are very, very dear to us and appetizing. We have gotten used to our demons and we like it when they are there in the morning, sitting at the table with a cup of coffee waiting for us to get up to go with us to work again.

When we don't have them close, we feel that we are alone. Because one gets used to even the most terrible things. There are people who have been in a cell for 20 years and when you open the door for them they don't want to leave because they are so comfortable inside the cell. It is so. So many times we get used to our ties and the Lord tells us, “Put off.”

You have to be continually like the psalmist, examine me, oh God, know my heart, test me, know my thoughts, see if there is a wicked path in me and guide me towards the eternal path. And that means, I don't want to say that you always walk around with a paranoia that God is going to throw lightning at you and break you in half every so often. No. I always live within the grace of God, his mercy, his love. He knows that I am naughty and he loves me despite it, but I have to strive every day to be better and to please him more and conform more to the image of Jesus Christ. And in that there is protection, satisfaction, that when one suffers in life, problems come and one examines oneself and one says, "Well, I believe that I am well before God." hear me, that makes things more bearable.

When one suffers as children of God says the word, that's fine. Now the bad thing is when you know that you are a scoundrel and you are suffering, “Oh, oh, it will be because I did something that is not right with God.” But when you are covered and you know that, no, look, I am examining myself and I know that I am not perfect, but I believe that I am doing everything possible to please the Lord. That is security. Trials come but trials strengthen you, lift you up, purify you, slim down that extra fat that is in us that makes us run the race of faith heavily.

So, brothers, children of God, servants of the Most High, we are going to make a commitment to be a holy people, pleasing to the Lord, which is our rational worship, our true worship is that, to give ourselves as a living sacrifice to the Lord.

That is why Santiago says that we must discard all filth and all abundance of malice. Maybe you are a filthy person but you are malicious, so don't get out of the word too quickly. He wants to cover everyone, everyone is getting something right now. I mean here, when painting a house, do you have to scrape off the old paint before putting on the new one, yes or no? what's happening? If you put the new paint on top of the old, since it's peeling off, the new one comes off the old too. So first you have to scrape off that old paint, leave a smooth surface, and then paint so that the new one sticks.

And so it has to be in our lives. In order for the Lord to apply his virtues and attributes and impart his grace to us, we first have to strip ourselves of many things, we have to undress ourselves of the old man to put on the new garment of Christ Jesus.

That idea of discarding is important. There is much to discard, there is much to give up. A good prayer is, I renounce everything that does not please you, Lord. I renounce everything that has not passed through your filter, Father. I renounce everything that does not have your approval, be it a million dollars, be it a career that you do not like, be it the love of a man or a woman, be it a house that you have not given me, be it a city where you You have not sent me to live, whether it is an attribute of my personality that you do not like, whether it is a friendship that does not lead to adequate behavior, growth as you want in my life. I give it up.

I don't want anything that hasn't gone through your approval. Say so to the Lord always. I do not want anything in me, I do not want to be given anything, I do not want to receive anything that is not first approved by the Lord. I renounce it, I reject it, I throw it out of my life. Renounce and discard everything that is not of God and then receive, it says here, “rejecting receive with meekness.”

Under receive I say, we have to open ourselves to the word of God, we have to give it free entry. Receive it cheerfully, generously, enthusiastically. That is why it says, receive the implanted word with meekness. This idea of meekness means that you open up to it, you don't resist it, you don't argue with it, you don't say “buts” to it, you don't try to escape from it, as we often do. We try to find that escape clause, like good lawyers, to the word of the Lord.

Sir, you know that I work very hard so I need a little escape from time to time. You know I've been good in the last 6 months, Father, so I'm going to take a little vacation for one night or one day.

It says here, receive meekly, that means that one has to open up and become mongo when the word wants to enter. Many times they get tight like this, it will not enter. No. it says, receive meekly. We have to welcome the word of God into our lives.

That's the idea. Where it says to be slow to speak, slow to anger, there are things that God wants us to be like slow, and mongo, and soft, and one of them is that, open ourselves to the word of the Lord. all the pores have to be wide open for the word to enter and penetrate our life.

Then receive the implanted word with meekness. I say here, but also with meekness willing to obey him, without preconceptions, silencing our internal monologue. Wow, did I write that? What was he eating that day, I would like to know, Lord, a little more. What I was doing was studying a lot of literature, because that concept of an internal monologue is a literary concept.

Do you know what it means to silence your inner monologue? The interior monologue is that voice that is always... you are always talking to yourself, you are always thinking. One has to silence that and simply let the word of the Lord... when you are in your meditation in the morning or at night before going to bed, silence the internal voices for a moment, the worries, focus on the Lord and let the word speak to you, pick up a verse, meditate on it, and let that verse speak to you. Silence for a moment the worries that tomorrow I have to leave my shoes clean for work, that I did not wash my underwear and now I have to go before going to bed. No no. leave all that and just leave alone, shut up all worries and let the Lord speak to you.

Silencing the internal monologue, willing to go where the word takes us. I say here, this is the only way to approach the word of God. Or rather, to let her get close to us. There are two ways to receive a person at home, number one, casually, informally from you to you, that is, telling the person, "Okay, sit down and wait while I attend to other things, I'll come later, Don't worry." Take care of yourself and as you can. Or number two, with reverence, respect, admiration, making sure that everything is in good order for the person, that the place is nice, clean, paying full attention to the guest and listening carefully.

Do you remember the difference between María and Marta? Marta was doing something good, it was caring and it was constructive, but Maria had chosen the best part. It wasn't that Marta had a bad side. No, Marta had a good part because she was doing something constructive. And there are many times like this we are doing constructive things but the Lord likes things of the Kingdom, we give him a special choice. That is why I was saying, the first fruits, those best emotions, those best thoughts, those concentrated attitudes, we must welcome the word of the Lord, we must invite it to enter and sit in the chosen place in our life, receiving it with meekness.

Do you also remember Simon and Mary? Simon welcomes the Lord, “Come in, Lord, sit there,” and leaves him sitting there, gives him a hot Coke, even. Mary comes and is full of gratitude for what God has done, Christ has done for her, he has freed her, he has loved her, he has given value to her life and she comes and takes a very expensive perfume that she had, special, and pours it over the Master and bathes him with her tears and dries him with her hair and gives preference to the Lord. and the Lord, seeing Simon's thoughts and machinations, says to him, “Simon, do you remember when I came in? You invited me, you sat me there, you treated me like anyone else, but this one preferred me."

And that happens, brothers, with the word. You know, when one loves the word and one values it, that word is activated. When you love Christ with all your heart, when you give him preference, the Lord detects that. Do not think that you can be worshiping, and you are thinking that when you leave here you are going to go to this restaurant and what you are going to order, and how good the food was last Sunday when you went to the same restaurant. And he is singing because evangelicals sing when they come to church, and the Lord knows how to detect, he has an adorameter that knows exactly the level of his consecration and his passion for the Lord, he knows, he detects, it is not believed.

And likewise with the word. When you receive the word, love it, value it, give it time, give it choice in your life, the word grows within you. James uses a very interesting expression, he says, "receive the implanted word with meekness." Another better expression is grafted, that's my idea, the word grafted. The word of God comes from outside like a graft but after a while it penetrates with oneself and mixes with the most intimate part of our being, like a graft. His work is inside man, from within, it is implanted by God.

Grafting makes a tree produce different fruits than it produced at the beginning, since it changes the nature of that tree or plant. When you insert a graft, the genes of the new plant, or of the new branch, blend with the old ones. That's something strange, and then it's like a new nature is made, the two natures are mixed and that's why they sometimes produce flowers of a different color. Very similar to the previous ones of both, but now with a different color, a different configuration, a fruit, a different flavor. It's a mix. Natures mix.

Also, the nature of God when God puts his word through the reception of faith, there is the key. When you open your heart and your mind through an act of faith and you receive it not as a man's word. That is why all these people in those strange seminaries, in those schools of divinity, who do not even believe in electric light, read the Bible but do not believe that it is the word of God. They see it simply as an archaeological document, as a reflection of a culture or a time or the temperament of a man or his particular personal mind, but not as the divine word, the revelation of God, the living and effective word that penetrates and examine and reprove and change. They don't see it that way, so that's like eating meat and your body is not capable of processing the nutrients and you simply don't process it. And it's as if he hadn't eaten it. Better I would have eaten cardboard or a banana peel and the same...

But when you receive the word by faith, with reverence, this is the word of God, this is the mystery of God, getting inside of me, interacting with my mind, my neurological brain system, my spirit, my memories, my memories. , my traumas, my character traits, even my body, and that word is acting inside me, that word is circulating inside me, through my veins, through my tissues, and it is doing something. And you visualize it that way, you receive it and celebrate it that way, that word comes to life and does what it was sent for.

But it has to be through the posture of faith, an attitude of faith, of receptivity, of surrender and of total submission to it. That word causes us to produce different fruits than what we produced at the beginning, like a graft, and that is what the word of God does. This word is the only thing capable, says the Bible, of saving our souls.

How does Second Timothy 3:15 say? Paul says here, "...But persist to Timothy, you in what you have learned and persuaded yourself from a young age, knowing who you have learned from and that from childhood..." how good it is when we instill in our children the word of God from a young age . That is so important, that people take time. Bring your kids to Sunday school, bring them to youth classes, bring them to Wanna. Don't waste opportunities to get the word of the Lord into your little ones and imbue them with the sensibility of a believer. That word sanctifies and seals him.

“…Since childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus…”

The scriptures give wisdom. There is nothing that gives more wisdom than the word of the Lord. I learned it from my mother who always valued the word of God and God made her a wise woman. She was not a highly educated woman but she was a wise woman and I learned that the word of God imparts wisdom. If you want to receive wisdom, eat generously from God's word. That word will give you wisdom. Become an adept student and searcher of the word of God.

Paul adds, "...all Scripture is inspired by God and useful to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice so that the man, the woman of God may be perfect, that is, complete, entirely prepared for all good deed…”

Do you want to be ready for every good work? Let the word of the Lord have a free entry into your life and do its work in you. Love it, revere it, welcome it, receive it with enthusiasm, hold on to it, always watch as the living and effective, inspired word of God. And that word will give you wisdom and prepare you for everything God wants to use you. You will be like a bullet in a revolver ready to be fired at the necessary moment, like an arrow in God's quiver for everything God wants to use you.

Receive with meekness the implanted word, which can save your souls. Which is the same idea, interestingly, it is the same idea that we have just seen, both Peter and Paul, led by the same Holy Spirit, have the same idea that this word can save our souls, because this word is alive and effective. It is also, because the word of God is alive and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12.

Brothers, let's leave it there. Stripping ourselves of certain things, dressing ourselves in others, let us enthusiastically and meekly submit to the word that God is going to implant, God is going to graft into your life, he is going to give you an injection. He is going to inject it into your life and he is going to do something transformative and renewing in you.

Brothers, we are going to make a renewed resolution tonight to be great scholars of the word of the Lord. I do not believe that there is a person well understood in the word of the Lord, and who loves the word and reads it and lives it and receives it who is not a blessed person and who has everything he needs for his life. She may not be rich in human terms, but she's going to have enough.

I tell you, brothers, when God enters a house, a home and there is someone there who has spiritual authority, I personally, brothers, I do not believe... maybe for a little while, but go hungry, no, God will bring crows and they will bring you food, honestly. I believe that blessings come to a house when there is spiritual authority. The order of the Kingdom of God and the light of the Kingdom of God enters. The little bit of sugar that you need for the little cup of coffee that you are going to drink that day, but it will be there, I sincerely believe that. The blessing of God dwells where a person who knows how to attract the blessing is because he is stuck to the word of God.

Let's be a church that loves and studies and is based on the word of the Lord. Amen. Lower your head for a moment and recommit to that word. Young person, new person in the Kingdom of God, visitor, new people who are now beginning the Christian walk, or if you have spent many years in the Gospel but you have not received that joy, that enthusiasm for the word of the Lord, tonight I invite you, run and get a Bible and write your name on it and a good purpose and treasure that instrument and put it in a chosen place and read it continuously.

Begin, ask the Holy Spirit when you approach her to open that word to you, her treasures. Don't worry if at first you can't understand it all, don't worry. She's going to open up to your scrutiny over time. Take a discipleship class, stick with people who understand the word of the Lord. There are good meditations on TV, on YouTube, there are many ways, but if you knew there was a treasure somewhere, no matter how difficult, you would dig and you would search and you would do everything you could to get to it. .

That's the way it is with the Bible, don't worry that it won't be easy at first, get into it. She won't let you fail, but love her, revere her, study her, read her and sometimes the less studied we are the more we can enjoy her. Sometimes the intellect is an impediment. Don't worry if you don't have a great education, it doesn't matter, the Bible is wonderful, it can be revealed to you even if you don't have a great education. It doesn't matter, what matters is that your heart is open to her.

I can tell you, having read many books throughout my life, if you were to throw me to the moon and tell me, what book do you want to have with you? I would tell them, find me a Bible right now. With that Bible I dare to invent a ship to return to earth. That Bible is a manual for every situation and every need. That's the wonderful thing about her.

Love the Bible, love the word of God and we'll see the next time we're together, Wednesday, that you have to live it, you have to obey it, you have to apply it. We leave that for another time. It is another very important part.

But now, Father, we thank you for your word, thank you for your beautiful, mysterious, elusive, illimitable word. Thank you for that treasure that you have left us, Lord, and thank you for Christ, who is the word itself incarnate.

We love you, Lord, tonight we profess our love and our dedication to you, for all the good that you are, Lord. Continue with this town, keep building a town worthy of your name, keep raising a town that brings credit to the name of Jesus. Thank my Lord. We adore you, we bless you, Lord. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Thank my Lord.