Are You Living in Reality — James 1-2

0:25 We are doing open air meetings in New York City. It was 14th Street. We had a team from Word of Life Bible Institute, number of students, about 25 to 28. And we were doing some meetings, and as we were proceeding through the day, I saw, as we finished up a meeting, I saw a group of the students were laughing. They were just like going...

0:55 You know how you, not like laughing out loud type of thing, but like, are you kidding me laughter type of thing, right? So one of them came up to me and told me what was so funny. What's so funny about that, you know? And they said to me that there was a... They were talking to a guy and the fella, probably around maybe Bob's age, You know?

1:28 Young. Very young. Very young. Maybe a little younger. So he...

1:35 They they they were saying that this man... They were witnessing to him, which... That's why we were there, and they were talking to him about Christ, and he told them that he was Messiah. And they thought that was really funny. This guy had the Messianic Complex going, and they thought that that was hilarious.

1:59 And as they were relating that to me, I flashed back to a time years earlier of a situation when we were in Willoughby, Ohio running the ministry called The Salt Company, which was a street ministry, and we had one of the guys... I had a friend of mine who was a Christian psychiatrist, he was talking about the Christian and mental health, and we had a little discussion going on at the salt company in that building, and we started talking about a person who holds a messianic complex, you know, a person who thinks that they're a messiah. And as we were talking about the... You know, we started laughing. This is years before the incident in Manhattan.

2:48 And I'm flashing back to this to this instant. And as we're laughing and talking and all of a sudden, you hear it just right out, I don't know what you're laughing at. Dead silence. I don't know why you're laughing at this. You have no idea what it's like to think that you are Jesus Christ in a padded cell in a straight jacket.

3:17 So I have no idea why you're laughing at this. And that shut us up in a hurry. It really did. And I come back to the instant that I was talking, and I saw... I talked to the man.

3:40 I went and said, let me... Can we talk to this to this fella? And the guy came up to me, we talked. And I said, I wanted to... Wanted you to know that I heard that you consider yourself Messiah.

3:54 And I'm taking him very seriously. I was not a... I wasn't giggling. I wasn't even it wasn't even in my heart to to giggle. You know?

4:03 No self control. I was truly interested. And I said, why do you think that you're Messiah? He said, well, because I am so sick and tired of what's going on in the world today. I'm so sick I've been broken into.

4:23 My apartment's been broken into. I have been mugged about six times. I'm tired. And then he just, like, switches. He goes, I'm gonna take care of it all.

4:34 I am going to take care of it all. I am Messiah. I said, well, I appreciate I appreciate what you're saying to me. I really do. And I'm so sorry for the situation you have found yourself in and with the muggings and the break ins and that kind of thing, but I said, you are...

4:55 I have to tell you this. And he said, what? I said, you are not Messiah. He said, why not? I said, because you don't qualify.

5:06 I said, Can I see your hands? And he showed me his hands. I said, There's no nail prints in the wrists or the hands. There's no nail prints. And I said, You have no hat on or anything like that, and you have no scars on your forehead, around your head.

5:20 You don't have that. I said, you don't have to do this, being New York City. You know, you don't have to pull up your shirt. I bet you you do not have a spear mark. And I'm sure if you were to take your shoes and socks off, you would not have nail prints in your feet.

5:38 I said, Messiah is God in the flesh, and he did die on the cross already for you. And he's the only one who qualifies for that. And then I talked to him about Christ. When we talk about situations like that, we're talking about people who are not in reality. They're not dealing with reality.

6:34 And the passage I'd like us to look at that is going to just bring this right to our minds and right before us is James chapter two. James chapter... Excuse me. James chapter one verses 19 to the end of the chapter verse 27. James chapter one nineteen and so this is he's going to talk about three realities.

6:59 Three realities faith that we need to have in our Christian life. Now understand something when James is talking. Now some people think that James... You know, Martin Luther said, James can't be in the canon of of the New Testament. Pitch it out.

7:17 Throw it out because it goes against justification by faith. Well, I understand his thoughts about that, but he misunderstood what James is talking about. Romans chapter four is talking about justification before God. And James, especially chapter two, is talking about justification before men. But not just in James chapter two, this is the whole epistle.

7:44 James is going to talk to us about practical theology. He is going to talk to us and say, we who have received Christ as our personal savior, truly have received Christ as our savior. Are we living what god has designed for us to live? Are we in reality? Or are we living a lie?

8:10 Because the Christian faith and once you're born again, you can't unborn. You can't do it. There's no such thing as eternal insecurity. It's eternal security. We are kept by the power of god.

8:25 The moment you believe on the lord Jesus Christ is the moment you pass from death unto life never to return. What James is now talking to us about is is what your your Christianity, are you living it? Is it possible for a Christian to... For a born again Christian, bonafide born again Christian to live a lie? Is that true?

8:56 And the answer is absolutely. I mean, you look at the epistles. He is correcting what? In those epistles. He's correcting carnality.

9:06 He's correcting issues in people's lives that need to be corrected and done and dealt with by the power of the and the spirit of god and so this is something of which we have to address and so, I'm going to go through the text as we as we as I talk. I'm not going to read it and then go back but I like us to look at this and he we have the these realities that he reveals three realities of faith that we must have in our Christian life. So, like with James, with James, the last time I preached on James, it was 13 through 18. It was 2015. So I thought I'd pick up the series here, you know, and I look at this and I say to myself, Man, oh man, this is...

9:59 Maybe we should turn the air conditioning down, don't know how... Get it colder in here. Cause all of a sudden it gets real hot. I mean, it gets real hot. Because if you're looking to James, they go, oh, give me the warm and fuzzy sermon today.

10:19 James isn't the book. This is not, this is not it. This is not it. He is going to challenge us. He is going to bring us right to reality.

10:30 Are we living it? Are we doing this? And so, we must have, look at verses 19 through 21. We must have the reality of true meekness in our lives. And then we must have in verses 22 through 25, we must have the reality of a of a true manner in conducting our lives and verses twenty six and twenty seven, we must have the reality of true ministry in our lives.

11:02 True ministry. Look at verses 19 through 21 and we see meekness in terms of our senses. He says this, this is right after he talks about solicitation to do evil, verses 13 through 18. Now he says, wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear. Swift to hear.

11:28 Isn't that amazing? Listen to listen to the language. Swift to hear. And then slow to speak. Now that I I know my my dear brother, Andy, is from Carolina, and we had a we had a brother from South Carolina going to the open air with us in New York City.

11:50 You can always tell a New Yorker. It's like a machine gun. So how's it going? How's it going? Everything going well?

11:56 Good. That's good. That's really good. That's how New Yorkers talk. So when Randy Riddle, my friend Randy, gets in and and does the three rope trick in the 42nd Street Uptown Platform, It was so much fun.

12:11 Four trains come converge on that platform. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Randy Riddle. First train came. And I'd like to share with you how much...

12:28 Second train came, the platform was clean. I said, Randy? He goes, what, brother Chris? I said, you gotta talk a little faster, man. This is not what he means by slow to speak.

12:42 He doesn't mean that. He doesn't mean slow to speak. Swift to hear. Swift to hear. And that's not generally our diet, is it?

12:56 We don't do that. We're quick on the tongue. We're quick on on on doing this. We're quick on the senses of of, you know, speaking it out. No.

13:06 Notice what it says. Be... Let every man be swift to hear. Ain't that amazing? One of the things I really, really enjoyed about my relationship with Bill McDonald, If you know who I'm speaking of, Bill McDonald, the guy who wrote the commentary and all that.

13:27 We we were fairly good friends. I could be at a conference. I could be anywhere with... You know, and I'd see Bill, especially at a conference. And Bill treated me like I was the only one in the room.

13:45 He looked at me, he listened to me, waited for me to finish, then he talked. It was amazing. It was an absolute amazing thing. He cared about what I had to say. I never got the feeling with Bill that when he...

14:05 When I was conversing with him, he was forming an answer. I always... When I called him up, I called him up one time with an issue and we talked quite a bit about the issue, but I never got the feeling that he already had the answer before I finished what I was saying. Swift to hear. This is an incredible skill actually.

14:34 When we look at that, we're listening to a person and hearing exactly what they say before we give out to them what our pearls of wisdom are. You know, do you ever answer somebody an issue with somebody? And it's you go and they're they're giving their porn their heart out to you and you and I gave you and it was the wrong issue. You give the wrong advice to somebody for the, I wasn't talking about that. Oh, oh, okay.

15:23 That means it's thoughtful. And maybe we ought to have it maybe include another thing, prayerful. Prayerful speech. How many times have we damaged somebody or damaged a relationship with somebody or have been totally misunderstood because we were too fast on the draw. We were too fast in telling them what we think.

15:53 Slow to speak. Give that response and then notice notice what he's going to talk about. Notice what he is going to say and then here's a here's a killer. Slow to wrath. How many arguments and how many gun shootings have been in The United States that we know of that started off as an argument?

16:18 A stabbing, a punch, that kind of... Why? Because somebody was so fast and then taking such offense and sometimes not even the right offense, you you get offended, maybe you were wrong. I mean, swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. This is interpersonal relationship 101, isn't it?

16:51 You know, it's it's a it's a it's a tough one. It's a tough one sometimes for us. It's a tough one. I remember one time driving my van up 8th Avenue in Manhattan. Now I don't even know why they put paint on the streets.

17:08 I'm serious. I have no idea why. It's like a track meet. You know, NASCAR, one on one. You know, we're flying through, you know, and guys don't even look at lights.

17:19 They just right through. And I remember going up 8th Avenue. The avenues are north and south, and then the streets are east west. And I'm flying up 8th Avenue, and then all of a sudden as I'm flying up 8th Avenue, I mean, I don't even know what the speed limit is. I'm doing...

17:36 I'm going with the flow. That's what it is, and it's booking. So I'm I'm going with the flow, and all of a sudden, there comes this yellow cab right in front of me. Two cabs on the side and then one cab t bows me in the back. Now he doesn't hit me, but he just comes right across.

17:58 They sealed me off. Now I know because of the experience in New York City that those guys pack. They carry. I don't care what the gun laws are, they carry. They carry either a baseball bat, they carry knives, they carry whatever.

18:18 These guys are not waiting for the police. They're they're... It's protection. That's what they're doing. So I know that this is what's hap...

18:26 I know that these guys are doing that. As they seal me off, now I've got a quick temper. And some people say, Chris, that's an Irish temper you have. Well, I'm Scotch too. So that's a Scotch Irish temper.

18:41 Well, I've got some German in there too. That's... You're just a sinner. You're just a sinner, and that's that's true. I mean, that's exactly what it is.

18:52 Forget the Irish. Forget the Italian. Forget all the ethnicity. It's called sin. And bad temper.

19:00 Bad temper. How dare you? You know, and I get my dander up, etcetera. This reason I've... The thing squared off, I roll my window down, guy gets out of his cab, he looks at me.

19:13 You cut me off. Really? When when... The first time ever? You're in New York.

19:22 You got... You're... You're like, you're offended. You got cut off. Well, obviously he was.

19:28 And he radioed his buddies and they sealed me off. He goes, you cut me off. And the Lord was very, very good to me, almost to a whisper. I looked at him and I said, I'm sorry. He looks at me.

19:51 Got in his cabin, they were gone like cockroaches and light. I couldn't believe it. Those guys that I'm. You don't want to mess with a cabbie, New York City cabbie. Slow to speak.

20:24 Slow to wrath, and that's exactly slow to speak, slow to wrath. And so we look at this and, you know, this is the situation. Can you turn with me to Proverbs? Please turn with me or tap with me. Actually, I'm not tapping.

20:40 You are on your iPhone or device. But look at Proverbs chapter 14. Proverbs chapter 14 verse 29. That's in the Old Testament, I think. Fourteen twenty nine.

21:00 That's... Let's see. Fourteen twenty nine. Yeah. Oh.

21:05 He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding. But he that is hasty in spirit exalteth folly. Wow. There's a control factor there, isn't there? There's a control.

21:25 Look at fourteen seventeen. Look at fourteen seventeen. It says, he that is soon angry deals foolishly. He that is soon angry deals foolishly. How stupid we have looked when we have lost our temper.

21:45 I know. I've looked pretty stupid many times. And so we we would look at this. Proverbs fifteen one, we've already said that. Soft answer turneth away wrath.

22:02 But grievous words stir up anger. How is that with us? We feel wounded, we lash back with words. We respond in like kind. And then sixteen thirty two, sixteen thirty two, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he who ruleth the spirit than he that takes a city.

22:37 Wow. Talk about the fruit of self control. And the spirit of God does give us that self control. That's one of the fruit of the spirit in Galatians. Self control.

22:51 And so being controlled by the spirit of God is a beautiful thing. It is a beautiful thing. The devil, when we're in that kind of a situation, I tell you exactly. It feels so satisfying at that moment when we respond in like kind. When we have a word, you know, we just we're quick tongued, you know, and I know some people that can they can slice you up and you don't even know it.

23:21 They can just dissect you and you don't even know it. Of god or not of god? Not of god. It's not controlled by the spirit of god. Spirit of god is not controlling that kind of a quick quick tongue.

23:40 So notice what else he says here. He said, he tells us this. He tells us, he's slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wow. How many times we have justified in our own minds telling somebody off and thinking that we are really justified in doing that?

24:05 It's for their benefit. No, it really isn't. The wrath of man. And then also, some sometimes we even think of fisticuffs. We even think of some kind of physical physical altercation.

24:21 Thinking that that's the, you know, that's fantastic. The wrath of man does not work the righteousness of god. When I played high school and college basketball, I I got in fights. Sorry, I got in fights. I shouldn't have I shouldn't have retaliated, but I did.

24:41 And I, when I think upon those instances when I think upon those instances, I don't think upon those instances with fondness. I think of those instances with regret that happened 50 ago, that happened a long time ago, and I still regret that. I remember a guy coming down, we were playing basketball. It's a pickup game, and this guy was a flanker back for Florida State. And I knew him, and he just come down and he kept elbowing me in the head.

25:16 I said... His nickname was Spider. I said, Spider, stop doing that. Boom. Spider, stop doing that.

25:22 Boom. He come down and hit me. I said, Spider, stop doing it. Boom. I lost my temper.

25:29 I wanted to fight right there on the spot. He backed away. I don't look at that with pride and saying, wow, that was fantastic. What a... And I was a Christian at the time too.

25:43 What a poor testimony to that fellow. What a poor testimony to him. And and, you know, if I ever want to talk to him about Christ, how would I do that? How how could I legitimately talk to him about Christ after wanting to go toe to toe with him? Let's let's tangle right now.

26:18 Meekness is strength under control. Strength under control. And it's not weakness, you know, and it's not meekness. Do we have that in our lives? Do we have this in our lives is the question.

26:41 And we... I can't answer for you. I know my own life, and it's abysmal sometimes. It is abysmal sometimes. I suffer with the flesh, and I have to keep it down by the grace and power of God and say no to the old man and yes to the new man and yes to the spirit of God.

27:09 And the spirit of God's gonna never violate his word. Never. Never violate his word. So not only not only must we have the reality of true meekness, but also reality of a true manner in conducting our lives. Look at verses 22 through 25.

27:30 We need an honest appraisal. Look at verse 22 through 24. But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only. I hate this verse. I do.

27:49 You know what it means? It means you got to do something with what we're talking about. I hate this. I'm gonna... Now you and I are responsible.

28:03 We are. Be doers of the word and not hearers, only deceiving your own selves. Now, that's an interesting word because it means by false reasoning. We deceive ourselves by false reasoning. We are...

28:22 We try to reason our way out of stuff and we're good at this. But we've deceived ourselves if we're not doers of the word. See, James is... James knows his own heart. James knows the Christian.

28:38 James know... And this is inspired text for sure. James knows how we are to respond and he is telling us how to do that. We deceive ourselves if we do not... If we just hear the word.

28:51 By the way, the word here, both in the Hebrew and in the Greek, have intrinsically built into the definition, not only hearing it but the action of doing it. The action of doing it. So, we can we, do you hear me? Yeah, I hear you. Well, when god says, do you hear me?

29:18 He expects action from us. He expects action, doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving our own selves by false reasoning. And Satan is right there with those reasons. Well, you don't understand my situation. You don't understand etcetera ad infinitum ad nauseam.

29:44 You know? We look at this and we say to ourselves, wow. And then he says, for if if you be a hearer of the word and not a doer, verse 23, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a mirror. You... Okay.

30:01 You ever see guys look... You know, go to a mirror? I mean, I've I've been in locker rooms and, you know, places, you know, and... Oh, yeah. Okay.

30:13 They go in the mirror. Mirror's right there. They gotta... It's really pathetic when the guy... Oh.

30:22 Rare is the word. What happens is this. Out the door. Right? Not seeing the the the stuff on their face or the, you know, they got some weird thing going on, something crawling in their ear.

30:38 They haven't looked at that. Right? They haven't looked at that. So this is exactly how... If we're like that, we're a hearer and not a doer, we're like a person that beholds himself and then goes his own way and immediately forgets what manner of man he was.

30:58 I've done this. I've done this to my chagrin, to my deep embarrassment. Unbelievable. I don't know if I can tell you about this one time. It was so embarrassing.

31:14 Okay, with guys, you know, they have this thing called a fly. I didn't check it. And I I went and talked to these people. This was this was really strange. I went to this funeral and then I came...

31:32 Went to the restroom, came out and I'm talking to this mix company, guys and girls, I'm going, Hey, how's it going? Going good, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, I think I'm going to go get something to eat. Walked across this large expanse of area, nobody there. And I'm walking across, and the guy comes right up to me, and he stands right in front of me like this. So me being a good basketball player, I reverse pivoted him, and him being a good defensive guy blocked me.

32:05 And he looks at me, I said, what are you doing? He looked at me and he says, your fly is down. I went, it looked like an orchid. It, I mean it was it was like, I'm going, ah. I I said stand right there, know.

32:29 You know? And I I could not go back. I could not go back to that group of people. I just couldn't do it. Now I'm a little embarrassed.

32:49 What's that? Did you check it today? You wanna know something? This is this is this is an aside. And and since then, Zelle gave me the...

33:01 Gave me permission to go further. I'm teaching at a at a at a... This church. This is years ago. I'm teaching at this church and this couple couple are sitting right there, and I'm sitting on a stool and I had this cable knit sweater, and all of a sudden, the guy goes like this with a piece of paper.

33:27 He goes, like this, and it says, your fly is down. You know, and we're talking bigger bigger company than this. I'm sorry. But it was bigger, more people. And I'm going, you know, all of a sudden, I I got so hot, sweat was dripping down, and I'm going, you know, so how do you do this?

33:51 You just go. And I just wanna say, was. It was up and they're sliding down their chairs laughing so hard. They're laughing so hard. It was unbelievable.

34:09 Oh, I tell you right now, only only to me. But yes, I check every, I check moment, I all the time. I check all the time because of that situation, because of that situation. But see, we're like that if we look into the perfect law of liberty, we look into the word of God and we don't give it time, and we don't check our lives with that. It's even more embarrassing.

34:41 It's even more embarrassing than my little embarrassments. This is the thing which he says, you're like a person that does this, he beholds himself and goes his way and immediately forgets what manner of man he was. Whoso looketh in the perfect law of liberty and continues in it. Notice that, continues, continues to look in it. He being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

35:20 You want the blessing of God in your life. Yeah, man. I want the blessing of God. You know, like where it's like some gumball machine and they put 25¢ in. Now it's like a dollar or whatever.

35:31 Now what you gotta have a credit card, you know. But, you know, you put your credit card in, you get this little gumball. And this is fantastic. Right? God's not like that.

35:43 He desires for us a relationship. He desires to talk to us and to minister to us. And the the more we do this, the more we want to do this. The converse is true. The less we do this, the less we want to do it.

36:05 So if he says, you you look into the perfect law of liberty, it's like a mirror, but if you continue in it, you'll start to know that it's not a religious duty, it is life itself. It is life giving itself. It starts to bless your life so abundantly. It's incredible. You are you are like, man, this is so fantastic because it's life itself and you want to do it more.

36:34 You want to talk to the lord more. You want god to speak to your heart. He wants to change you and he will change you. He will change you and he'll minister to you and this is this goes on until we see him face to face. This continues our whole life until we see him face to face.

36:57 So, we appropriate this. We we do this. We appropriate the word of god into our lives and we're not a forgetful hearer. We want this in our lives. Somebody once said this, I love it.

37:10 Appropriating the grace of god through the word of god by the power of god. By the spirit of god. Christianity is not a philosophy. Christianity is life. Christianity is is life.

37:40 You know, I was I was busting on on Andy. Not busting, but I said you got a little choked up at the breaking of bread. Hey, bro. You know, you got choked up yet. Of course, he got choked up.

37:52 We should be on our face as to what he has done for us. We should be so the hallelujahs in our hearts and in our minds are are tempered with the the regret that we have had that he had to go to the cross for my sin. The lord Jesus Christ is not some guru and some guy we follow and he's some great example. No. He died who is he who is god in the flesh died on the cross.

38:47 On that cross by dying on the cross, a brutal death. But three days later, rose again physically from the dead. For you, for me. This takes it out of the realm of religion and puts it in the realm of relationship. And then when I place my faith in him, when I lean my whole weight on him as my own personal savior, recognizing that I can't do it myself, that he is god in the flesh, that he did die on that cross for me, that he rose again physically from the dead, the third day.

39:24 When I realized he did that for me and I asked him to be my savior, he makes me a brand new person. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things become new. I remember when I trusted Christ as my savior. My friend Dave Weibel told me that things are gonna be different.

39:44 I go, yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, I heard them. I heard that, but I didn't understand it. And I was I was driving a month later. I was driving my girlfriend at home to her house and as I was driving, wasn't pretty Barb.

40:03 Praise god for this, for this story because it it wasn't pretty Barb and she said to me, a month after I trusted Christ. So, now it's April. Twenty second around there because in 03/22/1971, I trusted Christ. So I'm driving her home and she said, you know something? You're different.

40:25 Things are going to be different. You are going to change, Chris. I go, yeah? Different? She goes, yeah.

40:40 And I don't like it. And she pulled out this big axe and did that to our relay... Our relationship. Boom. Axed our relationship.

40:52 It was it was over because of Jesus Christ. But I remember sitting there driving, and I'm going, I'm different? She goes, yeah. I didn't see it myself, but you will be. You will be different.

41:10 Because a truly born again individual passes from death unto life, are born again, and they are different. And the beauty of that is the Lord Jesus changes lives. And he continues to change my life, continues to change your life as I grow and feed off of his word. I don't take a page from the bible and eat it. I read it asking God to teach me what he wants me to know, to rebuke me if that's necessary, to...

41:43 And comfort me, to do all those things as necessary. So I can grow in him. And this is what takes place. This is... This takes place for us.

41:55 We appropriate that. And then then he... So he tells us this, and I I just... Please forgive me for asking this question. Do you read the word, and do you let him talk to you through the word?

42:18 Not just bible study, but letting him speak to your heart and to your mind. Rightly divided, of course. But do you do this? Do you give it time? Or is your personal quiet time fifteen minutes with our daily bread and that's it?

42:43 Just just asking. Just asking. You want to be blessed in your deed and in your life? Look into the perfect law of liberty and continue in it. And don't be a forgetful hearer.

42:58 Do not be a forgetful hearer. And then we look at not only must we have the reality of meekness in our lives and true manner in conducting our lives, but also reality in true ministry in our lives. Notice verse 26 because it's a speaking ministry. It's a speaking ministry. If any man among you seem to be religious, this is an outward...

43:38 Are you justified before men? Do they see this? Not that you're going to do this, but here's what he says. He says, if any man among you seems to be religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is empty. It's empty.

44:06 And the world sees that. The world sees it. The reality of it, I'm I'm going to heaven, I'm born again, absolutely born again, but they they're not seeing that. Especially if my speech is not conveying that. It's not wholesome speech.

44:22 It's bad speech. Bad bad and sometimes Christians do swear. And it, you know, that can be a cultural issue and that can be a a immoral issue, especially if you take the name of the Lord's name in vain. But we look at this and what what is our speech patterns like? How are they looking at us?

44:49 And then he says, notice what else he says, you know, he talked about the social action of this. Pure religion. The outward religious service, pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father is this. What is it? What is what is pure religion to God?

45:16 What is pure religion? Witnessing to somebody. Okay. You know, that's that's that's great. I mean, I'm for it.

45:23 But here's what he says this is. To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. Do you realize what Todd and Miriam have gone through to be here? To minister? They give this fifteen month sabbatical stuff.

45:59 It's hard. Hard coming off the field. Hard to make those decisions. And for you, young lady, to take care of your grandfather all that time. Pure religion is this.

46:20 This is what it is. You ministering to your mom. Don, you ministering to your wife. Brenda, you being a blessing and being such a blessing to people. Pure religion is this.

46:41 We often think if I gotta go to a... I gotta go somewhere else. I gotta I gotta... No. No.

46:47 No. What it is, it's right here and it's right here. And here's another one. To keep one unspotted, to keep yourself unspotted from the world. I wanna serve God.

47:17 I want I wanna be clean before the world. That's what I wanna do. So we've looked at the reality of meekness and manner and ministry. We need to have these realities in our lives. We need to.

47:37 We must have them. I was in Times Square with some of these students that I aforementioned, aforementioned. And we were... It was a packed night, and my van was full of Word Alive students and I saw one guy standing there, which I... I mean, 20,000 people passing our vehicle are are bored an hour.

48:01 Why would I just single this guy out? And he was... It was just it was just it was just like this. He's standing there just like this in Times Square where it's like light at night because of the billboards, you know, and the lights. And he's just standing there like this.

48:16 So I I got out of the truck. I went over to him, and I wanted to give him a piece of literature, and I was gonna get in the truck and go, you know. And I've said, some good news for you, sir. He goes, I'm not here. I said, you're not here?

48:37 He goes, nah, I'm not here. I go, I'm giving you blow by blow. I said, I take an axe and I cut your arm off and he goes, nope. I'm not here. I said, so Jesus loves you, died on the cross.

48:57 I, you know, gave him some, you know, verses and that kind of thing. He goes, I am not here. And he turns to me and looks at me and says, neither are you. I said, you're right. See you.

49:39 Help to have our lives count for you. Only one life, it will soon be past. Only what we do for you will last. Lord, we ask you that you would just really bless us and help us. In Jesus' name, amen.

49:59 Thank you.