Sunday Morning Message: "Listening & Doing"

In this message from January 25, Pastor Ben Boyd confronts us with a challenging truth from James 1:22-25: it's not enough to simply hear God's word—we must become doers of it. The teaching draws us into the uncomfortable reality that we can be captivated by biblical truth without being changed by it. Like looking in a mirror and immediately forgetting what we've seen, we often experience conviction during worship or study, only to walk away unchanged. The message uses powerful examples from Scripture—King Herod who listened to John the Baptist gladly yet beheaded him, Pontius Pilate who was fascinated by Jesus yet condemned Him—to illustrate how listening without obedience is spiritually futile. The core challenge connects directly to our prayer lives: many of us avoid being alone with God because we fear what He might reveal in that mirror. But here's the liberating paradox of faith—true freedom comes through obedience to what James calls 'the perfect law,' which is ultimately Jesus Christ Himself, now written on our hearts and minds. When we root ourselves in God's Word, receiving it humbly, focusing on it, remembering it, hiding it in our hearts, and dwelling on it, transformation happens naturally. We're called beyond selective obedience and comfortable listening to a life where surrender leads to action, where hearing God's voice compels us to move, and where our Made to Pray journey becomes more than knowledge—it becomes the very rhythm of our changed lives.