We all tend to look for models to follow in life, don't we? You know, we can't help it. We're always looking to improve ourselves, and when we do that, we try to look for somebody that we can imitate. You know, it starts in childhood already.

We start to imitate our parents, our siblings, do what they do because, hey, they've been around you a bit longer. They've got it right, haven't they? So we think. So we should copy them.

But sometimes it kind of backfires, and it's not really a good idea. When my son John was still a little toddler, he grew up in a situation that's a little bit different in that I've already had three daughters in a previous marriage. Now I was married again, and we were starting all over again.

And so here was this young guy who had old parents and sisters that were a lot older than him. So who were his role models? Well, I was the only guy in the family, so he was swamped by women. His mother was still a very strong influence in his life, and his sisters certainly were a very strong influence in his life.

And so one day we found him, and he'd watched his sisters, who at that stage were very conscious of their appearance, always putting on makeup, lipstick, and somehow he managed to get hold of their makeup. And he figured he was going to copy them. And he decided to make himself up.

Well, can you imagine what he looked like? With lipstick and mascara and everything, he looked like a Christmas tree. And he was quite embarrassed when we laughed at him. He was quite serious.

He was doing the right thing. He was trying to follow the model that his sisters had given him. Well, you can't blame him.

That's the picture he had. Maybe if he'd had another brother, he might have tried to copy him like an older brother. He had older sisters, and so that was his model to copy them.

And then we made a mistake. On Christmas, we decided to buy one of these little packs of chocolates that have liqueurs in them. They're just small little amounts.

They're quite harmless, you know, just a little taste, something different. And we left this box lying around. Then one day we discovered John, and he was acting weird, really weird.

We couldn't understand what was going on with him until we discovered this box of empty, empty box where the liqueurs once were. He'd eaten every single one of them, and he was high. He was high, and he didn't know what to do with it.

Well, you know, it was our fault. We gave him the impression it was okay to eat those things, but it wasn't. It was for adults only, you see.

But he was following the model he was given. It wasn't his fault. It was our fault.

We gave him the wrong model. Now, if you want to accomplish anything in this world, especially for the Lord, we need to be ready to become the right kind of models. And James said here that he chose to birth us to the Word of Truth, that we should be a kind of a prototype, a model, an image of what he wants his children to look like.

Well, what kind of prototype are you? What kind of model are you? And when those who are below you look to you, what effect are you having on them? Also, Paul said in Philippians 3, 17, brothers, continue to imitate me and pay attention to those who live like this, since you have us as a model. Yeah, Paul was bold enough to say, hey, copy me a little bit. Would you have the audacity to do that? Would you be bold enough to say to everybody, hey, you see how I live? You see how I do things? Copy me, because I'm a pretty good picture, the way you should be.

Hey, you might be able to get away with that at church. You might not be able to get away with that at work. But how if you're about to be invited somebody to come and live with you for a while and see what kind of model you give when you get up in the morning, what kind of model you give when you're feeling irritable, when somebody rubs you up the wrong way, when you can't have your way.

What kind of model do we show in times like that? James says that God is the father of those who give out light. Originally James' version said the father of lights, but the implication there is the father of those who are lights, who give out light. In other words, he's the father, he's the one who births those who are lights.

He says God gives only good things and perfect gifts. Well, what's the first excuse we make when somebody starts to point out some of our bad models? Well, you know, I can't help it, God made me this way. Come on, God made me this way.

It's just the way I am, you know? It's just who I am, you know? Okay, I may be different, but you know, it's just who I am. You're just going to have to accept me the way I am. So, effectively what you've said is God, when he gave down his gift, gave you a bad one.

So, you're one of the rotten gifts, the bad ones. God missed it somewhere along the line. Is that what you're saying? Well, that's exactly what you're saying when you try and make excuses and blame God for the way you are.

He said his children are supposed to be lights. You know, a light is a beautiful thing. It always attracts, and even the insects, you know, they always come into the lights.

Something about a light, you know, it always gets your attention. You walk into a room and there's a light on, your eyes immediately go to that light. It attracts attention.

You see, we, he didn't make us sirens. It's just making noise all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Some people are sirens. They're always going on and on and on about something. It doesn't attract attention.

It actually kind of makes you want to block your ears and leave. He didn't make us exploding bombs that people are afraid to be around in case they get damaged. He didn't make us something that gives off a smelly odor.

In our world, there is an aspect of that in which we are to give off the fragrance of his presence. I'm talking about stinky, smelly odors. He made you to be a light.

Well, you know what? I'm afraid God made me to be a siren. You know, I can't keep my mouth shut. You know, I, you know, I'm just that kind of person.

I can't be quiet. I need to say what I think. Where's the light? Where's the light? Well, you know, people make me mad.

You know, I patience goes up to a certain limit. But you know, there comes a time when you need to address things. He didn't make you an exploding bomb.

He's ready to go off at any moment. You know, light is so gentle, so gentle, it never harms anybody. I think this is the first picture we get of the kind of model that we should be.

A shining light that attracts attention, that doesn't harm but actually heals, it dispels the darkness, lights so people can see where they're going. It's a beautiful thing. But you see, that light must come from inside.

You see, he said, it's not the kind of light that casts a shadow when he turns. See, there's only one way you're going to get a shadow. And that is if there's a light shining on you from out there, and the shining upon you, and then it casts a shadow behind you.

See, when a light stands, a light doesn't cast shadow. You don't see the shadow of the light. You can't see the shadow of the lamp.

Now a lot of the time, we bask in the light that comes from somebody else. You know, the moon has light that comes from a reflection of the sun. But it doesn't have its own light.

It doesn't have its own light. God is always portrayed as the sun, the origin of light. So it's not enough to say, well, you know, I spend time with God, I work with God, I walk with God, and I let his light shine on me and reflect to other people.

No, no, he says that he wants to birth you and make you a light like he is. So that you are a source of light yourself. You're shining.

There's no shadows. You're shining all the time. The light has to come from inside of you.

See, we can put on a beautiful show, can't we? Put on a beautiful performance, and everybody can really be impressed and think we're doing really great. Man, he's so spiritual. Have you heard when he comes to church, those prayers that he prays? Man, we ask him to open in prayer, and he thunders.

Wow, what a man of God. See, now he's good at tapping into the light and reflecting it. See, but what is within? What about the rest of the week? What about other circumstances in life? What kind of model are you 24 hours a day? Light must be consistent.

It says that he doesn't change or cast a turning shadow. The light remains bright. It doesn't fluctuate or flicker.

It's continual. How are we going to do that? It's actually natural, because he's bursted into us. He's bursted into us and made us a prototype.

In other words, it's natural for you to show the light. It's unnatural for you to not show the light. You ever heard somebody use this expression? You know, it's so simple.

You need somebody to help you misunderstand it. You know, that's the way the spiritual life is. It's really so simple.

We need somebody to help us misunderstand it. You know, and the devil's quite happy to be there and to make us think that we're something else. We are the light.

All we need to do is to let it shine, right? It is the way he made us. We're born to be that. It's who we are.

The second thing that James speaks about, as we'll read further in this passage, is controlling your anger. Therefore, my beloved brothers, let any man be swift to listen, slow to speak, slow to boil with anger, for the anger of man does not result in the righteousness of God. You know, doesn't it irritate you when somebody talks on and on, and you just want to wait for them to shut up long enough for you to give them your opinion? James says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Be quick to listen. Always try to see the other person's point of view first. But you know, I can hear they're going the wrong way.

I can hear where they're going. I know where they're going. I mean, I've been studying for a long time.

I understand human nature. I understand these things. You know what? I don't have to wait for them to finish rambling on and on about what they want to say.

I want to jump in and say my piece. We expressives have this problem. We really have this problem, don't we? But you know, if you're not prepared to listen, you will never actually fully understand the other person's point of view.

And once you receive that, you need to make sure that what they said didn't trigger something off in you that makes you react. Or you take it personally, and you think that what they're saying is applying to you, and you must justify yourself. We need to act, not react.

You need to act under control. Oh, we don't, do we? We react to what people have done. Perhaps, because we didn't wait long enough to hear what they were really saying, we assumed they were going to go in that direction, but we interrupted.

What's the best way to get yourself to listen to somebody? Draw them out like the matador does with the bull. He holds the red rag and he says, come on, bull. Come on, bull.

Come on, bull. Until the bull charges and manifests exactly what he has. Don't only listen to what they say, make them talk more.

Ask them some questions. Ask them some more about themselves. But you know, sometimes we jump to conclusions.

We don't really ask the questions. Do you know the biggest mistake we make? We assume that another person's experience is exactly the same one I had. So when a person begins to share their experience, you say, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that, oh yeah, that happened to me too.

No, it didn't. Something similar may have happened to you, but you don't understand exactly what happened to that person. You weren't in their shoes.

You weren't in their circumstances. You weren't in their racial group. You weren't in their age.

You weren't in their gender. Pull them out. Tell me more.

Come on, bull. Tell me more. Give me more.

You know, even worldly teachers out there, and people who are not necessarily basing things on the word itself, have learnt this principle. Ever read Dale Carnegie's book, How to Win Friends and Influence People? One of the most powerful books ever written. Very sound principles, not necessarily directly based on the scriptures, but they don't contradict the scriptures.

And he shares how the best way to build bridges to people and to have a good conversation is to ask them questions about themselves. And after half an hour of listening to them talk, they will go off and they'll say, you know, he is such a good conversationalist. I love talking with him.

You didn't say a word. Except, tell me more. Tell me more.

And what about this? And what about that? Be quick to listen. You say, oh, you know, yeah, that's good practice in sales, you know. You only get the sale, you get the person moving over you.

It's good practice in psychology to try and have my way with people. No, that's not our motivation. Our motivation to be is a model of the one who gave us the light.

You know, if people are not going to open their hearts and show us their darkness, how is our light going to dispel that darkness? There's no one of us that's an exception to this rule. I've made this mistake many, many times. Behold you, we're too quick to talk, too slow to listen.

It's after being quick to listen, James says, be slow to speak. First thing you need to do is learn to hold back your opinion. You know, it's quite clear this person's quite ignorant.

No, they have not studied our teachings. They know nothing about the five-fold ministry, they know nothing about the prophetic and the apostolic and the evangelistic teaching, the pastor. They know nothing about the counseling principles we've learned.

They know nothing about victory over evil. Oh, I've got so much, I want to just shove down their throat. They just shut up long enough to listen to me.

I know. Hold it back until they ask for it. Don't ever, ever give advice it was not asked for.

But they need it. I can see they need it. They need somebody to point it out to them.

Okay, let's turn it around. Don't you love people who give you advice, counsel you never asked for? Don't you just love people who are always telling you what you should do? Don't you love it? Come on, come on, we all love it, don't we? We all love having people imposing their will on us and telling us what they think we should do. No, but you know, I'm different, you know, I've studied these things.

I know I'm maturing the Lord. I'm an apostle. What makes it different? Nobody likes to be given advice.

Learn to listen. And if you listen long enough, you will earn the right for them to ask you. So what do you think? What do you think? Somebody goes on and on and on about the problem that they have.

You stop them right there and say, yes, I know this counseling scenario. It's this, this and this. Let's hit it.

No, no. You listen and you listen and you listen. And you say, I understand.

I've been where you are. And then carry on. Eventually, they're going to look at you and say, hang on.

If you were where I am, you clearly aren't there anymore. How did you deal with it? How did you overcome it? See, now you start by sharing your testimony. Not advice, your testimony.

Looking at your being because you're the model now. You're the model. And you know, a model is something that people must follow.

So how do you get somebody to follow you? You stand behind them and kick them in the butt. Doesn't work. Doesn't work.

Offer the model and say, this is it. This is how I do it. Look at yourself.

You'd be amazed how people say, wow. Oh, I wish I could be like you. I wish I could stand there calm and collected and have everything under control.

Instead of just going off all the time. I wish I could be like you and not just get depressed all the time. I wish I'd be like you.

Just keep pushing on in spite of all the opposition. Wish I could be like you. Be a model.

Not a counselor. A model. Be slow to anger.

James said, oh, this is a hard one. Now, he didn't say, don't ever get angry. That would be stupid.

Even Jesus got angry. Anger per se is not wrong. But in certain situations, it's not advisable.

It's not advisable. And what's the first thing that tends to make us angry? Somebody disagrees with your advice. I mean, you see they've got a problem.

I've given them counsel. They're arguing with me. For goodness sake, how can they argue with me, who is the expert? You stopped shining the light.

You became a siren. You became a stinky smell. You became an exploding bomb.

Because you allowed your anger to rise up inside of you for the wrong reason. Now, yeah, sometimes we cannot avoid anger. But you need to try to avoid it if possible.

How do we do that? Scriptures give us two simple ways. Firstly, if you feel somebody's offended you, take a right attitude towards that offense and say, you know, it's no big deal. Is it really worth me getting all uptight about it? Is it really worth it? Or is it maybe just a little childish response? No, we're not even talking spiritual now.

We're talking about basic human nature. You know, am I throwing my toys out of the cot about something small and insignificant? Is it the end of the world? And then having the right attitude to the person and look at them saying, you know, I can see that they're under a lot of stress and they're having a lot of problems and that's why they're spewing out me this way. They have some problems with themselves.

And we can do that. We can diffuse that anger. We can hold it back.

Quick to listen. Slow to talk. Slow to anger.

Keep that model. Keep that light shining. Then James says we must change our behavior.

He says from verse 22, be doers of the word and not listeners only. Deceiving your own selves. Deceiving your own selves.

You know, I know this truth. Yeah, but do you show this truth? Do you show this truth? Don't be deluded into thinking you're doing so well. I remember a time when Daphne decided she was going to clean the room.

And she was very analytical those days. And she got onto that bookshelf. Man, she spent hours on that bookshelf.

Rearranged the books in alphabetical order. Tidied it. Rearranged it.

Everything was beautiful. And I walked into the room a couple of hours later after she was going to tidy the room and I saw nothing. I saw no change.

I said, what did you do? She said, don't you see? I rearranged the books. Bookshelf was looking awesome. I don't see a change.

Don't deceive yourself into thinking you've accomplished when you've been running around in circles like a cat chasing its tail. You may have all the theory in your head. There are other people seeing it.

Is it showing in your behavior? He says that anyone is a listener of the word and not a doer. He's like a man looking at his natural face in the mirror. He looks at himself and goes on his way and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.

You know what it's like the first time you decided to shave off your mustache or your beard? You look weird. You look different. And you look at yourself in the mirror and you think, it looks weird.

It looks different. But then you go off through the day and you forget that you've changed. In yourself, you still feel the same.

I'm the same old me. Nothing's changed. And people keep staring at you.

They can't figure out what's different about you because they don't know you that well. They look at you thinking, Krupas is looking different today. What's going on? What is it about him? Something is different.

You forgot that. You forgot that you look different until the next time you go to the bathroom and you look in the mirror and suddenly you see yourself. Oh, yeah, I forgot.

I forgot I shaved that off. I look different now. I think it's the kind of picture James has given us yet.

He says, you know, you look at yourself in the mirror, you see what you look like, but you go off and you forget it. You don't have the risk of being narcissistic and looking at yourself in the mirror all the time to see how beautiful you are. It might be a good thing if you could see yourself all the time.

Imagine if a video could be replayed of your day. To see how you reacted in your work situation, in your family situation, in your church situation. To actually see what you look like in the field while you're doing things.

In my book, The Blessing Code, I suggested a little project as part of the story that you take a mirror and look in it and then change what's in your mind. Think a happy thought. Think of something that's beautiful and happy for you and see what happens to your face.

See how the muscles of the face change. Think about something ugly and horrible. Think about somebody who really irritates you.

Just change the thoughts in your mind and see what effect it has on the outside. See now that's the first action that you carry out which is actually an involuntary action, but it's still an action and that action is based on what's inside of you. What kind of light are you shining? Shining beautiful white light? You're shining that red light when people irritate you? What kind of light are you shining? If you could see yourself throughout the day, I think we'd be shocked.

I actually think we'd be shocked if we could watch ourselves and see how we react to people, how we behave in the field and when real life circumstances come our way. How do we overcome that other than having some kind of mirror in front of us all the time? Maybe a little video camera poised somewhere that can watch us all the time. You can't do that.

How can you come to the place where your actions are continually monitored? After seeing yourself in the image of Christ and seeing yourself as that light, when you go out there, every time you're tempted to act differently, you see the light shining. Oh yeah, okay, okay. Okay, stop that quickly, quickly.

I should be the light. How do we do it? Well, there's actually only one way we can do it because there is a camera that's on you 24 hours a day. It's actually up there in heaven looking down on you and it's not only watching you, it's recording everything, everything, everything.

Lord told me not long ago, he said, I want you to imagine that everything that you are saying and doing in your whole life is being videoed and played publicly for the world to see. Would you change the way you speak? Would you hold back those syllables of profanity that you can safely do in your private closet but you wouldn't dare do in the open world? Would you hold back the places you visit on the net? Would you hold back the pictures that you look at in magazines? It's quite a challenge. It's quite a challenge for each one of us.

Imagine, imagine if my life was being broadcast on TV as a movie portrayed a while back. Imagine how it would be. What kind of model are you portraying? I believe if we can let the Lord continually show us what he sees and be open for him to reveal to us at all times what we're actually doing, what we're actually showing, I think very quickly we're going to get into the habit of doing things differently, don't you? Very quickly we're going to start becoming the kind of model.

You know, if you're not able to hear his voice, I'm sure you have somebody pretty close to you who you can trust. Would you dare to say to them, I want you to be honest with me. I want you to be honest with me.

Maybe your spouse, maybe another family member. I want you to be honest with me today. What did you see in me that you liked? What did you see in me that you didn't like? What did you see in me that you don't believe the Lord would have liked? What did you see in me that wouldn't have been a good thing for other people to see? And you be honest with me.

Do we have the guts to actually do that? See, we are a model to the world around us. We're a model to other believers. We're a model to our families.

And when people start behaving like we do, oh, it's tough. Do you know what you're hating your children the most? When you see your weaknesses in them. Come on, be honest.

You see them portraying, but you know what? You taught them how to do that by the model that you gave them. So don't condemn them. They're just being like you.

Don't stand up and say, do as I say, don't do as I do. What kind of model are you giving as you go out in this world? Are you being that shining light? Or are you one of those other things that people are not going to be attracted to and which are not going to glorify the Lord? I want you to think about that. Meditate on it.

Let the Lord give you wisdom. Let him challenge you. And let's go out this week and try and become a better model.

Shall we do? Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, I thank you for your word.

I feel challenged by it myself even, Lord, let alone else's heard it. Lord, I want to be your shining light. I want to be a model that I'm not ashamed of.

I want to be like Paul who says, follow me as I follow Christ. Be like me. I'm happy to give you an example.

I want to be your prototype, Lord. I know I can't do this on my own. I need your help.

That's the way you feel. I want you to pray that prayer now, right? Who you are. Lord, I need your help.

I need your help, Lord, to be that kind of model. I reach out to you now and I make a fresh commitment to you, Lord. And with your help from now on, I'm going to try and walk this kind of walk.

Be this kind of example. Be the instrument of blessing that you've called me to be. I know I can't do this by myself, Lord Jesus.

So I'm asking you to come and live within me by your spirit, to relive through me the life that you lived when you walked this earth. I'm asking you to relive that life, that your light within me will shine out from me, that the things that I do will be a result of letting you live your life in and through me. I give you full permission to do that now, Lord, in Jesus' name.

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