← The Wake-Up Call
The Wake-Up Call
Growing Up
00:12:47
This episode opens with Luann Riley introducing herself and framing the week’s teaching around the book of James. She explains that her new study, Growing Up Faith: Lessons from James, focuses on spiritual maturity not as becoming more impressive, but as becoming more surrendered. Using James 1:1 and 1:22, she emphasizes that real faith is not just listening to God’s word, but living it out through patience, integrity, wisdom, and care for others. She also shares a personal reflection on James’s transformation from skeptic to servant after encountering the risen Jesus, highlighting the idea that a true encounter with Christ changes how we live. The second half shifts into a worshipful hymn moment led by Bethany Johnson, who introduces “All to Jesus I Surrender.” She shares that she grows best when she is surrendering control to God, especially as someone who naturally prefers planning and routine. The hymn reinforces the episode’s central theme: growing up in faith happens through ...
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- [00:00]
Bethany Johnson
Foreign.
- [00:05]
Luann Riley
Nation It's Monday, August 3rd in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm Luann Riley and this is your Wake Up Call y'.
- [00:14]
Bethany Johnson
All.
- [00:14]
Luann Riley
I am so honored and excited to be with you here on the Wake Up Call this week. I want to thank JD and the Seedbed team just for inviting me into this space to meet with you and to meet with Jesus. I'm just really looking forward to our time this week. A little bit about me as we get started. I'm the Discipleship Pastor at the Woodlands Methodist Church and I am mom to twin boys who are 16 years old who are my absolute joy. You are probably picking up from my accent that I am from somewhere in the Deep south and that is true. I grew up in Alabama, but as they say in Texas, I got here as fast as I could. As part of my calling and what I get to do at our church, I lead and teach a Bible study called Radiant Bible Study for Women. I know that there are many of my Radiant women who listen to the Wakeup Call every morning and so shout out to you. Just thank you. Without your encouragement and your support through these years, I wouldn't be in this space or have a new Bible study out with seedbed. So what we're going to do this week is we're going to talk about the Book of James. My new study is out Growing Up Faith Lessons from James and we won't have time to deep dive into this study. Instead we are going to cover just a few verses that come from the Book of James and some of my teaching from that. If you find this encouraging and helpful, challenging, inspiring and you would like to do the full study and spend the your time in the whole Book of James, I would love for you to do that. There will be a link in the show notes where you can buy this study and I would just be honored if you would do that. And I will also be speaking at New Room and I know many of you come and are part of that and so I hope to be able to meet you there very soon, just in a few months. So let's get started and let's enter in by the way of consecration. Wake up sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. Praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So now we'll go to the Word of God. We're going to be in James, Chapter one, verse one. So hear now the word of the Lord, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes gathered among the nations. Greetings and verse 22. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. So consider this. When I was a kid, I thought being adult would be so glamorous. I would have so much money. I would eat ice cream for every meal. I would stay up as late as I wanted to, I would drive cool cars and I would take exotic vacations. It turns out growing up and becoming an adult is about your money going to bills, gas, grocery taxes, and the worst kind of adult purchases like home and car repairs. You go to bed early because you are exhausted, too much ice cream gives you a stomach ache. You shop for cars with good safety rating things. And vacation looks like going to Costco without the kids. And this is one reason that I love the book of James, because it is very much like that. James is interested in a real, sometimes unglamorous work that we do of growing up. And he doesn't sugarcoat things for us. James is very direct. He says, you want to grow up? Let's talk about your patience, your words, your conflicts, your integrity. James is like that brutally honest friend who tells you that you have spinach in your teeth because he loves you. He is not impressed by a faith that only sounds spiritual. He wants faith that holds steady under pressure, a faith that cares for people in need, that seeks wisdom and actually does what God says. And I love that. The letter simply begins like this. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. James doesn't introduce himself as the brother of Jesus, although he could, because we believe that he was. He doesn't introduce himself as the respected leader of the church in Jerusalem. Instead, he calls himself a servant. And that tells us something about spiritual maturity. Because growing up in faith is not about becoming more impressive. It is about becoming more surrendered. You see, James, he didn't always believe in his brother, which honestly is not that surprising. Can you imagine growing up as Jesus's sibling in the same household every time your mom would say, why can't you be more like your brother? That would land a little differently. When your brother is literally perfect, you might think, okay, I love him, but he's the Messiah. Not so sure about that. But after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to James and everything changed. The skeptic became a servant. The brother became a disciple. The man who misunderstood Jesus devoted his life to leading others in the way of Jesus. And I think that's why James is so direct, because he knows that a genuine encounter with with the risen Jesus changes us. And over the next few days, we'll let James ask us honest questions. Is our faith merely something we say we have, or is it shaping how we live? Are we only growing older in the faith, or are we actually growing up? James is challenging, but we don't have to be afraid to wrestle with God's word. Together we can open ourselves up to honest truth, trusting that the risen Jesus will meet us there with grace. He isn't asking us to perform our way into love. He's inviting us to come close, to listen and allow his grace to transform every part of our lives. So we come to James with open hearts, ready to be challenged, ready to be changed, and trusting that the risen Savior who met James will meet us there, too. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for meeting us with grace right where we are and for loving us enough to help us grow. Help us see where our faith has stayed shallow, uncomfortable, or separate from how we live. Give us humility to listen to your word, courage to follow it, and a real desire to be more like you. Let our faith be more than just words or beliefs. Jesus, grow us up in. In you. Amen. Okay, I have a couple journal prompts for you as we begin this week in James. The first is this. As you begin, James, where do you most need the grace of the risen Jesus to meet you? And where do you sense Jesus inviting you to grow? As we approach the word of God with an open heart, it's always good to just seek him, to take an inventory of where you are and what might be happening and the places that you recognize, recognize already that you might need to grow and how you need his grace in those spaces. And I love that we get to do that. And we can trust that when we do that, Jesus is going to speak to us and he's going to meet us there. And so I just look forward to how the Lord will speak to us through James in this time we have together this week. And now for the singing hymn portion of the Wake Up Call, I am very excited to introduce to you Bethany Johnson. I. When JD Asked me about hosting the Wake Up Call, the first thing I said was, but I don't sing. But I know someone who does. And her official title is my assistant. But she is so much more than that. She is an amazing partner in ministry. My editor, my calendar guru, they make sure I get everywhere on time with everything that I need and she has such a musical gift. And so we are going to be blessed this week by Bethany singing. So I'll just let her introduce herself for a minute.
- [09:26]
Bethany Johnson
Good morning Sewer Nation. It is so good to be with you this week. I want to thank jd, the entire seedbed team and Luann for inviting me on to join you. I've chosen hymns that have helped me grow up in my faith. I found that I grow up best when I am in a season of surrendering to God. Typically I'm a type A control routine. I like the plan before it happens. But with God I grow best when I surrender all things to Him. When I open my hands and pray and say, here I am, Lord, your servant is listening. Send me Today we will be singing hymn 607, all to Jesus, I Surrender, from our seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer's praise, verses 1, 3 and 4.
- [10:17]
Oh, to Jesus I surrender all To Him I freely give I will ever love and trust Him in his presence daily live I surrender all I surrender all all to Thee, my blessed Saviour I surrender all O to Jesus I surrender make me Saviour Holy Thine May Thy Holy Spirit fill me May I know Thy power divine I surrender all I surrender all all to Thee, my blessed Saviour I surrender all O to Jesus I surrender Lord I give myself to Thee Fill me with Thy love and power Let Thy blessing fall on me I surrender all I surrender all To Thee, my blessed Savior I surrender all
- [12:28]
for the Awakening I'm Bethany Johnson.
- [12:31]
Luann Riley
I'm Luann Riley.
- [12:32]
Bethany Johnson
And we'll see you on the field, Sam.