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Season two of Love in Context podcast welcomes you.

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Get ready for engaging unscripted conversations with your host, Ben and Spencer.

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Our mission remains unchanged to explore the Bible through the powerful lens of love.

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In this new season, we'll embark on a journey together, unearthing fresh insights and gaining

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deeper understanding of how we can love God and live out our faith in practical ways.

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So let's dive into this season of Love in Context, where love in the context of the

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Bible intersect to transform our lives.

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Love and context.

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We're back for another episode.

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And I am Ben and that is not Spencer.

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Not Spencer.

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My name is not Spencer.

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Not Spencer.

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Brian Qualls is joining us one more time because as Spencer put it, scheduling in summers

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is stupid.

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Yeah.

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And so he is just not we're we're we're trying to get some content created and getting the

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three of us together was very difficult.

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But Brian, you're back here again.

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And I mean, I had fun last time.

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I'm glad to be here.

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Yeah, we'll see if we have fun this time.

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So we are in week two of our mini series in the Book of James.

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We're going to be going through chapter the rest of chapter one through the end of chapter

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two, I believe today.

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And so last week, we talked about this idea of in the middle of trials, it's actually

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meant to produce you producing you a more Christ like version of everything that you

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are.

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God's creating you into the be the kind of person that he wants you to be.

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And that in the process of this, we seek wisdom.

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God brings us wisdom that is going to help us to focus on the good things, the things

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that actually bring life and not to focus on the temporary things that are going to

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fade away.

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Because those are those are going to be problematic in our life.

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Right.

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And so we talked about how finding unity and finding ways to work together and work through

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our disagreements is a is a more helpful use of our time than just dividing over things.

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Right.

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Right.

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Which is great because we're getting into the back half of chapter one, which there

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is some really fun things about that.

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Yeah.

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James really kind of hones in on that, you know, right living what that looks like.

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So then once before we get into we're going to start reading the the rest of chapter one.

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So reminder, this is James, the brother of Jesus, and he is writing to the Jewish people

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in the Dyspora.

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And so he's writing to people who are familiar with Torah.

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So we're always going to reference back to this idea of what's going on in Jewish tradition

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because he's doing a lot of it.

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Right.

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All right.

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So you've got the rest of chapter one.

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Yep.

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This is out of the NIV for all my NIV lovers.

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It says my dear brothers and sisters, take note of this.

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Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry because human

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anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

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Therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept

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the word planted in you, which can save you.

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Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves.

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Do what it says.

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Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks

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at his face in a mirror.

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And after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

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But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it,

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not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it, they will be blessed in what they do.

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Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues

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deceive themselves and their religion is worthless.

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Understand that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this to look after orphans

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and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

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So many of those pieces we're reading and I'm like, ah, you got me.

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You know, he's talking to me.

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Yeah, he's talking to me here.

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I'm one of the 12 tribes.

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So before we get into chapter two, because it's going to be built on everything that

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came in chapter one, let's talk about this idea of the tongue and taming the tongue and

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about removing like living in a way that lives up to the calling.

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So the using speech wisely is a major emphasis in Jewish tradition and literature.

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It's a major emphasis referencing the tongue and how you use speech is a huge proponent

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of like Jewish tradition, right?

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Ethical teaching.

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It's exemplified in teachings like the proverbs, like making sure that you're controlling your

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speech.

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In fact, if we have listeners who are really familiar with the proverbs, you probably have

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them rattling off in your head as James is like reading or going through that passage,

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but he extorts them to be quick to hear and slow to speak, which is aligned with like

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the Jewish mentality of humility, restraint and careful speech.

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I tend to be quick to speak and slow to listen.

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I don't know if you suffer from that affliction.

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Sometimes I think my wife would probably say I'm definitely, I struggle with that affliction.

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I'm getting better at it.

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But learning to like, I was talking to a friend of mine and we were having this discussion

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about when you're listening to people and you're having discussions about things you

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disagree on.

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And I said, I'm trying to get better about learning to listen to hear and not to respond.

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Active listening, right?

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Yeah, I'm listening to hear what you're saying, even if I disagree with it, not to respond

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with what I think you should think.

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Sure.

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Right.

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This is a very difficult thing.

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And at least this has been my experience in Christian conversation.

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When I'm having conversations on things that we disagree about in scripture, I have, there

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is a tendency to listen to respond about why you're wrong, not listen to why somebody believes

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something.

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Right.

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So when they have a perspective on, you know, we just did the spiritual gifts, so let's

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just say tongues, right?

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Somebody has a perspective on tongues rather than immediately going to what I believe about

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it and why I believe in from scripture.

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When somebody has their, their specific perspective, it's better for me to be able to sit here

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and listen about why do you believe this and then be able to ask questions to clarify.

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Like, so where in scripture do you find this?

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And so how do you apply that into how you love God and love other people?

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You know, you start having this conversation because I have found with conversations with

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friends of mine, and even you and I have had these things where I'll say something and

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you're like, is, did you mean this?

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I was like, Nope, not what I meant at all.

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Can be interpreted wrongly.

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And, and so like being able to go a little bit deeper and have these conversations and

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having that active listening makes a big difference.

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Active listening, listening to understand people would probably cure 70% of the divisions

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we have in the body of Christ.

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Amen.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I think what it comes down to, we talked about it last time relationship, right?

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It's not a relationship for me to go, no, you're wrong.

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And this is why you're wrong.

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And this is why you should believe what I believe.

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Right?

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Relationship is help me understand that more.

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Right?

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That's what Jesus did.

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Jesus asked questions all the time, all the time.

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You know, it's a very Jewish thing to do.

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Yeah.

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And we should, we should do a better job of that because that's, that's going to build

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bridges, not walls, right?

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It's going to show people that we're willing to come to the table, even if we disagree

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because we love each other in Christ, you know, and we're going to build a relationship

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and try to hopefully build some understanding even though we disagree.

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Right.

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This, this contrast also with this, uh, quick to hear, slow to, slow to speak.

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This also contrasts with being what he says, doers of the word, right?

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Not, not merely, not merely listeners.

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Like you're not just listening to what the word has to say.

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You actually do it.

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Um, I've made a statement on the podcast a number of times and I'm going to make it again.

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If your theology doesn't lead to do ology, it's not worth having.

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Yeah.

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Like your theology, cause I, there's a lot of my friends who are, um, there are, I'm

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going to call them intellectual Christians because they, they engage God from an intellectual

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perspective and there's nothing wrong with that.

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Right.

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God makes people differently.

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My wife engages God from an emotional side.

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Right.

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And, um, I'm going to pause there because I feel like the implication is that the people

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who are intellectual don't have emotions and that's not what I mean, but it's not their

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primary way that they engage with God.

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Um, other people engage God by being in nature, right?

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Um, like there are just different ways that God speaks to people, but the intellectual

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side of people, they say, well, I need to get this theological idea like succinct and

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like I'm right.

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And it's a hundred percent like dialed in.

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And I was like, okay, but how does that translate to what you do?

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Because if I say that it's really important that we theologically understand how to love

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God and love other people.

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And then I'm terrible to my neighbor.

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Then what I believe doesn't actually matter because it's not showing up in what I do.

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You can say you love your neighbor as much as you want, but if you, your actions dictate

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that you hate your neighbor, it's not true.

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Um, this is coming back to first John, where he says, if you claim to be in a light, but

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you hate your brother, the truth is in in you.

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Right.

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Right.

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And, uh, and I don't want to caution us and, and this is me, I'm talking to myself here,

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like just so you know, I'm talking to myself.

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This is a thing that I struggle with.

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Um, my theology should actually probably be a different kind of person.

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And if it doesn't, then that's, that's the whole, it's on my side.

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It's not on God's side.

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Holy spirit is in me and ready to do it.

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I don't need to simply be a hearer of the word.

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I need to be a doer of the word.

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I need to bring justice, care for widows, care for orphans, care for these people who

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are downtrodden man.

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That's one of the reasons I love the salvation army.

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You guys are, you're standing right in the middle of like chaos.

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Yeah.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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And, and when we ask for transformation in our lives, it's being conduits of the Holy

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Spirit.

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A conduit doesn't just, it's not a, not a battery, right?

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It's a channel, right?

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We are channeling God's spirit into us and through us.

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And that's where transformation comes, right?

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One of the interesting things, I actually preached on this yesterday, kind of in preparation

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to you, this word here in the Hebrew is Shema.

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Right?

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So it's a callback to Deuteronomy, right?

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The Shema, the Lord or God is one.

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Israel, Adonai, Eloheinu.

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Exactly.

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And you know, the Jews would have heard this, right?

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Don't just be hearers of the word, be doers, because in Jewish thought, hearing and doing

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cannot be divorced.

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Right.

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Shema literally means to hear and obey.

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Right.

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Like to hear, you obey.

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Right.

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Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your mind,

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right?

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And so being, you can't divorce that from hearing the word.

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You have to also do that part of it.

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Well, and in parenthood, we understand this because when you talk to your child and you

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say, you say, hey, do you hear me?

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You're not actually asking if they hear you, right?

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You're like, are you actually going to do something with what I'm saying?

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Right?

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Yeah.

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Like, so yeah.

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And so like it's this idea of Shema, right?

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It comes back to the Hebrew.

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Obviously, this is Greek in the New Testament, but it comes back to this Hebrew idea of Shema.

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And they would have been very familiar with that.

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Right.

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And to them, they're one, they're two sides of the same coin.

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Yeah.

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I cannot say that I hear God if I don't obey God.

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Yeah.

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It doesn't work that way.

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Right.

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So and that's how we have to live.

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That's what, you know, James is calling us to here in this passage is to live that way.

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Yeah.

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And this idea, because right before this, he's talked about you receiving these gifts

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from God.

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So if you have received from God, it should manifest itself in your life in such a way

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that you actually live differently.

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So one of the things that I've had conversations with Pentecostals, non-Pentecostal alike,

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because we just came out of spiritual gifts, is I said, when you are filled with the Spirit

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of God, your life should be different.

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And I said, so one of the, one of the evidence is now not the evidence.

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I want to really specify this because there's always nuance to a conversation.

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One of the evidences that God has moved in your life and that the Spirit of God manifested

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itself in your life is you are different moving forward.

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So when somebody is filled with the Holy Spirit and they speak in tongues, or they're filled

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with the Holy Spirit and they lay hands and heal, or they fill out the Holy Spirit and

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they speak the words that God has prophetically over somebody's life, your life should be

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different too.

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It is a, it is a, because you can't interact with the Spirit of God in your life, stay

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exactly the same.

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There should be a difference.

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Like the theology is now moving into duology.

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Your orthodoxy is now orthopraxy.

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Yeah.

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And this idea of like, yes, they're all connected.

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Like these aren't separate ideas.

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So like we put things into chapters and verses.

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But James didn't write these as chapters and verses.

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They're complete ideas that are connecting to each other.

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The book of James is a single message, single letter, single letter, written meant to be

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read, read and understood in one segment.

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Now we're breaking it into six because it'd be hard for us to just cover all of what he

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has to say in one episode, but we want to make sure you understand these are all connected.

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One of the things I really thought is interesting that James does is, you know, he says, and

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my mom would say it this way.

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You got two ears and one mouth, right?

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Yeah.

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So you can listen twice as much as you speak.

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And he says, be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

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And because anger is one of those emotions that you could do really dumb things when

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you're angry.

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Yep.

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You know, you could feel like you are justified in what you're doing because you're angry

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about it.

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And so it's so important.

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There's nothing wrong with being angry, right?

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It's an emotion, right?

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It's what you do with it.

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Well, because can I ask you this question?

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Is anger sin?

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No.

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What you do with anger can easily become sin.

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Correct.

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So, and I always specify this for people because they make a statement in the Bible that says

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in your anger, do not sin.

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Right.

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Okay.

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So that means it's possible to be angry and not sin.

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Correct.

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Anger is an emotion.

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It is something that is welling up inside of you, usually against what is perceived

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or is actual injustice.

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What you do with that matters.

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We saw recently in America, sometimes people went and they broke buildings and let things

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on fire and they looted and they were feeling a real emotion.

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But what they did with their anger was they brought destruction.

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But in the middle of that, there were people in the middle who were very angry about what

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was going on.

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And they stepped in and they created and they brought peace and they brought justice and

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they brought mercy and they brought relief and they brought Shabbat, this restful shalom,

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right?

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Into people's life.

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From a place of anger because they were so, they were so like in their spirit, they rose

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up.

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Now, there has been times in my life that I've had that I was to say, honestly, most

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of the time it's the looting was more wet, wet happens in my anger.

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I get frustrated and I'm like, I'm going to throw this phone across the room.

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Well, that's my destructive.

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And that's absolutely sin.

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It's also such opportunity for us to reflect, right?

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I remember Jesus makes a statement about, don't be a hypocrite.

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If you got a plank in your eye, stop trying to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

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Just take care of the speck, then you can actually see to help them.

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And this, this, uh, this work that God does in us through trials to refine us and to change

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us, um, it, it, it should allow you for some self-respect.

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But if you are, uh, just a listener of the word and not a doer of the word, if it doesn't

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actually change things to you, it's like you went and looked in the mirror and you're like,

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Hey, I have mud all over my face.

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Well, wish I had a mirror to see where I could fix that.

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I'm going to walk away.

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Right?

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And in a sense you're at the mirror, fix your face.

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Right?

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And, uh, what, what, what this work does is says, Hey, I have issues or places that I

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need to change so that I can be a different kind of person.

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I, I was quick to listen.

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I was slow to speak.

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I looked in this mirror and I said, Oh God, there's something here that you need to change.

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It's time for me to stop and actually allow you to do this in my life.

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Otherwise, this is going to be a problem.

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It's really hard when you see the problem and then you're like, I'm good.

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I'm good.

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Yeah.

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Like that's where things start to take root.

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And uh, I mean, you know, as well as I do, I mean, you've met people where the, where

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sin has taken root in their life.

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00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:00,560
Yeah.

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Even people that know the Bible really well, people who love Jesus and they let something

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take root in their life.

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00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:09,160
Um, offense tends to be the big one.

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You got offended by something and you let it simmer and you know that you're not supposed

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to just sit there in offense, but you let it simmer and it just, it's been eating you

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inside.

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I actually, um, I went to a church and uh, lovely people love the Lord, but they had

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an offense from like 30 years ago.

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Right.

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And it still painted everything that they did.

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Right.

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00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:39,320
And my wife actually physically had a problem with her leg.

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Now here's the crazy thing.

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Cause I'm referencing back to something where pastor Sarah and I talked about healing when

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she uncovered this reality of this deep rooted sin, this deep rooted offense.

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And she, she didn't like, um, I don't want to point out like it didn't overnight change,

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but she recognized it was there and she started working with, like asking Jesus to work this

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out of her life.

362
00:18:03,500 --> 00:18:04,500
Right.

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00:18:04,500 --> 00:18:08,240
To be a doer of the word saying, I don't want this in my life and it's going to be a process,

364
00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:11,240
but I'm ready to print this and, and cut this out.

365
00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:12,240
Right.

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00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:15,440
Do you know her legs started getting better?

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00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:16,440
Nobody praying for it.

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00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:19,280
No, no, no healing prayers.

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00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:25,640
But like when the, when the emotional brokenness started coming out of her life, her physical

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00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:27,640
body started to respond.

371
00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:28,640
Yeah.

372
00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:29,640
I wonder, sorry.

373
00:18:29,640 --> 00:18:33,480
No, I have a personal story along those lines.

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Where, you know, kind of sinfulness can manifest physically.

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00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:45,040
In my youth, you know, I had a really bad porn addiction and, um, as do most men.

376
00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:48,280
Um, I also struggled with the same thing.

377
00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:49,280
Yeah.

378
00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:50,280
Yeah.

379
00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:54,440
And one of the things that, uh, one day we're playing football with some friends cause I

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00:18:54,440 --> 00:18:58,360
like sports and I hurt my foot really badly.

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00:18:58,360 --> 00:19:01,920
My hurt, my foot hurt probably for six months after that.

382
00:19:01,920 --> 00:19:05,280
Um, either plantar fasciitis or something like that.

383
00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:08,000
Literally getting up every morning was hurting.

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00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:14,140
And at that same time, God was working on my heart to get rid of this issue in my life.

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And so I met with, I had ghosted a couple of ministries that I was a part of, like in

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the middle of all that, cause of things that were going on and got put on my heart to go

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apologize to them.

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And so I, um, did that with one of them and then, um, I had to walk from that location

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to the other guy's house, which was probably like two miles from where I was at.

390
00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:39,280
And, you know, of course my foot hurt the whole way.

391
00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:41,240
I sit down with him.

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00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:45,760
I confess, I share with him, you know, this is, this is why I ghosted.

393
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And you know, I had this sin in my life.

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I felt like a hypocrite, all these things.

395
00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:52,280
When I got up from that couch, my foot didn't hurt anymore.

396
00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:53,280
Yeah.

397
00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:57,520
And it was this, this, you know, I was moving towards the calling that God has on my life

398
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now.

399
00:19:58,520 --> 00:19:59,520
Right.

400
00:19:59,520 --> 00:20:05,440
And, um, it was an opportunity for me to not walk into that calling stumbling, right?

401
00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:10,240
But to be able to stand up right and be able to walk confidently knowing that I've been

402
00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:14,920
forgiven and that, you know, that, that my sin is not the end.

403
00:20:14,920 --> 00:20:15,920
Right.

404
00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:21,280
Um, but I, I, you know, for sure, sinfulness, I think manifests physically and forgiveness

405
00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:22,760
manifests physically.

406
00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:23,760
Yeah.

407
00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:29,080
And, uh, I want to caveat here because some people are here might hear us say that, uh,

408
00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:32,320
you're sick because you're holding on to sin and that's not what we're saying.

409
00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:33,320
Not at all.

410
00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:37,640
Um, that can be the case, but that does not mean that's the case.

411
00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:39,640
We also live in a fallen world, right?

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Where, um, suffering is inevitable.

413
00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:43,800
Yeah.

414
00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:44,800
Right.

415
00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:48,640
Uh, if Jesus Christ, the son of God suffered and we're called to follow in his stead, we're

416
00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:49,640
going to suffer too.

417
00:20:49,640 --> 00:20:50,880
Like, that's just part of it.

418
00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:51,880
Right.

419
00:20:51,880 --> 00:20:53,960
And we're on behalf of bringing the kingdom into the world.

420
00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:54,960
Right.

421
00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:56,600
Um, but some suffering we bring on ourselves.

422
00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:57,600
For sure.

423
00:20:57,600 --> 00:21:00,560
I have, I have definitely like, and it's been many, many times and sometimes we'll talk

424
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:04,280
about it, but, um, we'll talk about more about it, but there's been times that I've prayed

425
00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:09,440
for people and physically they are healed because they let go of something spiritually.

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00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:14,120
I often wonder how much baggage people are dragging around with them.

427
00:21:14,120 --> 00:21:18,560
Um, so there is a, there is a, I'm not sure if this is a spiritual gift, so I'm just going

428
00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:21,160
to go ahead and just tell people right up front.

429
00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:25,840
Uh, I'm not theologically claiming this, but I'm just telling about the way that God works

430
00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:27,300
in my life.

431
00:21:27,300 --> 00:21:33,360
When I meet people and I shake their hand, often I can, I, I can sense like this, like

432
00:21:33,360 --> 00:21:35,940
I'm going to call it a cloud above them.

433
00:21:35,940 --> 00:21:39,920
And there are some people who are very nice people that have really dark clouds and like,

434
00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:43,880
and I, and God uses that for me to start praying into their life, right.

435
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:47,720
And praying into their life and investing in them and, and helping them find then.

436
00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:52,240
And I didn't think anything of it until what has been happening repeatedly is like these

437
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:55,240
people come and like these people have really dark clouds and they're like, yeah, I have

438
00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:56,240
X in my life.

439
00:21:56,240 --> 00:22:04,480
I have this in my life and it gives me the opportunity to actually, um, bring healing

440
00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:06,480
from the spirit to them.

441
00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:07,480
Right.

442
00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:12,000
It would be really easy for me to use that to be manipulative.

443
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:14,720
I was like, it's not meant for me.

444
00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:18,680
It's meant for me to be a conduit of grace into their life, which is always what the

445
00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:20,620
spiritual gift is for.

446
00:22:20,620 --> 00:22:21,620
It's not for me.

447
00:22:21,620 --> 00:22:25,160
It's for the church to build them up according to what they need.

448
00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:29,680
And uh, but it is, I, I've met so many people and like, and sometimes I'm like, I'm like,

449
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:33,600
oh, you know, maybe I'm being a little like, you know, hard or whatever.

450
00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:37,720
And then something comes out and I'm like, oh, this is what God was warning me about.

451
00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:40,200
Now I need to go and invest in this person's life.

452
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:41,280
Right.

453
00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:43,940
And I I'm praying into them and I'm investing.

454
00:22:43,940 --> 00:22:45,680
And sometimes I've done it well.

455
00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:52,080
And sometimes I've done it not very well, you know, but like this, I'm, I'm listening,

456
00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:55,280
hearing God's voice, coming back to our spiritual gifts idea.

457
00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:56,280
Right.

458
00:22:56,280 --> 00:23:00,360
And then I am evaluating this wisdom that God's giving me.

459
00:23:00,360 --> 00:23:01,960
Is this the right situation to use it?

460
00:23:01,960 --> 00:23:04,820
And then I speak the words of God into people's life.

461
00:23:04,820 --> 00:23:10,440
And then I don't just partner with the word in my ears, but it actually manifests itself

462
00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:11,680
into what I do.

463
00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:12,680
Yeah.

464
00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:15,480
And I love in John 15, where Jesus has this conversation.

465
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:17,840
He says, I am the vine and you are the branches.

466
00:23:17,840 --> 00:23:24,120
If a man remains in me and I in him, he's going to bear fruit.

467
00:23:24,120 --> 00:23:30,200
This idea of connecting to the spirit of God, if you are connected to the word, the word

468
00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:33,960
being Christ, it's going to show up in what you do.

469
00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:34,960
The better.

470
00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:38,160
And if it doesn't, I got news for you.

471
00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:39,160
You're connected to something.

472
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:40,160
It's probably just not Jesus.

473
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:41,160
Yeah.

474
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:45,600
And it's going to manifest itself in things like the spirit, like love, joy, peace, patience,

475
00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:47,800
kindness, goodness, faithless, general self-control.

476
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:52,300
And in his part, his conversation, James is having with the Jews is going to show up in

477
00:23:52,300 --> 00:23:54,840
chapter two, these, these things.

478
00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:57,200
So he's going to talk about partiality and favoritism.

479
00:23:57,200 --> 00:23:58,200
Right.

480
00:23:58,200 --> 00:23:59,200
So let's actually get in there.

481
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:04,860
I'm going to pull that up and read that my brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious

482
00:24:04,860 --> 00:24:08,840
Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.

483
00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:12,800
Because a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes and a poor man

484
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:14,800
and filthy old clothes also comes in.

485
00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:18,680
If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, here's a good seat for

486
00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:23,320
you, but say to the poor man, you stand there or you sit on the floor by my feet.

487
00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:27,000
Have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

488
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:31,280
Listen, my dear brothers and sisters has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes

489
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:36,100
of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him,

490
00:24:36,100 --> 00:24:37,620
but you have dishonored the poor.

491
00:24:37,620 --> 00:24:40,800
It is not the rich who is it not the rich who are exploiting you?

492
00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:43,120
Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?

493
00:24:43,120 --> 00:24:47,120
Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him who to whom you belong?

494
00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:50,640
If you really keep the royal law found in scripture, love your neighbor as yourself.

495
00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:51,760
You are doing right.

496
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:56,760
But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers for whoever

497
00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:01,040
keeps the whole law and yet stumbles on just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

498
00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:05,280
For he who said you shall not commit adultery also said you shall not murder.

499
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:09,400
If you do not commit adultery, but you do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

500
00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:13,340
Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom because

501
00:25:13,340 --> 00:25:17,640
judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.

502
00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:19,760
Mercy triumphs over judgment.

503
00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:20,760
Amen.

504
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:21,760
Okay.

505
00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:26,900
So there's a lot of verses in there that I've heard people take out of context, right?

506
00:25:26,900 --> 00:25:35,960
But the big thing is don't show partiality in the love of God.

507
00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:37,760
Right?

508
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:41,600
When you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is not one person who is more

509
00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:43,560
valuable than another.

510
00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:45,560
Period.

511
00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:46,560
Period.

512
00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:47,560
Period.

513
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:48,560
Period.

514
00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:55,680
Yeah, I was like, I was going to I was going to qualify and I'm like, no, just period.

515
00:25:55,680 --> 00:26:00,600
This is prime for you to talk about because of working with the Salvation Army.

516
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:05,440
You have a lot of people who are either homeless, unemployed or coming from really bad backgrounds.

517
00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:06,440
Yeah.

518
00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:10,980
So one of the people might recognize the uniforms that we wear.

519
00:26:10,980 --> 00:26:15,400
One of the reasons why those came about is because we had kind of disparity in our churches

520
00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:20,060
in the early or late 1800s when the Salvation Army started.

521
00:26:20,060 --> 00:26:22,640
You had people from very low economic status.

522
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:25,760
You had people from middle and high economic status.

523
00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:32,160
And so to kind of eliminate some of that propensity towards favoritism, that's part of the reason

524
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:39,920
why the uniforms were adopted was to create that uniformity between people so that it

525
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:44,280
didn't matter what station of life you were in, you belong to the family of God.

526
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:45,280
Right.

527
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:48,240
You know, and of course that could be accomplished and that is accomplished in other churches

528
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:50,240
without the uniform all the time.

529
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:57,800
But it's so true that it's so easy, I think, for us to look at people with and think we

530
00:26:57,800 --> 00:26:59,680
need to treat them better or differently.

531
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:01,960
And part of that's our culture, right?

532
00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:09,400
We have hero worship, we have star worship, and it bleeds into our churches.

533
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:10,400
Oh, all the time.

534
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:11,400
Yeah.

535
00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:13,400
Well, and so James's warning is not a new thing.

536
00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:16,000
And once again, I want to point out, like we talked about last week, he's not actually

537
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:17,800
talking about wealth in general.

538
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:19,600
He's talking about what wealth does to people.

539
00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:20,600
Right?

540
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:21,600
Right?

541
00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:22,600
Because he's talking about these people who drag people into court.

542
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:24,680
There's a lot of healthy people who never drag anybody into court.

543
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:25,680
Right?

544
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:27,200
There's a lot of people who are incredibly generous.

545
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:32,200
And in fact, the ministry of Jesus himself was accomplished by wealthy women, like it

546
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:37,280
was funded by wealthy women, not accomplished by, it was funded by wealthy women who gave

547
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:39,480
money for Jesus to go and spread the word.

548
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:40,560
Right?

549
00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:43,320
So money is not bad in and of itself.

550
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:49,200
That what money can do where you show partiality is a problem.

551
00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:54,080
And it's not a new thing because in the Old Testament, in the prophets, like they were

552
00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:59,520
always rebuking the leaders and people in general for perverting justice and by showing

553
00:27:59,520 --> 00:28:01,400
favoritism to the wealthy or powerful.

554
00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:06,760
There's passages like Isaiah 10, one through two, Amos five, 11 through 12, Micah three,

555
00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:07,760
nine through 11.

556
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:11,680
And they say things like, you're turning aside the needy in the gate, right?

557
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:15,480
This place where people come for food and for protection, you're turning aside the needy

558
00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:18,760
or you make the ephah small and the shekel great.

559
00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:19,760
Right?

560
00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:24,880
His exhortation is like, you can't show impartiality.

561
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:27,120
You got to bring righteousness to all of the world.

562
00:28:27,120 --> 00:28:31,000
The Jewish tradition places a high value of care and concern for the poor, the widow,

563
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:32,320
the orphan and the outsider.

564
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:33,320
Right?

565
00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:36,040
Because once they were this when they were in Egypt, right?

566
00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:39,520
And it gives numerous positions to protect the vulnerable and ensure that their basic

567
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:40,520
needs are met.

568
00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:43,080
Talking about like the laws of gleaning, right?

569
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:45,960
There's the Sabbath year, there's Jubilee, right?

570
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:50,040
All these like provisions so that the poor don't stay poor, the downtrodden don't stay

571
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:51,040
downtrodden.

572
00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:56,360
Uh, and by condemning the partiality towards the rich, rich James is actually upholding

573
00:28:56,360 --> 00:29:00,680
the Jewish tradition that's been around for thousands of years, but it's always being

574
00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:01,680
misused.

575
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:02,680
Yeah.

576
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:03,680
Right?

577
00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:04,680
Yeah.

578
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:10,160
Uh, even in Deuteronomy, um, Jesus makes, or God makes a statement and Jesus picks it

579
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:11,160
up later.

580
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:18,160
It says you will always have poor among you, which is something that Jesus quotes to them.

581
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:20,080
Mm hmm.

582
00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:24,520
Therefore don't have a tight fist is essentially what he talks about in Deuteronomy.

583
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:28,400
Always have your hands open to lend to those who need it to give food for those who need

584
00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:29,400
it.

585
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:30,400
Jesus makes a statement.

586
00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:32,160
He says, you're always going to have the poor among you, but you won't always have

587
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:33,160
me among you.

588
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:35,120
So don't begrudge them this gift.

589
00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:36,120
Right?

590
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:39,580
Now I've had people say to me when they interpret that they say, Oh, well, Jesus is saying that

591
00:29:39,580 --> 00:29:43,040
service of above for him is more important than having the serving the poor.

592
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:47,920
It's like, no, he's saying that he's not physically going to be there.

593
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:51,800
The guy who can make food and heal people, he's not physically going to be there all

594
00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:52,800
the time.

595
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:56,840
So it's okay to glorify Jesus.

596
00:29:56,840 --> 00:29:59,280
You still need to have an open hand.

597
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:00,280
Right?

598
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:03,000
And by doing so, you, you glorified Jesus.

599
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:04,000
Yeah.

600
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:06,320
You, you make much of him when you are that way.

601
00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:11,880
I think it's an axe, I was reading about it or preaching on it a couple of weeks ago.

602
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:15,640
You know, they, it talks about the early church taking care of their own, you know, and how

603
00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:21,000
Barnabas sold everything so that he could give back to those that were needy in the

604
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:22,000
church.

605
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:23,000
Right?

606
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:28,480
And, and I, it's such a huge, it's something here in our community that we're, you know,

607
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:31,680
kind of forced to really look at right now.

608
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:36,560
There's people that are very needy and they have a lot less resources right now.

609
00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:39,880
And what are we going to do as a church to help those?

610
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:42,120
You know, we can't always rely on government.

611
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:43,800
It's not always the best option to take care of people.

612
00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:44,800
Nor should we rely on government.

613
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:45,800
Nor should we.

614
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:46,800
Yeah.

615
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:50,640
You know, the churches should be stepping up to do more of that, you know, and especially

616
00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:55,320
in a place, in a state like we are today, where in a lot of other communities too, the

617
00:30:55,320 --> 00:31:00,200
government fails people in need because that's not their first concern.

618
00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:02,880
That should be the church's first concern.

619
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:06,080
And there is, there is a, the other side of that is like, you can't help people who don't

620
00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:07,080
want to be better.

621
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:08,080
For sure.

622
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:09,160
There's nothing you can do about it.

623
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:10,160
You can still feed them.

624
00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:12,280
You can still try to give them a dry place to sleep.

625
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:14,800
You can't help people who want, don't want to be any better.

626
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:15,800
I agree.

627
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:19,960
I, most of the time when I'm running into people having that conversation, that's not

628
00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:22,680
where they're falling on the spectrum where they're already trying to love people.

629
00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:25,040
And they're like, listen, they don't want to be any better.

630
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:27,980
And so when it, when they want to, I'm available, right?

631
00:31:27,980 --> 00:31:32,080
It's usually that's an excuse to never get involved or love people well to begin with.

632
00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:33,080
Sure.

633
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:34,080
And so don't find yourself there.

634
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:35,080
Yeah.

635
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:36,080
Like that's definitely a partiality.

636
00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:41,280
In fact, James actually, he says he mentions the royal law, which is by the way, referencing

637
00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:44,240
back to Jesus, having this conversation of Lord your God with all your hearts, soul,

638
00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:45,240
mind and strength.

639
00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:47,640
The second is like it to love your neighbor as yourself.

640
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:48,640
Right?

641
00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:51,160
The law and the prophets hang on these two commands.

642
00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:52,720
Once again, referring back to Torah.

643
00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:55,480
Now love your neighbor as yourself shows up where?

644
00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:56,960
Leviticus 19, 18.

645
00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:57,960
Right?

646
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:01,960
And that's in the middle of this section about how to love people that are, uh, you're going

647
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:05,680
to be in, in the middle of a bunch of people that don't believe what you believe.

648
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:06,680
Right?

649
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:08,640
You gotta love your neighbor as yourself.

650
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:12,120
And you actually got to live a different way to put a different kind of kingdom on display,

651
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:13,400
which is what Leviticus is talking about.

652
00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:17,960
If you, um, if you go back to our episode, the heart of Leviticus, we talk about this

653
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:21,560
and that we're called to live in a different way in the midst of a people who don't live

654
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:22,560
this way.

655
00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:23,560
Right.

656
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:24,560
It's holiness, right?

657
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:25,560
It's holy.

658
00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:26,560
Being set apart, set apart.

659
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:27,560
Yeah.

660
00:32:27,560 --> 00:32:32,560
And it's a word that people are going to, Oh, you know, like that's a lot of time when

661
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:33,960
people think holiness, they think solemn.

662
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:37,160
And I was like, but holiness is jubilant and it's filled with joy.

663
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:39,440
I was like, but God is holy.

664
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:40,440
Why?

665
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:41,600
Because there's nothing else like God.

666
00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:42,600
Right?

667
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:44,240
Like God is unique in and of himself.

668
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:48,160
So if we're going to be holy, like he's holy, then we gotta be unlike anything else that

669
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:51,040
the world naturally perpetuates itself towards.

670
00:32:51,040 --> 00:32:55,040
So when people slap us in the face, we administer justice.

671
00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:59,920
When we see people who are hungry, we take out of our pantries and we feed them.

672
00:32:59,920 --> 00:33:04,080
When we see people who are broken, we find some glue and we glue them back together.

673
00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:05,080
Right?

674
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:06,720
Metaphorically, don't be putting super glue on people.

675
00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:07,720
Yeah.

676
00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:08,720
I mean, it was designed for that.

677
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:10,400
That's why they made super glue to begin with.

678
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:15,840
But like this, this whole thing of partiality is like, you're, it's not the sick or it's

679
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:17,640
not the healthy who need a doctor.

680
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:18,640
Right.

681
00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:19,840
It's the sick.

682
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:23,440
And so when you're showing partiality to somebody because you think that their life is put together,

683
00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:25,240
that is not the gospel.

684
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:28,400
The gospel is that we're going to take it to the poorest and the brokenest and like

685
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:30,840
the people who are seeking the kingdom.

686
00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:34,920
And yes, the people who are rich are welcome into, well, sometimes the broken, the most

687
00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:36,600
broken people are the rich people.

688
00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:37,600
Yeah.

689
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:40,600
But we're not showing partiality because of their wealth or because of their knowledge

690
00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:42,360
or because of their music ability.

691
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:43,360
Yeah.

692
00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:44,360
Oh, I hit somebody.

693
00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:47,160
I hit somebody in the church on that one, right?

694
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:51,880
Where you're like, uh, Spencer actually talks about this a lot because he's a drummer.

695
00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:52,960
Right.

696
00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:57,040
And uh, when he goes to churches, he, he comes there and he's like, yes, I can.

697
00:33:57,040 --> 00:33:58,040
And no, I won't.

698
00:33:58,040 --> 00:33:59,040
Right.

699
00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:00,040
Right.

700
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:03,560
Because, you know, you got to, the second they come in, they're like, oh, you play drums?

701
00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:05,320
Oh, your wife plays piano.

702
00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:07,320
Oh, you can teach the Bible.

703
00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:08,720
Oh, you like youth.

704
00:34:08,720 --> 00:34:09,720
Oh, you like youth.

705
00:34:09,720 --> 00:34:11,120
Oh, you have kids.

706
00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:14,360
So you're cool with like teaching kids, right?

707
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:15,360
No.

708
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:18,120
Oh, oh, you're a janitor.

709
00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:20,440
Oh, you know, we, we really need some help cleaning.

710
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:21,960
Oh, you're a contractor.

711
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:24,920
We have some broken things around here that we'd love for you to fix.

712
00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:27,920
And all of those things are totally fine for people to be involved in.

713
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:29,080
Like, please don't miss here.

714
00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:34,300
Like I'm not saying if you are good with kids or your contract, you can absolutely use those

715
00:34:34,300 --> 00:34:36,080
in the, in the church to serve God.

716
00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:37,080
Right.

717
00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:40,840
But we should have barriers to the boundaries too.

718
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:41,840
Right.

719
00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:45,720
But the partiality is, is like, I need to see you as a person and not for what you can

720
00:34:45,720 --> 00:34:47,360
give to me transactional.

721
00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:48,360
Yeah.

722
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:49,360
Yeah.

723
00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:52,960
I'm not going to bring the kingdom of God into your life, not seeing what you can do

724
00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:53,960
for me.

725
00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:54,960
Yeah.

726
00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:59,680
Like that's, that's the thing about partiality is that it starts to actually feed my selfishness

727
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:02,360
rather than actually feeding into the kingdom of God.

728
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:08,880
So learning how to not have bias, not have partiality, not have an ism.

729
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:14,360
I'm just going to, there's a lot of isms is actually learning how to treat people the

730
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:16,880
way that God sees them.

731
00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:21,080
I remember I had this conversation and our non-Pentecostal friends are going to have

732
00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:22,800
a little bit more issue with this, but that's okay.

733
00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:26,560
You guys, you haven't shut me off yet, so you'll be probably okay.

734
00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:29,600
And I was, I was having, I was praying for somebody and I was talking to them and God

735
00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:31,320
was working in their life.

736
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:35,640
And as they were talking and they were talking about how they're seeking God, I had this

737
00:35:35,640 --> 00:35:40,960
vision, this kind of open vision of like their eyes turning into like fire, but I knew like

738
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:42,360
the fire eyes were of Jesus.

739
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:49,440
I said, I feel like what God is saying and, and, you know, take this, you know, with a

740
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:55,240
grain of salt is that if you could see yourself the way he sees you, you would not treat yourself

741
00:35:55,240 --> 00:35:56,900
so poorly.

742
00:35:56,900 --> 00:36:00,200
You would recognize that you're valuable and that you're not supposed to stay this way

743
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:06,320
because it's going to break you, but he loves you and he wants you to be something else.

744
00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:12,080
And, and, um, the person I was talking to, they're like, they're like, they started balling,

745
00:36:12,080 --> 00:36:13,080
right?

746
00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:15,240
Because I said, like, God has been talking to them about this and this and this, but

747
00:36:15,240 --> 00:36:19,520
they say, I refused to look like I always see myself as my, my brokenness and my failures

748
00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:21,720
as I, God doesn't care about your brokenness and failures.

749
00:36:21,720 --> 00:36:23,520
He can fix those.

750
00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:25,320
He wants you, he can redeem those.

751
00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:26,320
He can redeem those.

752
00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:29,400
He wants you to let it go and follow after him.

753
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:30,400
Right.

754
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:37,800
Um, so often in here is of the word we're like, man, I recognize that my life is not

755
00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:38,800
right.

756
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:40,760
You're talking about with your porn addiction, right?

757
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:44,200
You went and you apologized and you said, I'm not, I don't want to be this way.

758
00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:46,160
I'm going to start walking a different way.

759
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:47,520
And it actually started to manifest itself.

760
00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:50,400
Your life started to put itself together in a different way.

761
00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:57,040
And the thing that, that, that pastor, that youth pastor had said to me that really kind

762
00:36:57,040 --> 00:37:02,840
of hit me and allowed for that redeeming this to come.

763
00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:06,380
He said, Brian, I choose to see the best of you.

764
00:37:06,380 --> 00:37:08,720
You know, I choose to see past those things.

765
00:37:08,720 --> 00:37:12,760
And he, you know, he listed things that he had seen me do with the youth and stuff like

766
00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:13,760
that.

767
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:14,760
Right.

768
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:17,260
And that was like the turning point for transformation.

769
00:37:17,260 --> 00:37:21,520
When somebody saw past my mistakes and saw who I could be, even though at that time I

770
00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:22,760
couldn't see it.

771
00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:23,760
Yeah.

772
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:25,760
That's what we need to do for others.

773
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:31,360
I, uh, one of the hardest things that we do as Christians is looking past the faults

774
00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:33,160
of others to find the gold.

775
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:34,160
Yeah.

776
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:40,400
Find where Jesus is working and like brush away the dirt, pull that forward and allow

777
00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:42,280
it to transform like their life.

778
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:44,680
Right now I want to specify, this is not just us.

779
00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:45,720
We're working with the Holy spirit.

780
00:37:45,720 --> 00:37:48,240
This is him actually working through us into other people's lives.

781
00:37:48,240 --> 00:37:49,240
Right.

782
00:37:49,240 --> 00:37:52,920
But we have to be receptive and willing participants conduits, right?

783
00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:55,620
We got to connect to the right spigot, right?

784
00:37:55,620 --> 00:37:57,840
And allow his spirit to flow through us.

785
00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:01,680
But looking for the golden people that we feel like are irredeemable.

786
00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:02,920
Right.

787
00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:06,280
Like that is going to change drastically how you interact with people.

788
00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:11,920
And, and James is, is he has some very harsh words because they feel harsh because he's

789
00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:14,800
speaking to a Jewish audience who knows what he's talking about.

790
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:17,520
He's like, guys, this is Torah.

791
00:38:17,520 --> 00:38:21,800
You know this, you're not supposed to show people partiality because it got a bunch of

792
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:23,640
money just because you're in Greco Roman culture.

793
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:26,600
It doesn't mean you suddenly get to treat them different, right?

794
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:30,040
Just because they have high status because of their money, just because they have fancy

795
00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:34,360
jewelry, just because they have, you know, XYZ titles or whatever.

796
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:35,360
Yeah.

797
00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:37,200
Like that's not how God has ever worked.

798
00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:44,080
True blessing comes from obedience and following after Adonai or as a, as a gentiles would

799
00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:46,560
call him Yahweh, right?

800
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:51,720
Represented in the person of Yeshua, Jesus, like this is, this is where blessing flows

801
00:38:51,720 --> 00:38:54,900
from and it might be physical blessing.

802
00:38:54,900 --> 00:38:59,360
It might be financial blessing it, but it's definitely going to be spiritual and life

803
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:00,360
giving blessing.

804
00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:01,360
Right.

805
00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:02,360
Right.

806
00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:03,360
Yeah.

807
00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:04,360
And which is arguably the best blessing we can have.

808
00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:05,360
Yeah.

809
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:06,360
I like that kind of blessing.

810
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:07,360
Yeah.

811
00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:08,360
Yeah.

812
00:39:08,360 --> 00:39:09,360
So then let's, let's jump into chapter two.

813
00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:14,200
And if you read chapter two, I think we actually started, we're going to do 14 through 26.

814
00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:18,960
So this is going to be the crux of our conversation because this partiality, this is going to

815
00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:23,640
talk about then this faith, this trusting in Jesus is actually going to do something

816
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:24,640
in our life.

817
00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:25,640
Yeah.

818
00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:26,640
Right.

819
00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:28,360
And I love, he starts off again, brothers and sisters.

820
00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:29,360
He does that a lot.

821
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:30,840
He's like, brothers and sisters, by the way.

822
00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:36,560
So I'm saying to you, my brothers and sisters, what good is it, my brothers and sisters,

823
00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:42,160
if someone claims to have faith, but has no deeds, can such faith save them?

824
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:45,420
Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.

825
00:39:45,420 --> 00:39:50,160
If one of you says to them, go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about

826
00:39:50,160 --> 00:39:52,400
their physical needs, what good is it?

827
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:58,560
And the same way faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead, but someone

828
00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:02,000
will say, you have faith and I have deeds.

829
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:06,040
Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by my deeds.

830
00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:09,320
I feel like that's a mic drop moment.

831
00:40:09,320 --> 00:40:11,280
You believe that there is one God.

832
00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:12,280
Good.

833
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:14,900
Even the demons believe that and they shutter.

834
00:40:14,900 --> 00:40:16,580
You foolish person.

835
00:40:16,580 --> 00:40:20,240
Do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?

836
00:40:20,240 --> 00:40:24,840
Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac

837
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:26,360
on the altar?

838
00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:31,720
You see that his faith and his actions were working together and his faith was made complete

839
00:40:31,720 --> 00:40:33,660
by what he did.

840
00:40:33,660 --> 00:40:37,600
And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was credit to

841
00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:39,800
him as righteousness.

842
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:45,720
And as he was called God's friend, you see that a person is considered righteous by what

843
00:40:45,720 --> 00:40:48,860
they do and not by faith alone.

844
00:40:48,860 --> 00:40:53,960
In the same way was not even rehab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when

845
00:40:53,960 --> 00:40:59,560
she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction as the body without

846
00:40:59,560 --> 00:41:00,660
the spirit is dead.

847
00:41:00,660 --> 00:41:04,360
So faith without deeds is dead.

848
00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:09,880
Yeah, that was definitely a mic drop or at least a papyrus drop moment.

849
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:14,120
I don't know what kind of paper they were using.

850
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:18,360
So like somebody somebody is going to be like, actually they used a composite.

851
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:19,360
That's fine.

852
00:41:19,360 --> 00:41:20,360
That's totally fine.

853
00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:25,120
I know if you correct me, I will apologize in the next episode.

854
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:27,040
You know, so I love that.

855
00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:29,760
So one of the things that James does here, which I think is really helpful because he's

856
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:34,000
talking to the Jewish people, he takes Abraham, right?

857
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:36,640
Father of faith, like he is Father Abraham.

858
00:41:36,640 --> 00:41:38,760
He had many sons, many sons had father.

859
00:41:38,760 --> 00:41:39,760
Okay.

860
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:44,720
But so Abraham, the founding father of the faith, right?

861
00:41:44,720 --> 00:41:47,560
He is the one who God says, you know, go to the land that I'm going to show you.

862
00:41:47,560 --> 00:41:49,640
We have a lot of episodes in Abraham.

863
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:54,880
He says he believed God and it was credited him as righteousness.

864
00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:58,640
God said that Isaac is going to be the child of promise.

865
00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:03,280
But he also said, you need to go on the mountain and sacrifice Isaac.

866
00:42:03,280 --> 00:42:06,880
And he's like, okay, well, I don't know how that's going to work, but somehow you maybe

867
00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:08,840
will bring Isaac back to life, whatever.

868
00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:11,100
And one of the hardest moments he goes and does this.

869
00:42:11,100 --> 00:42:14,320
And we talked about in that episode how God is actually showing Abraham that he's not

870
00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:16,880
like every other God he's encountered.

871
00:42:16,880 --> 00:42:20,240
Every other God is going to require your children of you like your firstborn.

872
00:42:20,240 --> 00:42:24,400
It was going to have all of these things, but God is the God who's actually going to

873
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:26,800
step in and walk the path twice.

874
00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:30,960
If you go back to our episode where we talk about the blood path and connected to the

875
00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:36,020
Baymah teaching, this thing is that when God actually gives a promise to Abraham, this

876
00:42:36,020 --> 00:42:42,120
smoking fire pot and this fire and the smoking pot go through and God actually walks the

877
00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:46,660
blood path twice as both the person guaranteeing the promise and the person on the other side

878
00:42:46,660 --> 00:42:47,660
of the promise.

879
00:42:47,660 --> 00:42:50,360
Abraham walks at zero times and God walks it twice.

880
00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:54,880
He says, this is a like, this is foreshadowing for sure of what's going to go happen with

881
00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:56,640
person of Jesus Christ.

882
00:42:56,640 --> 00:43:00,320
He's going to walk both ends of the covenant in that case.

883
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:05,000
So he takes Abraham, father of the father of the faith and talks about how his faith

884
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:06,000
and deeds line up.

885
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:11,440
And then he takes a Gentile prostitute, right?

886
00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:16,200
If you were writing this and it wasn't from God, you probably wouldn't use her as an example.

887
00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:17,720
Gentile prostitute.

888
00:43:17,720 --> 00:43:21,680
So he's like taking like, he's like these, like if you want to talk about like extremes.

889
00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:22,680
Yeah.

890
00:43:22,680 --> 00:43:24,360
And we just talked about favoritism, right?

891
00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:29,080
So Abraham's going to have a ton of favoritism, a female prostitute down here, right?

892
00:43:29,080 --> 00:43:30,080
Female Gentile prostitute.

893
00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:36,680
So founding father, patriarchal culture, Gentile prostitute woman over here.

894
00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:46,160
And he says both of them had faith, but their faith was manifested by what they did.

895
00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:52,480
By, by, uh, by stepping out and actually doing something.

896
00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:59,520
And so like for us, like if we say we have faith, if we say we have theology and it doesn't

897
00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:03,280
shape who we are, what good is it?

898
00:44:03,280 --> 00:44:05,200
Man, come on.

899
00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:06,200
Yeah.

900
00:44:06,200 --> 00:44:09,680
It's a, it's a big old resounding gong and clanging symbol.

901
00:44:09,680 --> 00:44:15,760
Or if our theology that we hold to doesn't shape us to look like Jesus and act like Jesus

902
00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:20,320
and love like Jesus, it's probably our theology that's wrong.

903
00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:21,320
Yeah.

904
00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:26,040
I've talked about there, there's a word going around that is, um, being used properly and

905
00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:27,040
improperly.

906
00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:28,040
It's called deconstruction.

907
00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:29,040
Yeah.

908
00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:30,040
Okay.

909
00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:32,760
I never want somebody to deconstruct their faith in Jesus.

910
00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:34,520
I want them to deconstruct their faith.

911
00:44:34,520 --> 00:44:36,080
It doesn't look like Jesus.

912
00:44:36,080 --> 00:44:37,080
Amen.

913
00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:40,880
I'm going to say that again, because I want to make sure that I'm not misquoted.

914
00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:43,560
Pastor Nick, I love that guy.

915
00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:51,080
He's been a friend for like, I've had been friends with him for over 20 years.

916
00:44:51,080 --> 00:44:53,840
You should never deconstruct your faith in Jesus.

917
00:44:53,840 --> 00:44:58,680
You should deconstruct the pieces of your faith that don't look like Jesus.

918
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:02,140
Because those have no bearing in the life of a follower of Jesus.

919
00:45:02,140 --> 00:45:05,260
He is my rabbi and I'm going to model my life after him.

920
00:45:05,260 --> 00:45:09,140
Now it's not going to look exactly the same because Brian, you and I are different people.

921
00:45:09,140 --> 00:45:14,760
When Jesus steps into my life and Jesus is, I'm trying to mirror Jesus in my life as a

922
00:45:14,760 --> 00:45:21,480
father and husband and in my church and in my work, it's going to look different than

923
00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:25,960
when Jesus steps into your life because we have different callings.

924
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:28,280
But the principles are the same.

925
00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:30,560
Is that I'm going to, am I going to love God and love other people?

926
00:45:30,560 --> 00:45:32,000
Am I going to proclaim the gospel?

927
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:38,680
Am I going to bring relief to people caught in sin, people caught in brokenness and say,

928
00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:41,880
hey, there's a different kind of life that you're invited into?

929
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:46,960
Or am I going to use it to divide people further?

930
00:45:46,960 --> 00:45:49,480
And living that way, he gets to it here.

931
00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:52,680
It's a life of righteousness.

932
00:45:52,680 --> 00:45:59,160
And Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness because he acted on

933
00:45:59,160 --> 00:46:05,200
it, because it became a part of his life that he lived out.

934
00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:10,240
I wanted to share this analogy I saw earlier today.

935
00:46:10,240 --> 00:46:14,360
Sometimes holiness and righteousness are hard for me to delineate.

936
00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:18,920
Sometimes they feel like synonyms and we kind of just group them together.

937
00:46:18,920 --> 00:46:21,720
And I saw this thing that really kind of hit me hard.

938
00:46:21,720 --> 00:46:23,680
I'm a big sports fan.

939
00:46:23,680 --> 00:46:24,680
Go Raiders.

940
00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:25,680
Go Lakers.

941
00:46:25,680 --> 00:46:27,160
I'm an LA kid.

942
00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:31,240
Hey, listen, they need all the help they can get the Raiders this year.

943
00:46:31,240 --> 00:46:32,760
Yeah, prayer, lots of prayer, please.

944
00:46:32,760 --> 00:46:34,560
Both of those teams.

945
00:46:34,560 --> 00:46:38,360
But there's this idea that holiness is being set apart, right?

946
00:46:38,360 --> 00:46:40,760
It's being set apart for a purpose.

947
00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:44,920
And holiness is like an NFL player who's been drafted.

948
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:47,520
Now they're in the big leagues.

949
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:50,800
They have a new identity, right?

950
00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:53,840
They're set apart for this new purpose.

951
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:57,020
And righteousness is right living, right?

952
00:46:57,020 --> 00:47:00,880
Righteousness is living according to the way that God's called us to live, to be the people

953
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:02,800
that are set apart.

954
00:47:02,800 --> 00:47:08,280
And so it's like an NFL player who eats the right food, trains the right way, is fully

955
00:47:08,280 --> 00:47:10,440
committed to his graph.

956
00:47:10,440 --> 00:47:13,320
These are acts of righteousness that manifests itself in their life.

957
00:47:13,320 --> 00:47:15,200
Now, once again, this is an analogy.

958
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:19,000
So doing these things is not righteousness, right?

959
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:20,760
We're using an analogy comparatively.

960
00:47:20,760 --> 00:47:21,760
Yeah.

961
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:28,840
But in our Christian life, how holiness should manifest is in right living.

962
00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:29,840
Correct.

963
00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:30,840
Right.

964
00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:35,880
So being in the word, being doers of the word, not just hearers of the word.

965
00:47:35,880 --> 00:47:36,880
I have had this conversation.

966
00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:43,040
I want to hear your opinion as I kind of go through this.

967
00:47:43,040 --> 00:47:46,600
I had this conversation with a lot of people because I really struggle with this idea.

968
00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:50,760
People say, well, I'm just a sinner saved by grace.

969
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:54,960
And I said, okay, but the Bible teaches me that I was a sinner saved by grace.

970
00:47:54,960 --> 00:47:57,720
Now I've become the very righteousness of God.

971
00:47:57,720 --> 00:47:59,600
We are called to be the righteousness of God.

972
00:47:59,600 --> 00:48:01,200
And I'm not saying that we're perfect every time.

973
00:48:01,200 --> 00:48:03,920
Like I think that's far, that's way overstretching this.

974
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:09,960
But my life now, like prior to this, I was a sinner and I was broken and I had no way

975
00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:11,280
back.

976
00:48:11,280 --> 00:48:13,400
I had no way into the kingdom of God.

977
00:48:13,400 --> 00:48:17,640
Now through the finished work of Jesus Christ in my life and the Holy Spirit being put through

978
00:48:17,640 --> 00:48:25,760
my life, I am actually called to be the righteousness of God, to be holy as he is holy.

979
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:31,840
And so my life actually should represent the holiness of God wherever I go in the way that

980
00:48:31,840 --> 00:48:33,600
I treat other people.

981
00:48:33,600 --> 00:48:35,560
I'm not a day prayer retri anymore.

982
00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:38,040
I was now I'm called to be the very righteousness of God.

983
00:48:38,040 --> 00:48:42,240
And it's something that I live into rather than something that I live in fear of.

984
00:48:42,240 --> 00:48:44,400
Do you know what I mean?

985
00:48:44,400 --> 00:48:50,160
And I think the reason I bring it, I added some caveats is I think people have misunderstood

986
00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:54,600
when I've said that is that I'm saying that everything you do is perfect now moving forward.

987
00:48:54,600 --> 00:48:58,560
No, no, you're still going to sin.

988
00:48:58,560 --> 00:49:00,440
You're still gonna need to repent.

989
00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:03,920
You're being refined into the image, which we talked about in episode one.

990
00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:09,680
The trials are actually pulling up all this garbage so that there's gold, so that you

991
00:49:09,680 --> 00:49:12,600
put on the righteousness of God wherever you go.

992
00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:15,760
And there are definitely more golden parts of my life than others.

993
00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:20,360
There's some parts where when God refines them, I'm like, is there any gold in there?

994
00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:23,440
Well there's sometimes there's gold and sometimes there's golden calves.

995
00:49:23,440 --> 00:49:31,400
It's just a reality of living in the world we live in.

996
00:49:31,400 --> 00:49:36,920
But I think what your point is that holiness manifests itself in our righteousness.

997
00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:40,920
So stop talking about yourself like you're just a broken piece of garbage.

998
00:49:40,920 --> 00:49:41,920
You're not.

999
00:49:41,920 --> 00:49:45,720
You've been refined and you're being refined into the very nature of Christ.

1000
00:49:45,720 --> 00:49:47,920
And scripture calls us saints.

1001
00:49:47,920 --> 00:49:55,120
Scripture says, my holy dearly loved children, calls us brothers and sisters.

1002
00:49:55,120 --> 00:49:57,440
It is an identity issue, I think.

1003
00:49:57,440 --> 00:49:59,240
Yes, we're all sinners.

1004
00:49:59,240 --> 00:50:02,800
We have sin in our lives, but that's not my identity.

1005
00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:09,280
My identity is somebody who is a saint, somebody who lives for Jesus, somebody who wants to

1006
00:50:09,280 --> 00:50:14,600
be holy as God is holy and striving towards that.

1007
00:50:14,600 --> 00:50:18,320
So I think we do have to redefine ourselves in that.

1008
00:50:18,320 --> 00:50:25,520
If I'm only ever a sinner, I think to your point, you were saying, I am saved and I've

1009
00:50:25,520 --> 00:50:27,560
preached this at our church a lot.

1010
00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:30,520
I don't always just preach what I'm saved from.

1011
00:50:30,520 --> 00:50:32,520
I'm saved to.

1012
00:50:32,520 --> 00:50:34,840
I'm saved to a life of holiness.

1013
00:50:34,840 --> 00:50:37,160
I'm saved to a life of service.

1014
00:50:37,160 --> 00:50:40,220
I'm saved to a life of loving others.

1015
00:50:40,220 --> 00:50:43,840
Because if I only ever focus on what I've been saved from, I'll never live in the present

1016
00:50:43,840 --> 00:50:44,840
and the future.

1017
00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:45,840
Right.

1018
00:50:45,840 --> 00:50:50,320
Well, and coming back to James, James makes a statement and it's prior to this passage

1019
00:50:50,320 --> 00:50:52,200
we just read.

1020
00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:56,320
He says, for the one who said, do not commit a murder, don't commit adultery, coming back

1021
00:50:56,320 --> 00:50:58,680
to Exodus and Deuteronomy, the 10 commandments, right?

1022
00:50:58,680 --> 00:51:02,760
That's what he's referencing to this invocation of this cornerstone of mosaic law.

1023
00:51:02,760 --> 00:51:06,840
He's like the same guy who said this, you're not supposed to show partiality.

1024
00:51:06,840 --> 00:51:11,360
These were supposed to, these don't do these things because you're supposed to be this.

1025
00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:14,120
By the way, if you don't know what I'm talking about exactly, go back to our 10 commandments

1026
00:51:14,120 --> 00:51:18,800
episode because we talked about how five are about how we relate to God and five are about

1027
00:51:18,800 --> 00:51:20,440
how we relate to other people.

1028
00:51:20,440 --> 00:51:25,520
And this mirroring idea of like one and six go together and two and seven go together

1029
00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:27,520
from Rabbi David Foreman.

1030
00:51:27,520 --> 00:51:35,040
But this, the, the 10 commandments, these, this, this deck a log of life giving advice,

1031
00:51:35,040 --> 00:51:36,040
right?

1032
00:51:36,040 --> 00:51:39,280
Is going to say like, this is how you like, this is going to change you into being the

1033
00:51:39,280 --> 00:51:47,360
kind of person that engages mercy, that loves justice, right?

1034
00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:53,120
Loves mercy, walks humbly quoting from, from Micah, like he's shown you a man.

1035
00:51:53,120 --> 00:51:54,240
What's good.

1036
00:51:54,240 --> 00:51:56,480
These are the things that you're supposed to do.

1037
00:51:56,480 --> 00:52:03,520
And now in the person of Jesus Christ, we, we don't show partiality because it's all

1038
00:52:03,520 --> 00:52:07,200
open from, from Abraham to Rahab.

1039
00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:12,920
And people, when they respond, when they have faith and they respond in action, it's a beautiful

1040
00:52:12,920 --> 00:52:20,120
thing, whether you're the founding member of the Jewish faith or you're a prostitute

1041
00:52:20,120 --> 00:52:23,640
in a city that's about to be overrun.

1042
00:52:23,640 --> 00:52:26,680
When your faith and actions work together, it's a beautiful thing that God accomplishes

1043
00:52:26,680 --> 00:52:28,040
great things.

1044
00:52:28,040 --> 00:52:29,040
Yeah.

1045
00:52:29,040 --> 00:52:35,480
And, and then in my line of work and serving the least of these and serving, you know,

1046
00:52:35,480 --> 00:52:40,560
those that are in dire need, dire straits, I might be the only person that's trying to

1047
00:52:40,560 --> 00:52:42,480
see that gold.

1048
00:52:42,480 --> 00:52:43,480
They're in the fire.

1049
00:52:43,480 --> 00:52:44,480
Oh, they're in the fire.

1050
00:52:44,480 --> 00:52:45,480
Yeah.

1051
00:52:45,480 --> 00:52:49,520
You know, sometimes they only feel like the impurities that we're trying to take, that

1052
00:52:49,520 --> 00:52:51,320
God's trying to take out.

1053
00:52:51,320 --> 00:52:54,640
And I might be the only person that's willing to say, I want to see the gold.

1054
00:52:54,640 --> 00:52:56,640
I know you have value.

1055
00:52:56,640 --> 00:52:58,360
I look at the cross every day.

1056
00:52:58,360 --> 00:53:01,000
It proves that you have value.

1057
00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:04,120
He paid every price to show that you have value.

1058
00:53:04,120 --> 00:53:07,440
If there was value here, there's definitely value there.

1059
00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:09,960
Yeah, absolutely.

1060
00:53:09,960 --> 00:53:15,480
It's so important for us in whatever capacity, whatever work we're in, whatever church we're

1061
00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:19,760
serving in, we need to be engaged with the needy.

1062
00:53:19,760 --> 00:53:20,760
Right.

1063
00:53:20,760 --> 00:53:25,440
So the statement that you're reading, and I almost chuckled when you read it, it says,

1064
00:53:25,440 --> 00:53:27,560
you believe that there is one God.

1065
00:53:27,560 --> 00:53:28,560
Good.

1066
00:53:28,560 --> 00:53:29,560
Yeah.

1067
00:53:29,560 --> 00:53:30,560
Demons believe that too.

1068
00:53:30,560 --> 00:53:32,160
Their orthodoxy is spot on.

1069
00:53:32,160 --> 00:53:34,720
Your orthodoxy is spot on and guess what?

1070
00:53:34,720 --> 00:53:37,240
Your orthopraxy is about that of demons.

1071
00:53:37,240 --> 00:53:38,240
Yeah.

1072
00:53:38,240 --> 00:53:39,240
Wow.

1073
00:53:39,240 --> 00:53:41,240
Like that was the implication I took from him.

1074
00:53:41,240 --> 00:53:44,800
You know, is like, you say you have faith.

1075
00:53:44,800 --> 00:53:46,880
I'm going to show you my faith by what I do.

1076
00:53:46,880 --> 00:53:50,880
Now I think the caveat here and where people have kind of gotten into like this, where

1077
00:53:50,880 --> 00:53:55,040
some cult have showed up, right, is where they say, well, you actually have to do these

1078
00:53:55,040 --> 00:53:57,120
things and that demonstrates that you have faith.

1079
00:53:57,120 --> 00:54:01,720
No, you have faith and then it's demonstrated in what you do.

1080
00:54:01,720 --> 00:54:05,040
You can have deeds and not have faith.

1081
00:54:05,040 --> 00:54:07,140
It's not your deeds that save you.

1082
00:54:07,140 --> 00:54:11,720
It's your faith, trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ that saves you.

1083
00:54:11,720 --> 00:54:17,480
And through that, but if that is true, you're going to manifest in deeds.

1084
00:54:17,480 --> 00:54:20,160
So I think when people, they're like, they're like, well, I trust in the faithfulness of

1085
00:54:20,160 --> 00:54:21,160
Jesus Christ.

1086
00:54:21,160 --> 00:54:23,880
So then why doesn't it show up in your life in some way?

1087
00:54:23,880 --> 00:54:24,880
Yeah.

1088
00:54:24,880 --> 00:54:25,880
Besides intellectually.

1089
00:54:25,880 --> 00:54:26,880
Right.

1090
00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:27,880
It's powerful.

1091
00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:28,880
It's hard.

1092
00:54:28,880 --> 00:54:29,880
Yeah.

1093
00:54:29,880 --> 00:54:30,880
Yeah.

1094
00:54:30,880 --> 00:54:34,040
It should show up in so many ways.

1095
00:54:34,040 --> 00:54:35,400
I agree.

1096
00:54:35,400 --> 00:54:39,560
And it's going to, and I'm not saying like each person is not going to go and work with

1097
00:54:39,560 --> 00:54:43,720
the poor and each person is not going to go and visit the prisoner and each person is

1098
00:54:43,720 --> 00:54:48,060
not going to go and visit those who are sick and each person is not going to be a person

1099
00:54:48,060 --> 00:54:52,920
who helps people who are out of work, but somewhere.

1100
00:54:52,920 --> 00:54:53,920
Yeah.

1101
00:54:53,920 --> 00:54:54,920
There's needy.

1102
00:54:54,920 --> 00:54:55,920
Yeah.

1103
00:54:55,920 --> 00:54:59,560
In a lot of different ways, emotionally needy, physically needy, spiritually needy.

1104
00:54:59,560 --> 00:55:03,520
You know, it's not just limited to people that are poor, people living on the streets.

1105
00:55:03,520 --> 00:55:08,480
There's a lot of rich people that are needy that need the love of Jesus, you know, for

1106
00:55:08,480 --> 00:55:09,480
sure.

1107
00:55:09,480 --> 00:55:11,680
And each one of those callings is going to have a pitfall.

1108
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:12,680
Yeah.

1109
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:13,680
Right.

1110
00:55:13,680 --> 00:55:14,680
That you got to watch out for.

1111
00:55:14,680 --> 00:55:18,320
And so like, uh, if you're called to minister to the rich, man, it's going to be, you're

1112
00:55:18,320 --> 00:55:20,680
going to have to be really careful not to get stuck into partiality.

1113
00:55:20,680 --> 00:55:21,680
Yeah.

1114
00:55:21,680 --> 00:55:24,520
If you're called to witness to the poor, you're going to have to be really careful not to

1115
00:55:24,520 --> 00:55:31,480
let people continue to live, uh, in a place of brokenness to actually work in a way to

1116
00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:32,880
bring them out of that.

1117
00:55:32,880 --> 00:55:33,880
Right.

1118
00:55:33,880 --> 00:55:34,880
Right.

1119
00:55:34,880 --> 00:55:37,320
And kind of like you were getting to earlier, you know, a lot of people don't want to give

1120
00:55:37,320 --> 00:55:38,320
handouts.

1121
00:55:38,320 --> 00:55:39,320
Correct.

1122
00:55:39,320 --> 00:55:42,780
And so the philosophy, you know, we tried to live by in the army is let's, let's give

1123
00:55:42,780 --> 00:55:44,440
hand ups, hand ups, right?

1124
00:55:44,440 --> 00:55:47,580
How can we help people out of that situation?

1125
00:55:47,580 --> 00:55:51,040
Not just enable them to continue to live in that situation.

1126
00:55:51,040 --> 00:55:55,800
Sometimes that takes a long time before somebody's ready to be, I'm done with this life.

1127
00:55:55,800 --> 00:55:58,840
I'm ready for something more.

1128
00:55:58,840 --> 00:56:01,000
My porn addiction didn't go away overnight.

1129
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:02,000
Of course not.

1130
00:56:02,000 --> 00:56:03,160
Yeah.

1131
00:56:03,160 --> 00:56:06,920
But there was a process by which God rooted it out of my life.

1132
00:56:06,920 --> 00:56:13,040
And there was a definitive moment where I said no, and it started to go right.

1133
00:56:13,040 --> 00:56:18,040
By the way, uh, I'm, this is probably not, uh, there are people who may be unhappy that

1134
00:56:18,040 --> 00:56:22,080
I'm going to share this, but there are so many men who are struggling with that.

1135
00:56:22,080 --> 00:56:25,080
And because it's such a, they're like, well, it's not my man.

1136
00:56:25,080 --> 00:56:26,080
It's not my father.

1137
00:56:26,080 --> 00:56:27,080
It's not my brother.

1138
00:56:27,080 --> 00:56:28,080
It's not my son.

1139
00:56:28,080 --> 00:56:29,080
You know?

1140
00:56:29,080 --> 00:56:30,080
Um, yes, it is.

1141
00:56:30,080 --> 00:56:31,200
Nobody would have ever thought.

1142
00:56:31,200 --> 00:56:34,400
I don't think anybody would ever thought that I'd struggled with that.

1143
00:56:34,400 --> 00:56:37,480
And most of the men that I talked to, like most people wouldn't know.

1144
00:56:37,480 --> 00:56:42,040
Um, it's, it's speculated somewhere in the neighborhood of like 95% of men in America.

1145
00:56:42,040 --> 00:56:44,680
And for you single dudes out there, marriage isn't the cure.

1146
00:56:44,680 --> 00:56:45,760
All for marriage is not the cure.

1147
00:56:45,760 --> 00:56:46,760
All for it.

1148
00:56:46,760 --> 00:56:47,760
No.

1149
00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:52,080
I mean, I had a conversation with my wife before we got married about my, uh, my, my

1150
00:56:52,080 --> 00:56:54,040
struggles, right?

1151
00:56:54,040 --> 00:56:58,160
Because if she was going to marry me, she needed to know the places that I struggle

1152
00:56:58,160 --> 00:57:01,800
too, because I was marrying my etzer connegdo.

1153
00:57:01,800 --> 00:57:04,440
I was marrying my force that opposes.

1154
00:57:04,440 --> 00:57:09,040
She was going to strengthen my life together to become one flesh.

1155
00:57:09,040 --> 00:57:11,840
She has to know my weakness.

1156
00:57:11,840 --> 00:57:12,840
Just like I had to know hers.

1157
00:57:12,840 --> 00:57:13,840
Yeah.

1158
00:57:13,840 --> 00:57:14,920
And no, you don't get to know.

1159
00:57:14,920 --> 00:57:15,920
She can share that with you.

1160
00:57:15,920 --> 00:57:18,960
It is for me to know because I'm called to strengthen her.

1161
00:57:18,960 --> 00:57:19,960
Amen.

1162
00:57:19,960 --> 00:57:20,960
Man.

1163
00:57:20,960 --> 00:57:21,960
I love the book of James.

1164
00:57:21,960 --> 00:57:22,960
It's so good.

1165
00:57:22,960 --> 00:57:27,760
Like, I think, I think sometimes in the, in the, the verbiage and the way that it's said,

1166
00:57:27,760 --> 00:57:30,760
we tend to take it and it's like this really harsh letter.

1167
00:57:30,760 --> 00:57:32,120
It's not, it's direct.

1168
00:57:32,120 --> 00:57:33,800
It's brothers talking to brothers.

1169
00:57:33,800 --> 00:57:34,800
Yeah.

1170
00:57:34,800 --> 00:57:37,340
And he's like, come on guys, we know what we ought to do.

1171
00:57:37,340 --> 00:57:38,340
You know what?

1172
00:57:38,340 --> 00:57:39,340
You know what?

1173
00:57:39,340 --> 00:57:43,600
Taurus says, and you're, you're like, oh yeah, well, you know, I got the faith, but he's

1174
00:57:43,600 --> 00:57:46,320
like, no, if you got faith, it's going to show up in what you do.

1175
00:57:46,320 --> 00:57:47,320
Yeah.

1176
00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:49,880
And I kind of look at this as like, like an older brother having a conversation with the

1177
00:57:49,880 --> 00:57:55,760
younger brothers is like, listen, you know what dad wants us to do.

1178
00:57:55,760 --> 00:57:57,240
Go take out the garbage.

1179
00:57:57,240 --> 00:57:58,240
Right?

1180
00:57:58,240 --> 00:58:02,400
Like you, you can be as mad as you want, but that's part of living in the household.

1181
00:58:02,400 --> 00:58:03,400
Right?

1182
00:58:03,400 --> 00:58:06,120
Part of being a member of this household is you got to take out the garbage.

1183
00:58:06,120 --> 00:58:09,000
And if you have dishes, you need to do your dishes and you need to not slap your younger

1184
00:58:09,000 --> 00:58:10,000
brother.

1185
00:58:10,000 --> 00:58:11,000
Yeah.

1186
00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:13,400
Like those kinds of things.

1187
00:58:13,400 --> 00:58:18,640
Like this, it's not, it's not, uh, it's not meant to be condemning and, and, and, and

1188
00:58:18,640 --> 00:58:21,000
with family, you can have a more direct conversation.

1189
00:58:21,000 --> 00:58:22,000
Yeah.

1190
00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:25,840
And so, uh, as we continue to go through this letter, I think it's really going to be important

1191
00:58:25,840 --> 00:58:26,840
for us to understand.

1192
00:58:26,840 --> 00:58:33,000
Like James loves the people he's writing to and he wants to see the best come for them,

1193
00:58:33,000 --> 00:58:34,680
which is why he's being very direct.

1194
00:58:34,680 --> 00:58:36,840
He's like, listen, you gotta get rid of this stuff.

1195
00:58:36,840 --> 00:58:37,920
That's not cool.

1196
00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:39,160
You can't have partiality.

1197
00:58:39,160 --> 00:58:40,160
That's not who Jesus is.

1198
00:58:40,160 --> 00:58:41,160
Yeah.

1199
00:58:41,160 --> 00:58:44,840
He just took people from all over the place and now he's welcoming the Gentiles.

1200
00:58:44,840 --> 00:58:46,240
So you gotta get with it.

1201
00:58:46,240 --> 00:58:47,240
Yeah.

1202
00:58:47,240 --> 00:58:48,240
Right.

1203
00:58:48,240 --> 00:58:49,240
Those Gentiles are weird.

1204
00:58:49,240 --> 00:58:54,200
They're not Jewish any way, shape or form.

1205
00:58:54,200 --> 00:59:01,440
Just to go back to, you know, porn addiction and God's work on my life and redeeming that

1206
00:59:01,440 --> 00:59:06,840
when that pastor told me, you know, I choose to see the best in you.

1207
00:59:06,840 --> 00:59:12,960
It broke down the enemy's lies in my life and allowed me for the first time to realize

1208
00:59:12,960 --> 00:59:18,700
the mistake I was making was that I was telling myself if I just stopped doing this, I could

1209
00:59:18,700 --> 00:59:19,700
come to God.

1210
00:59:19,700 --> 00:59:24,520
If I just stopped doing this, then I could live the life that God wants me to live.

1211
00:59:24,520 --> 00:59:28,760
And that was the enemy's lie on my life, keeping me from the calling that God had on me.

1212
00:59:28,760 --> 00:59:29,760
And what he revealed to me...

1213
00:59:29,760 --> 00:59:31,840
That is a lie on so many things.

1214
00:59:31,840 --> 00:59:32,840
Yeah.

1215
00:59:32,840 --> 00:59:35,400
And what he revealed to me was it's totally opposite.

1216
00:59:35,400 --> 00:59:38,560
If I come to God, he will change me.

1217
00:59:38,560 --> 00:59:44,080
If I come to God, he will fix me, he will restore me, he will redeem me.

1218
00:59:44,080 --> 00:59:49,400
And that was the power that broke that lie in my life and allowed me to go, no, I can't

1219
00:59:49,400 --> 00:59:52,200
white-knuckle my way into a relationship, right?

1220
00:59:52,200 --> 00:59:57,820
I can't white-knuckle my way out of pornography addiction and into a relationship with God.

1221
00:59:57,820 --> 00:59:58,820
It doesn't work that way.

1222
00:59:58,820 --> 01:00:03,800
I need God's help first by coming to God and then allowing him to transform.

1223
01:00:03,800 --> 01:00:05,960
And like you said, it was a process.

1224
01:00:05,960 --> 01:00:07,840
It wasn't just, oh, okay, that's gone now.

1225
01:00:07,840 --> 01:00:09,000
Those desires are gone.

1226
01:00:09,000 --> 01:00:14,080
Because at the root of that sin was this really...

1227
01:00:14,080 --> 01:00:20,120
It's a desire that I had for intimacy, for relationship, for that was being pursued in

1228
01:00:20,120 --> 01:00:21,120
the wrong way.

1229
01:00:21,120 --> 01:00:22,120
Correct.

1230
01:00:22,120 --> 01:00:23,120
Yeah.

1231
01:00:23,120 --> 01:00:27,200
And so once I was able to come to God and have that beginning of that transformation,

1232
01:00:27,200 --> 01:00:30,480
I could see where the enemy was lying and I could see where the truth was.

1233
01:00:30,480 --> 01:00:34,400
And there are times that God breaks off a sin, single thing.

1234
01:00:34,400 --> 01:00:35,400
Sure.

1235
01:00:35,400 --> 01:00:36,400
Right?

1236
01:00:36,400 --> 01:00:37,400
It breaks up.

1237
01:00:37,400 --> 01:00:41,840
Most of the time, what's gonna happen is because you didn't acquire your sin overnight, you're

1238
01:00:41,840 --> 01:00:45,920
not going to unload it overnight because it literally integrated into your life.

1239
01:00:45,920 --> 01:00:46,920
Yeah.

1240
01:00:46,920 --> 01:00:47,920
Right?

1241
01:00:47,920 --> 01:00:50,360
Now it's time to integrate your relationship with God into the same parts and allow him

1242
01:00:50,360 --> 01:00:51,360
to purify them.

1243
01:00:51,360 --> 01:00:55,700
So one of my favorite verses from 1 John, if we walk in the light as he is in the light,

1244
01:00:55,700 --> 01:00:59,960
we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Christ purifies us from all his righteousness.

1245
01:00:59,960 --> 01:01:04,600
So the implication is that you don't come to the light purified, right?

1246
01:01:04,600 --> 01:01:11,080
You come to the light and we have fellowship and there in the fellowship, God's blood and

1247
01:01:11,080 --> 01:01:14,200
his light purifies us from all unrighteousness as we walk together.

1248
01:01:14,200 --> 01:01:15,200
Amen.

1249
01:01:15,200 --> 01:01:17,560
I'm going to, I'm going to do something a little strange.

1250
01:01:17,560 --> 01:01:18,920
We haven't done on the podcast before.

1251
01:01:18,920 --> 01:01:23,160
I'm actually going to address people who are listening and I think there's going to be

1252
01:01:23,160 --> 01:01:28,080
some of you who are listening that you think right now that what you have is insurmountable

1253
01:01:28,080 --> 01:01:34,080
and God can't, you got to clean it up or there's something you have to do.

1254
01:01:34,080 --> 01:01:35,080
It's not something you do.

1255
01:01:35,080 --> 01:01:36,080
It's somewhere you go.

1256
01:01:36,080 --> 01:01:37,520
And so we're going to pray for you right now.

1257
01:01:37,520 --> 01:01:42,220
And I was just a pray for you that today is going to be the moment that you take that

1258
01:01:42,220 --> 01:01:47,560
step into God's presence and he begins to purify you through from all your unrighteousness.

1259
01:01:47,560 --> 01:01:52,160
So Holy Spirit, we would just pray over our people listening that they would just receive

1260
01:01:52,160 --> 01:01:57,080
from you the invitation to come and step into your presence that the blood of Jesus would

1261
01:01:57,080 --> 01:02:01,960
just wash over them that the things that that have had long had root in their life that

1262
01:02:01,960 --> 01:02:07,440
have been dragging them down, they would suddenly be able to set down, break the chains, walk

1263
01:02:07,440 --> 01:02:10,440
after you and allow you to purify their life.

1264
01:02:10,440 --> 01:02:15,440
God, they are not perfect nor will they ever be perfect except by your blood and your spirit.

1265
01:02:15,440 --> 01:02:18,280
I just ask that you would just open your presence to them today.

1266
01:02:18,280 --> 01:02:22,160
God, that they could step in and be purified by your goodness.

1267
01:02:22,160 --> 01:02:24,280
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ.

1268
01:02:24,280 --> 01:02:25,280
Amen.

1269
01:02:25,280 --> 01:02:26,280
Amen.

1270
01:02:26,280 --> 01:02:27,280
All right, guys.

1271
01:02:27,280 --> 01:02:31,000
Brian, thank you for being here and filling in for Spencer.

1272
01:02:31,000 --> 01:02:33,800
I really appreciate you being here.

1273
01:02:33,800 --> 01:02:37,040
We will we'll let you know in the next couple of weeks how scheduling goes.

1274
01:02:37,040 --> 01:02:39,400
We're hoping to have him back soon because we got a couple weeks.

1275
01:02:39,400 --> 01:02:41,920
So yeah, gotta get me on as much as possible.

1276
01:02:41,920 --> 01:02:42,920
Exactly.

1277
01:02:42,920 --> 01:02:45,720
And so we just really appreciate that.

1278
01:02:45,720 --> 01:02:48,380
And otherwise, God bless.

1279
01:02:48,380 --> 01:02:51,180
See you next time.

1280
01:02:51,180 --> 01:02:54,180
And that's a wrap for today's episode of Love and Context.

1281
01:02:54,180 --> 01:02:58,100
We hope you enjoyed this engaging conversation and gained valuable insights into the powerful

1282
01:02:58,100 --> 01:03:00,080
message of love within the Bible.

1283
01:03:00,080 --> 01:03:03,200
We'd love to hear from you and continue the conversation.

1284
01:03:03,200 --> 01:03:07,840
Connect with us by sending us your questions, thoughts and suggestions to loveandcontext

1285
01:03:07,840 --> 01:03:09,580
at gmail.com.

1286
01:03:09,580 --> 01:03:14,200
We greatly appreciate your feedback and ideas for future episodes.

1287
01:03:14,200 --> 01:03:18,480
Stay connected with us on social media for updates, behind the scenes content and additional

1288
01:03:18,480 --> 01:03:19,480
resources.

1289
01:03:19,480 --> 01:03:24,320
You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook at Love and Context.

1290
01:03:24,320 --> 01:03:27,320
Don't forget to hit that follow button to stay up to date with the latest episodes and

1291
01:03:27,320 --> 01:03:29,420
join our growing community.

1292
01:03:29,420 --> 01:03:32,000
Thank you for being part of the Love and Context family.

1293
01:03:32,000 --> 01:03:34,600
Remember, love is at the heart of it all.

1294
01:03:34,600 --> 01:03:39,680
Until next time, keep seeking wisdom, embracing love and living out your faith in the context

1295
01:03:39,680 --> 01:03:50,360
of today's world.