Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / James 1:19-27 - Be Doers, Not Just Hearers

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James 1:19-27 - Be Doers, Not Just Hearers · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. How do you. Good morning, friends and faithful listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bible Explain podcast. On this lovely Tuesday morning,
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  Speaker 1: we are in James chapter one, finishing out this chapter
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  Speaker 1: and going to be talking about our words and also
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  Speaker 1: talking about how religion becomes worthless to us if we
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  Speaker 1: don't actually apply God's word to our lives, and that
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  Speaker 1: is what James is going to warn us against today.
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  Speaker 1: So right after this word from a sponsor, we will
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  Speaker 1: get into James one nineteen through twenty seven. Are you
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  Speaker 1: faithful listeners, So grab your Bibles. I will be reading
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  Speaker 1: from the web version this morning, which is the World
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  Speaker 1: English Bible. Also, grab your delicious hot beverage, whether it
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  Speaker 1: is coffee or tea or something else. And you guys
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  Speaker 1: can contact me to tell me what your favorite to
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  Speaker 1: hot beverage is. I'd love to hear about all of that.
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  Speaker 1: You can also contact me if you have a prayer
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  Speaker 1: request as well. My email address is linked in the
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  Speaker 1: description of the episode, and I do read all of
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  Speaker 1: my emails personally. Let's turn to James one nineteen through
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven and finish out this chapter four today. So then,
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  Speaker 1: my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear,
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  Speaker 1: slow to speak, and slow to anger, For the anger
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  Speaker 1: of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting
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  Speaker 1: away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility
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  Speaker 1: the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
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  Speaker 1: But be doers of the word, and not only hearers,
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  Speaker 1: diluting your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer
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  Speaker 1: of the word and not a doer, he is like
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  Speaker 1: a man looking at his natural face in a mirror.
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  Speaker 1: For he sees himself and goes away and immediately forgets
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  Speaker 1: what kind of man he was. But he who looks
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  Speaker 1: into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being
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  Speaker 1: a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work,
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  Speaker 1: this man will be blessed in what he does. If
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  Speaker 1: anyone among you thinks himself to be religious, while he
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  Speaker 1: doesn't bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man's
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  Speaker 1: religion is worth its pure religion and undefiled before our
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  Speaker 1: God and Father. Is this to visit the fatherless and
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  Speaker 1: widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by
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  Speaker 1: the world. Starting in verses nineteen and twenty, it says this. So, then,
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  Speaker 1: my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear,
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  Speaker 1: slow to speak, and slow to anger. For the anger
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  Speaker 1: of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God. Now, in
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  Speaker 1: today's society, we don't do anything that verse says. Pretty much,
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  Speaker 1: everybody is not swift to hear. In other words, they
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  Speaker 1: don't want to listen. They want to talk about themselves.
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  Speaker 1: They are not slow to speak. They are very quick
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  Speaker 1: to speak even if they don't know what the topic
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  Speaker 1: is about. And they're not slow to anger at all.
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  Speaker 1: They are very quick to become angry at somebody if
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  Speaker 1: they disagree with them. I mean, you can go on
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  Speaker 1: social media for what like thirty seconds and find a
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  Speaker 1: fight in the comments section. But James is warning as
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  Speaker 1: Christians against this kind of behavior. He says, for the
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  Speaker 1: anger of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God. Now,
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  Speaker 1: there are three different Greek words for anger. The first
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  Speaker 1: one is orgay, which is a long lasting kind of anger,
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  Speaker 1: like a simmering, sizzling kind of anger. Then there's thumos,
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  Speaker 1: which is almost like a flame that bursts out, a
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  Speaker 1: very quick to respond kind of anger. And then there's paragizmos,
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  Speaker 1: which I think that's how it's pronounced. But it's like
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  Speaker 1: an anger that was provoked. Somebody provoked you to this
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  Speaker 1: deep irritation. Essentially, the type of anger that James is
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  Speaker 1: talking about here is that first one, which is orgay,
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  Speaker 1: which means a long lasting, deep seated kind of bitterness
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  Speaker 1: or anger, a sizzling like you're bottling something up. And
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  Speaker 1: I can tell you, guys, that that is the type
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  Speaker 1: of anger I struggle with. My husband has lovingly called
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  Speaker 1: me a chihuahua in a golden retriever's body. I present
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  Speaker 1: as a golden retriever to everybody that sees me or
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  Speaker 1: knows me, But inwardly I am very much like a chihuahua.
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  Speaker 1: But I don't have big outbursts of anger very often.
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  Speaker 1: That is rare for me. But I do have the
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  Speaker 1: orgay kind of anger that James is talking about right here,
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  Speaker 1: this deep seated anger, as if you're like the Hulk,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you're always angry. That is the kind of
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  Speaker 1: anger that James warns about here. He says, instead of
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  Speaker 1: being angry, let every man be swift to hear, so,
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  Speaker 1: in other words, ready to listen, not just talking about
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  Speaker 1: themselves or talking over people or interrupting people all the time,
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  Speaker 1: but swift to hear, to take interest in what other
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  Speaker 1: people are saying, slow to speak, so not just jumping
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  Speaker 1: into a conversation to air your opinion or a topic
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  Speaker 1: that you don't really know very much about, or you know,
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  Speaker 1: sitting there talking about yourself the entire time. You have
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  Speaker 1: to be slow to speak and also slow to get angry.
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  Speaker 1: Because anger of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God.
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  Speaker 1: So that deep seated kind of bitterness that I feel,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm sure many of you guys listening feel, that
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  Speaker 1: kind of anger does not produce the righteousness of God.
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  Speaker 1: So basically, it's almost like we're getting in God's way
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  Speaker 1: of working in our lives. When we have that kind
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  Speaker 1: of anger. We are preventing new fruit from growing up
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  Speaker 1: in our lives because of bitterness, because of unforgiveness that
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  Speaker 1: we might be feeling. It's hindering the righteousness of God
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  Speaker 1: at work in our lives. So we have to put
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  Speaker 1: these things away, is what James says in verse twenty one. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with
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  Speaker 1: humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
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  Speaker 1: So we have to put all of these things away,
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  Speaker 1: and James calls them filthiness and wickedness. You would never
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  Speaker 1: think that anger could be considered filthiness or wickedness, but
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  Speaker 1: James is very blunt, and that is what he calls it. Now,
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  Speaker 1: there is a caveat to all of this though. In
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  Speaker 1: Ephesians four twenty six and twenty seven. Here's what it says,
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  Speaker 1: be angry and don't sin, don't let the sun go
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  Speaker 1: down on your wrath, and don't give place to the devil.
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  Speaker 1: So someone might look at that verse and be like, well,
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  Speaker 1: that's kind of contradictory to what James says, where it
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  Speaker 1: says that you know, anger is filthiness and wickedness, so
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  Speaker 1: how do these two things go together. Well, you have
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  Speaker 1: to look at the key phrase in James one verse twenty.
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  Speaker 1: It says the anger of man doesn't produce the righteousness
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  Speaker 1: of God. There are plenty times in the Old Testament
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  Speaker 1: where we see God the Father get very angry, and
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  Speaker 1: even in the New Testament, Jesus got angry on multiple occasions.
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  Speaker 1: And we know that God cannot sin, so anger in
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  Speaker 1: and of itself is not a sin. But it becomes
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  Speaker 1: a sin when there's no forgiveness involved, when you allow
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  Speaker 1: it to eat up your life, when you become jaded
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  Speaker 1: with the world and unloving toward people, or maybe an
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  Speaker 1: innocent person feels your wrath because something frustrating happened to
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  Speaker 1: you at work earlier, and you know, the cashier is
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  Speaker 1: just making you so angry. I remember years ago when
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  Speaker 1: I worked as a hairdresser, there was this woman who
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  Speaker 1: came in to get her hair done, not by me
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  Speaker 1: but somebody else. And it was near Christmas time. As
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  Speaker 1: this woman was leaving, the girl was like, hey, Merry Christmas,
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  Speaker 1: and the lady just freaked out on the girl and
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  Speaker 1: was like, what's Mary about it, and just like really
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  Speaker 1: went off on this girl, and you know, the entire
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  Speaker 1: salon was kind of like whoa. You know, that was
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  Speaker 1: sort of crazy. Now, in this woman's defense, about an
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  Speaker 1: hour later, she called the salon and was like, I
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  Speaker 1: had a really bad day and it's been a rough
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  Speaker 1: year and you know, things are going hard, and I
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  Speaker 1: just want to apologize to that girl that I lashed
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  Speaker 1: out at. And I mean, it was nice of her
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  Speaker 1: to do that, but that's the kind of thing where,
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  Speaker 1: you know, if something is building up inside of you,
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  Speaker 1: you might take it out on an innocent person just
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  Speaker 1: because they did something to frustrate you. That is when
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  Speaker 1: anger becomes a sin. So it says, therefore, putting away
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  Speaker 1: all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the
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  Speaker 1: implanted word, which is able to save your souls. So
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  Speaker 1: we have to do this not just with other people,
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  Speaker 1: but also when it comes to studying the word of God. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: we should be swift to hear what other people are saying,
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  Speaker 1: slow to speak, and also slow to anger with other people,
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  Speaker 1: but we also have to be swift to hear God's
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  Speaker 1: word slow to speak God's word. There's a verse just
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  Speaker 1: in a couple chapters James three, Verse one that says,
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  Speaker 1: let not many of you be teachers my brothers, knowing
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  Speaker 1: that we will receive heavier judgment. So not everybody is
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  Speaker 1: meant to be a teacher of God's word, because you
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  Speaker 1: have to do your due diligence with God's word instead
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  Speaker 1: of just speaking on something that you don't necessarily know about. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this doesn't mean you can't be an evangelist. We are
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  Speaker 1: all called to be evangelists, but we're not all called
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  Speaker 1: to be teachers. There's a difference between evangelism and being
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  Speaker 1: a teacher. In fact, with evangelism, you don't even have
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  Speaker 1: to open up your mouth necessarily. You can just shine
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  Speaker 1: the light of Jesus through your actions, through what you do,
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  Speaker 1: through the conversations that you have, by sharing a Bible
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  Speaker 1: verse with somebody who is hurting, or even sharing your
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  Speaker 1: testimony with somebody, and that's also not teaching anybody. That
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  Speaker 1: is just sharing your story, how God affected your life,
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  Speaker 1: how your life changed after you became a Christian. Those
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  Speaker 1: are both very effective tactics to being an evangelist. And
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  Speaker 1: sometimes you might have to talk about the gospel message,
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  Speaker 1: basically saying you know who Jesus is, what he did,
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  Speaker 1: and how he rose from the dead, how he's our savior.
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  Speaker 1: You know the fundamental beliefs of Christianity. You might have
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  Speaker 1: to explain those to somebody, but that is not teaching
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  Speaker 1: the inner workings of theology and Christology. Those things should
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  Speaker 1: be left up to the teachers, and we aren't supposed
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  Speaker 1: to be many teachers. Now. Granted, I am a teacher,
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  Speaker 1: and it says in James three, verse one that I
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  Speaker 1: am going to receive a heavier judgment than all of
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  Speaker 1: you faithful listeners out there. And that is something that
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  Speaker 1: I need to be taking very very seriously. That God
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  Speaker 1: will judge me harsher if I purposely abuse or miss
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  Speaker 1: use scripture to fit my own agenda, or if I
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  Speaker 1: don't do my due diligence to study something properly and
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  Speaker 1: I just start spewing, you know, whatever I want to
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  Speaker 1: spew about James chapter one without really researching what this
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  Speaker 1: passage has to say. So I shouldn't be speaking things
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  Speaker 1: about God's word if I don't really understand what it
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  Speaker 1: says or what it means, because at that point in time,
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  Speaker 1: I am just making stuff up on the fly about
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  Speaker 1: God's Word without truly understanding the text. And that should
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  Speaker 1: be something very heavy for every teacher of God's word
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  Speaker 1: because we are teaching it to other people. We are
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  Speaker 1: teaching what God said, the God of the universe said
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  Speaker 1: to other people, so we teachers must be very very careful.
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  Speaker 1: It is a warning to us and f any teacher
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  Speaker 1: that says, oh, well, the Holy Spirit will just give
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  Speaker 1: me the words to say, well, that's a twisting of
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  Speaker 1: Luke Chapter twelve, eleven and twelve, which says, and this
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  Speaker 1: is Jesus himself speaking. When they bring you before the synagogue,
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  Speaker 1: the rulers and the authorities, don't be anxious how or
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  Speaker 1: what you will answer or what you will say, for
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit will teach you in that same hour
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  Speaker 1: what you must say. So that is not talking about
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  Speaker 1: like teaching God's word, but rather giving a defense for
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  Speaker 1: yourself when you are potentially on death row in front
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  Speaker 1: of all of these people because you are a Christian.
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  Speaker 1: That is what Jesus is talking about, not about, you know,
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  Speaker 1: discussing God's Word on your podcast or in front of
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  Speaker 1: church on Sunday mornings. So yes, just as other skills
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  Speaker 1: take time to learn and to really understand before you
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  Speaker 1: can do them at a higher level. Like you know,
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  Speaker 1: you wouldn't just sit down at the piano and say
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  Speaker 1: that you understand everything about the piano if you don't
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  Speaker 1: study it and learn it and figure out how to
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  Speaker 1: read sheet music. You shouldn't do that with the Word
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  Speaker 1: of God either. So basically, understand God's word first before
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  Speaker 1: you start to talk about it, even if it's one
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  Speaker 1: little passage like if you want to be an effective
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  Speaker 1: evangelist where you're really speaking the gospel message. Make sure
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  Speaker 1: that you have that gospel down pat Now, that doesn't
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  Speaker 1: mean that somebody isn't going to ask you tough questions,
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  Speaker 1: and you might do your best to answer them, but
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  Speaker 1: probably the better response is to say, I don't really
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  Speaker 1: know that right now, let me study it and i'll
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  Speaker 1: get back to you. Slow to speak until you really
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  Speaker 1: understand what God's word says, until it's been sunk deep
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  Speaker 1: in your heart. And also slow to anger, because again,
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  Speaker 1: when we have anger in our hearts, it doesn't just
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  Speaker 1: affect ourselves or other people, but it also affects the
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  Speaker 1: spiritual fruit in our own lives. When we have unresolved
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  Speaker 1: bitterness or anger or resentment, or if we're just jaded
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  Speaker 1: with the world, if we're not showing love to other people,
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  Speaker 1: that really is going to cause us to become stagnant
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  Speaker 1: and hinder the righteousness of God. That is what the
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  Speaker 1: Book of First John talks completely about. It talks about
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  Speaker 1: what happens to a Christian when they don't have any love.
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  Speaker 1: There's also a warning, and I believe Revelation chapter three
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  Speaker 1: let me get there real quick so I can read
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  Speaker 1: it to you guys. Actually it was Revelation two one
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  Speaker 1: through seven. And this is a letter to the Church
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  Speaker 1: of Ephesus. And this is God speaking, he says, He
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  Speaker 1: who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he
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  Speaker 1: who walks among the seven golden lamp stands, says these things.
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  Speaker 1: I know your works and your toil, and your perseverance,
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  Speaker 1: and that you can't tolerate evil men, and have tested
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  Speaker 1: those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and
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  Speaker 1: found them false. You have perseverance and have endured for
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  Speaker 1: my name's sake, and have not grown weary. But I
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  Speaker 1: have this against you, that you left your first love.
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  Speaker 1: Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and
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  Speaker 1: do the first works, or else I am coming to
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  Speaker 1: you swiftly, and I will move your lamp stand out
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  Speaker 1: of its place unless you repent. But this you have,
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  Speaker 1: that you hate the works of the Nicolaydens, which I
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  Speaker 1: also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear
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  Speaker 1: what the spirit says to the assemblies. So that is
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  Speaker 1: a warning to the Church of Ephesus. Apparently they left
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  Speaker 1: their first love. Now this has been translated multiple ways.
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  Speaker 1: Some people think that they left Jesus essentially, but probably
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  Speaker 1: not considering that they endured for Jesus' namesake. I would
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  Speaker 1: guess that this means that they left the love that
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  Speaker 1: they once had. They became jaded with the world, bitter, angry,
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  Speaker 1: irritated all the sin and the corruption that they saw.
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  Speaker 1: They had that orgay kind of anger that James chapter
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  Speaker 1: one talks about, that deep seated bitterness, and this correlates
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  Speaker 1: perfectly with James Chapter one, verse twenty one. We have
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  Speaker 1: to put away all filthiness and overflowing wickedness, receive with
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: humility the implanted word, which is able to save souls.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: And continuing in verse twenty two and twenty three, it says,
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  Speaker 1: be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding
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  Speaker 1: your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of
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  Speaker 1: the word and not a doer, he is like a
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  Speaker 1: man looking at his natural face in a mirror, For
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  Speaker 1: he sees himself, and he goes away and immediately forgets
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  Speaker 1: what kind of man he was. But he who looks
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  Speaker 1: into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being
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  Speaker 1: a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work,
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  Speaker 1: this man will be blessed in what he does. Not
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  Speaker 1: only do we need to get rid of this anger
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  Speaker 1: that we might be having and receive God's word with humility.
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  Speaker 1: But we also shouldn't just be hearers of God's word,
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  Speaker 1: but we have to be doers as well, because if
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  Speaker 1: we're hearers, it actually says that we are deluding ourselves.
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  Speaker 1: And he gives this analogy in verse twenty three. He says,
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  Speaker 1: if anyone is a hearer of the word and not
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  Speaker 1: a doer, he's like a man looking at his natural
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  Speaker 1: face in a mirror. He sees himself and goes away
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  Speaker 1: and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. So
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  Speaker 1: this is an analogy actually of deep study of the Word.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, this person James is talking about might know
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  Speaker 1: the Bible inside and out. They might have tons of
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  Speaker 1: passes is memorized. They might really understand the core truths
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  Speaker 1: of Scripture, but unfortunately they don't apply it to their
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  Speaker 1: own lives. If you just study yourself in the mirror
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  Speaker 1: and don't brush your hair, and don't brush your teeth,
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  Speaker 1: and don't get the gunk out of your eyes or
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  Speaker 1: wash your face, then that mirror doesn't benefit you. The
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  Speaker 1: same thing goes for somebody who is studying the Word
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  Speaker 1: of God, who really wants to understand theology and history
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  Speaker 1: and everything else, and they have a good grasp of
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  Speaker 1: God's word, but they don't apply it. Just like this
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  Speaker 1: man who studies himself in the mirror without using that
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  Speaker 1: mirror as a tool. It says he sees himself and
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  Speaker 1: goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
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  Speaker 1: So as he was studying himself in the mirror, he
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  Speaker 1: might have done some self reflection. He might have been like, oh, man,
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  Speaker 1: I really need to brush my hair, and he thinks
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  Speaker 1: about it and he's like, yeah, yeah, I certainly have
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  Speaker 1: problems in these areas. But then he doesn't do anything.
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  Speaker 1: He just walks away from the mirror and forgets about
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  Speaker 1: it and goes out into the world a mess without
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  Speaker 1: making himself presentable. That is what we can do too.
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how studied someone is in God's word
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  Speaker 1: if they are not applying it in their own lives.
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  Speaker 1: It could be that somebody is looking at God's word
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  Speaker 1: and maybe even listening to this episode on James and
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  Speaker 1: being like, yeah, you know, I definitely have an anger problem.
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  Speaker 1: I definitely have some bitterness in my life. And you
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  Speaker 1: think about it and you're like, I need to get
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  Speaker 1: rid of that, you know, that's not good, that's not godly,
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  Speaker 1: and then you close your Bible and the podcast turns off,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: and you know, an hour later, somebody makes you really
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: angry and you forget everything that you had just learned
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: and the conviction that you had. Now, of course, that
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean that we're going to be perfect. We are
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: always going to sin. What did Paul say in the
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Book of Philippians. He said, I did not achieve perfection.
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  Speaker 1: He was not going to achieve perfection because we are
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: in an imperfect world, and we have the sin nature,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: and we have flaws, and we have our humanity, and
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: we have Satan tempting us. We have all of these
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: things working against us. But there is something so much
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: more powerful than all of these things, and that is
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Jesus himself. Jesus said, in this world, we're going to
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: have temptations and trials and problems, but take heart, because
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: he has overcome the world. There is something so much
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: more powerful helping us along the way, leading us away
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: from temptation, giving us a way out, helping us in
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: our struggles and our trials and our temptations. We have
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Jesus helping us, and we have the Word of God.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Helping us as well. So that is why we need
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: to not just be hearers of God's word but doers.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: We need to do our best to get rid of
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: these sins out of our lives, not to be habitual sinners,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: not to have any addictions that are getting in the
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: way with our relationship with God, not to have unresolved
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: anger that is just eating us up inside. We have
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: to look into the perfect law verse twenty five of
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: freedom and continue not being hearers who forgets, but a
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: doer of the work. This man will be blessed in
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: what he does. So God's word provides us with freedom,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: and we need to continue in that freedom, not in
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: the sin nature that produces slavery and death in our lives.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: God's word produces freedom. So we must have the truth
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  Speaker 1: of the Gospels sink deep in our lives, and not
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: just hear it, but do it. And concluding with verses
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  Speaker 1: twenty six and twenty seven, if anyone among you thinks
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  Speaker 1: himself to be religious, while he doesn't bridle his tongue,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: he deceives his heart. This man's religion is worthless, pure
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: religion and undefiled before our God and Father. Is this
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: to keep oneself unstained by the world. So the world
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: has a tendency to stain us with its corruption and
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: its vices, and its achievements and wealth that we can
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: gain here. Now, it's not always bad to achieve something,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: it's not always bad to have wealth, but these things,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: if we allow them to, can certainly stain us. We
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: need to keep ourselves pure from the world, and we
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: also need to keep ourselves in love for others people,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: specifically by visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: So the people who are the most vulnerable in society,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: the children who do not have a father figure in
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: their lives, and also widows who have lost their husbands.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: They are considered kind of to be the dregs of society,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: which is why Christians were called to support widows in need.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: In fact, there's a whole chapter on that that we
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: covered in What was it? Was it First Corinthians? I
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: cannot remember, no, no, no, it was like Titus or something.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: I cannot I'm so sorry, I cannot remember when we
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: covered the widow Oh no, no, no, it was First Timothy.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: That's when we covered the widows. Well, I'm just having
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: this conversation with myself right now. I am so sorry.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I will find that episode in link it in the
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: description of this episode so that you guys can listen
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: to it. But yeah, we talked about this whole chapter
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: about how Christians need to take care of widows, the
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: people that others would consider to be just filthy and
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: someone you wouldn't want to associate with. That is who
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: James is talking about right here, reaching these people, fatherless
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: children and widows in their affliction. So as Christians, we
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: should never be mistreating any fatherless child or any widow.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: There are myriads a versus warning against this. So Christians
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: need to be very very careful about what they do
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: to fatherless children and widows. God will be angry with
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: the individual that mistreats these people specifically, so you have
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: to be very careful about that. But concluding, James says
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: that pure religion, so religion is not always a bad thing,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: by the way, because he says pure religion, an undefiled
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: religion before God is to protect the fatherless and the widows.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: And if you don't protect these people, even though you
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: have the most religion on the planet, even though you
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: go to church or Mass multiple times a week, but
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: you have no love for other people, and you mistreat
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: the most vulnerable in your society or refuse to associate
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: with them, your religion becomes worthless. All right, faithful listeners,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: I'm going to move to an ad break, and then
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: after that I will have one last point for all
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: of you guys before I end today's episode. Verse twenty
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: six also says this, if anyone among you thinks himself
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: to be religious while he doesn't bridle his tongue but
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: deceives his heart, this man's religion is worthless. So true
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: religion to God is not just visiting the fatherless and
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: the widows, but also making sure to bridle your tongue.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: And what that means, you know, Think about a horse.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: For those of you who know horses, which I don't
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: very well, but I've ridden horses a handful of times.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: You put the bridle you know on the horse so
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: that you can guide the horse where you want it
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: to go. In the same way, you kind of have
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: to put a bridle and bit in your own mouth
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: and guard it and make sure you guide it where
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: you want it to go instead of just letting things
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: fly out of your mouth willing nilly, whether it be
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: gossip or angry words, or vengeance against somebody, or mistreating
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: or abusing somebody with our words. If we don't have
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: control of our mouth as Christians, even though we're doing
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: so many other religious things, our religion again is worth
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: nothing to us. And if you guys are interested in
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: this topic, you should read through One Corinthians thirteen because
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: it correlates very strongly with everything that chapter has to say,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: and I'll probably link that episode in the description of
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: this episode as well. Speaking of all that, make sure
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: to check out the description because I have a lot
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: of related stuff in there. I usually put episodes that
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: correlate to the topic for today so that you guys
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: can have more information regarding what we discussed, and I
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: also put links to everything that I'm associated with as well,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: both the devotional content that I've written and the YouTube
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: channel that I have, which by the way, I've got
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: more ideas coming up in the future, or my YouTube channel,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: which I'm very very excited about. So make sure if
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: you haven't subscribed to the YouTube channel, that you do
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: so so you don't miss an upcoming episode. But faithful listeners.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: I hope you all have a fantastic and wonderful rest
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: of your Tuesday. If you want to become a member
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: and gain access to this podcast ad free, check out
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: the link in the description that says KOFE faithful listener,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: happy listening, and God bless. I just want to take
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: a second to thank the team at Life Audio for
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: their partnership with me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: if you go to life audio dot com you will
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.