Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / 17.9 - James 2:1-13 - Don’t Show Favoritism In Your Life

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17.9 - James 2:1-13 - Don’t Show Favoritism In Your Life · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  We hope that this podcast will help you to know Christ, grow in
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  His Word, and show His love to others.
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  Let's dive right in. Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk.
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  Today we are in James chapter 2 and we're going to be in verses
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  one through 13. Today.
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  James chapter 2, verses one through 13.
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  James, pastor of the church in Jerusalem.
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  He's writing to some people that were once a part of his local
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  church but had been scattered all throughout the Roman Empire
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  as a result of persecution. And he is writing to these
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  people that they are encountering a specific type of
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  problem within their churches as they're all across the Roman
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  Empire. And it's a recurring issue,
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  namely that as they are worshipping and as these
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  churches are getting together, there is a persistent temptation
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  to favoritism, a persistent temptation of favoritism.
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  And James here commands them in the name of Jesus that they
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  would not simply love people that can do stuff for them, but
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  that they would love those who can do nothing for them.
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  And he even puts in some like practical reasons for why they
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  would do this and why they would not simply love the rich.
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  And he, he makes it very clear that showing favoritism in
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  church is a incredibly offensive sin to a holy God.
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  That has consequences. Now for you and I today we can
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  do one of two things as we come to this passage.
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  We can either look at it and say, OK, whatever.
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  I enjoy whatever aspect of ministry that I love.
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  I'm going to look at everyone that doesn't value what I do as
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  much. And I'm going to judge them for
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  not being as holy as I am in this particular scenario.
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  So I'm just going to throw in like a random thing.
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  Anyone that goes, Oh well, I love working in the nursery.
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  I don't know if we have any of our nursery workers that listen
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  to Tabernacle talk. If you do, thank you for serving
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  in nursery. I, I deeply, really appreciate
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  that, especially since I've got a kid in nursery.
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  And So what you do benefits me and it benefits my wife whenever
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  you serve in nursery. And I love that.
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  Thank you so much for serving in that way.
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  But let's say a person said, OK, I serve in the nursery and I'm
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  going to become really embittered against everyone that
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  doesn't serve in the nursery with me.
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  And so as a result, I'm going to love the nursery workers and I'm
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  going to look down on those that could serve in nursery.
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  But don't I, I want to just like jump right in here right at the
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  very beginning and say that is not the point of this.
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  The point of this passage is not choose a new group of people to
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  be your favorite and choose a new group of people to look down
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  on. That is not the point of the
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  passage. The point is the love that we
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  are called to have in Jesus is universal and there will be
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  people we naturally have more of an affinity for and people that
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  we naturally kind of buck against and do not love as much.
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  The point of this passage is have the love of Jesus in your
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  interactions. Actually, right after this
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  episode, you could go listen to the episodes from first John 3
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  and 4 and you would get like the why behind the practical thing
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  that we hear right here in James.
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  So let me read through the passage and we'll look at a
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  couple of things that we need for today.
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  James chapter 2 verse #1 My brothers and sisters, do not
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  show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious
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  Lord Jesus Christ. And I do want to define
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  favoritism for us real quick because it's going to come up so
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  much in the passage, and I want to make sure that we're looking,
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  we're thinking the same way about it.
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  So favoritism, this would be partiality.
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  This is something that is not found in God.
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  There is no favoritism with God. That's mentioned in Romans 2 and
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  verse 11, Ephesians 6 and verse #9 Colossians 2 and or sorry,
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  Colossians 3 and verse 25. And then here in the book of
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  James, God does not show partiality.
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  He does not show favoritism towards anything.
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  The New Living Translation would translate this phrase as
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  favoring some people over others.
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  The New American Standard would call this an attitude of
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  personal favoritism. Or if you have maybe an older
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  translation, you would see this phrased as a respect of persons
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  that you like. You treat you think about one
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  person with more love than another.
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  This would be the same kind of sin that you would see exhibited
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  in the life of Isaac and Rebecca, that Isaac loved Esau
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  more than Jacob, and Rebecca loved Jacob more than Esau.
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  Or going down a generation, Jacob loved Rachel and not Leah,
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  and Jacob loved Joseph and Benjamin and not the ten other
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  sons that he had. So we are called as Christians
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  to not show favoritism as we hold on to the faith in our
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  glorious Lord Jesus Christ. OK, what does this look like to
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  show favoritism? Is it just you know, I love
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  Samantha more than I love any other woman on earth.
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  Is that favoritism? No.
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  And as we dive into verse 2, we'll see that for if if someone
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  comes into your meeting, into the assembly, into church and
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  they are wearing a gold ring and they're dressed in fine clothes
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  and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in.
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  If you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and
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  say, sit here in a good place, and yet you say to the poor
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  person, stand over there or sit here on the floor by my
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  footstool. Haven't you made distinctions
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  among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
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  OK, what does favoritism looks like?
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  Favoritism looks like benefiting, blessing, doing for
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  other people, taking actions to actively to actively bless or
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  honor one person or to actively degrade someone else or to
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  demean them in some way. So it's hey, here's a nice place
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  to sit. We're going to put the person
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  that's got, you know, the Gucci clothes or the Armani clothing.
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  They've got, you know, the Super nice shoes.
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  We're going to put them right up here at the front of the church.
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  Frankly, I, I might put it this way, you know, for a, for a
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  church, you know, maybe they, all of their pictures or
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  something at a church are always of like, you know, the most
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  picturesque people and that the ones that look like they have it
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  all together. And then you would never see
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  anyone that maybe, you know, is a little bit older in their walk
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  and, and you would never see old people on their social media
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  feeds. But it's just appealing to, hey,
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  we're cool. We're we're hip, we've got lots
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  of money. And so come love us as a result
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  of this superficial thing. As opposed to this person here
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  that they're saying, OK, if you're poor, we don't want you
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  in the nice places in the church.
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  We're just going to stick you in the back somewhere.
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  And so we ought to have a love that whether a person comes in
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  and they've got, you know, if you will, they've got the suit
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  and tie and they've got the nice watch and they're, you know, all
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  put together. We shouldn't love and treat them
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  better than we treat those that come in.
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  And maybe they don't have a great home situation and maybe
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  they've worn, you know, the same shirt and pants every week that
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  they've been to church for for three years.
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  That's OK. We love those people.
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  We want them here. And we are not going to, if you
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  will, have more of a care and love for the rich than we do for
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  the poor. Now, this was something that
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  they were able to act on like really, in really bad ways there
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  in the 1st century. It's not something that we
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  necessarily have as much nowadays.
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  Or maybe honestly this might be something that as I continue to
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  meditate on this, I can think of ways that it's like, Oh yeah,
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  man, in this way and in this way we disenfranchise those that
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  have less. One way that I've seen this
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  played out in churches sometimes is, if you will, kind of a pay
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  to play way of fellowship or group activities that everything
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  costs money. And so there's money involved in
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  the fellowship, there's money involved in, you know, if you
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  want to go to a church activity, Oh well, you got to make sure
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  that you've got money to be able to do it as opposed to centering
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  your, your time together around conversation and fellowship and
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  maybe outreach blessing, like those ways that you can involve
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  everyone regardless of their financial status.
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  It can be fun to do things with other believers, but kind of the
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  bread and butter of a church's work together ought to be
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  accessible to everyone regardless of their financial
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  standing. So then in verse 5, James brings
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  it down to a really practical level.
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  He says, don't show favoritism. That's bad.
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  You have made distinctions among yourselves.
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  This is a person that I'll care for.
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  This is a person that you know, he can sit on the floor.
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  He says that's super messed up. You guys should not do that.
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  And then he says, and if you refuse to hear like this
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  pastoral counsel and rebuke, let me just get really practical
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  with you guys. Verse 5 Listen, my dear brothers
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  and sisters, didn't God choose the poor in this world to be
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  rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom?
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  He has promised to those who love him.
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  You can think, you know, blessed are the poor in spirit for
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  theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. He says, didn't God choose the
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  poor, not the rich? You know, it wasn't Herod, it
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  wasn't Pilate, it wasn't Caesar that received the Lord.
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  Instead it was people like, you know, Peter and the disciples
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  that at times, you know, were, you know, hard pressed to pay
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  taxes and different things like that.
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  As you would read the one account in Scripture where the
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  Pharisees tried to mess with Jesus and and with Peter and all
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  of that. So God didn't choose those that
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  are the richest. He chose just the anyone.
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  And the poor have always had a recognition of the fact that
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  this world is not their home and that they have to have a
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  reliance on God. You can look at Jesus's remarks
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  even in Mark, it's 10 or 11. We're talking to the rich young
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  ruler, and the rich young ruler does not want to give up his
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  stuff to follow Jesus. And Jesus says it's easier for a
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  camel to enter the eye of a needle than for the rich to
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  enter the Kingdom of heaven. And it shocked the apostles
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  because that's not the way that the Jewish people thought at the
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  time. And they said, how well, if the
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  rich can't get in, then who can? And he says, well, with man it's
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  impossible with, but with God, nothing is impossible.
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  It's based on the goodness of God, not on material riches.
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  Verse 6 James says to these people, yet you have dishonored
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  the poor, these ones that God has chosen.
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  He says, don't the rich oppress you and drag you into court?
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  Don't they blasphemy the good name that was invoked over you?
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  He says, these rich people are the ones that are actually
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  dragging you into court and they're oppressing you and
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  they're blaspheming the name of Jesus.
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  And so why are you trying to like cozy on up to the rich when
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  they mistreat you and they don't believe in Jesus And instead
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  they are operating in in really, really bad ways, the kind of
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  things that you would also see in First Corinthians 6 that's
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  like, hey, if I'm wronged, instead of forgiveness and
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  operating in love, I'm going to sue you, which was something
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  that Paul was adamantly against. And he says, listen, you have a
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  unbelieving world that is watching your interactions with
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  one another, and it's bringing shame on the name of Jesus.
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  And so James here very practically says, even if you're
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  going to ignore what God has done simply for the fact that
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  these people, whenever they get tired or frustrated with you or
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  with you, you know, trying to just smooch up to him for their
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  riches, they take you to court and they blasphemy the name of
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  Jesus. So don't pursue them.
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  Don't do that. Verse #8 Indeed, if you fulfill
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  the royal law prescribed in the scripture, love your neighbor as
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  yourself, you are doing well. He says the goal is love other
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  people the way that you love yourself, whether they are rich
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  or poor. This is not to say don't love
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  the rich, but it's to say love them all as you love them as you
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  love yourself and don't choose to love and bless those that you
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  hope to get something from and then mistreat and malign those
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  who can't do anything for you. Verse #9 If however, you show
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  favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as
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  transgressors. When you're showing favoritism,
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  you're not loving your neighbor as yourself.
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  Instead, you're loving yourself through manipulating your
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  neighbor. Verse #10 for whoever keeps the
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  entire law and yet stumbles at one point is guilty of breaking
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  it all. For he who said don't commit
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  adultery also said don't murder. So if you don't commit adultery
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  but you murder, you are a law breaker.
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  He says you're sinning in this area.
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  And you might be like, well, I haven't committed adultery.
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  I haven't committed idolatry. I haven't, you know, denounced
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  the name of Jesus. Am I really like a law breaker?
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  Is this really sin? It's not that bad.
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  And James says, listen, if you break 1 portion of the law, in
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  this instance, the portion of the law that says love your
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  neighbor as yourself, he says if you break any portion of the
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  law, you are a Sinner. You are a law breaker.
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  This is the same truth that we know even in relation to our
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  salvation. It's why no one is exempt from
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  the punishment that we all deserve for our sin.
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  That whether you are murderer and adulterer and idolater, if
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  you, you know, have dishonored your parents, if you do not love
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  your neighbor as yourself, no matter what your sin is, we are
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  all condemned as a result of sin.
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  And so James says, don't pursue sin.
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  Instead pursue love. Verse 12 Speak and act as those
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  who are to be judged by the law of freedom.
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  He says God's word is going to judge you on that day of the
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  Bema seat judgement when you stand before the judgement seat
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  of Christ and he says so I want you to talk and act like God's
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  law is going to judge you because it is it's a law of
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  freedom. We read that in chapter 1.
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  It's not a law of oppression. You are judged and not by your
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  religious minutia. You're judged by whether or not
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  you have loved others, and so talk and act like you are going
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  to be judged by your love. Verse 13 For judgment is without
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  mercy to the one who has not shown mercy, mercy triumphs over
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  judgment. Here's what's being said.
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  Mercy is God's like He loves to show mercy.
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  We read that in Jonah 4. That's Exodus over and over and
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  over again. God does not want anyone to
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  perish, but that everyone would come to repentance.
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  So He loves mercy and showing mercy.
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  However, if we do not have love or mercy, then all that is left
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  for us. So God walks in the way of mercy
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  and love and forgiveness. If we walk in that path,
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  wonderful, then when we are judged on that day, we will be
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  able to praise Jesus for what He has done in and through us
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  through His Holy Spirit, you know, bringing out love in our
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  lives. But if we have resisted the
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  Spirit and we have not walked in God's way of love and we have
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  walked in harshness and favoritism and and hatred and
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  apathy and lack of love towards others, especially those within
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  our local church, then it says judgment will be without mercy.
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  That we will, as Paul would say it in First Corinthians, yeah,
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  we'll make it through the judgement seat of Christ because
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  we are found in Christ and we will be saved.
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  He says yet so as by fire, that if you will, we're going to come
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  through and we're going to smell a little smoky.
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  We've gone through that forge and instead of the result of our
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  life being gold, silver, and precious stones, as we read in
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  Second Timothy 2, it will be wood, hay, and stubble that will
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  all burn up. That the motives and actions of
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  our our heart and our life. They were all selfish and they
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  were not done out of love for others.
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  They were done out of a love for just ourselves.
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  And so in that day, we have nothing to show for it, nothing
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  to show for our actions. So let us walk in the path of
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  love and mercy and practical care and love for others in a
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  way that does not disenfranchise others.
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  Now, I'm certain as we're going through this, I'm going to be
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  praying after I end this episode.
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  Like, Lord, would you show me what this looks like in my life?
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  Can you show me what favoritism looks like for Brian's self?
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  And I'd encourage you pray for that as well because I know that
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  all of God's word is practical for each of us.
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  But because I'm not living in a, you know, Messianic Jewish
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  congregation 2000 years ago, some of the specifics are going
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  to be different for me. I don't tell people where to sit
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  in church. And So what favoritism looks
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  like in my life is going to be different.
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  And what favoritism looks like in your life is going to be
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  different. It's not kindness that's being
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  condemned here. It's partiality towards one
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  against another, if you will. It's I'm choosing to be good to
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  someone else and I'm choosing to neglect someone else.
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  Let us not operate in that way, but let's operate in a love that
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  says, OK, I'm going to love you and I'm going to do for you what
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  I would want done for me in this situation.
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  So let's pray together and let's ask God to guide us in the way
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  that we need to go. Thanks for tuning in.
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  We'll pick up in verse #14 tomorrow.