Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / James 3:13-18 - Are You Operating with Worldly Wisdom or Spiritual Wisdom?

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James 3:13-18 - Are You Operating with Worldly Wisdom or Spiritual Wisdom? · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Well, good morning there, friends and faithful listeners.
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  Speaker 1: My name is Jen I am the host of the
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  Speaker 1: Bible Explained podcast, and I am so excited to delve
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  Speaker 1: into this chapter with you guys. We are going to
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  Speaker 1: finish up James three and this is a spicy topic.
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  Speaker 1: This is a topic that really fires me up because
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  Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about selfish ambition and jealousy
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  Speaker 1: in the church, and it is in a lot of churches.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to say every church, but in a
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  Speaker 1: lot of them. And I would even argue the vast
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  Speaker 1: majority of churches deal with this particular issue. So as
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  Speaker 1: Christians who want to follow Jesus, we really got to
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  Speaker 1: be aware of all of this and especially remove it
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  Speaker 1: out of our own lives before we can really say
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  Speaker 1: anything about anybody else. But you know, unfortunately, a lot
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  Speaker 1: of pastors, in the way that churches are set up,
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  Speaker 1: encourage this kind of behavior in the church. So we
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  Speaker 1: got to talk about this topic today and we will.
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  Speaker 1: Right after a quick word from a sponsor, let's turn
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  Speaker 1: to James chapter three and read this. I will be
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  Speaker 1: reading as I usually do, from the web. Also, grab
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  Speaker 1: your delicious cup of seven weeks coffee. Which is what
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  Speaker 1: I have right here. In fact, I ruined my seven
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  Speaker 1: weeks coffee by mixing it in with a different type
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  Speaker 1: of coffee this week because I ran out of seven
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  Speaker 1: weeks and I was like, ah, just mix in this
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  Speaker 1: store bought coffee with my seven weeks and it completely
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  Speaker 1: ruined the flavor. And I'm really really bummed about it.
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  Speaker 1: I completely destroyed my delicious seven weeks coffee with whatever
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  Speaker 1: brand of generic coffee. This is I'm becoming a coffee snob.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. If you're interested in seven Weeks coffee,
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  Speaker 1: coffee brand that supports life in the womb. Let's go
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  Speaker 1: ahead and read James thirteen through eighteen. Once you're ready,
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  Speaker 1: Let's give reverence to God's word together. Who is wise
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  Speaker 1: and understanding among you? Let him show by his good
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  Speaker 1: conduct that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom.
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  Speaker 1: But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in
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  Speaker 1: your heart, don't boast and don't lie against the truth.
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  Speaker 1: This wisdom is not that which comes down from above,
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  Speaker 1: but it's earthly, sensual, and demonic. For where jealousy and
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  Speaker 1: selfish ambition are there is confusion and every evil deed.
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  Speaker 1: But the wisdom that is from above is first pure,
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  Speaker 1: then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits,
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  Speaker 1: without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness
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  Speaker 1: is sown in peace by those who make peace. This
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  Speaker 1: portion of James segues perfectly from what we talked about
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  Speaker 1: on Tuesday when we mentioned the be not many Teachers thing,
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  Speaker 1: and we also talked about how the tongue is like
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  Speaker 1: a flame of fire, and your words truly do have consequences.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, words can kill, and we see that time
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  Speaker 1: and time again in scripture that they can damage lives
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  Speaker 1: and destroy people. So as a Christian, your words should
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  Speaker 1: not be like that. Obviously, you have to learn how
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  Speaker 1: to control your tongue. And James even says, you know,
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  Speaker 1: no man can control the tongue. It is like a
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  Speaker 1: flame of fire, kind of like a forest fire that
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  Speaker 1: just goes off and you know, does whatever it wants
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  Speaker 1: to do. But the Holy Spirit can absolutely help you
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  Speaker 1: tame your tongue. Now, this doesn't mean that we are
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  Speaker 1: going to be perfect in our speech all the time.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, James himself says in verse two that we
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  Speaker 1: all stumble in many things. Anyone who doesn't stumble in
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  Speaker 1: word is a perfect person able to bridle the whole body. Also,
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  Speaker 1: so even James is like, yeah, we're all going to stumble,
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  Speaker 1: We're all going to say things that we should not say.
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  Speaker 1: But the Holy Spirit will help us tame our tongues,
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  Speaker 1: and he will give us the words to say, essentially,
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  Speaker 1: and he will convict us to stay quiet and to
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  Speaker 1: not engage in unhelpful speech. So that is all we
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  Speaker 1: talked about on Tuesday. And now in verse thirteen for
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  Speaker 1: our passage for today, James goes back into the teaching thing.
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  Speaker 1: Remember in verse one, he says, let not many of
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  Speaker 1: you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive
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  Speaker 1: heavier judgment. And now in verse thirteen he says, who
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  Speaker 1: is wise and understanding among you, let him show by
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  Speaker 1: his good conduct that his deeds are done in the
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  Speaker 1: gentleness of wisdom. You know, you're not going to just
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  Speaker 1: be judged as a teacher by the things that you say,
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  Speaker 1: but also the way you conduct yourself. He mentions, these
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  Speaker 1: people who are wise and understanding, Now that's actually what
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish people called their rabbis and their priests. They
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  Speaker 1: called them the wise and understanding ones. So James here
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  Speaker 1: is talking specifically about teachers. So in other words, who
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  Speaker 1: here is a teacher among you? Let that teacher show
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  Speaker 1: by his good conduct that his deeds are done in
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  Speaker 1: gentleness of wisdom. So it's not just about the speech,
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  Speaker 1: though that is certainly the main battle right here. You
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  Speaker 1: have to learn how to control your tongue, but you
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  Speaker 1: also need to conduct yourself the right way. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: in One Timothy chapter three and five, and also in
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  Speaker 1: the Book of Titus, we already talked about the requirements
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  Speaker 1: for somebody to become an elder or in other words,
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  Speaker 1: an overseer or a teacher in the church. And a
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  Speaker 1: lot of it is how they conduct themselves. Are they
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  Speaker 1: good parents, are they good husbands? Are they good at teaching?
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  Speaker 1: Are they not envious? Are they drunkards? Basically all of
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  Speaker 1: it comes down to how they conduct themselves in a
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  Speaker 1: day to day basis. People can absolutely claim to be
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  Speaker 1: a good person, claim to be loving, but if they
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  Speaker 1: don't actually do the work to be loving, then they
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  Speaker 1: make themselves out to be a liar. So, of course,
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  Speaker 1: Bible teachers also have to conduct their lives well in fact.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus talks about this in Matthew chapter seven. It's not
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  Speaker 1: just about what a person says, it's about how they live.
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  Speaker 1: Matthew seven, starting in verse fifteen, Beware of false prophets
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  Speaker 1: who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are
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  Speaker 1: ravening wolves. By their fruits, you will know them. Do
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  Speaker 1: you gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles? Even so,
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  Speaker 1: every good tree produces good fruit, but the corrupt tree
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  Speaker 1: produces evil fruit. A good tree can't produce evil fruit.
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  Speaker 1: Neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit. Every tree
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  Speaker 1: that doesn't grow good fruit is cut down and thrown
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  Speaker 1: into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, by the conduct that they present themselves with.
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  Speaker 1: That's how you're going to know if somebody is a
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  Speaker 1: false teacher, or if somebody is a false prophet, or
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  Speaker 1: if somebody is truly speaking the words of God, You're
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  Speaker 1: gonna know them by their fruits. And that's what James
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  Speaker 1: chapter three says as well. Who is wise and understanding
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  Speaker 1: among you, let him show it by his good conduct
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  Speaker 1: that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom. Now,
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  Speaker 1: that term gentleness of wisdom could also be translated as
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  Speaker 1: the humility that comes from wisdom. In other words, a
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  Speaker 1: gentle spirit, a humble spirit. Not somebody that boasts about
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  Speaker 1: themselves all the time, not somebody that is brash or
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  Speaker 1: looking down on other people, but somebody who has a
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  Speaker 1: true humanis or gentleness of wisdom. That's another way you're
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  Speaker 1: going to know if a teacher is truly living by
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  Speaker 1: the spirit, are they humble? I am sure many of
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  Speaker 1: you guys have gone to a church where the pastor
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  Speaker 1: is just high and mighty and points his nose up
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  Speaker 1: and looks down at you as if you are some
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  Speaker 1: kind of an idiot if you even try to talk
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  Speaker 1: to him. My mom told me a story when she
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  Speaker 1: was a little kid about this cardinal that came to
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  Speaker 1: her parish, and this cardinal was just the most arrogant
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  Speaker 1: person she ever saw, and he acted as if my
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  Speaker 1: grandpa was just like a piece of trash. So my
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  Speaker 1: grandpa was like beating himself up over this exchange that
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  Speaker 1: had happened between him and this cardinal and saying like, oh,
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  Speaker 1: I should have kissed his feet or his ring or
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  Speaker 1: whatever he was saying. And my mom at the time,
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  Speaker 1: who was a young little kid, was like that guy
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  Speaker 1: was awful because he had no humility. And even my mom,
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  Speaker 1: who was a little kid, could pick that out, and
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  Speaker 1: that's stuff with her for a very very long time.
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  Speaker 1: She still tells that story. And I'm sure that you
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  Speaker 1: guys have experienced something like that as well, where these
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  Speaker 1: teachers really act all high and mighty, as if they
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  Speaker 1: are better than the average populace. But that is not true.
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  Speaker 1: Christian should not have any partiality because if you have partiality,
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  Speaker 1: you are not working in the spirit. So if you
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  Speaker 1: favor a rich man that comes into your congregation over
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  Speaker 1: the poor man, and you tell the poor man, hey,
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  Speaker 1: sit it on the floor while I give this this
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  Speaker 1: wealthy man the best seat in the house, that is wrong.
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  Speaker 1: First and foremost, every single person is a child of God,
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  Speaker 1: and God doesn't look at anybody as better or worse
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  Speaker 1: than another person. It says in scripture that he loves
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  Speaker 1: the entire world because we're all his creation. Every human
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  Speaker 1: being is created in the image of God. And so
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  Speaker 1: that's the first reason that we should not be showing
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  Speaker 1: partiality to people. But the second reason is if you're
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  Speaker 1: showing partiality to the people in the church. You know
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  Speaker 1: your brothers and sisters in Christ, then you're never going
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  Speaker 1: to be able to love people that are outside of
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  Speaker 1: the church. As Christians, we should never be showing partiality
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  Speaker 1: to anybody, so we have to be really careful of that.
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  Speaker 1: And I mean pastors. Unfortunately, they do show partiality to themselves.
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  Speaker 1: They're like, yes, I'm so much greater than all of these,
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  Speaker 1: you know, little sheep underneath me. But Scripture says that
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  Speaker 1: we are all like sheep, and Jesus had to come
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  Speaker 1: and pay the sins for all of us. So pastors
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  Speaker 1: are not excluded from that. And unfortunately, you know, the
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  Speaker 1: congregants of many churches as well also show partiality by
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  Speaker 1: showing special favor to the pastor over to other people.
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  Speaker 1: And you can see this when the pastor hurts somebody
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  Speaker 1: in the church, and all of the people side with
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  Speaker 1: that pastor, even though there are legitimate concerns of people
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  Speaker 1: who have been genuinely hurt by that pastor. Everybody crowds
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  Speaker 1: around the pastor because for some reason, his title of
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  Speaker 1: pastor makes him immune to any kind of criticism whatsoever
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  Speaker 1: in the church. But that is not what Scripture teaches.
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  Speaker 1: It does teach that we are to respect pastors. It
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  Speaker 1: does teach that we are supposed to submit to them
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  Speaker 1: and even obey them in most circumstances. But that's only
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  Speaker 1: if those pastors are doing the right thing. You do
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  Speaker 1: not submit to sin, and you do not obey sin
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  Speaker 1: under any circumstance. It does not matter who the person is.
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  Speaker 1: You don't submit to that. I mean, even look at
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  Speaker 1: the people in the Old Testament, Daniel, Shadrach, meshak Abednego.
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  Speaker 1: They did not submit to an evil king, though they
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  Speaker 1: would submit to him when he wasn't directly commanding them
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  Speaker 1: to sin against God. They'd submit to him, and they
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  Speaker 1: had deep respect for the king, but they would not
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  Speaker 1: submit to sin. And that is where a lot of
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  Speaker 1: the churches fall short. They submit to these pastors who
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  Speaker 1: are directly sinning. Here's what these pastors are doing in
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  Speaker 1: verse fourteen. If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition
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  Speaker 1: in your heart, don't boast and don't lie against the truth.
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  Speaker 1: And there it is right there. You know, these pastors
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  Speaker 1: who are not doing what God tells them to do.
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  Speaker 1: They talk about how much they know, They talk about
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  Speaker 1: how wonderful they are. Their degree the friends that they have.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes they'll even say, like I am the pastor, you
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  Speaker 1: cannot go against me. They'll say things like this, and
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  Speaker 1: some of them even lie against the truth. And what
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  Speaker 1: does James say right here? They have bitter jealousy and
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  Speaker 1: selfish ambition in their hearts. And this is not just
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  Speaker 1: a warning to pastors, by the way, this is a
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  Speaker 1: warning to everybody that you should not have bitter jealousy
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  Speaker 1: and selfish ambition. Which James will go into that topic
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  Speaker 1: in more depth than an upcoming chapter, but specifically in
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  Speaker 1: the case of pastors, many of them do have bitter
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  Speaker 1: jealousy and selfish ambition. Their selfish ambition is that they
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  Speaker 1: cannot be wrong, you know. Selfish ambition is basically self
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  Speaker 1: seeking for a specific goal, like something that's going to
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  Speaker 1: gain them an advantage for themselves, or money for themselves,
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  Speaker 1: or fame, control, prestige. All of these things are considered
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  Speaker 1: to be selfish ambition. Some of them are jealous as
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  Speaker 1: well because they don't like their church. They want a
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  Speaker 1: bigger church, they want a megachurch, they want a pastor
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  Speaker 1: Joe's church down the street. And they're almost like keeping
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  Speaker 1: up with the Joneses and they have bitter jealousy towards
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  Speaker 1: some of these other bigger churches as well. That's why
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  Speaker 1: James WARN's right here. If you have bitter jealousy and
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  Speaker 1: selfish ambition in your heart, don't boast, don't boast about
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  Speaker 1: how much wisdom you have. Don't boast about how good
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  Speaker 1: you are, how great of a pastor you are, And
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  Speaker 1: don't lie against the truth. Don't twist the truth for
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  Speaker 1: your selfish gain. Don't go against the truth for your
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  Speaker 1: selfish gain. It says in verse fifteen that this wisdom
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  Speaker 1: is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual,
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  Speaker 1: and demonic. There is two types of wisdom in the world.
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  Speaker 1: I believe I've mentioned this before actually on the podcast,
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  Speaker 1: but it's been a really long time. There is earthly
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  Speaker 1: wisdom and there's also spiritual wisdom, the wisdom that comes
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  Speaker 1: from the Holy Spirit. So there is two types of
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  Speaker 1: wisdom out there, and as Christians we have to be
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  Speaker 1: really careful that we are not following an earthly kind
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  Speaker 1: of wisdom. But you can see that a lot of
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  Speaker 1: the problems with the church comes from leadership that is
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  Speaker 1: following earthly wisdom, that is following selfish ambition and bitter
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  Speaker 1: jealousy where they want the control, where they want the
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  Speaker 1: power or the money, or any other goal that is
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  Speaker 1: not in line with scripture. Really, every single pastor their
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  Speaker 1: goal should be to preach the Gospel in a truthful way.
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  Speaker 1: Their goal should be to teach people to obey the Gospel.
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  Speaker 1: And if you think that this problem isn't happening in
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  Speaker 1: your church, well hopefully it's not. And there are some
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  Speaker 1: good churches out there. I'm not going to lie. There
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  Speaker 1: are some great churches even out there, but this is
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  Speaker 1: a very widespread problem because the way that the church
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  Speaker 1: hierarchy is set up in the West, it absolutely breeds
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  Speaker 1: narcissism because the pastor is the head of everything. And
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  Speaker 1: guess what, that is not the biblical model. It's just not.
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  Speaker 1: I hate to say it, but church in America is
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  Speaker 1: not set up correctly according to Scripture. I mean, just
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  Speaker 1: look at the elders. In one Timothy III. There are
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  Speaker 1: no elders technically above another elder. Once you become an elder,
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  Speaker 1: you are an overseer. Now, there are some elders that
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  Speaker 1: are dedicated to the preaching and teaching of God's Word,
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  Speaker 1: but there is not just one elder above everybody. There
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  Speaker 1: is no senior pastor in scripture. You're not going to
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  Speaker 1: find it. In fact, even Peter, who we considered to
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  Speaker 1: be like the main disciple of Jesus, and who the
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  Speaker 1: Catholic Church considers to be their first pope. Here's what
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  Speaker 1: Peter says in one Peter five, Starting in verse one,
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  Speaker 1: he says, therefore, I exhort the elders among you as
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  Speaker 1: a fellow elder, and as a witness of the sufferings
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  Speaker 1: of Christ, and who will also share in the glory
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  Speaker 1: that will be revealed shepherd the flock of God which
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  Speaker 1: is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily,
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  Speaker 1: not for dishonest gain, but willingly, not as lording it
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  Speaker 1: over the entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to
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  Speaker 1: the flock. When the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will
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  Speaker 1: receive the crown of glory that doesn't fade away. So
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  Speaker 1: Peter puts himself under the chief Shepherd. He does not
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  Speaker 1: consider himself greater than any of the other elders. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: he calls himself a fellow elder, and he mentions right
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  Speaker 1: here in verse three to not lord over the people
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  Speaker 1: entrusted to you, but instead make yourselves examples to the
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  Speaker 1: flock because elders are under the shepherdhood of Jesus. They
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  Speaker 1: are under Jesus, and so they are not supposed to
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  Speaker 1: be showing partiality to themselves. That is for dang sure,
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  Speaker 1: and unfortunately that is not how the American church is
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  Speaker 1: set up. Again, it breeds narcissism with the way that
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  Speaker 1: the current church hierarchy is. We can't do that. All
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  Speaker 1: of that is considered by James to be an earthly, sensual,
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  Speaker 1: and demonic kind of wisdom, an earthly wisdom. This is
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  Speaker 1: not wisdom by the Holy Spirit, especially the bit a
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  Speaker 1: jealousy and selfish ambition that many of these pastors have
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  Speaker 1: for themselves, and even if they have it for their church,
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  Speaker 1: like we're going to be the best church in the area,
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  Speaker 1: we are going to have the most people, we are
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  Speaker 1: going to have the biggest building. Even that is selfish ambition.
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  Speaker 1: The goal is not to be the best church in
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  Speaker 1: the area, the best pastor in the area with the
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  Speaker 1: best sermons. The goal is to lead people to Jesus
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  Speaker 1: and to teach people to obey the words of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: And that is not happening in our churches. Unfortunately, it's
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  Speaker 1: just not happening, it says in verse sixteen. For where
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  Speaker 1: jealousy and selfish ambition are, there is confusion and every
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  Speaker 1: evil deed. There are a ton of verses throughout the
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  Speaker 1: Bible that talk about how dangerous envy and jealousy and
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  Speaker 1: selfish ambition are. For example, in Proverbs twenty seven, verse
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  Speaker 1: four says, wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who
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  Speaker 1: can stand before jealousy? So in some ways, though they're
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  Speaker 1: all bad, dealing with somebody who is angry and wrathful
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  Speaker 1: against you is better than dealing with somebody who is
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  Speaker 1: jealous against you. Here's what one Corinthians thirteen four and
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  Speaker 1: five says. Love is patient and kind. Love does not
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  Speaker 1: envy or boast It's not arrogant or rude. It does
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  Speaker 1: not insist on its own way. It is not irritable
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  Speaker 1: or resentful. So somebody who is showing true love, like
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  Speaker 1: the love that comes from Jesus himself, they're not going
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  Speaker 1: to be envious or jealous. They're not going to be
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  Speaker 1: boastful or arrogant. They're not going to insist on their
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  Speaker 1: own way. Here's another verse from First Corinthians three, verse three,
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  Speaker 1: for you are still of the flesh. For while there
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  Speaker 1: is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of
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  Speaker 1: the flesh and behaving only in a human way? And
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  Speaker 1: now here's Galatians five, verses nineteen through twenty one. Now
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  Speaker 1: the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envied, drunkenness, orgies, and
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: things like these. Man, I mean, jealousy is in the
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: same thing as orgies. Okay, And to read one more
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  Speaker 1: from Proverbs fourteen thirty, it says a tranquil heart gives
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  Speaker 1: life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.
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  Speaker 1: So the envious person is even miserable. Their bones are
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  Speaker 1: rotting away inside of them because they're not happy. They're
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  Speaker 1: not content with the things that God gave them. So
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  Speaker 1: we should not be having this kind of stuff in
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  Speaker 1: our church. We should not be standing for it. We
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  Speaker 1: need to truly fight against this kind of behavior in
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: ourselves first. I mean, that's important. We got to do
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  Speaker 1: it to ourselves first. We got to self analyze what
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  Speaker 1: does Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount that
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  Speaker 1: you can correct your brother. But if you've got a
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  Speaker 1: log a sticking out of your own eye, you know,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: a blaring sin in your own life. But then you
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: try to like take away the sin of somebody else,
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  Speaker 1: then you're a hypocrite. You got to get rid of
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: the sin out of your own life first before you
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  Speaker 1: can really you know, fight the power, I suppose, And
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  Speaker 1: so it's important to self analyze Christians. And I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I think that James is not just talking to elders here.
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  Speaker 1: I think he's talking to everybody. We have to remove
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  Speaker 1: this stuff out of the church because even if church
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  Speaker 1: members have it, say the pastor doesn't have this kind
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  Speaker 1: of stuff, but the church does. That is also not
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  Speaker 1: a good thing because then the church congregants will start
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  Speaker 1: to drive people away, they'll use people and hurt people.
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  Speaker 1: So jealousy and selfish ambition cause confusion in every evil deed.
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  Speaker 1: We can't have these things in our churches. But to
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  Speaker 1: contrast that, in verse seventeen of James three, it says,
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  Speaker 1: but the wisdom that is from above is first pure,
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  Speaker 1: then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, and good fruits,
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  Speaker 1: without partiality and without hypocrisy. So the wisdom that comes
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  Speaker 1: from God, not the earthly wisdom, but the good wisdom. Firstly,
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  Speaker 1: it is pure. What does that mean, Well, it means
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  Speaker 1: without sin. That is the first thing that this type
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  Speaker 1: of wisdom is. It is going to be without sin.
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  Speaker 1: And then after that, it is peaceful, it is gentle,
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  Speaker 1: it is reasonable, So in other words, you're going to
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: be willing to backtrack if you are wrong in something.
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  Speaker 1: It is full of mercy and good fruits. So someone
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  Speaker 1: who is submitting to this kind of wisdom is going
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  Speaker 1: to show from it. They're going to do good deeds
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  Speaker 1: for other people. And they're also not going to show
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  Speaker 1: partiality to themselves or anybody else. And it's without hypocrisy.
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  Speaker 1: So again, you got to remove the sins out of
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  Speaker 1: your own lives before you can judge another person, otherwise
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  Speaker 1: you become a hypocrite. But if you use this kind
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  Speaker 1: of wisdom, you're going to produce these wonderful things in
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: your lives, these good fruits, the fruits of the spirit
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  Speaker 1: essentially that God gives us when we submit to his will.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, can you imagine a church full of individuals
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: like this? Can you imagine a pastor full of this
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  Speaker 1: kind of wisdom, a pastor who is peaceful and gentle
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: and reasonable and full of mercy and good fruits, who
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  Speaker 1: doesn't show partiality, who isn't envious of the church down
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: the street, the church in the city over, who is
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  Speaker 1: without hypocrisy. Can you imagine that the churches would be
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  Speaker 1: in a way different place if we actually put good
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  Speaker 1: leaders in place, if we did more self analyzation, if
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: we remove the sins out of our own lives first,
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  Speaker 1: the church would be in a wildly different place. I
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  Speaker 1: can imagine that the church would be unstoppable. That's why
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  Speaker 1: Satan targets the church. That's why James says that this
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  Speaker 1: worldly wisdom is demonic. Of course, Satan wants to bring
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: his demonic wisdom into the church because then the church
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  Speaker 1: will fracture. That's what it says. Where this kind of
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  Speaker 1: wisdom is this earthly wisdom, there is confusion in every
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: evil deed. Satan is going to try to target the
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  Speaker 1: church because he hates the church, and it says that
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  Speaker 1: he wants to pull away even the elect if that
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  Speaker 1: is possible. So we got to combat Satan's deeds. We've
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  Speaker 1: got to do that by using the wisdom that the
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit gives us. We also have to put on
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the full armor of God, and that means all of us.
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  Speaker 1: And to conclude in verse eighteen, now, the fruit of
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  Speaker 1: righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
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  Speaker 1: We have to be peaceful individuals, not self seeking, not
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  Speaker 1: bitterly envious and jealous of other people. But we have
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  Speaker 1: to be peaceful. That's one of the core tenants of
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  Speaker 1: Christianity is seeking peace and finding peace in Jesus. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: remember what Jesus's name is. He is the Prince of Peace.
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  Speaker 1: If we are following the Prince of Peace, then we
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: ourselves also should be peaceful and we're going to produce
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  Speaker 1: fruits of righteousness. It says if we are living in
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  Speaker 1: this peace that the Holy Spirit gives us. Man, I
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: get really fiery about this topic recently, as you guys
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: can tell, I am fired up. So I hope you
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: all enjoyed the episode, and thank you for sticking with
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: me to the very end. But it's not over yet.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: I'm going to move to an ad break and after
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: that I will close up with one last point. You know,
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  Speaker 1: as normal church goers, it is easy to pick on pastors,
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  Speaker 1: but you got to think about it. It's also the
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  Speaker 1: church congregants. It's each one of us that need to
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  Speaker 1: avoid this kind of behavior if we're going to have
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  Speaker 1: a healthy and thriving church. I mean, look at Paul.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: He did the best that he possibly could, and his
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: churches still went off the deep end. Look what he
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  Speaker 1: was writing to the Corinthian Church. He was with the
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Corinthians for a long time, you know, building that church
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  Speaker 1: from nothing, teaching them everything he could about the Gospel.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: And yet after he leaves, they're engaging in prostitution, they're
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: engaging in idolatry, like eating from the table of idols.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: They have like a member in their church that's in
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: an incestuous relationship, like just really crazy stuff. And Paul's like,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: what the heck happened here? You know. So it's both
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: the pastor and it's also the congregants. So going back
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: to the topic of self reflection, that's very important if
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: you want to have a healthy church. So what can
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: we learn from this as average church going Christians? We
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: can learn that if we have selfish ambition in our hearts,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: or if we are bitterly jealous of one of our
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  Speaker 1: fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Then we are being
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: influenced by demonic sources. That doesn't mean we're possessed. You know.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Even Eve in the Garden of Eden was even influenced
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: by demonic sources, and she was not possessed. And Eve
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: had a choice. Unfortunately she listened to the demonic influence
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: and her husband did too, and the world was thrown
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: into chaos after that. So as Christians, we need to
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: avoid the demonic influence. So I want to leave all
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: of you guys by reading through which I didn't pull
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: this up, I probably should have reading through the Armor
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: of God. And how to you know, reject these evil
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: demonic influences in our lives. It says in Ephesian six,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: verses ten through seventeen. Finally, be strong in the Lord
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  Speaker 1: and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor
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  Speaker 1: of Gods, that you can take your stand against the
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: armor of God. So that when the day of evil comes,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: you may be able to stand your ground. And after
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: you have done everything to stand stand firm, then with
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: breastplate of righteousness in place, with your feet fitted with
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace. In
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: addition to all of this, take up the shield of
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: So essentially, you have to remain in the truth. You
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: have to remain in God's word. You gotta pray, you
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: got to listen to the wisdom that the Spirit gives you.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: And all of these things are going to help you
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  Speaker 1: avoid this demonic influence that is integrated into the church
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: a lot of times. Well, faith listeners, I hope all
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: of this encouraged you and that you enjoyed today's episode.
• 26:07
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• 26:10
  Speaker 1: becoming a member so that you can gain access to
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: the Friday episode because Fridays are for the members. And
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: right now we are going through the Book of the Psalms.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: We're in Psalm ninety two tomorrow, and so there's ninety
• 26:23
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• 26:25
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  Speaker 1: the psalms will eventually be released to all of you
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: guys for free, probably in several years, but there are
• 26:37
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• 26:40
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  Speaker 1: where you need to go to become a member. Faithful listeners,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day, happy listening,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: and God bless. I just want to take a second
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership
• 27:14
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• 27:17
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