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James 4:1-10 - Divided Hearts Produce Divided Churches · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Well, how do you a good morning, friends
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  Speaker 1: and faithful listeners, and welcome to the Book of James today.
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  Speaker 1: I am so excited to delve into today's topic because
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  Speaker 1: I think it is such a relevant problem in the church.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, I think you guys can tell that I'm
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  Speaker 1: kind of on a war path right now when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to the church. And it's not just Western churches.
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  Speaker 1: I'm telling you this is a worldwide problem. And James
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  Speaker 1: calls it a demonic problem because the enemy of God
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  Speaker 1: hates the church and does not want the church to succeed.
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  Speaker 1: So we are going to get into this topic today
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  Speaker 1: right after this first sponsored ad. Hopefully while that was playing,
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  Speaker 1: you got a chance to grab your Bible to read
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  Speaker 1: with me this morning, and also your a delicious cup
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  Speaker 1: of coffee or your cup of tea for you crazy
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  Speaker 1: tea drinkers. I'm telling you, I have had teas that
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  Speaker 1: genuinely taste like grass. I don't think I can ever
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  Speaker 1: really get into tea all that much. Sometimes sometimes I'll
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  Speaker 1: drink a cup of tea, you know, like in the
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  Speaker 1: evening when I can't drink coffee because it'll keep me
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  Speaker 1: up all night. But yeah, tea is just not my
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  Speaker 1: cup of tea. Let's read James four one through ten today.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about factions. And I'm not talking
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  Speaker 1: about the factions between you coffee and tea drinkers. I'm
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  Speaker 1: talking about like church splits. So let's go ahead and
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  Speaker 1: read this together and give reverence to God's word. I'll
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  Speaker 1: be reading, as usual from the web. Where do wars
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  Speaker 1: and fightings among you come from? Don't they come from
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  Speaker 1: your pleasures? That war within your members? You lust and
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  Speaker 1: don't have. You murder and covet and can't obtain. You
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  Speaker 1: fight and make war. You don't have because you don't ask,
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  Speaker 1: And you ask and don't receive because you ask with
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  Speaker 1: wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures,
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  Speaker 1: you adulterers and adulteresses. Don't you know that friendship with
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  Speaker 1: the world is hostile toward God? Whoever, therefore wants to
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  Speaker 1: be a friend of the world, makes himself an enemy
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  Speaker 1: of God? Or do you think that the scripture says
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  Speaker 1: in vain, the spirit who lives in us yearns jealously,
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  Speaker 1: but he gives more grace. Therefore, it says God resists
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  Speaker 1: the proud, but gives grace to the humble, be subject
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  Speaker 1: therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee
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  Speaker 1: from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw
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  Speaker 1: near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, Purify your hearts.
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  Speaker 1: You double minded lament and mourn and weep. Let your
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  Speaker 1: laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom.
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  Speaker 1: Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he
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  Speaker 1: will exalt you. So what we just read there is
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  Speaker 1: a continuation actually from James chapter three. So let's read
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  Speaker 1: James three to get a good idea of what James
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  Speaker 1: is talking about here in our passage for today, Starting
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  Speaker 1: in James three, verse fourteen, if you have bitter jealousy
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  Speaker 1: and selfish ambition in your heart, don't boast and don't
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  Speaker 1: lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which
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  Speaker 1: comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual and demonic.
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  Speaker 1: For where jealousy and selfish ambition are, there's confusion in
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  Speaker 1: every evil deed. So that is what James is talking about.
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  Speaker 1: As we move into the passage we just read, which
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  Speaker 1: starts out in verse one by saying, where do wars
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  Speaker 1: and fightings among you come from? Don't they come from
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  Speaker 1: your pleasures? That war in your members so he is
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  Speaker 1: still talking about selfish ambition in the church and how
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  Speaker 1: damaging this can be. It causes fights and divisions, and
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  Speaker 1: it causes wars in the church factions. It causes a
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  Speaker 1: lot of problems. And you can see that with how
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  Speaker 1: many church denominations there are out there, because a lot
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  Speaker 1: of times the churches would split over some of the
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  Speaker 1: silliest things. I don't remember which denomination it was, but
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  Speaker 1: one of them split because they didn't like the fact
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  Speaker 1: that the church leaders start using grape juice instead of
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  Speaker 1: wine for the communion. And I think there is another
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  Speaker 1: church split over incorporating English into the services instead of Latin.
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  Speaker 1: So I mean, there's been a lot of really interesting
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  Speaker 1: church splits out there. But even if a church doesn't
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  Speaker 1: split into another denomination, we hear about church splits happening
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  Speaker 1: all the time, churches shutting their doors, or schisms happening.
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  Speaker 1: We hear about these things all the time. And apparently
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  Speaker 1: this was happening way back in James's day. Remember who
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  Speaker 1: he's writing to. He is not writing to the non
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  Speaker 1: Christians here, He is writing to the churches. That's what
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  Speaker 1: it says in James Chapter one when he addresses the
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  Speaker 1: Letter to the Twelve Tribes. This is the believing Jews
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  Speaker 1: that he was speaking to, not to the non believers.
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  Speaker 1: He is talking specifically about factions and fightings and wars
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  Speaker 1: happening within the church. And it happens all the time.
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  Speaker 1: And here is why, because of the pleasures that war
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  Speaker 1: within your members. So, in other words, the jealousy, the envy,
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  Speaker 1: the selfish ambition that causes them to tear each other up.
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  Speaker 1: In verse two, here's what it says, You lust and
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  Speaker 1: you don't have. You murder and covet and can't obtain.
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  Speaker 1: You fight and make war. You don't have because you
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  Speaker 1: don't ask. And likely James was not talking about physical murder,
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  Speaker 1: but the type of murder that Jesus mentions in the
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  Speaker 1: Sermon on the Mount in Matthew five twenty one through
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  Speaker 1: twenty two, where Jesus says, you've heard that it was
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  Speaker 1: said to the ancient ones, you shall not murder, and
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  Speaker 1: whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But
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  Speaker 1: I tell you that everyone who is angry with his
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  Speaker 1: brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment.
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  Speaker 1: Whoever says to his brother raca will be in danger
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  Speaker 1: of the council, and whoever says you fool will be
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  Speaker 1: in danger of the fire of Gehennah. So Jesus was
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  Speaker 1: essentially saying that undue anger and hatred towards your brother
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  Speaker 1: is essentially the same thing as murder, because it all
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  Speaker 1: starts in the same place. When you have a premeditated murder,
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  Speaker 1: you are thinking about it in your heart. You have
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  Speaker 1: already murdered that person in your heart, is what Jesus
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  Speaker 1: is saying here, and James mentions that exact same thing
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  Speaker 1: in James chapter four. You murder and cove it. Not
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  Speaker 1: physically murder somebody, but you murder them in your heart,
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  Speaker 1: and you covet and you still can't obtain You fight
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  Speaker 1: and make war. And here's what James says. The problem
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  Speaker 1: is not just the selfish ambition, but also because you're
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  Speaker 1: not taking these problems that you have to God. You
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  Speaker 1: are not saying to God, Hey, God, you know I
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  Speaker 1: really want such and such, I really want this thing,
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  Speaker 1: and you know I need you to come through for me.
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  Speaker 1: We aren't taking our problems to God. And if you
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  Speaker 1: guys listen to the episode that I did on Thursday
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  Speaker 1: on James chapter three regarding selfish ambition. These pastors a
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  Speaker 1: lot of times will do politics and manipulation to get
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  Speaker 1: what they want from the sheep. And sometimes their goals
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  Speaker 1: aren't necessarily bad. It's not necessarily bad to want more
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  Speaker 1: people to come to your church, it's not necessarily bad
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  Speaker 1: to want a bigger building. But it becomes a problem
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  Speaker 1: when it is for selfish ambition. And James calls selfish
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  Speaker 1: ambition demonic, a demonic kind of wisdom that is not
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  Speaker 1: from the Holy Spirit. So if these pastors and just
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  Speaker 1: church congregants in general went to God first with all
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  Speaker 1: of their issues, a lot of these problems would disappear.
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  Speaker 1: But here's another problem. Even when you are taking these
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  Speaker 1: issues to God, you're not doing it with the right heart. So,
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  Speaker 1: for example, let's say a pastor really wants a bigger church,
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  Speaker 1: and he prays to God and he says, God, I
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  Speaker 1: really want you to bring me more congregants. I really
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  Speaker 1: want a bigger church. Well, that pastor if he's doing
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  Speaker 1: it with the wrong motive of just wanting to be
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  Speaker 1: the best pastor in the area, not actually wanting to
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  Speaker 1: feed the sheep, and maybe even hoping for a little
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  Speaker 1: bit of money that comes through the door. God knows
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  Speaker 1: that motive, and he's not going to necessarily grant that
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  Speaker 1: pastor with what he's asking for because the motive is incorrect.
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  Speaker 1: And this doesn't just go for pastors, you know. Again,
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  Speaker 1: pastors are an easy target because they're the leaders of
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  Speaker 1: the church. But this could be any member, any single
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  Speaker 1: individual in the church that is working with selfish ambition
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  Speaker 1: instead of working with the spirit. James calls these people
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  Speaker 1: adulterers and adulteresses. In verse four, he says, you adulterers
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  Speaker 1: and adulteresses. Don't you know that friendship with the world
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  Speaker 1: is hostility toward God. Whoever therefore wants to be a
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  Speaker 1: friend of the world, makes himself an enemy of God.
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  Speaker 1: This reminds me of a verse actually from First Corinthians
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  Speaker 1: ten twenty one through twenty two, which says this, you
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  Speaker 1: can't both drink the cup of the Lord and the
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  Speaker 1: cup of demons. You can't both partake of the table
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do
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  Speaker 1: we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? So?
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  Speaker 1: In other words, you cannot have friendship with God while
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  Speaker 1: also having friendship with the enemy. James calls the selfish
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  Speaker 1: ambition a demonic kind of wisdom that is not of God.
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  Speaker 1: So if somebody is acting with this selfish ambition but
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  Speaker 1: still going to church and still taking the communion and
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  Speaker 1: still professing the name of Jesus, they are essentially drinking
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  Speaker 1: the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons.
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  Speaker 1: They are both partaking the table of the Lord and
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  Speaker 1: also the table of demons. You cannot be a friend
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  Speaker 1: of both. That's called having a divided heart. That's what
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  Speaker 1: James says right here. Don't you know that friendship with
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  Speaker 1: the world is hostility toward God. Whoever therefore wants to
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  Speaker 1: be friends of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Now,
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  Speaker 1: some Christians have taken this verse to an extreme where
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  Speaker 1: they say that they can't have any friends that aren't Christians.
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  Speaker 1: They can't go to the movies, they can't go have
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  Speaker 1: a drink at a restaurant, because those things are all
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  Speaker 1: of the world. And if you become friends with those things,
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  Speaker 1: and that means that you have a divided heart toward God.
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  Speaker 1: But I don't believe that's what James is talking about here.
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  Speaker 1: James is talking about a condition of the heart where
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  Speaker 1: you are claiming Christ and yet you are living a
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  Speaker 1: double life, and it might not be a double life
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  Speaker 1: that anybody can see. It could be a double life
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  Speaker 1: within your heart alone, where you are saying outwardly, I
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  Speaker 1: am a Christian, I love Jesus, I go to church
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  Speaker 1: every single week, I donate to charity, I do this,
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  Speaker 1: I do that. But internally, their hearts are as far
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  Speaker 1: away from God as you can get, because all they
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  Speaker 1: want are things for themselves. This is why the prosperity
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  Speaker 1: gospel specifically is so incredibly dangerous, because it is teaching
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  Speaker 1: people that if you follow God, you are going to
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  Speaker 1: be blessed with all sorts of wonderful things on this earth,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's health or peace, or prosperity, or wealth or love, romance,
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  Speaker 1: anything you can gain for yourself, anything you can imagine,
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  Speaker 1: you can manifest it just by believing in Jesus. And
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  Speaker 1: this is extremely prevalent in the church. This is everywhere
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  Speaker 1: You're going to find this in probably the majority of
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  Speaker 1: churches across America, that if you believe in Jesus, you're
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  Speaker 1: going to gain a whole lot of stuff for yourself.
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  Speaker 1: But that is essentially doing exactly what James warns against
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  Speaker 1: right here, because these people are teaching that you can
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  Speaker 1: become both a friend of God and also a friend
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  Speaker 1: of the world. You know, I just went onto Bethel's
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  Speaker 1: Bethel Church's website, and I saw something that raised like
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  Speaker 1: a million red flags on their mission statement, and I quote,
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  Speaker 1: here's what it says. I pulled it up right now.
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  Speaker 1: It says, we joyfully give our time, affection, talents, and
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  Speaker 1: money to a tract God's attention, draw Heaven's blessings, produce transformation,
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  Speaker 1: and enable him to trust us with the true riches
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  Speaker 1: of the kingdom. So by giving our money to him,
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  Speaker 1: that enables him somehow to trust us with all of
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  Speaker 1: this wonderful stuff. You know, the God of the universe
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  Speaker 1: has to be enabled by our giving to trust us
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  Speaker 1: with all of these riches. Okay, that's on Bethel's mission statement.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, here's another thing actually that Bethel says on
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  Speaker 1: their mission statement, and I quote, while anticipating Christ's glorious return,
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  Speaker 1: we simply do not know when he will come, which
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  Speaker 1: should inspire us to have a long term earthly vision.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it never says anywhere in scripture that we
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  Speaker 1: have to have a long term earthly vision. It actually
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  Speaker 1: says that we are to store up our treasures in
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  Speaker 1: heaven and look forward to the heavenly treasures, not the
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  Speaker 1: things of this earth. So there are plenty of churches
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  Speaker 1: out there with huge names and huge amounts of influence,
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  Speaker 1: like Bethel that are saying stuff like this, essentially pushing
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  Speaker 1: the prosperity gospel, saying that when we do X, Y,
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  Speaker 1: and Z for God, he is going to bless us
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  Speaker 1: with all this wonderful stuff. And here's what James says
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  Speaker 1: in verse five. Do you think that the scripture says
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  Speaker 1: in vain the spirit who lives in us yearns jealously.
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  Speaker 1: This is from Exodus chapter thirty four. Here's what God
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  Speaker 1: himself says in verse fourteen. You shall worship no other God.
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  Speaker 1: For Yahweh, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God.
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  Speaker 1: God is jealous for our attention, and he does not
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  Speaker 1: want us to worship anything else. And a lot of
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  Speaker 1: the other idols that we see in the church today
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  Speaker 1: are things like money and numbers and prestige. We see
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  Speaker 1: this all the time, and it's not just in the
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  Speaker 1: big megachurches. It is in the little church that is
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  Speaker 1: down the road from your house. This is a huge,
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  Speaker 1: massive problem that Jesus warns against actually in the Sermon
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  Speaker 1: on the Mount, he says in Matthew six twenty four,
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  Speaker 1: no one can serve two masters, for either he will
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  Speaker 1: hate the one and love the other, or else he
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  Speaker 1: will be devoted to one and despise the other. You
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  Speaker 1: can't serve both God and mammon, which is just an
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  Speaker 1: old fashioned word for money or wealth. You can't serve
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  Speaker 1: both God and wealth. God's spirit longs for us, and
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  Speaker 1: he is jealous for us, jealous for our entire attention,
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  Speaker 1: not for our divided attention. However, in spite of all
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  Speaker 1: of these problems that the churches across the world have,
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  Speaker 1: there is hope because James four to six says he
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  Speaker 1: gives more grace. Therefore, it says God resists the proud,
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  Speaker 1: but he gives grace to the humble. God is a
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  Speaker 1: gracious God. He understands our weak nature. He has struggled
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  Speaker 1: in every single way that we struggle here on earth.
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  Speaker 1: He has been tempted in every way that we have
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  Speaker 1: been tempted, except Jesus went through life in perfection and
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  Speaker 1: did not cave to those temptations and to those struggles
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  Speaker 1: that he had. So God gives us grace, and he
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  Speaker 1: is eager for us to turn to him once again.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, just look at the Old Testament. God is
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  Speaker 1: the same yesterday, today, and forever. In the Old Testament.
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  Speaker 1: What was God always doing. He was warning his people,
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  Speaker 1: turn back to me, get rid of this idolatry, get
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  Speaker 1: rid of the divided heart. Stop worshiping this God and
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  Speaker 1: also worshiping me, just worship Me alone. And God would
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  Speaker 1: send his prophets time and again saying, please turn back
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  Speaker 1: to me. Find yourselves a brand new heart. That's what
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  Speaker 1: he says in the Book of Ezekiel. Find yourselves a heart.
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  Speaker 1: Why should you perish? Do not perish, Do not live
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  Speaker 1: in this idolatry. It is bad for you. I am
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  Speaker 1: jealous for you. I want you to be mine. God
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  Speaker 1: was constantly offering grace and mercy to his people, but
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  Speaker 1: they were rejecting it time and again. But God still
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  Speaker 1: offers grace to his people. And here in America and
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  Speaker 1: across the world, we are in desperate need of God's
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  Speaker 1: grace because the church is not doing what they should
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  Speaker 1: be doing. They are doing exactly what James warns us
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  Speaker 1: against right here. Pretty much every church is guilty of
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  Speaker 1: this in some extent. But God is still offering his
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  Speaker 1: grace to us. His grace is not over yet, so
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  Speaker 1: we need to take hold of that grace and not
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  Speaker 1: be like the Israelites in the Old Testament that rejected
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  Speaker 1: God's offer of grace time and again. He gives us grace. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: it says verse six. God resists the proud, but he
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  Speaker 1: gives grace to the humble. So be subject therefore to God.
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  Speaker 1: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. What
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  Speaker 1: is James calling all of this selfish ambition demonic? He
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  Speaker 1: is calling this stuff demonic in nature. So we need
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  Speaker 1: to resist this personally. We need to call others to
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  Speaker 1: account that are doing these kinds of things, especially if
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  Speaker 1: we see it as a blatant sin in our church.
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  Speaker 1: We need to call people to account. We need to
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  Speaker 1: resist the devil, and he will flee from our churches.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of times people take this verse and use
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  Speaker 1: it personally, and yes, it can certainly be applied personally,
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  Speaker 1: but think about it in the context that James is
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  Speaker 1: talking about here. He is talking about the collective church body,
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  Speaker 1: and Satan is really good at it because he's not
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  Speaker 1: going to do it in a blatantly obvious way. He's
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  Speaker 1: going to do it by encouraging somebody who is a
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  Speaker 1: false prophet to claim the name of Jesus to come
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  Speaker 1: in and seem super kind, super respectful, super loving towards
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  Speaker 1: other people, who then starts leading people astray very subtly.
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  Speaker 1: That is how Satan sneaks into the church, very very subtly.
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  Speaker 1: It says that he's the father of lies, meaning he
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  Speaker 1: is the best at it. He is so good at
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  Speaker 1: lying because he spreads a tiny, tiny bit of truth
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  Speaker 1: in there. In fact, he can quote the Bible quite well,
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  Speaker 1: because when he was tempting Jesus in the wilderness, he
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  Speaker 1: was quoting from the Bible. Satan can quote the Bible.
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  Speaker 1: That's why we cannot trust every single person that walks
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  Speaker 1: through our door is claiming to be a Christian, that's
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  Speaker 1: quoting Bible up on the stage. We can't trust them.
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  Speaker 1: Anybody can quote the Bible because it's a public book.
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  Speaker 1: Anybody can read it. Anybody can claim to be a Christian.
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  Speaker 1: You have to test the spirits. That is why there
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  Speaker 1: is so much in the Bible that talks about false
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  Speaker 1: prophecy and false teachers. It is like the main thing
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  Speaker 1: that all of the authors in scripture are constantly warning about.
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  Speaker 1: Is the false prophets with sheep's clothing, trying to lead
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  Speaker 1: people astray down the wrong paths. All of these letters
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  Speaker 1: to the churches are addressing some sort of issue that
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  Speaker 1: seemed good on the surface but was actually demonic in nature.
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  Speaker 1: Everything from the Judaizers that Paul was constantly fighting against
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  Speaker 1: to the nickelations we're going to read about in the
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Book of Revelation and everything in between, like the Prosperity
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Gospel and the false prophets and everything else. So we
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: need to resist the devil, Okay, resist these tactics of
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the devil, and he will flee from our churches and
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: our church will actually become strong and unified for real.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: I just heard a sermon today that was not a
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: very good sermon, quite honestly, and the pastor was talking
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: about unity in the church, and he was saying that
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: in order to be unified in the church, we all
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: have to be like a lego. Right, Individually, a lego
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: can't really do much on its own. It is just
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: a piece of plastic. But once you put all the
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: legos together, then you form something really beautiful. But then
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: the sermons started going off the deep end because the
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: pastor started saying stuff like grace does not allow exclusion. Instead,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: it brings us together in unity. And that is a
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: direct quote. Quite honestly, that quote is anti biblical. Grace
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: does allow exclusion. You are not to bring bad teaching
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: into the church under any circumstance whatsoever. You have to
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: exclude certain things from the church in order to have
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: a truly unified church. But unfortunately, this stuff that James
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: is warning about here is not taken seriously enough in
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: today's churches. We fall way too much into the overly
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: tolerant kind of church so that we don't hurt feelings.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: But when we get into the Book of Revelation not
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: too long here, we're going to talk about what Jesus
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: thinks about the overly tolerant church. Spoiler alert, it's not
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: that good. So we need to resist the devil, and
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: he will flee from us. And while we're resisting the
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: devil verse eight, we need to draw near to God,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: you sinners, purify your hearts. You double minded. So this
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: is a direct call to repentance for anybody in the
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: church who is double minded. Essentially, doing what Jesus tells
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: us not to do by serving two masters. We need
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: to cleanse our hands from these things together. And James
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: even goes so far to say that we need to lament,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: mourn and weep over these things. We need to have
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: our laughter be turned into mourning and our joy into gloom.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: So this is a big issue for James to go
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: that far and be like, you better be beating your
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: chests you churches. You need to turn your laughter into
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: mourning over what you are doing because God thinks of
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: this as idolatry and demonic in nature. And guess what,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: the church is not taking this seriously at all. They're
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: just going about their days week to week, having the
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: congregants come into the church singing fruit frou songs, listening
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: to incorrect sermons like the one that I heard today
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: with the lego pieces, and then sending everybody home and
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: not seeing them for another week. If that that is
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: the sorry state that our churches are in. And James
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: is essentially going on a warpath to correct this issue
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: because he knows how bad this can be. He says
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: in verse ten, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: and he will exalt you. So to conclude, there's only
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: two paths the church can take. Either they can continue
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: with the path that they are going and be humbled
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: by God, or they can humble themselves and God will
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: then truly exalt them. I know it's church I want
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: to be a part of. I want to be a
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: part of the second Church, where God offers grace, where
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: we turn our hearts truly to God and stop being
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: double minded, where we have true unity with God, removing
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the demonic practices out of our churches, and truly living
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: in the spiritual wisdom that God commands us to live in,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: which again is this James three, verse seventeen and eighteen.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: those who make peace listeners. Before I close out with
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: a call to action for all of you guys, please
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: listen to one last sponsored advertisement for today. You know what,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing. It starts with each one of us.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: I can guarantee that the majority of you faithful listeners
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: that are tuning into this episode have the same sentiment
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: that I had at the end, where you want to
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: attend a church full of non hypocritical, peaceful, gentle and
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: reasonable people that are listening to the wisdom of the
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. I would guess that almost all of you
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: can relate with that, And maybe many of you have
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: gone to a church that James is warning about. Maybe
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: some of you are in a church like that right
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: now where you see warning signs of divided hearts and minds.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: But as Christians, we have to remember, and this is
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: very difficult, that we can't change someone else's heart, but
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: we can change our own hearts. In the passage we
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: read today, verse seven says, be subject therefore to God
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: resists the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: near to God, and he will draw near to you.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts. You double minded.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: This is really cliche. But we can be the change
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: that we want to see in our own churches. We
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: can be people that draw near to God, that cleanse
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: our hands, that are basically saying to God, God, I
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: am not going to be double minded anymore. I reject
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: the idols that I've made in my life. And I
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: am going to serve you and you only because you
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: are my God and you are jealous for me. And
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: so that is my call to action to every one
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: of you, faithful listeners. Have a prayer where you rededicate
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: your heart to God. A lot of times. We got
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: to do that daily. We got to say to God, God,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: I send today, I did this wrong today. I had
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: an idol in my heart today. But when we come
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: before God, what does it say here? Our God gives
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: more grace. But we have the choice to take that
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: grace or to completely reject it. So let's take the
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: gift of grace that Jesus is offering us today, and
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: we can pray for our churches at the same time.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: So that's my call to action for all of you
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: faithful listeners, And I hope that you all enjoyed today's episode.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Hope to see you guys tomorrow on the Old Testament
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: side of stuff for an episode from Nehemiah. We are
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: coming to a close in that book pretty soon here,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: so I'm looking forward to moving into the Book of
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Esther and also season twelve of the podcast. But I
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: am deeply looking forward to the Book of Esther. It's
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: going to be a fun, fun book to talk about.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: And we're also going to be out of the Book
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: of James very soon here as well. We only have
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: one more chapter to go after James four. So there's
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: exciting things coming up on the podcast, and I hope
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: to see all of you faithful listeners there tomorrow six
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: am or whenever you choose to wake up and listen.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Happy listening, and God bless. I just want to take
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: a second to thank the team at Life Audio for
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: their partnership with me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: if you go to lifeaudio dot com you will find
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.