Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / 17.7 - James 1:22-25 - Flabby Christianity

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17.7 - James 1:22-25 - Flabby Christianity · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  We hope that this podcast will help you to know Christ, grow in
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  his Word, and show His love to others.
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  Let's dive right in. Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk.
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  Today we are in James chapter 1 and we are in verses 22 through
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  25. James, 122 through 25.
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  And in this portion of Scripture, the pastor of the
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  church at Jerusalem, he's writing to people that were once
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  a part of his congregation. Now they're scattered all across
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  the Roman Empire. And he has a very important
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  truth that he wants them to recognize and to know in their
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  lives. And it's something that we
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  desperately need to. I think I'm probably going to
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  call this episode like, don't be a don't be a flabby Christian.
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  Don't be flabby Christian. Now today's talk is not on, you
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  know, weight loss, weight gain. I I know in my life that's
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  something that I consistently have to work towards and I'm
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  sure some of you have that as well.
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  I've got some friends that their metabolism just goes and goes
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  and goes and so they're actually always trying to, you know, put
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  on a little bit of weight. That is not the particular
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  affliction that God has given to me.
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  But way, I won't say, well, yeah, I guess it is way more
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  important than even our physical health is our spiritual health.
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  And I've heard it said many times that often, especially
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  here in America, we as Christians can have a problem of
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  eating and eating and consuming more and more spiritual things.
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  We hear sermons, we hear podcasts.
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  We have the, you know, physical word of God that's with us and
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  we can, you know, go to conferences and, and we can just
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  ingest so much spiritual truth. And yet we never exercise
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  spiritually. We never do anything with the
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  knowledge that we have. So we hear about forgiveness.
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  We hear about sharing our faith. We hear about, you know,
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  sacrificing and surrendering for Jesus, and yet we just live our
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  lives exactly like all of the people around us.
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  If you were to look at, you know, perhaps our our checkbook
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  or our pocketbook or our credit card statements, they would look
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  the exact same as our neighbors. You could look at our, you know,
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  calendar and apart from, you know, one hour or two hours a
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  week, it would look exactly the same as everyone else's.
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  But God calls us to not just listen, not just learn, but to
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  put into practice the spiritual truths that we are given.
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  And so that's what we're going to be talking about today.
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  I'm going to read through the verses and we're going to spot a
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  couple of things that James wants us to look at in regards
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  to Don't be a spiritually flabby Christian, he says, but be doers
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  of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
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  Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is
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  like someone looking at his own face in a mirror, for he looks
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  at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of
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  person he was. But the one who looks intently
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  into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it and is not
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  a forgetful hearer, but a doer who works this person will be
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  blessed in what he does. All right, so we're going to
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  look at these. It's just 4 verses.
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  And so I know this is a passage that consistently in my life,
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  especially as a pastor, man, I've got to come back to again
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  and again and again. Because if all I do is if you
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  will read and teach the Bible, that's not enough.
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  That's not enough for a pastor. A pastor actually has to live
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  out what he is preaching and reading from the word of God.
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  And that's true for every Christian.
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  But as a pastor, if I'm saying to other people like, hey,
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  forgive, confess your sins, share your faith, and in my
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  life, I'm not doing those things, man.
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  I'm not going to help anyone out, at least of all myself.
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  This would be, you know, what Paul would say in his life.
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  I he would say in First Corinthians, it's either 8 or 9
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  the very end of it, he says, but I discipline my body and keep it
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  under subjection so that when I've preached to others, I
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  myself would not be a castaway. And so that's that's my prayer
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  and I hope that even as we dive into these verses, this is your
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  prayer as well. Not just that we would know
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  things about the Bible or know things about Jesus, but that we
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  would actually experience it and live it out.
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  OK verse 22 be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving
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  yourselves a doer. This is just a person that they
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  actually accomplish. They produce something, they
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  make something. They act on what is prescribed
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  that, if you will, if the doctor said, OK, you've got this, you
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  know, infection, you've got this parasite, you've got this thing,
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  and you really need to, you really need to take this every
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  single day or you will die. Well, the foolish thing to do
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  would be to say, well, I have read this prescription from the
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  doctor over and over and over again.
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  I know it by heart. I can recite it all to you.
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  Yeah, I know exactly what the prescription says.
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  You would say that is not enough.
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  You actually have to take the prescription.
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  You have to eat that, otherwise, you know, that parasite is going
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  to eat you. Here James tells us don't just
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  be hearers of the word, be doers of the Word.
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  And he even says when you only hear the word of God and you
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  don't do what it says, he says you are deceiving yourselves,
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  you are deluding, you are tricking yourself.
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  This would be another way that you would use this phrase would
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  be this is to reckon fraudulently.
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  It is to defraud. You are, if you will.
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  We would all hate it in business if we thought, you know, we had
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  fair dealings with whatever this other person was selling us and
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  actually they were only selling us half of the amount of
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  whatever item we were buying. We'd be like, man, I, I've been
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  defrauded. You know, this person committed
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  a, a business crime. I was owed this and I didn't get
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  all of it. Here James says that we are
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  deceiving ourselves, We are defrauding ourselves when we
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  don't do what God's Word says and we just read it.
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  Verse 23 says because if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not
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  a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a
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  mirror, for he looks at himself, goes away and immediately
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  forgets what kind of person he was here James says this.
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  When you look in the mirror, you're looking for a specific
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  reason. You know, mirrors are invented
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  so that you can see, OK, I've got a hair out of place.
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  You know, I've got, you know, some gunk in my teeth.
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  I've got, you know, a giant pimple or something on my face.
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  And I need to adjust this. It might be, oh, I need to, you
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  know, for me comb my beard or whatever it is.
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  You're looking for a reason. And if you look at the mirror,
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  you notice the problem with your face or with your hair or with
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  your teeth, and then you leave and you don't do anything as a
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  result of having looked in the mirror.
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  It's pointless. It doesn't benefit you at all.
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  And here he says, dear, dear Christians, realize that you
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  have the word of God and it is of incredible value and worth to
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  you. How amazing to hold in our hands
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  of the word of God, even as he's writing this to them, that they
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  would receive the word of God in, you know, letter or scroll
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  form. What an incredible gift that is.
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  But if you do nothing as a result of hearing from God
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  Himself, it benefits you not one iota.
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  There is no there's no supernatural power in you just
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  opening up to a page of Scripture, reading through it,
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  and not making any adjustments to your life as a result.
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  Now, sometimes that adjustment might be in your mind.
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  It might be that you think a different way about God or you
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  think a different way about salvation.
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  That would be a very meaningful change, a doing of the word as a
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  result of reading. But so many of us are used to
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  just reading the Bible and anticipating a change in
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  emotion. We think I will be happier as a
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  result of reading the Bible. I will experience peace, I will
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  experience joy as a result of reading Scripture when that is
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  not at its core what God is looking to accomplish through
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  Scripture. Now, does He want to give you
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  joy and peace and patience and and kindness?
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  Does He want to give you all of those things?
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  Absolutely. But He is also looking to
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  transform you into the image of Christ.
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  That from the very beginning of humanity's creation, we were
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  created to be the image of God. That we would be a picture of
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  what God is like in His words and His actions, His creativity,
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  His intellect, His love. We are called to show other
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  people and all of creation what God is like through how we talk
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  and think and act. And if we simply go to God's
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  word to say I want to feel something different as a result
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  of my reading, we are missing out.
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  God wants to transform all of you right now.
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  You think things that are untrue, that are ungodly, that
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  are unkind, that are not right. And God wants to change that
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  through how you live in the Word that you come to this book that
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  is a mirror that shows you who you really are and that you
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  would change your thoughts as a result of in encountering the
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  word of God right now. You say things and some of the
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  things are vulgar. Some of the things are assuming
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  the worst of other people and you deride and you degrade them.
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  Some of your words are some of your words are just not at all
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  tempered with grace. They're they're idle words,
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  they're vain words, they're useless words.
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  And God wants to change it so that your speech begins to be a
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  fountain of life for other people.
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  That is, they hear you speak to them or about others or about
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  topics. They go man.
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  It's like interacting with the Bible that we would be so
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  infused with the words of God that they would make their way
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  into our heart and our mind that we would start just talking
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  about them. That we would be able to, if you
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  will, have proverbs on the mind so that when we're giving advice
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  to people, it's not just your thoughts, it's the thoughts of
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  God. It's when people are asking us
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  or when people are gossiping to us that we would be able to say,
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  well, have you talked with them about this yet?
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  No, not really. Well, here I have their phone
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  number. Let's call them up.
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  Let's talk to them right now or oh, hey, they're just right over
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  there. And another part of, you know,
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  this party or this building or whatever, let's go talk to them
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  and get this settled. That we would be peacemakers.
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  That we would be those that speak life into people when
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  people need encouragement. It's not just something shallow,
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  but that we would be able to speak the eternal words of God
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  in and over people and in our actions.
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  That we would transform from being apathetic or lazy or cruel
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  in our actions. That we would turn into the
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  hands and feet of Jesus. That we would be generous with
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  our finances towards others and towards the work of God.
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  That we would be caring and enabling people to be able to do
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  what they need to do. We would do kind actions for
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  others. We would man.
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  There's just a billion different ways in which we can begin to
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  live out the Word of God. But that requires 2 things.
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  Number one, we have to know what God's Word says so that we can
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  do it, which means we have to spend time in the Word.
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  And then once we've spent time in the Word, then we need to put
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  it into practice. And this is what we read in
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  verse #25 where we end today, he says.
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  But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom
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  and perseveres in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer
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  who works, this person will be blessed in what he does instead
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  of being the person that looks in the mirror, sees all the
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  imperfection and goes away and doesn't change anything as a
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  result. The person that intently looks
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  into, as James here describes it, the perfect law of freedom,
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  that God's commands towards us are not to burden us down to be
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  a killjoy. No, no, He wants us to live life
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  to the fullest. That we find our greatest
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  expression not in disobeying God, but in obeying and
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  following and mimicking God. Do you think that God is limited
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  in any way, or do you think that he is missing out on any part of
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  life? No, he is living life the way it
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  was intended to be lived. When we lie, when we are are
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  unkind, when we envy and covet, when we commit adultery, when we
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  murder, when we hate all of these things that God commands
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  us not to do in Scripture, it poisons and destroys all of our
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  relationships. But when we live the way that
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  God wants us to live, we are living a life of freedom.
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  A life where we are not constantly shooting ourselves in
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  the foot and going, oh man, I, I could have had this great
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  relationship with that person. I, I wouldn't have, you know,
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  betrayed or, or harmed or hurt this person in this way if I
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  just followed what God says. And when we look into God's
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  perfect law of freedom and we recognize the freedom found and
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  following and obeying him, not in following and obeying our
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  passions are the things that our sin nature wants us to do.
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  And when we persevere in the law of freedom, we don't just give
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  up after a time of or two of going, oh, well, I meant to do
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  what God's word told me to do this morning, but I, I really
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  messed up. And so I guess I'm just not
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  going to try anymore. No, no, look intently into the
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  perfect law of freedom. Persevere in that.
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  Don't be a forgetful hero, but a doer who works and it says this
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  person will be blessed in what he does.
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  Do you want to find blessing in your life?
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  Do you want God's favor and happiness and equipping in your
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  life? Read the Word of God and do what
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  it says. Don't abandon it.
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  Don't give up. We are going to have difficulty
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  because we are not perfect yet this side of heaven.
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  But keep on looking into God's word and as you do so you will
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  find the blessing of God. Don't defraud yourself.
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  Don't commit a business crime against yourself that you are
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  not getting all of what God wants for you through giving you
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  His word. Instead realize that because of
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  God's love for you, because of how much stuff is in scripture,
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  you have a limitless source of freedom and joy.
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  And it in the right way self help that God wants to change
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  you and transform you so that you are the best version of
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  yourself, the version that he created you to be, which is more
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  and more and more like Jesus. That you would be conformed to
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  the image of Christ. And that when people look at
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  you, when they hear you talk, even in yourself, when you think
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  in your mind, you are becoming more and more like your Savior.
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  That people interacting with you feel as though they have
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  interacted with a loving wise God.
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  Because it's not coming from you.
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  It's not coming from your wisdom.
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  It's not coming from just how you would interact with
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  situations, but that we would continually be spilling out, as
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  my friend Pastor Ron Smith says, sloshing out the the Holy Spirit
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  and the Word of God, that it would spill over into other
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  people. Well, thanks for tuning in
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  today. I hope today would be an
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  encouragement to you. We're ending chapter 1 tomorrow
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  with verses 26 and 27.