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James 1:1-12 - A Fitting Introduction to the Book of James · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Howdy and good morning, friends and faithful listeners.
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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being here on the Bible
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Speaker 1: Explain podcast on this lovely morning, and Hi, my name
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Speaker 1: is Jen I am the host of the Bible Explained.
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Speaker 1: Now today we are in a brand new book of
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Speaker 1: the Bible. This is the Book of James. It's one
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Speaker 1: of the few books similar to the Proverbs. It's almost
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Speaker 1: like you could take each verse and like you know,
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Speaker 1: put it on your mirror and recite it and just
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Speaker 1: gain a bunch of knowledge from that particular verse. And
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Speaker 1: each verse is kind of like that. So that's a
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Speaker 1: neat thing about the Book of James. And it's also
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Speaker 1: a book written by the brother of Jesus. James had
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Speaker 1: the same mother as Jesus. Now he obviously didn't have
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Speaker 1: the same father as Jesus, because you know, God the
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Speaker 1: father was Jesus's father, but still James was the half
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Speaker 1: brother of Jesus, which is super neat. So we will
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Speaker 1: get into the Book of James right after I jump
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Speaker 1: to a sponsored ad for all of you guys, so
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Speaker 1: take a listen to this as you are grabbing your
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Speaker 1: delicious hot beverage to share with me. And also the
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Speaker 1: Bible out of the version that you prefer. Alrighty, thank
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Speaker 1: you so much for listening to that sponsored ad. Let's
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Speaker 1: go ahead and read James one one through twelve. And
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Speaker 1: I'm going to read this as I usually do, from
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Speaker 1: the World English Bible or the Web version, which is
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Speaker 1: a great public domain version of Scripture that I like
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Speaker 1: to use because I won't get in trouble for using it.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, I like the Web version. But of course,
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Speaker 1: you guys feel free to read out of the version
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Speaker 1: that you prefer this morning, and I'd love to hear
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Speaker 1: what those versions are, So contact me and tell me
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Speaker 1: all about yourself. You can find my contact information listed
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Speaker 1: in the description of this episode, and just tell me
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Speaker 1: who you are, where you come from, what the weather's
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Speaker 1: like where you live, whether or not you like coffee
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Speaker 1: or tea, and also what your favorite version of Scripture is.
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Speaker 1: I do read all of my emails, and I'd love
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Speaker 1: to hear from each of you, faithful listeners. Let's go
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Speaker 1: ahead and dive into James one one through twelve this morning.
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Speaker 1: As you sip on your coffee or tea, let's give
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Speaker 1: reverence to God's word together. James a servant of God
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Speaker 1: and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes
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Speaker 1: which are in the dispersion, Greetings, count it all. Joy,
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Speaker 1: my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that
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Speaker 1: the testing of your faith produces endurance, let endurance have
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Speaker 1: its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete,
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Speaker 1: lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom,
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Speaker 1: let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally
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Speaker 1: and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
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Speaker 1: But let him ask in faith without any doubting. For
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Speaker 1: he who doubts is like a wave of the sea,
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Speaker 1: driven by the wind and tossed. For that man shouldn't
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Speaker 1: think that he will receive anything from the Lord. He
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Speaker 1: is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.
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Speaker 1: Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position,
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Speaker 1: and the rich in that he is made humble, because
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Speaker 1: like the flower in the grass, he will pass away.
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Speaker 1: For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers
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Speaker 1: the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the
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Speaker 1: beauty of its appearance perishes. So the rich man will
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Speaker 1: also fade away in his pursuits. Blessed is a person
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Speaker 1: who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he
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Speaker 1: will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised
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Speaker 1: to those who love him. All right, great start to
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Speaker 1: the Book of James. So far as you can see here,
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Speaker 1: James is a very different type of writer. He's very blunt,
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Speaker 1: he's very to the point. He is just going to
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Speaker 1: say what's on his mind and how it is, and
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Speaker 1: that's what it's going to be. But let's talk about
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Speaker 1: who James was before we really dive into what we
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Speaker 1: just read. James was most likely the brother of Jesus.
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Speaker 1: There's only two James that we really know of mentioned
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Speaker 1: in scripture. The first James was one of the disciples
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Speaker 1: of Jesus. I believe he was the brother of John.
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Speaker 1: And James died very early. He was actually one of
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Speaker 1: the first martyrs in the Christian Church. He died in
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Speaker 1: the Book of Acts. Likely James did not write the
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Speaker 1: Book of James. So really the only other James that
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Speaker 1: we have is the brother of Jesus. Now, Jesus is
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Speaker 1: mentioned as having brothers in John chapter seven. Though James
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Speaker 1: is not specifically mentioned by name, it still talks about
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Speaker 1: him as being one of the brothers of Jesus who
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Speaker 1: did not believe in him. So let's go ahead and
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Speaker 1: read that in John seven one through five. After these things,
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Speaker 1: Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he wouldn't walk in
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Speaker 1: Judea because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the
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Speaker 1: feast of the Jews, the feast of the booths, was
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Speaker 1: at hand. His brothers therefore said to him, depart from
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Speaker 1: here and go into Judea that your disciples also may
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Speaker 1: see your works which you do. For no one does
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Speaker 1: anything in secret, while he seeks to be known openly.
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Speaker 1: If you do these things, then reveal yourself to the world.
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Speaker 1: For even his brothers didn't believe in him. So basically,
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Speaker 1: Jesus is staying away from Judea because the Jews were
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Speaker 1: seeking his life. But his brothers give him absolutely terrible advice,
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Speaker 1: and they're like, look, you claim to be the Messiah.
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Speaker 1: You can do all these miracles and everything, so just
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Speaker 1: go to Judea and do them, Like show yourself to
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Speaker 1: the world. You know, Judea is the place where everybody
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Speaker 1: is going to see you. If you stay in Galilee
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Speaker 1: doing secret miracles, then nobody is going to know who
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Speaker 1: you are. And of course this advice was both terrible
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Speaker 1: and also uncaring of Jesus's life. Interestingly enough, and it
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Speaker 1: also says in verse five that even his brothers did
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Speaker 1: not believe in him, that includes James. But later on
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Speaker 1: in one Corinthians fifteen three through eight, James actually becomes
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Speaker 1: a believer. Here's what this says. For I deliver to you,
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Speaker 1: first of all that which I also received, that Christ
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Speaker 1: died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he
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Speaker 1: was buried, that he was raised on the third day
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Speaker 1: according to the scriptures, and that he appeared Decephis, then
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Speaker 1: to the twelve. Then he appeared to over five hundred
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Speaker 1: brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but
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Speaker 1: some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then
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Speaker 1: to all the apostles, and last of all, as to
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Speaker 1: the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me. Also,
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Speaker 1: so that is Paul writing about all of the people
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Speaker 1: that saw Jesus after his resurrection, and James, one of
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Speaker 1: Jesus's brothers, was on that list, which implies that James
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Speaker 1: became a believer when he saw Jesus resurrected from the dead.
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Speaker 1: And then in Galatians two James is mentioned once again
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Speaker 1: as being a pillar of the church that's talked about
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Speaker 1: in verse nine. It says, when they perceive the grace
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Speaker 1: that was given to me, James and Cephis and John,
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Speaker 1: those who were reputed to be pillars, gave to Barnabas
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Speaker 1: and me the right hand of fellowship, that we should
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Speaker 1: go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. So,
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Speaker 1: if I'm remembering correctly, that is Paul discussing the first
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Speaker 1: time he ever met some of the other disciples. It
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Speaker 1: says that he met James and Cephis or Peter and
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Speaker 1: also John, these three pillars of the church. So this
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Speaker 1: means that James did end up believing in Jesus, probably
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Speaker 1: right after Jesus appeared to him when he was resurrected.
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Speaker 1: So James, the half brother of Jesus by the same
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Speaker 1: mother Mary, became a pillar of the church. And so
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Speaker 1: it's very likely that James, the brother of Jesus, wrote
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Speaker 1: the Book of James. So here is how James starts
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Speaker 1: this book out. He says, James, a servant of God
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Speaker 1: and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes
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Speaker 1: which are in the dispersion, greetings. Notice that James does
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Speaker 1: not mention himself as the brother of Jesus, which I
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Speaker 1: would imagine, you know, would be really hard to not do.
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Speaker 1: Like if I were the sister of Jesus, I would
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Speaker 1: want to declare that news to everybody. I'd be like, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I look at me. I lived in the same house
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Speaker 1: as Jesus did for a while, I had a personal
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Speaker 1: relationship with Jesus. That would be what I would want
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Speaker 1: to do, you know, if I was writing a letter
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Speaker 1: to somebody. But you can see here that James learned
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Speaker 1: some humility. He wasn't even going to call himself the
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Speaker 1: brother of Jesus. Instead, he calls himself the servant of Jesus.
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Speaker 1: He says, a servant of God and of the Lord
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. Now notice he puts that word Christ after
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Speaker 1: Jesus's name. In today's day and age, people actually think
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Speaker 1: that Christ is Jesus's last name. It is not. Christ
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Speaker 1: is a title. It means Messiah. So yes, James's last
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Speaker 1: name was not James Christ. James was calling Jesus the Messiah.
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Speaker 1: And he writes all of these things to the twelve
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Speaker 1: tribes which are in the dispersion. So this would be
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Speaker 1: the twelve tribes of the Jews. Remember in Galatians chapter two,
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Speaker 1: that verse we just read when Paul met James and
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Speaker 1: Cephis for the first time. It mentions in that verse
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Speaker 1: that Paul and Barnabas were supposed to be missionaries to
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Speaker 1: the Gentiles, and James, Cephis, and John were to be
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Speaker 1: missionaries to the circumcised, also known as the Jewish people.
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Speaker 1: So James is writing to the Jewish people because that
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Speaker 1: is who he is, a missionary too, essentially, and so
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Speaker 1: he gets to his point in verse two, count it all, joy,
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Speaker 1: my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that
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Speaker 1: the testing of your faith produces endurance. Now a few
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Speaker 1: things I want to say about that verse. Firstly, the
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Speaker 1: Greek word for brothers includes like everybody. It's kind of
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Speaker 1: like the term for siblings, so it would mean brothers
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Speaker 1: and sisters. And depending on the version you're reading it
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Speaker 1: might say that might say count it all, join my
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Speaker 1: brothers and sisters, or something like that when you fall
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Speaker 1: into various temptations. Now, the Greek word for temptations could
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Speaker 1: also mean trials, and again, whatever version you might have,
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Speaker 1: it may say trials. I believe the NIV version translates
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Speaker 1: it as trials, but it could be translated either way.
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Speaker 1: And I honestly think that James specifically used that word
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Speaker 1: because regardless of whether you're going through trials or temptations
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Speaker 1: to sin, you can count these things as joy as
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Speaker 1: long as you do not give in to those temptations.
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Speaker 1: And here's what James means by this. He is not
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Speaker 1: saying that we need to rejoice during the middle of trials,
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Speaker 1: because obviously trials are not fun. Even Jesus did not
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Speaker 1: rejoice in the middle of his trial when he went
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Speaker 1: to the cross. What did he do? He was so
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Speaker 1: stressed that he was sweating blood. But what Jesus did
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Speaker 1: do was he looked forward to the joy. That is
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Speaker 1: actually something we just read in the Book of Hebrews.
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Speaker 1: It said that Jesus looked forward to the glory that
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Speaker 1: would be revealed after he went to the cross. And
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Speaker 1: forgive me that is not verbatim, that those are my
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Speaker 1: own words. But essentially, Jesus was counting the joy like
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Speaker 1: what James says right here. He was looking forward to
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Speaker 1: the joy that would be offered to him after he
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Speaker 1: went to the cross. And so as Christians who follow Jesus.
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Speaker 1: We can learn to do that exact same thing. We
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Speaker 1: learn to count the joy when we are going through
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Speaker 1: temptations or trials because we know that these things test
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Speaker 1: our faith and produce endurance. And here's why this is important.
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Speaker 1: As a Christian. Let endurance have its perfect work, that
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Speaker 1: you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Now,
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Speaker 1: this does not mean that if we endure trials well,
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Speaker 1: that we're going to become a perfect individual. Even Paul
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Speaker 1: said that it was not possible. In Philippians three, verse twelve,
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Speaker 1: it says not that I have already obtained or am
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Speaker 1: made perfect, but I press on that I may take
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Speaker 1: hold of that for which I was also taken hold
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Speaker 1: of by Christ Jesus. So when James one says that
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Speaker 1: you're going to be made perfect and complete, the idea
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Speaker 1: is not sinless perfection, but maturity as a Christian. So
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Speaker 1: you can kind of gauge, I suppose how mature of
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Speaker 1: a Christian you are depending on how well you are
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Speaker 1: able to endure through something. And this is a learned trait.
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Speaker 1: This is not something that we're automatically going to have.
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Speaker 1: And that's kind of what James says right here. He says,
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Speaker 1: count the joy in these trials, knowing that all of
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Speaker 1: these things are going to give you a more perfect faith,
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Speaker 1: a more enduring type of faith. Even Paul had to
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Speaker 1: learn to be content in every single circumstance and learn
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Speaker 1: to endure. That is what he says in Philippians chapter
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Speaker 1: four eleven. Not that I speak because of lack, For
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Speaker 1: I've learned in whatever state I am, to be content
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Speaker 1: in it. I know how to be humbled, and I
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Speaker 1: also know how to abound in any and in all circumstances.
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Speaker 1: I have learned the secret both to be filled and
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Speaker 1: to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need.
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Speaker 1: I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
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Speaker 1: So even Paul says, I had to learn endurance. It
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Speaker 1: was not something that I was naturally and with. I
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Speaker 1: had to learn it by having faith in God, by
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Speaker 1: understanding that God is good and that God can accomplish
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Speaker 1: anything despite the situation that I am in. So whether
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Speaker 1: I'm hungry or my belly is filled with good food,
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Speaker 1: I am going to put my faith in Jesus because
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Speaker 1: he gives me everything that I need. So even Paul,
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Speaker 1: the pinnacle of endurance, had to learn to have endurance.
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Speaker 1: So that is one of the ways we can gauge
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Speaker 1: our spiritual maturity and also a blessing. I suppose that
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Speaker 1: comes from the trials and the temptations that we are
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Speaker 1: going to deal with in this life, and it really
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Speaker 1: is a positive thing. When I worked at that terrible
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Speaker 1: factory back in twenty nineteen, I can honestly say I
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Speaker 1: had zero endurance of anything. I was unable to look
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Speaker 1: past myself and give anybody any of my time if
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Speaker 1: I did not want to do it. And suddenly I
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Speaker 1: was stuck in this job that I could not get
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Speaker 1: out of, no matter how many different places I applied to,
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Speaker 1: I was stuck at that factory, and I actually had
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Speaker 1: to learn to give away my time. And suddenly, I'm
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Speaker 1: not even joking, I saw this verse come to life
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Speaker 1: in myself because when a Saturday rolled around when I
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Speaker 1: didn't have much time at all to do anything, it
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Speaker 1: really did become easier giving that time away to other people,
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Speaker 1: because I was like, you know, this is better than
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Speaker 1: working at the factory. First and foremost, I would rather
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Speaker 1: do anything than work there. So any time that I
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Speaker 1: have away from there is a good time. And also
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Speaker 1: I remembered thinking, it's okay, I'm going to have time
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Speaker 1: later on. This is not that big of a deal.
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Speaker 1: I can give three hours of my time on a
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Speaker 1: Saturday to you know, help somebody in my family or
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Speaker 1: whatever was going on during that day. And I'm telling
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Speaker 1: you this verse came alive in me, and I was
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Speaker 1: able to give more of my time something that was
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Speaker 1: very precious to me before that more willingly, through a
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Speaker 1: bad Ta circumstance, I was able to endure and find
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Speaker 1: more joy in life even when things were not ideal
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Speaker 1: for me. If that makes sense. So there is something
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Speaker 1: really good that comes from trials and temptations and negativity.
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Speaker 1: We are able to just find more contentment and peace
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Speaker 1: and happiness when things are not ideal. And he continues
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Speaker 1: in verse five, if any of you lacks wisdom, let
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Speaker 1: him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and
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Speaker 1: without reproach, and it will be given to him. But
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Speaker 1: let him ask in faith without any doubting. For he
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Speaker 1: who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven
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Speaker 1: by the wind and tossed. For that man shouldn't think
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Speaker 1: that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is
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Speaker 1: a double minded man. Unstable in all his ways. So basically,
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Speaker 1: God doesn't just abandon us when we're going through trials.
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Speaker 1: We can ask for help. If we are struggling through
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Speaker 1: something where we need wisdom, we can go to God
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Speaker 1: and say, hey, God, I really need help and wisdom
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Speaker 1: during this time, and it says that God will be
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Speaker 1: there with you. He will give to all liberally and
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Speaker 1: without reproach, and it will be given him as long
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Speaker 1: as it is done in faith. Though it says the
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Speaker 1: person who doubts God is kind of like a wave
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Speaker 1: of the sea. It's driven by the wind and tossed
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Speaker 1: around essentially, so that wisdom is not going to have
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Speaker 1: any true effect in their life. There has to be
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Speaker 1: a true faith in God there that God's way is best,
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Speaker 1: that you want to do his will, that you trust
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Speaker 1: His wisdom and his ways, and then that wisdom will
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Speaker 1: have its full effect in your life and you'll be
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Speaker 1: able to weather these trials and temptations in your life
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Speaker 1: far better with the wisdom that God gives you. So
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Speaker 1: we can't be double minded. It's what it says in
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Speaker 1: verse eight. He is a double minded man, unstable in
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Speaker 1: all his ways, So don't be unstable, not trusting God's wisdom,
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Speaker 1: but rather trust God's wisdom is what James is getting
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Speaker 1: at here, trust that his way is the best. And
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Speaker 1: continuing in verse nine, it says, let the brother in
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Speaker 1: humble circumstances glory in his high position, and the rich
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Speaker 1: in that he is made humble. So, continuing with this
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Speaker 1: theme of enduring through trials and temptations, James really starts
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Speaker 1: to focus, I think, on the temptation aspect of all
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Speaker 1: of this. Now, before I think he was focusing more
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Speaker 1: on the trials, you know, the things that are kind
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Speaker 1: of outside of our control, things that just hit us,
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Speaker 1: miseries that we have to deal with, pain, suffering, whatever
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Speaker 1: it might be. But we can also endure through temptation.
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Speaker 1: But with temptation we have a choice. We can either
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Speaker 1: choose to give in to the temptation or we can
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Speaker 1: choose to reject that temptation. The example he gives is
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Speaker 1: in wealth. Firstly, the poor person. He says, let the brother,
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Speaker 1: in other words, the Christian in humble circumstances glory in
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Speaker 1: his high position. He's speaking to the unwealthy. Now he's saying, look,
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Speaker 1: all of you who don't have a lot of money,
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Speaker 1: who don't have a lot of finances. Don't be tempted
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Speaker 1: to be greedy and have a love of money. Instead,
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Speaker 1: glory in your high position. And that is something we
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Speaker 1: don't often think about somebody who is unwealthy. We would
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Speaker 1: never think that somebody who is poor is in a
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Speaker 1: high position. Instead, we look at movie stars and popular
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Speaker 1: musicians and you know, tech CEOs and billionaires. We think
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Speaker 1: of them as being in high positions. Right, But James
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Speaker 1: actually says that the poor Christian is the one who
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Speaker 1: actually has a high position. And what is their high position. Well,
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Speaker 1: they're a son or a daughter of the King of
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Speaker 1: the universe, who gives everything to everybody, and they are
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Speaker 1: someday going to live in complete and total harmony with
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Speaker 1: all of their needs being met as a child of royalty.
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Speaker 1: That's pretty cool if you think about it. So basically,
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Speaker 1: don't envy the rich people, don't worry about their finances,
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Speaker 1: don't idolize money, because if you're a Christian, God has
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Speaker 1: already given you a high position, and also God will
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Speaker 1: take care of your needs. So God works through these trials,
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Speaker 1: and that is why James tells us. He tells the
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Speaker 1: poor don't be tempted by wealth. Don't be tempted to
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Speaker 1: be greedy, because God is going to provide your needs.
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Speaker 1: He might provide them in a way that you're not expecting,
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Speaker 1: through a trial, maybe through a nasty circumstance, but He
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Speaker 1: is going to provide for you all of your needs
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Speaker 1: glory in that high status. That's what he says right here.
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Speaker 1: Then in verse ten, he has a warning for the rich,
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Speaker 1: he says, and for the rich he is made humble
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Speaker 1: because like a flower in the grass, he will pass away,
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Speaker 1: for the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers
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Speaker 1: with the grass, and the flower in it falls and
19:58
Speaker 1: the beauty of its appearance perishes. So the rich man
20:01
Speaker 1: will also fade away in his pursuits. So the same
20:04
Speaker 1: way that the poor man is to glory in his
20:06
Speaker 1: high position, the rich man is supposed to glory in
20:10
Speaker 1: the fact that he is made humble because his or
20:13
Speaker 1: her wealth is going to go to someone else. His are,
20:16
Speaker 1: her pursuits, endeavors, company career, all of these things will
20:22
Speaker 1: pass to somebody new. The wealth will all pass away.
20:26
Speaker 1: And that is something that the Christian rich man should
20:29
Speaker 1: look favorably on and say, God, thank you so much
20:33
Speaker 1: for humbling me that ultimately nothing really matters in my
20:37
Speaker 1: life except for you. Now you might be like, how
20:42
Speaker 1: is humility a good thing? Like why would somebody want
20:46
Speaker 1: to glory in their humility? Well, actually, in Philippians chapter three,
20:52
Speaker 1: that's exactly what Paul does. He says in verse eight
20:55
Speaker 1: through eleven, Yes, most certainly, I count all things to
20:59
Speaker 1: be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ,
21:02
Speaker 1: Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of
21:05
Speaker 1: all things, and I count them nothing but refuse that
21:09
Speaker 1: I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not
21:12
Speaker 1: having a righteousness of my own, that which is of
21:14
Speaker 1: the law, but that which is through faith in Christ,
21:17
Speaker 1: the righteousness which is from God, by faith, that I
21:20
Speaker 1: may know Him, and the power of his resurrection and
21:23
Speaker 1: the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death,
21:27
Speaker 1: if by any means I may obtain to the resurrection
21:30
Speaker 1: from the dead. So in those verses, Paul saying he
21:33
Speaker 1: rejects everything he once thought was valuable in his life,
21:38
Speaker 1: and don't forget you know, Paul was in a very
21:40
Speaker 1: prominent position before he became a Christian, before he met
21:43
Speaker 1: Jesus on the road to Damascus. He was a pharisee,
21:47
Speaker 1: possibly setting out to become the next high priest. He
21:51
Speaker 1: was a politician of sorts. He was probably well off,
21:54
Speaker 1: quite honestly, and not hurting for money. He was a
21:57
Speaker 1: man who kind of had it all his wad. His
22:00
Speaker 1: career was on a fantastic path forward. And yet he
22:04
Speaker 1: rejected all of that for something so much better, for
22:08
Speaker 1: the humility of Jesus Christ. And that is what the
22:12
Speaker 1: rich man is supposed to do as well, realizing that
22:16
Speaker 1: his wealth is only temporary and that there's something so
22:19
Speaker 1: much better out there. So James warns the rich person,
22:24
Speaker 1: do not become complacent in your wealth. Do not become
22:28
Speaker 1: greedy for more wealth. Do not act selfish in your wealth,
22:33
Speaker 1: saying that this is all mine. That you know, I
22:36
Speaker 1: did all of this, look at me. Do not become arrogant. Instead,
22:40
Speaker 1: search in that humility that comes from Jesus and avoid
22:43
Speaker 1: the temptation of wealth. So, whether you're poor or you're rich,
22:46
Speaker 1: the moral of the story is to avoid temptations and
22:50
Speaker 1: to count joy for what you've been given in the future,
22:54
Speaker 1: which is basically your eternal afterlife. Look forward to that,
22:58
Speaker 1: not to the things of this earth. And here's what
23:01
Speaker 1: James concludes by saying, blessed is a person who endures temptation,
23:06
Speaker 1: for when he has been approved, he will receive the
23:09
Speaker 1: crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who
23:12
Speaker 1: love him. So every single person who truly believes in Jesus,
23:16
Speaker 1: whether they're poor or rich, whether they're Jewish or gentile,
23:19
Speaker 1: whether they're slave or free, these people will experience the
23:23
Speaker 1: ultimate joy of receiving a crown of life from Jesus himself. Okay,
23:31
Speaker 1: faithful listeners, I do have one last thing I want
23:33
Speaker 1: to say about this episode before I tell you guys goodbye.
23:36
Speaker 1: But before I close out the episode with all of that,
23:38
Speaker 1: please listen to this one last sponsor for today. Okay,
23:43
Speaker 1: the last thing I want to say before I end
23:44
Speaker 1: today's episode is that there's one more moral that we
23:47
Speaker 1: can take from James Chapter one, and that is, whether
23:51
Speaker 1: you're poor or you're rich, you're going to experience a
23:54
Speaker 1: lot of trouble in life. And that's kind of what
23:56
Speaker 1: James says right here. The rich have temptations, they have trials.
24:01
Speaker 1: The poor people have temptations and they have trials. So
24:05
Speaker 1: we shouldn't be envying each other. We shouldn't be looking
24:08
Speaker 1: at this person being like, Oh, they have it so easy.
24:11
Speaker 1: They have their entire life figured out, they have everything
24:15
Speaker 1: going for them. Now, granted, somebody might present that way.
24:19
Speaker 1: They might present that they have everything going for them
24:23
Speaker 1: and eternally they might be living in complete misery and depression,
24:27
Speaker 1: or they might be struggling with some sort of secret
24:29
Speaker 1: sin that is eating them alive with guilt, or they
24:32
Speaker 1: might be struggling in their marriage, or with their children,
24:35
Speaker 1: or in their family, or anything else. We don't know
24:39
Speaker 1: what is going on in each person's life. There's a
24:42
Speaker 1: proverb that I did not look up, and I apologize
24:44
Speaker 1: for this, but it says something along the lines of
24:46
Speaker 1: no one can know the depth of somebody else's misery,
24:50
Speaker 1: and they also can't know the depth of somebody else's joy.
24:55
Speaker 1: You can only know the depth of your own joy
24:57
Speaker 1: and your own misery. So we should not be envying
25:01
Speaker 1: anybody else because we do not know what they are
25:04
Speaker 1: going through. Even if they have the most money in
25:07
Speaker 1: the world, even if their kids and their family seems
25:09
Speaker 1: to be so happy, even if they look like they
25:13
Speaker 1: have everything together, we do not know what they are
25:15
Speaker 1: going through and how they are struggling. We can only
25:18
Speaker 1: see the image that they are presenting to us. We
25:21
Speaker 1: don't know what's behind those scenes. So keep that in mind.
25:24
Speaker 1: This world is a broken place. Every single person is
25:28
Speaker 1: going to go through brokenness and trials and temptations. So
25:31
Speaker 1: are we going to be the person that cannot endure
25:33
Speaker 1: through these trials that we're going to experience anyway? Or
25:37
Speaker 1: are we going to be somebody that endures through these
25:40
Speaker 1: trials and says Jesus, I am giving all of this
25:43
Speaker 1: to you. I'm going to have faith in your ways,
25:47
Speaker 1: in your will, in your wisdom, and I'm going to
25:50
Speaker 1: do the best that I possibly can through these trials
25:53
Speaker 1: and these temptations I am experiencing. We have a choice
25:57
Speaker 1: to be somebody who suffers. Well. Faithful listeners, have a
26:01
Speaker 1: wonderful rest of your day, happy listening, and God bless
26:11
Speaker 1: I just want to take a second to thank the
26:13
Speaker 1: team at Life Audio for their partnership with me on
26:15
Speaker 1: the Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if you go to
26:17
Speaker 1: lifeaudio dot com you'll find dozens of other faith centered
26:21
Speaker 1: podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting,
26:25
Speaker 1: and more.