James #3 - How does faith work when you are angry?

[Music] [Music] so [Music] all right this is going to be super fun if you've got a bible go to a new testament book called james it's written by jesus kid brother and we tend to think of bible teachers theologians scholars as coming out of institutions with formal educations that's not the situation with james i call him the blue collar scholar of the new testament his dad is joseph his mom is married he grows up in a rural small town poor family peasant he's going to work with his dad as a little boy his dad's a carpenter but nonetheless the spirit of god is so strong in james that he grows up to serve his big brother jesus as his lord and savior and write this amazing book of the bible so what we're finding ourselves studying today is the topic of how does faith work when you get angry and so what happens is there are times in life that we need to take our faith and we need to put it to work because faith does work so we're in james chapter 1 verses 19 through 27 and we're going to talk about some practical and some personal stuff today probably some stuff you don't want to necessarily even think about because maybe you're ashamed of it you're embarrassed by it you're struggling with it or you've sort of surrendered to it in a negative way god wants to heal it today god wants to deliver you today so as we get into these personal and practical matters two things i want you to know up front god is your father he's going to tell us that twice in james chapter 1 and he's going to tell us three times that you were his beloved i've got five kids i love with all my heart and if they're having a hard time or they're struggling or they're in a season i want them to know that i'm their dad i love them i'm for them i'm there for them i want them to know that our relationship is secure and that their well-being is my first priority that's god's heart for you today and so as we jump into the book of james we're going to start by looking at the theme of chapter one and the context is trial so here's the first question what's your trial we've all got trials we're all in something that is a struggle a hardship a difficulty a complexity this is the theme of james chapter one verse two says when you meet trials of various kinds we've all got trout some of us physical mental spiritual emotional relational and then he says james 1 12 it's an opportunity the trial is blessed is the man or person who remains steadfast under trial so first question is what trial are you in for some of you it's a big thing right now you've got a big decision or big opposition for some of you it's a bunch of little things now i'll just be honest as we're in james one it's been super helpful for me what i have learned about myself i tend to do really good with the big trials and then i tend to trip over my own feet with the little ones any of you like me so like so you know guys like hey grab your five kids in your mid 40s move halfway across the country start at church you have no money you have no people you have no clue you have no job and i'm like okay great and then i kid you not i'm meditating on this verse a couple days ago driving on the freeway and some kid in a honda civic 100 miles an hour with a ball cap backwards vaping one of those lowered you know and then they put the muffler on it so it sounds like a real car it's not and he's going 100 miles an hour weaving it out of traffic he drives the truck in alongside of me off the road cuts me off and gives me my least favorite finger and and i'm meditating on this verse i'm like getting and then all of a sudden like oh this kid needs the ministry of the right hand a fellowship is all i'm thinking right like usually i'm good in the big trials and then i kind of struggle with the little ones we've all got our trials going on what happens when there is a trial around us it triggers emotion in us we get emotional that's where he's going to go next so what's your trial trigger someone or something in your trial triggers you so the the experience out there leads to a response or some emotion in here james 1 19-20 know this my beloved so again god loves you brothers like jesus is our big brother too let every person be quick to hear slow to speak slow to anger for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of god so what he's saying is there's a trial out there someone or something triggers you you get emotional in here and usually that primary emotion is anger you're frustrated you're agitated so we're going to talk about this let's start with the anger anger is a very important emotion because it reveals to us who and what we love we get angry about people and things we care about whether they're harmed or endangered or taken advantage of used abused or neglected and it when you're angry it means that that's a person or a thing that is very treasured by you it's important to you so it's a trigger for emotion in you in addition when it comes to our anger some anger is something we feel and it's something we do it's it's something we feel and then we do and so he's going to build on that with behavior that our anger manifests itself with the words that we speak and the deeds that we do and so when we're looking at anger we've got to ask okay what does the bible say about anger now some of you have been wrongly told that there are good emotions and bad emotions and that anger is a bad emotion some of you have been told that i was uh dealing with a pastor a couple years ago and uh he said yeah i never get angry i said well then you're a terrible pastor because there are things that you should be angry about like i'm angry that you don't get angry like that's what i'm thinking like and what he was thinking is holy people are not angry people but if you look at sin and injustice and evil and abuse there are certain things that are just wrong and if you don't feel angry you're actually not emotionally agreeing with god so anger can be a motivator it can be a passionate igniter of action in our life and so the question is is our anger good anger or bad anger is it righteous anger that agrees with god or is it the anger of man that does not produce the righteousness of god that's the context in james 1. so let's just look at some triggers for unhealthy anger sometimes this can be entitlement we feel like we're owed something we deserve something you're obligated to us and we don't get it so then we get angry that's an unholy ungodly anger sometimes unholy ungodly anger it's triggered by selfishness and this is where someone is inconveniencing us or annoying us and uh if you're not yet married i'm just prophesying your future okay you don't know how selfish you are till you get married and you realize that this other person is going to take some of your time money and energy and it triggers anger in you and frustration because you're selfish marriage is two selfish people just so you know being served by jesus and learning to serve one another oftentimes the frustrations the annoyances the emotional responses in marriage it's just totally out of selfishness and and then next level you find that you are uh an angry person in an unhealthy way when then you add children okay all the parents laugh and the single people are like what i don't understand again we're prophesying your future because what kids will do is they will make you very frustrated and sometimes yeah so we do have a witness in the third row so what happens is that sometimes anger manifests itself as disappointment or hurt or frustration or annoyance and sometimes even fear but under it all is ultimately anger and so what happens when you're a parent is your child says or does something that's an inconvenience a frustration and as a result you get upset with them but the question is do they commit a sin or a mistake there's a big difference between a sin and a mistake god gets upset about sin but mistakes are what human beings do and that's how human beings learn we don't always get it right the first time and it takes us a while if you're always upset because people are making mistakes you are creating this perfectionistic environment where you're going to be triggered by their humanity and then you're going to punish them for being human and this is the case with kids just so you know kids are going to spill their drink they're going to wake up in the middle of the night they're going to wet their bed they're going to climb into your bed then they're going to wet your bed these things just happen and unless they methodically plotted it and sometimes i think they do it's just a mistake and so we shouldn't get angry about humanity now ultimately the probably the worst negative human expression of unhealthy anger comes out of bitterness and unforgiveness when you are bitter unforgiving towards someone everything they do triggers you just hearing their name triggers you seeing their face on social media triggers you having to interact with them during the holidays triggers you and so you and i need to make sure that our anger is not triggered by bitterness and unforgiveness which are demonic strongholds that we need to forgive people as god has forgiven us and that's why he tells us in ephesians 4 26 be angry and do not sin what he doesn't say is don't get angry what he says is you're going to get angry and when you do get angry it's a powerful motivator and it can lead you into good action or bad action choose to use it in a constructive way not a destructive way in your anger do not sin and what can happen when we are angry we're more prone to temptation and sin because we're more frustrated in the moment now let me ask you this does god ever get angry he does and so if god gets angry it is godly to sometimes be angry if you're always angry you're not godly if you're never angry that's not godly sometimes god gets angry and as a result godly people sometimes get angry so the difference between the unrighteous anger of man and the righteous anger of god is are we angry about the things that god is angry about so uh recently um and sometimes i get angry just you know this my initials are mark alan driscoll so my initials are mad so this is a life struggle for me okay so recently i was upset i was frustrated and i i thought okay i'm gonna go talk to god about this and i was like god i'm very frustrated and he talked to me sometimes god talks to me and uh and he said why i said well this is what happened he said i'm not angry why are you i was like oh you're not angry about this he's like no and if i'm not angry why are you angry see sometimes we're angry and we need to ask god are you angry does this upset you if it doesn't upset you why should it upset me if my response is different than yours then my response is ungodly because that's not god's response what he does here in james 1 he quotes a verse from the old testament the book of exodus chapter 34 there god comes down and introduces himself hi i'm god and he says the lord the lord meaning i'm in charge and you probably are going to forget that so i'll tell you again the lord the lord and then he says slow to anger god introduces himself as a god who is capable of anger but has to be pushed toward it he doesn't begin at it god's anger has a very long wick the other religions in the world they tend to conceive of their false erroneous view of god that god's an angry god that god is a always sort of on the edge of his seat ready to attack you and you need to appease him the god of the bible says no no i'm not an angry god i'm a loving god and you need to really push me for a very long time before you agitate me now this is good news for us and it should be a good example for us the good news is if we know that god is loving merciful and slow to anger when we blow it when we're triggered when we're emotional when we're in a trial when we've made some bad decisions we don't need to run from this god because he's going to hurt us we need to run to this god because he's going to help us this is what he says in romans it's the kindness of god that leads to our repentance when we know that god is loving merciful kind and slow to anger when we've said or done something wrong we go to him we don't run from him just so you know this line that james quotes from exodus 34 that god is quote slow to anger of all the verses in the bible this is the verse that is quoted more than any other verse in the entire bible now you think of everything that's in the bible and the holy spirit decides okay there's one thing that they're going to forget so i need to tell them over and over and over and over and over i'm slow to anger if god is slow to anger then you and i by god's grace need to learn to be slow to anger so god does get angry does jesus ever get angry jesus is perfect human being he sets for us the perfect example of emotional health internally and word and deed coming out in behavior decision and it tells us some 60 times in the new testament it tells us about jesus emotions and he has the full range of emotions the number one emotion mentioned of jesus in the new testament it's really good news for us it's compassion because he's slow to anger there are two occasions where jesus anger is expressly mentioned one is in mark chapter 3 verse 5 and what happens is it's the sabbath day so the way it worked god created the world and in six days he worked and on one day he rested and he said okay we're gonna do a seven day week six days you work one day you rest he called it the sabbath what happens then is religious people come along and what religious people do is they add to god's word they add a lot of fine print and details and religious people tend to think oh god got a good start he missed a few things we'll fill in the errors and the oversights of god so they create a long list of what you can do and not do on the sabbath jesus shows up he sees a guy who's sick he's he's been unhealthy his whole life his his life is just devastated by health problems and so what does jesus want to do heal the guy but it's the sabbath so jesus decides he's going to heal this guy on the sabbath and the religious people who made all the rules and enforced all the rules not god's rules their rules they're hoping that jesus heals the guy so that they can attack him criticize him malign him punish him and diminish his ministry influence now if you're the guy who's been sick for a long time what do you want you're like today's a good day to be healed like pretty much any day is a good day to be healed and it says that they were angry at jesus because he was going to help a guy and jesus was angry at them because they didn't want the guy to get helped so what you've got here you've got the religious leaders are angry and jesus is angry and their anger is wrong and his anger is right so it says this in various english translations mark 3 5 anger grieved anger and sorrow anger and deeply distress or angerly and deeply saddened jesus gets angry at man-made human religion and tradition if you're here and you're like i don't know if i want to join a religion we're not here to give you a religion we're here to give you a relationship with jesus christ religion is human beings making rules to control and punish one another through fear relationship with jesus is love grace mercy forgiveness and a changed life out of love that comes from god jesus gets angry when religion gets in the way of helping hurting people in addition there's one other occasion where jesus gets angry jesus had um two sisters and a brother that he was close friends with the guy's name was lazarus and then the sisters were named mary and martha and so for jesus they're like extended family some of you know people like that they're they're not your family of birth but your family of new birth they love the lord you love the lord and they just feel like family so as jesus is traveling he'd often stop by their house for dinner he would lead bible studies there he would stay the night he'd probably go there for the holidays they were his friends and then he's traveling and one of the sisters mary she's more the relational emotional intuitive feeler she finds jesus and she reports this tragic news lazarus died ezra they're his friend and jesus has this emotional response in john chapter 11 verse 33 angry in his spirit and deeply moved a deep anger welled up within him and he was deeply troubled jesus gets angry about death because sin leads to death and when god made the world there was no sin and there was no death so when he sees sin bring death to people that he loves it angers him if somebody you love gets diagnosed with cancer and you're angry you have the heart of god you have the heart of god sin death hurts people that god loves and religion does not allow the help to go to people as is needed and so what angers jesus is religion sin and death which all harms people that he loves and wants to help the point is this if you're always angry there's a problem if you're never angry there's a problem if you're slow to anger you are walking in the spirit and if religion sin and death frustrate you you're sharing the heart of god now the key is if you're going to be angry at sin you've got to start by being angry at your own shots fired okay um some people were like you're doing good pastor mark keep going that last thing i don't know it's a glitch so so what happens is there's a trial around you it triggers emotion in you oftentimes that dominant emotion is anger and anger is not just what we feel it's what we do with the words that we speak and the deeds that we choose so he's going to talk about our words and speaking out of anger and jesus says that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks so the words that come out indicate the internal condition of the heart so he's going to tell us we should be quick to hear slow to speak slow to anger the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of god now the problem in our day is that we have technology this allows angry people to trigger one another and escalate anger at an incredibly proficient rate so social media fake news click bait social media platforms and comments and certain pajama haddin bloggers what happens is that somebody gets angry and then they speak out of their anger and they trigger someone else and the whole goal is to multiply anger because that multiplies clicks because that generates revenue and the point is that we emotionally abuse people for profit and that's the world that we live in and so unlike the day of james where you had to work a little bit to hear what people are saying today you need to work really hard not to hear what other people are saying because it's on your phone call text email you know like comment forward post it's incredible it's an onslaught toward the soul and what you have online is a bunch of angry people yelling at each other everyone's talking no one's listening it's the complete inverse of james slow to speak quick quick to listen online no it's quick to speak slow to listen someone once said that god gave us one mouth and two ears because that's the good ratio for living we should do twice as much listening as we do talking and somebody's saying pastor mark you're hypocrite hey overlook the obvious okay um now in saying this part of the problem with technology i was talking to a pastor named rick warren a years ago so the problem with technology is fourfold it's instant constant global permanent instant so you have a trial around you some emotion gets triggered in you perhaps anger instantaneously you can communicate you can post online you can send a call text email whatever it's instant and it's constant 24 hours a day seven days a week so every constantly people are angry and what what people wake up and they decide is what's the rage of the day our whole culture now is driven by the rage of the day who or what are we angry at and there are whole influencers and platforms and some would even call themselves ministries but they're really miseries and all they do is just decide the rage or the enemy of the day instant constant global you're angry about someone or something you just let it fly now somebody around the world who is maybe wounded damaged triggered broken frustrated bitter they align with you the whole world can now be involved and once it's out there it's like a tattoo it's permanent so what happens is you get a you get a trial you get triggered you get angry you say something and then you have to live with it is this true somebody said pastor mark how do you know this i know a guy okay i know a guy who on occasion especially as a younger man got angry and put some things on the internet that he can't take down and what i would say is pray for that guy and right now don't post anything about him but what happens is if you are younger you're being born into a world that is a complete sociological experiment and we have no idea what the outcome might be but all indicators are not healthy not healthy or well i got a communications degree before the internet just process that rode my dinosaur we'd communicate on tablets it was interesting if you are younger all you know is this instant constant global permanent angry people triggering one another and then bringing the entire universe into their troubles and it's not a healthy way to live it's just not so what happens then is what dominates out of an angry heart are things like slander you're just trashing somebody um lying you're just making stuff up uh bearing false witness they said or i heard it's like that's not what happened and gossip and if you're a christian here if you're a new christian let me tell you this um christians will gossip and instead we'll use the word prayer request and so it's a it's a ninja move oh my gosh have you heard about so and so so oh you really need to pray for them let me tell you it's gossip because it's not your news to tell it's not your news to tell as a pastor people tell me things and other people who are gossips and busy about us and be like well tell me about so-and-so if you want to know about so-and-so go ask so-and-so do you want to know how their marriage is go ask them that's not my news to tell gossip is when we tell news that is not our news to tell and we live online and this is the world that we live in and it's tragic so you will have a trial around you it will trigger emotion in you perhaps even anger and you'll want to communicate you'll want to say something you want to express yourself but oftentimes when we do it's unwise and it's unhelpful and it's unholy so just a couple questions when you're triggered and you're angry and you're emotional do you want to make a point or do you want to make a difference it's really easy to make a point it's really hard to make a difference if you want to make a difference in someone's life you can't just be making points about their life do you want to be a critic or a coach if you go to a sporting event let's say there's a player on the field an athlete and they blow it and we all know it the coach sees it sitting in the stands behind the coach is the critic who sees it and they're both going to talk to the athlete about their failure but very differently the critic is just going to mock them is going to malign them is going to frustrate them the coach is going to walk out on the field and help them the difference between a critic and a coach is not what you see but what you say if you walk in love you're going to be a coach if you walk in anger you're going to be a critic coach walks out he's like okay we all saw it it's on the jumbotron so i want you to know i believe in you here's what you need to do next time here's how we're going to fix it here's how you're going to do better you want to be a critic or a coach let me say this if you're a parent the worst thing you can do is be your child's critic the most because they have plenty of critics the most important thing we can do is be their coach do you want to beat people down or you want to build people up do you want to win the argument or do you want to win the person you can win an argument and lose a relationship and what you want to do is you want to win the person and you want to preserve the relationship and so it's not just about getting angry and making your point and beating them down and winning the argument it's about having the heart of god to help them rather than harm them to listen to them rather than yell at them and one other question when we hit these moments will we keep private things private or we make them public what happens when you have a trial you are triggered you get emotional and angry you tend to take things that should be private and you make them public because you're trying to do harm toward others and we live in this world where the more let me say there's a difference between secrecy and privacy secrecy is you're hiding things that are bad privacy is it's none of your business it's why we shower at home not the grocery store you don't go over to the produce aisle oh look a hose oh good i need to shower please don't do that that's privacy meaning we don't need to be involved there are lots of things in life that are just privacy and we betray out of anger when we take something that is private and we make it public and let me just say this when you get angry when i get angry often times our first response is it in the flesh or the spirit the flesh i don't know why i don't know if the flesh runs all the red lights and the holy spirit drives the speed limit so he shows up later i don't know why how many of you though when you get angry the first thing you want to say and do is not a good idea okay if you're like i'm not i don't know ask your spouse okay they will testify that most of the things that we say and do that we regret are out of anger when we're triggered in the moment and then the holy spirit shows up a little later and we're like oh gosh i just i just torpedoed my own life in addition what he's saying is before you talk to them talk to him when he says quick to listen slow to speak the point is this sometimes you need to have a hard conversation so have that hard conversation with god and have him instruct you how to have that conversation with them god can handle your anger god can handle your frustration god can be the lightning rod that grounds out the storm that you're in the problem is we're feeling much like i need to talk about i need to say something and how many of you are like me you're verbal processors i i am every weekend the band's like where are you going i don't know i'm excited to see i don't know i'm just going to talk and we'll see where it ends up some of you like me you need to talk about it you need to process it you need to think it through you need to be emotional you need to be passionate you know what meet with god just turn your phone off don't invite the universe in don't create an unholy alliance don't just leak or vent to whomever is in front of you so you know what i'm going to meet with god i'm angry i'm frustrated i'm emotional i got to think this through i'm pretty sure what i'm going to say and do is not going to be the will of god and i need to get with god to find his will so it's not that you do nothing it's that you process it with god first for me this looks like prayer walks and hikes in the woods and journaling it out and it's like okay god is my anger godly if not i need to repent of my anger my anger is godly and i need to talk to them do i need to talk to them and sometimes god's like you don't need to talk to them i'm going to talk to them okay great well yeah you are the lord so you can tap yourself in whenever you want and grace used to do this to me too when we first got married she would pray for me not tell me and then i would just get convicted and i'd walk in i'd be like were you praying for me again i called it sicking the holy spirit on me that's what she would do oh mark's being a little grumpy holy spirit get him amen works every time and sometimes as you're praying for them your heart is changing and god is also working on them to prepare you to have the conversation so you're not triggering anger in one another there is a an old prayer from saint francis of assisi he says oh divine master grant that they may not so much seek to be understood as to understand we live in a world where it's like i want you to understand me i want you to hear me i want you to listen to me and everybody's feeling that way everybody's talking nobody's listening so as we listen to god it opens our ears to start to listen to others and what this will do it'll increase empathy because sometimes people are going through something or they've triggered us and we didn't get the full picture of where they were i gave a kind of an interesting analogy last night i was thinking about it there was a time i was teaching and i got up to teach and my mic wasn't on it's just i'm like hey can you guys turn the mic on you know hey mute unmute i mean and nothing so afterward i you know finally somebody goes in the booth they unmute the mic and i you know i teach god's word and afterward i'm like what happened the sound person came up they said i'm so sorry i got a text that my mom had been in a car wreck and was in icu and i just froze i was like oh well that that's you how's your mom see in that moment they were going through something that i had no idea about and oftentimes it's that way and what happens is we know when other people are not being considerate toward us and we don't know when we're being inconsiderate toward them and sometimes listening starts with just asking good questions uh what's going on what happened uh what's your day like asking good questions allows us to listen it can give us empathy it could give us perspective sometimes we rush to conclusions you're like well i got some more data and i was wrong and let me say this most people don't expect to be agreed with but they want to be heard that's where he says be slow to speak quick to listen especially when there's a trial that triggers an emotion like anger what happens when we get angry is our mouth opens and our ears close and when god says no no no no you need to close your mouth and open your ears and most of the time people don't expect to be agreed with they just want to be heard there's even a whole category of therapy it's called rogerian therapy it's from carl rogers i don't necessarily endorse it but it is this when people come in don't give them any advice or tell them anything just let them talk listen and then repeat to them in your own words what they said so there's a whole form of therapy that says actually some people if you just listen that helps them there are people that are so desperate just to be heard just to be cared for and when you're angry oftentimes you want to let them have it and you don't want to let them have a few words so let me say the key to marriage as well it's learning to listen and you won't always agree so let me say this grace and i we've been married uh 29 years we're coming up on 30 years are there things that we disagree about yes or no yes so pray for grace she's working some stuff out so um no i'm kidding um and there will be times that she'll be like okay i just want you to hear me out and i'll hear her out and then i'll say okay i want you to hear me out and then we'll come to she's like i disagree with you and i was like i disagree with you can we go to dinner now we've loved one another we've considered one another we've heard one another but we don't necessarily come to agreement but we come to love and appreciation and understanding and mutual respect that's what listening provides now what happens is there's a trial around you it triggers emotion in you and then you want to speak and act and so out of the trial the trigger the emotion comes word and deed he's going to talk about behavior next what's your trial trigger behavior james 1 21-25 therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and especially when we're angry we're more vulnerable and susceptible and receive with meekness you got to be humble the implanted word which is able to save your souls what he's saying is rather than yelling at them open the word of god and listen to him but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves he's back to religious people for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like but the one who looks into the perfect law the word of god the law of liberty and perseveres being no hearer who forgets but a doer acts he will be blessed in his doing so here's the process trial around you trigger emotional you want to say something you want to do something first thing you need to do be quiet listen and start with the word of god you meet with god before you meet with them you hear from god before you speak to them and what he's talking about here is timing god's word listening is an art form that is required to be a maturing disciple of jesus christ if you won't listen you can't learn faith comes by hearing the word of god as you listen to the word of god you get a transforming of your mind and you start to think what god thinks and you start to feel what god feels because what happens when there's a trial and a trigger an emotional response like here's what i'm thinking here's what i'm feeling you got to go to god and god like okay god what should i be thinking and what should i be feeling what should i be thinking and what should i be feeling and then what should i be saying and what should i be doing and so it's fine to study the bible if you'll let the bible study you the problem with many people is they study the bible for information not for transformation there and the bible says that knowledge puffs up but love builds up love is doing the word of god what religious people will do they will study the word of god but not allow it to study them and it's fine to be in the word so long as the word is in you and he uses this analogy that the bible rightly understood should be a mirror and what a mirror does it reveals who we are so you open the word of god you're like okay i'm angry i'm upset i'm tempted i'm making bad decisions i'm in some bad habits okay this is who i really am lord i need help instead what happens with religious people they read the bible not as amir but his binoculars okay oh yep okay yep i see your sin that was an error you said that wrong quoted the wrong verse you were a little emotional didn't use your turn signal you're looking at naughty stuff on the internet okay you yelled at your dog i see all your problems but as long as it's binoculars for you and not mere for me i don't see anything in my life that needs to change and i become judgmental i become proud i become hypocritical i become idealistic which causes me to become legalistic now these are the people that murdered jesus they quoted verses to murder god and what they were doing is they were criticizing jesus life rather than examining their own and the result was they were deceived he's going to use this language over and over in james chapter 1. religious people who use the bible as binoculars for others rather than mirror for themselves they're religious and they are deceived i'm godly i'm holy i'm biblical let me just say this i love i know if you know this i really like the bible i believe in it and people who have a verse for everything scare me because sometimes they use the word of god like a fig leaf to cover up who they truly are and they're trying to exercise spiritual authority and control by claiming that they're speaking on behalf of god but i do know the bible and oftentimes they're misquoting it or they're applying it to someone else rather than to themselves so as you open the word of god it's like before i think about you i got to deal with me jesus calls this this perennial game of plank spec religious people love it it's an annual favorite so you've got let's say the equivalent of a a center beam that holds up the second floor of a home protruding from your head don't know how it got there but there it is okay and then somebody else jesus says he's got a little speck of sawdust and you're like oh my gosh look at that and it's a diversionary tactic it's like actually you've got a whole lumber yard so let's start there and and what this is is he says you need to receive the word of god with meekness let it study you reveal you and then be honest about who you are and then invite god to change who you are now the american bible society i've shared this before but they did a large data survey and they came up with something called the rule of four and it was unexpected result but what they found was if you are a christian and you're in god's word and god's word is in you one two three days a week negligible effect on your behavior your emotional mental spiritual health and well-being once you're in god's word and god's word is in you four days a week all the variables change all the data improves your emotional health your mental health your addiction your relationships everything improves the point is when god's word is in the majority of your week your week begins to change and what he's saying here is this when there's a trial around you there's emotion in you you need more of god's word just like you feed your body and let's say you're working hard at a job or you're an athlete under duress you need more calories because you're burning more fuel in your body when you're in a trial that same thing is true of your soul you're burning more spiritual energy so jesus says man does not live on bread alone but every word that proceeds from the mouth of god when you're in a trial you need more bible you need more sustenance and nourishment this is why jesus tells peter feed my sheep and it's not to be junk food i was talking to some pastors of larger churches they let me just sort of ease drop on a zoom call and uh you know with elections and covet and craziness and a lot of rent shut down cities and and it's been a hard year for people it's been a hard couple years for people the question was asked what are you guys seeing what they testified was this our people want longer sermons through books of the bible their appetite has changed from just a pithy little encouragement it's your greeting card of the day to like that ain't working man i mean do you remember the election right some of you just triggered thinking about it you're like yeah there's a situation okay and and the point is this when things get darker god's people need to go deeper and and so what we're finding is as well there was a data survey that was done and it was reported this last week younger generations that are living online struggle struggling in this season with mental health and anxiety those who are christians are the ones who are asking for the deepest longest bible teaching because their soul is malnourished so part of the reason that we go through books of the bible is to i want you to be healthy i want me to be healthy the reason why the sermons are long is well i i mean i do tell jokes so it takes a few minutes but in addition you know it takes a little while to come to deep understanding of the heart and mind of god and some things don't fit in 140 some characters okay so i want to thank you for letting me teach you god's word and what he's saying is this open it up and have god reveal to you who you are now what'll happen is oftentimes you're like that's a great sermon i got that's a great blog that's a great devotional i got to send it to my friends the point is feel free but cc yourself don't just think these are great concepts for other people first and foremost for me and what he's saying is this some people need more bible teaching some people need to obey the bible teaching they already have this is one of my favorite things to do when i sit down with somebody in counseling i'll be like okay what has god told you to do they're like well god told me to do this are you doing it no okay great let me pray that you'll do it i mean i do 30 second drive by counseling it's easy because if god already told you to do it what's the point that's what you need to do i had a guy recently he's like well i wonder if you had anything else anything else that contradicts god no i am allergic to lightning you know i i don't want to get struck like if he told you to do something do it right and so you open the word and part of it is even as you listen to a sermon or a podcast or a blog or a devotional or a book always be thinking what is god telling me to do okay that's why it's good to take notes and it's good to have points of obedience and so for us uh what we do is we we spend time together on the weekend going through the word of god and then we that's the hearing of the word of god and then the doing works itself out in what we call life groups we have men's women students home life groups uh singles life groups we try to get something for everybody whatever works for you works for us and this is where people get together they pray for they love one another they listen to one another and then they figure out what are you supposed to do so the hearing is on the weekend and the doing is in the life groups and what he says is if you hear the word of god you are not automatically blessed if you do the word of god you will be blessed he said blessed are those who do the word of god james here is quoting his big brother jesus in luke 11 20 8 jesus said blessed are those who hear the word of god and obey it see it's it's fine to have a good sermon but you need to do what the word of god says in the same way it's good to have a gym membership if you go to the gym it's great to buy vitamins if you eat the vitamins a seatbelt is awesome if you buckle bacolet the word of god is amazing if you obey it and so what he's saying is if you want to be blessed god doesn't bless people he blesses people who place themselves under his word in obedience so if you're married and the husband and the wife will commit to obey the word of god you have a hundred percent guaranteed success rate for your marriage and let's say you're friends and you want to have a good friendship if you will both submit and surrender yourself to the word of god and obey it you have a 100 guaranteed success rate because god's way always works and god blesses those who are seeking his will and his way so the question is not are you hearing the word are you coming under its authority and obeying it so trial trigger emotion word deed and then you look at the result the consequence of this cycle of events so what's your trial trigger behavior result trying to build one concept on another james 1 26-27 if anyone thinks he is religious so everything god creates satan counterfeits there's this true form of religion which is relationship with jesus and then there's this false form which is man-made tradition if anyone thinks he is religious does not bridle his tongue you ever seen a horse just running loose out of the barn your tongue is like that you need to bridle it you need to reign it in doesn't bridle is trunk but he deceives his heart this person's religion is worthless that's a big statement think of highly devout religious people whatever the religion might be they give their money they change their diet they organize their schedule they take pilgrimages they discipline themselves they criticize one another for nothing one guy chuckles okay all right religion that is pure and undefiled before god the father is this to visit orphans and widows in their affection affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world what he's saying is this if your spiritual commitments don't result in two things it's all garbage the two things are does it help others and make you holy does it help others that's why jesus got angry at religiously he's like i'm trying to help people and you're angry that i'm helping them your religion actually is worthless because it's not helpful to those who are hurting and so the question is is your relationship with god working itself out so that as you're looking at people let me say this this is this is deeply convicting oftentimes the people that anger you are the people that god has called you to minister to so you can be angry at them or you can try and help them and what he's talking about here is those who have the greatest need widows and orphans in that day had no legal standing or financial status and are they this would be new immigrants who are just getting settled into the country this would be single parents this would be widows people who are in a tough place and let me say this right now a lot of people are in a tough place and and and we have plenty of angry people yelling we need more helpful people serving you could spend all your time online arguing with people you'll never meet or put your phone down lift your eyes up find some people who are hurting and help them that's it's real practical this can be informal where you're just like okay lord jesus where are my appointments today you're going to put somebody in front of me how do i help buy them groceries pray for them encourage them have a cup of coffee maybe i'm just going to listen send them a scripture just checking in and sometimes this is formal and so what we've got organized and coming together you've been hearing about it service projects food clothing care for those who are in need in our valley and you'll be asked to bring good services donate and then we're going to deploy life groups to go serve in these areas so this can be formal and informal and this is the helpfulness the other point that he's driving at is holiness what happens is we have a trial we get triggered we get emotional we say and do things that don't make us holy and are of no help to them if that is the worthless result then we've got to rethink the entire sequencing when he's talking about holiness what he's talking about is purity in the sight of god and he says that pure religion keeps you from being stained by the world so he uses sin in synonymous terms with stain about a dozen words in the bible refer to sin as a stain defilement or uncleanness or filthiness would be three of the most frequent candidates um what happens let me ask uh maybe it's the moms okay so moms uh you got a little kid they spill something on their white shirt the longer they wait what the worse it gets so the key is if you spill something you stain something to get it cleaned up as soon as possible because the longer it sits there the deeper it settles in sin is like that in your life it's it starts to stain the longer you let it settle now what i love in this phrase and this is a mind-bending concept what he doesn't say is make yourself pure undefiled and unstained in the sight of god he says to keep yourself the difference between making yourself and keeping yourself is realizing jesus has already made you clean and this is where jesus not only died on the cross to forgive you but to cleanse you in your sight you are pure and undefiled before god to quote james 1 in the sight of god you are beloved by god so what happened on the cross jesus not only took your sin he took your stain many christians don't know this it's such an honor for me to tell you the doctrinal category is called expiation it's cleansing on the cross it says in 2 corinthians 5 21 the lord jesus god made him who knew no sin to become sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of god not only did he take your sin he placed upon you his righteousness so now you are seen as pure undefiled clean in the sight of god first john says it this way if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all no stain unrighteousness in the old testament people when they would go to worship god at the temple they would wash their body they'd wash their clothes showing that jesus christ makes me clean at the soul level and then they would wear white and they would ascend up into god's presence to worship and even at the end of time when jesus returns the church will be wearing white because jesus christ not only forgives sin but he makes you clean let me tell you this what you used to do you don't need to do that anymore because who you used to be is not who you are anymore if you belong to jesus christ and i've been praying for you all week i really love you whether you're present or online i believe that this message could change your whole life if the spirit of god would allow me to effectively communicate it and for you to obediently apply it because there are people who are forgiven and they do belong to jesus but they're stuck they've got some bad habits some patterns under a trial with the trigger in emotion they say and do things that create a negative result and bring pain and harm to their life they're frustrated by it they're stuck they don't know how to get out they don't know what to do am i really a christian does god really love me is the bible really true do i even have the holy spirit i know that god loves me but how come i'm stuck this is incredible let me summarize for you james chapter one and what i want to do as i'm studying james i'm also doing some study on the latest brain science for addictions and behaviors and lo and behold it took about 2 000 years for science to catch up with james but it did so here's what the leading summary of james chapter one how do people change a bad habit this is the latest on secular brain science and um let me explain this briefly um the brain science would tell you that we basically have two brains i'll call it the old brain in the new brain when you have a trial and a trigger and then a response pattern with a result once you do that process it becomes habituated like muscle memory in the brain so it lives in the old part of the brain how many of you you you're like something triggers me and i just become somebody i don't even like i do things i'm ashamed of i'm embarrassed by i'm convicted of the things i don't even want to do i say things i can't even believe what comes out of my mouth what the heck is going on there that's the old brain it's an old pattern and then the new brain is where we learn new information we make new decisions and so what happens is once we have a habit loop it then resides in the old brain to free up space in the new brain to learn new things i'll give you an example so this morning you got up and you brushed your teeth you brushed your teeth not out of the new brain out of the old brain you've done it so many times you don't even have to think about it so the old brain is overseeing the brushing of the teeth so that the new brain can process all the decisions you need to make today here's the brain science the old habit loop and i'm just taking it actually out of i'm just what i just brought you through is actually what the clinicians have now decided the old habit loop you're there's a trigger anger and fear and usually fear is our protective measure over something that we're angry about anger and fear hit the panic button so there's a trial there's a trigger and then the response is i need to act now i need to say something i need to do something i'm very emotional i need to respond the result shorten long-term consequences oftentimes negative maybe even what feels temporarily like a positive becomes a negative so you go to work you have a bad day people are triggering you driving you crazy but you don't want to blow up and lose your job so you come home your wife does something very very little you get angry at her you trigger her she gets angry at you mushroom cloud over your house and so you go to separate rooms you pour yourself a drink you self-soothe you hit a dopamine spot in the front you feel better and then you wake up the next day with a hangover an angry wife and you gotta go back to work [Laughter] testify brother and you did something but it didn't make it better but then when you keep doing that it becomes a habit loop and and and and it seems crazy because if we step back and look at us like it's not working but we've all got things like this so what they say is over time this becomes an unconscious loop in part of the brain forming a new response habit in a new part of the brain they would say requires two things mindfulness and meditation because they don't know god and so mindfulness they'll say well you just need to stop and think about it and what he says is no you need you need to bring god's mind into your situation you need more than the three pounds of fallen meat between your ears you need god to show up through his word and you need to get the mind of christ this is where you're transformed by the renewing of your mind this is where you take every thought captive in obedience to christ and the counterfeit of prayer is meditation people who don't know there's a god they're like well just you know think about it and stop and breathe and just center yourself no you need more than self-help you need god help and so literally because they don't have the bible in prayer they're like well as close to the bible and prayer as you can get that'll fix it well what that means is we've got an even greater solution we don't need to just have our mindfulness we can have god's mind and we don't need to just meditate we can pray and invite the holy spirit the power of god to show up and to re-hard-wire our brains to create new neural pathways so that we choose new habits let me take all of this and summarize james chapter one on changing a bad habit so my summary is in james one the words trial temptation and test all appear a trial comes both as a temptation to go down an evil your old habit loop and your old part of the brain or a test to go up in faith new habit loop new part of the brain so james uses these words so the old habit loop responds to a trial there's a trigger anger he says the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of god if you get angry and you get fearful and you hit the panic button act now you need to say something you need to do something these are the actual words that james uses the response is we become double-minded he uses that word twice in james chapter one what he's literally saying is you got the old brain you got the new brain and in that moment when you have a trial and you're triggered you're emotional you're literally bouncing between your brains am i going to go with the old habit loop or a new habit loop am i going to say and do what i've always done will i say or do something differently based upon obedience to the word of god by the power of the holy spirit i looked at it the linguistic studies would indicate that this concept of double-mindedness never appeared in literature until james chapter 1. james it seems categorically created a brand new word to explain the believer who needs to change a bad habit into a new habit he literally said we're double-brained the brain science comes along 2000 years later says you know what we're double-brained i know i know a guy who made the brain and he wrote a book and he tells us that we're double brained we're double minded goes on as a result we're unstable if we live in the old patterns and though we blame god well god made me this way it's his fault he didn't show up i got an excuse we only hear the word not gonna do what it says we have anger an unbridled tongue we're self-deceived we bring death into our life our marriage our family our relationships everything that is good starts to pass away and we're just left with a worthless religion say how do you have a new habit loop in response to a trial same trigger angered fear hit the panic button to act now these are the exact words that james uses and if you will obey the word of god it literally will re-hardwire your brain it'll go from the new brain and then over time it just becomes part of your life i used to yell at them now i pray to him i used to just let everybody know what i'm thinking and then i open the word of god and i want to figure out what he's thinking i used to get really bitter and now i forgive and love my enemies it starts in the new brain and then it becomes habit forming so let me say this if you've got some bad habits and you're trying to change them and you slip back into the old patterns don't be discouraged keep building those new pathways keep architecting those new response patterns so how do you respond differently he said earlier and james count it all joy god thank you for this opportunity to get out of that loop and get into this loop thank you god that who i was and is not who i am thank you god that this is an opportunity for my whole life to pivot ask god for wisdom james 1 5. okay god i don't know what to do help me out here tell me what to do i'm listening quick to listen slow to speak i'm going to shut my mouth i'm going to open my ears i'm going to be a doer of the word i'm going to seek wise counsel i'm going to intentionally take dominion over my emotional life and decision making and i'm going to do what the word of god says the result steadfastness perfect and complete lacking in nothing god's got you in a perfection process gifts from the father he's going to help you he's even going to send the holy spirit down and he's going to bless you and when all is said and done you're going to stand before him and he's going to put an eternal crown of life on your head you don't need to hide it anymore you don't need to deny it anymore you don't need to minimize it anymore you don't need to excuse it anymore because you don't need to do it anymore the key to forming a new habit a new part of the brain is to have the holy spirit literally re-hardwire your brain that is the renewing of your mind because you are beloved you're pure and undefiled before god and i love you so do not lose faith when you go back to an old habit loop in the flesh but press forward to create a new habit loop in the spirit father thank you that i get to teach the word of god and god i pray for these dear people that they would not merely hear the word but do what it says that holy spirit you would point out to them specifically practically what is it that they need to do with what they have learned today and god i pray for deliverance from old patterns and mindsets i pray for a renewing and a re-hard wiring and a reprogramming and a reformatting of the brain and god i pray for these dear people that they would know that they are beloved that they are pure and undefiled that you are a good father who gives gifts and wants to bless and drops wisdom and is there to help and god i thank you that the way we have responded is not the way we need to respond because we've been made new and we can follow your example and how you've responded to us and how we respond to others and the trials in our life and god i just pray for these dear people you love them so much that you sent jesus to die for them i pray that you would encourage them and speak to them and give them their assignment now in jesus good name amen

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

Views: 1,292

Rating: 4.9148936 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: KO19fI2PUxo

Length: 66min 32sec (3992 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 27 2021