Online Bible Study - James 1:19-27

hey everybody welcome welcome to lesson number three in this new unit that we are calling authentic faith it's a study of the book of james so you are going to need your bibles open to james chapter one we'll be wrapping up chapter one in today's lesson there is also a listening guide to this lesson you'll find at the same place you found this video just scroll down and click on it download that listening guide print it out there are some blanks to fill in during the lesson portion but more importantly there are some discussion questions there for you to go through for with you and your small group or your family after the lesson that's such an important part of this process in fact today's lesson highlights why that's such an important part of this process so i hope that you're having an opportunity to do that with a small group or a family somewhere somehow before we jump into the lesson let's pray shall we we're grateful father for your word and its place in our lives we're grateful for these words of pastor james the wisdom that is there the help that it provides us we can't think of a more important time and place than our current time in our current culture to need such wisdom such clear truth such clear practical direction helping us know what authentic faith looks like so thank you lord thank you for that i pray father that you will not permit us to just be hearers of your word but to actually be doers that is to actually have our lives changed i pray that you'll use times like these to change how we see you to change how we understand ourselves to change how we see the world around us i pray father that you won't let us engage in this process of bible study and allow us to leave unchanged we love you father we want to become through your timing and through your transformation process the people that you've called us to become so use this to do that even today lord as we open your word will you open our hearts and will you change us we pray this in jesus name amen authentic faith is what this unit is all about and i believe that it comes at a really particularly relevant time in our culture in the sense that there's a lot of talk these days in our culture about deconstructing our faith and that probably means a lot of different things to a lot a lot of different people a couple of you have have even asked me what exactly does that mean and how does that work and the truth of the matter is it's like any other new used word in our culture it it the meaning of it changes quickly over time to some people deconstructing our faith means leaving christianity walking away from christianity i would say that deconstruction is probably the wrong word in that instance i would say that that's blowing up or destroying my faith deconstructing the faith the way i use it has more to do with figuring out what's wrong with it taking those pieces out of the picture and then reconstructing it the right way so is deconstruction a bad thing or a good thing well that depends that depends on whether there is a reconstruction that follows that is centered on jesus and in that case it's a very good thing uh in in in fact one of the things that pastor james in the first part of chapter one just kind of by way of review shows us is that struggles and difficulties and hard times uh are are part of what he uses to to show us deficiencies in our faith to demonstrate for us that there are some things that need tweaking or or um readjusting or even outright replacing some bad thinking some some wrong ways of understanding and so that's what deconstruct and deconstructing our faith should be about followed up with this reconstruction and so we've talked about how an authentic faith the question we're asking each week is how do i know if my faith is real how do i know if my faith is authentic what is the evidence of that what does an authentic faith look like and the first the first lesson we had was all about adversity and dealing with adversity and authentic faith has mechanisms in place to help us deal with adversity uh this uh last week's lesson was about temptations and and again the same takeaway an authentic faith has mechanisms mechanisms in place that are helping us move through and beyond temptations without giving in to evil thoughts and outright rebellion in our life and so uh pastor james is going to continue in this same theme today he's going to be dealing in the last part of chapter one with a an issue of what does authentic faith do with the word of god in other words what is the connection between an authentic faith in the word of god how does how does an authentic faith relate to the word of god and by the word of god of course we're talking about scripture the bible and how do we understand relate to and connect with the word of god if our faith is authentic i think that i think that the word of god gets misused often in our culture and dare i say it i think it even gets misused by christians by people who claim to be christ's followers i think that the word of god gets used as a weapon i think there are times when we have weaponized it in order to beat people over the head with it and i just think that's that's not right that's not an authentic faith that's not the way god has instructed us that's not the way we are intended to walk with the word of god i think when we use the word of god as a mirror on the other hand to reflect up back on us rather than using it as a magnifying glass for me to to look at other people i think when we use it as a mirror that's a better use of god's word that's not to say that there's no such thing as accountability with one another in the body of christ but i don't think the word of god was ever intended to be used as a weapon to beat people over the head and we're going to get into that today today i think we see people using the word of god to kind of prop up their own ideologies whether it's a political ideology or a cultural ideology or or any other non-scriptural ideology people using the word of god to kind of prop it up and hold up those tenants in order to say see even god agrees with me and and even god hates all the same people that i hate to quote anne lamott um i i think that i i think that that's a misuse and abuse of the word of god so what does it look like and we're going to depend on pastor james to tell us what does it look like for an authentic faith to be relating to the word of god how do we treat the word of god and how do we understand it so how does a an authentic faith treat it let's just pick up and see where pastor james takes us in starting in verse 19 of james chapter one here's what it sounds like know this my beloved brothers 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 therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls let's just unpack what he's saying so far about authentic faith and the word of god being quick to hear slow to speak and then this reference that god's word is implanted in our hearts god's word implanted in our hearts allowing god's word to actually internalize and become a part of how we see the world around us that should that should result in our being deep listeners that should result in our having a better understanding of keeping control over our tongue and speaking less but but listening better and i love the way pastor james draws that connection between having the word of god deeply internalized in me and as a part of my heart and how i feel and how i think and by the same token it turning me into a deep listener i love that i love that connection that he draws for us it should also though make us slow to anger it should now if that's the case if the word of god is really a part of me and i'm not just using it as some kind of a weapon but rather it's actually a part of me then i should be slower to angle to quote brent hanson in his book unoffendable i should be unoffendable i should be much slower to get angry and to to to to want to jump into things out of a sense of anger anger i think is an epidemic in our current culture i think that you believe that as well probably you look around and see there are just people everywhere who seem to just be constantly angry and some of those people call themselves christians some of those people would purport to be following christ and yet they're always angry there's something wrong in my faith says pastor james there's something inauthentic there's something not right about my faith if that's me if i am always angry if that's always a part of who i am and how i'm connecting and responding to people around me more specifically there's probably something wrong in my relationship to god's word if anger is what leads out in all of my interactions with people james ties are out of control anger and therefore rampant wickedness with how we connect to god's word james sees those things as related to one another he says receive with meekness the implanted word receive with meekness in other words receive it with humility don't come to god's word with a preconceived agenda don't come with an ideology i've got here's how i stand on this social issue or that social issue or this political idea or that and i'm going to go find me some scripture to help prop that up and support that so that i can win arguments with it um the the point james is wanting to say to his christian brothers and sisters is if to the extent you are trying to win people to christ to the extent you are trying to demonstrate uh the transformative effect of jesus christ in your life you will never do that by arguing with them and winning arguments if that's your approach if your approach is too angrily try to to beat them up and win an argument and have that mic drop moment where you win and walk away and they don't have anything left to say have you really won them to christ that's that's the point jesus is making here when we approach god's word arrogantly with our own agenda to go out and win the culture war be a culture warrior the result is out of control anger that's what happens because now we think god is on our side and that's the mistake that we make in how we deal with this if you have your listening guide let's fill in the first blank on your listening guide authentic christian faith approaches god's word with humility and meekness and with no agenda whatsoever when we weaponize the word to fit our cultural or political agendas our anger prevails and no good comes of it no good comes of it james would say that is a worthless religion that is not productive at all and so our attitude in approaching god's word is critical but that's only the beginning that's only the beginning with authentic faith he goes on in verse 22 but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a 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 law of liberty and perseveres being no hearer but who forgets but a doer who acts in other words being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts on it he will be blessed in his doing now this is a really big deal to me personally the lord began to convict me long ago that uh that i was very capable of being a knower of god's word without being a doer of god's word and when i look around at the at the american church today that that really does uh stand out to me as a big problem that we've got uh it it's never enough for us to just know what god's word says that's never enough and it's never what god intended for us unless the next step is that we then go out and do what god's word says it has to affect everything it should affect how i teach god's word now i don't want to be teaching god's word aiming at here's what i think you should know from scripture i want to be teaching god's word aiming it here's what i believe scripture says we should be doing that's the way i try to teach that's this is really personal to me and i think it was a big deal to jesus as well listen listen to one of the ways there are so many different places where jesus talked about this uh where if you love me you will keep my commands you will do my word but but listen to what he says in matthew chapter 7 verse 24 and this is a familiar passage to you everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell the floods came the winds blew and and beat on that house and it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock this is the same thing james is talking about earlier in chapter one when he says you're gonna you're gonna have storms in your life you're gonna have rains and floods they're going to come and they're going to test whether your faith is authentic or not that's exactly what jesus is saying here and everyone he says who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it so jesus had this same perspective that that his brother james his his half brother james and pastor james has as well you've got to become a doer we've all got to become doers i remember um teaching uh scripture in the ukraine and teaching about reconciliation and as i was teaching uh what scripture has to say to us about reconciling with our brothers in the middle of my teaching members of this congregation began to get up and walk out and it was concerning to me i thought to myself i'm doing something wrong i'm saying something that's offending them or maybe they're just not understanding my translator i don't know what the issue is why are they leaving and and during a break in that in that conference time i pulled the pastor over and i expressed this with them i i told them i've noticed some people getting up and leaving and do i need to change how we're doing this am i offending them do you know what's going on and he looked at me like i was a fool he said well they're leaving to go and reconcile with their brother they're leaving to go and do what scripture just told them to do he looked at me as if why wouldn't you get that why wouldn't you understand that and the reality is i wouldn't understand that because i'm an american christian and we're not quite that responsive are we we're not quite that oh this is what god's word says i need to go do this right now and i love that that's just a beautiful picture of what it means to be a doer to have that attitude that humble meek attitude of the word to where when i hear what the word says i need to do i go and do it right then and there i don't waste any time it's impossible it's i mean it's possible i think that american christians have created an environment where knowing the word of god is enough the more i know about the word of god the better i am and that's enough i don't think that's the right environment i think that we've created that kind of an environment where there's value in how much i know of the word of god but the truth is being a doer of the word according to pastor james is the environment we should be creating if you have your listening guide let's fill in the second statement on your listening guide now yes one of the problems in the church today is christ followers who do not know their bible but isn't the bigger problem christians who know the word but do not do the word christians who know the word but do not do the word if that's me if i if i'm becoming very very knowledgeable about what the bible has to say but i'm not demonstrating that i'm not living that out isn't that a bigger problem and i fear that in the american church that's one of the things that we're struggling with today jesus was particularly concerned when it was our spiritual leaders who were not doers of the word listen to what he says in matthew chapter 23 jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples the scribes and the pharisees sit on moses's seat so do and observe whatever they tell you but not the works they do for they preach but do not practice what he's saying to them is the scribes and pharisees have an authority in your life and you should listen to them and you should do what they tell you to do they they are a spiritual authority in your life however don't do what you see them doing because they're preaching but they're not doing much and and and i think when it comes to spiritual leaders that's an even more dangerous position and and so then james moves into this very interesting illustration the person who hears the word but is not a doer he is like a man who looks as in verse the end of verse 23 and into verse 24 he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror for he looks at himself and goes away and it once forgets what he was like i have loved on the everyday prayer.com devotional thoughts this week i have loved what our pastors have said about this uh pastor aaron um uh he reads this and he had a beautiful illustration of it's kind of like when you've got you know if you don't wear a watch anymore like so many of us don't and you're using your phone to tell what time it is and you're just so busy and so distracted and you're thinking about a thousand things at one time and you you need to know what time it is and you look at your phone and you see what time it is but then you remember oh i need to respond to this email and oh look what this new text is that just came in and i wonder what's happening on facebook right now and then you turn your phone off and then you've forgotten what time it is so and when pastor aaron when he when he addresses this illustration his his take on it was we just need to slow down a little bit we need to look intently at the word of god and we need to slow our lives down from time to time enough to actually internalize what the word of god is saying so that we can actually make something of it and i love that i love that that take on the illustrations it's a very good modern day illustration of this same understanding pastor brian also had an interesting take on it though brian said we have a tendency it's a part of the human condition we have a tendency to train our minds when we look in a mirror we have trained our minds to see what we want to see to look at the want things that we want to look at and to see what we want to see and that's that's how we begin that's how we begin to think about ourselves whether it's true or not we see what we want to see and and i think that's a another really important take on this idea of looking in the mirror and and is it making a difference in my life for me for me it it really is just the picture of someone who just um forgets i mean i i i you know if i'm shaving and i cut myself shaving and i tear off a little piece of kleenex and put on the spot where i've cut myself shaving in order to stop it from bleeding and then i finish up getting ready and i put my clothes on and i leave for work i have forgotten that i put that little piece of tissue on my chin right where i in order to stop it and i i'm very capable of walking into wherever i'm headed with that little thing on there because i've forgotten that it's there because i'm not looking in the mirror anymore i i just think that for me it's a picture of someone who who seems very concerned at the time they're looking in the mirror with whatever's wrong but then as soon as they look away and get about their day they just forget it they just don't think about it anymore and i think that's possible i think it's possible for us to come come together around god's word on sunday and on monday our life looks exactly the same nothing has changed and for me as a teacher of god's word frankly that is my biggest fear for you that is my biggest fear that you would hear anything that god's word has to say through me on sunday and on monday nothing has changed i i just i feel like that's where we miss the mark when we hear god's word but we don't do it it's very much like that it's like it's like reading all about a great new diet that that would be very good for me and i read about it and i become an expert on it and i know all the things about it but i never actually do it right i never actually do it so everything i know about this diet i've read somewhere but i don't know anything about it by experience i have no personal testimony of it there's no personal testimony of it in my life i can't tell you how it feels to be on this diet because i've never actually done it and and i feel like there are an awful lot of people out there who know an awful lot about jesus and about god's word but when it comes to sharing a personal testimony about changing their life that testimony is not there and we don't want that to be us is the point i i i it's a little bit like the definition of insanity in that regard you know doing doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results if we want the results that the vision that god gives us of who we can be then we've got to do the work that god's word gives us to do if you have your listening guide let's fill in the the third statement on your listening guide scripture's perspective on the person who hears and knows god's word but does not actually live out god's word is that he or she is foolish and irrational at best foolish and irrational at best and utterly rebellious at worst from from scripture's perspective from the perspective of the wisdom of scripture it it makes no sense whatsoever to understand what scripture is saying and to not go and do it it makes no sense it is foolish and irrational at best and and i think that's the heart of what pastor james is trying to say to us in this passage he gets to the bottom line of it then in terms of what it means to be a doer of the word in the last couple of verses here starting in verse 26 if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart this person's religion is worthless religion that is pure and undefiled before god the father is this to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world let's stop here and talk about what what pastor james means when he uses the term that we translate into religion unfortunately in our current culture the term religion has a pretty negative connotation and so the term religion today is what is used to describe the traditions of men that have been built around god's word but they're not really true to god's word and you know you've heard the old tribe uh following christ is not a religion it's a relationship etc etc but in the ancient jewish mindset it was very much a religion in other words in the ancient jewish mindset their understanding of god god's word came more times than not verbally through community of others who were following after the god of abraham isaac and jacob and so in the ancient jewish mindset religion had everything to do with how you were living out your faith the day-to-day moment by moment decisions that you were making in order to connect with god not only individually but communally as a community of people chasing after god pursuing god and so it was very much a cultural thing very much a cultural thing and so when james talks about religion that is worthless and religious and is good he's talking about the doing of god's word and and the actual practical application of god's word in our lives if we have no self-control uh in our speech then that is evidence that our religion our faith is not authentic if we are deceiving our hearts by living according to the ways of the world pastor james is saying we are double-minded that is not an authentic faith that's not a religion that is working that is productive that is accomplishing its its goals if our religion our religion then is worthless if that is the way it is manifesting itself in our lives the way religion is the way we live out our faith and so in that regard with that definition religion is actually a pretty important thing when we talk about it in terms of how we are living out this gospel-centered faith that we have the summary picture of living out our faith well then according to pastor james is some example some really good illustrations that he he would say now that's real religion one is we should be showing compassion and care for the those in our culture who are marginalized he says widows and orphans that's that's that's biblical code language for those who are ostracized or marginalized we should be showing compassion and care for them and authentic faith will do that real religion will be doing that but the other thing that he says is that it should not be stained by the wickedness of the world it should not look just exactly like the world holiness being separated from the world has always been righteousness has always been a call to those who are following after god god says be holy because i am holy if you want to follow after me you've got to separate yourself from this culture in some ways you're going to look different from the world in some ways do not be transformed to the ways of this world about conform do not be conformed to the ways of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds that you may prove what is that excellent will of god and so being transformed and and showing ourselves as different from the rest of the world is also evidence of an authentic faith of a religion that is real holiness has always been a part of this and so if you have your listening guide let's fill in the last statement on your listening guide authentic faith will show in our lifestyles it shows compassion for the marginalized and it does not connect itself to the power structures of this world it does not place authentic faith does not place our hope in the power structures of this world it does not it does not conform to all the ways of this world it does not it does not see the world the way the world sees the world there's a distinction there's a difference between following christ and following the ways of the world and so what does authentic faith do with god's word what is its connection with god's word well it approaches god's word first of all with humility and meekness and with no agendas whatsoever that's so important secondly uh it by doing that it keeps its anger it keeps our anger completely under control so that we're we're not leading out in every conversation with anger thirdly it does not just know the word but it actually does the word it actually authentic faith is actually out there doing the word of god and then lastly it shows up in our lifestyles with compassion for the marginalized and separated from the ways of the world this is what authentic faith does in connection with god's word how it connects with god's word i love these lessons i'm hoping that you are enjoying pastor james as well um i love you guys i hope you have a blessed week i will see you right here next week where we'll pick up with chapter 2. we'll see you then

Channel: First Baptist Church of San Antonio

Views: 135

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: FBCSA, First Baptist Church of San Antonio, FBCSA Online Bible Study, Online Bible Study, James, James - Authentic Faith, Study of James, Blake Coffee

Id: 67ZzbJdUoFE

Length: 29min 55sec (1795 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021