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[1523.00 --> 1528.90] with my sin first because I think God won't hear me unless I deal with my sin first. When Jesus teaches
[1528.90 --> 1537.18] me to pray, he locates the confession of sin on the fifth out of six petitions showing that the basis of
[1537.18 --> 1546.94] our prayer is not how good we've lived or how well we've confessed or how pure we feel before the Father.
[1548.94 --> 1555.98] Right? And if you're not praying this way, Jesus is saying this, you're praying like a pagan.
[1557.10 --> 1562.54] You really think he's hearing you better when you're feeling better about yourself?
[1562.54 --> 1570.00] Do you really think that God is in heaven looking at your life and seeing that you sinned maybe a
[1570.00 --> 1575.84] little bit less this week than last week and so your prayers will be more effective based on the
[1575.84 --> 1583.64] fact that you've sinned a little this week, a little less this week than last week? That is paganism.
[1584.60 --> 1591.74] This is the point that Jesus is making. Don't pray like a pagan who thinks they're heard on the basis of
[1591.74 --> 1598.14] their life. Pray like a Christian who knows they're heard on the basis of Christ's life.
[1599.10 --> 1604.70] And so that then leads us to the last point, the foundation of our prayer.
[1606.36 --> 1610.60] Don't pray to win the approval of others, which shows you don't live in the approval of God. Don't
[1610.60 --> 1615.20] pray like a pagan in order to win God's approval, which shows that you think he hears you because
[1615.20 --> 1627.50] you've been good. Rather, he says, pray our father. He is your father in Christ. And by his spirit,
[1627.66 --> 1635.98] we call cry Abba. And therefore, we're no longer slaves, but we're children of God. And we pray as
[1635.98 --> 1643.64] children of God. There's someone who's, I don't know who said this, but who can actually wake
[1643.64 --> 1650.56] the most powerful monarch up in the middle of the night simply to ask for a drink of water.
[1651.84 --> 1658.78] But his child. Anyone else loses their head. But we are children of God.
[1662.00 --> 1667.02] Dietrich Bonhoeffer has a wonderful book, the prayer book of the Bible, and he says this,
[1667.02 --> 1674.74] the prayer book of the Bible, the Psalms. Read the Psalms, and you'll find how theologically astute
[1674.74 --> 1681.90] they are in regard to this teaching. There are fewer prayers for the forgiveness of sins
[1681.90 --> 1689.06] in the Psalms than we might expect, he says. Most Psalms, in fact, presuppose complete certainty of the
[1689.06 --> 1694.34] forgiveness of sins. Christian prayer, he says, is diminished and endangered when it revolves
[1694.34 --> 1700.10] exclusively around the forgiveness of sins. There is such a thing as confidently leaving your sin
[1700.10 --> 1705.62] behind for the sake of Christ. Indeed, it may be troubling, he says, that in the Psalms,
[1705.96 --> 1714.00] the righteousness of the author is spoken of as often as his guilt. Have you ever noticed that?
[1714.58 --> 1721.36] Here's a small sampling. Psalm 5, you bless the righteous. 17, I in righteousness will see his face.
[1721.36 --> 1727.90] 34, his eyes are on the righteous. 37, I've never seen the righteous forsaken. Psalm 64, let the righteous
[1727.90 --> 1736.82] rejoice. 68, let the righteous be glad. How often do you appeal to your righteousness in prayer?
[1739.98 --> 1744.66] Not a righteousness that you've earned, but a righteousness that has been given to you by God
[1744.66 --> 1752.20] through Christ based on his life. How often do you appeal to your righteousness in prayer?
[1752.20 --> 1757.44] And have we ever considered the possibility that perhaps our weakness in prayer is owing to the fact
[1757.44 --> 1764.00] that we give much more time to our guilt in prayer than we do to our righteousness? The prayer does not
[1764.00 --> 1773.16] begin with the confession of sin. The prayer begins, our Father, you have made me righteous and I am your Son.
[1773.16 --> 1789.34] This is the foundation to our prayer. This is also the foundation to the Lord's table.
[1789.34 --> 1800.80] Because we do the same thing at the table. We think in order to come to the table, we have to make sure
[1800.80 --> 1808.12] we've lived a pretty sinless life. We don't want to come to the table if there's sin in our lives. We
[1808.12 --> 1812.98] need to deal with all that. And of course, Paul did talk about the table and unity in the church,
[1813.08 --> 1817.68] and there was fighting, and there was some people who were eating all the food and not leaving any for
[1817.68 --> 1822.62] anyone else. And he's talking about how those things needed to be resolved within the church for the
[1822.62 --> 1829.68] sake of unity in the church. But sin is not a reason to not come to the table. My friends, sin is the
[1829.68 --> 1840.36] reason you do come to the table. And so if you're struggling with sin this morning, and by the looks of
[1840.36 --> 1851.88] you, you all are, if you struggle with sin in your life, we're going to come to the table. We're going to
[1851.88 --> 1858.72] confess our sin, to be sure. But we're going to come to the table, and we are going to partake.
[1859.28 --> 1866.28] And we are going to consider all that Christ has done on our behalf. For this is a reminder of his
[1866.28 --> 1873.72] death, which was for our sin, his life, which earned our righteousness. And we're going to think about
[1873.72 --> 1879.50] the great grace of God, which he has conferred to us through Christ. And so we're going to sing
[1879.50 --> 1887.36] amazing grace, I believe, right now. And then we will partake of the bread and the wine.
[1887.36 --> 1899.58] As the team comes forward. Gracious Father, we thank you for all that you've done for us in Christ. We
[1899.58 --> 1904.92] thank you that we can come to you in prayer, and we can call you Father. Yes, we confess sin.
[1906.42 --> 1913.10] But we don't want to be remembering sin and reminding you of all this sin that you have forgiven us of,
[1913.10 --> 1919.84] and focusing on it to the neglect of the righteousness of Christ. Father, we are sinners,
[1919.84 --> 1926.38] and we come with our sin to you this morning. But we thank you for the righteousness that is ours in
[1926.38 --> 1930.14] Christ. Your grace is amazing. Amen.
• The series is continuing on James and reading from James 1:12-18
• Temptation happens when we are dragged away by our own evil desires
• God does not tempt us to sin, but may bring about trials or tests of faith
• An important distinction between outer tests (God testing or proving) and inner temptation (our heart rebelling against God's design)
• Temptation itself is not sinful, but giving in to it leads to sin and death
• Faith is indicated by resisting temptation, not the infrequency of being tempted
• The goal is to get better at resisting temptation and not being deceived by things that pull our hearts.
• The speaker discusses how people often think about sin and temptation in terms of categories of what they can't do.
• Examples are given of individuals setting limits for themselves, such as eating only half a bag of chips or not taking money from their mother's wallet.
• This approach focuses on behavior rather than the right thing to do.
• The speaker argues that when we focus on what we can't do, we are making sin or behavior the goal of our actions.
• A paradigm shift is proposed: instead of focusing on what we can't do as sin, we should reframe it in terms of obedience.
• However, this is not the correct reframing; rather, we should consider something else entirely.
• The speaker argues that real faith is not ultimately about morality or behavior, but about a relationship with God.
• This is demonstrated by Jesus' teachings and behavior, who was critical of those who were hypocritically following religious rules.
• God is not interested in making people religious, spiritual, self-care obsessed, or serene; rather, He wants us to be passionate for Him and His glory.
• The concept of holiness is often misunderstood as moral behavior, but it's about being set apart by God
• God's holiness means he is wholly other, transcendent, and incomprehensible
• True faith thinks about what it means to be holy, not just what we can do
• Holiness involves new affections, desires, and motives that lead to new behavior
• We are already holy through Jesus' sacrifice and are being made holy in the process
• Reframing the conversation around sin and temptation through the gospel
• The power of God's word in salvation and sanctification
• Immerging oneself in Scripture for effective use of its power against temptation
• Community as a crucial factor in fighting temptation and applying the word
• The symbolism of Ash Wednesday and the imposition of ashes, illustrating how sin stains us unconsciously and grace cleanses us
• The importance of community and being with others when facing sin and temptation
• The tendency to "manicure" sins and present them in a socially acceptable way
• The reality of sin leading to death but the gift of God being eternal life
• The need for faith to be made real, which will involve facing challenges and trials
• Reframing discussions of sin and temptation through the lens of being holy
• The power and strength given by God's word to defeat sin and temptation
[0.00 --> 9.26] This morning, we're going to continue in our series on James, and we're going to read together
[9.26 --> 15.94] from James 1. We're going to read verses 12 through 18. It will be on the screen as I go
[15.94 --> 20.58] through it, but I do encourage you, if you have your own Bible or if you can open that up on your
[20.58 --> 25.26] phone, whatever the case may be, just to have that with you as we go through the message today.
[25.26 --> 30.26] From James 1, beginning at verse 12.
[55.26 --> 62.58] Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire
[62.58 --> 68.66] has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.
[69.82 --> 78.18] Do not be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from
[78.18 --> 86.34] the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth
[86.34 --> 94.02] through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.
[94.82 --> 96.14] This is the word of the Lord.
[96.14 --> 106.22] There's a lot that I hope we can see together this morning, and so we're going to just jump right in
[106.22 --> 115.20] to that. Now, in our passage this morning from James, there's a little shift that is taking place
[115.20 --> 123.00] here, right? We're still under the larger umbrella of being hearers and doers, and this is still about