willtheorangeguy/All-LICRC-Transcripts · Datasets at Hugging Face

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[123.00 --> 129.96] how you make your faith real, but the shift that is taking place is from those things that happen
[129.96 --> 140.24] to you to those things that happen in you. Now, remember, James has started his letter assuming or
[140.24 --> 146.94] recalling the struggles that the early Christians faced, right? That the cultural effort to compromise
[146.94 --> 154.26] in their life was strong. The external pressures to return to the old way of being was powerful,
[155.26 --> 164.18] and these sorts of trials will be faced by anyone who wants to be a follower of Jesus. In fact, in James,
[164.42 --> 171.74] it's presumed, right? To be a follower is to face fire, to stand in the furnace of oppression and
[171.74 --> 177.34] ostracism for your faith. Facing these things, in fact, as we have seen and will continue to see,
[177.64 --> 186.48] is a sign that your faith is real, and those external pressures exert a sort of force on you,
[187.48 --> 196.86] right? The trial happens, and inside there is a temptation. That's James' point, right? He says in
[196.86 --> 202.22] verse 12, blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, and then immediately in verse 13, he says,
[202.46 --> 210.92] when tempted. Now, notice that, right? James says, when tempted. James' presumption is that you will be
[210.92 --> 216.84] tempted, and he can presume that we will be tempted because he knows that real faith hearers and doers
[216.84 --> 228.16] of the word will face trials, and trials come with an opportunity for temptation. Every trial brings
[228.16 --> 237.30] temptation, right? Struggling with money, with not having enough money, is an opportunity for temptation
[237.30 --> 247.14] temptation to question the providence of God in our life, right? The death of a loved one can tempt us to
[247.14 --> 256.40] question God's love, right? Suffering in the world can tempt us to question God's goodness. Evil actions
[256.40 --> 266.52] seemingly being rewarded tempt us to question God's justice. Testing brings temptation, and the deeper the trial,
[266.52 --> 274.28] the more dangerous the temptation. As we get into this, I want to give sort of two things as kind of
[274.28 --> 279.32] preliminary remarks that will sort of be a foundation out of which we can spring, and so first,
[280.78 --> 290.44] temptation comes, but it is not God tempting you, right? God doesn't tempt you to sin, right? James writes,
[290.44 --> 296.24] when tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me, for God cannot be tempted, nor does he
[296.24 --> 304.62] tempt anyone, right? God might bring about a test of faith. He might allow a circumstance to happen. He
[304.62 --> 310.60] might ordain a situation that is really hard for you to face alone, right? We see this all throughout
[310.60 --> 317.32] the Bible, right? God testing Abraham in Genesis 22 is an example of this. The story of Job is an example
[317.32 --> 327.48] of this, the story of Joseph, or of Jonah, or the book of Judges, right? And while God may test or prove his
[327.48 --> 338.30] servants in order to show and strengthen their faith, God never, never seeks to make you sin or seeks to destroy
[338.30 --> 347.04] your faith that is contrary to his nature and character and being in the world. The important
[347.04 --> 358.76] distinction to see is the difference between an outer test and an inner temptation, right? An outer test
[358.76 --> 366.78] is God wanting to hone your heart to stronger faith. Inner temptation is your heart hunting out in
[366.78 --> 375.00] rebellion against God's design. That brings us to the second sort of preliminary remark. James writes,
[375.42 --> 382.16] each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire
[382.16 --> 390.92] has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. Temptation
[390.92 --> 400.88] happens in the heart with desire. Sin happens when you follow up or do something with it. And get that,
[400.94 --> 409.74] right? Temptation itself is not necessarily sinful, and that's important to hear, because sometimes I hear
[409.74 --> 417.40] Christians talk about being bad Christians or being unsure if they really are Christian just because they
[417.40 --> 424.92] continue to be tempted with something. And sure, over the course of your Christian life and maturation,
[424.92 --> 431.62] as we are more and more transformed into the image of Jesus, we want to see, we should see, and we will see
[431.62 --> 439.50] temptation lessen and the opportunity for temptation to lessen or its power over us to be minimized. But the fact
[439.50 --> 447.62] of temptation is simply a part of the real faith experience, right? Even Jesus was tempted.
[450.02 --> 461.64] And so listen carefully here. Faith, as hearers and doers of the word, is not indicated by the infrequency
[461.64 --> 473.44] of temptation, but by the infrequency of giving in to temptation. Faith, as hearers and doers of the word, is not
[473.44 --> 484.74] indicated by the infrequency of temptation, but by the infrequency of giving in to temptation. And so, with James,
[484.74 --> 492.88] our goal here is to get better at not giving in to temptation, right, at not being deceived by the
[492.88 --> 499.90] things that pull our hearts in all sorts of different directions. And that's where we're going to spend the
[499.90 --> 509.02] rest of our time this morning, with tools for making faith real so that we can face temptation.
[509.02 --> 518.14] Now, the first tool I want to share with you is what I'm calling the reframing of categories.
[519.56 --> 526.98] Because here it is, right? When we think of sin and temptation, we generally start thinking in
[526.98 --> 536.66] categories of what we can't do, right? We think in terms of limits to freedom or activity. We think
[536.66 --> 545.54] how far is too far, or how much is too much, or when does this become wrong, right? We think more about
[545.54 --> 553.44] boundaries and defining them clearly so that we know exactly how far we can go up to the line
[553.44 --> 563.32] without crossing over it. I'll give you an example. A whole bag of chips is gluttony,
[563.32 --> 574.40] so I'm only going to eat half. Taking the coins out of mom's wallet isn't the same as taking the bills
[574.40 --> 583.08] out of mom's wallet, so I'm only going to take the coins. Four drinks gets me drunk, so I'll stop at
[583.08 --> 588.72] three. Or I'll have three, and then I will eat, and then see how I feel about having that fourth.
[588.72 --> 596.66] My girlfriend and I have been together for years. We should be allowed to do this. We love each other.
[598.72 --> 604.06] It's not gossip if I don't use their names. I can't help it if people figure it out on their own.
[606.34 --> 611.70] Right, we have all sorts of examples where we try to figure out exactly where that line is, and then we
[611.70 --> 618.56] just take a step back from it. And in these examples, and really in all the examples that we could give
[618.56 --> 626.10] and think of, if we think of sin and temptation in terms of what we can't do, the focus actually isn't
[626.10 --> 634.20] on the right thing. The focus is on the wrong thing, right? It's on behavior. In some cases, the priority
[634.20 --> 639.54] is actually finding ways to get away with just a little bit of something, if not the whole thing.
[639.54 --> 646.96] When we think of sin and temptation as something we can't do or we shouldn't do, we are actually
[646.96 --> 654.56] making the sin or the behavior or the activity or the focus the goal of our actions. But what if,
[655.44 --> 659.92] and this is where I'm talking about that reframing, this is the paradigm shift that I would like us to
[659.92 --> 666.08] lean into this morning. What if, and let's be honest, for some of us this paradigm shift is going to
[666.08 --> 670.00] seem obvious as soon as I say it, and we're going to wonder, why didn't we think about this already?
[670.42 --> 678.38] But what if, instead of focusing on what we can't do as sin, and I know that in your minds,
[678.52 --> 683.58] some of you have already jumped to the idea that I'm going to say, what if we don't focus on what we
[683.58 --> 688.76] can't do, but we focus on what we can do as obedience? And if that's where your mind went,
[688.76 --> 698.98] you would be wrong. That's not what I'm going to say. That's not it. In fact, just changing the
[698.98 --> 706.12] focus from what we can't do to what we can do isn't actually all that different. It still makes
[706.12 --> 714.14] the behavior the focus. It still makes this all about morality. But here's the thing, and this may
[714.14 --> 725.32] be controversial. Real faith isn't ultimately about your morality. How you behave in the world isn't
[725.32 --> 730.76] ultimately what our faith is about, right? That's impacted. Don't get me wrong. Don't hear what I'm
[730.76 --> 736.80] not saying. Of course, morality matters. But if you have made your religion, if you have made Christianity
[736.80 --> 743.18] or your faith only about not doing some things and doing certain other things, you've missed the point
[743.18 --> 754.30] of our faith. Listen carefully to this. God isn't interested in making you religious.
[755.92 --> 762.34] Think about Jesus. Jesus was hated by the religious people of his day, and he called them hypocrites
[762.34 --> 772.00] and a bunch of snakes. Religious people are hypocrites. And I could say that because I'm a hypocrite.
[773.18 --> 778.72] And I could stand up here and tell you what to do and how to believe, not because I figured it all out,
[778.82 --> 782.48] and from my perfection I'm shouting down from the mountaintops of my moral superiority.
[783.10 --> 789.36] I could stand here and tell you, because I'm on that same journey with you. I'm in that mud and muck
[789.36 --> 796.70] and mire of sin and temptation with you. What I have to say is only meaningful if it is the counsel of God,
[796.70 --> 799.04] if it is his word and not mine.
[799.04 --> 810.28] God isn't interested in making you religious. God isn't interested in making you spiritual.
[811.98 --> 818.44] Now, being a spiritual person used to mean that being above the world and her problems, right,
[818.48 --> 825.68] being aloof and disconnected. Today, being spiritual can mean being sort of transrational or even
[825.68 --> 831.58] irrational in what we believe, but that's not what we want either. And sometimes in today's world,
[831.72 --> 838.84] increasingly so, right, being spiritual means connecting to the sort of ethereal and nebulous
[838.84 --> 845.32] powers of the world and bending them to our desires, right, or manifesting your realities.
[845.32 --> 851.74] But that's not what we're talking about here either. God isn't interested in making you spiritual.
[853.66 --> 859.70] God isn't interested in your self-care as an excuse to be self-absorbed, and this may be the
[859.70 --> 866.66] primary idol of our therapeutic culture, but Jesus doesn't think of himself, right? Jesus sacrifices
[866.66 --> 874.66] himself, and he calls you to do the same. And likewise here, God isn't interested in your serenity.
[875.32 --> 880.06] Which can really, for most of us, just be a cover for apathy and indifference.
[881.62 --> 887.96] Think about Jesus again, right? He is passionate for God, right? And God is jealous for his own
[887.96 --> 896.40] glory. Jesus gets angry at sin, and he weeps for the city. There is a right crying out at injustice
[896.40 --> 903.32] and a proper raging against the dying of the light, right? We do not go quietly into that good night.
[903.32 --> 910.42] Instead, and here's the reframing for us that I was talking about, right? Here's that potential
[910.42 --> 917.94] paradigm shift. Instead of thinking about what we can't do, instead of thinking about what we can do,

[123.00 --> 129.96] how you make your faith real, but the shift that is taking place is from those things that happen

[129.96 --> 140.24] to you to those things that happen in you. Now, remember, James has started his letter assuming or

[140.24 --> 146.94] recalling the struggles that the early Christians faced, right? That the cultural effort to compromise

[146.94 --> 154.26] in their life was strong. The external pressures to return to the old way of being was powerful,

[155.26 --> 164.18] and these sorts of trials will be faced by anyone who wants to be a follower of Jesus. In fact, in James,

[164.42 --> 171.74] it's presumed, right? To be a follower is to face fire, to stand in the furnace of oppression and

[171.74 --> 177.34] ostracism for your faith. Facing these things, in fact, as we have seen and will continue to see,

[177.64 --> 186.48] is a sign that your faith is real, and those external pressures exert a sort of force on you,

[187.48 --> 196.86] right? The trial happens, and inside there is a temptation. That's James' point, right? He says in

[196.86 --> 202.22] verse 12, blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, and then immediately in verse 13, he says,

[202.46 --> 210.92] when tempted. Now, notice that, right? James says, when tempted. James' presumption is that you will be

[210.92 --> 216.84] tempted, and he can presume that we will be tempted because he knows that real faith hearers and doers

[216.84 --> 228.16] of the word will face trials, and trials come with an opportunity for temptation. Every trial brings

[228.16 --> 237.30] temptation, right? Struggling with money, with not having enough money, is an opportunity for temptation

[237.30 --> 247.14] temptation to question the providence of God in our life, right? The death of a loved one can tempt us to

[247.14 --> 256.40] question God's love, right? Suffering in the world can tempt us to question God's goodness. Evil actions

[256.40 --> 266.52] seemingly being rewarded tempt us to question God's justice. Testing brings temptation, and the deeper the trial,

[266.52 --> 274.28] the more dangerous the temptation. As we get into this, I want to give sort of two things as kind of

[274.28 --> 279.32] preliminary remarks that will sort of be a foundation out of which we can spring, and so first,

[280.78 --> 290.44] temptation comes, but it is not God tempting you, right? God doesn't tempt you to sin, right? James writes,

[290.44 --> 296.24] when tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me, for God cannot be tempted, nor does he

[296.24 --> 304.62] tempt anyone, right? God might bring about a test of faith. He might allow a circumstance to happen. He

[304.62 --> 310.60] might ordain a situation that is really hard for you to face alone, right? We see this all throughout

[310.60 --> 317.32] the Bible, right? God testing Abraham in Genesis 22 is an example of this. The story of Job is an example

[317.32 --> 327.48] of this, the story of Joseph, or of Jonah, or the book of Judges, right? And while God may test or prove his

[327.48 --> 338.30] servants in order to show and strengthen their faith, God never, never seeks to make you sin or seeks to destroy

[338.30 --> 347.04] your faith that is contrary to his nature and character and being in the world. The important

[347.04 --> 358.76] distinction to see is the difference between an outer test and an inner temptation, right? An outer test

[358.76 --> 366.78] is God wanting to hone your heart to stronger faith. Inner temptation is your heart hunting out in

[366.78 --> 375.00] rebellion against God's design. That brings us to the second sort of preliminary remark. James writes,

[375.42 --> 382.16] each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire

[382.16 --> 390.92] has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. Temptation

[390.92 --> 400.88] happens in the heart with desire. Sin happens when you follow up or do something with it. And get that,

[400.94 --> 409.74] right? Temptation itself is not necessarily sinful, and that's important to hear, because sometimes I hear

[409.74 --> 417.40] Christians talk about being bad Christians or being unsure if they really are Christian just because they

[417.40 --> 424.92] continue to be tempted with something. And sure, over the course of your Christian life and maturation,

[424.92 --> 431.62] as we are more and more transformed into the image of Jesus, we want to see, we should see, and we will see

[431.62 --> 439.50] temptation lessen and the opportunity for temptation to lessen or its power over us to be minimized. But the fact

[439.50 --> 447.62] of temptation is simply a part of the real faith experience, right? Even Jesus was tempted.

[450.02 --> 461.64] And so listen carefully here. Faith, as hearers and doers of the word, is not indicated by the infrequency

[461.64 --> 473.44] of temptation, but by the infrequency of giving in to temptation. Faith, as hearers and doers of the word, is not

[473.44 --> 484.74] indicated by the infrequency of temptation, but by the infrequency of giving in to temptation. And so, with James,

[484.74 --> 492.88] our goal here is to get better at not giving in to temptation, right, at not being deceived by the

[492.88 --> 499.90] things that pull our hearts in all sorts of different directions. And that's where we're going to spend the

[499.90 --> 509.02] rest of our time this morning, with tools for making faith real so that we can face temptation.

[509.02 --> 518.14] Now, the first tool I want to share with you is what I'm calling the reframing of categories.

[519.56 --> 526.98] Because here it is, right? When we think of sin and temptation, we generally start thinking in

[526.98 --> 536.66] categories of what we can't do, right? We think in terms of limits to freedom or activity. We think

[536.66 --> 545.54] how far is too far, or how much is too much, or when does this become wrong, right? We think more about

[545.54 --> 553.44] boundaries and defining them clearly so that we know exactly how far we can go up to the line

[553.44 --> 563.32] without crossing over it. I'll give you an example. A whole bag of chips is gluttony,

[563.32 --> 574.40] so I'm only going to eat half. Taking the coins out of mom's wallet isn't the same as taking the bills

[574.40 --> 583.08] out of mom's wallet, so I'm only going to take the coins. Four drinks gets me drunk, so I'll stop at

[583.08 --> 588.72] three. Or I'll have three, and then I will eat, and then see how I feel about having that fourth.

[588.72 --> 596.66] My girlfriend and I have been together for years. We should be allowed to do this. We love each other.

[598.72 --> 604.06] It's not gossip if I don't use their names. I can't help it if people figure it out on their own.

[606.34 --> 611.70] Right, we have all sorts of examples where we try to figure out exactly where that line is, and then we

[611.70 --> 618.56] just take a step back from it. And in these examples, and really in all the examples that we could give

[618.56 --> 626.10] and think of, if we think of sin and temptation in terms of what we can't do, the focus actually isn't

[626.10 --> 634.20] on the right thing. The focus is on the wrong thing, right? It's on behavior. In some cases, the priority

[634.20 --> 639.54] is actually finding ways to get away with just a little bit of something, if not the whole thing.

[639.54 --> 646.96] When we think of sin and temptation as something we can't do or we shouldn't do, we are actually

[646.96 --> 654.56] making the sin or the behavior or the activity or the focus the goal of our actions. But what if,

[655.44 --> 659.92] and this is where I'm talking about that reframing, this is the paradigm shift that I would like us to

[659.92 --> 666.08] lean into this morning. What if, and let's be honest, for some of us this paradigm shift is going to

[666.08 --> 670.00] seem obvious as soon as I say it, and we're going to wonder, why didn't we think about this already?

[670.42 --> 678.38] But what if, instead of focusing on what we can't do as sin, and I know that in your minds,

[678.52 --> 683.58] some of you have already jumped to the idea that I'm going to say, what if we don't focus on what we

[683.58 --> 688.76] can't do, but we focus on what we can do as obedience? And if that's where your mind went,

[688.76 --> 698.98] you would be wrong. That's not what I'm going to say. That's not it. In fact, just changing the

[698.98 --> 706.12] focus from what we can't do to what we can do isn't actually all that different. It still makes

[706.12 --> 714.14] the behavior the focus. It still makes this all about morality. But here's the thing, and this may

[714.14 --> 725.32] be controversial. Real faith isn't ultimately about your morality. How you behave in the world isn't

[725.32 --> 730.76] ultimately what our faith is about, right? That's impacted. Don't get me wrong. Don't hear what I'm

[730.76 --> 736.80] not saying. Of course, morality matters. But if you have made your religion, if you have made Christianity

[736.80 --> 743.18] or your faith only about not doing some things and doing certain other things, you've missed the point

[743.18 --> 754.30] of our faith. Listen carefully to this. God isn't interested in making you religious.

[755.92 --> 762.34] Think about Jesus. Jesus was hated by the religious people of his day, and he called them hypocrites

[762.34 --> 772.00] and a bunch of snakes. Religious people are hypocrites. And I could say that because I'm a hypocrite.

[773.18 --> 778.72] And I could stand up here and tell you what to do and how to believe, not because I figured it all out,

[778.82 --> 782.48] and from my perfection I'm shouting down from the mountaintops of my moral superiority.

[783.10 --> 789.36] I could stand here and tell you, because I'm on that same journey with you. I'm in that mud and muck

[789.36 --> 796.70] and mire of sin and temptation with you. What I have to say is only meaningful if it is the counsel of God,

[796.70 --> 799.04] if it is his word and not mine.

[799.04 --> 810.28] God isn't interested in making you religious. God isn't interested in making you spiritual.

[811.98 --> 818.44] Now, being a spiritual person used to mean that being above the world and her problems, right,

[818.48 --> 825.68] being aloof and disconnected. Today, being spiritual can mean being sort of transrational or even

[825.68 --> 831.58] irrational in what we believe, but that's not what we want either. And sometimes in today's world,

[831.72 --> 838.84] increasingly so, right, being spiritual means connecting to the sort of ethereal and nebulous

[838.84 --> 845.32] powers of the world and bending them to our desires, right, or manifesting your realities.

[845.32 --> 851.74] But that's not what we're talking about here either. God isn't interested in making you spiritual.

[853.66 --> 859.70] God isn't interested in your self-care as an excuse to be self-absorbed, and this may be the

[859.70 --> 866.66] primary idol of our therapeutic culture, but Jesus doesn't think of himself, right? Jesus sacrifices

[866.66 --> 874.66] himself, and he calls you to do the same. And likewise here, God isn't interested in your serenity.

[875.32 --> 880.06] Which can really, for most of us, just be a cover for apathy and indifference.

[881.62 --> 887.96] Think about Jesus again, right? He is passionate for God, right? And God is jealous for his own

[887.96 --> 896.40] glory. Jesus gets angry at sin, and he weeps for the city. There is a right crying out at injustice

[896.40 --> 903.32] and a proper raging against the dying of the light, right? We do not go quietly into that good night.

[903.32 --> 910.42] Instead, and here's the reframing for us that I was talking about, right? Here's that potential

[910.42 --> 917.94] paradigm shift. Instead of thinking about what we can't do, instead of thinking about what we can do,