Living for Jesus Day by Day — James 1

0:58 With a couple of topics. One of

1:00 the topics was three temptations that you'll

1:03 face. Brother John's gonna gonna speak on that. And then Ray Gonzales is gonna talk about three opportunities

3:55 Be very careful to phrase it that way. So, the the trials that come from god are holy. They're designed to make us holy. They're designed to bring out the best in us. The temptations that come from us, the unholy temptations that come from within bring out the worst in us.

4:14 We should never we

4:17 should

4:17 we should be careful to never think when when we're being tempted and it it could be he has nothing to do with it. So that comes from within. God allows it because he wants to give us the opportunity to exercise faith and discipline. If we were never tempted to to commit evil, then our our our faith and our growth as a Christian would never get very far. In verse 14, when James says, the Egyptian one is tempted when by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

6:53 And I'm gonna I'm gonna be referencing back a little bit to to Philippians in a minute. But We want to always shift blame for our sin. That's our natural that's what we do naturally. You can go all the way back to Genesis and the the very first sin was all, it was all this this blame shifting. And we all do it, and that's one of the toughest things to do is to acknowledge that we've been tempted and or committed a sin, and it's our fault.

7:28 It's taking ownership for it. We we can think that material things and inanimate objects cause sin. We can definitely idolize things and and sin by idolizing things, and we can sin through inanimate objects, but they don't cause it. And we we can't say that, oh, I'm not perfect, and we have a sinful nature and sin is expected. You know?

7:51 We can't cross it off that way. Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and entice them. Sin is a moral failure for which we have to give an account. It it does stem from our old evil, fallen, unregenerate nature. Not what goes in that makes you unclean.

8:43 Because we're all in the world today, and the graduates that are continuing in school and have a lot of peer pressure. It's not the things you're taking in that makes you unclean per se. He's he's saying what comes out, what, you know, stuff's gonna come in. You have to... It's up to you to decide if you're going to allow it to penetrate or if you're gonna let it pass in and pass out.

9:13 and slander. These are what they command unclean.

9:17 So it's what we allow into our life. It's not the fact that you witness something. You're going to see it a lot. We see it all and most of us that are older in the workplace. We see this stuff all the time, and it's...

9:28 You can't get around it, you can't get away from it. Most of us can't unless you're able to work from home. But most of us can't get away from it. So it's what you do with it, it's how you deal with it. It's how you filter it out.

9:41 It's what you let inside. It's what you let stay inside. The word that that James uses here, desire. That desire is, we think of that word as fairly morally neutral. But in the New Testament, the Greek word that's used most often for desire has a...

10:02 It's evil. And when it's translated... In certain translations, you you just get desire. In some translations, you have lust. Lust still doesn't necessarily have a negative connotation to it, but in the Greek, it does.

10:16 The word that's used here is an equal desire. So what James pointing at here, he he says, when tempted in verse 13. So, he's recognizing that we're all going to be tempted.

10:29 We all are tempted but are we helpful sin folks? And we're not. Temptations are a

10:36 part of life, but but sin doesn't have to be. As as newborn believers, as as children of God, and and believers who have the spirit of God dwelling in them, sin doesn't have to be a part of life. We aren't slaves to sin anymore. Where does sin start? It's it's in our thought life.

10:56 He says, each one is tempted

10:58 by a million dozen

11:12 And this is one of the tough ones.

11:21 What we're taught here is that the the fact that sin starts in our in our mind, in our thought life.

11:30 But what's taught here is that the thought life is controllable.

11:49 You'll probably never actually attain, you know, perfect control over your thought life, but it's something that has to be exercised regularly. In in Philippians four eight, they have this this common, this very bummed passage where he says, finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or graceworthy, think about such things.

12:14 But I wanna back

12:15 up after I've read that. Back up to verse seven, and he says, the peace of god transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So, the believer has has the ability. The believer's been given the ability. The believer's been given the strength through the

12:32 spirit to control the thought life.

12:37 There's a couple ways of controlling our thought life that I would share, some things that I have experienced and some things that I've used. One of those things, when you're tempted by a bad thought, by a negative thought, one way to cope and to control your thought life is to think about something else, to make that conscious decision to think about something else. It's the the mind how

13:10 do I put it?

13:39 It does. Okay? We know. Alright? You can't think of of the good and the bad things simultaneously.

13:46 As much as people will try to tell you, especially women, that they have to think about all these interventions. Okay? Well, you can't. It's physically impossible now. You can have multiple windows open on your computer, but you can only actually focus on one at one time.

14:00 So it's just the ability to rapidly switch. Let's look at some definitions of the words that are in verse eight of Philippians four. Whatever is true... So what's true? So something that's not false or undermining something that's genuine is real.

14:28 Noble. And and and if you're you're reading along, you'll have different translations of these words here, but noble. So what's noble? Something that's honorable or morally attractive. Just.

14:42 What's just something that's righteous before god and men? What's pure? Something of high moral character. What's lovely? Something that's admirable or agreeable to behold or consider.

14:57 What's virtue? What is something of virtue? Moral excellence. Praiseworthy? What's what's something that's praiseworthy?

15:05 Something that deserves condemnation. The thought I wanna leave you with is that because from it's what sin... What makes us unclean is from what comes from within. And so the things that are within that we then act upon, that's what makes us unclean. So it starts with right thinking.

15:41 And if your thought life is pure, and it won't be a 100%, we'll we'll we'll get that out of the way and say that, you know, it won't be a 100%. But if you can focus on keeping your thought life,

15:54 it'll help keep you involved.

19:33 Keep looking up at heaven where Jesus is sitting on the throne. One of one of the toughest things I think for us because there's so many distractions to to to borrow from your thoughts or the temptations and distractions and they walk away from the the leader of the army, Jesus himself. And finally, I would like to leave you with this thought. Second Timothy four three is what Paul says. Fight the good fight, to the name of Jesus, who bought them with his blood.

23:41 And so, the open doors that Jesus sets before us. Keep looking for them. Keep your eyes on Jesus,

25:07 I think I'd like to start with verse 24.

25:11 By faith, Moses, when he became of age, is this somehow fit the pattern that we're seeing here? Like faith, Moses, when he came of age, so you you graduates or you you're you just passed a milestone in your lives and you're getting close to that point where he'd say, come of age. I faced Moses when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the reward. By faith, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him, who is invisible. So, I'd like to to make four points out of out of this little portion.

26:11 The first one is, by faith, Moses, when he became a page, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. So here was Moses was being presented with what people might have called the chance of his lifetime, chance he could live in the royal palace, yet he realized that there was that in that palace that he might have claimed, but that he knew wasn't right. He turned away from us. That was a lesson for us, isn't it? That we wouldn't be tempted, as as we go along with a little bit John's talk, to be tempted to be drawn into that...

26:54 The the traps, this old world that's in front of us. The second one is, in the twenty fifth verse, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. So so he he presents before us that that there are pleasures to sin. There's there's there's something in us that responds to sin. We're like to go that way but they're passing pleasures.

27:21 They're they're they're that which which cannot bring lasting blessing and will bring the curse upon us. And so so he he he chose to associate himself with with the people of God and to choose this pathway. The the third one is 26 verse, he esteemed the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked for the remorse. And I I puzzled over this first because I I thought, what is the reproach of Christ? I mean, Christ had wouldn't come for, what, fourteen hundred more years, fifteen hundred more years?

28:01 What is the reproaches of Christ? But it does use the word Christ, which which is the Greek equivalent to the Messiah. They didn't know about Messiah. Maybe not as thoroughly as as they would have been nice to have known, but they didn't know that there was a possible coming. So, it seemed that that that Moses had somehow ripped this idea that there was someone that was going to come.

28:27 It would be a great delusion for them. So, we might, and for ourselves, we would look Luther back to Christ but kind of like race and ethics. We would get our eyes upon Jesus and that that would deliver us. Finally, it says on the twenty seventh verse that he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, as enduring and endured as seeing him who is invisible. So, two two things in this verse.

28:53 One, one is that he wouldn't let the influence of that which was offered to him and even that there might have been some, you know, some attempt to judge him or by by the king. So, he he wouldn't allow that to influence him. He was going to do what was right, and interesting thing is

29:16 that he endured as seeing him

29:18 who was invisible. And so we have God before us, and God is invisible in in reality. Is... Is... God is spirit, we're told, and so...

29:30 But but God is still so real, but, graduates, he's so real that let's live with the reality of it.

33:40 Happy are those whose journey is complete in the law of the Lord. It's a journey. Sometimes I think that in this quick, fast paced environment that we learn to live we're not enjoying

34:01 the moment.

34:02 We are looking forward to that next thing, that next new thing, that next experience. And we don't enjoy the journey. We don't understand that everything that happens, every moment of the day is ordained by God. We don't appreciate those things that happen. How I wish that when I was graduating, that somebody would have said to me, Bob, it's a journey.

34:43 Even being unsafe at that time, I think I would have had a much broader outlook on not worrying about just finding a job and then worrying about finding a wife and then worrying about building a house for a family, and then worrying about what I'm gonna do in retirement. Right? I would have appreciated the moment appreciate the moment that you're in right now. Right? Tomorrow, it's in itself.

35:09 Right? Wise guy, wise man. He was the British leader during World War two. Winston Churchill said, I worried about a lot through my life, but only two of those things actually ever happened. So don't spend your time worrying about tomorrow.

35:47 It may never come. You know, we're fortunate that we're here today, but one of us can be gone tomorrow. One of us can be gone the moment they leave the the driveway. And it's as true for me as it is for the graduates. We can't...

36:06 We have to stop worrying about building that life and start living for Jesus day by day and man by night. The only way that you're gonna be happy, and I believe Psalm one nineteen, is if you don't conform to the world. Be a nonconformist. Alright? You know, go ahead and give yourself one of these.

36:37 Nobody says that you have to be dead.

36:41 Was Christ conformed? I have to say absolutely not. Don't conform to this world. Don't live your life waiting for that next thing or worrying about where the money for the mortgage is gonna come from. So I wanted to say that I'm plagiarizing some of these three statements that I heard from a graduation recently that really stuck out to me and read a couple of verses.