WWUTT 296 People of Integrity?

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Our God wants us to be people of integrity. When we say we're going to do something, we do it.
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Because the Lord has said that He was going to do something for us, and He did it. So we should be like Him when we understand the text.
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You're listening to When We Understand the Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.
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Find videos and more at our website www .tt .com. Now here's our host,
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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. Happy Reformation Day, everybody. The 499th anniversary of the
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Protestant Reformation that began October 31, 1517. What didn't necessarily begin that day, but that's the day that we generally attribute to being the anniversary of the
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Protestant Reformation, because that was when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Saxony, saying we would not be under the tyranny of Roman Catholicism.
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It is not the Church that holds the authority, but the Word of God. That's even stated in the
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Scriptures, that we are being cleansed by the washing of water with the
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Word. It is by the Word of Christ that we are being sanctified. The Church doesn't have the authority.
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It is the Word of God that has the authority, and the Church is to submit to that, for the Church is being purified and sanctified by that Word.
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We're going to do a little bit of that sanctification today as we continue our study in James 5.
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In fact, we're going to finish up our study of the book of James this week between today, tomorrow, and Wednesday.
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James 5, we're going to begin in verse 12. We looked at verse 12 last week, but I'd like to come back to that verse again and read through verse 20.
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But above all, my brothers, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
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Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
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Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
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Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the
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Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.
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The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain.
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And for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
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My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
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It's an unusual way for this letter to conclude, but that's mostly because we're used to Paul's formal greetings, the way that he would open a letter and conclude a letter, and he gives final greetings from those who have been serving with him.
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James has a different group that he is writing to, and he has a different reason for writing. We also have this letter as perhaps the earliest epistle in the
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New Testament. It's likely that no other epistle came before this letter that we have from James.
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He was writing to Christians that were scattered around Judea and Samaria areas, and it wasn't to a particular church, which is the way that Paul wrote.
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So he's addressing a church knowing those elders there, or the elders and deacons, the way that he addresses the church in Philippi.
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He's got missionary brethren that he means to encourage the church with so that that church knows that they are every bit a part of the missionary work that is being done.
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Though they are not physically with Paul and his missionary brothers, they are part of that same work of spreading the gospel around the world.
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So Paul means to encourage them with those names that he has partnered with in ministry, and then he gives that final conclusion, that official send -off, kind of like a signature at the end of every letter.
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James has a different reason for writing. He is offering instructions to those Christians that are living in the areas outside of and surrounding
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Jerusalem. And what he has given as instructions in this letter is coming back at the end.
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We're starting to see those same things that he said at the beginning spoken about at the end. For example, at the start of the letter, he said,
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Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
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And then here toward the end, James 5, 7, Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the
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Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains.
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And so he is bringing those same concepts of being patient, rejoicing in the Lord in all circumstances.
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He's bringing that back around again at the end of the letter. So we're seeing all these points come full circle, even if it doesn't have the kind of formal greeting and conclusion that we're used to seeing, say, from Paul's letters or John's letters, because James has a different group of people and a different intent for writing.
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These are specific instructions. And some of these instructions that we see coming about are directly from his half brother,
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Jesus Christ, the teachings that James heard Jesus say. And that's what we're looking at today.
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And the reason why I wanted to come back to verse 12, where James says, But above all, my brothers, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
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Compare that with what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five, verses 33 through 37.
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Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the
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Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king.
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And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say simply be yes or no.
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Anything more than this comes from evil. That's pretty harsh. So I swear by the moon,
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I swear by the sun, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. That's evil talk. Not only is it just misguided, not only is it merely unwise, but it would be evil to say such a thing.
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Why is that? Because you are claiming to have authority over something that you have no authority over.
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You don't control the sun or the moon. And if you are proclaiming your oath by those things, it's as if you're saying that you really have no control over your oath either.
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Rather, you need to let your yes be yes or your no be no. Now, the Old Testament allowed for oaths and some of those kinds of things, except for those oaths that profaned the name of the
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Lord. Jesus desired that his disciples would be known by their integrity.
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If you say that you're going to do something, you do it. And people know that you're going to follow through with it because that's your reputation.
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Jesus had talked about reputation earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, verse 14. You are the light of the world.
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A city on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
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In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your
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Father who is in heaven. This is being a good witness. But we do these things not to gain praise for ourselves.
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It's to give God the glory. It is directing others back to the Lord. God is the one who has authority over the sun and the moon, the earth,
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Jerusalem, these things. And so we don't swear by those things. We are to be men and women of good character in God.
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And the way that we live is a display of the King who has saved us, whom we worship.
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Our relationship with God affects our relationships with people as well.
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So let me ask you this. When you pray to the Lord, do you swear to God, according to, you know,
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I swear on my mother's grave, God, that I'm going to do this. Do you do that? Of course not. Why?
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Because it doesn't matter if you swear on something or not. The Lord knows if the intentions of your heart are sincere or if you're just full of it, for lack of a better term.
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So if you don't speak to the Lord that way, don't speak to other people that way.
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If you don't swear by this, that or the other, when you say something to the
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Lord, when you are praying to God, so don't say those kinds of things to other people as well who have been made in the image of God.
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Because otherwise, it is claiming to have authority over something that we don't actually have authority over.
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And remember that James has said that our attitude should instead be, if the
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Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. So you should say to a person,
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I'm committed to you that I am going to do this. And then if the Lord wills that you do it and the
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Lord's desire for us, Jesus's desire for his followers is that we would be men and women of integrity who do what we say that we are going to do.
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One of the examples that I've brought up frequently on this particular program and before my congregation as well, is that when we say we're going to pray for somebody, we just pray for them just right then.
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If somebody is expressing to us a heartfelt need, expressing an anxiety about something that's going on, even if they're rejoicing over something,
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I mean, how about this? I mean, when somebody has a problem, it's probably easy for us to go, well, let's pray about that.
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But what if somebody has a praise? What if somebody is going, praise God, he's answered my prayer about this,
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I've been praying about this for a while, and then boom, it's just happened for me, so I'm really excited today and I'm full of praise because God has answered my request.
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How about in that moment, your response also be, well, that's great, brother. Hey, how about we pray about that right now?
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And so the two of you together rejoicing in God for this blessing that has been bestowed upon this person, this good news that they have received.
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So you can pray about that as well. Oftentimes, when we talk about weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice as Paul talks about in Romans chapter 12, we only talk about the weeping part, weeping with those who are weeping, but even with those who are rejoicing, we can pray together and praise
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God for the answered requests. And so this is one way, again, this is one way that we tend to lack integrity when it comes to saying to a person,
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I'll pray for you about that, but then we don't actually pray for them. So to help exercise good integrity in those kinds of commitments, just pray for that person right there as they're expressing that need, say, let's pray about that.
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As they're expressing that praise, say, let's praise God together. And so this is how we share in our struggles and also in our rejoicings before the
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Lord. And we are people of good integrity when we do what we say that we are going to do. You know, one of the places where I lack integrity is when
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I tell a person that I'm going to call them and then I don't. I'm so terrible at that, saying to a person that, hey,
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I'm going to give you a call tomorrow. And then I totally forgot, totally forget. I mess up on that all the time.
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I make mistakes with my wife as well when she'll be going to bed and I'm still up and she says, hey, can you wash the dishes for me?
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Or can you switch the loads in the laundry, something like that? And I'll say, sure, sweetheart, I'll do that. About half the time
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I do it and half the time I don't. And why is it that I don't? Because I don't do it right away. And I start, you know,
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I'm busy myself watching another television program or reading something or something like that, checking Twitter messages.
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And then I totally forget that I had just said to my wife that I was going to help her out in this way.
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And that affects my integrity as a husband and as a father with my kids, telling them that I'm going to do something that I don't actually do.
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I did this with my son just yesterday, told him that we were going to do something and then all of us got tired and then we never actually did it.
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So these these are ways that I get convicted over this very thing. But we need to aspire to be men and women of good care, of good character, of good integrity.
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When we say that we're going to do something, we do it not swearing by anything, because that swearing upon something does not increase the likelihood that we are actually going to fulfill that, nor does it establish with the person that we are talking to, that we are somehow a man or a woman of our word.
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What makes us people of our word is if we do what we say that we're going to do and in a good witness of Christ who did for us exactly what he said he was going to do when
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God gave us his promises in the Old Testament and fulfilled them through Christ and Jesus gives us his promises and is fulfilling them through us now.
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And he says that he is going to come back. And so we know that God, who is faithful to himself, is going to fulfill those promises even for our future, as Jesus does what he said that he was going to do.
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So we must do for one another. There can't be any stronger reason to be men and women of integrity.
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Above all, my brothers do not swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
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You would be you would not be a people who lacks integrity or good character as witnesses of Christ.
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But we do what we say we're going to do as God has done what he said he was going to do.
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As we go on here, James chapter five, verse 13, is anyone among you suffering?
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Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
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This is James's version of weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.
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Let's look at that in context. Go back with me to Romans chapter 12 and we're looking at verse nine.
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Romans chapter 12, verse nine. Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil.
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Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
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Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the
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Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer.
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Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you.
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Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.
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Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
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Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all, if possible, so far as it depends on you live peaceably with all.
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And notice that at the heart of these instructions and how we interact and engage with one another is this instruction, serve the
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Lord, Romans chapter 12, verse 11, last part of verse 11, serve the
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Lord. So in serving the Lord, we do all of these things in service to one another.
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And we see among these instructions, Paul saying, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
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Now, when we were going through Romans together, I mentioned that this particular verse, we like it.
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We use it a lot. You hear it all the time. Romans 12, 15, but it's kind of taken out of context.
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The way that we tend to use it, we'll use it as we need to rejoice with everybody who's rejoicing. We need to weep with everyone who is weeping, but the specific context that's being used here is
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Paul saying that the world is going to bear down on us. And it's, it's a difficult enough struggle for us as Christians who are strangers and aliens to this world to get through this world, uh, with all of its different struggles and even persecutions, people coming against us because we worship
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Christ instead of behaving like the rest of the world. Notice the instruction right before it, bless those who persecute you bless and do not curse them.
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So as we go out in the world, as servants of God, disciples of Jesus Christ, spreading the gospel, there are those who are going to persecute us because of the gospel.
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There are also going to be those who will turn from their sin and worship
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God because of the gospel that was proclaimed to them. So when those circumstances, when we see souls being one, we rejoice together.
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But in those circumstances, when the world is bearing down on us, because we are followers of Christ, we need to be a support system for one another as the body of Christ.
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Being able to, to re -energize and encourage and restore hope to those who have been beat down by the world because of the gospel that they believe in and the
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God whom they serve. So that's more specifically the context that Paul is talking about there in Romans 12, though it's not incorrect to use an application of rejoicing together and weeping together that we share in these emotions together, because we do, we share these burdens and we also share our hopes.
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James says, and this is the way that James puts it in the same sort of a way that Paul puts it.
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Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful?
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Let him sing praise. Remember, this comes back to an instruction that James opened his letter with.
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Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
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And so as we, as we're coming full circle on these instructions and we come to this at the end of the letter, is anyone among you suffering?
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Let him pray. Another way to understand this would be James saying, let his prayer be heard.
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So don't, don't try to shove the suffering guy off into a corner, man. You're being a real downer.
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We're trying to be excited and be positive and optimistic here. And you're being a downer. No, we need to share together in these things.
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Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray, not let him go off by himself and pray.
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Let him pray among the brothers that we might be an encouragement to him.
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Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Let that person come forward with something that he is rejoicing about in the
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Lord so that we may all rejoice together, weeping with those who weep, rejoicing with those who rejoice, particularly when it comes to being
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Christians in this world. Remember how James opened his letter in his greeting,
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James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes in the dispersion.
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Now, I mentioned when we opened up our study of the book of James, that there are those who will say that James is specifically talking to Jews.
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I don't think so. I think that the way that James opens his letter is in the understanding that Israel is a spiritual people of God.
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All those who are in Christ Jesus, not an ethnic group of people. So James talking about the 12 tribes in the dispersion are talking about those who have heard the gospel according to the 12 apostles and have been scattered about through the world as all
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Christians are scattered throughout the empire, not just in the
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Holy land vicinity or the vicinity of the Holy land. And so as James is talking about this particular body of faith in Christ Jesus, that is the church, we need to be an encouragement to one another as we are strangers and exiles in this world.
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We suffer together, struggling together, praising together so that we might build one another up in the faith.
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We have seen constant instructions throughout this letter as James has been presenting them on how we are to interact with one another as the brotherhood of Jesus Christ.
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So let us receive this instruction, that same way that we suffer together. We rejoice together as the
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Lord has suffered for us and as he has rejoiced over us, Jesus talks about in his parables, you think about Luke chapter 15, the rejoicing that happens in heaven when one lost sheep comes back into the fold, when, when the prodigal son comes back to his father and the rejoicing, the party that takes place, the
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Lord has suffered for us and he has rejoiced over us. And so let us do that for one another in service to our
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God and King. Let us pray to him. Now, our Lord God, we thank you for these instructions that we have been given and may we be convicted in heart to obey them as a citizens of your kingdom.
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May we demonstrate that we are from that land, a heavenly kingdom that we are looking forward to when our
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Lord Christ returns and ushers in his peaceful kingdom. We can display the kingdom of God by our lives even now so that when others look at us, they see that we live different than the way that everybody else lives in the world.
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May we be people of our word. We do what we say that we are going to do.
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We are people of integrity and our character points back, points back to God. May we also be people of the word, the word of God that was given to us by God and our
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Lord is faithful to fulfill these things. So we must also be faithful to our word.
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When we say to someone else that we're going to do something, we do it by the power that is working within us through your
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Holy spirit. And in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to when we understand the text with pastor
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Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt
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.com and click on the gift tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our