back to index2017-08-19 Bam Summer Retreat 2017 Session 1
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Without further ado, let's welcome Pastor Eddie. 00:00:17.000 |
God has given me a built-in amplified voice, so if you could put it down a little bit, 00:00:28.000 |
We were driving up, and it's not his driving, it's his I.K.A. motion sickness. 00:00:33.000 |
I got a little sick, but we had a great conversation as we were driving up, and we're just reminiscing. 00:00:40.000 |
We're almost, well, I'm not 50 yet, but we're almost 50 years old. 00:00:49.000 |
It just seems like, when are that 25 years gone since we were in Biola? 00:00:55.000 |
We're just talking about the friends we had, and Peter said it's true. 00:01:00.000 |
Peter and I, we didn't have many friends in Biola. 00:01:07.000 |
Now, you'd think that's funny, but Biola, right, I believe I remember, it stands for 00:01:14.000 |
Bible Institute of Los Angeles, but when we were in Biola, most of the majors were business majors. 00:01:21.000 |
So it should have been called Business Institute of Los Angeles. 00:01:24.000 |
And we were really the few, the proud, the Bible majors, right? 00:01:30.000 |
And I remember, I would have discussions in front of the library, and I think Peter and I used to tag team 00:01:37.000 |
spiritual wrestling, the sufficiency of scripture. 00:01:42.000 |
It's an evangelical Christian university, and I remember we used to have these debates 00:01:51.000 |
Like, having discussions about defending the sufficiency of scripture. 00:02:03.000 |
It was definitely not because of our looks, because of our convictions. 00:02:11.000 |
Yes, I am from the Seattle area, but I actually grew up in Southern Cal. 00:02:40.000 |
So I grew up in this area, and when Peter asked me to come and share God's word with you all, 00:02:52.000 |
I know you're not supposed to say that, right? 00:02:56.000 |
Adults in transition between college and marriage life, right? 00:03:13.000 |
How many of you are single but you're dating? 00:03:24.000 |
So obviously, maybe -- what should I share with the singles here? 00:03:30.000 |
And I heard that this group is called SAM, right? 00:03:35.000 |
But if I had the choice, if I was a pastor, I would have called you guys SPAM, because, 00:03:56.000 |
This is not a session retreat about being single and desperate. 00:04:02.000 |
This is not going to be about relationships and how to find the right person, because 00:04:07.000 |
Ladies and gentlemen, all right, the whole infatuation, okay, of people, especially in 00:04:14.000 |
the world, who are so preoccupied about the dating life -- let me tell you something. 00:04:19.000 |
The whole dating life, the whole dating scene is all a lie. 00:04:34.000 |
My wife and I have been married for 20 -- this November will be 23 years. 00:04:40.000 |
And I look at her now, and I remember when I was dating her, she's not the same person. 00:04:49.000 |
The whole dating life is like -- you know what I mean? 00:04:54.000 |
You know, you talk differently, you act differently, you act like you're nice and, you know, you're 00:05:08.000 |
I mean, I wake up this morning -- well, not this morning, but when I wake up nowadays, 00:05:13.000 |
and I look at my wife, and, you know, hair's like this, and, you know, my breath is kicking 00:05:19.000 |
in, like, you know, Bruce Lee style, and there are times -- because, like, you know, we're 00:05:25.000 |
Christians, we would never get a divorce, right? 00:05:27.000 |
Because, you know, divorce is -- you know, the Bible doesn't want us to get divorced. 00:05:33.000 |
But trust me, the thought of murder I've come across a couple times. 00:05:39.000 |
But I tell you, I love her more than I did when I was dating her. 00:05:43.000 |
And so this retreat is not about dating, it's not about pursuing the right person, it's 00:05:51.000 |
about pursuing Jesus Christ, and not looking for the right person, but becoming the right 00:05:59.000 |
And if you believe in God's Word, when Jesus says that seek first the kingdom of God and 00:06:04.000 |
His righteousness -- I'm going to put it a little bit down, it's a little bit too much 00:06:10.000 |
So, Jesus said that if you seek His kingdom first and His righteousness, and what? 00:06:22.000 |
Yes, even a husband or wife should be added unto you. 00:06:27.000 |
But even that, even if you never get married, even if you never get married, we are called 00:06:39.000 |
So, take it from Ephesians chapter 5, like Peter read to you this morning, that's what 00:06:47.000 |
So, get your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter 5. 00:06:54.000 |
The theme verse, the theme focus verse is in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 15. 00:07:04.000 |
And so this weekend, this retreat with three sessions together, three types of worshipping 00:07:11.000 |
and hearing God's Word, I'm going to be covering verses 15 to 21. 00:07:16.000 |
So, let me read the verse again, starting from verse 15, Ephesians 5. 00:07:21.000 |
It says, look carefully then how you walk or live, not as unwise, but as wise, making 00:07:30.000 |
the best use of time because why the days are evil. 00:07:36.000 |
Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is and do not get 00:07:44.000 |
drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with what the Spirit, addressing 00:07:53.000 |
one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord 00:08:00.000 |
with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to the God, the Father, in 00:08:05.000 |
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. 00:08:12.000 |
So, this session, this first session today, today or this morning is titled walking by 00:08:23.000 |
And then this later afternoon, we'll talk about walking with the Spirit, which is the 00:08:30.000 |
And then tomorrow morning, in conclusion, we'll be sharing walking in love, which is 00:08:36.000 |
the wisdom of the soul or wisdom of the heart. 00:08:40.000 |
So, this morning, today, right now, we'll talk about the walking by the Word, which 00:08:58.000 |
Like remember when you were going to elementary school and there was a cross. 00:09:02.000 |
Remember there was a cross guard, it tells you to stop. 00:09:06.000 |
So, to look both ways before you cross so you won't get ran over. 00:09:14.000 |
What Paul is saying here is like, there's times in our lives that we need to like, look, 00:09:20.000 |
And what a great opportunity, like being here, this retreat, stopping your daily, weekly, 00:09:35.000 |
Or you're going back to school or you're working or you're between jobs or whatever you're 00:09:43.000 |
And I want to plead with you this morning, that during this retreat, take the time to 00:09:54.000 |
He said that a life not examined is not a life worth living. 00:09:58.000 |
And so that's what you get so preoccupied with work and life that we don't stop and 00:10:04.000 |
look to reexamine where you're at and how you're walking or as the Bible calls it, living 00:10:13.000 |
When the Bible says walk, it means the idea of living your life. 00:10:17.000 |
And so he says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise. 00:10:26.000 |
And when the Bible always talks about the word wise or wisdom, it's not like philosophizing 00:10:33.000 |
It's not like, you know, like being able to like come up with great life changing quotes 00:10:40.000 |
When the Bible talks about wisdom or wise, it is referring to how you live your life, 00:10:48.000 |
And Paul was going to say it for 16, making the what best use of our time. 00:11:02.000 |
I think one of the biggest challenges in the Western developed world is that we are so 00:11:23.000 |
He said, make the best use of your time because why? 00:11:32.000 |
We are living in dark and evil times in Seattle where I live. 00:11:38.000 |
The number one reason for people to die is opiods, drug overdose. 00:11:45.000 |
And you know, both California and Washington, marijuana has been legalized and people say, 00:11:59.000 |
But in many, many cases, marijuana is like a gateway to more addictive and more dangerous 00:12:12.000 |
I mean, you talk about like you bet, you know, also the whole pornography industry. 00:12:17.000 |
I mean, when Peter and I were growing up, I just got a candle with y'all, right? 00:12:21.000 |
We had to earn our pornography today, but it clicked of a internet. 00:12:28.000 |
You could get exposed to all the disgusting, gross, deviant, sexual things that like Peter 00:12:35.000 |
and I wouldn't, we would never imagine when we were growing up and we are living in evil 00:12:40.000 |
times in the fact that right, the pornography industry is the leading entertainment industry 00:12:48.000 |
It makes more money than all the Hollywood movies combined together. 00:12:54.000 |
And that's kind of times we're living in today. 00:13:01.000 |
You know, it just just recently talked about Islamic terrorism. 00:13:07.000 |
Islamic terrorists ran over people in his car and kill wedding over 90 people were killed 00:13:14.000 |
But there was a right supremacy, not see me on Nazi fascist demonstration and some idiot 00:13:22.000 |
ran over the crowd of people and killed an individual and you know, and wounded. 00:13:29.000 |
I mean we are living on some evil dark times. 00:13:35.000 |
It's just that there's more racism and in the possibility of a nuclear war nuclear. 00:13:40.000 |
By the way, if you're concerned about if you're more concerned about global warming, then 00:13:54.000 |
I'm not saying that there's no such thing as global, you know, I mean global warming, 00:14:00.000 |
Listen, the world is not going to be destroyed by a flood. 00:14:10.000 |
Oh, and so what we need to worry about is what God, the God prophets as in Scripture 00:14:16.000 |
that the earth and the world be destroyed by fire. 00:14:19.000 |
But anyhow, we are living in difficult times. 00:14:25.000 |
And then there's many, many other things I could list with you. 00:14:30.000 |
That's why Paul says, therefore, it verse 17, right? 00:14:34.000 |
And whenever you read the Bible, you come across the word. 00:14:43.000 |
So you need to take heed what the word of God is saying, because Paul just made a argument 00:14:53.000 |
Therefore, he says, do not be foolish, but understand what the word of the Lord is. 00:15:05.000 |
And then, you know, again, Peter and I were talking about it too. 00:15:12.000 |
And you know, when we passed, they used to say we didn't have a lot of, you didn't have a lot of friends. 00:15:19.000 |
But what happened is, it's interesting how a lot of the guys who went through Biola, went through, you know, 00:15:31.000 |
I've got a friend, I were friends for a long, long time. 00:15:39.000 |
I just don't know what happened from becoming a Bible major, right? 00:15:43.000 |
Today, like he has to, he has completely rejected the gospel, the deity of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of salvation. 00:15:55.000 |
And he has completely lost trust in the authority of Scripture. 00:16:05.000 |
And so we are, we are needed to be reminded to be alert and to watch out. 00:16:11.000 |
This means what? Discerning what is pleasing to the Lord. 00:16:20.000 |
And again, what? Biblical wisdom is living a life in obedience to God's word. 00:16:28.000 |
And so what? How do we live in a life that is obedient to God's word, unless we know God's word. 00:16:36.000 |
God's word, which is inerrant. God's word that will never change, right? 00:16:42.000 |
Jesus said that heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never, never pass away. 00:16:51.000 |
And so walking, living in counter-cultural lives, in obedience to Him. 00:16:58.000 |
Not unwise, but wise, not foolish, but understanding the word of the Lord. 00:17:07.000 |
Making the best of the time He has given to us. 00:17:11.000 |
And actually a foolish life is a wasted life. 00:17:14.000 |
There's a great book that I recommend you read by John Piper. 00:17:17.000 |
It's basically titled, "Don't Waste Your Life." 00:17:26.000 |
How will you use your resources, your gifts, your talent, your treasures, your tidings, 00:17:35.000 |
for the glory of God, for the purpose and advancement of His kingdom? 00:17:41.000 |
How? The first thing is this, be a doer of God's word. 00:17:53.000 |
James chapter 1 verse 19 says this, starting from verse 19. 00:17:57.000 |
"Know this, my beloved brothers, let any person be what? 00:18:05.000 |
That's why I think God has given us two ears and one mouth. 00:18:13.000 |
For the anger of man, right? The anger of man. 00:18:22.000 |
When He goes into the temple and He sees God's people, God's people, 00:18:27.000 |
using the religious system to make a profit by selling birds and all animals for sacrificial 00:18:34.000 |
and charging them more than it actually cost them because they have sanctified the animals. 00:18:46.000 |
That's not the kind of Jesus that we think about, right? 00:18:48.000 |
We have to think about Jesus as a nice shepherd petting a little lamb. 00:18:53.000 |
But there's sometimes, right? As a church, as a Christian, we should have some righteous indignation. 00:19:16.000 |
Unrighteousness, but an anger that produces righteousness of God. 00:19:23.000 |
You have to be angry that a government gives Planned Parenthood millions of dollars so they can abort children. 00:19:37.000 |
You know, Peter and I were talking about this, right? 00:19:40.000 |
Last year, there was a whole, you know, people angry about Black Lives Matter movement. 00:19:47.000 |
And yes, does Black Lives Matter? Absolutely. 00:19:52.000 |
Because of the death rates in a lot of the inner cities, right? 00:19:59.000 |
The shootings in Chicago, whether in LA, New York. 00:20:05.000 |
If a society does not care and the life of an unborn child matters, what life matters? 00:20:14.000 |
The most sacred, the most innocent being in the mother's womb. 00:20:19.000 |
If that life doesn't matter, no life matters. 00:20:25.000 |
What moral ground do you have to say Black Lives Matter or Blue Lives Matter or Yellow Lives Matter or White Lives Matter? 00:20:38.000 |
That should get you angry, righteous anger, to move you to some action. 00:20:49.000 |
Who's in a struggle and dilemma of having, you know, debating to have an abortion. 00:20:56.000 |
There are many things I could mention to you what should anger us and righteous. 00:21:01.000 |
But Paul, Pete James says, "Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness." 00:21:06.000 |
And we talked about all the evils of the society today. 00:21:12.000 |
"The implanted Word, which is able to save your souls." 00:21:29.000 |
I'm not talking about, okay, behavioral modification. 00:21:53.000 |
You can't teach them by positive reinforcement. 00:21:57.000 |
Cats do not -- are somehow in their DNA -- are unable to modify their behavior by award and repetitive actions. 00:22:16.000 |
Because I think -- because in one sense dogs are -- what do they call it? 00:22:27.000 |
I come in the house, the cat looks at me like, "Whatever." 00:22:34.000 |
One's a half Chihuahua and a miniature pincher. 00:22:42.000 |
And we have a half -- a swallowed up mix, what do you call it? 00:22:49.000 |
And you know my kids now, I love all my kids. 00:23:01.000 |
And then my oldest daughter, she's 20 years old. 00:23:22.000 |
I just want to be sensitive to the other cultures here. 00:23:30.000 |
That's what I look forward to when I come home, right? 00:23:33.000 |
Open the door, my dogs are right in front of me. 00:23:35.000 |
And they jump, they jump, like they get so excited. 00:23:39.000 |
Those of you who had dogs, dog lovers, come on, say amen. 00:23:45.000 |
Like, you know, I don't know about you, Preeta. 00:23:48.000 |
I don't know when you noticed you were getting old. 00:23:50.000 |
Okay, I noticed I was getting old when I started getting gray hair in my nose. 00:24:02.000 |
Like, it was like five years ago, I started growing, like, gray hair in my nose. 00:24:17.000 |
It shows us all of our shortcomings, our failures, our sins, because the mirror of the Word of God does not lie. 00:24:29.000 |
And James says that if anyone is a hearer of the Word and is not a doer, he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself or herself and goes away at once he gets what he is like. 00:24:45.000 |
if a person hears God's Word and does not do the Word of God, but just thinks that the Word of God is for your information. 00:24:55.000 |
The Word of God is not just for your information. 00:25:02.000 |
But one who just takes the Word of God as information and does not allow it to be what? Motivate, transform your life to be a doer is a person who has spiritual Alzheimer's. 00:25:19.000 |
Forgets. Goes away and forgets what he was like. 00:25:24.000 |
But verse 25, but the one who looks into the law or the perfect law, the law of liberty, the Word of God perseveres. 00:25:35.000 |
Being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts will be what? 00:25:44.000 |
Bless it is doing. See God's Word and only God's Word is able to save your souls because the Word of God, right from the beginning of Genesis to the book of Revelation, it's all about Jesus Christ. 00:26:00.000 |
And the Old Testament was a shadow foretelling of the coming of the Messiah. 00:26:05.000 |
The New Testament is the recording of the life, death and the resurrection and the return of Jesus Christ. 00:26:12.000 |
And that the Word of God points to you and I that the way of salvation is only through the saving grace that we get through faith in Jesus Christ alone. 00:26:26.000 |
And so God's Word able to save our souls and then it is able to empower us for moral reform, not graver modification. 00:26:36.000 |
Then we will hear the word seen as a mirror to our souls. 00:26:40.000 |
We were able to remember it and do what it says. 00:26:43.000 |
That's the incentive and the enabling for divine usefulness are from God. 00:26:51.000 |
God's Word in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word became what? 00:27:02.000 |
God provides what he requires in genuine obedience to God's Word. 00:27:10.000 |
See people who don't experience like salvation. 00:27:16.000 |
And if we look at the Word of God, they think it's slavery. 00:27:28.000 |
We know we understand the Word of God is for our liberty and our blessing on freedom. 00:27:47.000 |
If anyone thinks he's religious, religious, it does not write us. 00:28:04.000 |
James here in verse 26 talks about the town in verse 27. 00:28:08.000 |
He talks about caring and loving those who are orphans and widows. 00:28:18.000 |
And the whole idea that when you read the book of James 2, 00:28:22.000 |
it talks about that like the tongue is like the smallest part of the body, 00:28:28.000 |
It's like a spark of fire that is not controlled with started forest fire. 00:28:35.000 |
It's like a rudder and a boat and a ship is a small heart, 00:28:38.000 |
but as they be, it is the one move and whole ship by smaller rudder. 00:28:48.000 |
that the tongue is only bridled or controlled by the transformation of the 00:29:01.000 |
Be quick to listen and slow to speak because the tongue is a powerful thing. 00:29:09.000 |
It could hurt people whether through gossip or through anger. 00:29:13.000 |
But verse 27, okay, this is that the more important year religion that is pure 00:29:21.000 |
the father is to what visit orphans and widows in their affliction. 00:29:36.000 |
How many of you guys have been to Korea or visited there? 00:29:39.000 |
I was stationed there in Korea from 2008 to 2010. 00:29:43.000 |
Now my wife and my girls, they love Korea because like the shopping is so fun, 00:29:56.000 |
But after two years of Korea, I was like, I'm tapped out. 00:30:07.000 |
But anyhow, the thing that really blew me away in Korea was the number of orphanages. 00:30:16.000 |
I mean, yes, orphanage started in Korea after the Korean War. 00:30:19.000 |
If you know the history of Korean War, how did Korea was totally devastated. 00:30:23.000 |
And so because a lot of young children whose parents died or were separated, 00:30:30.000 |
But today, right, Korea is not a poor country. 00:30:36.000 |
But the number of orphans in Korea was just like -- it was like -- I was blown away. 00:30:43.000 |
So actually our third child -- I'm sorry, our fourth child, our son, he's adopted. 00:30:51.000 |
People don't know he's adopted because he looks Korean. 00:30:54.000 |
You know, and when they say Koreans, we all look alike, so just kidding. 00:31:01.000 |
That can tell you how like, oh, what a great person that I am or my wife and I could be adopting a child. 00:31:09.000 |
Let me show you how I adopted this child or we adopted this child. 00:31:14.000 |
So the thing we did in the military, especially as a chaplain, 00:31:17.000 |
we used to lead what they call a good neighbor program. 00:31:21.000 |
It's a good neighbor program, right, because, you know, 00:31:25.000 |
they wanted to have good relationships with the U.S. military and the community, the Korean community there. 00:31:30.000 |
And one of the things that we did was to take our soldiers to the orphanage to like just spend time with the kids in the orphanage. 00:31:39.000 |
And so there was the orphanage where I was stationed in Daegu. 00:31:51.000 |
I mean, it's like, you know, they had the Korean, the Korean, oh, like, what? 00:31:59.000 |
But in Daegu, there was an orphanage called Love and Hope Orphanage. 00:32:03.000 |
And this orphanage was started by a Christian after the Korean War. 00:32:08.000 |
But eventually, this orphanage only took in kids who were, what do you call it, physically handicapped, severe handicap, severe down syndrome or autism, 00:32:21.000 |
and kids who just couldn't take care of themselves. 00:32:24.000 |
And so what happened was at the same time, we had a friend of mine who was in the military, and his wife were there. 00:32:35.000 |
And they had already adopted a couple of kids before coming to Korea. 00:32:39.000 |
They adopted a kid from Korea, where they were in the U.S. 00:32:43.000 |
So they had a Korean boy, and they adopted a girl from Kenya. 00:32:47.000 |
So she was, you know, African, I guess, right? 00:32:51.000 |
And for whatever reason, they wanted to adopt another child. 00:32:56.000 |
And so, you know, they came out to the orphanage, and they decided to adopt a six-month-old baby girl for one reason, one reason only. 00:33:08.000 |
It's because she was born without a poop sack. 00:33:12.000 |
Some kids are born that way, but there's medical procedure to fix that. 00:33:19.000 |
But the orphanage didn't have enough funds to do that procedure. 00:33:23.000 |
But if you adopt a child, if you're a soldier, military, instantly you get into the old medical coverage in the military, in the best of hospitals. 00:33:34.000 |
And I was a chaplain, and a pastor, and they asked me to come for that official ceremony where they sign the paperwork for the official adoption and everything like that. 00:33:44.000 |
And they asked me to come and say a blessing for that adoption. 00:33:48.000 |
And I was there, and I prayed for that, and it was like I was so convicted. 00:33:56.000 |
Because, see, this couple, his name is -- why do I forget his name now? 00:34:02.000 |
His wife's name is Leah Young, and Steve was his name. 00:34:14.000 |
And here's a two-white couple adopting a Korean kid. 00:34:21.000 |
And I was so convicted, after the prayer time, I went to the car, and I was like, "No, forgive me!" 00:34:32.000 |
I was like, you know, I don't hear God's voice. 00:34:38.000 |
But in my heart, in my mind, it's like God is speaking to me, "So what is your excuse?" 00:34:45.000 |
But at the same time, I didn't know this, but my wife was praying for me that God would change my heart to adopt a child. 00:34:52.000 |
So long story short, we adopted -- his name is Paul Nam. 00:35:00.000 |
And the reason why we named him Christian is because we told our older kids to come up with a name to raise. 00:35:05.000 |
And so, you know, one of the kids' name I think was David, and one was John, 00:35:09.000 |
and one came up with an old Testament prophet named Elijah, you know, trying to be all spiritual. 00:35:17.000 |
So you know what? They're all Christian names, so let's name him Christian. 00:35:25.000 |
When he was adopted at six years old, came to our home, it was difficult. 00:35:37.000 |
He's not mentally handicapped, but he was born with what they call a clipped hand, missing index and middle finger. 00:35:49.000 |
And he was also born with split feet, what they call a bird feet. 00:36:00.000 |
And he was left at our orphanage at the age of less than a week old, for whatever reason. 00:36:13.000 |
And I share this with you because caring for the needy, caring for the poor, caring for the orphans, caring for the sick, 00:36:31.000 |
And the word we receive with genuine faith should bring us what? 00:36:38.000 |
And James said true religion, true religion, not just church activity, religion that is pure, undefiled before God, 00:36:49.000 |
religion that is acceptable in praise of God is to care for the orphans and widows. 00:36:55.000 |
It's what Jesus said in Matthew 25, is to care for the least among us. 00:37:02.000 |
Those who are sick, those in prison, poor, disenfranchised. 00:37:07.000 |
And then James goes on to say in chapter 2, look at James chapter 2, what good is it, my brothers, 00:37:14.000 |
if someone says he has faith but does not have words, can that faith save him? 00:37:21.000 |
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and you say to them, go in peace, 00:37:29.000 |
be warm and fill without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is it? 00:37:38.000 |
James is talking about just basic essentials. 00:37:52.000 |
It is not the government's responsibility to care for the poor. 00:37:59.000 |
And what's happening in the church in America, in the western world, we have advocated that responsibility. 00:38:12.000 |
Just to, just trust me, just to research study, 00:38:15.000 |
but in the 1960s, the war on poverty, when Lyndon B. Johnson, president, declared war on poverty. 00:38:38.000 |
To give our hearts, our hands, our lives to the care of the needy and the poor. 00:38:51.000 |
To be involved in communities in a world with our hands and our lives. 00:38:58.000 |
If money was the answer, Jesus would have printed a lot of money. 00:39:25.000 |
Because we have another session today, right? 00:39:29.000 |
But James says here, chapter 2, verse 19, you believe in God, okay? 00:39:41.000 |
And actually, demons have a better idea of what the trinity, of the doctrine of 00:39:52.000 |
But their belief in God, right, is not a saving belief. 00:40:01.000 |
And that's what, this is what James is saying. 00:40:04.000 |
That true faith is not head knowledge only, but it is what? 00:40:10.000 |
James exposed the nature of faith, that there is a faith that cannot save. 00:40:20.000 |
Faith without the evidence of works or deeds is dead. 00:40:33.000 |
And as a church like this church are committed to search the scriptures to 00:40:46.000 |
I mean, last time I read my Bible, it doesn't say in John 16, "For God so 00:40:52.000 |
But God so loved the world that he gave his son. 00:41:00.000 |
Because see, faith without works is dead because it rests in ideas, not in 00:41:04.000 |
life, dependent on him and that reflects the life of Jesus. 00:41:10.000 |
James is not suggesting that faith plus works equal justification. 00:41:19.000 |
He agrees with Pauline theology that faith alone justifies. 00:41:25.000 |
But a true saving faith, a living faith that by its very nature reflects the 00:41:37.000 |
Delighting to love one another in tangible, in concrete ways. 00:41:44.000 |
In Philippians chapter 2, verse 12 to 13 says, "Therefore, my beloved, as you 00:41:48.000 |
have always obeyed, so not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence." 00:42:02.000 |
That work was complete on the cross, on Jesus when he paid for the salvation 00:42:15.000 |
And the promise is so good here, "For it is God who works in you both to 00:42:26.000 |
I know one of those guys who has seven points. 00:42:40.000 |
Who was I talking to yesterday, the other day? 00:42:55.000 |
I mean, if I don't go see a lawyer, I don't want that person to practice law. 00:43:01.000 |
Practice sounds like, you know, you're like still like not really a lawyer, but you still. 00:43:15.000 |
See, Matthew chapter seven, verse 21, 23 says, Jesus says what? 00:43:30.000 |
How many people that I know that go to camps and commit their lives to say, Lord, Lord. 00:43:36.000 |
But Jesus said, not everyone says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. 00:43:50.000 |
And Jesus says on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy in your name? 00:43:57.000 |
Do we not cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name? 00:44:03.000 |
And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. 00:44:14.000 |
These are external activities that people are doing in the name of God. 00:44:20.000 |
In the day of judgment, they cry out, Lord, Lord. 00:44:34.000 |
What Jesus is saying here, the mere claim to be a follower of Jesus and the preoccupation to external religious activities. 00:44:43.000 |
Do not indicate whether one's relationship with God is real. 00:44:53.000 |
It is genuine heart transformations, mind transformation, by God's grace and his word. 00:45:02.000 |
And that we are people who are beating to God's word. 00:45:06.000 |
And so he goes on to say in verse 24, everyone then who hears these words of mine and what? 00:45:21.000 |
So hearing and doing are two pedals in a bicycle. 00:45:26.000 |
You ever tried to pedal a bicycle with one feet? 00:45:32.000 |
I was a kid and back in the days, the cool bike that I used to have. 00:45:37.000 |
You guys are too young, but people might understand. 00:45:43.000 |
Remember the swing bike with the long banana stick? 00:45:59.000 |
And I hurt my left knee, so I couldn't pedal with my left leg. 00:46:11.000 |
And so hearing and doing are like two pedals in a bicycle. 00:46:23.000 |
So everyone who hears the word of my and does them will be like a wise man who built this house on rock. 00:46:33.000 |
And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on the house. 00:46:38.000 |
But it did not fall because they had been founded on the rock or the truth or the word of God. 00:46:46.000 |
And everyone who hears these words of my and does not do that will be like a what? 00:46:53.000 |
Remember, that's what Ephesians said, but be wise for the times of evil. 00:47:01.000 |
A foolish man who built his house on the sand. 00:47:05.000 |
And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against the house. 00:47:33.000 |
And you want to show to them or protect them. 00:47:48.000 |
And if you grew up in a household where you were special and you were delicate flower 00:47:55.000 |
and you were a snowflake and life happens, you don't know how to handle it. 00:48:04.000 |
And what Jesus is saying is that life has a way of beating down on you. 00:48:13.000 |
Life has a way of beating down on your faith. 00:48:16.000 |
Life has a way of it's like a storm that keeps hitting you and sometimes it will come like a flood and wind blowing on your life. 00:48:26.000 |
But if you build your life on hearing and doing God's word, not just hearing, but doing you're building a house on the rock. 00:48:39.000 |
I don't know if you've seen that happen, but I've seen it because I'm almost, well, I just realized I'm going to be half a century years old. 00:48:54.000 |
And so she just, we just celebrate her 50th anniversary. 00:48:57.000 |
And I said, honey, you still look beautiful for a half a century. 00:49:12.000 |
But you know, in my, in my short time in this life, I've seen people, masses of people who are in church, 00:49:19.000 |
who've heard and been under great teaching and preaching. 00:49:40.000 |
And he's, listen, if you're just hearing and not doing, you have spiritual constipation. 00:50:01.000 |
And when Jesus finished this saying, the cross were astonished at his teaching. 00:50:09.000 |
Because you see religious people think being religious is being just religious. 00:50:29.000 |
I'm not knocking the whole like membership class in church, which is good. 00:50:35.000 |
You have to go in a church that I think, you know, it's encouraged you to go through membership. 00:50:40.000 |
But religious people only fulfill membership requirement. 00:50:52.000 |
God is not just calling us right to just meet the membership requirements that the church 00:51:00.000 |
But God is calling us a life of sacrifice, a life of obedience, a life, you know, a little 00:51:21.000 |
What I mean by risk, I don't mean, you know, reckless risk. 00:51:25.000 |
I'm talking about like God has put something in your heart. 00:51:31.000 |
And you trust the Lord, no matter what the cost might be. 00:51:41.000 |
But see the crowds were astonished because Jesus called for action. 00:51:49.000 |
But he was teaching them as one had authority and that's not as other scribes. 00:51:54.000 |
It's a true follower of Jesus is one who puts into practice being a practitioner of God's 00:52:00.000 |
word and every day in every area of your life, whether school, finance, relationship, life, 00:52:05.000 |
because Jesus and his word is the final authority. 00:52:14.000 |
See, you understand if you say Jesus is Lord, if you say Jesus is Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, 00:52:19.000 |
and you don't put practice of his word, you can't say his Lord. 00:52:27.000 |
Then you can't say his Lord when you're not going to just submit to his authority in his 00:52:38.000 |
To be a doer, be a practitioner and be a proclaimer of God's word. 00:52:45.000 |
Now in the context here, if I could quickly give you context, Paul's writing to Timothy, 00:53:00.000 |
But I think the principles here that we could apply to everyone. 00:53:05.000 |
Second Timothy chapter four, verse one through eight, it says, I charge you in the presence 00:53:10.000 |
of God and of Jesus Christ, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing 00:53:31.000 |
The word actually preach means to proclaim out loud the word of God. 00:53:38.000 |
Okay, just, just, it's a philosophical discussion. 00:53:44.000 |
You know, the difference between preaching and teaching. 00:53:52.000 |
And if you have a pastor like Pastor Peter, who didn't do both, man, that's a blessing. 00:54:14.000 |
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching or sound doctrine. 00:54:21.000 |
But having itchy ears, they will accumulate or accumulate for themselves teachers who suit their own passions. 00:54:33.000 |
Like today in America, you know, it just tells you, right? 00:54:42.000 |
And don't ever, church, don't ever, ever equate the size of a church or the health of the church. 00:54:52.000 |
Because the biggest church in America is a church in Houston. 00:55:00.000 |
Now first of all, I tell people, don't ever trust a preacher who has perm hair and perfect teeth. 00:55:20.000 |
Well, follow me because I make you happy, healthy, and wealthy. 00:55:24.000 |
The last time I read the Bible, Jesus is what? 00:55:31.000 |
But whole Western culture, the whole, you know, developed society. 00:55:42.000 |
Peter, I don't know what you teach your young couples about getting married. 00:55:45.000 |
When I counsel young couples, I tell them, listen, marriage is not for your happiness. 00:55:55.000 |
And if you think that going into marriage and getting married and the goal is happiness, you are setting yourself up for failure. 00:56:12.000 |
But if you produce happiness and not holiness, right, you always end up disappointed. 00:56:19.000 |
Because when two people get married, I promise I'm talking about marriage, right? 00:56:27.000 |
When two people get married, we're both Christians. 00:56:30.000 |
And you want to marry, if you're a Christian, you want to only marry a Christian. 00:56:59.000 |
But even with all that, there's that sinful nature. 00:57:05.000 |
And like my wife and I, man, what marriage does, it forces us. 00:57:18.000 |
But if you're committed to that marriage, oh my goodness. 00:57:23.000 |
And trust me, my wife, she's a great preacher. 00:57:48.000 |
Marriage causes you to look into your selfishness. 00:57:50.000 |
Because, man, I tell you, man, one of the things about being married is it's so easy to fall into selfishness. 00:57:56.000 |
I remember like -- I think you got married before I did, Peter, right? 00:58:07.000 |
Because I didn't mess around when I got married. 00:58:11.000 |
I think my wife just had -- we had two kids and they were like 15 months apart, right? 00:58:26.000 |
And, you know, in the middle of the night, babies do cry. 00:58:50.000 |
But marriage produces -- causes us to write, to deal with our sin and produces holiness, which produces what? 00:59:03.000 |
And Paul says here to preachers and for all of us to be recognizing time because there will be times when people will not endorse on that. 00:59:11.000 |
But for teachers, there will be preachers who preach what people want to hear, not what they need to hear. 00:59:20.000 |
And we'll turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into the myths. 00:59:28.000 |
It's not just for preachers, but it's for all of us. 00:59:31.000 |
As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry of what God has given you. 00:59:43.000 |
God has called us, right, not only to be proclaiming of God's word through our words, but through our lives. 00:59:49.000 |
That is what it means to live a wise life under the authority and under the wisdom of scripture. 00:59:57.000 |
I don't know about you, my prayer, and I hope that our prayers, each of us, prayer will be like the prayer of Paul, in the life of Paul, when he says in verse 7, 01:00:07.000 |
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." 01:00:15.000 |
And like I said, not everyone is called to be a pastor or teacher, but we are all called to what? 01:00:19.000 |
Be proclaimers of God's word through our works and our deeds and our lives. 01:00:26.000 |
In conclusion, turn with me to Psalms 119, verse 1. 01:00:34.000 |
Psalms says, "Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord." 01:00:41.000 |
Verse 2, "Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways." 01:00:55.000 |
"You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently, O that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes, 01:01:03.000 |
then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on your commandments." 01:01:09.000 |
"I will praise you with my upright heart when I learn your righteous rules, I will keep your statutes, do not utterly forsake me." 01:01:20.000 |
This is a great, great verse. Verse 9, "How can a man, a young man, keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word." 01:01:31.000 |
"With my whole heart I seek you, let me not wander from your commandments." 01:01:38.000 |
"I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." 01:01:47.000 |
And so walking by the word, it starts what? With your heart. Examining your heart. 01:01:53.000 |
It starts with realizing that our heart is evil. Our heart, we can't change our heart. 01:01:59.000 |
We can't do it through behavioral modification. 01:02:03.000 |
It's when we cry out to God and give our hearts to him, cry out for salvation, redemption. 01:02:09.000 |
And through that, God changes our heart and by changing our heart, God creates a heart that loves the word, that seeks the word. 01:02:21.000 |
A life of wisdom is a life that walks with his word. 01:02:26.000 |
Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We thank you for this time, Lord, and the truth of your word. 01:02:32.000 |
And Lord, our prayer, like in Psalms 139, "Search us, O God." 01:02:46.000 |
And Lord, see if there's any grievous way in us and lead us, God, in the way of salvation through your son, Jesus Christ. 01:02:57.000 |
Lord, we pray that for all of us who are here this retreat, 01:03:05.000 |
that we would take the time to examine our hearts. 01:03:09.000 |
Examine where our hearts are. Examine where our hearts are hungry or thirsty for the word of God. 01:03:19.000 |
And Lord, we don't want to waste our lives, this short life that we have in this earth. 01:03:25.000 |
But Lord, we want to live a life that is pleasing to you, according to your everlasting word. 01:03:35.000 |
And so Lord, you do that work in us. Draw us to you. 01:03:41.000 |
Help us to see your son through the clarity of your scriptures.