What is true religion? And how do we get it?

<p>What is true religion? And how do we get it?</p>

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Hope Channel

InVerse, 2nd Quarter 2022: James

Sebastien Braxton

Justin Kim

Israel Ramos

Callie Williams

01 It’s a Joy to Fall

Is religion merely a crutch to get you through the afflictions and trials of life?

We'll talk about it on this episode of Inverse.

Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland, welcome to Inverse, a Bible-based conversation on life principles, contemporary issues, and thought-provoking perspectives.

Now, here's your host, Justin Kim, with Inverse.

Hey, everyone, my name is Justin Kim, and you're on Inverse, and in the studio with us, we have Sebastian and Israel and Kelly.

And I love this is the book of James, the letter of James, the book of James.

And we want to invite you to, if this is your first time watching, to open the Bible and to have a commitment to join us in the next 13 weeks in studying the book of James, the letter of James.

And so we want to encourage you, if this is your first episode, stick with us for the next 3 months, from week to week, from episode to episode.

I know we will be, we always are when we study the Word of God, when we're in the verse.

Israel, can you pray for us and then we'll get into the Bible.

Father in heaven, thank you so much for this time that we have to study your word.

We pray your blessing and we ask that you would give this gift to us in Jesus name, amen.

Kelly, we're gonna go to James chapter 1, James chapter 1 verses 1 through 8.

And once again, we wanna really encourage you to get your Bibles out and read with us in the translation of your preference.

We here on this show, we use the new King James Version, but any version is fine.

We also want to encourage you to go to inversebible.org.

There you can download our Bible study guide and follow along with us from day to day, from week to week, from episode to episode.

Let's go to James chapter 1, verses 1 through 8.

It reads, James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." Thanks, Callie.

Sebastian, you know, whenever we read a new book or new letter, it's like super exciting to get into it, but then we're like, we have to calibrate because we don't know where we are.

You know, we know in the New Testament, right?

So we have the Apostle James, who was clearly 1 of the leaders of the church at that time, 1 of the original apostles, and then we find in Acts 15, he's there in the Jerusalem Council.

And so here we see that the church has been going through some levels of persecution.

And this is where he references being scattered abroad, right?

So, they're going through something which references back to Acts chapter 8.

And through this scattering that happened through persecution, James is now sending this letter, which was very common to have a letter delivered and be read in multiple places, right?

And so we can see that James has envisioned a church, you know, post Christ's ascension and post a lot of the probably the conversion of Paul.

And he's trying to encourage the church as it's going through a difficult time.

We know there were different Jameses back then.

We know there was the brother of James and some people, the brother of Jesus.

Again, there were a lot of Jameses out there.

We know this was a leader of the community and he was writing to, well, who was he writing to and what are some of the issues going on here, Israel?

I think the first chapter especially, well, he's writing to the scattered, it says here the 12 tribes that are scattered abroad.

So, he's talking to the Christian church.

He's talking to the Christian church that has been scattered abroad and they've been scattered abroad because of persecution, which is really probably the reason why he's writing to them.

The first chapter is setting for us, is laying down for us a foundation, the philosophical foundation of what I think the rest of the book is gonna be about.

Okay, and What's that philosophical foundation that he's going to talk about for the rest of the book?

I think in this first chapter he's kind of laying down the fact that reality is, our reality might be different from God's reality.

And when we're going through a trial, from a human perspective, our natural inclination is to be upset about it, to try to control it, to try to change it, to try to get out of it.

Yet from God's perspective is, everything is leading to a better end.

And if we can see things like the ultimate conclusion of trials, then we would actually not only endure them, but we would enjoy them.

I think you'll, for those of you encountering James for the first time, or maybe this is your millionth time, you're gonna either love James or you're gonna hate James, right?

And so James is totally different from the rest of the New Testament Pauline writings.

Paul is very like, you know, very scholarly in a sense, kind of verbose, sorry to say, but you don't know where to put the comma or the semi-colon or whatever.

James is just like fortune cookie after fortune cookie, right?

It's just like this proverb after proverb after proverb.

And there's, when I read it, I like it because it's practical.

But at the same time, like, it's not connected.

So I appreciate that it's God's reality in the midst of our reality, yeah?

And I think in verse, what, 2, my brethren counted all joy when you fall into various trials.

There's some negativity, suffering, persecution going on.

Sikhu Daco

Jonathan Walter

02 All is Not as it Seems

Like, how do we stop thinking about that?

And then, if thinking about that, how do we stop thinking about that?

We can get into these mind circles, and how do we get out of it, on this episode of Inverse.

How many times have you had that thought of something so horrible, something so evil, it pops in your mind.

And if that happens over and over, how do you stop?

On this episode, we'll be looking at the anatomy of temptation in the book of James.

Here in the studio is myself, Justin Kim, Jonathan, and Siku and Kelly.

I got to go through so many of you guys, I'm gonna get a track of who's who's on the episode.

And we're so excited because we're on our second episode on the book of James.

We want to encourage you to go to inversebible.org, download the Bible study guide.

We also have an app, we also have the website, we also have books, we have all these resources.

We wanna get you involved in this very practical but real religion book on the book of James.

And we've covered last week on a lot of, well, we'll have a word of prayer, and then we'll read the text, and we'll do a little bit of review.

Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word together.

I ask that Your Holy Spirit would illuminate our minds, would guide us where you want us to be guided, and I pray that we would see what you want us to see.

Thank you for your love, and we offer this prayer in Jesus' name, amen.

Jonathan, we're in chapter 1 of James, and if you could read verses 9 through 18, please.

Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower on the field he will pass away.

For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass, its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes.

So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.

Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

Let no 1 say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.

But each 1 is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

Then when desire is conceived it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning, or of his own will he brought us forth, of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

Thanks for reading that New King James version there.

It's been a while since you've been around and you've had some life changes.

And we're talking about conception here on a different round.

And not desire or sin or some of these negative things here that we found that Jonathan just read.

In chapter 1, what are some of your favorite parts in chapter 1?

Just so we're going to go in easy, and we're going to go into the text afterwards.

So going in easy, I think previous episode talked about trials.

And it's kind of neat that in James 1, he's talking about trials and temptations.

And sometimes we kind of merge the 2, but they're different experiences, you know?

And so James is talking about very practical things, things that relate to our everyday life.

It's religion, it's Christianity brought down to earth to your everyday experience.

And so it's a very hands-on chapter that we can relate to.

Yeah, and we said last episode, we either hate it or love this book.

Pauline letters are very systematic and very ABCD, and then you just organize this beautiful masterpiece and you can just analyze.

Here, James goes from A to like zeta, and then like new, and then the letter 5, right?

So it's like, and it's all practical, the number 5, the letter.

So we did talk about in verses 2 through 8, trials, asking for wisdom.

And then in verse 9 is gonna be talking about the rich and the poor, and then they were going to go into temptation, right?

So help, Jonathan, in some for us speak, what's going into the flow of James's mind from 1 section to another?

The Bible says, He is a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways.

And then verse 9, let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation and that section that you read.

Oh, okay You're the master in James No, I think just the overarching thing of this of 9 through 18 is just when your our perceptions lie to us Okay, so when things it's like the way the title of it right all is not as it seems Mm-hmm, so like the lowly brother like oh you think you're really low and everything.

No, no, you can glory in your exaltation.

And you're rich, you'll pass away like a flower.

Wait, but I thought the rich were like established.

And then talking about temptation, yeah, God doesn't tempt you.

And they're like, wait, but I thought, yeah, every good thing comes from God.

Like, it's just, we, your perceptions are not always correct.

Like to go with what she was saying about the perceptions from verse 7.

I know it's not in the section we're talking about, but it says, for let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, for he's a double-minded man, unstable in his ways.

And like you would think, you know, there's suppositions that we make about, oh, if I ask God, I'm just going to get it.

It's like, but there's a way that that's not faith.

Or and it's like, don't suppose that that's the case.

03 The Importance of the Outward Man

The Bible talks about what religion could look like, what it should not look like, and what true religion is.

We'll find out in this episode of Inverse.

Bible describes there are the outward components of us and then the inward components of us, and sometimes there are interesting dynamics between those 2.

My name is Justin Kim and you're on Inverse.

In this studio we have Jonathan Israel and Siku and we're in the book of James.

We want to encourage you to go to inversebible.org and download our Bible study guide and we have got books, we got the apps, we got the websites, we got the social media, got the whole shebang there.

Go there and visit and spend a lot of time there and then also watch us while you're there.

We are in the book of James chapter, we're still in chapter 1, yeah, but we're taking it verse by verse and we're looking at different aspects of trial and temptation and some of these wonderful happy things that we have in our lives.

We're going to go to chapter 1 verse 19 to 2 twenty-seven and see if you can pray for us before we scripture.

We're thankful for the study of your Word.

We're thankful especially for the gift of the Holy Spirit who can illumine our minds and help us to understand what we read.

And we ask for your Spirit now to be our teacher.

Help us not to say anything that is contrary to what you intend from scripture.

And may we be blessed as we study your word right now.

Israel, can you read from verse 19 onwards?

It says, So then my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this 1 will be blessed in all that he does.

If anyone among you thinks that he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, sorry, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, This one's religion is useless.

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit the orphans and the widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." we're really looking at the book of James and how it's so well adapted for this generation.

Very practical, very real, talks about the same injustices that are going on today, some of the disconnections that are happening today, and here in chapter 1 we've covered a lot of stuff already.

Jonathan, what are some highlights that you remember from chapter 1?

I think chapter 1 covers a lot of ground already and James really points out various situations that the church was struggling with.

He talks about the rich and the poor, you know, kind of like, and that's a topic that's going to come up again in the book.

But I'm also talking about trials and temptations.

What's the difference between trials and temptations?

How does God, you know, play into all this?

And we saw that, you know, trials is something that God sends for the purpose of showing us what is in our hearts and for giving us a deepening relationship with Him.

At the same time, Satan takes the opportunity to bring in temptations, and those temptations, they resonate with some of our sinful desires that if left unchecked, lead us to sin and death.

But by God's grace, of course, there is a remedy and help to be able to resist.

Continuing, and then it picks up after what Jonathan just said in verse 19, "'So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.'" Help connect me on that.

It is not, it's not, it doesn't kind of make sense in a sense, in a sense, in a sense.

So, hey, overcome temptation, sin, you know, conception, all that stuff.

So the conclusion is to be slow to wrath.

Well, if you keep on reading it says, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

And so if you, the whole point that he's been making is, from the very beginning is, our need to be righteous like God.

You know, in God there's no variableness of turning.

And so because in God, there is no variableness of turning, then you yourself should not be variable.

You should not be wishy-washy tossed by the waves of the sea, right?

So the whole point where He's leading us towards is this path towards what it means to be like Christ, godliness, which is real religion.

And so He's saying, this is the ultimate goal, and by the way, you cannot obtain this ultimate goal if you are not slow to speak and slow to wrath, because if you are these things, by the way, these are impossible roadblocks towards righteousness, the righteousness of God.

And so that's, I think, now the foundation that he's laying.

Ultimately, we're going towards godliness.

You cannot obtain godliness if you are not slow to wrath.

And then the trial of your patience, you know, the trial of your faith works patience.

So there's all these connections that you can actually see between who God is and who we ought to become if we're gonna be like him.

So I guess it is a temptation that in the midst of your trial, in the midst of your temptation to react with wrath, to react with impatience.

Yeah, just to like, basically to just go with your emotions and instead of listening and learning from God and gaining self-control through the Spirit of how you react to whatever comes your way.

And something I thought of with the not being swift to hear.

We should take advice quickly, but then being slow to speak.

And I wasn't on the first episode, but you know, Wade talks about let patience have its perfect work in verse 4.

That when God is bringing us through trials, it's because He's trying to work out patience in us.

And patience, the virtue of patience is it allows you the time to reflect and produce the words that are going to be actually beneficial in a situation, the reaction that's going to be helpful.

But if we're quick to speak, even the trials that God is trying to work out in our lives, even the temptations that we experience, we don't get to benefit from what God is trying to do in us before we react, right?

So like what you're saying, you're going through a trial or a temptation and you know, you're angry, you get angry real quick, or you're like, you're quick to put a person in their right place, you know, et cetera.

And then God doesn't get to work out the character development that he's trying to do in your life to make you righteous like Him, because you're so quick to respond.

And He's saying, so be, take it easy, chill.

And then He's going to work out something in you.

I would say like a lot of James also, it's like, you should do this and then do this and then this.

And sometimes it's almost like, oh, this is like, it's almost like the 10 Commandments, like do this, do this, do this.

But we all know that the overlay on the book of James is whatever the scripture tells us to do, These are also promises that God has worked throughout.

I remember, you know, this verse in the same, where my children, my sons have a wonderful ability to tease out the wrath of their father, right?

And so I remember 1 time there was an instance where I was not the best father that I should be and I just, you know, it was wrath, you know, multiplied by 2 and then squared and then cubed after that.

And then I come back and I was like, okay, well now it's time for my devotions, right?

I'm like, you don't understand the circumstance.

04 The Sin of Treating Someone Well

Well, let's see what the Bible has to say on this episode of Inverse.

Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland, welcome to Inverse, a Bible-based conversation on life principles, contemporary issues, and thought provoking perspectives.

Now here's your host, Justin Kim, with Inverse.

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Series

InVerse, 2nd Quarter 2022: James

03 The Importance of the Outward Man

Transcript

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Parent Series

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Recorded

Parts

01 It’s a Joy to Fall

27m

02 All is Not as it Seems

27m

03 The Importance of the Outward Man

27m

04 The Sin of Treating Someone Well

27m

05 We’re Justified by Works

26m

06 The Most Dangerous Part of the Body

27m

07 Knowing is Not Enough

26m

08 The Importance of What You Want

26m

09 You’re Not Who You Think You Are

26m

10 The Evils of Riches

26m

11 Wait for It

26m

12 An Abrupt Ending

27m

13 Faith That Works

26m

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