Pure Religion - Leland Zehr

Good morning and greetings in the name of Jesus to

each of you. Glad that you're here. Welcome the visitors

to fill in for some of our home folks that

are missing. A couple of things in relation here to

the announcements I thought maybe i'd mentioned, looks like there's

a lot of activity this week on the on the

birthdays and anniversaries, So congratulations and God bless you all

in those milestones. The one thing I was going to

say in regards to the meetings next next Sunday evening planning,

as Jason said, to read the through the standard booklet,

and we try to do that once in a while.

At it's been two years. I don't know if it

seems like it's been more often or longer, but it's

been about two years ago, so we wanted to do that,

and I would just say we intentionally plan that on

a Sunday evening to try to make it as suitable

as possible for as many as possible. So if you

can keep that in mind, that would be good. If

you're a member, it's part of or responsibility and then

an assignment for you men, especially heads at the home,

but a youth would be welcome as well. For whenever

we have the men's meeting, which might be the twenty

third or somewhere in there, one thing you can just

be thinking about between now and then that it would

maybe help the meeting go well, is what is your vision,

especially in relation to the church. Like you to think

about that and try to try to formulate whether you

say it all or not, but just it's a good

exercise once in a while in our businesses and our

homes and our churches to just stop and think about

where am I headed and what did I want and

have I even I have a plan as far as

a spiritual vision. Maybe more on that later, but that's

probably enough for now. We're gathered here this morning. I

was blessed with different things that were shared. Thank you

speakers that did your part. Different things dovetailed well with

some of my thoughts this morning. And we're a little

religious group of people gathered here this morning to worship God,

to learn to encourage one another. I'm told that there's

thousands of religions in the world, different religions. Some estimate

four thousand or more. Others have estimated up to ten

thousand religions, and I suppose it depends how specific you

get on what an individual religion is qualifies for that.

But out of all these thousands of religions, they all

pretty much fall under five main religions, and those are Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism,

and Judaism. And I suppose we could add the sixth

the religion which is seems fairly prevalent today, and that's atheism.

An atheist the belief an effort to eliminate God, to

eliminate religion. The fool has said, I mean the Bible

says the fool has said in his heart there is

no God. But that doesn't stop us from saying that sometimes. Now,

all of us, it seems to me that most people

are born with or created with, an inner need, a

longing for worshiping and believing in something bigger than ourselves.

Religion can be briefly summed up or defined as a

specific belief system about God or gods and expressed through

a code of conduct, ethics, forms of worship, and rituals,

and religion touches on all aspects of our lives, the social, ethical, ceremonial,

and what we believe about a greater Deity which we

call God. Now, three out of these five that I

mentioned all come root from Abraham, the God of Abra

and his God, Christianity and Islam. And I'm not going

to go into all of these, but Judaism is pretty

much centered on the Mosaic Covenant, the first five chapters

of the Bible. The Judaism does not believe that Jesus

is the Messiah and that he is the Son of God.

In a way, it's very similar to Christianity, but that's

a really big difference. Islam began with a prophet named

Mohammed several hundred years ago, and he says that an

angel came to him and gave him a message and

he wrote that down over the series of years in

the Qoran. And so that is the Islam's book. And

then Buddhism and Hinduism is predominant predominantly Indian religions. Now,

the question I want to ask you is what kind

of religion are you a part of? What's your religion?

I think most of us here would identify with Christianity

some form or another. Followers of God, the God of

the Bible, followers of Jesus Christ. We believe that the

Bible is the word of God, that it is both

his love letter to humanity and his warning to humanity

to give us direction. But I would like you to

I'd like to ask you another question. This is all

leading up to my message here in a little bit,

But if you were to to try to describe or

start a religion or your own church that was what

what would be some of the most important fundamental aspects

that you would you would feel you would want to

have a part of that. What would what would make

a perfect, pure religion? Another question, what does the Bible

say about religion? Well, in my studies, I only came

across three main religions in the Bible. Now, I know

I'm using the King James version, and I'm aware that

the King James uses words that are different than other translations.

But one of the religions that the Bible talks about

in the King James is the Jewish religion. Another one

it's kind of a sub off of that Paul talked about.

The Pharisees were the straightest sect of their religion, which

was the Jewish religion, so they were had it dialed in.

And then the two other religions are found in James one,

and that's where I want to go this morning, to

James chapter one and the two religions he talks about.

There is vain religion and pure religion. And so the

question I have for us this morning is for you

and for me is what kind of religion do I have?

And I'm not talking about names and denominations, but you

as a person. A personal religion that affects you and

what you believe and how you act and what you

do on a day to day basis pure religion. That's

the title of the message this morning. I'm going to

read James the full book I mean, excuse me, the

full chapter of James one, but I'm going to be

focusing mainly on the last two verses of this chapter. Then,

is where I want to spend most of our time.

But James one is referred to often as the proverb

of the New Testament, and we were studying proverbs in

Sunday School, and there's a lot of I'm not going

to try to comment on everything, but I thought I

just read this book, this chapter because it is so

if you don't hear what I say, and you just

listen to James one as we read it this morning

very carefully. You will have plenty of food for thought

to take home through your week if you really try

to absorb what he's saying. In chapter one, James, a

servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to

the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting, my brethren,

count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations,

knowing this that the trying of your faith work with patients.

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may

be perfect and entire, wanting nothing if any of you

lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to

all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be

given him. But let him ask in faith nothing wavering,

For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea,

driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that

man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he

is exalted but the rich, and that he is made low,

because as the flower of the grass, he shall pass away.

For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat,

but it withereth the grass and the flower thereof falleth,

and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth. So

also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he

is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which

the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let

no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted

of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither

tempteth heat any man. But every man is tempted when

he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed

when lust. Then, when lust hath conceived it, bringeth forth sin,

and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death, not air.

My beloved brethren, Every good gift and every perfect gift

is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights,

with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning of

his own will begat he us with the word of truth,

that we should be a kind of first fruits of

his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be

swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, For

the wrath the man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and

receiveth meekness, the ungrafted Word, which is able to save

your souls. But be doers of the Word, and not hears,

only deceiving your own selves. But if any be a

hear of the Word and not a doer, he is

likened to a man beholding his natural face in a glass,

For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway,

forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh

into the perfect love of liberty and can con tinueth therein,

he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of

the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

If any man among you seem to be religious, and

bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this

man's religion is vain, pure religion, and undefiled before God

and the fatherless before God. Is this to visit the

fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep

himself unspotted from the world. Just a few things to

highlight here before. In the first part, of the chapter

that are just standalone thoughts, that are just little nuggets

of truth that you should try to hang on to.

And the one is that wisdom comes from God, true

wisdom comes from God, and that we need to ask.

He says, if you want wisdom, you need to ask,

and we need to do that every day, to ask

God for wisdom. The wrath of man work with not

the righteousness of God. That's just another one. It's just

it's just a fact that when we get mad and

when we get angry, it just almost never produces righteousness.

The wrath of man, and a double minded man is

unstable in all his ways. When we're indecisive, we're always

on the fence where we go over here and then

we go over there. We're unstable in all our ways.

It affects all areas of life. And then another one here,

just the trials and temptations that come. Brother Earl talked

about that with job and God put a hedge of

protection about him, and that he mentioned something about that

the only one that can really get through that hedge

is us, and that is so true. That's what he

says here in essence, that trials and temptations are an opportunity,

and we very seldom think about them as that when

we're in the middle of them. They're an annoyance. We

hate them, we wish they'd go away, We pray to

God to remove them. They're nothing we enjoy. But he

says that they either make us stronger. He that will endure,

shall become stronger and receive a crown of life at

the end, or we fall away. That's the two options

when we're tempted. Temptation proves us. It shows who we are,

and so that is part of temptation. Okay, let's move

forward here into what I want to talk about this

morning a little bit more. Is pure religion found in

verse twenty seven at the very end of the chapter.

And I'd like to look at three points here that

James ties together as attributes are part of this pure

religion that he's talking about, a religion or faith that

is pure. And the one i'll just i'll call it

number point number one is controlled speech, a bridal tongue.

Number two I have caring for the vulnerable, and point

three keeping ourselves unspotted from the world. And those are

the three things that he mentions in verse twenty six.

Through twenty seven. And of course these points aren't the

only three points of pure religion, but James is highlighting

these as three things that are marked, that are an

ear mark and say something about a person's religion. He

starts in verse nine a little bit on the subject

beloved brethren, be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow

to wrath, and then he goes on from there verse

twenty six. He makes a very strong statement, if you

really think about it. He says, if a person, if I,

if you seems to be religious, thinks that we're religious,

tries to be religious, but does not bridle our own tongue,

does not control our own speech. It says, two things happen.

Two things are a fact that we deceive our own selves,

and our religion is vain, And that word vain means worthless.

Pretty strong bleak thought. To spend all our life doing

a religion and doing these things only to find out

that it's all worthless, did us no good? Just as

well stayed home. Why is speech one of the things

of a part of pure religion? And I don't claim

to understand all this, but I'll just give a few

things that I think I've experienced or stood out to me.

Speech number one is often the real indicator. Now we

can fake it and say things to sound good, but speech,

often when we get comfortable, is the real indicator of

what is inside it is. It's I don't know if

you've ever had it, where you just were you surprise

yourself with what came out of your mouth in the

heat of the moment, just like boom it. I said

that thing to my wife or to the person, and

we back up and we try to say we didn't

mean it. We don't know why we said it. Well,

the reason we said it was because it was inside.

We might not have known it, or we might have

denied it. But it's just a it's just a fact.

It came out because it was inside it. So it

reveals us. And it doesn't really matter what image what

we're trying to present to the world. We can be

a conservative person that has that image and value a

lot of good things and plain things and godly things,

or we can be kind of maybe with another group

that wants to be anything but that is enlightened and

spiritual and not conservative, free from religious externals. But either

one of those, often our words and the speech that

come out betray us, and they show who we really

are with time they test us. It's kind of like

a dipstick under the hood of a car, way down

in the dark interior of that car's engine is you

pull that dipstick out of that little black hole, and

on the end of that dipstick, there's a little bit

of the oil that comes out. And if it's black

in city and grit in it, the oil needs change.

The hood doesn't need waxed again, the car doesn't need washed,

The oil needs changed. Another reason our speech is important

is it not only indicates what is down inside of

our hearts. It impacts others. And this is one of

the things that makes another thing that makes speech so important,

it's influential. You have just an example. We have elections

going on and they are just talking and talking and talking.

Why are they doing that. They are trying to affect

other people, their decisions, what they think. The words that

people say and that we say affect other people one

way or the other. And Proverbs says life and death

are in the power of the tongue. Our tongue and

words are up building or they pull down. James three. Now,

as we go on here. Some of these points are

if you read the whole book of James, you'll see

him circle back and come back to some of these things.

And I'm going to read a little bit out of

James three. I'd just like to read the whole chapter,

but I don't think I will for the sake of time.

But just a few verses here that he really hits

on this subject. Verse two, Chapter three, And many things

we offend all if any man offend not in word,

the same as a perfect man, and able also to

bridle the whole body. So there we again see a

very high mark for a man that can. James is

saying that can control his tongue, and then he goes

on to talk about horses that are controlled by bits,

and ships that are controlled by rudders, and how a

tongue is like a fire in the world of iniquity,

and it's you can tame beasts, and you can tame

a lot of things, but a tongue can no man tame.

And then it says that a man can bless God,

and therewith curse our brother. Out of the same mouth

proceedeth blessings and cursings my brother. And these things ought

not so to be talks about a fountain that brings

forth sweet water and bitter, No, it brings one or

the other. Does a fig tree bring two different kinds

of fruit? No? And then I just want to read

the last few verses. I think this is important. On this,

who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you,

let him show out of a good conversation his works

with meekness and wisdom. But if you have bitter, envying

and strife in your hearts down in that dark hole,

glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom

descendeth not from above, but is earthly central, devilish. For

where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every

evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is

first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full

of mercy, good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy, And the

fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that

make peace. Now, there's all kinds of ways to use

our tongue, right and wrong. But if our speech here

is through our complaining, murmuring, criticizing, whatever it might be,

the verbal abuse of our children, wife, spouse, If our

speech is causing strife and confusion. If the trail behind

our words as we go through life creates strife and confusion,

he says that this wisdom is not from above, it's

earthly central, devilish. And I think that's just one of the

things that we need to kind of think about sometimes,

and it bothers me sometimes, is that I feel like

the words that want to come out of my mouth

are just not upbuilding. They're fussy, they're complaining, they're critical,

and I need to just face that and realize that,

you know, those are not thoughts, those are not it's

not the wisdom of God. Rather, it's the wisdom of

the devil. It's devilish, you know. One of the hardest

things to get a hold of in life, or maybe

in church life and other areas of life can be Yeah,

especially in religious circles. I would say, is destructive speech

that's disguised as spiritual concerns. And we can be concerned

and talk to a lot of talking, and at this

the very same time things are just being torn down.

There's always problems, But I would just like to say

that problems in the home, problems in the church, problems

with in the work site. Never justify a Christian to

have a critical spirit, A critical attitude, a critical spirit

are not proper means methods of helping and addressing. Do

hard things need to be said? Yes? Do? Does correction

need to happen? Yes, that it does. But usually I

would just say often the spirit with which we say things,

often maybe is even more important than the words that

we say. If a person has a pure heart, he

can bumble or she can bumble around with the words

and not get them right. But often the spirit of

that person comes across and it's okay, it's you don't

say it right, you don't get it exactly about you

meant even. But a spirit often is felt and connected

with in another person, both good and bad. And so

I think just to measure our words here, that the

fruit of the righteousness, the wisdom that is from above,

the speech that is from above, is first pure, it's peaceable,

it's gentle, it's easy to be entreated and merciful and

as good fruits. And the way we get fruit, the

way we get peace, is that we sow peace. The

fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that

make peace. A controlled tongue is one of the markers

of pure religion. OK. Point two, I want to move

on caring for the vulnerable. And this is probably as

I thought about it. I think maybe the thought that

led me to this originally, it's been on my mind

for some time, is especially the widows, but also needy

people helpless. And he says in verse twenty seven, one

of the things that pure religion is to visit the

fatherless and the widows and their affliction. And why is

this a trait of pure religion? Well, I don't know

all the reasons. But today many of our relationships in

the world are transactional. They are about what we mutually

or one of us can get out of the relationship.

That is true in business life, for sure, that's true

in friendships, even marriages live in situations. If what I

get out of the relationship is enough good on my

enough return on my investment, then I'll do it, and

if not, I won't bother. It's an exchange of benefits

and services. We can do this without even thinking. And

I was thinking about this this last week and it

hit me sometime. I don't know why I was doing

it after I was doing it, but I stopped in

at a place of business to see a man that

I've been thinking of I need to connect with for

a while. And I went up to the calendar and

he wasn't there, And the man at the counter said, well,

I'm not sure where he's that he might be in

the back out in some building. So I went out

looking for him, and I walked past other employees and

back through a building and finally found the man. And

I didn't stop and visit with any of the other

people along the way. I might have said hi, but

I wanted to see that man for a reason. There's

lots of men around there. But this man wasn't especially

a good looking man or or exceptionally nice. He's not

necessarily someone that i'd probably seek out as a personal

friend and have all those qualities. But he was a businessman,

and he's a customer of mine, and I've worked for

him many for many years, and we have a fine relationship.

But it's it was important and is important for me

to maintain a certain amount of positive relationship with with

him because he's my customer, and because he's my customer,

that translates into money and so, and I don't know

that that's bad. I think that there's a certain amount

of that that you we we do in life. But

I think the thing that can kind of sneak up

on us, and I've wondered about that the way that

we the way that we talk to a customer that

we really value, they really give us a lot of work,

whatever that is, and we we were just like yes, sir,

and we're kind and we just take care of them.

We don't want to upset them. Are we that kind?

And are we that polite? And are we that caring

to the people in my church and those around me

that I get no monetary benefit from. It's just a

brother in the church. Maybe maybe they don't. I don't

get anything out of it in a physical or way. Well,

the love that Jesus had for people is not based

on this kind of transactional relationship. It was a sacrificial

love and it was a pure love, and it was looked,

it was not looked. It was not a relationship or

or a care that was looking for anything in return

for him. And I think sacrifice, if just one word,

like a sacrificial love, It is so foreign in especially

our world and even in our own close home. Often

we lose sight of that the world is to actually

like nothing in it for me, and I'm going to

just continue this relationship and serve that person or stay

with this marriage or whatever it might be. Is very

maybe not even we're aware that that's happening, but it's

just very real. In our society. We are very selfish

by nature. We want something out. We don't mind working

hard and serving and investing, but there needs to be

a return at some point otherwise it just doesn't feel

like it's worth it. But when we talk about the fatherless,

which are orphan children, and the widows, those that have

lost their husbands, they are often very vulnerable people. They

have lost their protector, they have lost their provider, they

have lost their security, they've lost their companion. And if

a widow or an orphan, especially in some places, if

no one steps up to fill that role or to

bridge that gap, they become very vulnerable in all kinds

of ways, physically, financially, sexually, and and they're they're just little, scared,

unprotected people in a very wicked world. And there's many

people just willing and watching and waiting to exploit needy people.

And so one of the tests I think that not

only James teaches, but Jesus taught was that a test

of our personal love for God that we say that

we have is often measured by the kindnesses and the

help that we do for people that cannot repay us back,

at least in in the physical sense and materially. You know,

any selfish person can do things to try to look good,

or if there's some kind of compensation Luke six thirty two.

Jesus said this, for if you love them which love you,

what thank have ye for? Sinners also love those that

love them. And if you do good to them that

do good to you, what thank have you for? Sinners

also do even the same. And if you lend to

them whom you hope to receive, what thank have ye for?

Sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much. Again,

But love your enemies and do good, and lend, hoping

for nothing again. But your reward shall be great, and

you shall be the children of the Highest. For He

is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. And

in Matthew twenty five, Jesus talks about as He's done

it under the least of these, you've done it unto

me and In John fifteen thirteen, he says greater love

hath no man than this, that a man laid down

his life for his friends. And I think those are

just the principles that James is trying to bring out

here about pure religion and uncontaminated ulterior motives. You know,

there's lots of world charities foundations of people that aren't

even Christians, don't pretend to be Christians, but they want

to do good deeds, and there can be a lot

of public fanfare and selfish motives and promoting and front

page pictures and articles about this, a lot of self

glory and how much people have given. But the true

test of godliness and pure religion is a sacrificial love

for the needy people around us. So we have a

few sisters here that either are or were widows, and

we have children here that have been left fatherless. And

I don't know what it's like to be a widow,

I can imagine, but I am thankful that the widows

are here, I really am, And I'm thankful for other

people that are older. Maybe feel like you don't have

a lot to offer in some ways. I've heard that

married or single, but I think that there's a real

blessing that people like you can contribute to the church

and to friends that some of us aren't gifted at,

and it's a blessing. There's many more blessings in life

than physical monetary things that we often measure things by

this word widow actually means is fine to interesting. It's

tied to another word if I'm saying, all right, but

the idea of a gap or a vacancy in a person,

and it's a need, it's it's when there's a gap

between me and where I'm at. Maybe the picture of

us as sinners in God and then Jesus filled that gap.

That is a little bit the connotation tied with a widow,

a person that just has this huge void in their life,

a gap they cannot they cannot reach and fill by themselves.

And so I think by that definition there's many other

people that qualify in that. That can be elderly people,

single people that aren't necessarily widows as we think of it,

that are just needy that cannot make it by themselves

without help. And I really think, even though I don't

I'm not trying to say that we do a perfect job,

but I think in our groups as a whole, compared

to many people in the world, there's at least an

effort made to care. This word visit actually means to

meet the needs of and so when there's needs, it's

not just go visit them and say hi, but it's

to try to make sure that their needs are being met.

And maybe I'm sure there's times where that has been

we have failed in that, and I think it's something

that we should take serious and try to make sure

we are meeting the needs of each other. God cares

a lot for the fatherless and the widows, and I

would like to just read you a few verses. I'd

like more. But in the Old Testament he instructed and

he warned on caring for people that are vulnerable like

this and Exodus twenty two twenty two he said, you

shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. Deuteronomy twenty

four a few verses. When they'll cut us down the

harvest in the field, and has forgotten a sheaf in

the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it.

It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and

for the widow, that the Lord thy God may bless

thee in all the work of thine hands. And when

the beat, and when they'll beat us the olive tree

the same thing, you leave some there. And when they'll

gather the grapes, you leave some there for the fatherless

and the widows to be able to come along and

get some of that and eat. Provide for them. Few

chapters later, Deuteronomy twenty six twelve, when thou hast made

an end of tithing, all the tithes of thine increase

the third year, which is the year of tithing, and

has given it under the levite, the stranger, the fatherless,

and the widow, that they may eat within the gates

and be filled, not just halfway filled, but to be

fully taken care of. And thou shalt say to the Lord,

I have brought away the hallowed things of my house,

and also have given unto them the levite, and under

the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all

the man when she commanded me, and Deuteronomy twenty seven,

cursed be he that perverted the judgment of the stranger,

the fatherless, and the widow. And all the people shall

say amen. And that's a warning to those that would

not judge them and take care of them. And then

and Isaiah says, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve

the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Jesus

talked about the widow with two mites compared to the

rich men, and he pointed that out. He made he

made a point of it that that lady that just

walked through the line and put her two little mights

into this has given way more than the others. And

Jesus is Jesus, the son of God, was had an

eye on that widow, and he was paying attention. Set

on Timothy five three says, honor widows, that are widows indeed.

And the last point is keeping unspotted from the world.

And I think that just maybe to keep this clear

in our mind, we throw this world, this word world

around a lot. You're supposed to not love the world,

but Jesus said he so loved the world that he

gave his only begotten son. But I think that the

message that just comes all the way through the Bible,

from the Old Testament to the New into Revelation, is

that the kingdom of the world is an enmity with God.

Like there is two kingdoms. There is God and Satan.

There is a kingdom of Heaven, and there's a kingdom

of earth. We live on the earth, but we must

be a part of the kingdom of God. And God

compares these two as his competition, as the harlot. And

it's not a pretty picture of adultery. And when people

try to mix and cross over, it's one of the

things that angers got and he's jealous. And I think

if I'm going to get that picture in our mind,

it's as as young men and wives, we would we

were offended and jealous if we would catch our spouse

flirting around with someone else. That is there's there's no

room for that. That's not fun and games. That is

something you don't do. And I think that gets blurred

a little bit, maybe because the world it's hard to

almost identify with exactly where we're getting, you know, the

things that we enjoy in the world, and the food

and the pleasures, and some of that's not sinful. And yeah,

our heart's gonna get wrapped up in that. Isaiah twenty

one one says, how is the faithful city becoming harlaned?

He's talking about his people, the children of Israel, it

was full of judgment, righteousness lodged in it, But now murderers,

thy silver has become dross, thy wine mixed with water.

Ezekiel six 's nine says, it's part of the verses.

I'm broken with their horrish heart which have departed from me,

and with their eyes which go aharring after their idols.

And James four. Back to James here it says, ye,

adulters and adulteresses know you not that friendship with the

world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a

friend of the world is the enemy of God. And

then first John says, love not the world, neither of

the things that are in the world. If any man

love the world, the love of the father's not in him,

and talks about the lust of the flesh, lust of

the eyes, and the pride of life. If we're going

to have pure religion, we're gonna have to keep ourselves

unspotted from the world, and that is a constant pressure

in life and m One of the problems, or one

of the things about spots are is that they're very

small and almost unnoticeable. Sometimes people get spots cancer as

spots spots on their lungs, spots on their skin, seemingly

very insignificant, but those are those are the first marks

of destruction and death. And he's just saying, here, just

watch out for those spots. And I can't point them

all out in your life, but they're all over the place,

and they try to attach themselves to us all the time.

The spots of the world just get their foot into

our life. And we need to be honest with ourselves

because sometimes it isn't the thing that is so bad,

but it's our heart towards that thing and the way

that we're using it. Christians or a church that is

straddling the fence with God in the world, end up

in the world. The world doesn't end up in the church.

God isn't interested in two times in Christians, unfaithful is

an unfaithful bride. I'll just mention a few things that

I thought of that could be current days. Spots that

are values and influence from the world. And all of

these aren't just again sin like murder, but there are

spots that come into the Christian's life, and one of

them would be politics. And of course right now it's

just in a raging the world of the presidential election,

and I find politics interesting, so I'm vulnerable to this.

I find it too interesting, probably, But I've watched with

concern or interest of people that are kind of getting involved,

people that grew up like me and you and maybe

are starting to vote and all of that whole thing,

And that probably needs a message of itself, I'm sure.

But I would just say that again, when the Christian

and the Church try to fix the world through politics,

the church becomes the world and not the world like

the church. It's just the way that it tends to work.

And that is not the plan that Jesus laid out.

He kept himself out of the politics of his day.

He presented a different way of salt and light. And

so we just need to be careful with that. Just

don't let that get into your heart there too much.

It's ramping up. It's only going to get worse over

the next month. Sports. Sports is another one. Maybe all

of these I'm mentioning are my weaknesses, but sports is

another one that you know, if it wasn't for I

guess my priorities and what I believe my faith, I

would be a sports junkie. I love to play and

I would be wrapped up in sports watching it. But

sports again can almost seem innocent, like professional sports and

college sports. Probably some of you know there's a big

game yesterday and Eugene and it's it's it's interesting and

it's exciting and it's but playing it doesn't seem too harmful.

But if you get into sports very much, there you

get into a lot of ungodliness. There's the alcohol, there's

the immodesty, there's the the allegiance, the immorality, there's the

idolatry of of all of that package that again just

can really overtake a person's life. Maybe news can be

another spot in our life on how we do that.

Pleasures and entertainment. I'm not going to go into all

of these, but again these are industries that music, movies,

games that just can attach themselves to us and before

we know it, they take over our life and they're

they're dictating what we do. Business and money. We need,

we need money and we need to work. But those again,

depending on where our heart is in that it can

become the idol in our life. Social media and podcasts,

I'll just mention that technology, you know, they are those

speakers on this podcast outshine most of us preachers. They

are talented speakers, They have their act together, they know

how to out hold an audience. They can draw millions

of people. And a lot of the things that they

say is interesting and sounds good, and is it even

is good, But often it's the wisdom of the world,

and we need to be careful. They're often they're not

God fearing people, and so then there's gaps in there,

there's beliefs that aren't right. And you know, how can

a person listen to podcasts and all of that for

four to ten hours a week and then come to

church and listen to one hour of the Bible and

it's teaching and not and keep that balance and that

influence in your life in the proper way. That's a

question I guess for myself as well. Just something to

think about. And then the last main one I have

here is discontentment. Maybe that sounds a little crazy or

a little bit unusual, but the discontentment craze I would

say is, you know, one of the primary jobs of

marketers and advertisers is to get us discontent that is,

and when you can do that, you're successful. So their

job is to intentionally try to make people discontent with

where they're at and want their product and get it.

And some of those things are legitimate, and some of

those things aren't. And that touches all of us in

all of our farming, construction, technology, household conveniences, vehicles, wheels, clothes.

It's endless. And the reason that it's so serious is

that the spirit of discontentment, if we get that cannot

be quenched with things. You never will get it quenched.

There will always be a new broad, a new version,

a new thing that comes along, and so be careful

doesn't mean that we can upgrade, buy new things and

new tools and all those things. But when we again

back to that spirit of discontentment, if we're unhappy, we're

just we're always looking at things. I think that's another

spot of being that is being if we can avoid

being unspotted from the world. So, in closing these three

points that James brings out about pure religion, what is

your religion? Are these three points markers in our lives?

Are we careful? Do we have a bridal tongue and

we're careful with how we speak? Is it control? Do

we care for the vulnerable when no one else knows

when there's nothing in it for me. But we have

a sacrificial love, and do we keep ourselves unspotted from

the world. That's a full time job. We never get done.

It's a way of life. So God bless you all,

thank you for your time, and we'll ass for a song.