Love Truth & Spirit Ministries

James reminds us to not be deceived by others and yes, even Satan. Don’t listen to the false teachers. Believe that through Jesus our lives can become something that God desired us to be before we were born. We need to embrace the word of God and fully grasp His love for us and the power He possesses. The blessings we receive as God’s heirs to His throne are given to us from the Father and are perfect. They are without blemish because God is righteous and He does not change. It is through God’s will and His word of truth that we have become firstfruits. The best of all the created creatures. That’s what differentiates humans from all the other living creatures. This is God’s intelligent design which cannot be replicated by man. So embrace the Love of God, reverence Him and pour out the love He pours into you to others, sharing His Son Jesus with all who have ears to hear.

As we get into verses 13-15 we see a shift from trials to temptation. James is very clear of who tempts us, and it is not God. Temptation comes from two places: 1: Satan’ 2. Our own desires. James provides what I call the road map to spiritual death. He tells us in verse 15 that – Desire +Temptation conceived + Sin fully grown = Spiritual death. But prior to this James we tell us that the responsibility for succumbing to sin is ours and ours alone. At times our own desires will drive us to temptation. Satan knows what we know, that our hearts are deceitful and we will never be free from temptation. As we grow in our Christian life the response to that temptation should decrease and the love we have for Jesus Christ should increase. We need to submit to God and resist the devil at all times by calling on the name of Jesus (James 4:7)

This week we will focus on a single verse that will tie verses 2-12 together in one concise message from James. James uses a technique called “inclusio” to eloquently tie these verses together. The message is this, if you endure the trials that are sent your way, you will be blessed with the crown of life. Whether these trials are personal, in the church, at home, on the road, or in the public square, the message is the same. Endure to the end because the alternative is to give up and fall back into the world. Christ never promised it would be easy to pick up our cross and follow Him. What God promises is this, if we love Him, follow Him go through trials with Him and pass the test we will find heaven. As we get into verses 13-18 in the coming weeks, we will see a shift from trials to temptation. James is very clear of who tempts us, and it is not God. Temptation comes from two places: 1: Satan’ 2. Our own desires.

We are going to look at one aspect of what is important to God. Becoming rich according to World’s standards is not one of them. Are we building the riches for this world or do we recognize that there is more than the riches of today? If we are spending more time in what is important to the world, building the things that will eventually perish, then maybe we need to refocus our priorities. One of the first things we need to pursue is to always seek God’s wisdom first and then evaluate, if it is important to God, then it should be important to us. James reminds us that if we live our life through Jesus, our life will not be in vain. We will build something more than what the world expects and what the world perceives as success. We should always make time in our lives to evaluate our priorities and make sure God is the top priority. If we discover He is not, then we should re-prioritize our life to ensure we will have life for eternity with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

We continue on our pathway to faith building. We are going to cover James 1:5-8 and the focus will be on seeking the wisdom of God. We will hear from James on how the wisdom of God instills in us a strong faith. But what we have to recognize is that when we seek God’s wisdom, we need to go to Him with whole hearted faith knowing He will answer us. He will provide the wisdom we need if we do not doubt. James addresses doubt with the comparison to a double minded man being unstable in his ways. We do not want to be the double minded man, we need to be confident in our relationship with Christ knowing that He will always be there for us.

Today we are going to start the book of James (provide some details on the book). Today we are going to focus on the first four verses of this letter and discover who James is and the relevance of his letter to the church. James is a book of practical application. His letter is closely coupled with the teaching of Jesus. Look closely at James and his practical teaching on how to live a sound Christian life, to develop a strong intimate relationship with Jesus and make it to the kingdom of heaven. James, as Paul does exhorts Christians to live a Godly life. James talks about faith in trials, perseverance and building endurance, maturing through our trials, being complete in God and finally coming to that place of perfection where we can find our peace in the kingdom of heaven.

John is addressing fellowship with God and Jesus. John makes the argument, because he and his team have fellowship with God and Jesus, if you fellowship with John, then you have fellowship with God and Jesus. This is predicated on the fact that you are walking in the light. John describes God as the light, so when we are washed of our sins, we are also walking in the light. John introduces his goal of fellowship in verses 3-4. God is the light (v. 5), then John creates the argument using dualism techniques and conditional clauses (v. 6-7, 8-9). He then finishes up with the final conditional clause by making the statement: If we say we that have not sinned…” (v. 10). The good news is that God sent Jesus to wash us clean and redeem us from our sins and to provide a path for forgiveness from His Father (v. 2:1-2)

In this message I take away three points from Paul: 1. Ministry is a team Sport (working together); 2. You become a family when you (work together); 3. Put Christ First (working together with Him leading). There is a common thread that we should recognize in this closing letter and that thread is working together. But the most important of all three points is putting Christ first and working with Him together. Whenever God is leading all the pieces will fall into place especially in His ministry. Nothing will be better than God’s plan for you and me! He will bring all the resources you need to succeed in life, if your focus is on Him. The equation is simple, Jesus + Life = Healthy relationships or a Godly environment. God is the only one that gets the glory. Acknowledging your fellow servants shows them respect and also shows everyone how God is working in us and in the environment. To be a part of what God is building is an honor. It becomes special, more special than you could ever imagine. We have to recognize it and give God glory in all circumstances.

Paul calls on the church to pray earnestly and faithfully that the Lord continue to grow in them personally and in the church. Paul also calls for prayer for himself and his ministry team to open a door so Paul can deliver the word, and also know how to communicate the message of Christ clearly and concisely. And in the end, be prepared to have conversations and answer questions to both believers and non-believers, but do it in such a way to show the Love of Jesus, not with angst or anger. Paul uses the analogy of salt to season the words we should use in conversation.

This week Paul addresses the master and slave paring of the household code. We cannot begin to think that Christians condone slavery and understand slaves lived in the same household with the rest of the family. Paul is addressing the whole household and everyone that lives under one roof to live a life loving, respecting and caring for one another. Jesus is the master of all Christians and Paul is instructing both master and slave to be accountable to Jesus Christ. To treat each other with the fairness and respect. This means to do the very best you can in every circumstance with what God has given you. This is what God expects from His followers. If not, God will have no partiality when it comes to discipline or judgment. When we show the love that Jesus pours into us to everyone, then we are truly living a God centered and God filled life which represents the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit the way God intended. This is my prayer for us all.

Paul is introducing the Household codes that have Christ as the leader and the focus of the household. He also gives us instruction on accountability and what that accountability looks like. If you want to have a home of peace, joy, love and stability, Jesus at the center is the only way to achieve it. In the Christian family, we all are accountable, first to God and then to each other and Husbands, you are more accountable to your family and most importantly to God because you are given more responsibility. If we adhere to these principles and instructions and live righteously in the eyes of God, our families will prosper. The relationship we show our spouses and our children will have everlasting affects. We can show them God’s love and respectfully live His way, which will build the foundation for following Jesus for a lifetime. Or we can live a selfish worldly life that will build the foundation of the world in our children forever. It is our choice to make and my prayer is that you make the Godly choice for you and your family.

Paul once again addresses the church as individuals and a community. He concludes his exhortation to the Colossian church which he started in chapter 2. Paul is guiding us to put the peace of God in our hearts. We are not to just put it there, it should permeate through us and be the ruling arbiter for all that we do. Paul addresses the message of who Christ is, not focusing on the message from Christ. There is a big difference in the two. Whatever we do in life, we should do it in the name of the Lord Jesus which will glorify God. We should always show thanks to the Lord for filling us with the His love in all that we do.

The negative behaviors we should want to “put off” have been identified as described in verses 5 and 8. So this week we are going to focus on the behaviors that will attract the believer and non-believer alike to want to know more of who Jesus is and how to develop the same type of relationship with Him as we have. We are going to look at verses 12-14 today and see what we are to ‘put on’ as believers. These behaviors are the same attributes that Jesus also demonstrates to His people. These same behaviors are to be demonstrated to build and strengthen our “new life” as a Christian. When we get stronger as Christians, the Christian community will get stronger and grow, striving to develop a much stronger relationship with Christ and in Christ. Love is the one thing that binds it all together and without love the Christian life and Christian community will fall apart.

This is a continuation from last week’s message and the behaviors we should want to change as we grow in our walk with Christ. We will focus on verses 8-11 today and learn of the five plus one behaviors that will hinder our growth if we do not try to change. Paul quite frequently uses the image of changing clothes to get his point across as it relates to our old life verses our new Christian life. These five behaviors are more related to living a harmonious Christian life within the body of Christ. To be respectful of all which helps to characterize who we are as Christians. The world is watching us and it matters how we act and how we speak, especially when it comes to living as part of Christ.

This is part 1 of a multi-part message from Paul. He is instructing us that if we have truly died to ourselves, then we should be stripping away the things of the world. In this series there are a total of fifteen behaviors (verses 5, 8, 12) Paul addresses and he shows us ten (verses 5, 8) that we should be removing from our lives with the help from the Holy Spirit. The last five (verse 12) are how we should really behave as Christians, just as Christ shows us. In the first five behaviors Paul addresses, four of the five are related to sexual morality and the last one is closely coupled to that in idolatry or covetousness. Paul uses the term “put to death” which ties back to Col. 3:3 when we died with Him we should want to change to be in His likeness.

Paul gives us application to his message about the Messiah. If we died with Christ, are resurrected with Christ, are hidden in Christ and will appear with Him in Glory, then what or why is our focus on or in the world? Paul has taken us through the Christological identity of who Christ is and how we are united with Christ. Paul states clearly that Christ sits at the right hand of God, because we have died with Him, He will hide us or more pointedly, protect us. We need no longer listen to the false teachers and their doctrine, Christology is what we follow period. When Christ returns we will appear with Him in Glory in front of the world and the All Mighty God.

Paul wraps up this part of the letter to the Colossians with a strong warning to the church that the things of the world, the rituals of man have no heavenly value in getting to the kingdom of Heaven. It is only through Jesus Christ that this will take place. We need to strip ourselves of what we perceive is of value in this world and focus on what is important in building our relationship with God and growing us spiritually. Because in the final analysis these things will perish, but our salvation, God’s grace, mercy and love will never perish.

Jesus going to the cross has been God’s plan for us since before time. Jesus died for our sins so we could have salvation, forgiveness of sins and a direct relationship to God the Father and the kingdom of heaven. Jesus death was prophesied in the Old Testament and even David wrote of it in Psalm 22. The old covenant was incomplete and without the sacrifice and obedience from Jesus, personal relationship with the Father would be difficult to achieve. Being crucified is one of the most vicious ways you could die, yet Jesus obediently went to the cross and was there the bible tells for approximately nine hours. If He did not love you and I why would He do it? What are you sacrificing for Jesus today? All He asks is you give your life to Him, and to live more abundantly, and spend eternity with Him, the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen! Amen!

Paul reminds us not to be deceived by false teachers. Don’t let anyone steal your reward, Paul says. We should not fall short of understanding who we are in Christ and that we should be reminded that when we are judged, Jesus was also judged. Paul reminds the church that the false teachers who worry about rituals who have phony humility, who worship angels and are puffed up have no business judging the things of Christ and we have no business following this teaching.

Paul shows us, through the cross and forgiveness of sins, we are no longer under the power of principalities. It is Christ who is the victor and we celebrate His victory with Him as we develop a strong relationship with Him. Christ is the one who makes us alive in Him. In this world there are principalities that will try to rule over you if you allow them to. We are not under the law put forth by the principalities. Jesus gave us the ultimate alternative to live under His rule for eternity. Amen!

Paul continues on his argument that is it through Christ, you are saved and that there is no other ritual required for you to undergo other than receiving and believing in Christ. Circumcision is a command given by God to Abraham (Genesis 17:9-14) – This was to mark the Israelite boys and men as God’s chosen people. It was done one week after the birth of the child, but today is done almost immediately after child birth (24-72 hours). Paul picks up from verses 9 and 10, discussing the dangers of relying on empty philosophies. He uses the tradition of circumcision and baptism to convey his points to the church

Paul creating the argument that if Jesus has the fullness of God in Him and Jesus is in us, then we must have both God and Jesus in us. Paul is setting up the argument for verses 11-15 and the circumcision we must experience to be fulfilled in Christ This circumcision is spiritual and not the physical as was in the OT. Paul takes us back to chapter 1 verses 16, 19 and 20 to remind us that Jesus is the authority. We need to know that through Christ, He will fulfill our every need spiritually and physically.

In verses 6-9, Paul addresses his desire to have the Colossian church stay focused on Christ. Do not let the world fill you with empty deceit or philosophies that are not Christ centered or represent Christ. The world’s traditions can certainly get in our way in growing in Christ. They can in some case actually stop our growth. We need to stay rooted, built up and established in the faith and the teachings of the cross. We should be thankful for these teachings and what Christ has done for us and that we have a solid foundation in Christ.

Paul concludes his ministry service to the Colossian church with strong words of encouragement. These words are to gain the riches of the full assurance of understanding, with the knowledge of the mysteries of God and Jesus. That we should not be swayed by the false teachings or persuasive words by those who want to deceive you. We should rejoice when we see Christ growing in others

We see through the ministry of Paul, how he is used to evangelize and also make disciples of many. Paul knew through the wisdom of Jesus, that the church would grow by getting the word of who Jesus is to the people and then letting the Holy Spirit work in the church and the lives of the people.