JUL 20 2025 | Storm Proof: A Study in James S1E6 | Losing My Religion

Sea Change Church · JUL 20 2025 | Storm Proof: James S1E6 - Losing My Religion
James 1:26-27
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

And God, go begin to continue to walk in your spirit, Father. To be people not only of faith, but people of action, as we've been learning in the book of James. So bless us now. Give us ears to hear. We pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. The letter of James, chapter one, verses 26 through 27. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. This is the word of the Lord. As your love in wave after way crushes over me. over me crushes over me for you are false you are not against us champion of heaven you made a way for all to enter besides prayer meeting I'm going to spoiler alert my three favorite things to do run the college group preach on Sundays and go to prayer meeting on Tuesdays those are my three favorite things I do at the church there's a lot of other things in the pantheon of things I love about this church a small group right up there as well but God's moving so if you know a college student as well God is just moving in this age group it is awesome and every Wednesday night we are getting together and it's growing and they're hungry for God bringing their Bibles it's awesome and they are practicing the word of God in the way that they live their lives what you just saw with Pastor Harry there was religion in practice it was taking what you believe in your heart and doing it with your feet and I want to encourage you go to Africa if you can go check that out be a part of those trips what a powerful thing that's happening that's just one thing that is happening that you guys are doing around the world and around this city there is to the point where things are happening now I just hear about them like back in the day I was initiating most of what was happening with a few of my leadership staff now I'll hear like hey we built a house in Mexico yesterday I'll be like awesome glad rad didn't know about it so God is moving keep stepping out keep practicing your religion and that is something that James is talking about today if you have your Bibles open up to James 1 26 27 James is talking about religion and the word religion is only used in the scripture in the Bible 11 times 5 times in the New Testament 2 times in the book of James one of them is right here I was at the dog park recently with my new best friends because I see them in the morning I see them in the evening I see them more than anybody besides my own family and sometimes more than my own family and so we are there a half hour at least twice I spend an hour with my dog park friends right you gotta be on your game and I have my dog 70 pounds now he started out 16 pounds 3 months ago when we got him he's gonna be 140 pounds great Pyrenees livestock dog gonna guard our chickens because we are getting chickens more information than you need to know so we were standing around with my new best friends for the hour that we spend together in communal dog group and this is about two months ago and there was a conversation I was on the fringe and this woman was saying something that you hear all the time they were talking about church or something else and one woman says well I'm spiritual but I'm not religious right I'm spiritual but I'm not religious and then me being me just on the edge maybe on my phone I piped up and I said well I'm real religious it doesn't go over you know right no one no one wants to be religious right no one wants to be religious but I have a different view of religion especially I think God has a different view of religion God's talking about it in this religion serves a purpose and religion is putting feet on what you believe in your heart it's organizing spiritual causes into spiritual events that means your personal religion you believe that you should pray so you make an appointment with Jesus every day where you're going to sit and pray that's religion it could be communal religion where you're going on a trip to Africa and you're changing the world and you're taking what you believe about the poor and the injustice in the world it is organizing the spiritual things you do into something that makes sense in the world in your life and beyond when you think about this in vogue phrase I'm spiritual but not religious it gives a lot of room for spiritual anarchy which means you're in charge you become the doctor of your own illness you become the doctor who prescribes what you need it might be a couple Jesus verses it might be some hot yoga it might be you know some silence in the sand it might be I don't know you just kind of what do I need today and you kind of just figure it out on your own and you become your own pastor you become the pope of your own church of self often times you're not doing it with other people you're not doing it in communion it's kind of a form of spiritual anarchy Michael Knowles as I was studying this is a Catholic podcaster I listened to him on occasion and I heard him say something that was unique as I was preparing for this it was a couple weeks ago and he said if you want a definition of a demon that's the definition spiritual but not religious now let me just say when someone says that do not say to them immediately that's the definition of a demon not saying to say that but let me just explain it to you explain it to you I spent yesterday just researching this and I said are angels religious I asked our favorite friends at AI I also went to some biblical stuff as well Bible Gateway there is nowhere in the Bible where a demon ever does anything that is organized there is nowhere where they worship there is no place seen where they are actually sent on a mission from another demon they never do anything unless God would tell them to do something angels are different if you look at angels angels show up before the throne of God in regular communal meeting they worship before the throne of God they get mission from God they are messengers from God they are constantly engaged in forms of religion that are expressing the truth of who God is you will never see that with a demon a demon just does what they want when they want in spiritual anarchy but they are spiritual so the question is then can we reclaim an understanding of religion that matters to the world that takes it from a pejorative sense and turns it into something where you know how to organize your spiritual heart beliefs into what you're doing in your life that's what James is speaking about here go to verse 26 and 27 I'm going to read it very simple definition if anyone thinks he's religious but does not bridle his tongue deceives his heart this person's religion is worthless circle worthless no worth no value religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this to visit the orphans and the widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world what's interesting here is as James is speaking he's speaking to a very religious culture Jesus was always going toe to toe with very religious people people who cared about the show the showness I'm going to use that word I'm making it up the showness the showing of their religion praying wearing big hats being you know looking very spiritual and religious wearing you know the coats and making sure when they did offerings sometimes when they did their offering they would bang a gong as they brought their offering and they would use coin and they would drop it from high so you could hear the giving it was very religious we're doing all this stuff want everyone to see it and then they had all these rules God had the ten commandments right but he also has all these you know things that he brought with the exodus and Leviticus and those laws this culture that Jesus lived in took it to another level you know they say this one goes to eleven not only ten this one's going to go one spot higher they would take these rules and they would make it even more so so they say you couldn't work well you know Jesus challenged him on that well if your donkey or your horse or something your animal falls into a hole you wouldn't go help that animal you wouldn't you made that up I didn't say don't do that I said live in the spirit of resting on the Sabbath but they made a bunch of stuff up these are the religious people that were surrounding Jesus and there was an inauthenticity about it I want you to write on your notes key word for this scripture is authenticity authenticity it means there is an integrity about what you believe in your heart and what you do with your life it is a religion that takes the true things of God for the reasons of God and uses them to change the world to change your personal life and the world I want to continue to unpack this a little bit and this idea about religion let me just say that religion is this religion is spirituality with feet spirituality with hands spirituality with your mouth and he talks about that here it's spirituality and the doing what is so interesting here is he simplifies James simplifies religion into two steps now obviously the first step would be believing that Jesus died on the cross for your sins so that you are in the community of Christ the Holy Spirit indwells you but he takes something that is laws upon laws upon laws they've made it so complicated and he just simplifies it to two things he says the religion that God is for and likes is two things he just says two things visit widows and orphans in their affliction and to keep oneself from being polluted stained by the world Colossians 2.23 talks about this idea of a self-religion do you know the people who are self-religious I mean they're kind of in charge of their whole life and how they live their life and it says in Colossians 2.23 these indeed often have an appearance of wisdom and they promote a self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body doing fast and things like that but they are of no value in stopping the indulgences of the flesh which means they have all these things that they're doing but when it comes to the way they live their life they're always being stained by the world they're always indulging what their flesh wants what their stomach wants they're following every single appetite they're following every calling of the stomach but not following the calling of the Holy Spirit we've probably all had times in our lives when we've done that we've all had those seasons right where you want what you want when you want it and the calling of what you want supersedes what you actually believe I would say that a value if you value the things of God a value is not a value unless you do it it is an aspiration so you can say I value health but if you're whatever you're doing you know you eat like myself nine pizzas a week I did eat a whole giant large mushroom pizza yesterday that's why I'm using that analogy it's very good pizza on pearl so good won't go into my pizza ratings but you can say you value something if you don't do it you don't value it you only value what you do otherwise it's an aspiration or at least an aspirational value religion true religion is doing the things that you value the things that you actually believe and that you do and see the second thing besides being religion being a spirituality with your feet religion is two things it is personal and it is communal let me talk about the personal component personal religion is taking what you believe and doing it in your private life if you believe in prayer it means that you set a time in the terra firma of the calendar of your day and you plan to pray and spend time with God if you say you care about those that are oppressed then you have a time in your month or in your year or in your week where you care for those that are oppressed !

if you say you value the word of God you have a time in your day where you read the word of God if you're not actually doing it you don't value it you aspire to it but you don't actually value it personal religion is taking the things that you believe and putting them on your calendar they say that you'll know what a person values by their calendar and their wallet and that is so true what you spend money on and where you spend your time will show you exactly what you value so your personal religion is something that is meant to fuel your communal religion if it's not happening in the personal aspect of your life if you are not creating is what it said a few verses earlier in this James passage where it says you are living off the word that is implanted it brings you life that is implanted in your heart that happens in your personal time and whatever you implant in your heart as we'll see in a moment is going to be what comes out of you what you do in your private religion is what's going to come out of you when you are in the world your private religion is that time where you're alone and you're making a difference in your own life you're being with Jesus I tell myself I value intimacy with Jesus and I even made it my key word for the year last year and I did such a bad job at it I made it my key word for this year two years I've made it my key word I just am not finding myself sitting in silence thinking about how much God loves me and how much I love him on a regular basis I go to prayer meeting it's great it's awesome it's valuable I read the word a lot I listen to a lot of spiritual podcasts I listen to Christian I listen to our Spotify channel I listen to Danny sing her new song I'm into it it all touches me but I really I have a hard time with intimacy it's just the thing where I'm really quiet with God and he's just like I just love you so much he just doesn't represent my German father very well and so it's something I just struggle with and that is something I'm trying to develop in my personal religion because when I get that going in my personal religion then in my external religion with the world in community with you guys it's going to soften me up right it's going to change who I am so the first thing that we see there is having a religion that is true for yourself the second thing that religion is and we'll finish on unpacking what religion means is communal religion it's religion that we do together my whole job is creating religion for you guys my whole job is to take spiritual beliefs and put them in a in a in platform them in a way that you can be a part of the Africa trip we platformed a belief care for the poor care for the oppressed you saw the girls getting training there because there's a there's a rape culture in that part of Africa and we're training the girls to defend themselves like that is something we believe and that is religion and they are orphans and so we went to them my whole job is to platform what we believe in a way that a community can gather around them and I want to say it's so important that we're in community because when you're in community it's really hard to be your own pope your own pastor it's really easy when you are deciding well I'm just going to watch this at four and I'll send a little money to this at tomorrow but when the problem with the church is when you're in community is you've got to be around people right and I heard somebody say one time the only problem I have with the church is the people the people are the church we are the church and when you are doing religion together it means you have to be humble it means you have to be able to listen it means you have to let go of what you want to do so we can do it together for the cause of the greater thing it is having that ability to work and have that unity because unity is a power especially in this society if you can get a group of people unified in this society which I think we are doing here at this church you are going to see a power infused into the society as we go out with the miracles van that we bought 1972 food van we're going to be taking that out you guys are going to be a part of it it was parked out front last week as we go out as a community and you guys are the ones that are stocking the van that are the ones handing out the coffee it's going to make a difference if we are in unity religion is personal and it has to be communal now let's just talk about the two things that he goes on to next go to verse 26 that's just my little breakdown of religion and why I told the woman at the dog park I'm very religious no one says that right no one ever says that I'm so religious I'm super religious I think I said it I think I did say super religious looked at me all head went sideways twirled around no it didn't verse 26 if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart this person's religion is worthless I had you circle worthless interesting that it says in James that the tongue is the thing that will create this religious life that you have and invalidate it it will completely invalidate it James speaks a lot about the tongue now I'm going to give you a homework assignment for this week read James chapter 3 James does a whole diatribe on the tongue he's really into it I'm going to read a pericope from there verses James 3 3 through 6 it's in your notes it'll be on the screen as well he's going to break it down a bit and show how the tongue can really throw us off when we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us we can turn the whole animal or take ships for example although they are so large or driven by strong winds they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants them to go likewise the tongue is a small part of the body but it makes great boast consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark the tongue also is a fire a world of evil among the parts of the body it corrupts the whole body it sets the whole course of one's life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell goodness gracious slow down James it's really interesting when it talks about the two things it means to be religious the first thing it talks about the tongue why?

well if you go back to Jesus in Luke 6 45 Jesus says that the tongue speaks the overflow of what? what's in your heart if you want to know about somebody go on a road trip with them spend time everyone everyone can do a day a couple hours on their best behavior right? but get somebody in the heat of Oklahoma right? with someone pulling in front of them a big truck pulling in front of them you haven't eaten you missed the rest stop they wanted to go to the bathroom four stops ago you haven't stopped they're getting angry at you now it doesn't take long right?

before what is in your heart comes out of your mouth I played basketball with my friend yesterday a guy from the church and I realized that that is my most difficult arena I'm okay I did talk a little trash I had to had to say hey if I'm talking too much trash he's from my generation so he gets it but I realized when you're in there what is the arena where you struggle the most?

where you need a bridle? because it isn't about the tongue it's about the heart heard one person in a podcast or I was listening to a sermon this week they said if someone leaked the transcript of what you have said over the last six months how many people would be led to Christ? would you be caught out like the people on the Coldplay cam? don't do stupid stuff you gotta be online if you want to know that you gotta be online if you want to know what was going on with that one the transcript of what you say how do you speak?

I don't know I wouldn't want my last six months leaked matter of fact I was at dinner last night some of the team worship team were having dinner talking we started talking about other churches and different you know this team and this worship team and I got halfway through a sentence about some church I was just gonna run it down good church but I just didn't like something they did got halfway through I was like thankfully because I'd been implanting this word in my heart I said you know what guys I'm not even gonna finish that sentence I'm not gonna run down the bride of Christ Jesus has a bride and I ain't speaking against her if they have a false doctrine if they're putting out the doctrine of demons and stuff like that then I'm gonna say call a spade a spade and say that church is teaching a false gospel I have no problem with that it's a God fearing church they just do something a little different than the way I do it I'm gonna keep my mouth shut because I don't need that on my transcript you will be accountable for every single word you say covered under the blood of Christ thank God but the transcript is gonna be released so we need to be really careful on that when my daughters were when my daughter was about 10 we were at the Del Mar Fair we loved going to Del Mar Fair going to the animal part and we went there's this guy he was with his kids they were showing horses they were part of the 4-H crew I think he had like six daughters it was four or six he had a covey of daughters you know and they were all horse people and all the daughters had the they weren't you know they weren't like dressed up in an outfit they were wearing like their gear from the farm and I remember his daughters were like they were awesome they you know shook our hand from 6 to like 17 so they've been working on this family for a while all daughters and I had daughters and I'm like man what did you do like that your daughters are amazing he goes you know it's kind of about the horse life he says you know the fact that my 14 year old can you know hold you know take a 1500 pound horse and move it around and have confidence riding this beast you know they pick up they're willing to pick up poop you know it's like it's not just completely elite he goes it just creates something makes a horse girl I thought I want a horse girl so we immediately put Lily in riding lessons it was expensive but we did it for like five or six years she was jumping three feet high and everything and there's a difference between the horse jumper girls and the ones that clean the stables I wanted the stable cleaner the thing that I love is they had a big Friesian horse there it was like 1500 pounds like the ones the elves ride with the big long mane and she would bring it out and she would bring this horse out and she'd be like 10 years old controlling this horse with what?

a little bit in its mouth some of us need myself included a bit in our mouth shut up oh sorry I'll be nicer put a speed bump between your mind and your mouth because when we say things we shouldn't say it makes our religion worthless I want to I just I want to I just want to be better at that I love bringing up people in our sermon and you saw Pedro in the video he was here for a sermon he's helping us with the college group he was the guy that came out you probably saw him on the video came out of the video clapping like that's Pedro just this guy is just constantly like bubbling over with the you're awesome like I just I want to be I need some more Pedro in me you know what I'm saying I actually need some more Jesus in me to do that so that's what he says first things control your tongue go to verse 27 second part we'll come in for a landing religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this to visit the orphans and the widows and their affliction and to keep oneself being unstained from the world to visit the Greek word there for visit means to go look upon how someone's doing with the idea of helping or benefiting them the visitation of the needy is one of the most undervalued callings for Protestant Christians Catholics do really well at this especially the Catholic Church if you were to remove Catholic missions throughout the world the social services throughout the world would drop dramatically they've just been really good at this for one reason or another but in our churches we often times don't preach about visiting the poor there is a group of people who need visitation who need to be cared for who no longer maybe have the ability to drive who are cut off from society or for one reason or another it's a kid whose parents are never there and they need a coach or someone to come into their life there is a group of people who need to be visited so that we can care upon their welfare I just want to ask who is the person in your life that even though it might be inconvenient that you go out to and you care for is there one person that you go visit is there one person that you check up on just have one Pastor Kim is our caring pastor here and we she went from being the children's minister for like a decade and we gave her a new job role and when I told her the job description you should have seen her face light up the job description is to find people in our church who need care visitation phone calls birthday letters hospital visit rides build a team to go care for people she said that's all I have to do I'm like yeah I've never seen someone get so happy about a job description because that's what God built her for she is built for that now for me that's a little harder for me I don't immediately get up and think hey who can I give a ride to the hospital today but it is something that I'm trying to work on because I want a religion that matters and so who are you caring for it could just be you know a kid that you're writing letters to on you know your world vision or we use why Malawi here whatever it is we have to be the hands and feet of Jesus going out true religion shows up for those who are down people go down for the count or maybe they have a health diagnosis right now they're in the hospital they just need someone to reach out of and then out to and then the final one as we close is he tags this idea of visiting the poor of watching what we say with our mouths then he throws in this little side this little side comment right just at the end but it's it's hardcore it says this go to the verse 27 at the end and keep oneself unstained from the world just throws that in there that's not easy right unstained from the world the world is a stain machine the world is out there looking to stain you it is looking to take the robes of Christ's righteousness that we are called to wear and to stain them now so many of us myself included in times in my life haven't had the devil hasn't needed to tempt me to do something I've just gone and stained myself right just get yourself just get those robes cleaned it says in Revelation I'm going to give you an example it says in Revelation in Revelation 7.14 it says sir you know and he said this at the end of Revelation these are those who have come out of the great tribulation and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb what is interesting is the blood of the Lamb which should be red has the ability to make you sins and yourself white it says we are we are clothed with robes of righteousness and when we ask forgiveness it is like having this put on this is from probably the 1950s it was in the back I found it it's all threadbare a lot of people have been baptized in this but this is what we're called to as I was preparing for this and thinking about this I found this old picture from 1969 at Woodstock and if you remember Woodstock Woodstock had a rain event the same that Burning Man had recently and then the 1994 Woodstock also had this event and if you remember the images that came out of the last day of Woodstock it was just a mess like there was no bathrooms no sanitation and everyone was in the mud it was just disgusting right it was just like one of the last places I ever wanted to be let me just break down what this scripture is telling you this scripture is telling you not to go to Woodstock it's saying I want you to go wear this and don't get stained now imagine putting this on and going there there's going to be people in the mud they're going to be like jumping around going come on in it's great you know doing belly flops in the mud they're like come on in it's going to look fun there's going to be other people just want to throw stuff at you just trying to find a picture of Woodstock that I could show at church was a difficulty I'm serious that's the only one I could actually find I'd like because I was like I don't want to be that guy on YouTube pastor puts up picture with naked muddy person from you know Woodstock on whatever all these pictures are like dude it was just it was just a raucous affair it was Woodstock 1969 God has called us to go into the world and he wants us to walk into a world that looks like that and look like this come out looking like this you know what the problem is you can leave that up there is that in our personal lives when we're alone in our own personal religion sometimes we have a hard time just staying unstained when we're alone yet alone out there you see the first place you got to start is with your personal life what is it going to take to stay unstained in your personal life when you can do that there's a lot better chance that you're going to go out there because imagine this walking through this is what Jesus looked like when he walked through Jerusalem they knew there was a difference and your religion doesn't matter if you look like the world you've got to look different and you can fake it but the only way to have that authenticity the religion that God cares about because he isn't going to fake it is to have a religion in your own life that looks like this that cares about this and does everything you can to be unstained by the world amen amen let's stand if you would I'm going to have Danny come up we've added a time a song of reflection so that you can just do some business with Jesus some religion right now in your personal life if you have something that's been staining you I want to encourage you just tell the Lord this has been staining me I got to get this out of my life because I want to make a difference in the world Danny sing Give Me Jesus Give me Jesus Give me Jesus You can have all this world you can have all this world I don't want and I don't want anyone else and I don't need anything else you are my one thing you are my one thing I don't want anyone else and I don't need anything else you are my one thing oh you are my one thing y no quiero a nadie más no necesito nada más tú eres mi todo oh eres mi todo oh you are my one thing oh you are my one thing oh you are my one thing Give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus. You can have all this world. You can have all this world. Right now, we just want to just, if you've got something in your life that you just, maybe it's been your tongue, to confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So God, we just ask forgiveness. I ask the prayer team to come forward.

If you need prayer over any of these issues, if you want to make a decision to follow Jesus for the first time, come forward. We'll pray for you. If you extend your hands right now, I want to pray a blessing over you. Lord God, we pray a blessing over your people. God, that you can show us where we've been stained by the world, where we've just walked into it on our own volition, that we can walk as white and pure, unstained by the world.

Lord Jesus. God, we bless your people as they go out. Show them the person who is needy, who they need to visit, who you're calling them to visit, who you want to visit with them. Give them your heart. Renew their minds. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. We love you. If you guys need prayer, come forward. We'll see you next week.