Leading with Godly Wisdom: A Call to Integrity

1. "And what this letter is all about, who he's writing to, is he's writing to both challenge as well as to encourage us with wisdom for life. You might remember him telling us a couple weeks ago, right? He's writing to these Jewish Christians, these Jewish believers in Jesus who are scattered all around the region. It's a time of upheaval in the Roman society. And so he's writing to challenge them and encourage them to give them wisdom for how to live a life that matters, how to find a life that has purpose and meaning. And so as he's writing to these scattered Jewish Christians, we get to read in, we get to look in and apply this to really all aspects of our lives. Even 2,000 years later, we still get to apply these words to our own lives." ([00:06:32] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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2. "And quite frankly, everybody's afraid right now. Everybody's afraid that if the other person wins, it's going to destroy everything for their lives. But that's just the wrong way to look at life, quite frankly. Like, what if our real perspective isn't so much about politics, but just simply focused on how I represent Jesus better in my personal day-to-day life, in my workplace, in my school, in my neighborhood, right? What if I just focused more on following Jesus and representing Him?" ([00:10:44] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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3. "So for you, what's the point? Well, here's the thing, guys. Each and every one of us, whether you're a boss in the workplace or whether you're a mom at home or a dad at home, if you're amongst friends throughout the week, every single one of us is a leader at some point. Every one of us in one way or another is a leader, right? And quite frankly, we're all surrounded by leaders. We all have people around us that from time to time, moment to moment, they are leading us as well." ([00:11:18] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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4. "What kind of leadership in your life moves the needle in your family, moves the needle in your workplace, your school, and quite frankly, even in our country, moves the needle to a more healthy culture, right? That represents Jesus. Because remember, that has to be our focus. That's our primary calling as believers in Jesus is to actually bear witness to who Jesus is." ([00:12:21] (24 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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5. "And what he's talked about so far in this letter that we've kind of covered together is we've talked about wisdom in trials and tribulations. How do you find pure joy in the midst of your trials, in the midst of your tribulations, right? We find wisdom in doing, right? Being doers of the word, how our faith, our faith in Jesus should actually move us to have deeds, right? Move us into a place of action." ([00:14:45] (23 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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6. "James is like, the gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of love. That's what makes it good news. It's a message of love. And that kind of love, the kind of love that Jesus lives with, that is lived in humility, where you spend your time here on earth. This is the kind of leadership that you practice. You lift other people up, just like Jesus did. That's how he spent his time here on earth." ([00:22:05] (24 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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7. "But he's like, it's more than just an occasional good deed that we might do, right? It's more than just simply walking the old lady across the street. It's more than just picking up a piece of trash that you see and you know that it's clean and you can touch it, right? It's more than just these kind of one-off things because anyone can do that. Anyone in any given moment can do the right thing, can do the good thing, right? So it's not about that. James is talking about a lifestyle, a lifestyle of humility, a lifestyle of doing good, right? Doing good for others, right? That's what James is talking about." ([00:16:55] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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8. "James tells us that that's demonic. He says, that's not okay. That's not of God. He tells us we've got to be different, but then he provides the difference. He tells us what real wisdom looks like. He says, but the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all, what? Pure. Then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, and good fruit, impartial and sincere." ([00:24:18] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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9. "Honestly, I think it's simple, guys. This is not something that is crazy or like, wow, that's crazy out there. I think what James is really inviting us into is a moment of personal self-reflection, right? He's not telling us all this stuff. He's not giving us this instruction to guilt us or shame us or make us feel bad about ourselves. He's not telling you that you are demon possessed. He's not telling you that you are evil. What he's inviting you to do is do some personal self-reflection to examine what's going on inside of you." ([00:27:47] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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10. "Leadership shows people. It doesn't just tell them. It shows people what it's all about and what you mean. It doesn't just tell them, right? And here's the thing, guys. It's hard to do this alone. And I say that I pray every morning. I do. This is how I pray. This is what I talk about. But I have counselors in my life. I've got pastors in my life that I can go to that hold me accountable to these things. That's why we have elders here at One Church, is they hold me accountable." ([00:33:46] (26 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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