Connect with Skip - Skip Heitzig

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Connect with Skiff Heizig. We're glad you've tuned
in for today's program. Connect with Skip Heizig wants to
connect to you to God's never changing truth through verse
by verse teaching of his word, and that's why we
make messages like this one today available to you and
so many others on air and online. Now, before we
get started with today's teaching, we want to let you
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(00:22):
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dot com. That's connect with Skip dot com. Now let's
get into today's teaching from pastor Skip Heidzig.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
In calling Jesus the Lord Jesus and in my English
Bible is capitalized, he is recognizing the lordship of his
half brother as the Lord of all. I'll tell you
why I think this. This is significant because today there

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is a trend to have celebrity pastors and superstar pastors
and you know, this guy's something special and something awesome.
And we even love all the titles call me doctor, reverend, Bishop,

(01:27):
how about slave? All the New Testament authors began their
letters with this word. Paul a bond servant, Peter a
bond servant, Jude a bond servant. Incidentally, Jude was the
other half brother of Jesus who wrote a New Testament book,
Paul a bond servant, and James as well. Another James,

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Jim Irwin, who was an astronaut eighth person to walk
on the Moon, said this, as I was returning to
the Earth, I realized that I was a servant and
not a celebrity. So I am here as God's servant
on planet Earth to share what I have experienced that
others might know the glory of God. One of our astronauts,

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Jim Irwin, said, I'm not a celebrity, I'm a servant
to show you the glory of God. That's how James
felt about his life. He knew his rightful place. He's
the master, I'm the servant. Also, in using this term,
he knew his notable peers. James was Jewish, grew up

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in a Jewish home, knew his Old Testament, and he
must have known that some of the greatest heroes of
the Old Testament were referred to as servants of God.
Moses was called a servant of the Lord. Joshua, Caleb, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses,

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job and Isaiah. We're all known as servants slaves of God.
So the first question in adulting one h one is this,
are you willing to serve him? Are you willing to
serve him? Are you willing to be his tool? His instrument?

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Paul will write in Romans chapter twelve, I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
as a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable, Which
is your reasonable service. It makes sense, it's the right
thing to do. It's your spiritual act of worship. Let

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God have your body and work through your body. Let
your body be His instrument to touch people on the earth.
That's adulting is when you are willing to be a
servant for him. You might have tremendous talents, tremendous gifts, awesome,
how are you using them for His glory? There was

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a visitor to a mission hospital overseas, and it was
the first time that this person went to a mission
hospital and this person noticed a nurse in the mission
hospital tending to a person with leprosy. And as this
person got closer and saw the nurse dabbing the oozing
wounds of the leper, she sort of recoiled and said,

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I'd never do that for a million dollars. The nurse said,
neither would I. But I do it for Jesus for nothing.
I do it for Jesus for nothing. You know you're
an adult when you are willing to use your life
to serve him. So we have the author, James the Autobiography,

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a bond servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's look at the audience. Who is this book written to.
We're told to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.
Now there were twelve tribes, or the words twelve tribes
is a common title for what people group the Jews,

(05:17):
the twelve tribes of Israel, all the tribes that we
read about in the Old Testament, the twelve tribes of Israel.
So it's a Jewish audience. But notice which are scattered abroad.
That's a very important term, and some of you are
aware of this term, the d aspora or the diaspora.

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The diaspora is still a word, though it's a Greek word,
it's a word we have in our English language that
speaks of Jews living outside of Israel, Jews living outside
the Holy Land of Israel. The dispersion or the diaspora
began way back in the old in seven twenty two BC,

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when the Assyrians took captive the ten northern tribes of Israel.
That began the dispersion of the Jews around the world.
They expelled them from their land, they took them to Assyria.
One hundred and fifty years later, five eighty six BC,
the Babylonians took the two remaining tribes to Babylon took
over Assyria, so that all twelve tribes ended up under

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Babylonian rule. That's where the dispersion began. So what happened
is you now have Jews not only in Israel, but
you have them in every major metropolitan area in the
known Mediterranean world, from Alexandria, Egypt to Rome all abroad.

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And they did something in those places. Because they're not
in their homeland, they don't have a temple to worship at.
They built a new institution called the synagogue. The synagogue
US could meet in a local community. That's where the
synagogue developed during the diaspora. Now why am I telling

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you this because it is the dispersion of the Jews
and the establishment of the synagogue that became the greatest
impetus for the spread of the Gospel in the New Testament.
Because when Paul went to all the different towns in
the Mediterranean world, what's the first place he visited? Synagogue?

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And that was important because the Gospel was to the
jew first, and also to the Greek, to the Gentile.
If he would have begun in the marketplace of the Gentiles,
the Jews never would receive the message because they would
have said, this is a gentile religion. So it was
the synagogue that became the place where the Gospel was
preached throughout the world by Paul. But there was another scattering,

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and it is this scattering that I believe James is
referring to when he says to the twelve tribes which
are scattered abroad. And this scattering that I'm referring to
is the scattering of Jewish Christians from Jerusalem. You know,
the early Church started in Jerusalem, and most all of

(08:16):
them were Jewish, but there was tremendous persecution that happened
to them because of their belief in Jesus as the Messiah.
So for the first several chapters of the Book of Acts,
we see the church growing, growing, growing, one hundred and twenty,
then three one hundred and twenty, then another five thousand men,

(08:37):
then multitudes of men and women. So you have this
massive group of Jewish believers in Jerusalem until Acts chapter eight.
In Acts chapter eight, after the stoning of Stephen and
Saul of Tarsus, folding his arms and receiving the clothes

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of those who stoned him, it says in Acts chapter eight,
verse one, at that time a great persecution arose against
the Church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all
scattered throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria except the apostles.

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Now do you do you remember that Jesus in Acts
one said you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,
to the ends of the earth. Remember when he said that,
you know what they did about That's what's that the
universal signed for zero. They did nothing about that. They

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stayed in Jerusalem, they didn't go to Judea. They didn't
go to Samaria. Why would they? I mean, this is
where the I'm under the spout where the glory comes out.
This is exciting. There's thousands of people here believing in Jesus.
This is an awesome place to be. But Jesus said,
you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and the
othermost parts. So what does you do? He allows persecution

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to scatter them. He allows the persecution to get them
into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth
because they're not budgeting, so they were scattered. Same chapter,
verse four says, Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere

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preaching the word. I just want you to get this,
that God permitted the scattering of his children to reach
the unreached world. That was part of his plan to
reach the unreached world. By the way, the word diaspora
in Greek often is used for scattering seed. A farmer

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would scatter seed in the field to get it planted
so he would have more fruit. So let's apply that.
Maybe you've been laid off recently and you go, why
God would you allow this to happen? Maybe he want
you somewhere else. He wants to scatter you somewhere else.
Maybe you are getting transferred by your company to another city.

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You don't want to go to that city. All your
friends are here, your families here. Why Lord would you
let that happen. Maybe He is scattering you to plant
you there, to cause more fruit to come. So that's
the audience to the twelve Tribes which are scattered, dispersed
diaspora abroad.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
You're listening to connect with Skip Heitsig. Before we return
to Skip's teaching, what would your life look like if
God's fingerprints were all over it? In God Print the
Life of Abraham, Pastor Skip takes you through seven powerful
messages on the faith journey of one man who learned
to trust God through crisis, fear, and uncertainty. Abraham's life

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was shaped by God, and so can yours be. The
God Print seven message series is our thank you for
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So request your CD package or digital download of God

(12:12):
print The Life of Abraham when you give a connect
with Skip dot com slash offer or call eight hundred
and nine two two, eighteen eighty eight. Now let's get
back to today's teaching with pastor Skip.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
So we have the author the autobiography in the audience.
Let's look at the last little section, the address. You'll
notice that James begins with a simple, one word salutation,
simple address, very short salutation. He says, greetings. Now, Paul's
were much longer, Peter's were much longer. Not James. He

(12:50):
likes the economy of words. Just greetings, and then he
jumps right into his letter. Now, I believe that that
translation is a little bit stilted. I don't think you
get the full impact of the original language. The word
that he uses translated here as greetings is the word
kairos or chirain, which means rejoice, be glad to the

(13:17):
twelve tribes scattered abroad, be glad, rejoice. And I think
that's important because if you have read the Book of
James and you're thinking, yeah, this guy was a little
bit kind of buttoned up and kind of a curmudgeon,
kind of a guy. You know, faith that works is dead.
You know, one of those kind of guys, maybe a
little legalistic. You don't know James. James was soul full
of joy and soul full of life. He begins by saying,

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be glad, rejoice, and the very next verse he says,
rejoice in times of trial, count it all joy, brethren.
Verse two, when you fall into various trials. So we'll
talk about that next time. But he begins with this
beautiful greeting. Now you're going to notice something about James.

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If you have read it, you know this already. He's
very practical. It is often called the proverbs of the
New Testament because it's very practical in application. That's not
to say Paul's letters are not practical. They are. But
if you know about Paul's letters, he front loads all
of his letters with all sorts of imposing doctrine, and

(14:27):
after that then he gets to the practical part. So
the Book of Romans, for example, eleven chapters of doctrine.
Chapter twelve begins the application, the practical part. Therefore, brethren,
present your bodies, etc. He does that also in Ephesians,
three chapters of doctrine at the beginning and then the

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practical section not James. James jumps right in after the
greeting with practical admonition and instruction and continues that all
the way to the very end. Now, what is this
book of James about? What is its theme? Well, these

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Jewish believers that he is writing to are having some problems.
James addresses these problems. They're going through trials, very difficult
persecution trials. They're being tempted, facing temptations. Some of them
are catering to the rich. Some of them are competing

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for offices in the church, causing divisions in the church.
And many of them have problems with their mouth. They
have tongue trouble. A chapter is devoted to that. In
other words, the same problems we face today are the
same problems that James wrote about. Then what is the

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cause of all these problems? Spiritual immaturity? Spiritual immaturity. So
the base theme of this little book of James is
spiritual maturity. Don't stay immature, grow up like my older brother,
James would say, grow up. That's the basic theme. He

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uses a word throughout this book several times. It's the
word perfect, which means mature. Complete. Don't think of James
telling you to be sinlessly perfect. Good luck with that one,
even though I've met a few people who claimed they
were sinlessly perfect until I got to have a conversation

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with them and discovered they're lying to me. But he
uses the word perfect, and I just want to show
that to you just a few places. Look at verse four.
Let patients have its perfect work, that you may be
perfect and complete, lacking nothing that means mature. Go down

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to chapter two, verse twenty two. Do you see that
faith was working together with his works, and by works,
Faith was made perfect, complete mature. Chapter three, verse two.
For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does

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not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able
to bridle the whole body. So he is moving his
audience toward maturity growing up. Warren Wherresby said, spiritual maturity
is one of the greatest needs in churches today. Too

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many churches are playpens for babies instead of workshops for adults.
So James will put our faith to the test in
this book so that we might grow spiritually. Now I
want to close with this. Things you should know about
spiritual growth, let me give them to you. Number one,

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it's normal to grow in your faith is normal. You know,
we sometimes look at a person, go, man, that's amazing,
he's growing. Why is that amazing. That's like looking at
a baby saying, isn't it amazing? He's not a baby anymore,
he's actually growing. Well, that's what you expect. When there's birth,

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you expect life, you expect growth. And it's not just
for a few, it's for all. Christianity is more than obstetrics.
It's more than the new birth. It's pediatrics. It's a
visit to the emergency room, sometimes a counseling session. It
could even be surgery. It is all the way to geriatrics.

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In First John, Chapter one, John addresses his letter to
three groups, children, young men, and fathers, and he meant
that spiritually, that's normal to have children who grow into
young men, who grow into fathers. There's maturity that takes place. So,

(19:17):
first thing about spiritual growth, it's normal. Second, it's supernatural.
It requires spiritual cooperation with God. The New Testament term
for that is sanctification. Just as God saved you, God
grows you up. It is a supernatural work. Now, I'll

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tell you why I think that is so important, because
spiritual growth has nothing to do with physical age. Well,
of course I'm a toure. Look how old I am. Well,
you can grow old, but not grow up, Charles Spurgeon said,
in the Church of God, there are children who are
seventy years old. Yes, little children, displaying all the infirmities

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of declining years. One would not like to say of
a man of eighty that he had scarcely cut his
wisdom teeth, and yet there are such. On the other hand,
there are fathers in the Church of God. Why stable instructed,
who are comparatively young men. The Lord can cause his
people to grow rapidly and far outstrip their years. So

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it's normal. It's supernatural. Third thing about spiritual growth, it's gradual. Now,
I hope you take heart in that. It's not like, okay,
well I'll come forward and you pray for me, and
now I'm going to be matured. Don't happen that way.
Christian maturity is not a light switch. It's a process.

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It takes time, it takes a lifetime, and when you
make it to the end of your life and you die,
you still won't be perfect until you get there, and
then you will be. So it's normal. It's supernatural, it's gradual. Fourth,
and we'll close with this, It's possible. It's possible. What

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I mean by that is you can grow listen as
much as you want to grow, You can grow spiritually
as much as you want to go to The question
is do you want to grow? Do you really want it?
Are you willing to do what it takes to get there.
When Peter wrote his letter, he said, God has given

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to us all things that pertain to life and godliness
through the knowledge of Him who called us. Therefore, add
to your faith, virtue and a virtue, knowledge and a
knowledge self control, add to your faith. Grow. He also wrote,
as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word,

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that you may grow thereby, And he closed out his
second letter by saying, grow in the grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So
it's normal, it's supernatural, it's gradual, it's possible. If you
want to, you can grow. Now I'm going to give

(22:17):
you a spoiler alert here of where we're going. In
the Book of James, there's two factors in maturity, two
vitamins that you take that boost your maturity level. I
want to know what they are. Trials and temptations. Yeah,
you know. Sometimes you take medicine and you go, oh, I
hate that medicine. Well yeah, trials and temptations and not

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so much. But those are two factors in maturity. Trials
and temptations. Trials are sent by God to mature us.
Temptations are sent by the devil to destroy us, but
God uses them to mature us. You get that one

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comes from God, one comes from the devil, but God
uses that to mature us. Because all things work together
for good to those who love God. That's why it's
really fruitless to say, you know, I'm having all sorts
of problems. Is this from the devil or from God?
Who cares deal with it? Grow from it, learn from it.

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Don't worry about the source, worry about the result. Over
in the Alps, I think in Switzerland, there's a monument
to a guide who died as sending a peak to
rescue a stranded tourist, and on the tombstone is a
simple inscription that says he died climbing. That's how I

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want to die, growing climbing, not like, yeah, I'm good enough,
I'll just come to church every now and then no, no, no,
I want to die climbing, don't you don't you want
to grow? Grow, grow mature. On one of the first steps,
if you haven't done this already, is to get a Bible,

(24:12):
a real Bible, one that you know where things are
and you can follow along. And I just listen to stuff,
really dig in yourself and read it. So this is
spiritual adulting. And just like my older brother Jim would
say to me, Skip, grow up, our older brother James

(24:33):
would say, y'all, it's time to grow up in all
things in Christ Jesus.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
Thanks for listening to connect with Skip Heitzig before you go,
don't forget to request this month's resource, God Print The
Life of Abraham. This powerful seven message study from Skip
Heitzig shows how God's presence shaped one man's life and
how he can share ape yours. It's our thanks for
your generous gift of fifty dollars or more to support

(25:05):
this ministry. Call eight hundred ninety two two eighteen eighty eight.
That's eight hundred ninety two two eighteen eighty eight, or
visit connectwiskift dot com slash donate, and while you're there,
sign up for Skipp's weekly devotional email to grow deeper
in your walk with Christ. Come back next time for
more verse by verse teaching of God's Word. Here Unconnect

(25:26):
with gift Heidzig.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
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Speaker 1 (25:36):
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