Right now on Tuesday nights,
Tim is going through a series on the battle with sin.
And in part 1, he dealt with the sin of pride.
And I felt that it would be beneficial
to make a video dealing with some of my own issues
that recently God has really dealt with me
to discipline me to make me more set apart,
more holy, and more like Christ
and less proud.
I guess around 5 or 6 months ago,
I went over to Tim's house to be encouraged.
I had a long day.
I felt, I need to be encouraged.
And I went over there,
and God had such encouragement for me
in a way that I did not anticipate;
I did not expect.
And I sat down and I'm talking to Tim.
And at some point, Tim looks at me,
and he says to me, he says,
"James, in Matthew 7,
it says the measure that you judge with
will be judged right back at you."
And he said to me these chilling words,
he said, "James, I wouldn't want to be in your shoes
on judgment day."
I tell you, that hit me.
That shook me up.
And I thank God that right as I heard that
I acknowledged it as truth
and I praised the Lord.
I didn't outwardly praise the Lord,
but inside, I was praising God,
because the devil was right there
saying, "Look, James, Tim is judgmental.
He's just judging you."
No, that wasn't true.
Tim was loving me.
He loved me enough to tell me a truth
that I needed to hear,
and I heard it from someone
who I had great respect for.
And therefore, the weight
of what was being said
hit me as it ought.
And it's exactly what I needed.
Many of my failures were mentioned that night.
And that was the best thing that could have happened for me.
And not only that,
it was an answer to a prayer I had just prayed that morning.
I had prayed,
"Lord, do whatever it takes
to make me like Christ."
And so God heard my prayer.
And so He sees some imperfection in me.
Obviously, God allowed Tim to see
this obvious imperfection.
And Tim lovingly told me the truth
and God allowed my heart to receive it,
to be humbled,
to not try to deny it and press on in pride,
but to see my failure.
And God showed me, you know what,
James, you've been too judgmental;
too quick to judge.
Right when I got saved, it was so easy
to say, "you're lost," "you're saved."
And then God put me through my own battle
with sin, with idolatry,
to let me see.
Look, James...
God's saying, look, James,
you're falling into this.
You keep going back to this.
Are you a slave of your sin?
And no, I wasn't a slave of my sin.
But I started to realize,
you know what, there is a real struggle
that people are going through
and you can be very quick to judge
and say, well, look, this person
is falling into pornography.
They've got to be lost.
Yes, the Bible says no sexually immoral person will inherit the Kingdom,
that's true.
But what's going to happen over the time?
As time goes on, if they're going back to that sin,
and they're a slave of it,
then they should have no assurance they're a Christian.
But as time goes on
and they continue to have victories,
I'm there to encourage them,
not to judge them and beat them down.
Then God's going to be glorified
as they break free of that sin
and they prove that they were a Christian.
And I remember even reading about King David.
If King David came to me and said,
"James, I've murdered. I've committed adultery."
Right when I was first saved,
I would have said, "you're not a Christian."
Yet, obviously he was. Look at the fruit of his life.
He loved the Lord.
Obviously he did, but he had a struggle.
And so the Lord put me through
an idolatry in my heart
where I was going emotionally
to other sources instead of Christ,
and I wasn't satisfied in the Lord.
And the greatest evidence of that
was my lack of prayer.
And when you don't pray,
you're going to be judgmental.
When you don't pray, you're going to run to idols.
When you don't pray,
you're not going to be satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I mean, even this morning,
I remember waking up
and I wanted kind of roll back in bed.
I woke up before my alarm went off
and the Lord was telling me,
James, I woke you up right now.
Get out of your bed and go seek My face.
When I was out praying,
being with the Lord was far better
than being in that bed.
And if I stayed in that bed,
I would have fell into something that day.
I would have got proud.
I would have thought highly of myself.
We need pride to get put to death
so bad.
And God loves us so much
if we're His children
that He's going to discipline us.
And so, I just wanted to testify about that,
about God's love for my own soul,
that He loved me to have a brother
tell me the truth in love,
to rebuke me,
that I could then repent of that
and strive to live a more holy,
more Christ-like life.
To be not like the world.
But to be like Christ.
So God help me continue
and others - we can't be overcritical.
I'm sure there's something in my own self
even in this video that you could find
and you could rip and tear me apart
in a moment.
And the reality is, that's what I was doing to a lot of people.
Finding the one flaw and imperfection
and ripping them apart.
With all that said though,
we all will be judged by God.
And we need to be ready.
And if there's some unchecked sin;
if we don't have clear consciences,
we need to deal with it.
1 Timothy 1:19 says
many people shipwreck
because they don't hold to a good conscience.
So if God is showing you sin in your life
like He's done in mine,
may God help us humble ourselves
and forsake it and cling to Christ.
Jesus is more beautiful than anything in this world.
There's no hope, but in Him.
So may God break us of pride,
and I pray as Tim continues to do this series,
that the Lord reveals more sin in my life,
to make me more like Christ
and may He do the same for everyone out there,
that we would be like Christ;
that we would love like Christ.
So God help us.
Amen.