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No Shortcuts!

The Pitfalls of a Copy + Paste Culture

Pastor Phil Stanley, June 2, 2024

Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various [c]trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces [d]endurance. 4 And let [e]endurance have its perfect [f]result, so that you may be [g]perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2-4 2  ASV

 You can’t keep getting out of the challenges and tests without stunting your growth.

We can take shortcuts, but they are costly.

Looking back to the end of this verse in the ASV

so that you may be [g]perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

2-4 Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

James 1:2-4 MSG

The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].

John 10:10 AMP

Shortcuts steal, kill and destroy the complete and abundant life God has for you.

19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. 20 Human anger[g] does not produce the righteousness[h] God desires. 21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.

James 1:19-21 NLT

What if what we think we’re doing to defend our Christian values is actually undermining them? 

James 1:22-25

22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.