Pastor Plek's Podcast
Pastor Plek's Podcast
Faith in Motion
325: Pastor Plek welcomes insightful guests Caleb McLemore and Holland Greg, for a recap of Sunday's sermon on the book of James. Caleb, sharing his fresh perspective as a lifelong churchgoer, and Holland, guiding us through the meaning of biblical teachings, together illustrate the importance of preparing, prioritizing, and practicing faith. This conversation also introduces the captivating concept of the "law of liberty," revealing how certain boundaries can surprisingly lead to spiritual freedom and fulfillment.
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And welcome back to Pastor Plek's podcast. I'm your host, Pastor Plek, and joining me in studio is none other than Caleb McLemore, the official husband of Melanie McLemore, one of the faithful staff members here at Wells Branch Community Church. Welcome, Caleb.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me. That's being Melanie's husband is how most people know my name, so for most people, they'll be the first to actually learn my name.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, we're glad to have you. Can't wait to hear you share a little bit. And then also Holland, greg, pastor from Eastside community church, also part-time pastor at Wells branch community church, and helps us like he has been working, if you didn't know this like he is working, working, working here, pretty much to the bone.
Speaker 3:Yeah, to the bone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to the bone. Yeah, he's doing counseling, preach planning. He's doing church planning, residency with people at our church. He's pretty much.
Speaker 3:I'll be teaching men's Bible study next Tuesday morning. Men's Bible study is what he'll be teaching.
Speaker 1:And he's doing a marketing planning plan for our new building and space, so you've pretty much been all over the place as well as the counseling, very good.
Speaker 3:A lot of fun.
Speaker 1:A lot of fun. So not only that, you had to preach last Sunday. Sure, had to, had to. It was probably a lot of work and a lot of something that you had to spend hours slaving away.
Speaker 3:To put together you know what. I am a slave to Jesus Christ and I enjoy slaving away for the glory of God, All right.
Speaker 1:So one of the things you talked about was the Shema. Now talk to us about what.
Speaker 3:Shema means Okay. So Shema, hebrew word for listen or hear. It's an important word in the Hebrew language. It's in from the hero, israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one, that word here.
Speaker 1:Deuteronomy 6, 4,. For those of you scoring at home that's right, very important.
Speaker 3:You know they begin each day, you know praying and singing this verse and you know so it's a very important word in that it's a part of these prayers, part of their liturgy for their day, and the word itself I talked about in the sermon. The reason it's relevant to James is that it means listen or hear, but it carries the understanding of obedience with it, that your listening to God is not complete until you have obeyed God. So there's not a Hebrew word, a separate Hebrew word for obey, it's just this word hear. And so to hear, to really truly hear, is to obey that's wild.
Speaker 1:I wonder why they didn't have a simple like obey word. You know, don't you? Don't they have an?
Speaker 3:obey word or no, and not an ancient hebrew, so okay, wow crazy, all right.
Speaker 1:So, caleb, as one who grew up in church, have you ever heard the word Shema?
Speaker 2:Maybe like in passing, but never like a big focus on it. But so like I've heard it on and off just over the years, but not like, not broken down, especially like the way we talked about on Sunday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, way to go, holland. You are able to bring in for somebody who's a lifelong churchgoer something a little bit more in-depth than he probably was prepared for, speaking of which you had an outline which went something like this prepare for it, prioritize it, practice it. So tell me where you got into this, especially about you know, some people may have been offended by calling everybody filthy.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, I think so. You know it's pretty scary. The Bible has some offensive stuff in it, right, yeah, so the outline just coming from the main thrust, what I said was the main thrust of that section and the whole theme of James is to be a doer of the word. So he explicitly says that in that passage. The end of chapter one talks a lot about it. You know, faith that works. You know, in chapter two, getting into that, you've named the whole, you know theme for the series, just do it right.
Speaker 3:So it's very much a big thrust of the book is to be a doer of the word. And so what I talked about was okay, how do we, what does it mean to be a doer of the word? What James says in this passage is to prepare for it. So to prepare your heart to receive God's word by repenting from sin, by confessing sin, and then prioritize it, meaning you make a intentional effort, a conscious decision. I'm not just going to hear what it says, I'm going to do what it says. Okay, and then practice it. You go out and do it.
Speaker 1:When you talked about in the, in the prioritizing, you talked about looking into the perfect law at like a mirror, and it talks about the law of liberty. Now, law and liberty sometimes to me mean two completely opposite things. Yeah, can you explain the law of liberty what that means?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you know it. It feels like a contradiction because a law, you know, a rule um prohibits something, says don't do, you know, go here and not here, or don't do this, do that, and so it seems um limiting. But uh, if you think about uh, so you ever bowl, you ever bowl, you ever go bowling. Yes, you know the gut, the gutter things that you can put up the gutter guards, um, you don't.
Speaker 3:When you put those up, you know that um gives you more freedom to bowl boldly if you, if, uh, without those things up, if your goal is to get the ball down to the end of the lane, you know you might fail at that. Those things, they seem more restrictive, but what they actually do is they make sure that your ball gets to the end of the lane. The restriction actually helps your ball get where it needs to go. This is what a good law does.
Speaker 1:God's law is restrictive in the sense of it keeps you from sin so that you might go where you find freedom in life, experience freedom and joy in Jesus, exactly Because, ultimately, I think here's when you well I don't know if you've ever seen those shirts, I think it's Jocko Willink's shirts Discipline equals freedom, and so when you kind of obey the law on your own, then there's this freedom of following. Whatever you do is awesome. So I love that aspect, but within context of Christ, of where he is the law of liberty, where, like faith in Jesus and the freedom that he brings from sin and I think that might be where he's getting at as well Just like this freedom from sin, this freedom of darkness, and that when you trust in Christ, you are now living for him as opposed to living for sin. Yeah, anything else there you want to kind of throw in there in Law of Liberty.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay. So a lot of times when we think of freedom, we think of totally untethered to anything. Right, it's not what biblical freedom is yeah.
Speaker 3:I just mean I am doing whatever. You know, I, I'm totally untethered, I'm not bound to anything. Biblical freedom is about being actually being bound to Jesus. You're a slave to Christ, he's your master, you, you are bound to him. Um Paul introduced himself as a bond servant of Christ. Right, right, that's what freedom is, because where Christ goes is where true life is found, and so to be bound to him is to actually experience freedom from sin, freedom from bondage to sin, freedom from the death that comes from sin, freedom from the destruction and the chaos and the lack of peace. And you're set free from all of that. But you are not completely untethered. You are actually bound to Jesus, who is taking you somewhere where life and peace is found.
Speaker 1:So, caleb, as a pastor's kid, talk to me real quick about how you experienced the law as you were seeking liberty growing up.
Speaker 2:Well, I guess the easiest way to put it is growing up. My dad had to have a conversation with me Because he became the head pastor when I was about like around 12. But he had been like head of deacons and pastors like heavily involved Ever since I was a toddler Right.
Speaker 1:And Was he like a professional, like seminary trained guy, or was he already just? He just was a volunteer, he had gone to Horton.
Speaker 2:Simmons, but I hadn't gone to seminary specifically to be a pastor. He's the epitome of if you had told him in his 20s what he would have been in his 40s, he would have laughed at you Of like one, I'm not going to go to church regularly. Two, I'm going to be a pastor. In what world? And so the fact that he even became a pastor is huge. And we had a conversation where he sat me down and goes because you are a pastor's kid, you're going to be judged on things that other kids will not get in trouble for. And he goes, not because of me, because political stuff in the church people trying to like the pastor's kid is held to a higher standard. So I guess I had a higher level of law that I was held to and he goes.
Speaker 2:It's not fair Because there are going to be times they're going to bring you to me thinking I'm going to get you in trouble. He goes you're fine, because people are just going to get mad at you for things that you shouldn't get mad for because you're 12. Yeah, but for me that's what it was like growing up. So a very grace-filled home. Yeah, my parents were grace like, very like grace heavy, just a lot of people in the church, depending on who was around, sometimes weren't so much nice, but they were. Unless you did break the rule then then you got. You got to see a little bit of wrath, but that's how it is.
Speaker 1:Okay, I love that, all right. So let's talk about this putting to practice. Talk about putting to practice was keeping your tongue bridled, and if you can't do it, your religion is worthless.
Speaker 3:Worthless, that's a little extreme, holland oh yeah, we didn't even get back to the filthiness and the worthless. I know it's like.
Speaker 3:So this is where james is bringing some like, like left hook, like uppercut smashes, like he is, he's not holding back right, and what I said, you know, on Sunday, which I think is important for Bible readers, is we have to have a category in our mind of blunt, intense, direct speech that is also loving. Yeah, so he's not being, you know, and I pointed out how, at the beginning of the passage from Sunday, he addresses them as my beloved brothers. What he says, you know um, to rid yourself of filthiness and rampant wickedness. You know it's like, man, that's a really intense way to. That's not like hey, just stop doing bad things. That's like you have filth and wickedness inside of you that you need to get rid of. Like that's way more intense. Um, you know, if you don't do X, y, z, you know that he talks about here your religion is worthless. He says so it's very intense, yeah, but it's coming from a place of love and if you've heard the phrase before, clarity is kindness.
Speaker 1:You know it's like by giving someone, your religion is worthless, what's that? So just saying your religion is worthless, yeah, I'm being kind to you.
Speaker 3:You know it might sound really intense or whatever, but it gets to the heart of the matter of saying like nobody actually wants a worthless religion. And if you beat around the bush and you go soft on that and you're just really vague and ambiguous so that you don't offend anyone and no one gets mad at you, that might make you feel better because, hey, no one's mad at you, you didn't offend anyone, but you didn't actually help the person that you're trying to help. And so James is direct with love.
Speaker 1:So let's just I think there might be some people out there going. What exactly is an unbridled tongue? Is that curse words? Is that gossip? Is that coarse joking? What exactly is it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we didn't even get too much into that in the message mainly focused on what he talked about with keeping yourself. So I talked about inward moral purity and outward ministry to the needy. You know he says visiting orphans and widows and their affliction and keeping oneself, keeping oneself unstained from the world, so really focused more on that. The unbridled tongue didn't get to really cover too much of.
Speaker 1:Well he's going to get into it in, I think, yeah, the end of chapter two, and he's going to.
Speaker 1:Well, he's going to get into it in, I think, the end of chapter two, chapter two and three he's going to talk about out of the same mouth, or out of the same it comes blessing and curses. Fresh water and salt water can't come from the same spot, but what he's saying is it's the source. It's revealing what the source of your heart is, and so when you have the filthiness coming out of your heart is, and so when you have the filthy, uh, filthiness coming out of your mouth, that might be a uh, a sign that your religion is worthless.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's pretty hardcore. It makes you stop and think about what I say recently. Is my religion worthless? Uh, because you're like, ooh, I need to do some repenting clearly.
Speaker 3:Well, and I think when he says worthless, you know he's talking about of what? What good is it doing for anyone else? Nice, you know he's saying your religion is supposed to bring value. Yeah, Other people should benefit from the fact that you're a Christian way, I said it. And if you're, the way that you are a Christian, is filthiness in your heart and coming out of your mouth and you're not caring for people in need. What good is your religion to anyone else? And so that's not how religion is meant to be um, worthy, not worthless. Right, it's meant to bring value to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really liked the way you put that, like. I think you're right, cause my first thought is well, my religion, my faith is worthless. And that's not what you're saying. It's saying like it's worthless to those around you because you're not blessing them, you are cursing them in a sense.
Speaker 3:It brings no good to anyone, right, and so that's not what God wants for you.
Speaker 1:That's good. So in the practice that you came up with two like takeaways, there's going to be inward moral purity and then an outward ministry to the needy. That's kind of a way that you know your heart is right before God is that you have an inward moral purity which is then reflected in your speech and then an outward ministry to the needy. So, caleb, talk to me about you just like growing up, did you guys ever have like any ministry to the needy and was there ever any uh like a pressing I? We were consistent of like you have, like you can't like, uh like umbrella talking to like if I'm sitting there cussing a storm or something, they're like that's not being a critic.
Speaker 2:You can't sit there and think that doing some good deeds is going to make up for talking like that, right, because obviously your heart's not in the right spot, right? Um, so they're making sure of like what you're pointing out of. It's the especially growing up playing sports. It's the you practice how you play. So they're big on the. The way you act in the small. It's the. How you act in the small moments is how you'll act in the big moments. Right, if you can't even obey God for something as small as you know, when they would tell me you know, go put something up, why on earth would I obey when God's saying, hey, do this much bigger thing?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So there, there, I would say that's probably the big thing is like just practice makes per, like you practice the way you play.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So just make it cause like it's a consistency thing and you're pointing out of. If it's not consistent, it will show in how your heart is compared to your, even if your actions are good.
Speaker 1:How about the outward ministry to the needy?
Speaker 2:I saw a lot of my dad just cause uh grew up in our church as he jokes Cause and I got it from him of uh. Our coping mechanism is jokes, yeah, so he jokes of we used to have an older church and the nature took care of it and um, so he dealt with a lot of hospital trips, a lot of like so-and-so's in the hospital because of X, y or Z, right or I think. Before he retired he did 103 funerals. That's impressive.
Speaker 3:In a 20-year run. Wow.
Speaker 2:And so just seeing how, the way he was helping out the needy people and just a ton of people that would come to his church while he was in the office saying, hey, I need a few bucks for a Greyhound or I need help to get school supplies for people who have never been to our church and would actually never come back, but he would help make sure, like, hey, you need these school supplies or you need some clothes, and he would give until the church was like we literally we're down to the money we need to pay the lights and we have nothing else to give. So I saw that regularly and I saw a few times where he gave out of his own pocket. If the church didn't have any more money and he's like, then I'll pay for it, right, so I I watched him do that many times.
Speaker 2:I've told people I think, uh, I had someone asked me once like what should I expect if, like, my kids are going to be a pastor's kid, what should they be expecting? I was like, but you'll be hanging out and then you know he'll look at the phone. I go. Oh, I got to go because someone needs help. Yeah, because that's being a pastor's kid. One-on-one is dad's on call 24 seven.
Speaker 1:So I saw that all the time, wow, okay, yeah, I think one of the things that I've also seen in in, in inward moral purity is crushing without an outward extension of ministry.
Speaker 1:Because if you can't see that so like there's this inward spiritual grace of, like a sense of holiness and discipline, especially in younger, uh, followers of Christ, that if you don't give out, if you're not being merciful to others, then you don't understand the mercy you've received. And so the act of giving to the poor, or serving the poor, or doing some sort of ministry with those who are in need, is unbelievably healthy for your spiritual well-being and it makes you, because the reason why people get depressed they keep thinking about themselves right, the reason why the anxiety hits, the reason why the depression, is because I can't trust God's taking care of me. Uh, I can't trust, uh, that everything is going to be okay and my own sin is so bad that God couldn't love me or bless me. And so, and all of a sudden, when you start to do an outward ministry to the poor, you get to, it's not just that, that's the pure religion you receive, uh, as much as you give. In that circumstance, wouldn't you say there, holland?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. I mean. Jesus said it's more blessed to give than to receive Right, and so you, actually you. There's more growth that happens, more joy that happens when you are serving and giving to other people than just when you're the recipient of it Right, and I think that's what I think what people who don't do both things.
Speaker 1:If they receive grace but then never give it, that creates stinginess. If they give grace but never receive it, that also kind of creates a burnout, crispiness that like I've got nothing to give, and so that's why you need both of these aspects. Immoral moral purity is a receiving of God's grace over and over again so that you don't sin, but it also serve public service to people is a really powerful way. Now, holland, at your church, what way have your, has your church specifically been able to bless the community?
Speaker 3:Yeah, over the last seven years, done a number of different things. One of the most fruitful things that we still do currently is a monthly outreach to the laundromat. I've talked about this on here before, I think too, but we offer free tacos and coffee and laundry to the community and it's just a very. It's something that our associate pastor, worship director and Trent came up with when we were like, how do we meet people where they are, you know, meet a practical need and be able to, you know, do some spiritual good, pray and share the gospel with people? And it wasn't something that I would think of I've, you know, I was I'm not someone who, uh, uses a laundromat, you know, and um, but it was one of the first things he thought of.
Speaker 3:He was like hey, here's where people are, you know, the uh apartments, low-income apartments around here. They don't have washer and dryers. Everyone goes to laundromat. Let's go meet a real need and then tell people about, you know, how they can have their spiritual needs met. And so we've been doing that every month for a year and a half or two years now, I think. Know, visit, connect with a lot of people who have a lot of needs and who are struggling. Almost everyone that we've connected with has been unchurched and we've been able to see some of them receive the gospel, come to church and, you know, be able to bless them spiritually, pray for them, go to their houses, things like that. So that's one that's been.
Speaker 1:How could someone get involved with that ministry? Is that like a? Is that open to your, only for your church, or do you want other people to come join you?
Speaker 3:No people can come join. It's always nice to have extra hands. There's always work to do. You know, sometimes some months we have smaller teams, other months we have a lot of people. If we ever have too many, you know volunteers or people helping to fit inside the place, then we send the team out into the apartments next door to go knock on doors and pray for people. Okay, so you have something for. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And so people could just email you at Holland, at ECCATXcom, that is correct, okay, hey.
Speaker 1:And also, if you want to get involved with serving the poor at our church, one of the things that we do really fun that is really fun is our Benevolence Gala, where we raise money to give out. So St Aaron, as he's known around here, is constantly on the move giving out money, meeting with people, serving the needs. He's a deacon at our church and constantly serving, and so he helps distribute the money that you've given, and roughly we give out $40,000 a way a year, and so we'd love for you to take part in that, either by serving alongside Aaron or giving to the ministry. And Aaron doesn't get paid, he's a deacon, he just serves out of the overflow and abundance of his heart, and hence the term St Aaron. You can't pray to him and he accepts no relics, but he is really good, he's a, he's really great dude, and we would love for you to join us at our benevolence gala. Go to wellsbranchchurchcom and sign up for that, cause you don't want to miss being a part of our gala experience All right.
Speaker 1:Hey, if you got any questions or you want to help out more around the church and what it is to have a religion that's undefiled and not worthless, come and join us. Text us in at 737-231-0605 or just message us at pastorplekcom. We'd love to hear from you, From our house to yours. Have an awesome week of worship.