Book of James Chapter 3 - Bible Study | Encounter 2020 Men's Retreat

[Music] good morning gentlemen it is such a privilege and a pleasure to be here when ron asked me if i would come back this year and present again of course my first response was absolutely i love these guys i love this community this is a fantastic group of men and i said well what are we doing he said well this year we're going to do it a little differently we're going to actually go through a book of scripture and i said fantastic what book are we going through he said james i said james man james james james james is like wisdom literature new testament stuff don't show favoritism and all that stuff i love the book of james what what part do i get and ron says you get chapter three and i said three that's that's the thing about taming the tongue right yeah and you want me to do that right yeah and for a brief second i thought maybe that i was being punked because those of you who know me know that i can be really sarcastic i'm a words guy i like words i like their fabric i like their substance i like being able to take a thought that's forming in my mind and wrap it up in words and hand it to you and you can see what i'm saying i just love that stuff but it's got this dark side to it words do this is where james is going to take is we're going to go in just a minute some of you may be interested to learn some of you may be surprised i'm not surprised when i was in middle school and high school i got suspended separated from the civilian population not once not twice not three times but at least four times that i can remember i had to be separated from the civilian population put in a spec a place where i could not influence my peers and get them all off track and every single time it had nothing to do what i did to earn this privilege had nothing to do with i didn't spray paint the walls i didn't damage furniture i didn't commit any crime in every single instance all four times it was something i said it was the words that i used which earned me that privilege of being separated you know from my peers and to show you how broken i am in this area and why this is so ironic that i got handed this today for this particular group i look back on the on those particular times and i still think i was being funny i still think you know i i there's not even an inch of remorse i still think the teachers are wrong the administrators just didn't have a sense of humor i mean what was the problem here guys what's the deal but that points to something and this is where james takes us today he takes us in chapter three we're going to spend some time we're going to be talking about we're going to be drilling into how we use our tongues because if you want to see your heart and this is where james is going to take us if you want to see your heart watch your tongue okay we're going to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time we're going to break every single rule of effective presentation right now i'm going to load you up with more than is appropriate for this space but it's good stuff and at the end of this thing this is where i want to bring us back to i want to bring us back to this place if you want to see your heart watch your tongue because every conversation that we are having around the book of james this weekend takes us back to that ish that that baseline center of who we are he takes us back to the heart he walks us through various exercises he gives us various instructions but every single one of these ideas pulls back to who are we in our center before god okay so we've got here's what we're going to do that's our big idea we're going to i'm going to make four observations as we move through the third chapter of james we're going to take a couple of side trips along the way and this is where we're going to land this is what i hope we get out of this thing is we need to understand that the words we speak are expressed in the thoughts that we think and the thoughts that we think is informed by the wisdom that we walk in are we walking with god or are we walking with the world because we are talking about our tongue but we're really hearing from our hearts okay you guys ready four observations observation number one words are windows words are windows let's talk about words for a second what what are words well words give us an insight into something they're they're windows into our hearts words connect me in to myself think about this jesus says in luke 6 45 that the mouth speaks what the heart is full of what's in my heart watch my words if i want to understand myself watch my words if i want to know what is churning in the center of me watch my words words are windows into my heart they help me connect to myself they also help me connect to the world they broadcast who i am my truth my attitude think about this if you walk into a room you've been here before we walk into a new environment maybe it's a business meeting you don't know anybody everybody's a blank slate right everybody everybody starts at the same place until somebody speaks the second somebody speaks you start forming pictures around them you start profiling who is this person what are they what are they up to what's important to them where are they coming from where where are they headed all this stuff forms around the words that people speak words connect me to the outside world ephesians 4 22-29 says hey look we need to put on our new self we need to put off falsehood speak truthfully don't let unwholesome talk come out of your mouths but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen words connect us to the outside world i don't know if you've noticed it lately but there's been a lot of words sliding around the internet a lot of social media a lot of people taking the thoughts of their hearts wrapping them in words and broadcasting it to the world i don't know if you've noticed it lately but it's not all edifying it's not all encouraging it's all not all building up but what it is it's like this all skate it's like this groundswell of people saying i have something to say i've got something in my heart i'm going to amplify it i'm going to put it on social media and i'm going to broadcast it to the world i'm connecting what is going on inside of me and i'm connecting it to you out there for consumption words connect us to the outside world words connect me to myself but words also connect me to god right jesus's disciples walk up to him one day and they say god teach us how jesus teach us how to pray how do we talk to god how do we communicate with god jesus didn't say go over there be quiet and just have some good thoughts he said pray speak use words right words connect us to god words connect us in prayer words connect us in praise words are the means by which we take those two things that are in the center of us and we deliver them to god words connect me to god and words connect god to the world you know where this is going right and god said let there be light gospel john in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god he was with god in the beginning and the word became flesh and he dwelt among us if you want to know god's heart to us his heart his intentions his thoughts wrapped in flesh became the word in the person of jesus this is god's heart towards us connecting himself to our world through the word word can words and the word connect god to the world i'm convinced that our ability to summon the thoughts of our hearts to organize them into recognizable sounds that others can receive and understand this is a reflection of god this is god's image in us this is unique to us and i hope by the time we leave here that we're going to walk out of here with this incredible burden for the words that we use we need to understand that the words we use are way bigger and way more important than just expressing our thoughts in the moment so if the first observation is words have windows my second observation is this and these are all on your tables you can fill them in easy lay up them giving you all the answers second observation is this words have weight words have weight they're not these just collection of letters on a page they're not these tiny little things with lack of which lack substance they have weight they have gravitas james takes us to two places he actually gives us three illustrations for understanding this two of them are sit right next to each other as being alike one is he says look words are like bits in the mouths of horses i'm not a horse guy i had to go look up how big is a bit you know it's like i don't know that big so then i looked up how big is a horse you know did you know that horses can weigh up to 2 500 pounds that's like a car you know this is a beast of burden with mussels and sinews and tendons and you know there is a whole lot of power inside that animal that's 2 000 pounds of something moving in a direction being controlled by something that's that big james doesn't stop there he says okay you guys get this all you land lovers you get horses and bits well how about the guys on the sea here's what you guys can understand how about a ship and a rudder another small thing that makes a big impact you know ships well they carry horses this is a big thing and yet that you've got this this piece of wood steering it the right way can make that ship head out to sea to its demise or to an island off the coast or to trade or whatever you're doing with it two examples james uses of small things to make a big impact because words have weight now i want to touch back to something somebody said earlier because james kicks off chapter 3 with this not many of you should presume to be teachers of the law because those who teach will be judged more strictly now we could check out there we could say hey james isn't talking to me he's talking to those who would be teachers of the law right well i'm sure he is but this doesn't get us off the hook that's fake news that hutch was talking about here's the real news the real news is this we are each teachers in our spheres so here's the off ramp we're going to go i said we're going to have a couple of off ramps here's one i want to talk to you for just a couple of minutes about our sphere all right our sphere each of us has we have a place where we exercise authority and where we exercise influence this is a god-given place this is a real this is the real estate that god gives us to stand in this is the garden that he gives us to work it includes the stuff that we handle and the people that we know and the relationships that we manage this is our sphere don't take this lightly acts 17 26 says from one man god made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth and he determined the times set for them in the exact places in which they should live within our sphere we have a place it's a place that god put us strategically i don't know how he does this he's god i don't know how he takes all of our decisions and he brings history to a conclusion that he had thought of in the beginning i don't know how he does it but he does it and i'm grateful that he does it i'm grateful that there wasn't social media when i was in high school i'm grateful that i don't have a footprint back there that you guys could look at because you never would have asked me to show up here this morning if that were doable but the fact is that our time our place where he puts us this is from god not only does he give us a place in our sphere but he gives us a perimeter around our sphere there is a place where we end right not just in time i mean we don't just breathe our last breath but also even here and now our abilities will carry us so far our resources will carry us so far our influence will carry us so far let's just call that our perimeter all right we've got a place and we have a perimeter psalm 16 5 says lord you have assigned me my portion and my cup you have made my lot secure the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places god marks our boundaries he gives us a place he gives us a perimeter and he also gives us a path every day or routinely at least i walk this stretch of hallway up to my office um and i don't know if it's if it's a trigger or just something i started at some point in time and i prayed this prayer i said lord help me to be a good steward of the time and the relationships and the opportunities you give me today and that sounds spiritual like man he goes to his office he prays but if you knew why i prayed that it wouldn't sound so good because i know me and i know that bubbling underneath the surface is the wrong conversation and bubbling underneath the surface if i am not surrendering my mind and my heart to jesus in this moment i could send people way off track i could real i could destroy a meeting i could wreck somebody i've been trying to build up for a long period of time i could take people in a direction that is absolutely counterproductive to kingdom work and so when i pray that prayer when i'm asking god help me to be a good steward of the time and the relationships and the opportunities that you have given me what i'm asking for is for him to just superintend me in my sphere god you gave me this position you gave me this authority inside of this particular discipline you gave me the relationships that you have brought into my circle help me to tend them well because i know me and i know my heart well enough to know that left unattended left not superintended by the lord my words will push people down a path that is not towards him so we each get a path we have a path on our path you go to proverbs for this first part uh our path we can either use our words for harm or for healing proverbs 12 18 the words of the reckless pierce like swords but the tongue of the wise brings healing we can use our words for harm or we can use them for healing we can push people down a path that's either going to hurt them or it's going to heal them we can use our words for life or death proverbs 18 21 the tongue has the power of life and death and those who love it will eat its fruit our tongues have the power our words have the power not just over harm or healing and life or death but believe it or not over eternal life or eternal death john 6 68 speaking of jesus says lord you have the words of eternal life when we are aligned with jesus's words we are speaking eternal life to our spheres the words we use are going to push us ourselves and others in a direction they're going to push us down a path we are either going to encourage people to walk with jesus or we are going to encourage people to walk with another god it is that simple there's no gray zone there's no neutral tents there's no uh shades of gray at the end of the day every word we use and the precision we use it with is either going to encourage somebody to walk with jesus or it's going to encourage somebody to walk with another god i'm not overstating this and james had this in mind when i make my third observation here words are weapons i want you to hear james's words and before you guys start pushing back on me for like going over the top with the talk on james i just want you to listen to what james has to say james says this is his third example remember we had bitten horses we had rudder and ships and then james takes us to this place he says words your tongue how you use it it's like a fire james says in verse seven through eight it says consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark the tongue is also a fire it's a world of evil in the parts of the body it corrupts the whole body it sets the whole course of one's life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell we don't talk about that much anymore and yet even in the earlier presenters you heard shades of this james is thinking in a construct he's thinking in a way that maybe we're not familiar with his audience understood where he was going with this when james used the word hell the the phrase set on fire by hell to describe the gravity of the words that we use and the consequences to how we use them this is what he had in mind i'm just going to read some of this to you the word is jihana it's derived from the hebrew jehonom or the valley of hinom it was called tafit or the valley of dead bones his audience was jewish his audience understood this connection the word is used 12 times in the new testament 11 times or by jesus the 12th time is here this is important the valley of hanom was a geographical physical location it was a place that people understood it was a small valley south and west of jerusalem just south and west of the old city where the temple of god resided in jesus day the valley was a garbage dump outside of jerusalem it was perpetually burning the idea here is that it was it was a place for waste and refuges worthless stuff if if it was uh it collected the trash and and the discarded carcasses of unclean animals uh it had no if it had no value if nobody wanted it this is where it went it went to the valley of genome it went to this place not only was the valley of hanom significant in the mind of james's readers both historically and geographically but is also significant spiritually because before this valley collected the discard and the refuse of the city before it burned trash it burned something else and the jews understood this this was exactly the place where james is referencing this is exactly the place where the israelite king sacrificed children to fake gods specifically to the canaanite god molech follow me down this rabbit trail second chronicles 28 3 ahaz was 22 years old when he became king and he reigned in jerusalem for 16 years unlike david his father he did not do what was right in the eyes of the lord he followed the ways of the kings of israel and he made idols for worshipping baals he burned sacrifices in the valley of hanom he sacrificed his children in the fire he engaged in the detestable practices of the nations of the lord had driven before him driven out before the israelites that was ahez manasseh was 12 years old when he became king and he reigned in jerusalem for 55 years he did evil in the eyes of the lord following the detestable practices of the nations the lord had driven out before the israelites he built high places as father hezekiah had demolished he also erected altars to the bales and made asherah poles he bowed down to the starry hosts of heaven and he worshiped them he built altars to the temple of the lord which the lord said my name will remain in jerusalem forever in both courts of the temple of the lord he built altars to all the starry hosts he sacrificed his children in the fire in the valley of hinom he practiced divination and he practiced witchcraft and he sought omens and he consulted mediums and spiritists he did much evil in the eyes of the lord arousing his anger second chronicles 33 1-6 jeremiah prophesied about god's judgment on the apostate israels he said that the valley would be called the valley of slaughter jeremiah 7 and 19. isaiah referred to this place by a different name in in chapters 30 33 31 and 66 jesus quoted this once again to point to the valley of genome as a picture for the judgment of god he called it a valley of slaughter unless we think that james wasn't thinking about this when he wrote this james refers to it again in his fifth chapter he talks about the valley of slaughter this is the idea that's forming in james's mind when he's telling us pay attention to the words that you use because the words that you use are reflecting the thoughts that you think and the thoughts that you think are being informed by something and we're going to go there in just a second but the spiritual significance and this would have been understood by james's audience is it would have been understood that this was a place this place being referred to was a place that was understood to be where the spiritual it was a place understood to be punishment of the place and spiritual death both in christian and rabbinic literature it was the epicenter of a spiritual conflict where the forces of evil arrayed themselves against the plans purposes and person of god this is where moloch and baal pretended to be god this is where they pointed people towards hell with their words and their false teachings the valley of the gnome sat and get this sat in the proximity of the temple mount where the presence of god came to earth to dwell among his people you get in the picture here you have a temple mount where god meets men and right next to it you have a valley of henom you have life you have death sitting right next to each other god tells us in the book of jeremiah that the israelites came to this place to burn their sons and daughters in the fire which god said check this out which i did not command nor did it come into my heart remember this idea of god's heart expressing itself through his word towards us god's telling us in jeremiah he said man that wasn't even in my heart i didn't ask for that if you want to know what's in my heart pay attention to my word so here we have this picture we have sitting next to each other we have life and we have death we have heaven and we have hell sitting right next to each other and our words are going to push someone in one direction or the other it's with this knowledge i believe that james says this he says with the tongue we praise our lord and father with it we curse human beings who have been made in god's likeness out of the same mouth come praise and cursing my brothers and sisters this should not be can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring my brothers and sisters can a fig tree bear olives or a grape vine bear figs neither can saul produce fresh water how is this possible how is this possible it's possible because the words that we say flow from the thoughts that we think and they're informed by the wisdom that we walk in as possible and this is where james takes us next it's be easy to read chapter three and think okay we're done talking about the tongue here now we're going to talk about something else we're going to talk about wisdom these ideas are feathered together these are connected because james it feels like he takes a hard downshift into coming off of words and into wisdom but here this is where he's driving us he's saying hey look the words that you use flow from the thoughts that you think the thoughts that you think flows from the wisdom you walk in and by the way there are two kinds of wisdom there's the wisdom of heaven and there's the wisdom of this world and they are spiritually inspired both of them on the surface they look similar but our fourth observation here is wisdom informs our words all right these words flow from somewhere wisdom is the operating system that we have that helps us to make decisions it's how we set priorities by wisdom we sort and we stack and we create and we pursue value it's from wisdom that we get results from wisdom we use wisdom as our filter to intake information and determine how important it is to us and on the surface on the surface heavenly and worldly wisdom can look very similar both of them get things done let's just call it both of them get things done however there is a huge difference between the two between the wisdom we walk in when we're walking in heavenly wisdom versus when we're walking in worldly wisdom heavenly wisdom believes in god worldly wisdom dismisses him and this is consequential this is consequential because you end up with very different results ultimately and this is where james is taking us when you go to your tables and we're going to do this a little differently we're going to do a wrap i'm going to try to put it all in right here on the front but when you go to your tables i want you to read through these verses i think this is 13-17 and there is a grid all right i created a little graph so you can contrast wisdom of heaven and wisdom of the world and you can put them right next to each other and and just from james i mean feel free to wander outside of james if you want to do that but there's plenty inside of this that you can use this grid and mark these things out if you look at put these line these up next to each other wisdom of heaven wisdom of the world and look at these in terms of what is the result what is the evidence what is the motive and attitude and what is the source okay line these up when you guys do your exercises at the table under these under these verses who is wise and understanding among you let him show it by their good life by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom for if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts don't boast about it or deny the truth such wisdom does not come from heaven but it's earthly it's unspiritual james says it's demonic for where you have envy and where you have selfish ambition there you will find every disorder spirit of the age isn't it and every evil practice but the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure and it's peace loving it's considerate it's submissive it's full of mercy as good fruit it's impartial it's sincere peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness all right this last section of james and this is where we're going to bring it down um he makes the observation there's two kinds of wisdom there's heavenly wisdom there's worldly wisdom but this is where he leaves us and this is this to me is is fascinating this is how he drops this off he exhorts us he spends all this build up talking about how important it is to manage the words that we use to be precise in how we use them and he takes the he takes the words that we use and he points them backwards into our heart and he goes from there to our hearts to look at what's in our hearts and what's motivating us he pulls that back into the wisdom that we're walking in and then you know right as we're all amped up and say man i want to go out today and use good words he takes us here he says oh by the way you can't like what come on james i mean you just convinced me that i really need to be paying attention to the words that i'm using and then you bring me here he says in verse two he says we all stumble in many ways anyone who is never at fault and what they say is perfect able to keep their whole body in check and then in verse seven he says all kinds of animals and birds and reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by a man but no human being can tame the tongue what's he driving at here he throws as a standard he says the standard here is perfection here are the consequences if you are not walking in perfection oh by the way you can't walk in perfection where he's driving us is into the hands of god see in chapter one and ron hitted last night james tells us if any of you lacks wisdom ask god so if you want three things to do as we walk out here after we've unloaded all this information here they are ask listen and do number one ask god ask god for wisdom ask him to see as you see just say lord i want to see as you see i want to hear as you hear i want my value set to be your value set i want to know whatever the whatever is going on in the economy of heaven i want that here now i want to be able to apply it when i walk down the hall to my office i want to be able to apply it when i'm at home with my kids i want to be able to see as you see hears you here and do as you do so number one ask god for wisdom start there that all by itself acknowledges god that all by itself puts us in a position of humility before him right that all by itself differentiates wisdom of heaven from wisdom of this world and a little side trip before we go on to number two the wisdom of this world doesn't work you know why i mean i understand the the spiritual answer is oh there's no god well if there's no god who is there see if there's no god then it's just me and it's my resources and if there's no god suddenly resources become scarce opportunities become few and now all that stuff we read about with you know this is the result of worldly wisdom envy bitterness you know all that stuff comparison uh you know selfish ambition it makes sense because if there is no god outside of our frame then we have got to fend for ourselves and we have to fend for ourselves we are counting what kind of resources we have and when we realize that we are not enough we've got to go grab somebody else's pile or wish we had somebody else's pile or get ahead of them in some other way i mean when you take god out of the equation you start thinking in terms of worldly wisdom that changes the dynamic of every single outcome doesn't it that means i have to have justice in my frame on my timetable that means i can't that means i have the right to not be offended that means that i can look across the aisle or i can look across you know whatever situation i'm in and i can look at the other guy and go man i should have that i'm entitled it changes all of the math when we think in terms of worldly wisdom when we take god out of the picture so number one ask god for wisdom god i want heavenly wisdom number two when you ask listen chapter 1 verse 19. everyone should be quick to listen slow to speak slow to become angry ron brought drew that out earlier as well and if you're going to ask might as well listen right chapter 1 verse 21 says hey humbly accept the word planted in you which can save you or preserve you in this in this case you know once i've asked now i gotta really let it soak in i gotta let it penetrate i can let it seed i gotta see where this thing goes i gotta let this thing grow to a place where maybe it's counterintuitive that i don't answer the way i want to answer maybe it's counter-intuitive that i allow somebody else to kind of support them for their promotion maybe it's counter-intuitive that you just fill in the blank so number one ask number two listen and then number three come on verses 122. do what it says don't just listen to the word do what it says james says man you haven't finished you haven't made it around the bases yet until you complete this loop ask for wisdom listen to it and do it not hard right so all that buildup all that stuff where james takes us right i mean he takes us right to the edge of eternity and he convinces us that the words you use have eternal impact like this is life and death time this is eternal life and death time and oh by the way let me make this simple ask listen do can you do that all right if you want to see your heart watch your tongue all right a minute in a minute i'm going to pray uh we're going to call ryan back up here um we're not going to do a wrap and come back you guys at your tables uh you can take them outside ryan will have an announcement but let me let me close this off with some prayer if you guys don't mind and just get us ready to go to lunch heavenly father i just want to tell you thank you so much for heavenly wisdom for giving us the ability to see as you see lord for pointing us backwards into our hearts through the words that we use so that we can see that we need you desperately and daily god i thank you for all of the men in this room for the time that they have carved to come down here and submit themselves to you in this moment thank you for the blessing and the privilege to be called by your name in jesus name [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: One Thing for Men

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Keywords: Men's Bible Study Topics, Men's Group Bible Study, Video Bible Study, Spiritual Growth, men's retreat, book of james bible study, apostle james, epistle of james, james bible study, bible study, spiritual growth in christ, book of james sermon series, book of james chapter 3 bible study, bible study with me, bible study fellowship, live bible study, small group bible study ideas, men's bible study, bible study for men, practical wisdom, one thing for men, men's ministry

Id: cVgKB1ACbqI

Length: 38min 52sec (2332 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 26 2020