The Book of James: Say What?!

welcome to the block online today we're gonna be jumping into James chapter three so if you have your Bible with you your smartphone one encourage you to get it out we're gonna be looking at the first 12 verses of James chapter three before we get into that one actually a question if you were given the opportunity or someone said hey what superpower would you like to have anyone at all you pick one superpower which one would you choose I want you to think about that right now we talked about this in life groups this past week like would you want to fly would you want to be invisible like what would you want to do and I think it's entertaining to think about having some sort of superpower but tonight what we're gonna see in James chapter 3 is that what if I were to tell you that you already had power you already had a superpower if you will proverbs 18:21 says this the tongue has the power of life and death and those who love it will eat its fruit and we're going to camp out tonight on in the subject matter that James chapter 3 is focused around is the power of your words the power of your words now many of you know I hope you do that words are powerful think about it in both ways in a positive aspect some of you you have received encouragement at just the right time in your life and those words of encouragement have directed you on a path to be successful where to choose a career or some some way shape or form but what if look at where it's in a negative aspect for example words in a negative aspect a hurtful comment or word has the potential to shape your life in a way that is maybe unfavorable or it directs your actions and your decisions in a way that maybe now you you look at yourself look at the way you're living and you realize man this is because of a word that was spoken to me by a parent by an aunt by an uncle by a teacher a word spoken in a moment that was leveraged for not good for evil and here I know is that right words in the right moments they can shape a person's thinking and also their destiny now we're gonna jump into verse one tonight once again we're gonna camp out around this James camp out around this topic of words and the power of words but he starts off James chapter three with a warning and this what he says he says not many of you should become teachers my fellow believers because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly now let me let me just tell you this I understand that in this moment this position that I'm in is a very serious position to be in you are listening to words that are coming out of my house my mouth from my heart and those words have the potential to build you up they have the potential to direct your life in a way that could either go towards the course that God has for your life or if it the words are not correctly spoken or if I misinterpret Scripture it has the opportunity to the exact opposite of that can I tell you I love what I do but also hate what I do at the same time and the reason why I say that is because you don't have any idea how terrified I am at times to speak to you in any way shape or form because I understand and scripture tells me the weight of words and the position of a teacher and a preacher it's a serious thing it's a serious position and being it's nothing to take lightly it's amazing and it's haunting at the same time but this passage of Scripture verse 1 it's not just directed to teachers but it's directed to people who want to be teachers and so maybe you you look at this position that I'm in right now you're like man I can't wait I'm gonna I'm gonna start a ministry I'm gonna start doing my own thing and putting my words out there on the internet I'm gonna do all these things I want to can't wait time a pastor time a leader to have a microphone till I have a platform I want to just warn you before as you begin that endeavor with that thought process is that the scripture says that people who teach will be judged more strictly and why is that it's because we're using our speech and what we're gonna see tonight is the hardest part of your body to control is your speech it's your tongue why because we expose ourselves to greater danger and the tongue is it can be used for good or for bad and we're gonna see what James says about that tonight Jesus said this in James chapter I'm sorry Luke chapter 12 verse 48 from everyone who's been given much much will be demanded and from the one who's been entrusted with much much more will be asked right he's saying look if you if you've got a gift if you you gonna put yourself on a platform where people are gonna look at you whether you're a social-media influencer or you're a pastor or a leader you're a life complete or what better yet if you're just giving people advice you better watch yourself because you're gonna be looked at as a teacher and that position is gonna be judged more strictly every time you give your opinion to someone you're teaching it and so let's go on in verse two he says we all stumble in many ways but anyone who is never at fault and what they say is perfect able to keep the whole body in check and here's the thesis that he's making in verse two if you can control your mouth if you could control your words that come to the words that come out of your mouth then you can control the work the rest of your life now why would he say that why would he make that weighty that weighty that thesis right there he would say that because the tongue is powerful and it can bring disaster upon your life and the lives of the people who those words are directed to Matthew 12 37 jesus said this he said for by your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned and James his view of spiritualities barometer of spirituality is actually what comes out of your mouth that's why Jesus said this in Luke 6 a good man brings good things out of the good stored in his heart but an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored in his heart for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of let's continue in verse 3 he says James gives these three illustrations to talk about the power of the tongue in the next couple verses he says this when we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us we can turn the whole animal so the illustration is this in this day time they would understand a horse if you want to control a horse you put a bit in its mouth a small piece of metal and with that small piece of metal you can guide the direct of that large animal here in New Orleans we have we have Mardi Gras now if you ever been to Mardi Gras or you've seen the festivities but they have horses in the parade sometimes sometimes I have Clydesdales I'll never forget when I was younger I went to a Mardi Gras parade and there was a Clydesdale these massive horses that are controlled by a small piece of metal and he says that's what that's what it's like when you put bits into the mouths of horses and make Moebius you turn the whole animal the same thing is true with your speech your speech ultimately controls the course of your life it controls where you're going he goes on a verse for or take a ship as an example although they're so large and driven by a strong wind they're steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go and he says likewise the tongue is a small part of the body but it makes a great bow so the illustration is a big boat is led by something small like like a rudder at the end of the boat that the the pilot chooses where this large thing goes your mouth is the same way I was thinking about 20 years ago over 20 years ago in December 14th 1996 was about 25 years ago that here in New Orleans we have this thing downtown called the Riverwalk and it's it's all these shops along the Mississippi River and I was only I was really young at this time some of you weren't even born so just forget that but anyway in 1996 December 14th there was a ship that cut got cut loose and it was actually it wasn't being steered properly and it ran into the side of the Riverwalk a hundred and sixty people were hurt millions of dollars or damage were done why because as the small rudder controlled a large ship and when the pilot lost control of the rudder the ship caused destruction and damage collateral damage to many people's lives your mouth our words are the same way in the next example he says this is like a fire all right consider what a great 4 is to set on fire by a small spark the tongue is a fire a world of evil among the parts of the body it corrupts the whole body that's the whole course of one's life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell think about a forest fire how does a forest fire start with a spark with a match if you will I was thinking about 2007 the Angora fire in Chicago that fire burned 254 houses three thousand and one acres were burned 67 commercial structures were destroyed 2,000 firefighters were sent in to help control that fire eleven point seven million dollars is what it cost to fight that but the damage of the fire was 141 million dollars do you know how that fire got started it got started by a campfire a bunch of people said no big deal let's just throw a match out there and that small campfire was uncontrolled and it caused all of this damage and this is what James is trying he's trying to get us to look at at our words and different illustrations so that we can understand the weight and the power that our words have and they have the power as James's seek in these three examples to destroy not just your life but your words have the power to destroy others people's lives as well for some of you I mean think about like this some of your friendships have been ruined because of a careless word that was spoken that you found out about her that you spoke towards someone else some of some of our families are in ruins not because of actions but maybe because of words because it ants an uncle a cousin words we're like matches and set on fire and a forest fire took place in our lives and there with the collateral damage of those words was our relationships and James is saying I need you to understand in that that your words are powerful there was this a childhood rhythm this this rhyme I'm sorry it says this it says sticks and stones may break my bones but words may never hurt me that is a lie that's a lie why would you make that run because it's a lie right because words do hurt and some of us you there's words that have been spoken to you decades ago and you're still feeling that right now in your heart you're still feeling that in your mind why because words are powerful like James is saying here I mean words can start a war they have the power to destroy I think of Kovan 19 and everything that we're going through right now in our country and and we are we are hanging on the words of individuals in authority whether they're doctors or politicians whatever it is that are giving guidance to our state our country our region our world the World Health Organization we tuned into the news and their words they are so much weight that that the words have shifted us in to a specific way of living if you will because we've their words are powerful but can I tell you that your words are powerful as well I learned really early in my 20s that um I just needed to stop talking so much and maybe some he needs to learn that lesson too I realized that the best thing that I could do was not talk at all because I found that I just kept getting myself in trouble I would say the wrong thing at the wrong time or I would say things that I should have just kept to myself but here's what the Bible says in Proverbs 1728 even fools are thought wise if they keep silent and discerning if they hold their tongues you know James chapter 1 remember we talked about this quick to listen slow to speak and now James is almost like it's like helping us to connect the dots why because if you speak quickly without thinking through what you're saying you can destroy things you can bring life absolutely but you can also bring death proverbs 10:19 when words are many sin is avoidable but he who restrains his lips is wise right so I want what's your thing about your words right now would you say that you are wise with your words wise with your speech continue to verse 7 chapter 3 he says there's all kinds of animals birds reptiles sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind but no human being can tame the tongue it is a restless evil full of deadly poison now growing up I don't know if he might knows it but I originally wanted to be to work it in the sea I wanted to work in water I wanted to go to school from marine biology and and part of the reason why was because I saw people taming the animals of the ocean things like orcas and killer whales and dolphins and and all these different sort of animals and it was so intriguing to me and I just I was so fascinated by that a man a human being was able to tame something so much larger than itself it just drew me in and as I've traveled on the world in my 20s I was able to see people are taming Tigers people are taming elephants are tending all kinds of things but what James is saying is here is that even though you can tame all of these animals that God has made the one thing that you cannot tame is your tongue you can't tame it David here well going back he says it's a restless evil full of deadly poison and the illustration he's trying to connect the dots at your tongue it's almost like a snake in the sense it's full of deadly poison that it bites and it injects poison into whatever it's focused on David defines evil people in Psalms as those who think and say and talk bad about him he says this in Psalm 140 they meaning evil men make their tongues as sharp as serpents the poison of Vipers is on their lips he says man let me tell you something you can't tame your tongue it's full of deadly poison and he he doubles down on this he keeps going in James chapter 3 verse 9 he says with the tongue we praise our Lord and father but with it we curse human beings who've been made in God's likeness and remember I talked about this last week that that if you wanted to get at the the core of James he's talked about integrity that you are being the same person in private as you are in public that God has changed you given you a new identity and you're living that identity out in public and private and here's what he's saying you cannot separate your relationship with God from your relationship with others you can't separate God from his children to insult another human being is to end salt god that would be the equivalent of me of you coming to me and saying amazing things to me but then while you're saying amazing things to me you say hey you know what you know your son Khalil your son Taaj your son Liam and they're so annoying I just can't stand those those three little boys they just get on my nerves you me and you we're cool Steven but those boys man like can we just ditch them for a little while can we just like go and do our own thing and like oh yeah what's good like absolutely not you've disrespected me because you've spoken ill about my kids and can I say that this is what he's saying here he goes it's really weird when you show up at church or when you sing honor and praise to God with your mouth but with that same mouth that same tongue you curse people who are made in His image and you know I think that if we were gonna take this and and make it as applicable as we could today in our context we have to bring technology into this conversation and the reason why is because the majority of our time is spent on our phones it's spent on social media right and so it's talking about like your words have power I think you need to make sure that we understand too that what you tweet is powerful what you post is powerful what you share what you like which you comment on there is power in that because now in in this day and age those actions are connected to who you are as a person people have lost their jobs lives have been ruined because of something that they've tweeted or something that they've liked or something that they've shared in fact in psychology there was a an experiment it was called the Milgram test and it was featured in articles Psychology Today called why we hurt the ones we can't see and the test basically was went something like this that people they injected hurt into other individuals when they couldn't see him but the closer proximity they were to people and they could hear the anguish they can hear the pain that the or feeling as they were as they were injecting pain whether it was volts of electricity whatever it was a small portion of it they didn't do it so much the percentage is decrease why because they understood that their actions were literally impacting the person in front of them but when they couldn't see the person they injected as much pain and much as much electricity as possible I wanted to share that with you because I think that that's where we're at today that we don't understand that the things that we like the things that we tweet the things that we say they are impacting our brothers and sisters in Christ in a negative way here's a terminology me and a friend of mine here coined when in doubt log out right when in doubt log out if you don't know if it's questionable if it's something you mean I wonder if this is okay like just just log out now you may say yeah well we we have the the freedom of speech don't we like this is America we can say whatever you want to do yeah yeah we do but I want to remind you that if you say you're a Christian that means that you have proclaimed that Jesus is Lord of your life and to say that Jesus is Lord of your life means that you live by a different set of standards and rules that are outlined in the Constitution of the United States a higher standard which means that you respect the person next to you love the person next to you as your self meaning that you need to watch what you're tweeting you need to watch what you're liking you need to watch what you're posting because I'm just telling you from firsthand from conversations I've had this week conversations I've had over the past seven years of ministry man the things that you put on Facebook that things you put on Instagram the things you tweet the things you post they have the potential to ruin relationships to bring division in the body of Christ so I want to encourage you just be careful what you're doing don't think that that what how you're living your life is not impacting anyone because it is why because words are powerful words are powerful and he ends by saying this in the last three verses out of the same mouth comprising cursing my brothers and sisters not be three examples he says can both freshwater and saltwater flow from the same spring my brothers and sisters can a fig tree bear olives or a grapevine bear figs neither can a salt spring produce fresh water and he gives us illustration that they would have understood in this term because wherever there was fresh water people would gather and live around that spring because fresh water it denoted life and it would be weird to build your life around something that said this was going to bring life and then all of a sudden it was just fresh and then it was salt water it like like that doesn't make any sense there's a dichotomy there that should not be and if God has changed your heart there should be a change in your words you can't have two streams coming from the same place that doesn't make sense it's either good or it's gonna be bad now here's what's here's our want to land the plane tonight James does not give a let me uh let me give you a how-to list how to do this at the end of James chapter three he doesn't do that because the mouth isn't the problem this speech isn't the problem here's deal you can listen to this and be like man I just got to be better with my words yeah good luck good luck you're not gonna be able to do it why because the problem isn't your words the problem is the heart the problems the heart out of your heart flows your words so you can try to change the behave in action you can change the fruit but if you don't change the route then the fruit is just gonna still come in some way shape or form he goes in a math jesus says it's in Matthew 15 don't you see that whatever enters into the mouth again sirs the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body but things that come out of a person's mouth come from their heart and these defile them for out of the heart come evil thoughts murder adultery sexual morality theft false testimony slanders these are what defile the file person but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them and so what Jesus is talking about and you can read the Gospels for yourself Jesus came to change hearts he came to give new hearts he came to tell us that you can't you can't fix yourself you can't go around and say well I'm just gonna put a jar on my counter every time I curse I'm gonna put a dollar in and give it to a charity that I hate like like that's not the solution to the problem here the solution to the problem is not a change in sentence it's a change in source and so I think the best way to end this passage of Scripture and just our time together tonight is for you to for each of us not just you me myself included to be honest and just have a valuation and say okay the words that I'm speaking are they life giving the words that I'm speaking do they bring do they cultivate unity do I praise God or do i gossip after church is over after turn this podcast off for this this sermon am I gonna go talk about somebody in a negative way or in a negative light and if you were to monitor your speech today tomorrow I think all of us we'd be guilty of that we'd be good to have that because none of us is perfect but if we want to be perfect then James says that we need to need a monitor what comes out of our mouth but in order to do that our hearts have to change and so I just want to end by by praying with you tonight and just asking you man how's your heart tonight how's your heart and you can say well my heart is great well look at the fruit of your life specifically tonight look at your words if your words are not good then your heart is not good and what we conceal God cannot heal right so here's what I want to do tonight it's want to pray for you as we close up and I want to pray specifically that God would impact our hearts maybe there's areas of our lives that we have yet to hand over to God when we surrendered our life there maybe you're listening tonight you've never surrendered your life to the Lord I want to lead you in a prayer if you want to do that the Bible says that today is a day of your salvation maybe you've been trying to do all the religious things and the spiritual things and get all the that you you know check all the boxes and you realize that's just not cutting it that's just not getting it there's no life changes happening you're just exhausting yourself trying to fulfill all these activities when the reality is that there needs to be an identity change that takes place on the inside and from that identity change all the actions will naturally flow through the power of the Holy Spirit and so if that shoots and I just want to lead you in this prayer and you could say something like this you could say God Here I am I know that my sin separated me from you and I ask your forgiveness in this moment I believe that you sent your only Son Jesus had on the cross for my sins and that three days later he rose again and right now for the first time in my life I open the door of my heart and I say yes Jesus I make you the Lord and Savior of my life I repent from the way I was walking and I turned towards you put your Holy Spirit in me to lead me into God me I want to follow you all the days of my life in Jesus name Amen if you said that prayer with us tonight let us know you can send us a DM to our Instagram you can if you're watching this live you can comment on the chat maybe you're in a in a life group letter life could lead or no and we want to walk with you and we want to resource you in the coming days but I want to pray for for those of us here tonight who you know the Lord you've been walking with the Lord but this is this area of speech is an area the man we all need help with myself included and so I just want to say a quick prayer for us and maybe you can you can join in with me as I pray for you tonight god I just I need help we need help father none of us is perfect I know we've all said things that we've regretted we've we've maybe posted things or like things or share things and God we just repent right now and we ask in the name of Jesus that you would come by the power of your Holy Spirit and that you would change our hearts father as we've been talking about this personal revival that has to take place within us god I pray that what's true of Ezekiel 36 that you take a heart of stone you give us a heart of flesh God that you would change the areas of our heart that need to be changed right now so that streams of living water could flow from us Lord God that that our speech would line up to our heart which is aligned with your will for our lives so god I thank you for that tonight god I pray that we would all be encouraged by seeing our speech improve over the next couple days even minutes as we have our next conversations that we would be like Barnabas we would be encouragers of the body of Christ father that we would be speaking life not death father and that you would be honored and glorified that we would no longer be individuals with two streams flowing from our mouth God that we would have living water and living water only in Jesus name Amen hey got some analysis for you you guys have a great week check a Leo

Channel: THE BLOC

Views: 73

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: church, celebration church, nola, bloc, worship

Id: 8haEjm0yVqw

Length: 27min 24sec (1644 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 25 2020