Faith IRL - Real Faith Speaks Life - James 3:1-12

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Heat

up here.

Well, good morning. Listen, this could have been our Super Bowl, right? It could have been our Super Bowl. Hey, I was reminded this week of a story of a young man that moved from um from Canada up to California. Just wanted kind of a change of scenery. So he when he got to California, he needed a job. So he went to the local grocery store and got a job in the produce department. And so he had been working there for three or four weeks. And one day a lady came up to him and said, "Son, I need a half a let half a head of lettuce." And this guy knew in the produce department knew that he didn't have any half a head of lettucees. They just had the whole head of lettuce. And he said, 'Ma'am, we don't carry half a head of lettuce. You can buy a whole head of lettuce if you want it. And she looked at him. She said, 'N no, I want half a head of lettuce.' And again, he looked at her and said, "Well, ma'am, I've only been here three weeks, but we don't sell half a head of lettucees." And then she kind of got a little belligerent and she said, "I've been coming to this store for 20 years. If I want a half a head of lettuce, you need to get me a half a head of lettuce." And so this young grocery store clerk took a head of lettuce and he walked back to the back through the swinging doors to the back of the the grocery store to tell his manager. And as he walked back there, he didn't realize she was following him. And he went to his manager and the lady is standing right behind him, he said, "There's some crazy lady out there that wants half a head of lettuce." And about the time those words came out of his mouth, he realized she was standing right behind him. And he turned and said, "But this dear, sweet, beautiful lady would like the other half a head of lettuce, so we can go ahead and sell it to her." Later that day, this same guy was working. The manager came up to him and said, "Hey, you made quite a recovery earlier today." He said, "Just tell me your little story. I know you just moved here from Canada. Why did you move here from Canada?" And this young man said, "Oh my goodness." He said, "I'm looking for a wife." And he said, "The only women in Canada either love hockey or they're just flatout ugly." And the manager looked at him and he got a little belligerent. And he said, "Son, my wife is from Canada." And he goes, "Oh, what hockey team did she play on?" So he spent this young guy just he was just the rest. Like he could have the wrong words come out of his mouth, but he always could kind of save himself. Now, here's the deal. I wish I had that superpower. Don't you? That too many times I have the wrong words that come out of my mouth, but I never find the right words to make up what I shouldn't have been saying in the first place. Um, and we can laugh about stories like those, but I don't know about you, but if I think about the times, even the last week or last month, that the wrong words came out of out of my mouth, they weren't laughing words. Um, they were words that hurt somebody, words that that discourage somebody. And so, so many times our words have such an impact not just on who we are, but our words have an impact on the people around us as well. And so we've been studying this book called the book of James the last five weeks. And we're in the chapter this week that that as James is looking what real faith is. It's no wonder that he says real faith if it's real faith one of the products of real faith is the right language. And so I just got to let you know today that this may be a tostepping sermon on people. You know what a toestepping sermon is? is the ones you better go ahead and pick your feet off the ground because I'm gonna step on your toes because I've been stepping on my toes all week long because I've been studying this one. But James is going to drill down and spin the verses that we're going to look at today. And he's going to be talking about real faith produces the right words. And so if you have your Bibles, we'll have the passage up here on the screen or it's right there in your handout as well. We're going to be starting in James chapter 3, verse one. And here's what James says as he's writing to these Christians that have been just spread out, dispersed all over the area due to persecution. He said, 'Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness, for we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, then he's a perfect man. He's able to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also. They are so large and are driven by strong winds. They are guided by very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot desires and he directs. And so here's what's going on as James begins writing this section of his letter. As I said, he's writing to Christians that have just spread out everywhere because of the persecution and because of them being spread out, not just in different cities and local locations, even different countries. They've had to become be create teachers amongst themselves. They could no longer gather at one large community and only have a few select teachers. And so these teachers have popped up. They popped up because the need to to know what was being taught. they they popped up because they some of the teachers like kind of the prestige of sitting in these positions of authority and teaching people. And so undoubtedly in this time that James is writing this, some of the teachers weren't being careful with what they were saying and what they were teaching. And so James wanted to be really clear as he begins this part of his letter. He says, "Hey, if you're a teacher, you need to be careful what you say. To whom much is given, much is required. There's a greater influence. with greater influence comes a greater accountability. And so he kind of singles out those that would stand before the communities and teach the word of God. But as you continue reading it, James didn't stop there when he's talking about the words that we say. In fact, the scripture lets us know that he really widened the lens because in verse two, he said this, "And we all stumble in many ways." So he took the spotlight off of just the teachers who were teaching the word of God. And he was saying, "Be careful with what you say." And it's like he brought the spotlight and he panned out and he put it on everybody. And he says, "Hey, here's the deal. We all stumble in the words that we say." It's a real issue not just in the classroom, but this issue of the wrong words at the right wrong time is also in the everyday conversations that we have. He was saying this that our speech isn't just a professional problem for teachers. It's a personal problem for every believer. Now I I wish we were a little transparent and comfortable enough right now and I would ask the question, how many of you struggle with the words that come out of your na mouth? Now don't raise your hand. This is just pretend. Okay? Or maybe this is a safer way. How many of you are sitting next to someone who struggles with their words? Okay, you can raise your hand on that one. Right? It really and that's what James is saying. It's something that we all deal with. And here's what he's specifically saying is that when it comes to our speech, it is more than just an expression. It is a direction because he says the things that we end up saying actually lead us into where we are going. Whether we are leading somebody else where they are going as a teacher standing in front of the classroom or just our own lives of things that we are saying leads us into where we are going. See, speech doesn't just reveal where we are. Speech steers us to where we're going to go. And then James does this, and he'll do this six different times in this passage that we read. He has these amazing visual illustrations. And the visual illustrations he brings up is a horse's bit. You know, a horse's bit is that little piece of metal that you put in their mouth. This huge horse is riding and the rider's half the size of a horse. Yet he can put this small bit in the horse's mouth and he can direct that horse to where he needs to go. And James also used the illustration. He goes, "Think of a boat, whether it's a boat that 12 men get into or a ship the size of of of a hotel. They all have a rudder and the small rudder will direct that boat where to go." Here's the truth we need to understand about our speech. And if you're taking notes, you can write this down. Our speech has the power to direct Just the same way a horse's bit has the power to direct where that horse is going or a rudder has the power to direct where that ship is going, our speech has the power to direct. And with that power that holds in our hands, our speech, we can direct people in the right way or we can direct them in the wrong way. With the power of our speech that we hold on to, we have the ability to direct our lives in the right way or we can direct our lives in the wrong way. The truth is this, the words that we speak have the power to affect the lives around us. And I think as you and I sit and listen this, at least I can speak from a personal confession. That's the reason this particular message, these particular words of James are so hard-hitting because we can think back to the times in our lives that we've used words in a good way and we've seen the positive results in people's lives, but we've used words in the wrong way and we've seen the hurt in people's lives because of those words. Talking about the power of words. Think about a judge's declaration of guilty and how that affects not just the person he's sentencing, but every family member and every friend associated with that person. Think about the encouragement by a school teacher can direct the rest of life of a young third grader. On the same token, spouses who are constantly saying we're on the same page instead of fighting with their spouse takes that marriage and moves it in the right direction. And so we have this power with our words. James is saying this power to direct people. In fact, I think of Proverbs chapter 18 verse 21 and it says this in the message, words kill, words give life, and they're either poison or fruit. And then the proverb the the the writer says this and you choose. And so Paul is saying this one. If we claim to have real faith then our word should prove that we have real faith. And we have to understand the responsibility that you and I have with the words that we choose to use every single day. There's power behind them. And then he goes on to say this in verse five. He says, ' So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a force is set ablaze by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and a set on fire by hell. He said then in verse seven, for every kind of beast and bird, every reptile and every sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by the mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. I remember when I was in middle school, my student pastor used this passage to preach to us. He talked about more about the the style of kissing that we chose and not the words that we use. But let me let you know this is not about kissing. This is about speaking and the speaking the tongue what he's saying this one it is such a small physical organ but he wasn't talking about the actual physical organ. He's still talking about the words that come out of our mouths. And he's talking about all the words that come out of our mouth. Not just the ones that we say but also the ones that we write in today's society. That's the DMs that we put out. That's a text message. Text messages we put out. It's the emails that we put. It's the posts that we put on social media. When it comes to our speech, what James is saying, it is such a small piece of your life, but it is a huge part of everything that you are. And he goes, we need to be careful in how we deal with it. In fact, he said, this is so sobering, I thought. He says, though the tongue is small, its impact is anything but small. Our words carry destructive power beyond the size of our words. Let that one sink in for a second. You see, I can think back to conversations that I've had that were hurtful to somebody, that were discouraging to somebody. And it's not like I wrote a full thesis out and had all these words. Many times it came in the form of one or two small words said in the wrong tone the wrong way at the wrong time.

You see, our words don't just impact a conversation. They can shape entire seasons of someone's life. They can ruin thriving relationships and they can even tear down hard fought after lives of people. The reputations.

Think about this. Misspoken words have the power to completely destroy a person's entire life. It's funny when verse six, James used this particular expression. He said this. He said, 'The tongue is set on fire by hell. And James is not saying our tongue, our physical tongue is literally from hell. He's not even saying our words are from hell. He says, but Satan has the ability to take the words that come out of our mouth and use them in such a way that shows dividends to hell and not heaven. Those words can be more negative than they can be positive. Those words come in the form of gossip. They come come in the form of accusations of other people. They come in the form of creating divisions among individuals. And they come in the form of slander. Here's the truth that we need to understand what James is saying in this section. If you're writing things down, you can write this down. Our speech has the power to destroy. The first thing he said is our speech has the power to direct. Now he's saying our speech has the power to destroy. And he gives us these two other word pictures. And the first one he gives us is a match, a fire. When Denise and I moved here, we discovered just a gym that many of you probably know about if you've lived in Colorado very long. And it's the Flying W Ranch. We love going to the Flying W Ranch. They put on a dinner show, a cowboy show. I don't even like western music, but they put on a show with western music that I can go back week after week after week. And we get there, and if you haven't been there in a few years, they've got this magnificent grand hall. It must seat six or 700 people. And they run you through the through the line to feed you. It's just beautiful. And you walk around the grounds if you get there early. And they have just kind of set up and built like old school hundreds of years ago if you're a cowboy. And we walked around and the first time we went there, we're like, "Wow, this is amazing. This is the most amazing place we've ever been to." But we found out, and if you've been around this, you know this long enough that back in 2012, it looked completely different because the big fire hit out there and over 1,800 acres were were burned and the Flying W Ranch was burned in all of that. And so, they've had to rebuild it from scratch. And when I heard that story, I thought, "Wow, how did a fire of that magnitude destroy not just the Flying W Ranch took out just lots of homes there in Colorado Springs? How did a a fire of that magnitude ever begin?" You know what the authorities have come back and said from a match? Somebody carelessly lit a fire somewhere. They don't know if it's done on purpose, by accident, but isn't that such a picture of our words that sometimes we can say, "Well, I didn't mean to say that." It doesn't mean if we it doesn't matter if we mean to say it or not. The destruction is still there when we use the wrong words. And so James is wanting us to understand just like a small match can be so destructive to acres and acres and acres of land, so one word can be such so destructive to the people around us. And then he gives another visual picture. He talked about wild animals being tamed. remember one of the things I loved doing as a child was going to the circus and they had all the things under the big top, but I loved it when the lions came out because that lion tamer would be in the middle of the the three- ring circus and he's taming all those lines going, "Wow, what kind of authority, what kind of control, what kind of power, what kind of everything he needed to be able to do that." And here's what James says. Yeah, isn't it crazy? You can tame a lion, but you can't tame your tongue. And so, James is wanting to us understand just really just the power that we have within the words that we speak because those words have the power to destroy people and relationships around us. Psalms 141:3 says this, "Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips." While the words that we have have the power to destroy if we take control of them, they also have the power to build up. And what James is trying to get us to understand is that we can take a full look at the words that we use, the speech that we have, and how we converse with one another. And he's going, you need to take control of it and put it in God's hand and not let God use it for his glory, not for your benefit. Then he goes on in verse 9 and 12. He says, "With it we bless our Lord and our father." Talking about our speech. With our speech we bless our Lord and father and with it we curse people are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives? or a grape vine produce figs figs. Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. So here's what Paul does next when he talks about speech. He confronts the Christians, the people that are reading the letter both then but he confronts us now and he's going it does not make sense that in one moment you can bless God and the next m moment you curse man. He said, 'The very man that you curse is the creation of the holy God that you're worshiping and blessing and speaking so good about. And so then he uses some more visual illustrations because if you're walking along and you be to see the spring of fresh water coming up and you go down to take some of it, you'd never expect to drink salty water out of it. If it's a spring of fresh water, then it's going to produce fresh water only. It should never have a button that you turn off or turn on to getting whichever kind of water you want. Fresh springs produce fresh water. He said the same thing. If you're walking along and and you see an orange tree, you would expect to get orange from it. You don't reach up to an orange tree and get a piece of fruit and get an apple out of it. You don't do a fig tree and get olives. He goes, "It just doesn't make sense. The tree that it claims to be ought to be the produce that comes from that tree." And he's kind of looking at us and James is going, "Here's the deal. The very mouths that you bless God turn around and curse people." Now, think about this for a second. What are all the ways that we curse people? I don't think they were guilty. And probably most of us aren't like guilty just walking up somebody going, "Let me curse you." But we curse them. But when we may disagree with something they believe in, we all of a sudden throw them out and say bad things about them. We we curse them when instead of lifting them up, we speak ugly to them. There's so many levels of cursing. And and here's what James is saying. Out of your mouth comes worship. Then it should be worship when you speak to somebody. Those two things don't mix. In fact, if you're going to summarize this section, if you're taking notes, you can write this. Our speech has the power to delight.

Our speech has the power to delight.

Denise and I were blessed with two kids that God gave us completely different. I don't understand why God does that. If you give me both the same, at least if I tried on the first one, I'd be know what to do on the second one. But he gave his kids, two kids, completely different. And they're so competitive. And every once in a while, one of my kids will determine it's time to talk bad about their sibling. I want you to know, they may be completely right when my son or daughter speaks about their sibling, but I can't handle it. There's something in me that rares up when you will not talk about your sister that way. You will not talk about your brother that way. And you know why? Because they're the flesh of my flesh. They're my creation. They're part of me. And how dare you, even if you're on my own child, speak bad against somebody who is my own child. And I take that emotion that I feel and I just multiply times 101. That must be what God says. That must be what God feels when someone, one of us speaks ill regard towards of his own children. And he goes, "Here's what you need to do. You need to use that same speech to build that person up. If worship comes out of your mouth on Sunday, then encouragement better come out of your mouth on Monday. Out of the same spring, it all flows." You see, here's what we need to understand as James is writing this. The the goal is not merely avoiding harming words about another person. Our goal should be our speech is an overflow of our heart because that was the real problem. You see, if you look at a spring, what's going to bubble up from the ground is what's under the ground. And what comes out of our mouth is what's in our heart. And he's going, it's not just a matter of fixing your speech. It's about fixing your heart so that your speech is refreshing. So that your speech is nourishing, so that your speech breathes life into the people around you.

And so here's what James says. Real faith produces right language.

So here here's how this plays out in real life. I know for me, personal confession, transparency, I love to laugh. And too many times Keith uses sarcasm as part of my humor. And sarcasm never happens looking in the mirror. Sarcasm always happens when someone else is in the room. And a couple of weeks ago, Denise and I went to bed and she said, "Hey, I I just need to tell you something." She goes, "I don't want to start a fight, but I just need to tell you something." She goes, "Earlier tonight, when some people are over and you said that sarcastic thing about me," she goes, "I know you're being funny." She goes, "But it hurt."

And she goes, "And it didn't make you look very good."

And she said it in such a kind way.

I tossed and turned all night long

because I thought, "Here's my bride. Here's the one that I love more than anybody else." And her kind words said, "It hurt me."

And I began thinking, I wonder if those around us would use the same kind words. It hurt me. how it really might help us. You know, we've been talking about and James mentioned this in his book that that scriptur is like a mirror. Scriptur is like a mirror that we look into to see reflection of ourself.

But there is the opportunity that we can also use the mirror reflection of ourself in God's word. And it's a mirror for ourselves, but we can hand it to someone else as a microscope. Here's what I mean by that. That night, as we lay in bed and didn't have a long conversation about it, I just looked at her and I said, "I'm sorry. I recognize that I want to do better. And I turned the mirror and I handed it to her with permission and said, "If you see this in me again, will you call it out?" Because I want my speech to lift her up. I want my speech to be a reflection of the God that I sing to and worship on Sunday mornings. And so I said simply, it is a mirror for me to look in, but I give you permission and I hand it to you as a microscope so I can see my life more clearly through you. Now please don't think great of Keith because that doesn't happen very often. Too many times those conversations as one says something like what I can't well what about you? You know what I'm saying? Just back and forth. But it was this moment of just the Holy Spirit stepped in and used that. And so I want to close today with giving you just several questions that I'm going to challenge. Watch this. Not you. I'm going to challenge us to hand these questions to the people around us this week that we can examine our speech. Here's the first question. If you're bold enough to find the right people in your life and ask this question. Is there something I say often that others wish I would stop saying? Is there something I say often that others wish I would stop saying? I think there's really a better way to do these questions. Instead of making them broad like that, hand them to a specific person and ask this question. Is there something I say often that you wish I would stop saying? Here's question number two. Who have I wounded with my words intentionally or unintentionally? Or maybe if you're handing that microscope in as a specific person's hands, how have my words wounded you either intentionally or unintentionally? Number three, did my opinion actually help or did it just help me feel heard?

Did my opinion actually help or did it just simply help me to feel heard? Number four, what do my words usually leave behind? Encouragement or cleanup?

What a powerful question. What do my words usually leave behind? Encouragement or cleanup? Here's the next one. Do others tend to open up or shut down after talking with me? Do others tend to open up and feel a safe place to talk more and share more and be more who they are or do my words often shut them down and keep them from talking more? Two more for you. Where does my speech most often break down? In conflict, in criticism, in humor, or in frustration? Most of us have an Achilles heel in one of those areas. And our conflict, in our criticism, in our humor, or in our frustration, that's where our speech seems to break down the most. Which one is it for you? And then here's my last one. Do my words toward others reflect the worship I offer to God?

Do my words to others reflect the worship I offer to God? You know, there's a lot of things that we need to do so people can see our faith. But if you and I would make a concentrated God inspired, not us inspired but God inspired just emphasis on going God let my speech look like my faith or may my faith produce my speech. And that's what real faith is. You know, I told you when we started this sermon today, it was one of those, "Ouch, step on some toes." Here's what I know about God. He never convicts without the purpose of lifting up. When he gives us words like these that we may feel the sting, that we may feel the oo that's me and may feel the ouch of it, it is not to say bad, bad, bad. It is to restore us into who he wants us to be. And so the band's going to come back up here and we're going to we're going to take just another moment just to worship. And here's my encouragement. May the worship that we sing now be the prayer of our words as we walk this next week. And so, Father, we come before you now

and we confess. I I I'll confess for me, Jesus, my words too many times don't reflect you. And Jesus, I think I can probably confess that for all of us.

Thank you, Jesus, that the words that you speak into us is that of life. And so I pray this week that our words would be an overflow of the good heart, the gracious heart that you have put in us. And may our words reflect life.

And we pray this in your holy name. Amen.