James Chapter 3
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Baby dedication
Invite them up front.
Introduce Zach, Caroline, Zanerick, Bodin, and Leona
Tell the church how we came to know them…pumpkin carving contest…zippered right in.
What I can tell you is that they fiercely love their children. I have watched you guys celebrate the victories and the joy of bringing new life into the world. I still remember that second home church service where Zach let the cat out of the bag really quietly that you guys were expecting…and I also remember the meal we ate together after taking the kids to hike and watch the Salmon spawn where you officially told us you were expecting.
I have watched the tough times as well. Conversations we have had about the inherent frustrations present in every parenting journey.
What I know, after watching your family grow together is that you deeply love one another and your children.
And from conversations I have had with both of you, seeing your dedication, your passion for service, and your love for others, I know that you both love Jesus.
As I thought about how to do this for the very first time, several things raced through my mind. Things like why we do this. What is it supposed to accomplish, and what is it going to look like? This is the very first baby dedication here at The Outpost so we can make it whatever we want.
My mind was led to a couple of different places.
First, it was led to Proverbs Chapter 22. Its a very familiar verse but let me read it anyways.
Proverbs 22:6 (NASB95)
6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Do the bent bow bit…bowyer term...
I think, first and foremost, we have to recognize that this isn’t really as much about these three wonderful kids as it is you guys. You have both come to know and follow Jesus. It is through salvation and a life devoted to following Jesus that we experience the fullest life possible. And at the end of the day, that’s what our jobs as parents is all about…training up our children so that they can not just function but thrive. Thrive at work, thrive in their relationships, and most importantly and honestly foundational to it all, thrive in their relationship with Jesus.
That’s what this is all about. Dedication is about setting something apart for a special, and in this case God-honoring purpose. But this isn’t about setting these kids apart as it is you setting yourselves apart. Dedicating yourselves like the skilled bowyer to shape and mould these kids true to who they are and to help them come to experience a life made alive in Jesus in their own unique journeys.
The second place my mind went was to rocks. Yep…rocks.
There are three different times in the Bible where people set up memorial stones.
Jacob set up a memorial stone to remember his encounter with God and the promise God made to him at Bethel.
Joshua set up twelve memorial stones the moment they Israelites set foot on the other side of the Jordan river in the promised land to remember Gods unchanging faithfulness as he led them and preserved them in the wilderness for 40 years.
And finally, Samuel set up a memorial stone he called an Ebenezer to remember the trouble God had delivered Israel from.
And so, I’ve got a couple of stones for you guys. They aren’t special…honestly I picked them up from my yard this morning. These two stones are no more special than the ones Jacob, Joshua, and Samuel used. But do you know why they chose stones? Its because stones would withstand the sands of time to bring their minds back to remembrance of God’s faithfulness and provision. These stones will look the same the day you and every person in this room dies…much like God, they are unchanging. They represent a moment in time we are to remember every time we look at their unchanging form.
And so I want you two to take these stones as a remembrance of this moment right here. The moment you set yourself apart committing to raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord that they might come to know and follow Him through their own unique journeys. Remember the blessing God has given you in these wonderful children. Remember your commitment to the charge of raising them to love God and love their neighbor. Remember that you are not alone on this journey either.
We are with you in this. We are here for you and want to come alongside to help in any way we can. And so to show that we are with you, I would like anyone who wishes to come up and place your hands on this beautiful family as we pray over them and the journey that lies ahead.
Pray.
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Big Idea: James wants us to look at the power of our words. Although our words have incredible power to build and create, James is only going to focus on the power they have to destroy. James takes us on a deep dive through four different levels terminating on the soul-deep source of our words.
Bobby talk
4 Years I spent with him planning, strategising, being discipled, and learning how to lead as a pastor. And it was great to have him with us so he could share in the fruit of his labor by getting to meet a lot of you and seeing the worship that is taking place here in Yelm due in large part to the sacrifices and generosity of Bobby and the crew at Sunbreak Baptist Church.
You know I love the guy because I gave him THE premier passage in the book of James.
Do the criticism over James’ lack of Christology and Soteriology…But James chapter two brings that in a huge way. Explain it as the anchor point of the book that we have been leading to and will refer back to. (Explain what James wants for his readers and the three things he says we need if we are going to be perfect and mature and how genuine faith is the central anchor for actually attaining maturity).
Honestly there is not many other people I would trust to bring that message other than Bobby and I believe he did a fantastic job!
But this morning, we are going to start talking about some of the more practical elements of daily living from the book of James.
James chapter three is really centered around the idea of the tongue. That is to say that:
James is going to address our communication.
I like the word communication better than words or language because I believe it addresses the broadest range of issues intended by James. Sure, we communicate with our words to other people through dialogue both as we initiate and respond to others. But, we also communicate with ourselves through inner dialogue. And does our inner dialogue ever make its way to outer dialogue or even action? Absolutely! I think, though, we need to definitely include the communication we have through our online presence on social media as well. These three domains of communication really round out what James is addressing through this passage.
And James goes from the bright and sunny faith and works conversation to super dark and existential in like two seconds. Here is sort of the idea:
Ruin everything bit...The Outpost - Your marriage, business, friendship, children, and legacy.
At the heart of this conversation, James is wanting to communicate that:
We possess and incredibly destructive power through our words that if left uncontrolled will burn your world to the ground.
Perhaps it is easy to see the damage that words can cause when they are outright demeaning, laced with profanity, and aimed at someone else with the intent to harm. It’s also easy to see the damage caused by news outlets who constantly twist the truth to fit their left or right leaning biases and the division it has caused.
But, it is a little harder to know the extent of the damage that constant, harmful, and negative inner-dialogue causes to yourself and the actions it can inspire. Maybe you simply justify your underhanded comments or cold and harsh tone as just “who you are,” because hey, I don’t want to be perceived as fake. And honestly, what is it going to hurt but the feelings of a few snowflakes if I retweet or share that polarizing social media post?
Perhaps you don’t realize how terribly critical and judgmental you are because you have surrounded yourself with people who go along with you and find it funny to criticize that politician, leader, teacher, or public figure.
Maybe we convince ourselves that we have a healthy level of self-confidence instead of the truth that our speech is actually quite boastful and self-aggrandizing.
Maybe you never imagined that thing someone told you in confidence, but that you then went and shared with someone else “in confidence” would make its way back to the person it was about and you would actually be guilty of harmful gossip.
Maybe you never thought that one word or one sentence you spoke to your spouse or child would fester into resentment but yet years later its the very thing they go back to to point to where everything went wrong.
No, our words are dangerous. And James wants us to stare straight into that abyss to admire it.
It’s like a tiger bit…it’s a thing to be admired but from a distance. Not so with James. James wants us to stare eye to eye with the tiger, so close we can feel its breath on our neck. He wants us to stare at it, get a sense of its power and the damage it can do so that we can reckon with it and get control over it.
Deep dive…four sets of illustrations/metaphors… fountainhead of our souls is leaking salt water bit.
So with that said, let’s see what James has to say about our tongues.
1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.
We will come back to that at the end of today.
2 For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.
This is James’ reminder to us that we are all fractured people. We claim to believe one thing about following Jesus and yet our walk is imperfect, we stumble. There are inconsistencies and apparently…and don’t miss this:
The way we communicate is the litmus test for the inconsistencies that exist between our faith and our works.
James is going to show us by the end of this section that our tongue isn’t the root of the problem…no the root is much deeper than that…its just that our words are the primary indicator or that much deeper problem.
Our tongue (communication) is the expression of our inner thoughts, desires, and intentions.
And so James begins a very methodical deep-dive into what the root of the problem is through these four metaphors.
The first image is about Bits and Rudders.
Here is what James says:
3 Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well.
4 Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.
5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!
The first reason our tongues are such a problem is because they are deceptive. I don’t mean that in the sense that they spread lies and deceit; although that is also true. I mean that in the sense that our tongues are incredibly small and seemingly innocuous in comparison to the rest of our person and yet they are responsible for more evil than anything else.
I feel like this is a lesson we have been schooled in big time over the past two years. Here is what I mean:
INSERT CHRISTMAS SHOPPING MEME HERE...
Perhaps you laugh but that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of problems that have been created by something so small it can’t even be seen by the naked eye.
You know, if you were born in the 20th century, you lived through what is hands down, and without comparison, the bloodiest century in human history. It wasn’t the nuclear bomb, it wasn’t the billions of dollars worth of drugs pouring onto our streets, it wasn’t hired mercenaries fighting in blood diamond African genocides that caused it either.
It was one man with a funny mustache speaking behind a podium that would mobilize half a continent to battle in an ideological war. And if your mind immediately went to Hitler, just know he wasn’t the only one.
You may have been affected by this personally given we have such a high population of military people. Perhaps you go back to the moment that airplanes crashed into the symbols of American power as what sparked a 20+ year war but the reality is that those plans were hatched and the inspiration was given years before those events ever took place by a few men in a dark cave on the other side of the world.
Listen to this quote by a commentator named Curtis Vaughn:
Indeed, it is difficult to exaggerate the deeds of the tongue. It can sway men to violence, or it can move them to the noblest actions. It can instruct the ignorant, encourage the dejected, comfort the sorrowing, and soothe the dying. Or, it can crush the human spirit, destroy reputations, spread distrust and hate, and bring nations to the brink of war.
I think about this time I worked in a jail before going into the military. Perhaps if you have ever worked in any kind of law enforcement, you can relate to this. If you were going to carry any sort of non-lethal option, you had to first experience it as part of your training. If you were going to carry OC spray, you had to get sprayed, if you were going to carry a taser, you had to take the five second ride, and so on. The instructor for our class said to us:
This part of the class is supposed to help you operate if the non-lethal is turned against you. So that way if an inmate takes your OC spray and hits you in the face with it you can still function and exit the situation alive. He said, “honestly, I don’t care how many times you get hit with this stuff, it never gets any easier…you’ll never be able to withstand it.” No, he said, I just want you to have a healthy respect for it before you unleash it on someone else frivolously because you have been deceived by the term non-lethal into thinking it isn’t still incredibly brutal.
This is what James is doing here. Don’t be deceived because your tongue is so small. Don’t be deceived because its just a tweet, a share, or a like. Don’t be deceived because it’s witty and everyone else laughs and agrees with what you are saying. Don’t be deceived because that person had it coming and you were just saying what needed to be said and everyone was thinking. Don’t be deceived because its just “your personality to be brash and rude” and only the snowflakes get offended. Don’t be deceived because you aren’t saying it to the person’s face.
Don’t be deceived... because we wield a power through our words you cannot even fathom and the consequences of wielding it haphazardly are immense. And that’s where James goes with his next metaphor.
6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.
Gorge Fire Bit… 2017 Summer - Area bigger than D.C. - 1000 hrs Community service - 5 Years Probation - $36M restitution's paid to government and private institutions.
And here is the deal, I cant adequately impress on you the true weight and gravity of our words. I tried…I simply don’t have the communicative range or ability and so I am going to let James do it for us. Here is the deal with that, it is extremely graphic.
James says that this fire sets the entire course of our life ablaze and is itself set on fire by hell. What tends to happen when we read that statement is we immediately move to spiritualize the term hell. It is not that that is wrong but I don’t think it’s what James was immediately intending. You see James could have actually been standing or looking into hell when he wrote these words…literally.
The word James uses for Hell is Gehenna and comes from the Hebrew name of a place called the valley of Ben-Hinnom.
Do Molech, sacrifice, and Ben-Hinnom bit...
And James tells us that this imagery is both a picture of what our tongue can create (it sets the course of our life on fire) and the source of its fire (and is set on fire by hell itself).
What was the source of Ben-Hinnom’s fires? Ultimately, it was Israels’ rejection of God. And therein James begins to scratch the surface of the problem.
I was at the gas station the other day bit…Joe Biden sticker.
We think in very temporal terms. That is to say, we are limited in our scope of view by the time and space of which we experience reality. Our view of the total destruction caused by our words is limited. God is not. James was not.
Do you know what broke my heart about the sticker at the gas station? It wasn’t that I have some undying love for Joe Biden. What broke my heart is that I know I wasn’t the only person to visit that gas pump that day. There were two groups of people who would visit that same pump in the days and weeks that followed. One group derived joy out of something that was ultimately meant to ridicule another human being. That group already has a lot of preconceived notions about that person of which the outrageous price of their fill-up would only confirm the seeming truth of that sticker. That would then go on to join a long list of other memes, YouTube videos, and conversations rolling through their mind to further divide them and drive them into speaking more of the same vitriol.
The other group of people who would visit that pump were incensed and offended by that sticker. This would only serve to drive a wedge further between them and those on the other side of the isle who they probably already view as extremists. I mean, who would deface the property of a private business with their political drivel? This would then go on to join a list of other such instances that confirm why the other side is the enemy.
We think temporally and God does not.
I think if we could see the forest fires that even the smallest words can produce it would wreck us. Perhaps its the mockery we make of God by claiming one thing and then speaking with carelessness the exact opposite to other people that causes someone who is seeking God to turn away. Whose children’s children’s children have we turned away from God through the careless use of our words that have caused their great great grandparents to walk away from the faith. That perhaps they would have placed their faith in Jesus and led their family to do the same and yet because of one instance, one sticker that led to a thought that led to a conversation that led to a fight that led to someone walking away from their pursuit of God because: “If that’s what it takes to be a Christian, I am out.” And now we have doomed and entire family line because we rejected Gods command from Titus 3:1-2 which says:
Titus 3:1–2 (NASB95)
1 Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed,
2 to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.
We think temporally and yet God see’s the long lasting effects of the forest fires set ablaze by our words which are themselves set on fire by our rejection of Him.
I think we know this though. I don’t really think this is new information to us. And so what we will then do, is we will try and just speak better. We will try and tame the tongue. And yet, James has already alluded to the fact that our tongue isn’t really the problem and so he is going to speak to this tendency we have of just trying to ‘control our tongue.’ That’s actually a saying that we use…control our tongue.
Here is what he says:
7 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race.
8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God;
10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.
James begins by serving up an impossibility. James says that we have tamed all sorts of beasts…of which is true. Taming for James didn’t mean the same thing it does for us. They weren’t in the business of taming house cats or dogs for pets in James’ day. Taming wasn’t about teaching a dog to sit or a cat to use the human toilet. Taming for James was about taking an animal and making it useful…typically for agriculture. Taming an ox to pull a plow or taming a donkey to pull a grindstone at a mill. But then, James goes on to give three examples of creatures, that by his definition, were un-tamable.
They didn’t hunt with birds like some of their other near-eastern counterparts. Reptiles only possess a limbic system (that’s the function of the brain in charge of fight, flight, feeding, fear, freezing up, and fornication) hence the term lizard brain, and nobody was taming fish in James’ day either. And yet, James says people have had better luck taming those creatures than their own tongue.
Let me give you a personal example: Do lunch with the rude church planters bit… they were rude to her, spoke badly about her when she wasn’t there, and all the while were talking about how to reach those far from God in their community.
Honestly I just wanted to crawl under the table and hide I was so embarrassed by how they spoke to this poor lady like she was beneath them. Blessing God with their devotion to His mission with one breath and cursing the waitress with the very next.
Let’s go back to our Joe Biden sticker for just a second. Let’s just be really honest, he is low hanging fruit for someone who doesn’t like him and is half way quick witted. Lest my conservative friends think I am unfairly beating up on them, let’s pick out some low hanging fruit from the other side of the isle. Ted Cruz…let’s use him because he typically attracts a lot of criticism as well. Ole Ted has plenty enough political, social, and personal faux pas that he is low hanging fruit as well. Both of these guys are easy to ridicule, pick apart, and objectify especially if you are in a room of like-minded people.
The danger of hearing a sermon like this one is to walk away thinking, you know, I should really be more careful and not say, joke about, or be as critical in my speech about those guys. While that’s a good point to take, what James is telling us is that simply controlling your tongue better is not enough.
Here is what I mean: Do the thinking about it and then the words escape your mouth at an opportune time bit…funny hand motion…noooo.
Remember when we started this sermon that I said inner dialogue is still communication?
You think a certain thing about those guys, or that one coworker, or your spouse, or the anger wells up, or the prime opportunity to elicit some laughter, or the underhanded compliment that is rooted in your own pride or critical spirit wells up inside you and then sooner or later YOU WILL LOSE THE BATTLE James says.
No!
To simply control your tongue is impossible because it misses dealing with the root of the problem.
It’s like this stinking rose bush that I have cut down, poisoned` and tried to uproot like five years in a row and the thing just keeps coming back. There are roots too deep for me to attack and so I keep losing the battle. This is where James goes in his final metaphor in the form of one of his famous catchy one liners…to the root. Here is what he says:
11 Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?
12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.
You may be thinking what in the world. Why wouldn’t he just speak plainly about what the root issue was. The answer is that he did just speak incredibly plainly, he just expects his readers to know Jesus’ teachings.
Look at these two different teachings from Jesus:
16 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
This is Jesus talking about the religious leaders of his day. They claimed all sorts of knowledge and faith in God and yet their actions…their fruit… showed that they had actually rejected God because if they had truly believed in God they would have recognized Jesus as God in the flesh by his works.
Perhaps more pointed than this, however, is Jesus’ words in Matthew 15. This is where Jesus links what comes out of our mouths with the root of the problem.
11 “It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”
12 Then the disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?”
13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted.
14 “Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
15 Peter said to Him, “Explain the parable to us.”
16 Jesus said, “Are you still lacking in understanding also?
17 “Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?
18 “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.
19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
Let’s go back to James and apply Jesus’ words in context.
It is our fundamental nature that defines what comes out of our mouth.
Our fundamental nature is not defined by our political leanings, financial standing, social status, likes or dislikes, upbringing, or any of our idols. For Jesus, our fundamental nature is defined by our hearts relationship to God. We are either alive in Christ, or we are dead in Christ.
A fig tree doesn’t produce olives. A grape vine doesn’t produce figs. A fresh water spring doesn’t produce fresh and salt water. Nor does a heart made alive in Christ spew venom and fire. A heart made alive in Christ breaths life, worship for God, and edifies others. A heart dead in Christ through the rejection of God produces only the unquenchable fires of destruction that are consistent with its nature.
Let’s go back to our Joe Biden and Ted Cruz example since that’s where we’ve been talking today. A heart made alive in Christ begins to see both of those men, regardless of their actions and your thoughts about them personally as image bearers of God. Both of those men are people that Jesus died to rescue. A heart made alive in Christ realizes that we do not war against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers at work behind the scenes. Those men aren’t the enemy. Those men are people that God loves dearly and wishes to redeem…or perhaps has already redeemed.
Look at me really closely: A person who’s heart recognizes that reality about those men is not faced with the impossible task of taming their tongue because from their heart flows compassion and prayer for them.
And that is just one example out of millions we could talk about. That’s where the wisdom piece comes in. Remember, James said we were going to need wisdom if we were going to be perfect and complete. Every time you enter into conversation and feel the fires of your tongue heating up. Every time you get ready to interact on social media and feel the venom about to seep out of your fingers and onto the keyboard. Every time you find yourself stuck in a losing battle of the inner-dialogue, we have to stop, realize that those are just warning signs, the litmus test if you will, of a heart that has rejected God in some form or fashion.
But…it ALL stems from the heart.
So how do we get a new heart? I’m so glad you asked…I would point you to last weeks sermon online for the extended explanation of it. But as I said in the beginning, everything links back to the faith conversation.
Only the Gospel has the power to transform our hearts into a wellspring of fresh water overflowing into edifying and God-honoring speech.
Let’s re-read last weeks main passage with this language superimposed over it.
What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has a venomous and destructive tongue? Can that faith save him? -James 2:14
And:
Even so faith, if it is not accompanied by a God-honoring and others edifying tongue, is dead, being by itself. -James 2:17
Close with Gospel invitation.
First time invitation.
But, perhaps you have done that a long time ago. The apostle Paul tells us that even after we give our hearts to Jesus through faith that we are still at war with the fleshly nature in us. We still do and say things all the time that we realize we shouldn’t and that we don’t want to do. It’s like we have both a fresh and salt-water spring inside us. Even though we capped off the salt water spring when we placed our faith in Jesus, we are still inclined to reject God’s authority in certain areas…usually ones we are incredibly passionate about. And when we do that, its like we spring a leak in the cap of the salt water spring in our hearts.
In the Christian life, we never take off the wet suit. We are constantly evaluating our tongues for the signs that we have rejected God’s authority and then we take the deep dive into our hearts with the Gospel in hand as we seek out the areas that we need God to transform our hearts in. This is an exercise in constant ongoing submission and it is through this submission that God can do the work of heart transformation.
And so I want to leave you with this question:
What are the areas and situations you are most inclined to release the destructive power of your words?
You’ll never be able to reign in your tongue without genuine heart transformation. Go back to the Gospel and allow God to transform the way you see the world and other people and then ultimatley your tongue will be changed as well.