Part I
Part II
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Yes, it's small...but it's powerful!
My 2nd Sermon
September 16, 2012
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider that a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and 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.
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and 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 grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. --James 3:1-12
There are several “James” in the New Testament. When you hear the name, you may think of the brothers, James and John, who were Disciples of Christ. That’s a different James. The James that wrote this epistle (this letter) was the half-brother of Jesus according to most theologians. Can you imagine having Jesus as your brother? He grew up with him!
They played together, learned together, probably stayed up late giggling together when they were little. Then they got older, and they got busy with their lives…their careers... …and then one day Jesus started proclaiming that he was God. I want you to imagine your own siblings (or cousins if you were an only child). How would you react if your sibling one day told you they were God? Well, James handled it about that well. The book of Mark tells us: When his family heard about this, they (and “they” were his brothers) went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
Yet, at the beginning of the book of
James, he refers to
himself as “James, a
servant of God and of the Lord
Jesus Christ”. He watched his brother’s
ministry. He watched his brother’s
death. And he witnessed his brother in
his resurrected body. He was convinced. In fact, he served as the head of the church
in Jerusalem. We know this because Paul
mentioned this in his letter to the people of Galatia.
James’ lived with Jesus and he didn’t believe. But then he saw the evidence and he gave his life in defense of Jesus’ claims. He, an eye-witness, was THAT convinced. Interestingly, he speaks in his letter not as someone who talks about Christ, but as someone who talks like Christ. He offers us advice--“inspired” advice that we would be wise to heed.
We are warned by James that we don’t all want to be teachers. Ha! Teaching isn’t the respected and coveted vocation that it was in his day. His warning is severe…one who teaches will be face a “stricter judgment”. Obviously he’s talking about those who teach God’s Word. He is so real and so relevant in his speech…telling us straight out that “We all stumble…” Not—YOU stumble. But, WE ALL stumble.
He makes an interesting statement next saying that those who are never at fault in their words, are able to keep their whole body in check. Get this right, now. He’s not talking about those who can always say the right thing in public, but those who always say the appropriate and Godly thing no matter what the circumstance. No matter who’s watching…who’s listening… Why does what we say have anything to do with our “whole body”? Well, James gives us some examples:
The first is a horse. To communicate with the horse, riders use a bit and bridle. By pulling on the reins, they are able to
send messages to the horse using
leverage and pressure. Without
such a device, communication is lost. That
one small piece of equipment controls the whole horse.
What about a ship? An entire ship’s course is determined by the movement of a relatively small rudder.
The tongue works the same way for us. Our boasts affect our actions. And this is not always in a good way.
We have had a summer in which we
have watched areas around us deal with grass and forest fires. What is need to start those fires? Just one spark.
James' depiction of where the tongue
gets this fire is particularly distressing.
He says that the tongue is set on fire by hell. The actual word he uses here is “Gehenna” Jesus was the only other person that used
this term to define hell. Gehenna refers
to the Valley of Hinnom. Originally this deep gorge just southwest of
Jerusalem was a location used by the Canaanites to worship the false god
Molech. They actually sacrificed their
own children to this demon.
Because this site had been used for such a vile practice, it became simply a dump. It wasn’t seen as suitable for anything else. Trash and filth were thrown in the gorge along with dead animals and the bodies of unburied criminals. All of this was burned in the pit to dispose of it. There were constant, unending fires there. It’s no wonder that Jesus and James used such a disgusting image (of which the listeners would’ve been familiar) to describe hell.
So James is saying that our tongue
is as vile as Gehenna? Yes, yes he
is. He says it is a “restless evil” and
“full of deadly poison”. But we do good things with our
words, right? Of course we do!
In fact, I’m going to give you a little reminder of the positive power that our tongue has! Will the Usher’s please distribute the “tongue suppressors”. That’s right…I said tongue suppressor, not tongue depressor. Written on each one of these is a positive word…maybe through God’s providence you will choose the word you needed to be reminded of today…the word that needs to enter your mind when you next feel the urge to utter something poisonous.
Our tongues can do wonderful things. For example, we are here today praising God and praying
corporately. Yet were some of us guilty
this morning of cussing
another driver on the way to worship God? (Don’t you be looking around!) Will some of us be guilty of doing it on the
way home? When you watch your favorite football team
play this afternoon, will you holler obscenities at the TV…possibly even using
the Lord’s name in vain? Are you using
that tongue of yours to both praise God but curse other human beings.
A few days letter, the police came
and pulled him out of class. His mother
met him in the police station and he was prepared to tell her that it was all
his friends’ idea. He was just in the
vehicle. It wasn’t his fault! But, of course, the video betrayed his
lies. Luckily, the boy they stole from
was a Christian and a friend. He didn’t
press charges and the boys were only required to pay back the money.
September 16, 2012
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider that a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and 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.
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and 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 grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. --James 3:1-12
There are several “James” in the New Testament. When you hear the name, you may think of the brothers, James and John, who were Disciples of Christ. That’s a different James. The James that wrote this epistle (this letter) was the half-brother of Jesus according to most theologians. Can you imagine having Jesus as your brother? He grew up with him!
They played together, learned together, probably stayed up late giggling together when they were little. Then they got older, and they got busy with their lives…their careers... …and then one day Jesus started proclaiming that he was God. I want you to imagine your own siblings (or cousins if you were an only child). How would you react if your sibling one day told you they were God? Well, James handled it about that well. The book of Mark tells us: When his family heard about this, they (and “they” were his brothers) went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
Yet, at the beginning of the book of
James, he refers to
himself as “James, a
servant of God and of the Lord
Jesus Christ”. He watched his brother’s
ministry. He watched his brother’s
death. And he witnessed his brother in
his resurrected body. He was convinced. In fact, he served as the head of the church
in Jerusalem. We know this because Paul
mentioned this in his letter to the people of Galatia.
James was so certain that his
brother was, in fact, Lord that the historian Josephus tells us that in AD62, the high priest
sentenced him to death by stoning in Jerusalem.
Other historians of that time, including Eusebias gave further
details. They said that James was taken
to the top of the temple and told to renounce his faith in Jesus publicly. When he refused and instead publicly
confessed Jesus as “the Son of God, Savior, and Lord” he was thrown from the
temple. However, he was not killed on
impact…so they stoned him to death.
James’ lived with Jesus and he didn’t believe. But then he saw the evidence and he gave his life in defense of Jesus’ claims. He, an eye-witness, was THAT convinced. Interestingly, he speaks in his letter not as someone who talks about Christ, but as someone who talks like Christ. He offers us advice--“inspired” advice that we would be wise to heed.
We are warned by James that we don’t all want to be teachers. Ha! Teaching isn’t the respected and coveted vocation that it was in his day. His warning is severe…one who teaches will be face a “stricter judgment”. Obviously he’s talking about those who teach God’s Word. He is so real and so relevant in his speech…telling us straight out that “We all stumble…” Not—YOU stumble. But, WE ALL stumble.
He makes an interesting statement next saying that those who are never at fault in their words, are able to keep their whole body in check. Get this right, now. He’s not talking about those who can always say the right thing in public, but those who always say the appropriate and Godly thing no matter what the circumstance. No matter who’s watching…who’s listening… Why does what we say have anything to do with our “whole body”? Well, James gives us some examples:
The first is a horse. To communicate with the horse, riders use a bit and bridle. By pulling on the reins, they are able to
send messages to the horse using
leverage and pressure. Without
such a device, communication is lost. That
one small piece of equipment controls the whole horse.What about a ship? An entire ship’s course is determined by the movement of a relatively small rudder.
The tongue works the same way for us. Our boasts affect our actions. And this is not always in a good way.
We have had a summer in which we
have watched areas around us deal with grass and forest fires. What is need to start those fires? Just one spark.
Our tongues can set those
sparks. In fact, James says that our
tongues can set the whole course of our lives on fire. Really?
Words can change the course of our lives? Words can change the course of history? You bet they can.
How about Hitler’s famous speech at the Reichstag on
September 1, 1939 in which he declared war on Poland? People around the globe sat by their radios
listening to the words of one man to see if the course of history would be
forever changed. And a whole, civilized, nation was convinced to
engage in barbarism.
How about Jim Jones teaching to more
than 900 who committed mass suicide by drinking cyanide-tainted kool-aid? Their lives were so altered by the words of
one man that even mothers and fathers were convinced to feed that kool-aid to more than
200 children. Two people survived. How about the relentless bullies at
school whose words lead to the suicides of hundreds of American teens each
year? Or the bullies at work who seem to
take such glee out of making others miserable? These words don’t just change the
course of their own lives, but the courses of others.
James' depiction of where the tongue
gets this fire is particularly distressing.
He says that the tongue is set on fire by hell. The actual word he uses here is “Gehenna” Jesus was the only other person that used
this term to define hell. Gehenna refers
to the Valley of Hinnom. Originally this deep gorge just southwest of
Jerusalem was a location used by the Canaanites to worship the false god
Molech. They actually sacrificed their
own children to this demon.Because this site had been used for such a vile practice, it became simply a dump. It wasn’t seen as suitable for anything else. Trash and filth were thrown in the gorge along with dead animals and the bodies of unburied criminals. All of this was burned in the pit to dispose of it. There were constant, unending fires there. It’s no wonder that Jesus and James used such a disgusting image (of which the listeners would’ve been familiar) to describe hell.
In fact, I’m going to give you a little reminder of the positive power that our tongue has! Will the Usher’s please distribute the “tongue suppressors”. That’s right…I said tongue suppressor, not tongue depressor. Written on each one of these is a positive word…maybe through God’s providence you will choose the word you needed to be reminded of today…the word that needs to enter your mind when you next feel the urge to utter something poisonous.
I’ll use James’ words here…“My brothers and sisters, this should not
be.”
Our tongues reveal who we are. Whether we are watching football, talking in
private confidence with a good friend, driving alone in our car, or out with
our best friends on a Friday night.
You see, our words produce
fruit. As I share God’s message with you
today, I am producing fruit. My prayer
is that this fruit is good and that it is plentiful. And it will be as long as I rely on the Holy
Spirit to guide this message. But what
kind of fruit am I producing if I go home and cuss at the Kansas City Chiefs
this afternoon? Especially if my kids
are watching with me? Fruit grows and
ripens over time. They are watching and
listening and processing the things we do and the words we say. When those things don’t always jive, the
fruit is not going to be good.
James says that fresh water and salt
water can’t come from the same spring.
If both kinds of water are coming out, it’s all going to be salty, isn’t
it? That fresh water is tainted. We need to be consistent…in private as well
as in public. We can’t do this without
the power of Christ.
Michael is about my age. When he was 15, he and some friends decided
that they were going to “ditch” their 3rd hour class. As they sat out in his friend’s Jeep waiting for
the right moment to make their escape, another student ran by on his way to
class…and something fell out of his pocket.
His wallet. They retrieved it…and
were delighted to find an ATM card.
(Yes, we had them back then but they were very new!) Knowing that they needed a “pin” number, they
continued to search through the wallet until they found something scribbled
down that they thought might qualify as a pin.
In the Jeep they pulled up to a
local ATM machine and were grinning like idiots when the number worked…and as
the cameras caught the whole escapade—the pin attempt, the success, and the cash
distribution between the three boys.
But Michael’s personal sentence was
much tougher. He was also a Christian,
and yet he had made such a bad decision.
He was ashamed and humiliated—a liar and a thief.
Soon after, he was over at the house
of one of the friends who had participated in the fiasco. He could overhear this friend’s mother as she
was talking about him with another friend on the phone. Oh no…this couldn’t be good.
You might expect that I am going to
say that she was bad-mouthing Michael.
“That kid is no good. He’s a
trouble-maker. I wish my son wouldn’t
hang out with him.” No…these aren’t the
words that Michael heard. What she said
was, “He has a good heart.”
“He has a good heart.”
Michael received encouragement that
day from someone who didn’t even know he was listening. Those few little words for him were HUGE. Now, 25 years later, he can still vividly
picture that moment…and the 5 words that changed his life.
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