James 3

On count of 3… if you will raise your hand… come on… trust me… raise your hand… there we go… 1.2.3. stick out your tongue…. okay… thats what we are going to talk about today...

So we are looking at the first 12 verses of chapter 3 today, and really he is telling us to change the world that we have to start with our tongues, and it is so important because it isn’t just you and me, it isn’t just you and Jesus, and it isn;t just me and Jesus, but he has made us a family, so how we communicate with one another is vitally important.

So, the first thing he is going to start with is teachers.. check out the first two verses 

James 3:1-2

James 3:1–2 NIV

1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 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.

So he starts by using the idea of a bridle in the mouth of a horse, but we will get back to that, so the first thing that James wants to tell them about in this chapter, is teachers…So since James found it necessary to start with teachers, let’s just start with me… looking back at my ministry the things I regret the most are the times when I said things with the wrong tone, or took offense to the wrong things,  so this text is really convicting to me, because it says what we should and shouldn’t do as teachers and we realize how important of a position it is.

He says that we shouldn’t seek to be teachers because there is a ton of responsibility that comes with being a teacher. And I absolutely love the fact that I am able to be a teacher here, but there is a weight that comes with that that you truly can never understand unless you are a teacher… listen, very early in my ministry I had a man prophesy over me… split nations… and when I first started preaching even as a youth pastor, I think I let that shape me, i would get into the scripture and be right up in your face with the word and try to tell you how wrong your ways were and try to convince you from this place to change.. but as I have gotten older, God has done a great work in me, and I have started to preach from the place of overflow in my heart from what God has done, so whatever he is dealing with me on I am able to share with you…I tend to fear anymore coming off as being too harsh, don’t get me wrong, I don’t shy away from anything that God wants me to say, but the father in me has come out and I want to lead through love and not fear and intimidation...

And God has really changed my heart, and listen, I remember praying for years that God would give me a heart like his, a heart to see the world like he does, and he has really changed me into am an that wants nothing more than to see more and more people come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior...

So, he is giving us a warning here, and really we live in a world where everyone wants to be the teacher, everyone wants to be the expert on something and be the person that is called every time someone needs to have answer about this or that… so we want that, but James is warning us that that isn’t always good… and the truth of the matter is that often times if we are in church a long time we start to feel this need to teach, its like thats what we are supposed to do whether or not we feel called to be a teacher we get this idea that we are supposed to teach… and let me stop before some of you hear what I am saying and get the idea, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t volunteer to help areas of the church but this is talking specifically about being a teacher...

So let me give you some recommendations for what you need to be a teacher… and some of this comes from my own regrets as a parent/teacher/pastor… ready? And then let me give you some recommendations for what you need to be a hearer...

1. Be More Patient

Listen, this is easily one of my greatest regrets in life, not being patient… but let me warn you… a wise man once told me, Adam, don’t pray for patience… look at me now...

     So, if you aspire and believe God is calling you to be a teacher, then soak in the most teaching that you can, sit under wise teaching, find as much as you can on the internet to get extra teaching in…in todays day and age that is easy...

     For some of us this is the hardest task ever, to just be more patient…

2. Be a Devoted Student

     The truth is, even teachers have to be students, its exactly what makes better teachers is by learning more and more and practicing our craft. The problem is, some people what to be IN authority, but they don’t what to be UNDER authority… I’m sure you’ve met that person, loud and overbearing and trying to get you to listen to everything they have to say and have never listening to anything anyone else says.

     Heard an awesome illustration.. pastor… how long… long time… I never been more than three… bad…no good.. I have 3 years of sermons… WHAT? It gets all that studying and stuff out of the way, saves all kinds of time… I feel sorry for those people, because lets be honest if you aren’t constantly getting into the word and allowing it to change you, how are you growing as a leader? IF yo want to be a a good teacher you have to be a good student.

3. Know that teachers are judged more strictly by God.

     Its right there in the scripture we read. .

    We’ve all seen teachers that go by the wayside and people still follow them… Chris Newbern… its sad, but its because people see them as a teacher, and I want to make sure that I never allow myself to get to that place, because I realize that We are judged more strictly when we cause people to stumble...

4. Know that teachers are judged more strictly by people.

     Check this, we not only will be judged more strictly by God but by others… No one can judge me.. WRONG… most people are… You hear it all the time, some of you probably say it, I can’t believe they say they are a Christian and they…

    Sometimes this can be some of the heaviest weight in ministry, knowing that you can’t please all people, but you love them all so much that you want to do your best, its painful sometimes...

     I heard a well respected pastor say that you should always accept that 5% of people aren’t going to like you. That’s some great news right there… but seriously, lets look at what that means, if you are running a small group of 20 people then that means 1 of them won’t like you...

     I heard Judah Smith talking about this when he went to get counseling and he was talking to the counselor about all the people that he had hurt and that had hurt him, and how staggering it was and how hard it was to get over, and she said, okay, lets write the names of all of those people down… and he came up with 6… and he is the pastor of a church of about 8,000 I believe… and he held on to that and was letting it kill him… and the truth is, lots of us do that… we see that small number and we hold it higher than the people that listen and follow..

     Thats why I always tell people to make sure they are being called to teach because there are so many aspects that are negative that can bring you down, but there is so much good there.

Now what about hearers… what advice can I give you...

I love verse 2 because it puts us all in there…WE ALL… what… stumble… have you ever missed the curb? Forgot to tie your shoes? … Dude… we all STUMBLE…. not just physically, but spiritually...

1. Know we all stumble

     IF you are looking to throw rocks, you can always find some…What he’s trying to tell us is, if there is a person you don’t like… you are going to look for the wrong in them, and listen, you can find it, because we all stumble… You all know how it is… someone gets on your nerves, someone you don’t like, you start finding stuff that they are doing wrong, you start searching it out…probably more than you see it in others even if its the same thing…why…because we all stumble

 This is true with politics… we bring our biases in… and this is why I keep saying to people I always try to understand how people think.. why they feel that way… I don’t have to agree with everything you do, but I feel like if I can understand WHY you are thinking that way then it destroys my bias a little.

Heres the bad part, teacher or not, there is a pile for you too…and what we like to do is say, HEY! Watch out.. don’t throw that, you don’t understand… I was having a really bad day thats not how I NORMALLY act… cut me some slack…What happens in Vegas stays in vegas...

     So James is saying, errrbody… drop the rocks…why? because we all stumble…Its just like the woman caught in adultery and Jesus says, hey if you have no sin.. throw that rock...

     Truth is, if we are looking for something, we can find it, I am sure I have a big quarry of things that people could throw at me, but thats not how it always needs to be.. and we learn from the Bible that we just need to let some things go...

2. Learn the difference between being a coach and a critic

     Both can say the same thing…. difference tone and time… a critic is public because the goal is to crush not build you… a critic waits until you are vulnerable…not teachable… a critic wants to do it in a way that invites everyone else to jump in with them

n

     Being a critic is easy… a coach takes time...

3. Know we all have good days and bad days

     If we love someone we talk about them on their BEST day, thats what we show off to people… if we don’t, we show them off n their worst day...

     We all know what this looks like, we have social networks, we get to talking to people and we say,,, let me tell you about Jennifer… woohoo… she’s the worst…. or you say man she is so loving, she is so caring, she does the best for her children…thats how you know… out of the overflow of your heart the mouth speaks...

     We all have to learn what to speak and what to say and choose what to say...

So then he goes on to talking about the tongue...

James 3:3 NIV

3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.

He’s saying, listen, this tongue is a wild animal… and its the only wild animal that has refused to be tamed…it can’t be done.. so his first of three analogies is about the tongue, he’ll use two more, but his point is the same… small things have large power...

Here’s the thing, I think I have ridden a horse maybe once in my life… but from what I can tell, MOST horses unless they are really broken, won’t really do what you want them to without a bit, but you put a bit in their mouth and all of a sudden a horse of any size becomes tamable and direct able...

James 3:4–5 NIV

4 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. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.

So he says, check it, just like the tongue, the rudder is very small but it makes a very huge impact. 

I’ll give you another analogy. I’ll share with you guys an old warship. It’s called, “The Bismark.” Pretty impressive, ay? Let me read this to you, the Nazis commission, the Bismark battleship in 1940. Imagine this technology in 1940. Stretching 825 feet, it was the largest battleship in the world. It boasted eight guns that held shells fifteen inches across as well as some five dozen other armaments. The Bismark’s onboard targeting computer was so precise that it blew away the HMS Hood, which had been the pride of the Royal Navy, with a single shot.

Think of a boxing match set for fifteen rounds. Two guys walk in, one guy punches the other guy, that guy passes out and it’s over in one shot. Nobody else wants to get in the ring with that guy.

As grand as the Bismark was, it had one small but fatal weakness. A vulnerable rudder was located right beneath its thermal exhaust port. In the darkness of night on May 24, 1941, the Royal Navy attacked the ship with little success until one torpedo hit this rudder. The boat was severely disabled, attacked fiercely, and defeated.

You can feel like your life is like this: big, strong, forceful, successful, impenetrable, but your tongue is the vulnerable point, and it can become the one thing that undermines everything

His final analogy is forest fires… how many of you have accidentally set a fire… sock.. sweater..

James 3:5–6 NIV

5 …Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 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.

Some of you would say, man, I am not going to hell, but everyone knows you could unleash some hell on someone else...

I looked up the biggest forest fire in the history of the U.S. There’s a debate on this, but perhaps this is it. The great Peshtigo fire burned 1.2 million acres. That’s about roughly 1,900 square miles. That’s about twice the size of Rhode Island, roughly. It killed around 1,500 people, and this was 140 years ago when population was far less dense. It was in northern Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan. From October 8th to 14th, 1871, this fire burned and exploded. Some reports would indicate that people sought refuge in the rivers and it was so hot that people boiled alive in the rivers. Some reports.

Do you think the person that started the fire intended that? No. Historically, they don’t know how the fire started. They conjecture maybe a logger didn’t tend to and extinguish their campfire.

But here’s the big idea: once a fire gets going, it’s hard to know where it started because it moves so quickly and so fiercely. And our tongue is a spark. It can unleash hell. That’s what he says.

He uses language that is echoed by Jesus, and Jesus speaks about hell more than anyone else at all in scripture, and he talks about it at least 11 times, and uses the language of Gehenna a place where people would go to do Godless things…horrible despicable, disgusting things and sacrifice their children here.. So it became a horrible place for gods people, so you know what they did? They turned it into their dump, all the trash and garbage would be taken out of the city to Gehenna and set on fire where it burns forever and this become an illustration of what Hell was supposed to be like….

And this should be convicting for us all because we ALL STUMBLE… but its possible for our words to cause other people to catch on fire in the same way and fall.. How many of you have been set on fire by someone else words… how many have set someone else on fire by your words… the truth is we are more aware of others setting us on fire than setting others on fire...

So James here is wanting us to be sympathetic with everyone around us… sympathy will change the world… your marriage… your friendships… your co-workers

And he concludes by saying we need to look for blessing and cursing…he says this...

James 3:9 NIV

9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.

9With the tongue

This incredibly small thing with huge impact… are you with me, realizing that your tongue has gotten you into trouble? The holy spirit is trying to convict you right now like he has me…. 

we praise our Lord and Father,

Lord we just praise you today… thank you for speaking to your people.. for still loving us in spite of ourselves…I love Jesus, I want to praise him more and more… this is all good… but he goes on.

and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.

Of course we do, James, you don’t understand they are horrible people… they deserve it he’s saying we can’t do that… we can’t praise them and talk bad about them at the same time...

James 3:10 NIV

10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.

Hey, you’re a christian… right,,, no.. if not I am going to give you the opportunity shortly… don’t leave…you can’t get your tongue under control… but thats okay because Jesus can… he is supposed to be the one in control anyway… but if you’re a Christian...

James 3:11–12 NIV

11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Dave

He’s saying listen, don’t tell me you get oranges and apples off the same tree.. its not true

So whats he saying? He’s saying you got to get to the source…and when we talk about the Bible, and our lives, our source is our heart…its who we are… and listen, we can make a list of things we won;t say… and thats not bad, but if we don’t get to the heart of the matter nothing changes… so we need to get to the heart of our speech...

Here’s what I love. Here’s the good news, because right now, we’re probably all feeling pretty convicted, amen? Jesus gets the last word. He who does not stumble in any way goes to the cross to suffer and die for we who have stumbled in many ways. And while shameful, horrible things are being said about Jesus, Jesus gets the last word. And what’s the last word? As he’s atoning for the sins of the world, the Lord Jesus says this, “Father, forgive them.”

None of us would have said that, friend. We would have defended ourselves, we would have picked a fight, we would have made sure that we unleashed hell, and instead, Jesus unleashed heaven on those who were unleashing hell.

Here’s the good news: we’re all guilty. Everybody today, put your rock down. And if you belong to Jesus, you’re forgiven. He knows that we all stumble in many ways. He forgives us. He alone should sit in the saddle. Starting with me, we all need a bit in our mouth, amen? Otherwise, we run wild and out of control, like an animal. We drift into danger, and devastation, and death like a ship that is out of control. And we set people, people we love, on fire with the flames of hell.