Passing On The Curse
PASSING ON THE CURSE
JAMES 3:5-10
8/26/2007
BEAVER CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH
Pastor Bob Govoni
PASSING ON THE CURSE 8/26/07
Good morning
I know I feel wonderful and excited to be in the Lords house. I feel so very blessed to live in a country where I can worship freely the lord of Lords and king of Kings, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. U see God chose me I did choose Him, and God chose you. So let’s all praise his name this morning by telling Him thank you, thank you lord. In a moment of silence bow your heads and let Him know just how thankful you are to be here this morning in His house. Let’s thank Him for our families, our friends, our spouse’s, His mercy, His grace, His shed blood on the Cross at Calvary, His never ending love even when we mess up He is always there to pick us up. Thank Him, Praise Him. For He is worthy of all our praise, For He so worthy, Jesus you are so worthy and we come together just to say thank you for giving us this church, your church, We come to you to thank you for the fellowship with everyone here this morning I pray that you, with all your wisdom and all your majesty look into our hearts and answer our prayers and meet our needs and I pray that you make this church a lighthouse unto this community. Once again I thank you and we thank you. We love you Lord, In Jesus name and all Gods people said …….Amen.
Wow I feel energized after that. Isn’t God good, Amen
Well last week we heard how to tame your tongue, out of the book of James and this week I want to take you a little further. With Gods help I want to take this sermon into your home and into your work and into your lives. And if you are writing this down the title of this sermon is Passing on the curse, So while we take our bibles and find the book of James ch 3,
I want to share with you a true story of a brother of mine in school Name Fred. Over the summer during a preaching class we took together we would always try to out do each other, He is a dynamic Black pastor with a heart after God and he can get your heart racing by just talking with him. So when he told me this in class the other night I had to pass it along. He told me he was driving down the road going to the store when he pulled to a red light and 2 men pulled up next to him in a car and yelled out to him and said “hey mister do you know where we can find any hookers” well Fred was so shocked at the question and didn’t really know how to answer them so all he could come up with was “ well I’m not sure but if you want, we can pull over and pray about it.” Fred said the 2 men didn’t know what to do with that, and as they drove off he said all he heard was 1 guy say “ aw man that ruined everything, let’s just go home now.” All Bro Fred wanted to know was why they asked him that question. So you see God can work through you when you least expect it.
I hope by now you have found James ch 3 v5
James 3:5-10
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!
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.
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.
“Let’s pray”
Now I want you to look at 2 key words to understanding today’s sermon.
1. Restlessness: it is a characteristic of the demonic world and evil we live in
2. Peace: it is a characteristic of God and His good and Holy Kingdom.
So we can have either a restless heart or a peaceful heart, so as you listen today decide for your self which one your have.
So as we have read, James gives some more examples of our tongues. He says “In church we praise God with our tongue, and then we turn around and curse our brother or sister with the very same tongue.
Now listen to what he says next He says and we are made in Gods image!!!!!!!!
Gen 1:26-27
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image”.
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
So what does that haft to do with what James is saying. Well let me tell you this:
When a king would build a statue of him self he set it over the cities of his realms. Or the cities he ruled over, now some of the statues were over 90’ high so it could be seem from way off. Now if you were caught or over heard cursing the statue, you would be treated as if you cursed the King himself. See the statue was made in the image or likeness of the King, So curse the statue, curse the King.
So therefore Cursing or insulting a person made in Gods image is like cursing or insulting God Himself.
We as Christians need to look at every soul we meet as someone made in Gods image. I know it’s hard to do but how can we see them any different when God tells us, : we were created in His image”. Now I will save that for another sermon,
But what happens when we speak evil or insult or even talk down to some one. We pass on a demonic curse on them and when they speak evil they pass that same demonic curse on to others.
For example we go into work on Monday morning. We are smiling, singing you just had a blessed Sunday and so far everything is going your way, until you run into bad mood Betty who never says anything good about anyone. Next thing you know your in a bad mood because they passed the curse on to you. So now what do you do? Well certainly not pass on God’s love and joy but you pass on the curse to someone else, and so on.
See we send a demonic present every time we speak ill to or about someone. V 6 says
James 3:6
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.
James is saying that your whole life can be affected by what you say. You can make or loose friends by your words. Make or break big deals by your words, and yes even heaven or hell by the words you speak.
But the tongue is but a tool, for the real problem. It is a tool for the heart. The words you speak start in your heart 1st, and isn’t that the 1st thing God looks at is our heart? So if the tongue is evil it usually comes from a evil heart,
Mark 7:21-23
21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,
22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.
23 “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
That is why God looks into our hearts and not our outside, {church we can hide our feelings on the outside but Gods sees and knows our true feelings on our inside,
Our heart}
I’ve got to close so real quick v8 says
8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.
Restless evil: unruly, unstable, reeling of evil
Worse yet, James says full of deadly poison, like a snake-the tongue is loaded with the venom of hate and death dealing gossip.
V9-10
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.
Like a fork tongue of a snake, man’s uncontrolled tongue spits out both praise and curses .
We praise by saying a good word, then we pollute it by a curse or wishing evil on men made in Gods image.
James pleads with us by saying : Brother, this should not be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As a Christian we are all called to bless others, we must seek the best for them no matter how bad they treat us.
Jesus was beaten then hung on a cross by people He did nothing wrong to and didn’t even know, and as they spit on Him on the cross, He said “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do”. He did not pass on the curse. He came to save all of us.
JOHN 3:16-18
6 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Are you ready to live for Him?
Are you tired of living 2 lives?
Listen God knows our hearts and Jesus says :if you confess me before man, I will confess you before my father who art in Heaven”.
All Jesus asks us to do is step out and He will save you, He will save you, and He will give you peace in your life like you have never known.
Are you ready. You come today.
Don’t let this opportunity pass you by, let the world know that you love Jesus. PRAY