Scripture: James 3

Contentious tongues have hindered the work of God a thousand times over.  Critical tongues have closed church doors.  Careless tongues have broken the hearts and health of many pastors.  The sins of the tongue have besmirched the pure white garments of the bride of Christ.

   -- George Sweeting

The admonitions relative to the proper and improper use of the tongue in James 3 are addressed primarily to those who aspired to become teachers.  The teaching role referred to here was not in the terms of classroom teaching in an educational system but in reference to those who would bring scriptural admonition and guidance to others.  People whose charge would be to shape the manner of a person’s living here and now and thus influence their eternal destiny.  

It is not meant to discourage anyone from following God’s call to do so but it is a strong admonition to think clearly about that aspiration.  It is also a warning of sorts to those who teach and should not be teaching.

He said that “not many of you should presume to be teachers.”  There are a fair number of people who spend a good portion of their lives wishing that they were something else than what they are. Or they spend their lives thinking that they are something that they are not.

Received from a middle school teacher....

Let me see if I've got this right. You want me to go into that room with all those kids, and fill their every waking moment with a love for learning. Not only that, I am to instill a sense of pride in their ethnicity, behaviorally modify disruptive behavior, and observe them for signs of abuse, drugs, and T-shirt messages.

I am to fight the war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, check their backpacks for guns and raise their self-esteem. I am to teach them patriotism, good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, how and where to register to vote, how to balance a checkbook and how to apply for a job.

But, I am never to ask if they are in this country illegally. I am to check their heads occasionally for lice, maintain a safe environment, recognize signs of potential antisocial behavior, offer advice, write letters of recommendation for student employment and scholarships, encourage respect for the cultural diversity of others.  And, oh yes, teach, always making sure that I give the girls in my class fifty percent of my attention.

I am required by my contract to be working, on my own time, summer and evenings and at my own expense towards additional certification, advanced certification and a master's degree. I am to sponsor the cheerleaders or the sophomore class, and after school, I am to attend committee and faculty meetings and participate in staff development training to maintain my current certification and employment status. I am to collect data and maintain all records to support and document our building's progress in the selected state mandated program to

"assess and upgrade educational excellence in the public schools."

I am to be a paragon of virtue larger than life, such that my very presence will awe my students into being obedient and respectful of authority. I am to pledge allegiance to supporting family values, a return to the basics, and my current administration. I am to incorporate technology into the learning, but monitor all web sites for appropriateness while providing a personal one-on-one relationship with each student.

I am to decide who might be potentially dangerous and/or liable to commit crimes in school or who is possibly being abused, and I can be sent to jail for not mentioning these suspicions to those in authority. I am to make sure ALL students pass the state and federally mandated testing and all classes whether or not they attend school on a regular basis or complete any of the work assigned.

I am to communicate frequently with each student's parent by letter, phone, newsletter, and grade card.  I am to do all of this with just a piece of chalk, a computer, a few books, a bulletin board, a 45 minute or less plan time, and a big smile on a starting salary that qualifies my family for food stamps in many states.  Is that all?

You want me to do all of this, and you expect me to do it without praying?

AMEN!

Map Illustration - You can get most anywhere in the world from where you are.  There is no better starting place.  Most of us spend a great amount of time waiting for a more advantageous time or circumstance or position.  I am waiting for my retirement years to do my writing.  Don't wait!  When it was summer. . .

You can never get where you want to go until you know where you're at.

I wonder how many people think that they are somewhere that they are not?

A person is lost when they realize that they don't know where they are.

A person is equally lost when they think that they are somewhere that they are not.  For many people life is a very confusing exercise because they are trying to find their way somewhere thinking that they are in another location.

1.  The Nature of Presumption

Presume – to take upon oneself without leave or warrant, to go beyond what is right or proper.  (i.e. Russ gift of gifts – saving us money in the long run but we are having to come up with the money here and now.)

Presuming that we are something that perhaps we are not.  Presuming that all men think as we do when that is not the case.  The misinterpretation of silence.  People who have a specific agenda tend to interpret silence as approval.

2.  The Negatives of Presumption

q      Improper Estimate Of Personal Accountability Or Responsibility. - “We who teach will be judged more strictly.”

Don't take a position of leadership in church unless you are prepared to be honest, pure, and loving in your lifestyle. Leadership is a privilege, and with privilege comes responsibility.  God holds teachers of His truth doubly responsible because we who lead are in a position where we can either draw people toward Christ or drive them away from Him.

This is illustrated in the life of the famous author Mark Twain. Church leaders were largely to blame for his becoming hostile to the Bible and the Christian faith.  As he grew up, he knew elders and deacons who owned slaves and abused them.  He heard men using foul language and saw them practice dishonesty during the week after speaking piously in church on Sunday.  He listened to ministers use the Bible to justify slavery.  Although he saw genuine love for the Lord Jesus in some people, including his mother and his wife, he was so disturbed by the bad teaching and poor example of church leaders that he became bitter toward the things of God.

Indeed, it is a privilege to be an elder, a deacon, a Sunday school teacher, or a Bible club leader.  But it is also an awesome responsibility.  Let's make sure we attract people to the Savior rather than turn them away.

q      Improper Estimate Of Ourselves.  “We all stumble in many ways.”

q      Improper Estimate Of Our Impact On Others.  The potential in our words to bless or curse.

If a father is prone to lose his temper and to pour out uncontrolled spates of words which hit children in the line of fire, he may find himself living for a lifetime with a crushed son or daughter.  Words which explode at an impressionable moment can shape an entire personality.

   A forty-two-year-old man has allowed me to look into the inner recesses of his life and see what makes him what he is today:  a man who is frantically working himself into exhaustion; one who spends every dime he makes for impressive artifacts of luxury and success; a volatile human being whose temper explodes at the slightest hint of disagreement of criticism.  As we talk I ask Tom to tell me about his childhood.

   At one impressionable point in boyhood, when my friend was apparently displeasing his father with the way he was doing a chore, his father said to him, "Tom, you will always be a bum!" Tom goes on to tell me that whenever he and his father had angry moments, the same prediction would be repeated until it burned its way into the boy's spirit so deeply that, like shrapnel embedded in flesh, the words could never be removed.  Thirty years later, Tom still suffers from his father's verbal malpractice.  They drive him day and night from a subconscious source to attempt to prove that his father was wrong. Ironically, even though Tom's father is dead, the habit patterns of Tom's inner life still maintain fever pitch to convince a dead father and a slightly unsure Tom that he is not a bum.  Let anyone suggest to Tom that he is doing something wrong or that he is deficient in some aspect of his life, and hostility, defensiveness, and furious energy are unleashed to guard against what he senses is a resurrection of the old accusations from a thoughtless father who verbally set the wrong pace.

From The Effective Father, by Gordon MacDonald

Some of our influence comes from the position that we hold. A person's position in life magnifies their influence and the effect of their words.  Did you ever have someone say something to you that stayed with you for years.

One of the most influential positions that we hold in our lives is the parental position.  In the most formative years of a child’s life they are convinced that you are God.  There is no one more knowing.  There is no one more trustworthy. 

There are little eyes upon you,

And they're watching night and day

There are little ears that listen

To every word you say.

There are little hands all eager

To do the things you do;

And a little boy who's dreaming

Of the day he'll be like you.

You're the little fellow's idol,

You're the wisest of the wise;

In his little mind, about you

No suspicions ever rise.

He believes in you devoutly,

Holds that all you say and do

He will say and do in your way

When he's grown up just like you.

There's a wide-eyed little fellow

Who believes you're always right;

And his ears are always open

As he watches day and night.

You are setting an example

Every day in all you do,

For the little boy who's waiting

To grow up to be like you.

-- Edgar A. Guest

Rules For Youngsters

1. Life is not fair, get used to it.

2. The world won't care about your self-esteem.  The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

3. You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone until you earn both.

4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.  He doesn't have tenure.

5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.  Your grandparents had a different world for burger flipping, they called it opportunity.

6. If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes.  Learn from them.

7. Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you are.  So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your room.

8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer.  This, of course, doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

9. Life is not divided into semesters.  You don't get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself.  Do that on your own time.

10. Television is NOT real life.  In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

11. Be nice to nerds.  Chances are you'll end up working for one.

By Charles Sykes,  author of DUMBING DOWN OUR KIDS

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs.” Eph. 4:28

The five most important words that I know;

          Sorry, I made a mistake.

The four most important words that I know;

          What is your opinion?

The three most important words that I know;

          If you please.

The two most important words that I know;

          Thank You.

The one most important word that I know;

          We.

The one least important word that I know;

          I.

3.  The Necessities to Avoid Presumption

q      Two Kinds Of Wisdom

Ø      Heavenly Wisdom.  Psalm 1 - 1 ¶ Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2  But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  Heavenly wisdom has it’s source outside of the realm of human thought patterns and human reasoning.  That I am sure is why we struggle so many times to understand what God is about and what He is doing.

1 Cor. 2:9  However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"-- {Isaiah 64:4}   10  but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.  11  For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no-one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  12  We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.  13  This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. {Or Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to spiritual men}  14  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.  15  The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:  16  "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" {Isaiah 40:13} But we have the mind of Christ.

Ø      Earthly Wisdom.  Earthly wisdom is what we can learn from observation apart from divine enlightenment.  There are many wonderful things to be learned and their importance is not to be discounted but it is wisdom for the “here and now”.  It is not sufficient to evaluate or discover that which  cannot be seen or heard or felt or touched or smelled.

q      Characteristics Of Heavenly Wisdom.  What a convictional checklist that we see here.  If I possess wisdom from God then these characteristics should be evident in my life.  This is a tremendous G.P.S. ( Godliness Portrayal System)  In my mind the absence of these qualities in my life should scream to tell me that something is wrong.

Ø      Pure – Single minded, without ulterior motives.  God given wisdom is given to advance kingdom interests.  When people use God given insights to advance their own interests then it would leave some doubt in my mind as to the purity of that wisdom. 

Ø      Peace-loving – Children of God seek to resolve conflict.  They do not cause it.  If your feelings are easily hurt then that is an area in which you need to seek God’s help.  Oversensitivity is as much of a relational saboteur as a quick temper.

Ø      Considerate – Stopping to weigh the impact of your decisions, your reactions, the words that you say on others before you indulge yourself.

Ø      Submissive – You let other people win.  You don’t always have to come out on top.

Ø      Full Of Mercy – You never lose sight of your own need of God’s mercy and so you have an abundance there to give to others.

Ø      Impartial – You treat all people with equal respect regardless of what they have or do not have.  That is something that you make evident to all people.

Ø      Sincere – You live in harmony with your words.

Application:

1.  Ask God to help you to get a good estimate of where you actually are with him.  Don’t represent yourself in any other way before your friends.  The more you engage in trying to project a mask to others, the more deceived you will become as well.