Sovereign Speech

Hello Hello. My name is TC Cook and I am the Director of The PowerHouse and Daviess County Habitat for Humanity. I am honored and humbled to be able to come and share Gods word with you today. Last time I was here I spoke just a minute about the PowerHouse but today Pastor Zach asked me to take a few more minutes to talk about what we do their and the mission God has called us to.

Our mission at the PowerHouse is to build relationships with teens in order to share the Gospel. Our largest program that we do is our after school program. It is where teens walk down from the Jr. and Sr. High School just the 2 or 3 blocks to the PowerHouse on Main St. There we provide a safe place where teens hang out and get a warm meal 5 days per week. In just over 2 years of my wife and I being back we have seen so many amazing things happen. I have many stories but can I just tell you one right now.

I am going to use the name Rachel for this story. Rachel started coming to the PowerHouse when she was in Jr. High. When she showed up she brought a handful of girls with her. She wore all black clothes , had dyed jet black hair, wore black eye liner and mascara and cussed like a sailor. I mean I have never heard a female with a mouth like that. I was constantly telling her to watch her mouth because we dont say that stuff here. And I would just get the typical eye roll. It wasn’t to long that my wife started trying to talk to her and get to know her. Then a little while latter they were having longer talks about her life and my wife continued to point her back to Christ. Then she started coming by our house here and there and just hanging out. This continued until it kind of became the norm for her and my wife to talk. It was late last year that she had told my wife that she was getting her hair done. It was at the moment that we noticed that it had been a while since she had wore all black clothes. She was dressing different. Not that but at the hair salon she told my wife that she was getting her hair back to its natural color. It blew me and my wife away.

So that next week my wife told her that we noticed the change in clothes and now her hair. My wife asked her what was the reason for this. She told my wife it was because of the PowerHouse. She said she had finally found a place where she belonged.

She had put a mask on that was all black everything, but now she finally found a place where she belonged.

Keep praying for Rachel, she has yet to accept Christ but my wife is continuing to point her back to Him every time they talk and we are hopefully that this outward change is an outpouring of her heart that God is changing.

If you want to here more of those stories and ways to help please see us at the table we have in the entry. We also have envelopes for our campaign. This is pretty simple, we have envelopes marked from 1 dollar to 250 dollars. Grab the envelope that you would like to give money to and either pay now or send it in later.

Ok so now lets get to the message.

Please open your Bible to the book of James chapter 4 verses 13-17. If you are able, please stand as we read Gods word.

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”

14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Let’s Pray:

I have entitled this message Sovereign Speech. Sovereign Speech. As you guys have been going through the book of James have you noticed how much James has pointed out our speech. Whether it be chapter 3’s talk directly on the tongue or even last weeks passages about gossip, James clearly understands controlling our tongue is a big deal. James knows that Jesus says in Mathew 12:34 and 37 that the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart and by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned. So James knew that one way to judge a persons heart is by what he speaks. The tongue is a hard one too tame but it is a must for us to do so. Down to the finer details of what we say. Down to the things that we say in private. The tongue should be tamed. Our speech should be that of our whole lives, a tool to honor and glorify God forever.

So lets dive in and break down this passages. James starts this section of his letter off by saying Come now. This is just an old way of saying pay attention now. It could have read in the greek Behold now, or See now. But it just means pay attention you who say “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. James is calling to people again to watch what they are saying. James is not calling into account someone's ambition or plans. He is calling into account Who is the one the these plans come into being by. We say we are going to do this or that but we do not know what the future will hold. We say in a year I will make this profit but we dont even know what tomorrow will bring. James goes on and says What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Your life is so short in the grand scheme of things and we are not promised another second. James is trying to bring out what Calvin says is the stupidity of those who disregarded God’s providence, and claimed for themselves a whole year, though they had not a single moment in their own power; the gain which was afar off they promised to themselves, though they had no possession of that which was before their feet.

Now I know to some this seems like such a small thing. People are just trying to make plans and do business and make projections. Its not like they are going out and hurting someone. Why is this so bad? They are not being hateful to others or even gossiping. Why is this wrong?

Well again the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart. James goes on to tell us what speaking like this really is, he says in verse 16 that you boast in your arrogance. And all such boasting is evil. Its pure evil. Why because we are acting like we can do all things. We act like it is us that power the universe. We act like it is us that have created civilization. We act like we can speak and it comes into being. We are acting as if we are God. We are arrogant when we speak this way and James says it is evil.

This reminds me of Genesis 11 and the tower of babel. They get to a plain land and decided that they would make some bricks and they would build a tower all the way up to the heavens. In verse 4 they said so they could build a name for themselves. But in verse 7 God said let us go down there. I always thought that was funny. They were so arrogant to think they could build this huge tower to the heavens but it was so small that God said lets go down there. They were so arrogant to think they they were able to build a tower and make a name for themselves that God doesn't even name them in Genesis. So we dont know any of these people. No clue who they were. What we do know is God gave them different languages and they dispersed throughout the whole earth. God is in control. Another way to say this is God is Sovereign.

James knows that God is Sovereign so he says the way to actually speak about future things is like this, verse 15 “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” If the Lord wills. You see God is the ultimate authority. He just isn't the authority over one thing, but of all things.

Ephesians 1:11 (ESV)

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

Romans 8:28 (ESV)

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Isaiah 45:7–8 ESV

I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things. “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the Lord have created it.

Proverbs 16:33 (ESV)

The lot is cast into the lap,

but its every decision is from the Lord.

Job 42:2 (ESV)

“I know that you can do all things,

and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Lamentations 3:37–39 (ESV)

Who has spoken and it came to pass,

unless the Lord has commanded it?

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

that good and bad come?

Why should a living man complain,

a man, about the punishment of his sins?

Proverbs 19:21 (ESV)

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,

but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

Acts 4:23–28 (ESV)

When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,

“ ‘Why did the Gentiles rage,

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers were gathered together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed’—

for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

I can go on and on old and new testament verse after verse showing you Gods Sovereignty, His control and authority. It is because James knows this that he says it is arrogance that we boast about tomorrow and it is evil. Evil. When we speak of future things without the clarification that it would be only made possible if the Lord would allow it, then we speak as if we are actually God. Our speech and recognition and reverence to the life giver is so important because it revels the true passions of our heart.

God’s Sovereignty is such a foundational doctrine to understand, for it is the basis of how we look at everything in life. It humbles us to know we are not God. It empowers us to know that I can not thwart His will and plan. It brings us peace to know that all things are His, including me and I just have to walk in obedience to His commands. The out comes are His. So when good things happen we give Him praise and when bad things happen we give Him praise. For He is Sovereign.

It doesn't take that deep of a look into our cultural in America to know that we have drifted so far away from the knowledge of God’s Sovereignty. We are living in a humanistic cultural today. What do i mean by that? What is humanistic? Well, its a worldview that believes that we humans are the end all be all. That we are the life givers and takers away. We humans are the ones who define life.

Right now in our culture we are so far worse than the babel tower builders. It isn't that we want to make a name for ourselves, its that we think we make ourselves and we think we define ourselves.

You see in our cultural humanistic worldview we get to say what is male or female. No longer is that defined by our God given DNA but it is defined by our feelings and it can even change from day to day.

In our humanistic worldview we get to define what marriage means. No longer is it Gen 2 where a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, but it can be a man shall leave his mother and other mother and cleave to his husband.

In our humanistic worldview we get to define life and death. No longer does God get to decide that a baby He formed in the mothers womb should be born but we get to make that decision based on our feelings.

Do you see whats happening. Church they didn't just take God out of schools, they are trying to take Him out of the very existence of every human being. But guess what, God is in control. They can fight and scream and yell but God decides. However far this goes God has allowed it, for our judgment and for His Glory. He will be glorified and I am seeing faithful men step up to pulpits every Sunday like pastor Zach who proclaim that God is God and we are not. They proclaim the Kingdom and the truth no matter if it gets them canceled or ridiculed because they know they are called to obedience and God is in control fo the outcome. Faithful men Young and Old throughout American, Canada and the world risking all to proclaim Gods truth. Why, because they know God is Sovereign.

So what then church should we do, and how should we then speak?

Well, we should speak with sovereign speech. That means our speech should be in a way that points to Gods sovereignty. Just like what James says, it is always clarifying any of our ideas or plans with if God wills, if God allows or, if it pleases the Lord.

And don’t get caught up in the theatrics of it all. Really mean it. Really believe that God is in control of all aspects of our lives and all aspects of the world. There is no detail that is out of His hands.

Lastly James says So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. It seems here James knows this is a simple thing that all should know. All should know the Sovereignty of the Lord yet we do not speak like it. He is saying that the sin of omission is still a sin. We know it yet we do not do it or say it.

So like James, I will commission you to go and do and say what you know is right. Amen. Let’s Pray.