Sticks & Stones
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INTRO: Let people know that they are still in the process of traveling home from Portland. Flight was cancelled.
*Honor Ace and Liz*
Your commitment to raising up leaders is inspiring. Also to see how much it has grow honestly blesses me so much. There is a sense of vibrancy here and a hunger to grow in the things of God and that has everything to do with how your heart is aligned with Jesus. You are shepherding the flock and God is using you two a significant way. Come on if you are thankful for your pastors would you take 5 seconds to let them know.
Turn to your neighbor and ask are you ready for the word? Turn to your other neighbor and ask are you single? HA
SCRIPTURE:
The book of James is primarily about putting our faith into practice. Not just being a hearer but a doer of the word. But the audience are jewish believers. Scholars believe that the author of this book was James who was Jesus’s half brother....Real quick can you imagine how frustrating that would be. Imagine playing any game or sport with Jesus.
You know Jesus is gonna win or you know for a fact he is going easy on you and letting you win.
Can you imagine balling out in a dusty court outside? Euro step YEET
James 3:3-10 MSG
A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!
5–6 It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.
7–10 This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!
The words that we speak tear down and bring destruction or do they build up and bring life?
TITLE: STICKS & STONES
We’ve all heard the saying Sticks and stones may break my bones but..
Truth is words can hurt but the good news is that we have the opportunity to use our words for good, building up, for encouragement, for raising our faith to a new level
PRAYER:
Jesus thank you for the opportunity of being in your house. Let our hearts be receptive tonight. We pray that your holy word would be heard and stir up a call to action. That we would be doers of the word.
STORY:
How of y’all have been to Ikea?
I’ve been once or twice as a homeowner. Its the thing to do.
I remember my first time going to Ikea I was sent to buy a list of office supplies for church. And at this time the closest Ikea was in Orlando! Orlando traffic stresses me out! Not only that but I was asked to use Ps Matty’s truck....
Eventually I get there safely and walk and immediately start sweating. Its like a Swedish maze. I struggle to find
Its like how a small tool used incorrectly can dismantle instead of build.
Allen Key
The truth is that our tongue is powerful and we have a tendency for a crooked speech to leave our mouths if …*
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits.
Choose your words wisely, especially those who have the propensity to be talkative. Your words will catch up to you so how will you choose to speak?
Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life;
he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.
*Tonight I want to give three questions regarding the words we speak in life*
POINT 1
Who or what has the biggest influence on our words?
Because even though our tongue is one of the smallest parts of our body, it has the largest influence..But even our tongue has an influencer. its all about what we fix our attention on.
that will determine the words that come out of your mouth.
What if we made a decision to have THE WORD as the biggest influence in our lives?
Two things that I feel the Lord highlighted for us to remember. Our words have a direct correlation to our head and our heart. They are the two things your words flow from.
First lets talk about the mind
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Let your life be a living sacrifice! Holy and pleasing to his sight. That’s our worship!
Paul is saying in this passage do not be conformed but be transformed.
Conformed means: to be or become behaviorally or socially similar to.
Rick Brannan, ed., Lexham Research Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, Lexham Research Lexicons (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020).
Transformed means: To change or transfigure! To be made into something more beautiful.
The Greek verb translated “transformed” (metamorphousthe) is seen in the English word “metamorphosis,” a total change from inside out
I want that for my own life!
Now the heart
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
The point is that good conduct comes from a good heart
You can’t expect to see good fruit to come from a bad tree.
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks
Our continual prayer can be Psalm 51:10 create in me a clean heart o God. And renew a right spirit within me.
The point that I am driving home is the point that we should pursue a life that is a living sacrifice for God! Let God be the greatest influence in your life and that will result in a mind and heart set on Him.
USE PROP: Here I have some water and some red dye. If we are to view this of water as a representation of the life we have, the second jar is the WORD, and the dye represents a variety of things (our sinful nature, lies from the enemy, negative words that we have heard or spoken to ourselves.) Everything that isn’t Gods best for your life.
Through this life because of our human condition…Because we are not perfect and because of the reality of living in a broken world, certain things tend to stick to us.
But watch this, the more we nourish our souls and wash ourselves with the word…THE MORE WE RECEIVE A SPIRITUAL INPUT: THE WORD, PRAYER, GODLY COMMUNITY
Let’s choose to have the Word as the biggest influence in our lives. Then we will be able to be a living sacrifice for the Lord. We are actively choosing to not conform but instead be transformed by the power of the Word!
POINT 2
Do our words bring life and encouragement?
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Your words may be positive at the start or at the end of the trial but what is your speech like in the middle?
Are you able to encourage yourself and others when you feel like you are in the middle of the mess or in the middle of your emotions. What’s your theology like when you haven’t seen the victory yet?
I was reminded of Thomas Eddision. American inventor who created the light bulb. Him and his team actually created the first movie camera.
But I was reading about is life in an article recently and I wanted to share of bit of it tonight
******************
“At 7-years-old Thomas Edison did have a massive dislike of the school system, and his teacher. He was called out in class as being 'addled' and he stormed home in disgust. His mother did accompany him to school the next day seeking an explanation for this criticism. In those days 'addled' was used to describe someone as mentally ill, but now we would recognise Thomas Edison's difficulties as dyslexia.
after his mother spoke to the teacher and got no satisfactory explanation, she decided to home-school the young inventor. At this point, Master Edison was overjoyed at his mother's decision and showed true integrity when he 'promised himself to make his mother proud of him'. With this promise he showed true appreciation for the love and belief his mother had in him...
Everyone, at some time or another, needs someone to believe in them, even if it's just for a moment - and even from someone unknown to them. The recognition from the outside, that we have value on the inside, is often just enough to help us release that value into ourselves and then naturally by extension into the world.’”
The moral of the story is that his mother’s encouragement and support changed the trajectory of his life!
what his teacher failed to see is the very thing that his mother called out of him. Significance, brilliance, potential!
Can you imagine the amount times she would have encouraged Thomas with her words?
*That is the point that is being made in Ephesians 4!
As we commit to being a living sacrifice lets give life through the words we speak to others! The words we speak can change someone’s life because we are influenced by the right person, JESUS.
POINT 3
Has our faith grown from the words we speak?
Story of Jesus and the roman officer
(He was in command of hundreds of men)
“Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
The roman officer exercised his faith! One of the ways you grow your faith is by exercising it! He spoke it out-loud “Only Say The Word” and my servant will be healed.
What situation could you be dealing with that is actually an opportunity to say I have Faith that my God will move? For the centurion it was a statement. Just say the word. That was the faith that caused Jesus to marvel at!
You speak life and faith in every circumstance
Ex: finances, sickness, mental illness, grief,
CONCLUSION:
Let’s be encouraged to not just be hearers but doers of the word. Let’s take inventory of how we speak to ourselves and to others. Are we showing an example of Jesus or are we being a hindrance for others to see Jesus through our lives?