Speaking Life | James 3:1-12 | Jarryd Cole

Pastor Jarryd continues in the book of James, teaching about choosing how we should use the power of the tongue. 

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Transcript

Tempo: 120.0

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Welcome to the Ambassador Church Podcast, a church in the city for the city, on Milwaukee's East Side. We pray this message meets you where you are, challenges your faith, and draws you closer to Jesus.

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If you're new in the room, you're just joining us here in this series. We are about six weeks into an 11-week series where we're looking at what the Brother of Jesus has to say about really just living kind of a practical Christian life. We're just crossing halfway here. Next Sunday, we're obviously taking a break as we look at Easter. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 28 for that. Tell your friends, tell your family straight gospel message. We'd love to hear them, have them here to hear that message. But then we're going to be hopping right back into the book of James after that. And today, here's what James is going to show us, okay? He's going to help us see and understand the significance of our words. Which doesn't kind of be an ironic thing coming from a guy like James, because if you've been with us, like it kind of seems like James is a guy that doesn't really care about how he's communicating and speaking his words, right? He doesn't kind of mince anything. James gives it to you, gives it to you straight, and he gives it to you really blunt. Like he doesn't really hold his tongue at all. Like, have you guys been feeling that? Like lots of important things James is trying to let us know, and he's really been super blunt about it. But he's also been this. He's kind of been like a friend that's coming alongside you, putting his arm around you. This is like, hey, I really care about this. Like he's letting us know like what a faith in Jesus, like how we believe and what that really looks like, the fruit that should be evident of our faith. And last week, if you were here, Micah was here and he brought us through an important and yet difficult idea to thread in the Christian faith, this reality that faith without works is death. Meaning that when we become a Christian, we become indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit, not only to kind of intellectually believe in our minds about Jesus, but we begin to be transformed as the fruit of our lives show the evidence of our faith. And I love the analogy Micah gave last week, the tree analogy. You guys, you guys blessed by Micah's message last week? See an ambassador church. Here's what's true. We want to be living trees, not dead trees. For all the merch people, maybe you can do something with that sometime on a on it on a t-shirt, okay? And today, kind of building off of last week and really building off the entire book of James, we're looking at what this fruit kind of looks like. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about favoritism, and today James is gonna narrow in and talk about this other kind of fruit, and this is fruit of really taming your tongue. See what James is gonna let us know in James chapter 3 and just these 12 verses 1 through 12 is incredibly simple, yet incredibly important. And it's this truth right here. Your words matter. Your words matter. And a couple reasons why they matter is um just to let you know, like our words are really memorable. The words you speak, people actually remember these. Okay, at the drop of a dime, like many of us could really recite the words to any of our favorite songs. Could we not? We remember things from our favorite books, our favorite movies. Why? Because they've had an impact on us. Like for me personally, if you want to get me in a place where I'm like reciting every line to every movie, uh, take me back to 1994, okay? The little rascals, buckwheats, all these different kinds of things, alfalfa, right? Like, you turn that movie on any given time in my house, I'm probably quoting that movie line for line from the beginning to the end, okay? Fun fact the word little rascals was like my password for everything I had, you know, for way too long in my life. All right, now it's something different. Um but it used to be little rascals. But words are memorable. And those of us who kind of grew up in like the TV age of all the jingles and all that kind of stuff, like like we know this. There's so many things that are still stuck in our minds from things we heard years ago. I think about this jingle from a famous company. Like a good neighbor. Right? Like we just have these things in our mind, we kind of remember these. What about this one? American America runs on Dunkin', Dunkin' Donuts, or Baba Ba Baba. I'm loving it, McDonald's. Nike, just what about this one? Little throwback. Every kiss begins with hey, give it up, get it for yourself, eh? Right? Like, you can do this with literally so many things in our lives. You don't have a pamphlet in front of you, you don't have a book ready for these things. You just know them. You've heard them, they've stuck with you. Words are memorable. But here's what's also true words aren't just memorable, they're also powerful. Like, think about the things that maybe people have said to you in your lives. There's positive things that you've heard. Maybe from a parent, maybe from a grandparent, a coach, a friend, a teacher in your life. And we think over the course of our lives, there have been many people who've spoken really good things to us. Spouses, you think of the I love you coming from your spouse in a timely time. You think of those of you who are dating, write that good morning text that slides in just at the right moment. You hear the words, I'm proud of you, from your dad. You hear words, the most glorious words, hey, food's ready, right? From your mom. Or really from anybody for that matter, right? Food's ready is always something good to hear. But if we're honest, it's not just the positive things we remember, but it's also some of the negative things that we remember too. Finish this phrase for me. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never hurt me. We remember that one too, don't we? We all apparently had the same childhood. But here's the question: is that phrase true? No. See, we learned this as kids with admittedly foul mouths and evil intentions, hanging around other kids with foul mouths and evil intentions on playgrounds. Like maybe you were like me and you dissed out all these words and you received some of these words too on playgrounds. And you know what's true about me and what's probably true about you too when you think about these words that maybe you've heard from a long time ago that were negative when they came to you, that you still probably think about these sometimes. Like some of the negative things you heard still ring true in your mind to this day. And if we're honest, a lot of the things that we do, the family that we want to raise, the spouse that we want to have, the job that we want to have, and if you're still in college, like the major that you chose, like all of these kinds of things are kind of a result of you trying to deal and cope with the words from way back when that are still living rent-free in your minds right now. You're still trying to make sense of it. And right now you're living in the reality of even some of the negative things that people have said to you. See, right now, uh I'm a family man, married almost 13 years now. We've got four kids. And my kids' ages now are 11, 9, 7, and 5. I can remember it because they're all two years apart. It's not always like that. Don't ask me in a couple months, I won't be able to tell you, okay? But they're 11, 9, 7, and 5. And my oldest right now was starting to get into sports. She's a volleyball player, she's a basketball player, and I'm seeing this happen in real time right now. And I'm going to these sporting events, and I played sports myself. I'm a basketball player, and so I have a competitive edge. Their mom played basketball as well. She has a competitive edge. And you know what my biggest temptation is right now as I'm going to and from my kids' sporting events? It's yo, how do I begin to speak life into my kids as they're venturing into this new world in their lives right now? Because you know what I'm most tempted to do when we're leaving sporting events? I'm most tempted to point out all the things I saw wrong, all the negative things, all the things to work on, to be like, hey, this didn't happen how it should have happened. You should have been here, you should have done it. Even if I'm trying to say it nicely, the things I'm tempted to say are the things that need to be worked on, instead of the things that went well. Like I'm working on this right now. See, I once heard somewhere that the worst person for a child to ride home with after a game is their dad. Why? Because this is what often happens. We sit in this seat, we're sitting in the driver's seat, our kids are in the passenger in the back seat, and the thing we want to do is be like, hey, we gotta quickly work on this. I saw this, it needs to be that way. Or this, that, and the other, right? You need to jump up higher so you can block the volleyball before it comes over the net, and you have to do it repeatedly every time. I'm trying, you ain't trying hard enough. Things like that. But you want to know who the best people are for your kids to ride home with after a sporting event? It's your grandparents. They want to ride home with grandma and grandpa. Why? Because they're just happy to be there. They're just happy, and they don't care if you do good, if you do bad. They're just like, hey, I'm just happy. I'm glad to see you. You did amazing, and I'll be back at the next one. Great job. Keep it up. I can't wait till next week. This is how grandparents are. See, there's a popular proverb, many of you might know it, it's in Proverbs chapter 18, verse 21. It says this life and death are in the power of the tongue. You guys know the rest of that verse? It says, Those who love it will eat its fruit. So I love this proverb and how it lines up so well with where we're going this morning because it sounds like a lot of what James is about to say. So some say the book of James is like the proverbs of the New Testament. There's so much wisdom in it. So here's what I want to do this morning. I I want us to take this personal, that this type of power isn't just in the tongue, but this power is actually in your tongue. Your words matter, and your tongue holds the power of life and death. And my hope this morning is to show us the significance of choosing to speak life. And so, if you like to know where we're going, here's where we're going this morning. Um, I want to show us really quickly from the text a warning from James about our speech, and then two reasons why we should tame it, and then really practically on the back end, four ways how we can tame it. If you're in the Bible in the book of James, chapter three, here's what it says in verse one. We're reading it says, Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body. Okay, not many of us should become teachers. Anyone want to switch me places this morning? Right. This is how James leads off with this. He starts with a warning about your speech. And this fact that being in a teacher context, being in a teacher position, that this means that there's a responsibility that you hold, a kind of weight that you have now. And so you have to choose your words carefully. And the way you choose your words carefully is that you desire to speak more life than death. Like James even says that hey, those who teach, they will be judged with a stricter judgment. And I know for a lot of us here, like we're thinking, okay, I'm not really a teacher, I don't get to teach from a pulpit like Jared does on a Sunday mornings, all this kind of stuff. Like, I think that something like this can actually be applied not only to proper teaching context like this, but really in any place that anybody has any influence. So that means this can even reach the pews. Like when you think about you have influence over anybody in your life, parents over kids, public school, private school teachers over their students, bosses over their co-workers, influence, authority. Like I think James is saying the same thing to us. And so what's true is that hey, there's a stricter judgment when there's people under you who are influenced by you, like your words that you speak, James is saying, hey, you will have a stricter judgment for that. You will be held accountable for that. Like the warning here, we have to know this, isn't to make you fearful of being in leadership, it isn't to make you fearful of being a teacher. But what it should do is it should make us reverent, it should help us see the responsibility that we have. It's good and right, and it's worthwhile to even pursue. Or like when you have kids and you have kids that are kind of looking up to you, like that's a really good thing. But it's also a really challenging thing, a really hard thing. Those of us with kids in the room, we know that it's often hard to speak life-giving words versus death-giving words to the kids among our midst. Those of us who run businesses, those of us who have influence in our spaces of work, it's sometimes hard to speak words of life over words of death. And yet James is calling us to that. He's saying, hey, if you're a teacher, if you have any influence, you should be choosing to speak life over death. This is the call. And he says, Those who do, I love what he says. Well, in verse 2, he's saying, hey, makes this caveat, for we all stumble in many ways. He's saying, hey, listen, I know you're not gonna get it right all the time. I don't get it right all the time, I know you're not gonna get it right all the time. But still, he says, if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, means he is growing, able also to control the whole body. He's basically saying, hey, like when you begin to get a grip on the words that you speak, he's saying everything else also begins to kind of fall into place. Like this is important. Controlling and taming your tongue is a really important fruit of what it means to have the Spirit of God in you. That when you have faith in Jesus, that part of your growing in Christ's likeness is that you bear the fruit and grow in maturity and what it means to speak life over death. And James continues to give us two reasons why this is important, two reasons why we need to tame our tongue. Look at verse three. James says, Now, if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we direct their whole bodies. And consider ships, though very large and driven by fierce winds, they're guided by a very small rudder wherever we, wherever the will the pilot directs. And so too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things. So the first reason why James says, Hey, we need to be people who kind of tame our tongue, who speak life over death, is this reason right here. It's because our tongues are small but mighty. See, James comes in and he has these couple illustrations where he's talking about what the tongue is like. He's saying the tongue is like a bit that goes in the mouths of horses. He says like the rudder on a ship. Very small thing that controls the direction of where this thing goes. James is talking about direction here. There's a picture that's gonna pop up on the screen. I don't know if you've ever ridden a horse before, but this is what it looks like for an overgrown six, eight person to be sitting on a horse that's way too small for him. I showed this picture to my staff team earlier this week, and they were like, I don't know who's riding who. Are you riding a horse or is a horse riding you like your feet are nearly on the ground? Like, like this is this is what's true. This is the first and last time I've ever ridden a horse, just so you guys know. This was almost 13 years ago uh on my honeymoon. I was in Mexico. Me and my wife were there, and we were riding a horse, and I was deathly afraid. You can imagine a boy from Kansas City, I'm a city boy, I ain't never been around a horse, never been on like a farm, whatever. And here I am in Mexico of all places, riding on the beach, and here we are, we're we're on horses, okay? This is this is where I am. Tap into that with me, okay? And I'm thinking, like, how in the world is this gonna work? Like, I don't know how to direct a horse, all this kind of stuff. But here's what's true about this horse: someone like me, who really knows nothing about horses, who doesn't really know how to direct a horse, to give a horse a command, like a horse, this kind of horse, especially, is like it's already trained. And the way that it's geared to operate is that it goes wherever the rider says it's going to go. There's a bit, and this is what James wants us to know, that goes into the horse's mouth, that when the rider on the back kind of directs the horse, the horse just goes wherever it is. Listen, I know it looks like I'm a lot bigger than that horse, but that horse could literally squash me, okay? The other day we were talking to the staff room about like how how much big of an animal do you think you could take down with your bare hands? I didn't say horse, okay? That horse could squash me, and yet here I am on the beach like it's nothing, and this horse is literally going every which way I tell it to go. We're on gravel roads, we're on dirt roads, we're on the beach right by the water, and this horse is just trotting along, and I'm like, I'm feeling pretty good. Like, is it going wherever I tell it to go? And this is how the tongue is. The body goes, how the tongue tells it to go, and it has that much power. Like your life will go literally in the direction of your words. And you think about this because that means like all the negative talk that you think of. Like, if you just live your life and you just communicate all negative things around you all the time, and all you do is communicate negativity to other people, you know what your life is actually gonna feel like. You know what you're gonna feel in your life, in your mind.