Good morning, my name is Mike Hammond and my wife Viv and I belong to Pastor Seth. Today's scripture reading is from the book of James chapter 3. It can be found on page 1197 in the Bible underneath the seat in front of you. That's James chapter 3. Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man able to keep his whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boats. Consider that a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing, my brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives or a grapevine, bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from heaven but is earthly and spiritual of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, and good fruit in partial and sincere. Peace makers who sow in peace, raise a harvest of righteousness. This is the word of the Lord. Good morning. As you can tell my father's in radio. Welcome, mom and dad, I'm glad you're here with us. My name is Seth Hammond, I'm the assistant pastor here, and Mike Osborne, our senior pastor, is out of town in North Carolina with his wife Susie. They're visiting with a friend that he hasn't seen in 35 years. So we need to be praying for Mike this week as he's away. We are continuing the sermon series Wisdom for Living by going through the book of James. Now this small book is full of practical wisdom that we can gain for our everyday lives. Two weeks ago I started preaching in the series by looking at chapter 1 in the theme of perseverance, how we are to persevere with faith, with humility, and with action. Last week we heard from Matt Reiman, our other assistant pastor, on how to put our faith into action. And today I'm continuing this series by looking at chapter 3 and the main issue or the main challenge I would like to issue to us is this. We must restrain our unruly tongues and our envious hearts and instead promote peace with our words and our actions. Let me pray with us. Lord Jesus, the grass withers and the flowers fade but your word stands forever. I also want to pray for Mike and Susie as they are in North Carolina and may it be a weekend of just a time where they can renew friendships with long lost friends that they haven't seen in 35 years. I pray that it will be a time of renewal and please keep them safe this weekend. Go with us now as we look into your word and Jesus name. Amen. Now in this chapter that my father just read to us this morning, James immediately jumps into the core of the issue and that is our hearts. If you look with me in verse 2, he says we all stumble in many ways. The idea here is that as I mentioned, James gets to the core to what's really within us and that is our sinful hearts. That we indeed are sinful and we make all kinds of mistakes. In fact, our hearts are full of corruption. You know, we're like a one year old child who stumbles repeatedly as he learns to walk and he falls down and gets back up. But our stumbling, although it's not immediately fatal, can be extremely serious. Now all of us fall into sin and cannot escape its power. James goes on to address two major topics that can lead us into sin and that is our unruly tongues and our envious heart. Let's look first at an unruly tongue. My first point this morning is that an unruly tongue leads to restless evil. Let me ask you a question. Can you recall a time when you ever said something that hurt someone? What about a time when someone carelessly said something to you that deeply hurt you and impacted you? Do you remember those times? Well, how has either of these experiences continued to affect you? As I was thinking of this in my own personal life, there are two examples that immediately jump out to me. The first example was when I was in high school. I was a junior in high school and I was running for student government president of the school. And I had a really good friend named Jay. And Jay was my opponent. He was running against me and believe it or not, we were completely opposite of one another. In fact, our campaigns were polar opposite of each other. Where I ran on a theme of experience in student government and let's work with the faculty and the principal and the teachers. He ran on the opposite direction of lack of experience and he also really came out with a theme of rebellion and going against the faculty. And trying to promote some agenda that would not have been able to be accomplished. Well, there was one thing that stood out to me in this campaign. And it really deeply impacted me. You may laugh at it and I'll tell you it's okay if you laugh. But he said something and at the time it hurt me because I knew where he was getting at. He was trying to get to the core of my heart. He was trying to hurt me. And he had this big sign on the wall that said Seth rhymes with death. Yeah, he said that. And at the time I was 16 years old, 17 years old, and I was deeply affected by that. And ever since then, ever since I saw that sign, he, during that week of campaign, he just kept pushing at me trying to push my buttons to see how I would react. Now on the flip end, I remember an example where I said something that deeply impacted another person. A couple years ago, I was working before here. I was working at the YMCA at Blanchard Park. Many of you have been there. And I was doing sales. I was a sales representative there. And basically one of my jobs was to check people in so they could work out. Well, one night, I distinctly remember, there was a woman who came in and she rushed through the door without checking in. And so as part of the policy, I ran after her and I said, ma'am, I'm sorry, but as part of our policy, you got to check in. And she said, what are you talking about? I've been a member here for two years, and I'm late to a spin class. So I don't need to check in. And so as you can imagine, I went back and forth with this woman trying to get her to go back and check in, but she would not have it. And so I just resigned, and I said, whatever, I'll deal with it when she leaves the door, when she leaves the class. And so I walked back to my desk, and I was talking to one of my personal training friends, and I said, I can't believe this ridiculous woman. She's extremely rude and arrogant. I can't believe we allow this type of behavior, and I can't believe she's here in this facility. Well, all of a sudden I saw my personal trainer friend, his face turned stone cold, and I knew what happened. I turned around, and there she was, right behind me. She heard everything that I said about her, and she was deeply impacted by my words. So she immediately got in my face and said, I can't believe you treat your customers this way, your members this way. I'm going to take this to your manager, and she did. I told my manager what happened, and I sent her a letter of apology. And ever since then she accepted my apology, and we record her with one another, and she checked in after that. But these are just two examples, and you see we've all been affected by the words of others, and unfortunately some of these words will never be forgotten. James is saying here that great results can be achieved by small means. The tongue is a small part of the body that is capable of creating enormous disasters, and it's capable of providing life-enhancing guidance. He gives us three examples of how small things can achieve great results. Look with me in verse three. He first talks about how we are to put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, and then we can turn the entire animal. As you saw, my mother and father here with us this morning, and just a few years ago, my father surprised my mom with an incredible gift. The gift that she wanted ever since she was a child. He bought her a big quarter horse, beautiful horse, and she lit up with joy when she got this horse. Well, it's amazing to me when I go to visit my parents, because when she rides the horse, my mom is smaller than I am, but yet she can control such a large animal because of the bit and its mouth. She's able to turn him left and right, and he goes wherever she wants him to go. But if she didn't have that bit in his mouth, he would not obey her. He would just stand there, or he would go in the opposite direction. But it's that little bit that can take her a long way. James also gives us another example of that of a large ship. Although they are large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder. And wherever the pilot wants to go, he just steers it, and it goes. The captain of the ship is able to control the direction of the ship by utilizing the force of the wind to his advantage and by turning the small rudder of the ship. James third example is that of a forest fire. A great forest fire is set on by a small spark. In our modern day example, I would think of a steering wheel on a car. It's a little part of a car, but yet it can turn the entire vehicle. Or we can imagine a light switch in the room. It's small in the room, but yet it illuminates great light around the room. These are all small things that can accomplish great results. But just like a bit controls a horse, a rudder controls a ship, and a spark can set off an entire forest fire, so the tongue can control an entire person. Look with me in verses five through six. James says likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell. You see, the tongue is a world of evil that corrupts the whole person. It is a restless evil that is full of deadly poison. The secret thought of the tongue is, in fact, the heart. And Mike has preached on this several times, this idea of the sin beneath the sin, that when we say something, there's something deeper going on. There's something deeper beyond our behavior and our actions, and that is our heart. The tongue refers to our inward thoughts, our inward imaginations. And Jesus mentions this twice in the Gospels. In Matthew 15, verse 18 to 19, Jesus says, the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things make a man unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. And then he goes on in Luke 6, verse 45, and says that the good man brings good things out of the good, stored in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks. You see what we say reveals our true identity. Whatever comes out of our mouths is really a reflection of our hearts. I have a question for you again. Have you ever gossiped? Have you ever slandered anyone? Have you ever lied or told a secret or cursed in a profuse way? Have you yelled at someone? Well, I'm sure all of us in here have done that, and James says we all stumble in many ways. But why do we do this? Why do we lie? Why do we gossip? Why do we slander others? I'll tell you why, it's because of our corrupt hearts, and it's because of our selfishness. In verse 9 through 12, James continues to hit this point home by saying that we praise God our Father, and at the same time we curse men who are made in his likeness. It's like coming to church on Sunday morning, and praising God, and putting your Sunday morning face on, and then right after you leave, you're critical. You're critical of what I had to say, or Jonathan, or the welcome team, or anybody you know in here. You may leave here and just be critical. We do this all the time. We do it by cursing our government officials. Our leaders, our pastors, our parents, our family members, our friends, our enemies. We do this all the time. And when we're doing this, we're slapping God in the face. We're slapping God in the face because we're saying something bad about someone who has made in his image. Now, Dr. Richard Pratt, one of my seminary professors, gave a great example of this. In his book Design for Dignity, he was reflecting on a time when he was in graduate school at Harvard, and he said he was walking around the Harvard yard, and all of a sudden he sees these cop cars everywhere. And he went over to the cop cars, and he noticed that there was John Harvard statue, and lime green paint had been thrown all over this statue. And as he was observing this, he overheard one of the police officers say, these kids haven't got any respect for the school. No respect at all. You see, when the officer was saying that, as far as the officer was concerned, the desecration of John Harvard statue was in a front to the university itself. An attack on the image was an attack on the school it represented. And so just like this example, we must remember the reality that when we say something bad about someone, we're saying something bad about God. And as James says, my brothers and sisters, this should not be. Not only could our tongues lead to restless evil, but our envious hearts can lead to selfish ambition. Look with me in verse 14 through 16. He talks about envy and an envious heart. And envy is the resentful and even hateful dislike of another person. Do you ever have bitter feelings towards someone else? Is there unresolved anger towards someone? Do you have a resentful spirit? If so, perhaps there is an element of rivalry in your life and towards the attitude towards this person. You see, the more you harbor these envious thoughts towards this individual, the more your life will be in disorder. You see, envy is linked to self-centeredness and self-ambition. All we can think about is our own desires and our own lives. We are constantly worried about our own security and not the security of others. You see, an envious heart will lead to broken hearts, broken homes, broken covenants. It will lead to social strife and it will lead to war. And little do we know, but an envious heart will end up leading to our own fall and destruction. Dwight Elmoudi, a famous missionary, once told a fable when it came to envy. And he told it in a sense of two birds. He said there is one bird who could fly very high and he could fly well. And this other bird was envious of the first bird who could fly well because he couldn't fly as high as this bird could. And so one day he went to the sportsman, the other bird, and he said, Sir, I would like for you to kill that bird who could fly high. And the sportsman had a bow and arrow and he said, unfortunately, I won't be able to kill this bird because I don't have feathers on it to where it could shoot high. And so the other bird plucked one of his feathers off and he gave it to the sportsman. And so enough, the sportsman put it on his arrow and shot it, but it still did not reach the bird because the bird was flying high. So the other bird said, OK, I'll give you another feather. And then he gave another one and another one until finally, the bird could not fly himself. So the sportsman turned around to get manage of the opportunity and killed the other bird. Well, Dwight Elmoudi makes the point to this application by saying this, if you are envious of others, the one you will hurt the most by your actions will be yourself. You see, the more selfish we are, the more we will face disorder. Our envious hearts will lead us to evil practice. Now, I've just spent the majority of our time talking about how corrupt we are and how we all stumble. And now that I've depressed all of us in here, what is the good news? What's the good news? I'll tell you what the good news is. It's Jesus Christ. It's who we just sang about, the name that is above all names. You see, Jesus loves us even in the midst of our mistakes. He loves us when we say something wrong. God, our Father loves us because His Son died on the cross for our sins. And when God sees you, He sees His Son. That is if you repent of your sins, if you identify that your heart is corrupt and that you need a savior to rescue you from your sins. If you put your trust in Jesus Christ, you will be born again. And what I mean by born again is that time when you truly believe, that first time you believe in Jesus, you were born again. You have a new life, a new spiritual life. It's not literally that you're born again, that you're reincarnated, no. But it's that something supernatural happened to you. Your heart has been changed. It's been changed from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Your heart has been transformed because of Jesus Christ. That's what I mean by born again. And because we have been changed, God has filled us with wisdom and understanding. And He calls us to restrain from sin and keep our bodies in check. This leads to my third point. A self-controlled temperament leads to righteousness. Now restraining means to hold back from action. To keep in check or to keep under control. God wants us to restrain our unruly tongues and our envious hearts and instead promote peace with our words and our actions. And He wants us to live self-controlled lives. Tim Keller, many of you have read his books. He's a fellow PCA pastor. And he defines self-control as this. Self-control is the ability to choose the important thing over the urgent thing. You see, the important thing is to please God, to give Him glory. The urgent thing is to please ourselves to seek joy apart from pleasing God. And this happens to us all the time. Think about it. The important thing is to spend time with the Lord. But yet something urgent always comes in our lives. And it demands our time. It could be an email. It could be a phone call. It could be an emergency. There's something urgent that may not necessarily be urgent. But God is calling us to be self-controlled. And that means to put the important thing over the urgent thing. You see, the more we aim to please God, the more righteous we will become. And it's through the power of His Holy Spirit. James talks about this in verse 17 and 18. He gives us words of wisdom. In fact, there's heavenly wisdom from God above in verse 17. Look with me in verse 17. He gives us several adjectives and several insight of the wisdom that we are given from above. He, first of all, says that wisdom from above is pure. And that it's innocent. It is blameless. It's holy. God's holiness shines upon us so that we then have pure wisdom. Wisdom from above is also peace-loving. And that it is not choral. It stays away from a choralism attitude. It tries to seek peace, love, and harmony. Wisdom from above is considerate. And that it's always looking to the interest of another person. And it's respectful of other people's feelings. Wisdom from above is full of mercy. It's active compassion. You're constantly showing compassion to another. You're actively pursuing that. And finally, wisdom from above is impartial and sincere. Anytime there's an argument and you don't know anything about it, you're listening to both sides. You don't come in thinking that this person is right or wrong. You go in and you hear both sides and then you form an opinion. It's impartial, it's sincere. You truly care about both sides if there's an argument and dispute. This is a good list and a good reminder of the wisdom that God gives us from above, that we are to use in our everyday lives. And as Christians who follow Jesus, this is a list of heavenly wisdom that God gives us. So instead of having an unruly tongue and an envious heart, we are called from God to be peacemakers in this world. Now peacemakers are the ones who promote harmony and bring about peace. They are the ones who are saying nice things about others and not tearing them down. They are ones that are trying to resolve conflict. They are ones that encourage others and support others instead of being envious towards others. And this is what God calls us to do. Now remember the example I told you earlier about my friend Jay. Let me tell you what happened at the end of the story. The week went on, the campaign week went on. I ended up becoming president of the school. And Jay never acknowledged me. He never said a word to me. He avoided me like the plague. For four months he always went the other way when I was walking towards him. It really hurt and impacted me. Finally four months went into it and we both went to a young life summer camp, which is a Christian high school group. And we drove all the way to Colorado from Tennessee. The first three days Jay continued to avoid me. But finally there was one night in the week retreat where Jay heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and his heart was changed. He believed for the first time. He repented of his heart of corruption and his sin and he believed in Jesus. He knew that Jesus was his savior who rescued him from sin. And his heart went from a heart of stone and changed into a heart of flesh. Well right after this event happened and this change happened Jay after the service ran up to me and he said I'm sorry. He said I'm so sorry for hurting you. I'm sorry for the words I said. And he said I want to thank you for running a clean campaign and for not retaliating back to me. And he said other words that have impacted me significantly to this day that we're very encouraging. You see Jay's words turned from harsh words to words of love. For the first time in his life Jay became a peacemaker. My brothers and sisters in Christ let us be peacemakers. Let us restrain our unruly tongues and our envious hearts and instead promote peace with our words and our actions. Let's pray. Heavenly Father I come before you in humility and I repent of all the words I've said. I've gossiped about others. I've been critical of others in our local leaders and even people in the church and even my own family. Lord please forgive me for that. I pray that instead that I will seek you and I pray that my brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers here will seek you. That their hearts will be changed and renewed. I pray that we will all strive to be peacemakers, to bring harmony and peace and not to bring strife. I pray that instead of having an envious heart and an unruly tongue that we will seek you and promote peace with our words and actions. May we leave here today with our hearts renewed and may we glorify you in what we say and do in Jesus' name. Amen.