July 21, 2010

"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him 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, unspiritual, 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, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness." James 3:13-18

The word "understanding" is a key word in this portion of Scripture. James used a word here that is used exclusively in this text and it connotes a "specialist". It takes a "specialist" to receive and properly apply wisdom. How would you like to be known as someone who specializes in wisdom? Could you live with that?

How do you know when someone is a wisdom specialist? Do they have a business card? Do they get a title? If you want to pick them out of a crowd what would you look for?

That is essentially the point of this portion of Scripture. A practioner of wisdom demonstrates a very distinct lifestyle. He has attitudes and actions that set him apart from those who do not understand true wisdom.

So, wisdom is intensely practical. It is not just subscribing to a particular set of beliefs or creeds. Wisdom is not a matter of what you know but what you show. Knowledge is important and you certainly must know the correct things. But simply having head knowledge doesn't guarantee a change of heart or behavior. The world is filled with highly educated and very knowledgable people who live ungodly lives because knowledge tends to puff up a person with pride. Pride and wisdom are mutually exclusive.

Show me a wise person and I will show you a humble person. The wise person understands that knowledge brings power and he respects that power. Wise people understand that there is a responsibility that comes with knowledge. Humble people live under accountability to the power and the responsibility of knowledge.

The wisest man who ever lived summed up the wisdom, knowledge and understanding interface this way, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will dirct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

Do you need to "wise up"? Are you trusting in what you know or are you living out what you believe? Has your knowlege puffed you up with pride or has it humbled you? Do you seek to use your knowledge as leverage to promote yourself at the expense of others?

The truth remains, if you really believe it your life will show it.

July 20, 2010

"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom." James 3:1

Jesus told a story one day about two men. One of those men He referred to as "foolish" and the other he called "wise". Other than the fact that Jesus said it (and if Jesus calls you a "fool" you are one) what separates a wise man from a foolish man?

In Jesus' little story it was the men themselves who differentiated themselves by their actions. The "foolish" man built a house on a foundation of sand. While it was cheaper and easier to build on sand it was also short-sighted. When the first big thunderstorm of the season blew through with its torrential rains and winds the house crumbled as its foundation washed away. The "wise" man build his house on a solid foundation of rock. It is more diificult to chisel through the rock and anchor a foundation there. But the painstaking effort and expense paid off when that storm blew in and washed his neighbor away while his house stood strong.

According to Jesus, wisdom is not a matter of what you know but what you show! God is not interested in theories, He wants transformed lives. He wants obedience. He wants you to build your life on the foundation of a personal relationship with Him.

As the brother of Jesus, James echoes the same truth in his writings. He says, "You can't claim to be wise and act like a fool!" If you act foolish you will be judged as a fool. It is that simple.

Do you want to be wise? Build on a proper foundation. This verse tells you that you need understanding. You must understand truth from error. You must understand the importance of obeying God and living according to His revealed truth in the Word. The foundation of your life must be built on His truth and His commands and His will. You must know it and then show it.

If understanding is a key to wisdom, and it is, then humility is evidence of a wise heart. Humility is the by-product of obedience. You cannot be proud and obedient at the same time. Likewise, you cannot be wise and proud.

Intelligence can be measured by an IQ test. Can wisdom be measured?

James would say, "Absolutely!" In this third chapter he lays out an "OQ" test -an obedient quotient. The wise man passed his "OQ" test, the foolish man failed his.

How is your "OQ"?

July 19, 2010

"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom." James 3:13

James has quite a bit to say about wisdom. Why do you think that is so?

Let's look at it this way, could you live the rest of your life on the knowledge that you currently have? I'll bet you could!

But, how would you do if you had to live the rest of your life without wisdom? Not so good!

If you can comprehend that you will understand the difference between wisdom and knowledge.

"Understanding" is the key word in the verse because that is the bridge from knowledge to wisdom. Understanding processes knowledge into wisdom.

How do you know when your knowledge has been processed into wisdom? Easy! It translates into better behavior and actions!

There are a whole lot of highly educated and well-informed fools who live immoral self-destructive lives. As well, there are many who profess to be wise but who are living like ungodly fools.

Wisdom understands the superiority of Biblical truth and seeks to learn it and live it out! The unwise think they can behave themselves into wise living. That will never happen from the inside out, it will only happen from the heart.

How wise you are will ultimately be determined by how godly you live. Wisdom is intensely practical. Knowledge is not always so. Understanding is the process of translating knowledge into action which is the essence of wisdom.

Want to wise up?


Need to wise up?


Live up to you level of knowledge!

Understand?

July 18, 2010

Week Four – “Faith Exercises Speech Control” James 3:1-12

“1Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2We 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. 3When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4Or 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. 5Likewise 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. 6The 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. 7All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”

Three pastors went to the pastor convention and were all sharing one room. The first pastor said, "Let's confess our secret sins one to another. I'll start - my secret sin is I just love to gamble. When I go out of town, it's cha-ching cha-ching, let the machines ring."

The second pastor said, "My secret sin is that I just hate working. I copy all my sermons from those given by other pastors."

The third pastor said, "My secret sin is gossiping and, oh boy, I just can't wait to get out of this room!"

Your tongue is dangerous and can be hurtful to others and eventually will come back on you.

How many of you remember a hurtful thing said to you 20 years ago or longer?

WHAT JAMES TELLS US ABOUT THE TONGUE

Leaders must have their tongue under control, V. 1

James says don’t try to be a leader if you don’t have your tongue under control. I am going to share some things with you later that will make this even more clear, but there is enough right here to make the point.

Leaders and teachers have significant impact on the hearts and minds and spirits of people under their influence. Because that is true they will be judged severely by God – and for that matter, by man – as that is as it should be!

If you are assuming the role of a leader or a teacher and your life is out of control and your tongue occasionally spews poisons and hurtful stuff you are in a world of hurt and you are creating a world of hurt. Do yourself a favor and do God a favor and do everyone else a favor and step out of leadership until you get it under control.

Controlling the tongue is a test of spiritual maturity, V. 2

Before they speak, spiritually mature people ask themselves:

• T—Is it true?

• H—Is it helpful?
• I—Is it inspiring?
• N—Is it necessary?
• K—Is it kind?

If we can’t answer any of these in the positive, then we should think twice about saying anything.

Controlling the tongue is very difficult, Vv. 3-9

An out of control tongue is very destructive

Like a wild untamed beast

Harriet, the church gossip and self-appointed supervisor of the church’s morals, kept sticking her nose into other people’s business. Several were unappreciative of her activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence. She made a mistake, however, when she accused George, a new member, of being an alcoholic after she saw his pickup truck parked all afternoon in front of the town’s only bar. She commented to George & others that anyone seeing it there would know that he was an alcoholic. George, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment & walked away. He said nothing. Later that evening, George quietly parked his pickup in front of Harriet’s house and left it there all night.

Like a fire,,,,,

At 9:00 p.m., Sunday evening, October 8, 1871, the great Chicago Fire began on DeKoven street in a barn owned by Patrick and Catherine O’Leary. The fire would burn for the next two days; before it was finished it would blacken three and one half square miles of the city and destroy over 17,000 buildings before it was checked by gunpowder explosions on the south line of the fire. The fire left over 100,000 people homeless and cost over 300 lives. But, ironically, that was not the greatest inferno in the American Midwest that year. Historians tell us that on the same day that dry autumn a spark ignited a raging fire in the North Woods of Wisconsin which burned for an entire month, taking more lives than the Chicago Fire. A veritable firestorm destroyed billions of cubic yards of precious timber—all from one spark!

Like deadly poison….

Someone has calculated that for every word in Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf, 125 lives were lost in World War II. Perhaps our words will not cause wars or wreck cities, but what we say can break the heart of loved ones, ruin reputations and destroy friendships. Worse still is the knowledge that our words can destroy souls, sending them into eternity without Christ. How many people have been turned away from following Christ because of intemperate words of God’s professed people!

Josh McDowell shared, “Before I discovered that my cell phone had a lock screen button I would often accidentally dial the last number in my cell phone’s registry. The biggest problem was that I never realized that it had happened. I would go on with normal life and my cell phone would be on for an extended period of time without my knowing that it was on. When I would discover that it was on… either when I picked it up to make a call or when the person on the other end would hang up, and call me back to laugh at me, I would have this strange fear overcome me. What did I say, when I didn’t know that someone else was listening? Did I gossip? Did I say something evil? Did I make a joke that I would not want the person on the other end to know about? Well that it is how it is with the Holy Spirit all the time! It’s like your cell phone has accidentally called God and you didn’t know it. Would you live your live differently if every conversation and ever thought you ever had was being accidentally broadcast across the cell phone in your pocket to your Pastor? Well it is not being broadcast to your Pastor, but your every thought and the ear of God hears every word!”

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT YOUR TONGUE?

TRY TO MANAGE IT?

LET GOD DEAL WITH IT?

WHAT THE TONGUE TELLS YOU ABOUT YOURSELF

You don’t have a tongue problem - have a heart problem……

"For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks," states Matthew 12:33.

“But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.'9For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean';” Matthew 15:18-20

"But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." Matthew 12:36-37

Four Fundamental Heart Problems:

Guilty Heart – Guilt says, “I owe you” – (I took something from you)

If I have a guilty heart how does that express itself in my speech?

Guilty Hearts Give Excuses

Guilty Hearts Accuse Others

Angry Heart– Anger says, “you owe me” - (you took something from me)

An angry heart reveals itself through the tongue:

Angry Hearts Are Hurtful – They Blame You

Angry Hearts Are Hateful – They Burn You

Greedy Heart – Greed says, “I owe me” – (I will take something for me)

The greedy heart betrays itself by speaking these ways:

Greedy People Complain

Greedy People Center On Themselves

Jealous Heart – Jealousy says, “God owes me.” – (I missed something)

Jealous hearts express speak like this:

Jealous People Criticize

Jealous People Compare

Jealous People Celebrate

So, what should I do?

Deal with your heart issues! Get your heart right to get your tongue under control.

To Deal With A Guilty Heart – confession (to person offended)

To Deal With An Angry Heart – forgiveness

To Deal With A Greedy Heart – generosity

To Deal With A Jealous Heart - celebration

If you want to tame the tongue – get to the heart of the problem!

Proverbs 18:21 – “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”

“Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” James 3:10

HERE AT THE END OF THIS ADMOTION ABOUT THE TONGUE JAMES CONCLUDES BY TELLING US WE CAN CHOOSE HOW WE USE OUR TONGUE. IF ENOUGH OF US MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS WE COULD MAKE THIS CHURCH INTO A LIFE-GIVING PLACE – A HOPE-FILLED PLACE….. WHERE DO YOU NEED GIVE PLACE IN YOUR HEART TO GOD?

July 17, 2010

"Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brethren, ought not to be so." James 3:10

After a passionate and detailed description of the latent dangers of an uncontrolled tongue James summarizes with this brief statement. Brief, yes, but very revealing.

What he says essentially is, "Decide what you want coming out of your mouth, praises or curses." That implies that the tongue CAN be controlled and that you are ultimately responsible to do so.

Think about the picture painted here. James portrays a person who stands in church on Sunday singing and praising and testifying but the rest of the week launches swear words with regularity. Is that how you want to be characterized? Do you want to be known as someone who has an uncontrolled tongue? Do you want your life controlled by your tongue?

Knowing that you can control your tongue probably means that you should, don't you think? Or do you think God will look the other way while you blurt out hurtful and obscene stuff? I don't think so!

Certainly, controlling your tongue is not easy. There is no arguing that. But neither is it easy to be praising one moment and cursing the next.

The first decision you need to make is simply, "Do I really want to control my tongue?"

If you are willing then you need to understand the source of the problem. Your tongue problem is not a tongue problem - it is a heart problem!

"You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him." Matthew 12:34-35

"Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.'" Matthew 15:17-18

What James knew and Jesus made clear, an uncontrolled tongue is a symptom of a sinful heart. A tongue problem is actually a heart problem. So managing the tongue or trying to control it will be an exercise in frustration. If you want to win the battle with your tongue you must allow God to deal with issues of the heart. Until you are willing to give God access into the deep dark dispusting secrets of your heart you will lose the battle with your tongue. Unless you are willing to get that serious with God - you are talking nonsense.

July 16, 2010

"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." James 3:6

Sounds serious doesn't it?

It is!

Something needs to be done about this!

But what? How do you get control over this dangerous and destructive little organ?

Jesus, as usual, offers some insights:

"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." Matthew 12:33-34

Here's the deal, problems with the tongue are really problems with the heart! Your tongue simply reveals what is contained in your heart. Fix your heart and your tongue issues will cease!

Easier said that done!

Let's examine some of the heart issues that expose themselves through the tongue. Andy Stanley in his book "It Came From Within" identifies four basic problems of the heart that are betrayed by the tongue.

Those four are guilt, anger, jealousy and greed. When any of these or any combination of them lurk in your heart it is inevitable that eventually they will express themselves through your speech.

Ever have one of those moments when something ugly erupts off your tongue and embarrasses you. To cover the awkwardness you say, "Wow! I don't know where that came from!"

It came from within! Once you are exposed like that you have a choice, will you deal with your heart or try harder to filter your speech? Your decision on that will make you or break you. Bite your tongue or right your heart?

July 15, 2010

"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 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. 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." James 3:3-12

Remember the old saying, "Sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me"?

Most old sayings get to be old sayings by being true. I am not so sure about this one because words DO hurt. You have been hurt by careless words, so have I. You have hurt others with careless words, so have I.

I want you to notice how many warnings James gives regarding the tongue in these several verses.

First, he tells us it is out of control. It is easier to control large beasts and huge ships than the tiny tongue.

Second, he tells us it is a fire. Have you ever been burned by words? Yeh, me too! And you have scorched some people with your words, too, right? Me, too.

Third, he refers to it as a "restless evil". Not just evil but restless and evil. The tongue can't wait to spread its evil. Not good!

Fourth, it even gets worse! The tongue is filled with "deadly poison". Is he saying that the tongue can kill people? Yes, I think that is exactly what he is saying.

And finally, if these are enough bad things, here is one even worse - the same tongue that can honor God also is capable of cursing Him! That is disgusting!

With all these things in mind I am sure you can understand why he says earlier that the one who controls his tongue is "perfect in all his ways"!

How does that happen? How do you get this powerful little trouble-maker under control?

That is what I will talk about the rest of the week. But it won't really matter until you get sick and tired of the damage your tongue is causing. Until you decide that it is time to get your tongue under control it really won't matter what I tell you.

Are you hurting over something that was said to you by another? Is someone else hurting because of your tongue-lashing?

Start there! Do something today to begin repairing the damage!