“How Does It End?” - 2 Cor. 5:10 & Rev. 20:11-15

How many of you like to take a nap on Sunday afternoon?  Boy, I sure do.  Well, follow along on this little scenario and at the end I want to ask you a question.  Let’s say you go have some lunch after church and then you go home and get settled and sit down in your favorite La-Z-Boy chair.  You turn on the game on the TV and start to watch but pretty soon you fall right to sleep.  You start to dream some weird dreams.  (Are there any other kind?)  And in your dream you start to feel a pressure on your chest.

There is a pain in your arm and you want to wake up but you can’t.  And then nothing but peace and darkness.  You open your eyes and realize that your heart attack was fatal and you are now standing before God Himself.  Let that sink in for a minute.  One minute you’re watching the Rangers play some ball and the next minute the Creator of the universe is looking you in the eye.  Are you ready for that?  Does that scare you?

I like to think I am as ready for that as the next guy and yet the thought of being in the presence of Almighty God scares me, I have to admit.  In Revelation 1, John tells of his vision of God and he says, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.”  Isaiah had a vision in Isaiah chapter 6 and he said, “And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.5Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined!”

It makes me think of the Mercy Me song, “I Can Only Imagine”.  I can only imagine what I am going to do when that day comes and I am standing all alone and your face is before me.  I’ll tell you I can’t imagine not falling down as though dead and not thinking “Oh, no, I’m ruined.”

Romans 8:1 says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  And I know I am in Christ Jesus as are all who believe in Him and call upon His name and follow Him and yet I can’t comprehend standing up before holy and almighty God, the sovereign King of kings.  I love to ask this question, “If you were standing before God and He asked you why He should let you into Heaven, what would you say?”  And while we know that this isn’t exactly how it happens, I think it’s a great question that we all need to answer today, right now, because we are not guaranteed another breath.

Being raised in the church, I have come to expect people to answer that question in the “right” way by saying that they have put their faith in trust in Jesus or that they accepted Jesus into their hearts or that they asked Jesus into their lives.  But I think the best I have heard it put was from someone I was talking to the other day who had not been in church and didn’t know what the church thought he should say but he simply said, “Oh, I guess I would just have to say that Jesus did it for me because I couldn’t do it.”

Oh, yes!  Yes!  That is exactly the right answer and how refreshing to hear it put that way!   Jesus has paid the price I couldn’t pay.  But it is a decision that we have to make in this life because if we wait to make it when that day comes, it will be too late.  But I said earlier that is not exactly how it happens.  So, when we close our eyes for the last time here and open them on the other side, what does happen?

Do we haggle with God about our worthiness to enter Heaven?  Can we talk him into it?  Or do we all just get to go?  Do you ever think about how all of this ends?  And what happens next?  Does St. Peter show us the way to get our white robes, wings, harps and halos?  Or is there more to it?  I’m starting a series entitled, “How Does It End?”  And I want to look today at one of the very first things that happens to all of us after we die by looking at 2 different passages.

 

There is a passage that applies to unbelievers and a passage that applies to believers.  Turn first to Rev. 20:11-15 and then we will look at 2 Cor. 5:10.  Contrary to what some people believe, there is not one final judgment that includes both believers and unbelievers.  Instead, non-Christians are judged separately from Christians at a judgment commonly referred to as the Great White Throne Judgment.  (Perfect Ending, R. Jeffress, p. 172)

Let’s read that in Revelation 20:11-15.  “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. ¹³ The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. ¹⁴ Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. ¹⁵ Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”

I want to quickly look at 3 things in this somber passage.  I want us to see Who, how and what.  Who is the judge?  How will He judge?  And what will be the judgment?  First, let’s see Who is the Judge.  Verse 11 just says, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it.”  So, Who is the “Him”?  Well, scripture makes it clear that the Judge at the Great White Throne Judgment will be Jesus Christ.  Matthew 19, John 5 and Acts 17 all state this clearly. The ones being judged here are the ones who rejected Jesus in life and now they must be judged by Him.

Now, some will see that and think that’s a good deal because they have heard that Jesus was always loving and kind and forgiving and He’s probably a pushover because He loves everyone and would never send somebody to Hell.  Well, I have to warn you, we are seeing Jesus in a different light here.  Matthew 25 tells us that Jesus will tell those He judges, “Get away from me! God has cursed you! Go into everlasting fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels!”

You might think you are getting away with rejecting Jesus.  You may go all of your life feeling pretty smug about being your own man, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and never relying on anybody else but in the end, the One you reject will be your Judge.  Now let’s see how He judges.  What is the standard by which Jesus will judge?  Look at verse 12.  And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.

Books, plural.  That is the standard.  And what books?  Well, John 12:48 tells us that God’s Word, the Bible will be there.  “There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.”  What a shame to be judged by a book most have never read.  There will be the Book of Life, in which every believer’s name has been written since before the creation of the world.  There will also be a book containing all the works that the unbeliever has ever done.  And once again, the unbeliever’s hopes will go up as he sees the title of that book thinking that’s a good thing because his good deeds have outweighed his bad deeds in his mind.

We know from Ephesians 2:8-9 that is faulty thinking though.  That says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.”  So why would Jesus consider the works, good and bad, of unbelievers?  Well that is basically what the unbeliever has always wanted, right?  They want to be judged by their works, not by their faith.

But what they don’t realize is that they will be judged according to the standard set by Jesus, not by other people.  Acts 17:31 says, “For He (God) has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man (Jesus) he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead."

 

We have seen Who is going to judge and how He is going to judge.  Now let’s see what the judgment is for the unbelievers.  Verse 15 is pretty clear about that.  Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”  Do you believe that?  I ask because I was surprised when I went online to look at different surveys done about people’s beliefs about Heaven and Hell.  Numbers were all over the place but I was shocked at how many Christians didn’t believe in eternal Hell.

The Bible is clear and Jesus Himself talked about it several times.  You can look in Matthew 18, 23, and 25 for that.  Yes, God is love but He is also just.  What kind of judge would you have if you went to court, guilty of murder, and the judge said, “Aw, you know what?  I like you.  Don’t worry about that murder charge.  You’re free to go.”?  And since God is righteous, Hell is a witness to His righteousness.

He doesn’t want anybody to go to Hell.  He doesn’t send them there.  They send themselves when they reject Jesus.  We all know John 3:16 but the two verses that come after that are powerful as well.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

I know we have had a lot of verses to look at and we’re not done yet but I have some good news as well.  Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 5:10.  And while this is good news, a careful read will show that it ought to be a little scary for us believers as well.  In 2 Corinthians 5:10 Paul says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” 

We saw with the Great White Throne Judgment the Who, what and how of that judgment.  And while this judgment has the same Who, the what and how are different.  So let’s look closer at those.  Let’s see how and what will be judged.  Now, when Paul wrote this he already knew something of what it was like to be standing before a ruler on a judgment seat.  In Acts 18 Paul made some people mad by what he was preaching (imagine that) and they brought him before Gallio who sat on what they called the bema seat.

It was a large platform you got to by way of stairs and it overlooked everything with the person being judged well below the one doing the judging.  And this judgment seat of Christ is often referred to as the Bema Seat Judgment.  And Paul says here that “we must all appear” and obviously includes himself so we know he is talking about Christians.  But that word “appear” means to be completely revealed.  No covering up anything.  No hiding.

And that would really be scary if we were being judged for our sins but we know that our sins were judged at the cross and as I quoted earlier there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  And yet it says plainly that we will receive what is due us whether good or bad.  Now for the good things we have done we will receive great rewards.  The Bible talks about 5 different crowns that are special rewards but there are other rewards as well. 

After a preacher died and went to heaven, he noticed that a New York cabdriver had been given a higher place than he had. "I don't understand," he complained to St. Peter. "I devoted my entire life to my congregation." "Our policy is to reward results," explained St. Peter. "Now what happened, Reverend, whenever you gave a sermon?" The minister admitted that some in the congregation fell asleep. "Exactly, " said St. Peter. "And when people rode in this man's taxi, they not only stayed awake, they prayed." Ray Heit, Reader's Digest.

 

Well, I don’t know that it will be quite like that but did you know that the Bible teaches that some Christians will enjoy special benefits in Heaven?  Yes, not everyone’s heavenly experience will be the same.  2 Peter 1:11 says there will be a special welcome for some.  Revelation 2:7 mentions special access to the Tree of Life and Luke 12:37 talks about some getting special service by Jesus Himself.  But wait there’s more!

Matthew 25 talks about there being praise for faithfulness and even special positions of leadership.  And Paul echoes that when he says in 2 Timothy 2:12, “if we endure we will also reign with him.”  All of that is more than I can take in.  I’ll tell you, I don’t understand it all but I know enough that I am ready to go now!  I have an idea that God didn’t tell us more about how incredible Heaven was going to be because He knew we wouldn’t be able to stay down here.

But as great as Heaven is going to be the Judgment Seat of Christ will also result in a loss of rewards for some.  Our verse in 2 Corinthians tells us that we will get what we deserve for our works both good and bad.  Well how can we get what we deserve for what we have done bad if our sins have been forgiven?  The answer to that question is to define the word “bad”.  And no I am not splitting hairs here or talking about semantics.  I’m not pulling a Bill Clinton and asking what the definition of “is” is.

The word “bad” here simply means worthless.  It’s not talking about sin.  It is talking about the works you have done that were done for the wrong reason.  Paul explains it this way in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15:  “By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. ¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³ their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. ¹⁴ If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.”

In other words, everything you have ever done will be judged according to your motives; what you were thinking; your real desires will all be laid out in the open.  All works produced through self-confidence, self-conceit, and any other words that begin with the prefix self- (and there are many), will be examined at the judgment seat only to be found wood or stubble.  And they will be burned up.

When you helped that little old lady across the street secretly hoping she would give you a dollar – doesn’t count.  That money you gave to the church because you knew somebody was watching – burned up.  When you waited to put something in the food pantry until you knew somebody would notice – nope, up in smoke.  No reward at all for that kind of thing.  It will be burned up like lighting a match to wood, hay or straw.

I thought about the thief on the cross next to Jesus.  All of his life everything he ever did was for his own pleasure and his own glory.  He will have no reward in Heaven.  No crown, nothing special for him.  Sure, he will be in Heaven and that is incredible but how much more could have been his!

C.S. Lewis said in his book Mere Christianity, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”

I said earlier that I think God didn’t explain more about Heaven because He knew we wouldn’t be able to stay down here.  I read about a little girl who was taking an evening walk with her father. Wonderingly, she looked up at the stars and exclaimed; "Oh, Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be!" Charles L. Allen in Home Fires.

If you don’t know for sure that is where you are going to spend eternity, I need to talk with you right now.  Walk down this aisle as the music starts to play “Jesus Paid It All”.

“Concerned Sharing” – James 5:13-20

Before we get started, this may not be the best time for this but I keep forgetting to give Carol some green tomatoes she has been asking for.  I also have some squash out of my garden that somebody can have if they want it.  All of that came out of my garden just this morning.  That is the squash from one plant on one day.  That is the tomatoes from one plant on one day.  I have more I will bring later.

I found a really good fertilizer that I have to tell you about.  I got bored and did a little research and then just kind of concocted my own little “recipe”.  Believe it or not, I started with this high octane chainsaw fuel that I had left over from a project.  And I know this sounds crazy but I saw this online so I added some powder from a shotgun shell, a little vinegar, some aspirin, some spice out of the cabinet to make it smell better, a pinch of salt for some abrasiveness, some soap to help it stay in place, my left over hydrocodone I had from my surgery and a few other things I scrounged up.

I mixed it all together and sprayed it on my vegetable garden and it has grown like crazy.  I’ll tell you what else.  As I was spraying it, I got some on my hand and I smelled my hand and it smelled good so I tasted it and it tasted really good.  And where it got on my hand, I had a small cut and that cut healed amazingly quickly so I knew I was on to something.  But after spraying it and tasting it, I went inside and drizzled just a little bit of it on my bowl of ice cream.  And I can’t prove that it is my concoction, but I have done that every day this week and I have lost 5 pounds.

Now I’m using it for all kinds of stuff.  I poured some in the gas tank of my motorcycle and it runs a lot better.  It kills fleas and ticks on my dogs.  I have even been rubbing some on my head when I shower and I’m starting to see just a little bit of peach fuzz hair growing up there.  See it?  You don’t see it?  You don’t believe me?  I can’t believe you don’t believe me.

I can’t believe you don’t believe that story!  But what if I told you that you already have access to the most powerful force in the universe?  You already have at your disposal a force more powerful than my concoction; a force more powerful than an atom bomb and more healing than a medicinal balm.  It is a power beyond all others - even Satan himself.  How much would you pay for a helping of that?  What would you give in exchange for that kind of power?

James tells us in his New Testament book that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.  He gives us the illustration of the Old Testament prophet Elijah.  If you have read anything about Elijah, you know he did some crazy amazing miracles.  And he did it through the power of prayer.  James said that it can make a sick person well; it can bring rain or even turn a sinner from death.  Well, phooey on my homemade recipe.  I want some of that!  How about you?

Let’s turn to the 5th chapter of the book of James and see more about this powerful force and how to harness it.  This is the last installment in our study of the book of James.  Part of me is going to miss it but my toes won’t.  They have been stepped on enough by this pastor of the first church in Jerusalem so many years ago.  Throughout the book, James has given practical advice to mature Christians on how to become even more mature.

He has been practical as he addresses the most common problems Christians face including how to deal with problems, how to know you have real, saving faith, how to control your tongue (we may need to revisit that one), and how to get what you want.  And he has been harsh at times but through it all you see the heart of a loving pastor to the church that he loves so much; willing to tell them the truth at risk of offending them.

Let’s read more truth from chapter 5, verses 13-20.

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. ¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.¹⁷ Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. ¹⁸ Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.¹⁹ My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, ²⁰ remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

On February 16, 1975, my dad got up to preach on a passage that included Revelation 3:20 that says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”  I sat there listening and even though I was young and didn’t understand everything, I knew I was a sinner.  I knew my sin would keep me out of Heaven.  And I knew that Jesus was the only One who could forgive my sin and secure my place in Heaven so I couldn’t imagine NOT opening the door to Him when He knocked.  So later that day I talked to my dad about it and he prayed with me as I asked Jesus to be Lord of my life.

I grew up knowing that my dad and my mother both prayed earnestly for me.  When I went through a time of rebellion, I knew my parents were praying for me.  I found out later that when I went hunting on Sunday instead of going to church why it was that I never shot anything.  It was because they were praying that I wouldn’t!  They prayed for me during the bad times.  They prayed for me during the good times and I know they continue to pray for me today.  All of my life I have been prayed for.

All of my life I have been prayed for and all of my life I have prayed.  I have heard sermons on prayer.  I have preached sermons on prayer.  It is a huge part of my life and yet I have to admit that I do not know how prayer works.  I can’t comprehend how or why the Creator of the universe would choose to listen to me or anybody much less that He would answer one of those prayers as if He were a friend of mine. 

But how many of you, like me, know that He is our friend and that prayer does work?  And while James doesn’t explain exactly when, how or why prayer works, he does tell us when, how and why we are to pray.  So let’s look first at when we are to pray.  Look again at verses 13 and 14.  Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. ¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 

It is vital to the rest of the passage that we understand what James is saying here.   I am just as fluent in Greek as I am in Hebrew but I have books that tell me how James is using these words and what is intention was in writing them.  When he asks if anybody is in trouble, he is asking if anyone is mentally or emotionally distressed.  Are you worried?  Are you bothered?  Are you suffering ill, especially in the mind?  Are you troubled?

And then he asks if anyone is sick.  And there has been a great deal of misunderstanding around these verses.  While we all know that God does heal physical problems of all kinds, that is not what James is emphasizing here.  The Greek word asthenei literally means to be weak or weary.  And while it can be used to mean physically weak it is generally used in the book of Acts and in the Epistles to refer to a weak faith or a weak conscience.  (Bible Knowledge Commentary page 834)

It also goes right along with everything else James has to say.  James is writing to the members of his church who were in danger of growing morally or spiritually weak.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:14, Paul says to that church, “And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.”  When he says to help the weak it is the same word that James uses.  And Paul is obviously not saying to help those who are physically weak necessarily.  That’s not the point.

Now the second part of verse 14 says to, “call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.”  I really did some digging and some studying about this because I really wanted to know exactly what was being said.  We all know and we have all heard preached or taught that back in those days, oil was as close to medicine as they had for most things.

And that’s not wrong.  That is very true.  But it also had other uses that we might not usually use it for these days.  I want you to look at 2 other verses real quickly to help us know how James uses the term “anoint with oil”.  InMatthew 6:17, Jesus is talking about fasting and teaches that when you fast you are to put oil on your head and wash your face.  Then in Luke 7 Jesus is having dinner at the house of a Pharisee and tells him that the Pharisee didn’t put oil on His head.

Now, on neither occasion was medicine needed.  The oil was meant as refreshment and as grooming.  Well, how does that help us today?  According to the Centers for Disease Control 10% of the population is clinically depressed with half the population saying they battle it at one time or another.  And every one of us goes through low periods where we just don’t want to get out of bed or off the couch.  That’s what James means by weak.  And isn’t that an apt description? 

But it is our responsibility as elders – and that term just means mature members of the church – to come along side that person and with prayer, encourage them to get up off the couch, put on some makeup or shave their face (hopefully not both) and get back to the business of being the church.  Because the couch is right where Satan wants us to be.  He wants us to be depressed.  He wants us to feel weak and weary.  We’re not hurting his agenda when we are on the couch.

But the Bible says to rejoice in the Lord always. (Phil. 4)  Paul said, “For when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn-conflicts on the outside, fears within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort you had given him. (2 Corinthians 7:5-7)

We all need that Titus in our lives, don’t we?  And we all need to be that Titus for someone else.  So, when someone is troubled, we should be there to pray for them.  That is when we are to pray.  Now let’s look at how we are to pray.  It’s interesting that James gives us the example of a man who knew all-too-well the power, not only of prayer, but also of depression.

In verse 17 he talks about Elijah.  He says Elijah was a man just like us.  Really, James?  That’s hard to believe when you read how the prayer of Elijah kept the rain from falling and then caused it to rain.  His prayers caused fire to come from Heaven and life to come back to a dead boy.  He parted the Jordan River barely breaking stride and was taken up to Heaven in a chariot of fire in a whirlwind.  But, yea, other than that he was a lot like us, right?

I mean if he was just like me then does that mean he was short, fat and bald and didn’t like vegetables?  No, of course not.  But if you want to know how to pray then you should pray as Elijah prayed and James says here that he prayed earnestly or fervently.  Verse 16 goes right along with this verse and I like the way the King James words it.  It says it is the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man that is powerful and effective.

I have used this illustration before but I always think of it when I read this passage.  I heard Adrian Rogers tell about being a young pastor in Florida and one night late he got a call from a woman who was very concerned about her alcoholic husband who had not gotten home yet.  So he went over to the house and was met at the door by the woman’s grown son who was obviously drunk himself.

He said he comforted them the best that he could and then asked if they could all pray together and they agreed that would be good.  He said the 3 of them were standing in the living room and he started praying for the safe return of the father and husband and was going right along when the son just burst out in the middle of the prayer.  “You need to pray, pastor.  You ain’t praying!”

Well, after he got over the shock of being interrupted like that, Adrian Rogers said he decided he would crank it up a notch and got his big boy pastor pants on and started praying even harder and louder, using all the big pastor words he could think of.  And this went on for some time until the young man did it again.  “C’mon, pastor.  You gotta pray.  You ain’t praying!”

Well, that’s it.  He can’t pray with that kind of distraction so he just stopped for a second and when he did he heard the mother praying.  But she was in another room and so he went to look for her and found her in the bedroom laying face down on the floor, crying out to God, begging God with all of her heart and soul and mind.  He said he understood why the drunken man would tell him he wasn’t praying because he had obviously heard his mother praying. 

He had heard her before on her face, doing business with almighty, holy God, the Creator of the universe.  He had heard her praying earnestly and fervently, praying boldly and with great faith, without ceasing, wrestling with God until He told her something!  That’s the earnest prayer James speaks about here.

And I hear what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking the 3 most common words that people think when they read through this little book.  “But that’s hard!”  And yes, you’re right.  It is hard.  And do you know why it’s so hard?  Because Satan hates it.  It scares him, and rightfully so.  It is the most powerful force in the universe and Satan will do anything he can to keep you from praying fervently.

Satan would rather you didn’t come to church.  He would prefer that you didn’t read your Bible.  And it really bugs him when you say your nightly prayers.  But the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man scares Satan to death.  Nothing runs him off or brings him to his knees like a child of God in direct contact with the Father.  So you can expect to be distracted when you try to pray.  You can expect to not be comfortable or have the phone to ring.  You have access to the most powerful force in the world.  The question is how bad do you want it?

When do you pray?  When you are troubled.  How do you pray?  Fervently.  And lastly, why should you pray?  Look again at verses 19-20.  My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, ²⁰ remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

While James does not specifically mention prayer here, the implication is clear.  If we pray for the troubled, surely we must pray for the brother who wanders from the truth.  For us to truly understand this passage, we need to get into the mindset of a shepherd.  Sheep will wander.  The shepherd goes and gets it, and by doing so keeps the sheep from certain death and all kinds of problems.  This is what James eludes to.  (Randy James, 6/14)

Isaiah 30:21 says, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."  And yet we all wander off sometimes. Sometimes some of us go further off than others.  Some stay longer than others.  But we all need someone to prayerfully come to us and lovingly speak the truth to us.  But that is not to be done without much fervent prayer. 

My brother-in-law Randy tells the story he heard about a young man who once described going astray from God “like he was at sea in deep water, deep trouble, and all his friends were on the shoreline hurling biblical accusations at him about justice, judgment, and sin.  But there was one Christian brother who actually swam out to get me and would not let me go. Even though I fought him, he pushed aside my fighting, put a life jacket around me, and took me to shore. By the grace of God, he was the reason I was restored. He would not let me go.”

Restoring someone, if done correctly, will cost you something.  It will cost you time, money, effort and much prayer.  But the benefits far outweigh the costs.  James says you can save a person from death, implying physical death, and will cover over, as with a veil, a multitude of sins.  Sin in the life of a Christian is worse than sin for an unbeliever.  You expect a lost person to sin.  But the price of sin in a believer is too high not to make the needed investment of time and prayer.

It's what Jesus was telling Peter in Luke 22 when He said, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. ³² But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

I wonder if Titus might have heard that story and had been motivated by it to encourage Paul in Macedonia.  I wonder if we have heard this story and have been motivated to encourage others in our church family and in our community to stay on the right path and not to turn to the left or right.

Pray when you are troubled.  Pray fervently.  And pray to restore your brother, remembering 1 Corinthians 10:12 that says, “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!”  

“Contrite Submission” – James 4:1-10

Unless you have been under a rock for the last week or so you have heard the name of US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.  He is the soldier captured by the Taliban and held in Pakistan for 5 years.  We don’t really know for sure what the circumstances are surrounding his time in the military, his capture or his release but it seems to be pretty clear that the young man was somewhat disillusioned with the war in Afghanistan and his role in it.

I will state right up front that I never served in the military and I so appreciate those who do.  If you are a veteran you have my highest appreciation for your service, whatever branch and whatever job you had.  Maybe you have seen combat and maybe not but I don’t believe that anybody who has ever served in wartime in almost any capacity could say they were anything but disillusioned with war.

If you can go to war and not see how horrible it is then you are either shielded from the truth or delusional towards it.  Nobody faces real combat and says at the end, “Well, that wasn’t so bad.”  War is a horrible, horrible thing and I pray that our political and military leaders have great wisdom about placing our men and women in harm’s way.  I’m not saying it should never be done but if lives have to be risked and parents are taken from kids and kids from their parents, not to mention the financial, physical, and emotional burden it places on people, then you can expect war to be awful.

Whatever definition you look under you are going to find words such as conflict, battle, bloodshed, struggle and fight.  The very definition of the word assumes difficulty much less disillusionment.  A group of academics and historians has compiled this startling information: Since 3600 B.C., the world has known only 292 years of peace!  Think about that.  In all those years, there has been war going on somewhere on the earth with somebody killing somebody else, some parent is killed or some child is killed in war every year except for 292 years.

And that is just figuring up the countries that are at war with each other.  That is not accounting for the minor skirmishes within a country, not to mention the families that war against families or individuals against individuals.  We even have companies that go to war with each other trying to put the other out of business.  Granted, most of the time nobody dies in those types of wars but they do include conflict, battle, struggle and fighting.

We sometimes even find ourselves at war with those we love the most.  Turn on the news any day of the week and you will hear how somebody got mad and killed a member of their own family.  Why is that?  It’s obviously not something that has happened just in this generation.  Evidently, it has always been this way.  But the question is, why?  And that is a question that people have asked since the beginning and that includes our beloved Pastor James in his New Testament book with his name.

So, turn to the book of James, if you will, as we continue our study of this powerful little book.  We are moving right along through the book, not coming close to doing it justice but seeing just the same some practical ways that mature Christians can become even more mature.   James is between Hebrews and 1 Peter and we are in the fourth chapter.  James was the pastor of the church in Jerusalem and was writing to them but every word seems like it could have been written to Christ Fellowship just last week.

Let’s start with James 4:1-10.  “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. ⁴ You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? ⁶ But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”  ⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

Well, don’t look at me like that.  I didn’t write it.  Another pastor wrote it to his church some 2000 years ago.  But James was a pastor who loved his church just like I love this one.  And James felt like I do that he would rather risk offending somebody by using some very strong language like the words “adulterous” and “enemy of God” and warning against being proud than to tickle their ears and let them waddle out of there with lives unchanged.

Be mad at me if you will.  Be mad at James if it makes you feel better.  Say the 3 most popular words anybody says as they read through James: “But that’s hard!”  But know that you are hearing truth from the Word of God and know that if we can do what God tells us to do through His servant James then we will be more mature believers and we will look more like Jesus in the end.  And I hope that is our goal today.

James starts by asking the question, “What causes fights and quarrels among you?”  Now, if he were to ask any one of us that individually, we would probably say something along the lines of, “Well, he won’t do what I want him to do.”  Right?  We want to get what we want and somebody else wants to get what they want.  And they don’t understand that we are right and they are wrong.  And that is why there have been thousands of books written on how to get what you want.

I literally just googled “books, how to get what you want” and there were pages and pages of them.  And do you know what the title of most of them was?  “How To Get What You Want.”  Somebody needs to write a book on how to give your book a unique title.  That’s what we need.  Because we don’t need to know any more about how to get what we want from somebody else.  We don’t need to know how to be a better debater or arguer.  In fact, James tells us that the problem is not between us and another person at all.  The problem is our relationship with God.

In fact, our real problem is not that we can’t get along with our enemies.  Our problem is that we are enemies with God Himself.  And realize again that James is not writing to a bunch of unchurched, unsaved heathens.  He is writing this to the first church in Jerusalem filled with believers.  And he is writing it to Christ Fellowship.  He is writing this to me!  How dare he!  Who does he think he is?

Well, I don’t know who James thought he was but I know God thought he was the one to share this truth and so I am listening when James speaks here.  I am listening because I am tired of the fights and quarrels in my life.  Now, most of you have known me for quite a while and I would dare say that almost none of you have ever seen me in a fight or having a quarrel with somebody.  It takes a lot to get me mad and when I do get mad, most of the time it is short-lived and easily remedied.

But I am listening to James here because I am tired of the fights and quarrels that go on in my own mind.  Somebody else may never know that I am fighting with them in my thought life.  My mind is racing thinking of what I’m going to say next and what I should have said and how I should have done this and said that and next time I’m gonna…And pretty soon my joy and my peace , not to mention my witness, are gone. 

I may even pray for the other person.  And you know how that prayer goes.  “God please give them wisdom.”  In other words, give them wisdom to know that I am right and they are wrong.  “God give them the ability to give me what I want.”  That’s what I’m saying to God.  And James says in verse 3 that we do not have because we ask with wrong motives that we may spend what we get on our pleasures.

I warned some of you to wear your steel-toed boots as we go through James to protect your toes from being stepped on.  I want you to know I have needed my boots and a helmet and shoulder pads this week preparing this sermon.  But, thank you Lord, I have learned from James that there are 3 things I need to do to keep this from being a problem.  The solution is not being able to win friends and influence people.  Nor is the solution just allowing people to walk all over you when you want something. 

The solution is not being an enemy of God.  Now that sounds pretty simple.  I love God.  I’m not His enemy, right?  But James says that anybody that is a friend of this world is an enemy of God and there are 3 things we need to do to make sure that we are not friends of this world.  The first one we see in verse 7.  It simply says to submit to God.  Submit to God.

“Submit” is originally a military term that means to put yourself under, as in ranking.  I have used my Uncle Bill as an illustration several times about different things.  He’s quite the character and it’s pretty easy to find illustrations from his life.  And most of the time I use him as a positive example of what to do and how to do it.  Not so today. 

As a young man my uncle had a problem submitting to authority.  And while that is a problem for anybody it is especially problematic for a private in the army.  Uncle Bill had only been in the army a short time but he had been there long enough to get bored, evidently.  So, when a batch of brand new recruits came to the same camp where he was, Uncle Bill decided to have a little fun.

He went over to the barracks they were in, in the middle of the night, woke them up, screaming at them that he was Sergeant Klinglesmith, although he was only a private just like them.  He got them all up and outside and commenced to drill them, one, two, march, march etc.  Finally the noise woke somebody up and lights come on and my uncle just walked off leaving the new recruits standing there to get in all kinds of trouble.

The MP’s put all the new recruits in the big gymnasium and started to question them and they all tell the same story.  Sergeant Klinglesmith had them out there but they don’t know where he went.  “Sergeant Klinglesmith?  We don’t have a Sergeant Klinglesmith!”  So they go looking for my uncle and finally found him and brought him into the gym where every soldier on base was now.

They put a full-length mirror in the middle of the gym and made my uncle salute himself and drill himself over and over while every man in the place laughed at him.  And you would think that would have made him be more submissive but just stay tuned until next week to catch the next installment of Uncle Bill tales.

See, when a private tries to act like a sergeant there is going to be a problem.  Unless the private will acknowledge in his mind and in his actions that he is under the one who outranks him then that soldier is not only disobedient but he is worthless to the cause.  He can’t be used for anything.  He might as well be fighting for the other side.  And that is how James is describing us when we are proud.

And some of you are right now thinking, “Amen Pastor Todd!  You preach to those proud people.”  But let me just say one more time that James is preaching to US proud people.  If you were to ask my uncle he would say that he was just bored; just wanting to have a little fun.  He wasn’t trying to hurt anything.  He knew he wasn’t a sergeant.  He was just playing.

But Psalm 10:4 says, “In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.”  We don’t want that to be said of us.  We don’t want to be at war with God.  And yet we all struggle with pride.  Pride is the root of all sin and until we submit ourselves to God and acknowledge in our minds and in our actions that we submit to Him then we are at war with Him.  We have to submit everything we have and everything we are to His will.

Next James tells us in verse 8 that we have to draw near to God.  “⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you.”  Well, how do we do that, James?  How do I draw near to God?  The act of drawing near is just the opposite of the word James uses earlier in verse 4.  Drawing near is the opposite of “adulterous.”  You know what adulterous means.  Drawing near is the act of making yourself chaste and becoming clean.

Wash your hands, purify your hearts.  But do it completely.  You hear a knock on your door.  You go to the door and it’s Jesus.  “Oh, hi, Jesus!  Come on in.  I just finished cleaning my house.  You picked a great time to come over.  Let me show you around.”  So Jesus steps inside but stops as you step over the dead squid that is there in the hallway. 

He says, “Todd, my friend, there is a dead squid on the carpet.  That’s gross.” 

“Oh, don’t worry about that little thing.  Just step over it and come see how nice the rest of my house is.”

“But, Todd, it’s nasty.  It’s a putrid, festering, maggot-infested pile of dead fish bait that is stinking up the place.  I’m not going past it.  In fact, I’m leaving.  I don’t care what the rest of the place looks like.  You obviously don’t want me here.  Your house is not clean.  It’s offensive!”  And He leaves.

And just like that dead squid, your little pet sin is offensive to God.  You know that thing you like to do or that attitude you have.  It’s been there so long you don’t even think about it anymore.  And you wish God would just look over it.  Get past it.  Go on to the rest of your life but He can’t.  He can’t draw near to you if you are not clean and chaste and pure.  Almost pure is not pure.

A.W. Tozer has an essay called “Nearness is Likeness.”  To be near God is to be like God.  And the more we are like God the nearer we are to Him.  Is God almost pure?  Is He nearly holy?  Does He tell us to be sort of holy as He is sort of holy?  That is offensive to God!  We pray, “God please help me!  Give me peace, joy and wisdom, grace and mercy, please!  Don’t mind that putrid, offensive sin right there.  Just help me.”  And then we wonder why our prayers go unanswered.

Submit to God in everything you do and have.  Draw near to God by exposing all of your sin and asking His forgiveness for it.  And lastly, we see in verses 9 and 10 that we are to humble ourselves before God.  “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

As most of you know, King David is one of my favorite biblical characters.  I grew up reading about him growing up and now I feel like we are almost friends.  And since he is my friend I always hate to point out anything bad about him.  But I want you to turn to Psalm 51 for just a minute.  All I have to do is say, “Psalm 51” and most of you know it is the psalm of repentance that David wrote after his sin with Bathsheba was found out.

For almost a year David had been at war with God but he finally submitted when Nathan confronted him.  He drew near to God right after that and here we see him humble himself before God and before the world.  Look at verses 1-4:  Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
² Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge.

Verse 10: Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

And verses 16 and 17:  You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart
    you, God, will not despise.

He says he comes to God with a broken and contrite heart.  “Contrite” means to be repentant and deeply sorry.  If you are wondering just how sorry you have to be to qualify as “contrite” then I can assure you that you are not there yet.  But you will be.  Charles Spurgeon said, “Every Christian has a choice between being humble or being humbled.”



But I have good news!  “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:5-7).”



I even have more good news.  Not only should we humble ourselves but we can with the help of Christ.  And not only will we be exalted by God when we do but we also have a model for how to do it. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:5-11).”



When you realize who Jesus really is…and who you really are…then you will submit to Him, draw near to Him and humble yourself before Him.  Will you do that today?

“Controlled Speech” – James 3:1-12

We talk sometimes about how we want to be remembered when we leave this world.  We want the guy who preaches our funeral to be able to say some good stuff, right?  But have you ever thought of how you want to be remembered when you leave the room?  We have all been somewhere where everybody seems to be verbally bashing everybody that’s not there.  And it doesn’t matter how bad you have to go to the bathroom, you are not getting up because you don’t want them talking about you.  Have you been in that situation?

Titus 2:8 tells us to live beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.  And they should be ashamed.  But you know they are still going to talk about you.  And for some people it doesn’t matter how wonderful you are, they are going to find something negative to say about you.  And you can’t help what other people say about you.  But you can keep from giving them any more ammunition.

I say all of this because we are going to see what Pastor James in the New Testament has to say regarding our speech.  And the tendency all of us have when we hear sermons like this is to be thinking all the way through about how other people need to be hearing this.  Satan wants you to be thinking about how much Aunt Bessie needs to hear about holding her tongue.  And, oh, if that neighbor of mine could just hear some of this…  And, wow, that preacher really needs a mirror up there so he can preach to himself.

And the thing is, I’m quite sure all of that is very true.  But this morning I want you to just internalize it.  Think about how you need to change and don’t be stocking up ammunition to use on poor old Aunt Bessie…or poor old Pastor Todd!  Winston Churchill exemplified integrity and respect in the face of opposition. During his last year in office, he attended an official ceremony. Several rows behind him two gentlemen began whispering. "That's Winston Churchill." "They say he is getting senile." "They say he should step aside and leave the running of the nation to more dynamic and capable men." When the ceremony was over, Churchill turned to the men and said, "Gentlemen, they also say he is deaf!"  Barbara Hatcher, Vital Speeches, March 1, 1987.

Nobody likes somebody to talk bad about them.  And that is one of the quickest ways that somebody can tell a Christian from a non-Christian is their speech (or lack of).  Because we all know that Christians never gossip.  Christians never bad-mouth anybody.  They never lie or brag or just flat talk too much, right?  Well, that’s not entirely true.  In fact, it never has been true because James talks in depth about our speech and you remember he is writing to his fellow believers in Jesus.

So, let’s go ahead and turn to the book of James, chapter 3, and let’s just see what the good pastor has to say about controlling our speech.  James 3:1-12 says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. ² We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. ³ When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. ⁴ 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. ⁵ 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. ⁶ The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. ⁷ All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, ⁸ but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. ¹¹ Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? ¹² My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”

Casey Stengel was a longtime major league baseball manager whose unique way with the English language became known as "Stengelese."  He held a position on the board of directors for a California bank. According to a story that originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Casey described his duties this way: "There ain't nuthin' to it. You go into the fancy meeting room and you just sit there and never open your yap. As long as you don't say nuthin' they don't know whether you're smart or dumb."

President Calvin Coolidge was of the same mind, if maybe a little smarter.  He was known as “Silent” Cal and I heard the story about how he was at a dinner one night sitting next to a woman he didn’t know.  The woman was very excited to see him and was evidently aware of his reputation for not saying much.  She turned to the president and said, “Mr. President, I have to admit I bet my friends that I could get more than 2 words out of you.”  President Coolidge turned to her and just said, “You lose.”

And we can probably all appreciate someone who knows how to keep their mouth shut.  And we should all try to do that more often.  But in reality, keeping your mouth closed and never saying anything is not really controlling your tongue.  The secret is to know when to keep your mouth closed and then when it is time to open it, to know what the right thing is to say.  That is controlling your tongue.

James tells us here what a powerful part of the body the tongue is and in here I want us to see 3 things.  The tongue has the power to direct.  It has the power to destroy.  And it has the power to delight.  Let’s look at verse 1 to see how our tongues can direct.  James says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”  This is not meant to be career counseling from James.  He is warning us to think through our decision to be teachers.

For that first church and especially for those coming out of the Jewish culture, teachers or rabbis were highly respected.  They were very important people and invited to all the best parties and were given the best seats at all the major happenings in town.  And I’m sure James was finding out in that church in Jerusalem that everybody thought they ought to be teachers.  Well, I’m sure you can ask any of the teachers around here and they would tell you that times have changed.  You don’t exactly get followed around by the paparazzi for being a teacher anymore.

But you will still be judged for it and that is the point James is making here.  When Jesus talked about teachers and especially when He talked TO the teachers, what did He say?  He almost always started out by saying, “Woe to you!”  Woe means grief.  “It is going to be grief for you teachers.”  And why would it be grief?  I love how Jesus puts it in Matthew 23:3.  He says, “So you must be careful to do everything they (the teachers) tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” 

For teachers, it can be easy to say one thing and to do another.  In fact, it’s easy for all of us, which is exactly the point James makes in verse 2.  We all stumble in many ways.  Teachers and non-teachers stumble.  It’s easy for all of us to be hypocrites but teachers will be judged more harshly.  You are telling me how to have my life changed when your life has obviously not been changed?  That’s like getting diet advice from a fat guy.

But James goes on to say that if you are going to use your tongue, your words, your teaching ability to direct others then you better be able to direct your tongue.  You have the power to direct others with your tongue.  And you have the power to direct your tongue and you better use that power.  James uses the example of a horse and a ship that are directed by such small things.  And we read that and we focus on the bit for the horse and the rudder for the ship.  But those are just things like the tongue is just a thing.

It is the one who controls those things that controls the direction.  I used to live and work on a small horse ranch in west Ft. Worth when I was about 20 or 21.  The owner had a couple of old horses that he liked for me to ride every now and then just to give them some exercise.  Princess had been a champion show horse and rodeo queen back in her day but now she was pretty happy hanging out at the barn eating hay all day.

And so when I showed up to put the saddle and bridle on, she took it as a personal offense.  She started out by trying to buck me off but she was too old and I was too young for that so then she would try to scrape me off of her on the pipe fence.  If that didn’t work she would go under the low branch of a tree to try to knock me off.  And it sometimes worked because I was not able to control her even with a bit and saddle.

I couldn’t overcome the nature of that horse.  And just like that horse, we have an old nature that has to be overcome.  It wants to control us and make us sin.  There are also circumstances around us that make us want to say things that we ought not to say.  Sin on the inside and pressures on the outside are seeking to get control of the tongue.  (Wiersbe, p. 358)  But we have to control it or it will control us.

Now, at this point, you are probably saying the 3 most popular words that come into a person’s mind when they read through the book of James.  From the first “consider it pure joy…” to this part about controlling your tongue you are probably saying to yourself, “But that’s hard!”  Let’s just go ahead and all say that out loud and let’s say it like a little kid would.  “But that’s hard!”

And you are right.  It is hard to do.  In fact, I would say it is impossible for you to do.  I was talking to a lady the other day after the biker church who was saying those exact words.  She said, talking about something else, “But that’s hard!  I can’t do that.”  And I said, “You’re right, you can’t.  But…”  And I got about that far and she beat me to it.  She said, “But there is that verse in Ephesians or Philippians that says we can do anything through Christ.”  And she was right.  That is the secret.

Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.”  Just add this to the list of things you can’t do in your own strength.  You cannot tame your tongue in your own strength.  But if you are going to direct others you better, through Christ, tame it or then we see what happens in verses 5-6.  It says, “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body… and is itself set on fire by hell.”

Our words can start fires.  Our words have the power to destroy.  Proverbs 26:20-21 says, “Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down. ²¹ As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife.”  We all know somebody that just doesn’t seem happy unless there is some drama in their life.  I hope it’s not you.  But if it is, let me just tell you, leave that stuff at the house.  Don’t bring that mess to church with you.

“Oh, I’m not that bad, pastor.  Sure, I like to stir things up a bit every now and then; maybe repeat a little gossip or tell things that make me look just a little bit better at somebody else’s expense but everybody does it.  It’s not really hurting anything, is it?”

How many times have you heard about a great forest fire that burned millions of acres only to find out it was started by a cigarette butt?  You know, most of the time that cigarette butt that is thrown down just goes out on its own.  Or maybe somebody comes by and sees that trash still burning and steps on it and throws it away.  It’s the same way at church.  I see people throw their cigarette butts on the ground and most of the time nothing happens.  But it is trash and we don’t need that at our church.  Please don’t do that.

And just like that cigarette on the ground, we don’t need your harsh words, your hypocrisy, your foul language, your gossip or your bragging.  Don’t throw that trash around up here or anywhere else for that matter.  Because while most of the time it is extinguished by a loving brother, every now and then that trash catches fire.  How many churches have burned to the ground, consuming the whole community with them because of one careless word said without thinking?  Our speech has the power to destroy.  You must control it and with the power of Christ Who lives in you, you can.

And while our speech, our words, our tongue has the power to direct and to destroy.  It also has the power to delight.  Proverbs 12:18 says, “The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”  Paul talked several times about being refreshed by or wanting to refresh the saints in Romans and Corinthians.  Wouldn’t you like to be described like that when you walk out of the room?

Don’t you want people to describe you as refreshing instead of comparing you to a cigarette butt?  Your tongue has the power to make you be described as either one and it is your choice.  And they both come with a price.  The price you pay for being a destroying cigarette is knowing that you have done great harm to the Kingdom of God.  And James says you will be judged for that.  Flip over a page and read what James says in chapter 1, verse 26.  “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.”  That’s a high price to pay.

And there is a price to pay for controlling your tongue as well.  People who are described as refreshing or delightful have to pay the price of giving up their right and ability to gossip or put someone down or to try to make themselves look better in somebody else’s eyes.  The thing is, the person you are trying to impress as well as the person you are putting down…probably think the world of you.

Do you know how I hear people described here at Christ Fellowship?  “I just love him!”  “She’s so sweet.”  Carol, I heard just last week, “That Carol.  She’s one of my favorite people.”  Why would you try to impress somebody that already thinks you hung the moon?  Why would you hurt someone by gossiping about them if you knew they loved you like family?

I’ll tell you the truth.  I love it when Jeanna Driver comes to church.  I know she often has to work but when she comes, I just love it.  You know why?  Because she calls me “Sweet Love”.  I know, I know.  She calls everybody “Sweet Love” but when she says it to me, I feel special.  How can I ever find anything bad to say about somebody who makes me feel so special?  I would be put to shame, as Titus said.

See, controlling your tongue is not just keeping your mouth closed.  It is saying just the right thing at just the right time through the power of Jesus.  Solomon said in Proverbs 25, “Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances.”  Let me give you a few phrases that need to increase in our vocabularies.  Let me give you a few apples of gold set in silver.

We need to say “please” and “thank you” more often.  It makes people feel more like friends and less like employees when you do.  Or how about “I’m sorry”?  You can break down a barrier and build a bridge with those simple words if they are truly meant.  We should say “I love you” more often.  I’m working on that.  It can be hard for us tough guys sometime but we need to get over it. 

And lastly, don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” if you don’t know.  Why is that so hard for us?  If you are a banker, lawyer or politician, let me be the first to tell you that saying “I don’t know” every now and then will get you a whole lot of respect from me.  But then again, if a banker, lawyer or politician said anything I probably wouldn’t believe them.

Oh, there I go.  See, I did it.  I bad-mouthed people without thinking about it.  That’s wrong.  What was it James said in verse 10?  Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Well, through the power of Christ who lives in me, I can do all things, including not saying bad things about bankers, lawyers and politicians.

But what if you don’t have Christ living in you?  The consequences are even worse than not being able to control your tongue.  The consequences of not giving your life to Jesus include an eternity in Hell and no joy or peace in this life.  We don’t want people to say bad things about us when we leave the room.  What will be said about you when you leave this world?  Make sure today that it is, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”