Joyce Meyer - Book of James Bible Study [FULL] (08/21/2019)
God's Word is like powerful seed—when planted in humble, receptive hearts it produces an abundant harvest. Drawing from James 1:2-4, Joyce Meyer urges us to count trials as joy since they build patience and maturity, perfecting our faith so we lack nothing and become vessels God can use.
The Power of God's Word as Seed
God's Word is seed. How many of you have seen that in the Bible? The sower sows the seed. And seed has power to produce after its own kind. If a tomato seed can be planted in the right kind of ground and produce a bunch of tomatoes, then what can the Word of God do if it's planted in the right kind of ground, which is our hearts? And what kind of a harvest can you have in your life from spending this time here with us tonight or however many sessions you get to come to? I think that the harvest from what you're spending your time doing right now can be phenomenal, but part of it depends on how you receive it. There's different kinds of ground. And so I want to really encourage you to receive the Word with meekness. You're going to see that that's what James said, that the Word has the power to save our souls if we receive it with meekness. And that means that every single thing you hear, you have the attitude, man, I need this. I need this.
I always tell people, I don't care how many times you've got it underlined in your Bible, until you're doing it on a regular basis, you don't know it. If you're like me, I like to underline and color code and star and check mark and, you know, sometimes if you're not careful, you can feel real proud of yourself if you open your Bible and you've got a bunch of it underlined. But what we have to look at is, am I doing this? And no matter how many times we hear the same thing over and over, we still need it.
Background on the Book of James
So, here's a little bit of historical background on James. First of all, there are two disciples among the twelve named James. This epistle was not written by either one of them, but it was written by James, the brother of Jesus. James occupied a prominent place in the church in Jerusalem and is mentioned in the book of Acts. The theme of this book in the Bible is how to have a living faith, a faith that actually works and produces good things in our lives and in the lives of other people. It's evidenced by righteous living and godly behavior. True faith manifests righteous living and godly behavior.
Let me just throw in here that if everybody who calls themselves a Christian had a living faith and was walking in right behavior and godly behavior, people would have a totally different attitude worldwide toward Christianity and Christians, and they would be flocking into the churches to try to get some of what you have. Your position in history right now is so important. I mean, it is very important that you're alive right now and that you get to be part of seeing this generation come to a saving knowledge of Christ. But that will not happen if we don't walk the walk and do something other than just go to church on Sunday morning and think that because we do that, we've got a ticket into heaven.
Chapter 1 is about a victorious faith. Chapter 2, having our faith manifested. Chapter 3, a faith that controls our behavior. Chapter 4, a faith that causes us to be submissive to the will of God. And chapter 5, a patient and an expectant faith. Although James was the brother of Jesus, he recognized him as the resurrected Lord, for he refers to himself as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Joy in Trials: James 1:2-4
Now, James chapter 1, verses 2 through 4. I'm sure these are like your very favorite scriptures in the Bible. You're already groaning and I haven't even opened it up yet. Say, well, I heard it. How many of you already know what James 1, verse 2 says? Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. How many of you have made it to that point and you don't need this message tonight? You're... You know, it's almost not even hardly fair for God to ask a preacher to preach this message because somebody asked me what I was going to preach on this weekend. I said, well, I get the extreme thrill of trying to get people excited about their trials. Which is not easy.
And the only way that we can actually consider them joyful and that's about our thinking process. We don't necessarily have to be clapping and cheering about the discomfort we're going through. But if we understand what the Bible says about the value of trials, and this is a message that's underpreached. Yes, God wants to bless us. And He wants to bless us more than we know how to handle. He will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing so great that we cannot contain it. We don't even know how to take it in. But I know from the Word of God and from experience that God cannot bless us in the natural beyond where we're at spiritually.
I want to say it again. You're not going to give your baby that's three years old the keys to the car. Amen? And you don't because you love him. And every one of us should stop praying for God to give us all the stuff that we think we have to have to make us happy. And we should pray a new prayer. And this is the prayer that we should pray. I pray this on a regular basis. I invite you to join me. God, please don't give me anything that I can't handle and still keep you first in my life. Amen? And something we don't hear enough of in prayer anymore, I don't think, is your will be done. Your will be done.
Why Trials Are Joyful
We've gotten really good about telling God everything that we want Him to give us. But He says that difficulty and trials and tribulations and things that test our faith that we should consider them joyful because not because they feel good right now but because of what they have the ability to do in us if we won't run away from them. And you know, there are some things you can't get away from but there are a lot of things that you can get away from. Amen?
I was in a church at one point and they really didn't want me teaching home Bible study. They were a little bit controlling and manipulative and so I wasn't really being treated all that great and man, my first impulse is I'm out of here. Who needs this? I'm out of here. And I really felt that God told me that I needed to stay. Well, it was uncomfortable to stay every week when I went in the church it was uncomfortable to stay. There was all these home Bible studies that different people had and ours at one point was listed then all of a sudden ours came off the list. And things like that can hurt you. When you don't get picked when you're rejected things like that can hurt you.
And but God really dealt with me that I couldn't leave there with an attitude in my heart. Because you see if you leave some place with a bad attitude you're going to enter the next place you go with that same bad attitude. And so God doesn't want us to go when we want to go He wants us to go when He says to go. And then I came to a situation where I was in a church that I'd worked at for five years and God was really dealing with me about stepping out and starting to do what I'm doing now. And I didn't want to go. And I stayed there for another year maybe two after God started dealing with me. And I'm telling you what things were just not getting good.
Learning Obedience in Difficult Seasons
And so you can go when God wants you to stay and you can stay when God wants you to go. You see we like to be comfy. And I didn't want to give up my friends. I was concerned about what people would think that I was ungrateful that I was full of myself thought I was going to go out and have this big ministry now done. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But if I wouldn't have listened to God then we wouldn't be here tonight. And I just wonder how many of you maybe God has told you to do or not to do something. And when I say told you I mean either through his word which is a word from God. This is the main way that God is going to speak to us and deal with us and anything else that you think you hear better line up with that or you're in trouble.
So we need to get about the business of spiritual maturity and listen I don't like it any better than you do. I had a situation happen a few days ago I told you I got angry and I had a trial that was not of my making. I was having a great day and somebody else did something that then caused me to not have a great day. How many of you love it when you're going around doing good and you're just clicking along with Jesus and everything's great and you're enjoying your day and now somebody else does something. Well to be honest probably 70-80% of our problems are people problems. And for a lot of different reasons that doesn't always mean it's all them.
You know so we better say that just to get it out there but in this particular situation then it took my time I had to deal with something I didn't want to deal with then I had to do some other stuff and so I'm getting ready to preach this message on being joyful about these things and so I just thought okay God just now tell me how this is going to be good for me. I want you to tell me how this is going to be good for me and what am I going to learn out of this how is this going to help me and actually God put something interesting on my heart he said this wasn't so much for you as it is for the other person because the way I dealt with it I had to build their character and do more of what they're supposed to do.
Trials for Others' Growth
So I might as well just tell you this and put it out there so you don't have to find out on your own later. But I'll just tell you that the more mature you become in Christ, the more he's liable to let you go through a few things that really don't have anything to do with you. They have a lot to do with other people. Come on now. I mean, a very good case in point would be my relationship with Dave. I mean, I had serious issues when we got married. And they were all internal, so they didn't start coming out until after the wedding. How many of you feel me on that one? You know, it's like they didn't start coming out until after the wedding. Everybody's on their good behavior during the courtship.
And I didn't even know Dave played golf when I married him. Did not know what a golf ball was. Because I was the only thing that mattered in his society, you know, his life during those five dates that we had before we got married. But, you know, Dave went through a lot those first few years. And if he would have left because he felt like leaving, we wouldn't be here tonight. And so, whatever this means to different people here tonight or those watching by TV, you better think twice before you just think, well, I'm out of here. Maybe you need to say, is this your will? What do you want me to do in this situation?
And I don't see nearly as many smiles as I'd like to see. And I know, I know it's all painful. There's nothing that we hate worse than having to go through things. But it's here, and we can't ignore it. We have to learn to understand it. He says, consider it wholly joyful when you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and approving of your faith bring out endurance, steadfastness, and patience.
Patience as a Fruit Grown in Trials
Now, we'll talk in a few minutes about some other things that they bring out too. But eventually... Eventually, we'll get down to that if we let God work with us long enough. You know why? At the moment of your new birth, when you receive Christ, the nature of God was planted on the inside of your spirit. Little seeds of everything that God is, His character, all the fruit of the Spirit, it's all in you. Believe it or not, you are patient. But it's just like a little teeny, teeny, tiny seed buried somewhere under all your flesh. And listen to this. Patience, the Greek dictionary says, is a fruit of the Spirit that grows only under trial. And it comes from a root word called H-U-P-O-M-O-N-E in the Greek, and it means to remain under.
So patience has nothing to do with running away from. It has everything to do with being steadfast, being disciplined, being committed, sticking with things, going all the way through with things. And I think we all know that the first thing our flesh wants to do when anything gets hard is quit and run away. Amen? But before we run in the future, we need to say, God, what do you want me to do in this situation? Patience is like a muscle. Faith is like a muscle. The less you use it, the more it atrophies, and the weaker it gets. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. The stronger it gets, the more you can do.
You see, God, not only does He want to do things for us, you know, to be honest, sometimes I just get tired of having to tell people that 500 times to get them to keep listening. We are just not very good at laying our lives down and saying, God, what can I do for you? Just for one day, could I forget about myself and say, God, what can I do for you today? You've been so good to me, you don't have to do one more thing for me the rest of my life if you don't want to. How can I serve you? What can I do for you?
Growing from Glory to Glory
But oh, I tell you what, it's very challenging to preach on sacrifice and suffering and being somewhere where you don't want to be and waiting on things. But you know what? When we let God work with us in our lives and we do go from glory to glory to glory I tell you what, you give yourself a few years with the Lord of really listening to Him and you'll go through some stuff. But you come to a place where the stuff that used to bother you doesn't even faze you anymore. It's like, see what, we don't need less problems, we need more strength. We don't need less opposition, we need more character. We need more faith, more spiritual muscle on the inside of us. And we need to be able to say with Paul, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Whether I'm abased or abounding, I can do all things through Christ.
Now I know in saying this, probably some of you this is the last thing in the world you want to hear out of me this weekend. And thankfully we will get to go on to other things. Like your mouth and other more exciting things as we go on here. But I just think it's, if you can believe when you're going through something and if you can open your mouth and say, I hate this but I believe it's going to work out good. God, I'm going to tell you right now this don't feel good I don't like it but I trust your word that you will work something good in me as a result of this. And so therefore I'm going to do it by faith God but I'm going to put a smile on my face and I'm not going to murmur and I'm not going to complain and I'm just going to say now you do what you want to do in my life. Amen.
Now if you'll go home and start to do these kinds of things I'm not going to tell you that boy are things going to come up roses in two days they won't but the day will come when you'll think I am so glad that I finally stopped running away from everything that was hard And I've learned how to go through with God and come out victorious on the other side.
Coming Out Victorious Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
We all want to be a conqueror but we don't want anything to conquer. We want to be victorious but we don't want anything to have to have victory over. And we're just so down about going through. I'm just going through. Well the good news is, is you're going through. And you've got Jesus with you. And you're going to come out on the other side. And honey, when you come out of the furnace, you won't even smell like smoke. Who would ever guess by looking at my life now or many of your lives, what you went through in the earlier years of your life? Who could possibly imagine some of the things that you've gone through and where you're at now? You came out and you don't even smell like smoke.
So, you know, we can think of a woman who's pregnant. And we are pregnant, so to speak, with so many good things. So many good things on the inside of us. And a woman who is pregnant, actually, while she's in labor, she has pain and joy at the same time. Her joy of bringing a child into the world overcomes the pain because she will actually go do it again. Figure that out. And I had three during the time when they knocked you out when you had babies. And then I bravely decided to have the last one all natural. And he lacked one ounce weighing 10 pounds. Man. Matter of fact, women will pray for their labor to start. Are any of you praying for your spiritual labor to start?
Would anybody just go home and say, okay, God, I am tired of being a namby-pamby, baby, whiny, up and down, happy when things go my way, sad when they don't. I'm tired of getting my feelings hurt all the time and being jealous and getting mad all the time. I want you to do something in me. Let my labor start. Oh, it sounds a lot more exciting here than it will be when you get home by yourself. I mean, I'm just saying. I mean, we got the lights, the music, we got the crowd. I'm like, whew. Lord, have mercy.
What Trials Really Bring Out First
Trials bring out a lot of stuff before they get around to bringing out the good stuff that's in there. Trials bring out a lot of stuff before they get around to bringing out the good stuff that's in there. I mean, they brought fits out of me, anger, jealousy. Man, could I say some stuff when I got mad. Isaiah 41:10. Difficulties of all kinds are in the toolbox that God uses to sharpen and refine us. Fear not, there's nothing to fear, for I am with you. Do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
You know what that means? If God strengthens us and hardens us to difficulties, we'll get to the point where the things that seem so hard now don't even faze us later on. How many of you have already seen that in your life in certain situations? Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will hold you up and retain you with my victorious right hand of rightness and justice. And I love verse 15. Behold, I will make you to be a new, sharp, threshing instrument which has teeth. No more pacifiers, no more baby bottles. No more squashed up fruit in a dish. God's going to give you meat and teeth to chew it with.
Becoming a Sharp Threshing Instrument
And this weekend, we're not throwing out dessert. We're putting out meat. I may have been around long enough to know what I mean by that. Paul told the Christians, the Corinthian Christians, he said, I have to keep feeding you with milk. I can't give you meat because you're not strong enough to take it. But I believe I got the right group at the right time that are ready to get on with what God has for your life. I've got the right group at the right time. Amen. You've got what it takes and you're ready.
Behold, I will make you to be a new, sharp, threshing instrument which has teeth. And you shall thresh the mountains and beat them small, and you shall make the hills like chaff. And then, really, verse 17 is what God's trying to get to. The poor and the needy seek water, and there is none; their tongues fail for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. And what is he saying here, if you read all this in context? He's going to answer them through you. See, God is trying to get us to the point where we can get ourselves off of our mind long enough that we can be what Timothy says is a vessel fit for the master's use. Amen.
So he can work through you at your place of employment. So he can work through you in your schools. So he can work through you in your neighborhoods with your unsaved family. So he can work through you. People are seeking water where there is none. People want help. They need help. Now, we're good at praying for people. Sometimes, oh, God, help them. God, please help them. God, would you provide whatever for so-and-so. The Lord interrupted my prayer a few years ago and said, stop praying for things that you could easily do for people and just don't want to. Stop asking me to do stuff that I've anointed you to do. Hello. Well, it's the truth, isn't it?
Trials Are Not Punishment
What if every time somebody has a problem, we say, God, show me if there's anything you want me to do in this situation. I heard one faint... I'm not sure if that was a clap or not, but... Sounded like somebody started to clap and then decided to quit. I wasn't sure. Now, let me say that trials are not evidence of God's displeasure and anger. When you're already having a trial, the last thing you need is condemnation heaped on top of you that you have some big sin in your life that has now caused this problem. And isn't that the first place our minds go sometimes?
I was ministering to a woman sometime over the past year and she had an autistic son and actually God just gave me a word of wisdom in a meeting. I didn't know the woman, but I saw a child about nine years old with brown hair and I knew that his mother felt guilty like it was her fault that he was autistic. And so, I just shared that and sure enough, within 24 hours, the woman got a hold of Mike and said, well, here's my nine-year-old son with the brown hair. And that was exactly right. I have felt guilty ever since he was born. Like maybe I did something wrong and it was my fault. The devil loves to load us down with guilt and condemnation about everything, but God loves to help us.
And see, the thing you're going to read in a few minutes is even if through our own stupidity we did get ourselves in trouble, which is the case a lot of times, God still will help us if we ask him to. Now, who could get upset about a deal like that? So, just a few things that, ways that trials can help you. Because I know you want to know how they can help you, right? Okay, I'm excited. Well, they train us and they force us to use our faith. And eventually we become stable during the storms of life. Number two, they humble us. There's nothing that will humble you quicker than to have something that you absolutely cannot handle and have to go to somebody else and ask for help.
Paul's Thorn and Learning Contentment
2 Corinthians 12:7, one biblical example. The Apostle Paul, who was having such tremendous revelations from God, was actually taken up to the third heavens and saw things that he didn't even know how to describe. And yet the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 12:7, And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Now, there's been so much conversation about what Paul's thorn was and I frankly don't care. The point was he didn't like it and he begged God to get rid of it and God said, no, my grace is sufficient for you.
Because of all these wonderful things that are happening through you and all these things that I'm showing you, we've got to have a little bit of abasing here to keep things in balance. And you know, over in Philippians, Paul said, I've learned how to be content whether I'm abased or abounding. And years ago as I studied that, I thought, what was it that he learned? He said, I've learned how to be content. What was it that he learned that kept him that stable and that much the same whether he liked his circumstances or he didn't? And isn't that where we want to be?
You don't want to have a lousy circumstance come along and ruin your week, do you? You don't want to have somebody else do something that you couldn't control and now have to give up your joy because they decided to have a bad day. That's not what Jesus died for us to have. He wants us to have peace and joy and to be stable and to have it all the time no matter what's going on in our circumstances. Amen? Satan is the god of this world and he can mess around with our circumstances. But if we trust God he will use every one of them to our good.
All Things Work for Good in Trials
They will help us grow spiritually and as we stay strong in him then we will see additional blessings in our life according to what God knows that we can handle. And so Paul said, I've learned, I've learned how to be content satisfied to the point where I'm not disturbed. Being content doesn't mean you never want to see any change in your life. There's all kinds of things that I want to see changed and all kinds of people that I want to see changed. But thankfully I've come to the point where I'm not upset about it now. I'm not losing my joy. You know why? I'm really well aware that only God can change it. And me being upset about it is not going to get him to move any faster.
And so he said, I've learned how to be content whether I'm abased or abounding. And he said that because he trusted God so much that he knew that if he was going through a time of difficulty that there was a reason for it even if he didn't understand it he trusted God to work it out for his good. Can we believe that all things work together for our good if we trust God? All things. But let's be able to believe that while we're in it. See I wanted to be able to say last week when I was going through my little thing and it was a little thing believe me it was nothing to even crab about but it was just a little thing but as I was going through it I thought now God I want to go through this the way I'm supposed to go through it and so help me now.
See a lot of times we can go through very difficult things and three, four years down the road we can look back and say oh yeah yeah I see how God used that in my life it worked out for good. Can any of you think of stuff like that right now? I see how God used that in my life it worked out good. But God wants us to get it on this side. See the Israelites danced and sang but they did it on the wrong side of the Red Sea they wait till they got through the Red Sea and then they had a party God wanted us to dance on this side when they were facing it Amen They remind us to be totally dependent on God they help us develop character And we give glory to God.
Revelation 12:11 says, We overcome him, him being Satan, by the blood of the Lamb and by the utterance of our testimony. Well, you can't have a testimony without a test. Test a money. What we have to make sure of is that when we're done, we don't just have the monies. And still don't have a testimony. Because in God's economy, if you don't pass the test, you get to take it again.
The Power of Patience and Trusting God's Timing
Now, patience. Patience, patience, patience. Well, we had a piece of property we needed to sell. I'll put it like this. I wanted to sell it. I don't know. I don't know if need is the right word, but I wanted to sell it. So, three and a half years, we didn't even get an offer. And three and a half years is a long time for me to wait. Now, Dave couldn't have cared less if we sold it in two days or ten years. You know? Because he's just like, it'll sell at the right time. God will sell at the right time.
You know, sometime if you need to grow in patience and you're around somebody that's really patient, aren't they annoying? Don't you just want to like rip their hair out once in a while? Say, could you just have a good fit so I don't feel so bad? And so, okay, I mean, I'm praying about this piece of property. I'm getting people to agree with me about selling this piece of property. I'm rebuking the devil because I'm not getting any offers on my property. I'm confessing that my property is sold in Jesus' name.
And one morning, I started to talk to the Lord again about the property. And he said, will you forget that property? Will you just forget that property and let me take care of it? Now, don't miss the second half of what I said. Will you forget about it? See, some of you have issues and you've just been camped on top of them so long that God couldn't get a chance to help you if he tried. You almost got to get to the point where you just flat out don't care. And it's like, it's up to you. Will you forget about that? Now, as God is my witness, I'm telling the absolute truth. In two weeks, it's sold.
Now, it would come back to my mind. And I would just say, nope, God's taking care of that. Now, you know, I'm not saying that you can't pray about things for a long time. But I will be honest and say, I think there comes a time where we don't need to pray about something anymore. Maybe if it comes to your mind, you can just say, thank you, God, you're taking care of that. That's a type of prayer, too, you know. But we don't have to just keep asking for the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
When Patience Makes Us Perfect and Complete
Now, when a man is fully patient, James says, they're perfect and entire, lacking nothing. Now, that's an amazing scripture. And you know what that basically means, if I can just give it to you in the short way of what I think. I think it means when we become fully patient, we so trust God for his timing, his way, that we know that God will take care of it. We know that God will do what we've asked, if indeed that is his will. And to be honest, I believe the church worldwide needs to grow spiritually to the point where we really, truly don't want anything that's not God's will. Because we can't be happy with anything that's not God's will.
I don't care how much I want it, if it's not right for me, then instead of trying to finagle around and figure out a way to get it. Amen? You know, there's a scripture in Psalms, I think it's in 106, where when the Israelites got tired of manna, they got tired of their miracle bread. They wanted meat. Give us meat, give us meat, give us meat. And so, the Bible says that God was unable to restrain their insistent desires. They just kept it up and kept it up and kept it up. And so, he said, okay, you want meat? I'm going to give you meat. And he gave them meat, and they had meat to eat that was running out their nostrils. And then it says, but he sent leanness into their souls.
So, see, I may crab around enough to get what I want. God may even sometimes give us what we demand to show us it's not really what we want. Amen? Oh, you think this is what you want? Okay. Here. But then if we have leanness in our souls, if we're not happy inside, and we're not content inside, some of you think you'd just be happy if you had more money. And I'm not at all against having more money. I mean, money's a comfortable thing to have. But the world is full of people that have gazoodles of money, and they are so miserable. So, we have to see things for what they are.
Asking in Faith Without Wavering: James 1:6-8
Now, James 1, 6 through 8. We have now made it through five verses. I can see I'm not going to get done. But as long as we get the good stuff, that's what's important, right? James 1, 6 through 8. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Only it must be in faith that he asks. Well, he starts out and he says, if any man, you know, needs anything, let him ask God, who gives to all men liberally, without grudging or finding fault with him. So, that refers back to what I said about even if you got yourself in trouble, God will help you. And he does it without blaming you. If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God, who gives to everyone, liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or fault finding, and it will be given him.
See, if somebody hasn't done right by me, if I'm going to help them, I'm going to let them know, well, I'm going to help you, but let's don't forget. But God's not like that. He just helps us. And then in verse 6 says, only it must be in faith that he asks, with no wavering, no hesitating, no doubting, for the one who hesitates and doubts is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. For truly let not such a person imagine he will receive anything he asks for from the Lord. For being as he is a man of two minds, hesitating, dubious, irresolute, he is unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything he thinks, feels, and decides.
Doubting Our Doubts and Resisting the Enemy
Now, here's a long and a short of what I want to say to you about this. If we're going to believe God, let us make up our minds to believe God. And let's don't decide in the morning we're going to believe God and then by noon we're full of doubt again. Now we're going to believe God again. Then we're full of doubt again. Now, I believe that we're free from fear and doubt, but I want to tell you something that I've recently learned and just maybe a way to put it that is helpful. Just because Jesus died to set us free from something doesn't mean that it disappears. We're free from fear, but every one of us in this room will experience fear at different times in our life. But just because you feel something or because you're tempted with something doesn't mean that you have to give in to it.
See, we can have a strong enough faith that it will control us. And so what we need to learn to do is doubt our doubts. So if I've set my mind to trust God and then doubt comes in, tries to come in, I actually need to say, I need to do what Jesus did. The Bible says he ignored those things. He overheard them, but he ignored them. You can hear the devil, but still not pay attention to him. You can hear him and still decide, I don't believe that. God is faithful. God will do it. Yeah, well, when's he gonna do it? I don't know when he's gonna do it, but he'll do it. And he'll do it. Learn to talk back to the devil. The devil? Yes, the devil. We have an enemy. The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus came that we might have a good life. The enemy has to be resisted.
Now listen, if we ask for anything in Jesus' name that is according to the will of God, for us, we will get it. Let me say it again. If we ask for anything that is according to the will of God for us, that means is it the right time in my life? Is this the right thing for me? Am I spiritually mature enough to handle this? If I ask for anything in Jesus' name, because when you ask in Jesus' name, you're not presenting to God who you are, you're presenting unto him all that Jesus is. So when we ask in Jesus' name, if it is the will of God, God must, according to his word, do it, because he is not a man that he should lie. But we have no idea when he will do it. Therefore, if we want to enjoy the journey, we need to learn patience.
Enjoying the Wait with Patience
And we actually don't have to be upset about waiting, because we can say, this will happen in the right way at the right time. Come on, in the right way at the right time. Don't just tell other people, well, just be patient. Your times are in the Lord's hand. Take your own advice. Don't just give advice to other people. Take your own advice. What would you tell somebody else if they had your problem? What kind of an attitude would you tell them to have if they were going through what you're going through right now? See, all we've got to do is just take our own advice and we'll be in good shape.
Quick to Hear, Slow to Speak, Slow to Anger
We made it all the way to chapter 1, verse 18. And I'm going to start with chapter 1, verse 19. And it talks about being a doer of the word. Understand this, my beloved brethren, let every man be, I'm going to say three things, quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to take offense, and get angry. Now, I looked at this list this morning and I personally like to kind of think about where I'm at spiritually and how am I doing in these areas. So, I'll tell you, I don't have a huge problem with anger anymore. God's really worked in my life with that. I mean, years ago, I spent more time being angry than I wasn't angry, but I don't, I've got a revelation on that. I don't waste much time with that.
I'm not real easily offended because I've kind of trained myself to quickly try to believe the best and believe that if somebody did offend me, that's probably not what they were trying to do. And so, that has helped me a lot. However, when it comes to listening, I could still use to grow a little bit because I kind of like talking more than I like listening. And also, in the area of being slow to speak. Sometimes I say things before I should say them. However, I am happy to report that I am a lot better than what I used to be. And so, you see, I'm so glad that we can celebrate our progress and we don't have to be depressed about how far we still have to go. Amen?
Tuning Our Ear to God and Others
Now, when it comes to this listening thing, that we should listen more, obviously, we should listen more to people. We can learn a lot if we listen to people. Amen? And, but I think it also has another meaning that we need to realize and that is we need to always have one ear tuned toward God. And I'd like to kind of present this idea to you this weekend that we basically live in two worlds at one time. We're in this world but we're also at the same time we're here with our feet on the ground, we're connected to another world. Now, you see me with my feet here on the platform this morning but you better hope I'm hearing from God because if I'm not letting Him lead me and guide me then you probably won't get very much out of this.
And so I'm not like sitting here real aware you know that God is speaking to me but I know when I teach that there are times where I will have a plan and I'll get up and what I say has not much to do at all with my plan because God already knows what you need. I think that we talk too quick and we answer people too quick and we need to slow down and think a little bit make a connection with God how do you want me to handle this situation? Do you want me to say anything? Do you want me to be quiet? Just taking more time before we pop off an answer can be real wise.
Jesus' Wise Response to the Adulterous Woman
I want to give you a biblical example. You might be familiar with the story where men brought a woman that was caught in adultery in front of him and they knew that the law said that they should stone her. And Jesus could not break the law. He kept the law perfectly so we would be free from the tyranny of living under the law. And when he said on the cross it is finished he meant that old system of trying to live under the law of Moses. But he couldn't break the law so now he's in a situation where the Pharisees are watching to see what are you going to do and yet he didn't want the woman to be stoned.
And so if you remember the story Jesus when they said to him what do you say the law says we should stone her to death what do you say that we should do with her because he's out teaching love and mercy so now what's he going to do you ever felt like you were kind of in a trap somewhere and you like hmm what am I going to do now and so Jesus the Bible says that he bent down on the ground and he wrote in the sand or the dirt with his finger now what was that all about what was he doing and then he gets up and he says let him who is without sin cast the first stone well the answer was perfect because He didn't break the law, what he said, but he still kept his message about love. Well, whichever one among you has never done anything wrong, then you can be free to cast the first stone. And it says, one by one, they dropped their stones and walked away.
The Power of Pausing Before Speaking
And so, I think if we would take more time to listen to what we should be saying before we open our mouth, things would get a lot better. That's lesson number one. Amen? Now, let's just say that maybe... well, let's go on here. For man's anger does not promote the righteousness that God desires. So, gave a little exhortation last night about the dangers of staying angry and how we need to forgive people. And yet, we find that to be one of the hardest things that God asks us to do. Am I not correct? Don't you find it very difficult when somebody has really treated you badly to forgive them? It's a very challenging thing to do.
Well, the only thing that's going to help us do it is the Word. Verse 21, so get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness. And in a humble, gentle, modest spirit, receive and welcome the Word, which implanted and rooted in your hearts contains the power to save your soul. So, if we look at this in context, he's saying, okay, now listen to this. Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to take offense, and slow to get angry. Because your anger doesn't, it's not the right thing. It's not the way God wants us to live. And so, here's some help for you. Be sure that you receive the Word of God with an attitude of meekness because it contains the power to save your soul or, if you will, it contains the power to tear down that spirit of anger that you're feeling and actually will give you the strength.
God's Word as Medicine for the Soul
The Word of God will give us the strength that we need to let go of things that God wants us to let go of. And it will give us the strength to do the things that God wants us to do. I don't think that we have ever fully realized how amazingly powerful the Word of God is and how like, I mean, you know, how many of you take some kind of medicine? Okay, well, now we don't know how it works. It's kind of amazing that you can have some super big problem or a pain somewhere or something going on in your body, and yet you can take a pill, and if you take it on a regular basis, those symptoms will go away. Well, you see, I think that the Word of God is medicine for our soul. Amen?
I believe that we have got this humongous medicine cabinet that's right here, and it has something in it for everything that ails you. There's help in here for jealousy. There's help in here for condemnation. There's help in here for the lost. There's help in here for the weak. There's help in here for the angry. There's help for our mouth. There's help for our mind. There's help for selfishness. I mean, this is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful book. It is a treasure. Amen?
Using Scripture Specifically for Your Need
So, here's what I would do. If I was angry, and I was having a very difficult time getting over it, I would look up several scriptures on anger. Because see, here's the thing. If I've got a headache, putting a Band-Aid on my head don't help. So, we need to take the Word of God purposefully, depending on what we need. If I've got a bad attitude, looking up scriptures on how I can be blessed is not going to change my attitude. Come on, I know it's early. You can get this. Amen? And so, what I'm telling you is that the Word of God can be used specifically for specific situations.
Like, I recommend if you are starting out in a walk with God, and you have all these boatloads of problems, things that you need to grow up in and get over. I mean, it's fine to be on a certain Bible reading plan. I mean, it's fine to be on a certain Bible reading plan. I think that's great discipline. But if I were you, if you're having a specific problem with something, I would commit to studying the Word of God in that area. Are you with me? Study the Word of God in that area, because there's power in the Word to help you solve the problem that you have.
Speaking God's Word Out Loud for Breakthrough
So, let's just say that I'm angry and just really want to go rip somebody's head off, but I know that's not what God wants me to do. So, now this is a little book we have. We call it the Purple Book, but it's about the power of speaking God's Word out loud. And it's divided up into categories for you. So, it's kind of like a real quick, like, man, I'm in trouble. I'm about to tell somebody off, and I need to get some medicine here. Help me. Except they put a thing on here, and now it's tearing my page. Okay, there. So, I can get this, and I can go, I will bridle my anger. I will trash my wrath. I will cool my pipes. God will help me. I follow the example of the Lord who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy and loving kindness. I am slow to anger, and I have great understanding. I am not like he who is hasty of spirit, exposing and exalting his folly. I speak soft answers that turn away wrath, not grievous words that stir up anger.
And so, there's three pages of these kind of scriptures here. And I can tell you the truth. If you read these out loud, it won't be long, and your soul will start to calm down, and you're going to start to feel better and better and better. Now, all anybody can do in my position is tell you what will help you. But knowing what I've said is not going to do what needs to be done. It's you going home and doing it when you have a personal situation going on in your life that will make the changes.
Being Doers, Not Just Hearers
That's what I would do even right now. If I was having a huge problem with something, and I could not get over it, let's just say I was having an attack of jealousy. I heard some really good news about somebody that I'm not real crazy about, and I'm not real happy if you want to know the truth that they got blessed. And I don't want to feel that way. I know that's not God's will for me, because jealousy and envy rots the bones. Well, I don't want rotten bones. I want to have strong bones. So, I would look up several scriptures on jealousy. I would pray, God, you've got to help me. And then I would take my medicine. Are you out there today? I would take my medicine, and I would let it help heal my soul.
Now, be doers of the Word. Obey the message. Not just a listener to it. Betraying yourselves into deception by reasoning contrary to the truth. Now, you know, these verses are so important. And I don't want to just get in too big of a hurry here to get to the end of chapter 2 that I miss some of the really important things that I think that need to be said. So, let's look at this. Be a doer of the Word. Obey the message. Not just a listener to it. Then he says, Betraying yourselves into deception by reasoning, which is contrary to the truth.
Avoiding Self-Deception Through Excuses
Now, that's kind of a mouthful, and we could miss what he's trying to say. So, let's just slow down and take it apart. If I... I can go to church three times a week, and I can watch Christian TV every morning, and I can listen to teaching CDs on the way to work, but if I don't do then what I've heard, it does me nor anybody else any good at all. Because the Bible does not say that we're blessed in our hearing. It says we're blessed in our doing. When we do, and I really think that because there's so much available to us today, I really think that sometimes we get so proud of what we know. Well, Joyce, I've got all your books. Well, then why are you still acting the way you do? I mean... People love to tell me they've got all my books. I've got all your books. And you know, we like to display them on our shelves, because when our friends come, we look so spiritual. But it's in the doing.
Now, let's just assume that we all want to obey God. And so we don't want to just hear. We want to do. And now, let's just take this a step further and say, we're not just hearing somebody preach the Word, but now God is trying to say something to us, because we can hear from Him too. And a large part of our walk with God is not just going to church and hearing messages, but it's letting the Holy Spirit guide us day by day in our walk with Him. Where I can be in the middle of doing one thing, and the Holy Spirit can let me know that's not what I want you to do. Don't act like that. Don't say that. Be quiet. Whatever.
Obeying Promptings from the Holy Spirit
And if we learn while we're in this world to keep one ear tuned to the Holy Spirit, then while we're here, we can be in the world, but not be of the world. And that's what Jesus is asking us to do. We can be in the world, but we can quickly make adjustments because of what God is saying to us. Example. Let's just say that I'm in a meeting like this, and I happen to notice somebody on our team that seems just... I don't know what it is. You know, I can't really put my finger on it, but I just really kind of sense that they need a blessing right now. Are you... Do you ever kind of notice that with somebody? You're like, they just need a blessing right now.
And so I pray, Lord, how can I bless this lady? How can I be a blessing to her? Well, the next thing that happens is I notice a bracelet I have on my wrist. Pretty sparkly bracelets that I'm quite fond of. And the next thing I'm feeling is I should give that to her because I remember earlier today she told me how pretty it was. Now, I really don't want to give my bracelet away. And so my mind gives me a reason. Come on. I've heard from God. I'm pretty sure at this point I'm hearing, but now there's the doing. And so if I don't do what I felt like God showed me to do, it's because I have betrayed myself by coming up with some kind of a reason why it's okay not to do it. Are you with me?
Examples of Dodging God's Promptings
So, she needs a blessing. God, how can I help her? I'm being real spiritual so far. I'm caring. I'm being compassionate. How can I help her? Come on. Is anybody home in the house today? So now, I don't want to give her my bracelet. So, and I actually had this happen. So this is a good, this is a living story. And so, I look at her and I think, she is really skinny. That is going to fall right off of her arm. And I took it home. Come on. You know, it's amazing the stuff that we can come up with.
Okay. I've had an argument with somebody. I'm really sure it was their fault. And I'm waiting for them to apologize. And I don't really intend to talk to them until they do. And I'm reading a book, let's say, a devotional by Joyce Meyer on how to get closer to God every day. Got my morning devotion and it says, be a peacemaker. Uh-oh, right away I'm thinking, hmm. So I get this little sensing that God wants me to pick up the phone and call this person and be aggressive. Well, I don't want to do that. So, I come up with a reason. Are you there? My reason is that I apologized the last time and it would simply not be right for me to have to apologize every single time. Come on. Somebody give God a praise.
One more example and then we'll move on. Offering time. It's offering time. You hear a nice appeal about water like we talked about this morning. You feel a little, you know, yeah, that'd be a good thing to give to. You kind of almost start to do something and then you think, but I gave last night. I don't need to do that. So you just don't do it. Well, see, I've gone through the same thing and it's like God had to remind me, well, no, you don't have to. But you can. See, we have to stop finding reasons and excuses for not doing what God wants us to do and then complaining because we don't have the blessed life that we say that we want to have. Because we're blessed not in our hearing but we're blessed in our doing.
True Religion: Caring for Others
So, let me just share this with you and then I'm going to move on. If there are things in your life that you know that God has put on your heart to do and you have not done them, anybody? Then go home and get busy and stop complaining about why God's not speaking to you because He's probably not going to say anything else until you do the last thing He told you to do. If you knew how many years it took me to learn all this stuff that you get downloaded in about an hour here.
Now, James 1, 26 and 27 and then we'll go on to chapter 2 and we're not going to spend much time here because I'm actually going to cover all this material later. And I don't have those. There it is. If anyone thinks himself to be religious, can we say, that's me? Piously observant of the external duties of his faith and yet he does not bridle his tongue but deludes his own heart this person's religious service is worthless, futile, and barren. So, bottom line is is he's saying, look, if you want to locate yourself, listen to yourself. If you want to know more about your true level of spirituality choice, just listen to yourself. Listen to what you complain about. Listen to the things that you say. Listen to the things you say about other people. We can learn a lot about ourselves by listening to ourselves.
But as I said, I don't need to spend a lot of time there because we got a lot of that tonight. I probably shouldn't tell you that because some of you will think I ain't going back. And then the next verse says, true religion, pure and undefiled is this, to visit, help, and care for widows and orphans in their affliction. So God's saying, you need to help the poor. We're also going to get to talk about that a little bit more this morning so I don't need to camp there. And I mean, it's very specific. True religion that's pure and undefiled doesn't just go to church and go home and do nothing. Pure religion, true and undefiled, that pleases God is the kind that gets busy helping other people that are hurting. That is what we're called to do. Forget about ourselves, help other people that are hurting and in the process of that, God will take care of us much better than we can ever take care of ourselves.
James 2: Rejecting Favoritism
And then the last thing it says is, and to keep yourself unspotted from the world. And so, we really need to understand what the Word of God says and get busy about doing it, not just hearing it. Somebody say, good preaching, Joyce. Good preaching, Joyce. James chapter 2. Woohoo! All right. James chapter 2 is basically divided into two parts. Verses 1 through 13 and verses 14 through 26. And the first part of it deals with how we are no longer justified by keeping the law of Moses. We are not under the law of Moses, but we are now living under a new law. It's called the royal law of liberty, and it's basically the law of love.
Jesus said, one new commandment I give unto you. And this one sums up all the law and all the prophets. You can keep everything else, everything, the spirit of the law in the Old Testament will be kept if we learn how to walk in love. And love is very simply how we treat people. Let me tell you that when you're around people, they may not remember much of what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel. Amen? They will always remember if you made them feel good or if you made them feel bad. If you made them feel valuable or if you made them feel unvaluable. And that can be something as simple as learning to listen to other people without interrupting them every two seconds. I mean, there's a lot of little ways that we can add value to people if we will let God show us how to do that.
Love as the Most Important Thing
Now, I don't know if you believe what I'm saying yet or not, but I am telling you that loving other people and how we treat people, I personally believe that how I treat people is the most important thing to the Lord. I think how I treat all kinds of people is the most important thing. And I think that that has everything to do with the anointing of my life and the anointing on your life. And I can tell you, if we spend our lives making sure that we value people and we treat other people right, you are not going to have to concern about your blessing package because blessings will chase you down and overtake you. So maybe we need to fix our focus a little bit.
The second half of James chapter 2 then deals with what James had to say about how you can't see faith apart from works. And there's always been a little bit of a, a challenge theologically between what Paul said about being justified totally by faith and what James seems to be saying here about, well, okay, you, you say that you've got faith, but I'm telling you that if you have real faith, then there's going to be works to back it up. And so he's saying, I can by my good works, show you my faith, but you can't show me your faith without good works.
Faith and Works: No Contradiction
And so actually there have been theologians down through history and some very popular ones who thought that James was a little bit off because it almost sounds like he's disagreeing with what Paul said. But really what was happening is what usually happens in the church. You learn a truth. We're justified by faith and not by our works. And that's right. We are justified before God by faith, not by works. Salvation cannot be earned. God's love cannot be earned. We cannot buy a ticket to heaven. It comes from God's grace and we receive it through our faith. I believe what Jesus did for me. I receive it and the Bible says if we truly believe, then we are justified before God by our faith. Amen?
Well, man, that is such good news. And if you're on the legal side of Christianity, boy, that news is super good to you. Because most of us, we come into a walk with God and then we start trying to be real good and trying to change. And then we're mad at ourselves all the time and we feel like a failure because we're always failing. And then we get the good news. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Oh, thank God. He will through Jesus Christ. So now we're all excited because we've learned about the grace of God and I don't have to do it by my works. God's done it for me. And if I believe, we're just like, oh.
And then, of course, there are always people who keep that balance and everything is fine. But then there are also people, and we have some of this today, where, well, then if God loves everybody and God is so gracious and merciful, then they begin to slip over into thinking that what they do doesn't really matter because after all, God is love and He loves everybody and He's merciful. So then you get all this junky immorality. You get all this immorality going on among Christians, and then our witness is completely destroyed because the world cannot see our faith if we don't show them some works.
Justified Before God and Before Men
And so there's really, there's no problem between what Paul said and what James said if you look at it like this. What Paul said is right. We are justified before God by our faith, but what James said is right too. We are justified before men by our works. And we not only need to be justified before God. Now, I can be justified before God and go to heaven. And I can really believe in God, and I can, if you want to know the absolute truth, I can probably mistreat people while I'm here. And I can still end up going to heaven. But I'll tell you what I won't have. I won't be happy. I won't bear any good fruit. I won't take anybody to heaven with me. I might keep a few people out. Come on, are you out there?
And I'll tell you what else I won't have. I won't have any rewards waiting for me when I get there. And the Bible teaches us that there is going to be rewards waiting for us based on how we've lived our lives and what we have done while we're here in the body. And I personally am big on rewards. I mean, this trip that we make through here, let's even say we've got 100 years. I mean, it's bad enough. But when I get to heaven, I don't want to spend eternity without the best life that I can possibly have because I didn't do here what I was supposed to do.
Living for Eternal Rewards
I've been saying this, and I think it's a good statement. I think we need to spend here getting ready for there. And so maybe we spend too much time thinking about our instantaneous comfort and not enough time thinking, it doesn't really matter if I'm comfortable here or not. I've got forever to live. And I want to make sure that I'm living now in such a way that when I stand before the Lord, I've got a full reward coming because I've been faithful while I've been here. Come on. So I don't earn anything from God by my works. But I do have the opportunity, I don't, while I'm here, but I do have the opportunity to change people's lives. And I do have the opportunity to take lots of people to heaven with me. And I'm excited. Aren't you excited to see when you get to heaven, how many people say, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you? Wouldn't that be a good thing? I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. You were a great example to me. I saw something real in your life and I wanted what you had.
You know, my dad was just an awful man. And at 83, I got the privilege of leading him to the Lord. And he's in heaven. I know that I know that I know that he's in heaven. And I'm grateful for that. But I'm still sad that he wasted his whole life. And I'm sad that he mistreated so many people. And so let's just don't live a life where as long as we sneak in the back door of heaven, we're okay. Let's live a life that really glorifies God, that can really make a difference in somebody else's life. So now I've probably preached my whole sermon, but we'll go back and look at the verses.
No Partiality in the Church
James chapter 2, verse 1. My brethren, pay no servile regard to people. Show no prejudice, no partiality. Do not attempt to hold and practice the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, together with snobbery. For if a person comes into your congregation whose hands are adorned with gold rings and who's wearing splendid apparel, and also a poor man in shabby clothes comes in, and you pay special attention to the one who wears the splendid clothes, and you say to him, sit over here in this preferable seat while you tell the poor man, now go stand over there or sit on the floor. Are you not discriminating among your own and becoming critics and judges with wrong motives?
Now, we all like to think that we're not prejudiced. But to be honest, I think probably everybody in this room today may have a little bit of prejudice in some area of your life. Let's just take for an example, you know, he's given the example of the rich and the poor. And to be honest, sometimes people of means will shy away from people that are poor, but also people that are poor right away can form an opinion that's totally wrong of anybody who has more than they do. I'm telling you what, the opinions that we have that are based on nothing are very, very sad. I said the opinions we have that are based on nothing. We don't know anything about what we're talking about, and yet we have a solid opinion of those people. And so, I really don't want to be like that. I don't want to judge and criticize and form opinions about things that I really don't know anything about.
Breaking Down Walls of Prejudice
But we have a tendency to shy away from what is not like us. Okay, we're going to go slow. Example, if you're 50 or above, you come from a certain generation, which we all do. And I'll tell you the truth, we do think generationally, like it or not. I mean, we just do. Okay? And so, let's just say that I walk into a coffee shop and the girl that's behind the counter has got tattoos all down both arms. Lots of piercings. Her hair is three different colors going in 40 directions. And if I'm honest, there's something in me that kind of goes, this kind of wall, just kind of like... All right? And chances are, she might feel the same way about me. I go in with my three-piece rhinestone suit and my earrings and every hair in place and every piece of makeup perfect. And she might automatically think, well, who are you?
And so, we have to purposely... And I'm doing this because we all have an issue with this. And I purposely want us to start bringing down those walls. I mean, we're going to have to do it on purpose. There are so stinking many walls of division. And it's keeping us divided and causing us to even hate people. And all it does is just tear down our power, especially in the church. Especially in the church. And Jesus said, look, I mean, these are the words of the Holy Spirit. Don't be prejudiced. Don't show favoritism to one person while you mistreat another. And let's stop thinking that everybody needs to be like us to be okay. Amen.
Clothing, Tattoos, and True Anointing
You know, we, several years ago, we changed up some things in the ministry and we started getting younger worship teams. And, I mean, I still, I'll still be sitting over there. And, I mean, you know, they dress different than we do. And so, maybe I get one and they've got rips and, you know, in their jeans. Now, I still can't figure out why anybody wants to pay a hundred dollars for a pair of jeans that's got holes in it. But, I can tell you this, it's not hurting their anointing. I said, it's not hurting their anointing. I said, it's not hurting their anointing. But, I'll tell you what can hurt mine if I've got a snooty I'm better than you attitude. Come on now, don't make me come down there.
And, we don't know anything about somebody because they've got a tattoo and it's something we would never have or they've got a nose piercing and we would never do that or they've got holes in their jeans and we would never do that. We don't know anything about them. And we need to take the trouble to get to know people's hearts. And you know how we are. It's like, oh, one of those. Whatever that is. You know, it's like to some people, I'm one of those. I'm one of those televangelists that's just out to get everybody's money. You know, I am so, excuse me, fed up with labels. I mean, we want to put a label on everything and we don't even know what we're talking about. And for the sake of the gospel, we need to broaden our circle of inclusion.
The Cost of Division and Hatred
And I don't mean by that that we have to start accepting sin and saying that it's okay just because that's what somebody wants to do. But I will tell you this, we can love the sinner. Amen. James warns the believer to treat all people the same regardless of their wealth or social standing. I've told this story way too much but I can't resist telling it again. I'm in a doctor's office several years ago waiting for my appointment. There was an elderly man in there who'd fallen on the ice and broke his leg and he kept wanting to tell me about his leg more than once. Now, I kind of knew the guy lives alone and he's just lonely and I'm sure he just wants somebody to talk to but I did not want to talk to him. I wanted to read my Bible and be spiritual. I mean, I had it. I had the Bible. I mean, I was praying, reading the Bible and this man kept trying to talk to me and I actually said to the Lord, would you make him leave me alone?
Now, there are some prayers we can pray that God is not going to answer. So the Lord spoke to my heart and he said if that was Billy Graham would you listen to him? I mean, God knows how to just rip you up, doesn't he? With just a couple of words and I didn't even need a further sermon. I knew exactly what God was saying. You would listen to somebody that you thought was important because you would think that that would make you important or that maybe they could do something for you. So let me tell you something. I never try to give you guys anything that God hasn't made me eat first.
Fighting Hatred Through Love
A few weeks ago I was out doing my morning walk and I was just thinking about a lot of the stuff that we hear and I just thought you know what I am so fed up with hatred. I mean, I'm just so tired of people hating people and groups of people hating groups of people just because they're different than somebody else. So we I asked Pastor Mike to help me and we did a little bit of study and there are multitudes of wars that have been fought through the centuries because people from one culture or ethnic background despised those from another. Started in Genesis with Cain and Abel. They were different. Cain killed Abel.
In 1618 to 1648 there was a war of religious hatred that existed between Catholics and Protestants. Now I'm just telling you here about the religious wars and we're not even going to get into all the other stuff. I mean they're not all religious wars but they're all just because people are different. The Nazi Jewish Holocaust six million people were killed simply because they were Jews. No other reason I just don't like you you're not like me so we're going to eradicate you. In 1967 to 70 one million people were killed in the Nigerian civil war a war between two tribes who hated one another. Rwandan genocide in 100 days one million people were brutally slaughtered and that war was due to ethnic hatred between two tribes the Tutsis and the Hutus.
There has been a conflict and war in Ireland for years between the Catholics and the Protestants. This one was kind of like jaw dropping. There's a war actually called the Cold Religious War that has lasted for 962 years. And it is between the Western Catholic Church and the Eastern Catholic Church which is the Greek or the Russian Orthodox. and they split in 1054 over doctrinal differences and have not officially fellowshiped together since then. The doctrinal difference they split over was the origin of the Holy Spirit and whether they should have the Eucharist with leavened or unleavened bread. And then we wonder why the world is not impressed by us.
Too Many Divisions in the Body of Christ
And then I looked up this morning online how many Christian denominations there are. 33,000 divisions in the body of Christ 22,000 of them are independent so that's all the people that don't want anybody to tell them what to there's the radio church the TV church the online church the non-denominational church and then there's a group called the Independent Exclusive Brethren how would you like to be part of that group? The Independent Exclusive Brethren and boy when you get into the Pentecostals now we got some fun there are the normal Pentecostals and there are the holiness Pentecostals there are the oneness Pentecostals and the deliverance church Pentecostals and then there's the charismatics and they are the respectable Pentecostals I guess I don't know what we are so then there's all the non-denominational and so Lord help us that's all I can say I mean we got to stop this silliness amen.
Well you know you believe in being baptized as a baby And I believe in being baptized after you receive Christ, so I can't fellowship with you. Well, you know what? Stone me if you want to. But if you're concerned about it, then just get baptized both times. You know, I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but I'm just saying this stuff is ridiculous. I mean, it's like we're playing right into the devil's hands. He wants us all to find a new reason every week to hate each other. But Jesus said, "one new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another just as I have loved you". Amen.
The Overlooked Power of Our Words
Open up your Bibles to James chapter 3. I'm teaching the entire book of James. And so tonight we're at chapter 3, which is a very important chapter in the Bible because it talks to us about the power of the tongue. Now, you know, I spent many, many, many, many, many years of my life as a Christian never, never hearing any teaching or any kind of a message on the power of words. I had no idea that what I said out of my mouth made any difference at all in my life. Now, I mean, I was smart enough to realize that sometimes I said things that made people mad, but I didn't really comprehend the power of the tongue.
And there may be people here tonight. I was thinking this afternoon, you know, I cannot assume just because you watch the TV program or somebody brought you here as a guest or you go to some church or whatever, that you have been taught about the power of your words. And so I believe that there are people here tonight that this is going to be like, huh? Huh? Brand new news to you. And certainly there'll be a lot of people watching by TV that this is a brand new message for them.
Life and Death in the Tongue
So let me just tell you that Proverbs 18:21 says that the power of life and death is in the tongue. Now, that is a pretty bold statement. Whenever, whatever we say, we can speak life or death to other people. We can help them. We can hurt them. We can build them up. We can tear them down. Or we can do the same thing to ourselves. I'm going to go ahead and say this right now because I don't want to forget to say this. One of the worst things that any one of us can ever do is to say negative things about ourselves out of our own mouth. And a lot of people say bad things about themselves all the time. I'm stupid. I'm dumb. I can't ever do anything right. You know, I'm a jerk. I'm this. I'm that. Whatever the case might be.
And I really want to just encourage you not to do that. Your words have a lot of power over your own life. Amen? And so we need to learn to talk the way God talks and not just talk the way the devil talks or the way the world talks, but to actually learn the Word of God and begin to speak in agreement with the Word. Actually, the Bible says that we eat our words. It says a man must be satisfied with the words of his mouth, whether they're full of life or death, because that becomes what we take into ourselves and what we feed on.
Daily Prayer for Tongue Control
And so I think we need to be smart enough to really start asking God to help us every day of my life, every day, I ask God to help me with my mouth. Every single day, I ask God to help me discipline my mouth. Every day. Every day, every day, every day. You know why? Nobody can control their tongue if God doesn't help them. Nobody can do that. So how many of you think maybe you might need this tonight? I don't want to make sure I got the right group, you know? I need it, and I've preached on the tongue many, many, many, many, many times.
James chapter 3, verses 1 through 10, and I'll make some comments as we go. Not many of you should become teachers, self-constituted censors and reprovers of other my brethren, for you know that we teachers will be judged by a higher standard and with greater severity than other people. Thus, we assume the greater accountability and the more condemnation. Now, I take that seriously because I'm a Bible teacher, but to be honest, I think we all need to take it seriously because if you're a parent, you're teaching your children. If you're maybe the only Christian where you work, you're actually teaching other people without even knowing that you're doing it.
Lessons from Criticizing Other Teachers
But I've had a couple of occasions in my life, thankfully they've been a few years back, where I said some things about some other Bible teachers that weren't very good things. And, I mean, I didn't think that much about it, but I said something about this one guy that he just, he couldn't stay on track, and he just went all over the place with his teaching. And, you know, then I said something else about somebody else that I didn't think their teaching was very anointed. And these were two different occasions, and both times God very, very seriously dealt with me.
And I'll just tell you about the first situation and what happened. I went through a time in my ministry where I just felt like I wasn't anointed anymore. And, you know, I don't do anything real fancy, so if I don't have God's anointing up here, I'm in big trouble because I talk for hours and hours and hours. And so it's got to have something coming through it besides just me or people are not going to listen. And so I heavily, heavily depend on God's anointing. And I'm not even sure, you know, that all of you even know what that is when I say the anointing, but let me just simplify it by saying it is the presence and the power of God in and upon our lives.
The Anointing and Mistreating Others
The anointing is very, very important. And as I said, I think this morning, one of the ways that we can really hurt the anointing on our life is by mistreating other people. And one of the ways that we can increase the anointing on our life is by really being good to people and walking in love. Because the anointing is kind of like one way of God showing His favor over your life. When you're anointed, when God gives you favor, doors will open for you that will just absolutely amaze you. People will do things for you and it won't even make any sense why they're doing those things for you. So we need to value, really value, the anointing of God.
So you see, when I'm up here, what I'm doing is not, it's not the least bit hard for me. Because I'm anointed to do it. So if it gets hard, then I start getting concerned. I always say, if I'm watching the clock to see how long I have to keep listening to myself, then I know that I'm in serious trouble. And I don't, I don't normally struggle for what to say. I've usually got more to say than, you know, than what I have time to say. And so I went through this period of time where I just felt like I didn't have God's anointing on me for my teaching.
God's Correction Through a Husband
And we would go home from a meeting and I would tell Dave, I just thought that was terrible. And he'd say, oh no, it was a really, it was a really good message. And I'm like, I just, man, I had a hard time preaching. Like, well, you sure couldn't tell it. Well, that happened like three weeks in a row. And finally, I just said, I just cannot take this anymore. Something is wrong and I need to find out what it is. And so the next day, Dave came to me and he said, I was praying for you and I think God showed me what the problem is.
Well, I'd like to say that I had a sweet, submissive attitude and could hardly wait. That I could hardly wait to hear what he was going to say. But right away, I got this. Come on. Oh yeah, you think you know what my problem is. Well, I could tell you a few things too, I'm thinking. And, uh, I said, well, what do you think it is? And he said, well, he said, you know, the other night when, when we were talking about so-and-so and you said such-and-such about, you know, and he named the pastor. And I said, yeah. And he said, well, I think that that's what your problem's connected to. I don't think God wants you doing that.
Greater Accountability for Teachers
And so right away, I said, well, you said the same thing. You know, we don't take help very easy, do we? Well, you said the same thing. He said, I'm not a teacher and I'm not the one having the problem. And I'm kind of thinking, well, why aren't you having a problem? Why am I the only one having a problem? Well, it tells us right here in this verse that those of us that are teachers have to assume a greater responsibility. And I'll tell you, even me teaching you this tonight borders on being dangerous for me because now I have to really come up even higher one more time in making sure that I get all the help that I can from God and that I'm very careful with my words.
Let me tell you something. Don't ever tell your kids to do something that you're not doing. Let me say it one more time. Don't tell your children to do something that you're not doing. We don't want to just say things. We want to show people how to live. So, I kind of learned from that the importance that God thought it was very important for me to keep my words right. Wouldn't it be ridiculous if I stood up here and tried to preach the gospel under an anointing and then in my regular everyday life I was just saying all kinds of ridiculous things about other people and gossiping and being negative and critical and all those kinds of things. You see, we've got to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.
Controlling the Tongue Controls Everything
Verse 2, For we all often stumble and fall and we offend in many things. And if anyone does not offend in speech, never says the wrong things, he is a fully developed character and a perfect man, able to control his whole body and to curb his entire nature. Wow. So, he's saying if we can ever get to the point where we can control our mouth, we can control everything else in our life. Amen? Probably if we could control what comes out of our mouth, we could better control what we put into it. Well, thank you that somebody got the crowd excited and stirred up. You know, we're always on so many diets, always being concerned about what's going into our mouth and we diet and we diet. I think maybe we need to have a diet of what comes out of our mouth. How about fasting our words for a period of time? Amen?
So, verse 3, If we set bits in the horse's mouths to make them obey us, we can turn their whole bodies about. Now, let's think about this. A large horse weighs about 2,200 pounds. And they can be controlled by a little tiny piece of metal in their mouth. No wonder the apostle is telling us that we can control what happens in a lot of our life just by simply bridling our tongue. We read this morning in James 1,26 that true religion is to bridle your tongue. And I said, we can learn a lot about ourselves by just listening to ourselves.
Small Member, Huge Impact
Likewise, look at the ships. Though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the helmsman determines. Now, this is not the case with every single one, but a large ocean liner weighs approximately 220,000 tons. And the direction of that ship is controlled by a rudder and one man or woman who's the helmsman of that ship. Now, he's given us these examples to say, look, although the tongue is a little tiny member, very tiny member, it has a tremendous effect on our lives.
And I can tell you, if you can receive the grace of God to change how you talk, and if I can receive the grace of God to change how I talk, it will change our lives. And it actually begins to even change and affect our circumstances. Be very careful how you talk about your problems. Be very careful how you talk when you're going through trials and tribulations. Be very careful about saying negative things about yourself. Do not say negative things about your future. Don't say things like, I'll never have anything. Well, there's gonna be a layoff. I'll probably be the one that gets laid off. Nothing good ever happens to me.
Careful Speech in Difficult Times
Let's use a little bit of common sense and really begin to believe what the Bible says. And I'll be honest with you, I've been studying this stuff for 40 years. God started giving me a revelation about the power of words before I ever had heard anybody teach a message on it through my study at home. And I still, still believe that I don't fully get it. How powerful our words are. And I don't care if you've heard this five million times, it will help you to be here tonight because every time we hear this over and over and over again, at least it helps us to be careful for maybe a few days. Amen. And then maybe God will come along and give us another lesson.
Isn't it amazing that with words we can change somebody's day? Think about what power you have just in your mouth. You can lift somebody up. I mean, I've said things to people, just little things. And had them say, you made by day. Well, that's pretty amazing when you think about it. But then we can also pretty much ruin somebody's day by saying the wrong things to them. Listen, I want God to use my mouth. I don't want the devil to use it.
The Tongue as Fire and Poison
Even so, the tongue is a little member and it can boast of great things. See how much wood or how great a forest, a tiny spark, can set ablaze. Now, you know, we're pretty familiar with forest fires and millions of acres of forest can be destroyed and burned up along with all kinds of homes and very often it starts from one little spark, one little match that somebody throws in that forest or one little spark from a fire and it can burn up a whole entire forest. I don't think we realize sometimes the problems that we cause with our mouths.
Let's think about this for a minute. The tongue is often used to dishonor God and has been used to injure our fellow man. It is at the bottom of most strife in the church. I don't know if you know what strife is. It's bickering, arguing, heated disagreement, an angry undercurrent. How can we expect to have God's anointing in our churches if we're going to be part of gossiping about everything that's going on? I mean, if you really don't like where you're at and you're that unhappy, then you probably ought to go somewhere else and not just stay there and create problems.
Consequences of Uncontrolled Speech
It's the bottom of most strife in the world. Relationships end because of the tongue. Jobs are lost because of the tongue. Opportunities are lost because of the tongue. And yet it's one of the tiniest organs in our body. It'll be very wise for us to consider everything that James is saying tonight about the tongue. Verse 6, the tongue is a fire, a world of wickedness set among our members, contaminating and depraving the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of birth. So, the tongue can just get a lot of stuff started, good or bad, being itself ignited by hell.
For every kind of beast and bird or reptile and sea animal can be tamed and has been tamed by human genius or by nature. But the human tongue can be tamed by no man. It is a restless, undisciplined, irreconcilable evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father and with it we curse men who are made in God's likeness and one more verse out of the mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brethren, ought not to be so.
Daily Scriptures for Mouth Guarding
Now, there's two scriptures that I pray pretty much every day. I confess these scriptures and I pray them and I'm going to share them with you and encourage you to start doing the same thing. The first one is Psalm 141:3. King David prayed this, said, Set a guard, O Lord, before my mouth. Keep watch at the door of my lips. So I just simply say, God, put a watch over my mouth lest I sin against you with my tongue because I know if you don't help me I won't get very far into this day and I'll say things that I shouldn't say. Somebody say amen or oh me or something.
And Psalm 19:14. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my firm impenetrable rock and my redeemer. Now, I don't think that we should just try to stop saying wrong things. I think to be honest we need to focus more on saying right things because if you focus on the good the evil won't find any place to get into your life.
Replacing Negativity with Positive Confessions
I think all too often we hear a message like this and we only focus on the negative well I'm gonna I'm gonna try not to do this and I'm gonna try not to do that then I'm gonna try not to do this. But to be honest the best way to not say wrong things is to just keep your mouth full of positive things. Maybe you've heard me share this before but way back probably probably 39 years ago when I first started studying the word which has been about 40 years ago I had so many problems in my life and God began to deal with me apart from teaching I was hearing he began to deal with me about the fact that I was just very negative I had had a very negative childhood I grew up around really negative people and it was just a learned behavior for me I just kind of had the attitude well if you don't expect anything good to happen then you won't be disappointed when it doesn't.
How many of you grew up in a negative atmosphere where you just heard a lot of negative talk and complaining and murmuring all the time? So, I understand what it's like to get from where you were to where you're going to be. I mean, people that had parents that were positive and edified them and encouraged them and built them up and said good things to them, you have no idea what a blessing that is in your life. And you should thank them every day that they took the trouble to make you feel good about yourself. Amen?
From Negative to Faith-Filled Speech
And, but I was a very negative person and God began to deal with me about not being so negative. So, several months went by and I didn't see any big changes in my life. I still was having a lot of problems and so I went to the Lord complaining that he wasn't moving fast enough. That I thought I was doing my part and he wasn't coming through with his end of the deal. And so, I'm like, well my God, I've been really trying for a long time now to be, not to be so negative. I'm not saying negative things and nothing has changed in my circumstances.
And the next thing that came in my heart is, well, you've stopped being negative, but you haven't started saying anything positive yet. So, you see, it's not so much about just not doing the wrong thing, but it's replacing it with the right thing. And so, I don't even know how I knew to do this, but I made a list of confessions. There were 65 of them and they're actually found in a book that I wrote on the power of words. And they were all things I could back up with scripture. I took the time to make sure that I had a scripture.
Agreeing with God's Word Daily
Because I'm not teaching just to, you know, what they refer to as the name it, claim it gospel. I don't think you can be a millionaire just because you walk around saying, I'm a millionaire, I'm a millionaire, I'm a millionaire. You know, that gets into just goofy stuff that doesn't even make any sense. But we certainly can have what God says we can have if we will come into agreement with God. Do you believe that? We can have what God says we can have if we will come into agreement with God. How can two walk together unless they be agreed? We can't have a good walk with God if we're constantly disagreeing with His Word and His promises.
So I don't go around and say things like, I'll never have enough money. I say, my God meets all of my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Amen? I don't say, well, the flu is going around. I'll probably get it. I say, I am healed by the stripes of Jesus, and He protects me from sickness and disease. I'll be honest, if we stuck a tape recorder on us, I don't even need to finish that statement, do I? You know exactly where it's headed. Because we just get so used to just... Half the time, we don't even know what we're saying.
Words as Containers of Power
And if we even took one day and took the time to go back and re-listen to it, we would go, well, no wonder I got a mess in my life. I'm so worried about my kids. I'm afraid they're going to get on drugs. I'm afraid my daughter's going to get pregnant. I'm afraid, I'm afraid, I'm afraid. We don't need to be saying stuff like that. That is exactly the kind of stuff the enemy is putting in our minds, and He wants us to speak it out of our mouth so He can take it and do something with it. You know why? Words are containers for power. God created the earth with words. With words. So words have a lot of power in them.
So I made this list of confessions, and when I started confessing these things twice a day, not one thing that I was saying was a reality in my life. Not one. And today, every single one of them is a fact and a reality in my life. Every single solitary one of them. My husband has a list of confessions that he makes. If we'll begin to say what God says, we will get more supernatural help in our lives than what we can even imagine. So don't just stop saying the wrong thing. Start saying the right thing.