How you doing today?So good to have you with us this morning.I want to just quick highlight, if you've not been a part of our Biblical Citizenship class yet, you can join.Come this Saturday morning.This Saturday we're talking about the faith of our founders.Like the biblical heritage of our nation.And so if you've never known that stuff.If you've wondered, there's all kinds of amazing things that we're going to talk about on Saturday morning about that.It'll be helpful to you.I know it.It'll be helpful as you kind of interact with the world around us.And so if you've not yet been there, you're like, well, I didn't go to the first one.Okay, great.Come to this one.And so it'll be good.And so make sure that you make plans for that.There are details about that in your bulletins and online as well if you don't know the details.And if I told the details, I'd probably get it wrong right now because that's not my thing.But anyway.So you need to be there.It'll be a wonderful blessing, I know, to you and everybody around you.But this morning, if you would turn your Bibles to James chapter 4.And today as you turn this morning, we're just going to give, I'm going to give a little survey today.And it's real simple.Don't worry.It's not complicated at all.If you find this acceptable, raise your hand.If you find it unacceptable, I'll ask that you raise your hand there as well.And so is it acceptable?Is it acceptable?And this first one is in.In honor of the way that things are right now in our city, we have a big problem with construction.Can I get a witness this morning, right?I mean, let's be honest this morning.There's a lot of problems with that.If you go on any of the Facebook posts in our area, like that's the number one issue.And it's for good reason.It's a big deal.And so if you find it unacceptable for somebody to pop in at the last minute in the open lane when there's construction, right?You're like, you're there.You're doing your due diligence.You're being a good soldier,
right?You're in line.And somebody pulls in last minute.They zip by you.They pull in.If that is acceptable, raise your hands.Okay.All right.There we go.If that is unacceptable, raise your hand.Okay.There we go.Now we know who the, you know, if you've ever wanted to say zipper merge, right?But anyway, let's just console ourselves, right?Let's, you know, come on, man.Anyway, you know, it'll be good in a few months.You know?In October, they say it'll be all done.And thank God, it'll be behind us.But it'll be good then.But we've got to wait for a little bit.But anyway, next one.Is it acceptable to arrive late to a movie?So arrive after, and by late, I mean after the previews.If that's acceptable, raise your hand if that's acceptable.Okay.How many of you would say that's unacceptable?You should never, okay, lots more hands there.Yeah.You're like, man, if the little pop, you know, cup is dancing with the,with the popcorn, right?That's too late, right?Right?That's what you might say.Okay.Is it acceptable to pass, to like speed through a yellow light?If that's acceptable, raise your hand.Okay.If it's unacceptable, raise your hand.Like, man, no way.That should never happen.Okay.I see a lot of people are not voting.And I know why.Because you're afraid of your spouse.I know it.Anyway.This last one is for my wife.This is in honor of my wife, Lisa.I love her.But I agree with her on a lot of things.This one.This one, we are vehemently opposed.Okay.I'll just be honest with you.This is, this is tension in our house.Is it acceptable to have pineapple on pizza?If you think it is, raise your hands.See, my hand is in my pocket.I want you to know that because you are all wrong.Is it unacceptable?Is it unacceptable?Yes.You are all correct.Wow.There's more people that think it's okay.Man, you people are wrong.Pineapple's good.But it's not, not on pizza, people.Come on.It's like two, two different things.But anyway.that, that literally is about the only thing in our house we, we fight
on.And, and Christmas.When it starts.But anyway.Yeah, I know it has already started.Anyway.All right.Let's get this back on the track here this morning.But anyway.Man, in our study of James, James this morning is leading us to a very important place.And our text this morning is James chapter 4 verses.11 through 12.Now, over the course of the next few weeks, actually, we're going to walk through somethings that this is a, this is kind of a mini-series within a series.You know our series right now is Faith That Works.We're talking about James and how faith does something, right?And kind of within this, we're going to kind of focus in on a little mini-series calledAcceptable Sins.And we're going to talk about some things that, truthfully, that God calls as sin, butyet culture.Has somewhat made acceptable.And that includes even people within the church body.And so today, this morning, we're going to jump in.And I'll be honest with you.You might, if you've not yet been offended by James, in the next few weeks, you mightbe, right?And just we'll be honest this morning.But that's not a bad thing.It's a good thing sometimes to have the word of God rub up against you.Amen?And so this morning, we're going to begin this.But as we begin, let's define what acceptable means.Now, acceptable is, this is from the Macmillan Dictionary.It's considered by most to be reasonable.And that means that if it says by most, that means that there's some room for disagreementson that, right?I mean, again, most people should say that should say pineapple does not belong on pizza,right?But you can be wrong.And so, right?So that would be acceptable.I don't know why you'd want to, but whatever.But anyway, so this also...So something generally considered to be allowable.So this is what the word acceptable means.But when there's only one position that God gives, right?When God gives a position, when God gives a command, or when God gives a instruction,there is just one position that's acceptable.And
that's His.And that's especially important to understand that when our way and when God's way, whenthey're not exactly correct.We always defer to God.Amen?That's how this works.And that is a life-giving truth.So when God takes time to put something in the word, it's massively important for usto say, this is what my position is, not whatever I feel.And so let's go to the text this morning, James chapter 4, verse 11, where it says this.Do not...Everyone say, do not.DoDo not speak evil against one another.Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.Now, in my Bible, there's a footnote here that adds sisters.So if you ladies are like, well, that's not for me.No, that's not the case, right?You know, this is for all of us, right?Brothers and sisters, okay?Because the one who speaks against, everyone say against.Against a brother or sister, or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judgesthe law.That is very interesting.Isn't it?How, how, if you speak against a brother or sister, man, it just goes right there, whichjust, boom, hits on the law.You speak against them, you speak against the law.But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but you are a judge.This is a interesting, and in many cases, could be a confusing passage.Well, if that's what you're thinking this morning, glad that you're here.We're going to walk through this, this morning in detail.There is only one lawgiver and judge.He was able to save and to destroy.Here's a hint.Hence, that's not me.Nor is it you, right?But who are you to judge your neighbor?Man, a lot of people love this passage, but they love it for reasons that I think thatmaybe not completely accurate this morning.So we're going to, we're going to jump into this, what this means, because it gives acrystal clear command.And what this crystal clear command does is it reflects on, it speaks to an acceptablesin.That when we speak poorly about others, and yet we get ourselves off the hook, and wedon't see what this is,
like speaking evil against one another, we don't understand thisfrom God's terms.And this passage could not be clear, right?It says, do not speak evil against one another.Now, I could just say, you know what?That's it.That's so clear.That's so great.That's so good.We're done, right?I could drop the mic, and I could walk off, and we could be done this morning.But you're like, yeah, it's a great idea, right?But no.No.We're going to go a little.We're going to go a little deeper today, because I think it's valuable for us to godeeper, because this really does go pretty deep this morning.It says, do not.Now, in English, that is a clear, clear thing, right?Very clear.When you look at the Greek language, which this was written, by the way, in Greek, notEnglish.It was written in Greek.It wasn't even written in King James English, right?It was written in the Greek language.We have an important detail to consider here in how this passage is arranged to the firstyears.Now, in the Greek language, which is the first years, we have an important detail to considerhere in the Greek language, which, again, this was written in, what Greek writers wouldsometimes do is they would flip-flop words on purpose where they would not make senseto prove a point, to drive home a point.So if you look at this passage in the original language, it flip-flops some words to makeit feel purposely out of place, which is quite interesting.Again, in the first, in the original Greek language, the first word of this sentenceis the word not.So in other words, it reads like this.It says, not do speak evil.Not do speak evil.Now, that's not the writings of a caveman, right?That's not, not do speak, no, that's not what he's trying to say here.What he's trying to do is he's trying to get your attention with a word play that grabsyour attention to say, hey, you need to listen up.Not do speak evil.In other words, never, ever, ever, ever do speak evil.Of who?A brother or sister in Christ.Now, I want you to do a
little assessment this morning in how we speak of or how wespeak about others.Sometimes, let's be honest this morning, sometimes we have spoken evil of a brother or sisterin Christ, and we have given ourselves a pass on that, haven't we?We've said, yeah, but, bless their hearts, they, right?You can say whatever you want as long as bless your heart, right?We know that.So, oh, bless his heart.He's the stinkiest guy I've ever met, right?Bless his heart.He's, he's a terrible person.Bless his heart.He can't do this, or whatever.See, or, oh, it was a prayer request.It's okay.I can do that because I'm asking people to pray for them, right?But, James reminds us that there is never a reason for this.Ever.And he does this by, again, using this, this, this, this word picture that says, not dospeak evil against one another, brothers and sisters, never, ever, ever, ever, ever, never,ever.Now, I want to unpack this text today by asking two questions, and we'll finish with a statementthis morning.And the first question is this, what does it mean to speak evil against one another?Because at first glance, that, that, again, is quite clear.It's quite, quite, quite easy to understand.What I did today, what I did is I studied this.I broke this, this, this passive, this phrase down into two smaller phrases.So, the first one, the first phrase we'll talk about is speak evil against.This phrase, which, of course, is three words in English, is actually one word in the Greeklanguage.It's the word kataleo.And it's oftentimes translated in English.It's translated in English as the word slander.So, it's usually slander, but here, interestingly, it's not translated as slander.In fact, it's translated a little bit differently, as we saw earlier.It's not translated as slander, but this is somewhat of the, the idea.But the word kataleo is also two words mashed together as one.Now, we do this in English, too, right?We take two words and mash them together.So, it's not different.I don't know how we
do this, but, but the two words are, are interesting.The first word, kata, is to oppose or to be against with an attack.So, it's not just like, I oppose this person, right?It's not just like, well, I, we, this person and I, we disagree.We're not on the same page.No, no, no.It's, it's to oppose with an attack.And so, so, the kata is to oppose with an attack.And the laleo is the word.So, it means to, like, in other words, it means to weaponize words.To weaponize our words.To make our words, on purpose, into a weapon.That's this kind of the idea here that this is.Now, growing up in a household where I had a brother who was just a little younger than me.It's funny.I use this, use illustration about him.It speaks to me.It speaks to me.I'll do it again today.When you have brothers in your household, there's all kinds of opportunities for you to have some good illustrations as a pastor, right?And so, so, when, when you're growing up, anything can become a weapon, right?Like, if you have boys, you know that's true, right?Anything.When you're fighting, like, just about anything.Plates, napkins, forks, right?Balls, whatever there might be could be a weapon.So, as I was kind of working this out this week, I thought, well, what in my office could be a weapon?Well, this, this.Coffee cup, right?This could be a weapon.If you come into my office with ill intent, this is right there at my, at my hands.I could grab it, and I could go, boom, right?And I could throw this.I'd probably miss, but, you know, whatever.I could try.I could throw this in this coffee cup, which is, of course, an innocent item.I drink coffee from this.But this instantly becomes a weapon because I made it so, right?Anything can be a weapon.This, this, this red car.I have this in my office.It's a little dusty right now, but it's, it's there.This, this car could be a weapon.I could break off, if I wanted to, I could break off this hood.I could say, I'm breaking the hood off, and I could just slash or
whatever.Like, wow, this guy is sick, but whatever.You get the point this morning, you know?Like, like, this car, it's an innocent toy.It's a, it's a model.It's a, it's a cool car I've got in my, in my, my, in my car.I've got this in my, in my office, but it could become a weapon.If I wanted it, I wanted it to be.I've got some, in my office, I've, I've got a golf ball and a putting green.And so, I sometimes use that to think.I, I don't do well when it's quiet, so I've got to have something to do.And so, I'll, I'll, I'll putt sometimes to think.And so, this golf ball could be a weapon, right?Of course, you're like, well, that would make sense.And, you know, if you say the wrong thing, I could throw this at you.And if I was a good enough aim, I could, you'd have a, a, a golf ball.ball-sized dent in your head, right? Or whatever. You know, lastly, this thing could be a weaponas well. You're like, what in the world is that? This is a pig from famous days. And so I got thiswhen I was in high school, in college. I got it legally, by the way. Don't get any ideas. I got itlegally. I was eating some friends there one time. We were number one. I said, I should be number one.And so I said, I want that. I asked the manager. He said, sure, take it. Like, really? So it'slegal, right? But this could be a great weapon. It could be a great weapon in my hands, right?It's right there in my office, right at my grab. If you come in with ill intentions or illreasons, I could make this a weapon. But all it really is, is it is a standard. It's a littlething. It's a little item that you would get at a restaurant to mark your place. But it could beeasily be made intoaweapon. My point is that just about anything could be weaponized if you needed it to be orif you wanted it to be. Think about how this applies here today. Why would I want to weaponizethis pig? I like the pig, right? It's kind of cool. Why in the world would I want to weaponizethis? Well, there's a couple reasons why I might. I
might be defending myself. And it might be real.It might be good. I might need to do that. If you come in and you want to steal something outof my office, you want to steal my car, you know, no. I mean, it might be a legitimate reason,but it also could be very illegitimate too, couldn't it? And oftentimes, more often than not,that's actually why we weaponize things like this. It's to defend ourselves. Growing up with abrother, right? When we weaponize things in the house, it wasn't because we're trying to besoldiers of the cross. We're trying to be soldiers of my own personal selfish ambition, right?It's not because I want to be a good, be a blessing. It's because I want to defend my ownselfishness or wanted to get even or didn't like you and I wanted to hurt you or make myself lookbetter. I could weaponize something to make myself look better. I could be covering my tracks. I mean,you get the point this morning and none of it is good, is it? See, that's the point being made herethis morning.Never weaponize your word because it's an action that is steeped in the sinof selfishness. I'll bet you never thought of it that way before because truthfully,I really hadn't a lot in my life either. Thought of this passage in that way thatthe reason for this is not just because it's a bad thing to speak bad about other people, right?Although it is, without question. But the reason and the purpose goes much deeper than justit's not a good idea. It's not a good idea. It's not a good idea. It's not a good idea.The reason and purpose is because it's an action that is steeped in the sin of selfishness. So hesays here, he says, he says, never speak evil against one another. That's the next phrase there,which is also interesting. If you look at the word in Greek, it's used 40 times by Jesus, by Peter,by Paul, by Mark, and then here in James as well. It's used exclusively to describe how we relate toone another. And so it's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good
idea. It's a goodidea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a goodSo what James is driving home, there's never an acceptable time to speak about a brother orsister in Christ to weaponize your words publicly or privately, whether you know them or not in away that's harmful to them. And you, the speaker, are the one who owns the words. That's reallyimportant to understand. Because sometimes you look at these moments and say, well, if they,they wouldn't have said,they said, I would have been triggered and I wouldn't have done it. It's actually their faultand not my fault. It's what they did, not what I did. See, he says, never, ever, ever, never, do,never do speak evil against your brothers or sisters in Christ. Don't weaponize your wordsagainst them because we own the effect of our words and we own the reality that if they becomeweapons, that's not on them, that's on us. And the word of God calls this sin. Now, if you think,well, I mean, really, is it really that strong? Is it really that big of a deal? Is it really?Yes, in fact, it is. Scripture oftentimes talks about this in this way. Here's one place,Ephesians 4, verse 29 says, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths.Now, the word unwholesome talk is actually a word connected to the word rotten. So what happens,what happens if you eat rotten food? What happens if you, like, you get a steak, right, and thatsteak was probably about five or six days past its due date, and you get that thing out, you grillit on the grill, I'm going to fix it, I'm going to try to make it better, I'm going to put the spiceson it, you eat that thing, what's going to happen? It's not good, it's rotten, right? It's going toAnd what happens if you take that same piece of meat and feed it to somebody else on purpose?See, what you've done is you're weaponizing steak. How dare you? But no, you are causingharm to somebody else by what you feed them. See, that's what this
is talking about here. Don't letany unwholesome talk, don't let any rotten talk come out of your mouths, because your talk is,when it being, when it being rotten, has an effect not only on you, but on others,only. Everyone say only. Only. Think about that again. Only. But only. Only. What is helpfulfor building others up according to their needs, that they may benefit those who listen.What's interesting in these passages is there really aren't a bunch of, like, you know,caveats or, or, you know, well, if this happened, no, no, no, that's just,it's just across the board, straight up. This is how this, this works. No word you should,you say should be harmful to a brother or sister, and friend, you own what you speak.Our words instead should be gifts, carrying God's grace, nourishing, as it says, nourishing withGod's grace into the lives of others by what? By building them up. So when this talks about here,why is this such a, a big deal? Why is it, what does it mean? That's what it means. And thequestion we come to next is, why is it such a big deal? Why is it such a big deal? Why is it,why is speaking evil against one another actually sin? Because it doesn't feel like it should be sin.It doesn't feel like this is really that strong of a, of a language. In fact, it feels like weknow it's bad. We know we shouldn't do it. We know it's not a good idea. But if the Bible calls thissin, that's a different level than just a bad idea. Why, in fact, is this a sin? First of all,well, three reasons. Number one, the Bible says it's sin. And the truth is, is that if the Biblesays it's sin, it's not a good idea. It's not a good idea. It's not a good idea. It's not a good idea.That should be enough, right? That should be all we need. You know, we say sometimes that if the,if the Word of God says it, I believe it, and that settles it, right? I mean, it just should beenough for us to say, if that's what God says, that's all. And that's not, may, well, that maynot feel life-giving. In
fact, it is. There's nothing more life-giving in the world than comingto an agreement and an understanding that when God's Word says this, and my experience says this,God's Word takes precedence, always, 150% of the time. Amen? That's a life-giving thing.But again, in real life, sometimes we find ourselves in a position where God's Word saysone thing, my experience says another, and in the middle, I compromise, and I give myself reasonsand outs to say this is not really what it says, when in fact, it does. Why is it sin? Why is itimportant? I don't understand.Second reason, and this is really helpful today, I think, that harsh words come from a judgmentalheart. And much of James has been helping us to understand. The point of James, in so many ways,is to help us to grasp and understand, this is what happens. This is what comes up. This is whattakes place when a heart is good or a heart is evil. And so, what James is helping us to understandhere is that when there is a judgmental heart, there is sin there. And when there is a judgmentalheart, there is sin there. Because a judgmental heart is a breeding ground for sin and all kinds ofspiritual problems. So, as a result, these words need to be dealt with and seen as such. Jesus saysa lot about this stuff, Matthew 15, 18. He says, but the things that come out of a person's mouthdefile them. Right? The things that come out of their mouth from the heart, these defile them,for out of the heart come evil thoughts.So, Jesus' evil or weaponized words reveal a heart that's not only judging incorrectly,but a heart that is harmed, a heart that is in a bad position. And friend, words like thisreveal a condition in the heart of the speaker. Not in the heart of the person receiving the words,reveals in the heart of the speaker, and it says, I condemn you. As a speaker, that's a problem.And the problem is, how do you condemn yourself? How do you condemn yourself? How do you condemn yourself?The problem is not yours. The problem is
mine. When I condemn you about something, that's a bigproblem. Look what Jesus also said about this, Matthew 7. He said in Matthew 7, verses 1 through 2,one of the most quoted, most misused verses that he ever said, do not judge. He says, or you toowill be judged. From the same way you judge others, you'll be judged. And with the same measure youuse, it will be measured unto you. I'm not going to get into judgment and all that kind of stuffthis morning. That's not the point and purpose or the place for this message. I could,we'd get off in a tangent trustee this morning. But Jesus is not saying that we don't use goodjudgment in our relationships. He's not demanding that we blindly roll over when someone elseoffends us. He's not telling us just to let that other person be, like, make you their doormat. No,he's not commanding us to let sin run free and unchallenged. What he's doing is he's demandingwe don't condemn them, but speak with others as God treats us.With grace. And let the judging stay on God's, God's way, not on our hearts. Because if we docondemn, it says, our text shows that we'll be judged in the same manner, we'll be judged,if we judge without grace, we'll be judged in the same manner without grace. We have a responsibilityto speak into the life of other brothers and sisters in Christ, but never about a brother orsister in a way that's harmful.We weaponize words against them, even if it's a prayer request.Hey, I gotta pray for Bob. Did you know what Bob did? Man, Bob, I saw him last week, he was drunk,he was passed out, and he had a stack of losing lotto tickets, man. I mean, I'm concerned aboutBob. Let's pray for Bob, right? Let's, let's, he's throwing his life away. And all the world,all the world, we're weaponizing our words. And we're, we're casting in a positive,godly light. But the reality is, it's the same thing. I'm better than Bob, right? Bob stinks.So, so let's make ourselves feel better at Bob's expense. Great. Christians, my goodness,can
you smell how stinky that attitude is? That we couch in a position of, of holinessand righteousness. And what James is telling us, what Jesus says over and over again,is you need to think about your words,are you weaponizing your words? And it matters not to the person as much as you're speaking to,it matters to you to own those, that reality. Which brings us to number three, harmful wordsdestroy our witness to a watching world. Again, note in the text, it says, the one who speaksagainst a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law.Think about this this morning. When you start talking to people, you start talking to them,you start talking about your brother or sister in this manner. What you're doing is you're standingin condemnation of the law of God. And if you're like, what in the world are you talking about?Like, that's, what? That, that, that, you know, think about this. The law of God is God's perfectredemption-laden love explained systematically and practically. That's what the law is, right?That's what it does. That's who, that's what it is. And without getting too far into theological weeds,let's look at some, some well-known parts of the law. What does it say? It says,thou shalt not steal, right? Why? Because you shouldn't steal? No, it's because if you lovedthe person you were stealing from, you would never take from them, you would give, right? That's whatlaw, that's what love does. You should never steal because if you loved God, you'd be confident inhis ability to provide for you and find no need to steal. You see how,love is the binder that pulls it together. You should not murder. Why? Because if you lovesomeone, you would never murder them, which of course is obvious, yet people all the timehave reasons to do those things, right? They, they say, well, they did this, or this was this,or that was that. No, if you love someone, you would never murder them. Also, if you love God,you would understand that person is an
image-bearer and a creation of a mostholy God.And so that is left up to him to judge and not to me to judge. You don't murder. Why? Because lovesays, love does. Number three, you shall not lie. Why? Because if you love someone, you'd want themto know the truth and walk in the truth and understand the truth. You get the point thismorning. See, God's law systematically explains how to love God and love others, which Jesussaid also in Matthew 22. He said, real love is done, finished. Real love is done, finished.This happens when we love God and we love others. So when James says, we speak evil of another,we're putting an ax to God's law. And we do it in front of a world that's watching,and it makes them confused. When, when, when they would say, well, you say you love God,you say you, God has, has transformed your life. You say that God has redeemed you. He'scleaned you. He's changed. He's done all these things in your life. And yet that's how youtreat your brother or sister in Christ. See, if that's what God has done, if God's transformedyou, if that's what God's done, but this is how you act, there's a disconnect in how you view andhow you work. And see the, a watching world is seeing this stuff and saying, it doesn't makeany sense. Which is why this passage here talks about when you judge the law, you, when you judgeothers, you judge the law. See, you say the law is not good enough. What God's done is not goodenough. It needs me to speak judgment over the top of God's law. And friend, this is at the heartof Jesus' words in John 13, when he says, a new command I give you, love one another. As I'veloved you, so also you must love one another by this. What's this? This is that love again, right?That by this, when you love one another, everyone will know you're my disciples. And he says itagain, if you love one another.When we love each other, when we speak words of life, words of encouragement, words of grace,we treat each other with grace like God treats us. When
we're honest with each other, when we'recommitted to speak into people's lives and not about people, that's weird. And a watching worldsees what's happening and they take notice when God's love is on display. And friend,that is a play.Of blessing. And now last, the statement, God will have the final say. Again, notice the lastpassage here as I close this morning. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to saveand to destroy. There's only one judge and judgment that matters. And here's a hint,it's not you and it's not me. Let's get practical again as we close it today. As the band comesforward. I want to get practical on what this means.For civil kinds of people. Because if you're sinning, and I say that on purpose because it'strue, if you're sinning by speaking evil against a brother or sister in Christ, know this, God willhave the final say. It's just true. That's what the word tells us. That's what we know is true.Friend, if this is a practice in your life, you are in sin. At the very least, you are being harmedspiritually. There are people around you that you're speaking like this to and you are strugglingspiritually and very, very possibly,in part, you're struggling because you are walking in unmitigated sin and you need to dealwith this. What do you do? Well, Jesus told us what to do in Matthew 5. He says, therefore, if you areoffering your gift at the altar and there is, you remember that a brother or sister has somethingagainst you, leave your gift there at the altar. First, go and be reconciled to them. Then, comeand offer your gift. Friend, you might need to go to someone in this room. As we respond totoday in a few moments, you might need to make a phone call. You might need to make a commitment.Maybe you pull up a pad and paper and say, God, I'm committing today. I'm going to call so-and-so.I'm going to call Bob because I spoke wrong about Bob. Whatever that might be this morning,you need to be reconciled to your brother or sister in Christ
by asking forgiveness. That'swhat some of us might have to do. Number two, you have someone who has spoken evil against you andyou know it. Someone's,said about you, it's terrible and it's awful and it's heartbreaking and it's what you want to pullaway. You want to ply into a closet and you want to run away. You want to say, this is why I hatepeople, right? Because they're always saying stuff about me and I, this is what I want to do. No,no, no, no. That's not what you do. Don't take the bait. Don't return evil with evil.Man, I've learned this in my life that you have to keep a short account when it comes to peoplearound you because you want them to keep a short account on you. Amen? If I want a short accountkept on me and my shortcomings, then I need to do at the very least the same for others as I wouldhave done to me. Find that someplace in scripture. I don't know. Anyway, be generous. Be generouswith grace and forgiveness and follow the plan found in Matthew 18. I won't read it today,but here's what it says.Go to them privately. Say, you wronged me. They may not even know that. If that doesn't work,take one or two along with you and talk about this. And oftentimes, if one doesn't work,then two for sure does. If not that, then take it before the church. And we have, friends,we have elders and leaders and we have things for this to happen. But if there are things in yourlife, if someone has wronged you in some way, Matthew 18,lays out a way to do this in a godly, wonderful, life-giving, grace-filled way. And it's not,it's important that you do what God has called you to do. And lastly, everyone stand with me todayacross this room. If you're not a believer, if you're here today and you say, pastor, I'm not,I don't know Jesus. Heads bowed, eyes closed, please. No one looking around this morning.I'm talking to you today and you don't know Jesus as your savior. You will only know him in one wayand that is as judge.You'll never know his closeness. You'll never know
his mercy. You'll never know his grace.You'll never, you'll never know anything else, but you'll know him as judge. The Bible is clearon that. And you will give an account, you will give an account for everything you've ever said.Think about that for a moment this morning. If that doesn't bring you a little bit oftrembling, then well, check your heart this morning, right? You will give an account foreverything you've done, everything you've said.But when you trust Jesus for your salvation, he forgives and he washes the account, the accountclean. And when God looks at your account, you know all the, there's a long list of, of, of thingsthere. But when you look, when God looks at it, all he sees is Jesus and his blood and his forgivenessis cleansing power. Someone this morning, give God some praise because that's what he has done.We discover that truth.In the Proverbs, in the Psalms, and in Romans, in Hebrews, that God forgives your sins. He forgetsyour sin. And rather than see your wrongness at judgment, he sees Jesus' rightness. That might beyou this morning. You might need to give your life to Jesus. Again, heads bowed, eyes closed.Prayer team, come forward this morning. We're going to pray. I don't always do this, but I'mgoing to do this this morning. If you need Jesus in your life, I won't make you stand out. I'm goingto pray a prayer. We're all going to pray this morning. But if that's what you're going to do,I want to talk to you especially. It's time to give your life to Jesus. Jesus, I give you my life.We pray this prayer with you this morning. Jesus, I give you my life. I give you my heart.I'm sorry for my sin. Forgive me. Clean me. Make me brand new. From this point forward, I'm yours.In Jesus' name, I pray. And this morning, everyone said, amen.Give God some praise for those who gave their hearts to Jesus this morning.Praise Jesus. Again, heads bowed, eyes closed. Speaking evil of someone might feel like anacceptable sin, but friends, as your heads bowed,
as your eyes closed, I assure you it's not.Maybe someone's talked to you in this way, or you have said something else to someone else. I wantto encourage you as the band plays in a moment to make a commitment to God to either go tosomeone, make it right, or to say, God, I'm going to do this when I can, as soon as I can.But God, I want to this morning commit, Lord, to not speak words of death, but Lord, speak words oflife. I'll never forget a time I was a youth pastor. I was in Atlanta, Georgia, leading a teamof young people. Many of them came from homes that were broken and struggling on the west side ofEvansville.It was a difficult place to live and to be, and I had kids in my youth group that were from crackhomes, and they were from all kinds of issues and things, and I brought them to Atlanta, Georgia,the inner city, and we ministered to people, and some of them, they had never heard someone tellthem something positive about them, until one night, we sat around, and for hours, we gave eachother words of life, and I could watch as some of these young people, who again, had all kinds ofreasons, and I could watch as some of these young people, who again, had all kinds of reasons, and Ihad words of death spoken about them. As people spoke words of life over them, tears flowed, andlife change happened, and transformation happened, because friend, that's what God has called you andI to do, not speak words of death, but speak words of life, because in it, there is blessing, and init, there is power, and in it, there is authority, amen? Let's let God minister to us the next fewmoments, and we let this message sink into our hearts.In Jesus' name, Lord, help us, I pray, hallelujah.
on Jul 24, 2024
