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Oct 14, 2018

Loving Words

Passage: James 3:1-12

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: James

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: gossip, grace, heart, slander, words

“Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words will never hurt me break my heart.” One of the uniquenesses of being God-Image-Bearers is the ability to speak; to speak life about and into others or to speak death. Jesus, as The Word of God, has come to ReCreate us back into his image and Redeem our word, enabling us to become his words to a hurting world.

Order of Worship

Prelude: Brian Regan

Call To Worship: 1 Corinthians 13:1-2,4-6,11,13 ESV

LEADER: 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

ALL: 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

LEADER: 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

ALL: 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Reading: Proverbs 15:2,7;19:1 & Psalm 19:14 ESV

ALL: 2 The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.

LEADER: 1 Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.

ALL: 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Songs:

Reading & Prayer: Psalm 34 ESV & The Lord’s Prayer

LEADER: 2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad.

ALL: 3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!

LEADER: 4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.

ALL: 8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

ALL: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

For Thine is the Kingdom

and the power and the glory

forever and ever Amen.

Sermon Title: Loving Words

Central Text: James 3:1-12 ESV

1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

Illustrations: 

Response: The Peace Prayer (by St. Francis of Assisi)

ALL: Lord, make us an instrument of Thy peace;

LEADER: Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is error, truth;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

Grant that we may not so much seek

To be consoled, as to console;

To be understood, as to understand;

To withhold, as to forgive

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

And it is in dying that

we are born to eternal life. Amen.   

Benediction: Ephesians 4:29,31-32 ESV

ALL: 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

LEADER: 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

ALL: 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Related Scriptures:

Isaiah 6:1-8

Matthew 12:33-37 ESV

Luke 6:45

Romans 12:1-2

Media:

10.14.18 Media

Discussion Questions:

  1. HOW and WHY do we communicate with different force and heart through these different modes:
    1. Face to face
    2. Social media
    3. Text
    4. Behind their backs
    5. In my own head
    6. Silence
  2. How is it that I use my words in an effort to create my own good record?
  3. When I am tearing somebody else down (through any of these previous modes) what am I saying about:
    1. The other person
    2. God
    3. Myself
    4. The Power of my Words
  4. WHY are words so powerful?
    1. Go back to Genesis 1 with how God made all of creation…
    2. and to John 1 with Jesus being The Word of God.
  5. James isn’t just trying to get us to control what we say but giving us a powerful revealer of what we TRULY believe.
    1. WHERE do words come from (see 3:12)?
    2. What is the APPLICATION James is getting to? (hint, it’s not just to say nice things and not say bad things)
  6. How might hearing the gospel (a good word) daily spoken to our own hearts, free and compel us to do the same for others?

Quotes:

  • “Consider that the clergy are men of lie passions with yourselves: and though we should even hear a person teaching others to do, what he has not learned himself; yet, that is no sufficient reason for rejecting his doctrine: for ministers speak not in their own, but Christ's name.” - George Whitefield
  • Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. - Benjamin Franklin
  • “Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile--Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples, and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end." - The Screwtape Letters (C.S. Lewis)
  • Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds. - Elie Wiesel
  • Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. They make other people good-natured. They also produce their own image on men’s souls, and a beautiful image it is. - Blaise Pascal

Books / Articles

Resisting Gossip by Matthew Mitchell

How to Live the Gospel by Scott Sauls

Sermons / Talks:

Wisdom for Your Words by Jeff Vanderstelt

James

Every Word Requires Wisdom by Patrick Lafferty

Proverbs Series

Words We Speak by Brian Land

Proverbs Series

Words and Their Power by Bijan Mirtolooi

James 3:1-12