James 4 “Faith works when our faith sets our priorities.” RUMC August 26, 2017

“Faith works when our faith sets our priorities.”

RUMC August 26, 2017

How many of you have ever played Monopoly? <<<>>>

Me too. There are three problems with monopoly. It takes forever just to set it up. It takes forever to play and besides that… I never win.

However, Monopoly is one of THE most popular games in the world.

 Did you know there are at least 900 different game variations centered around things like:

• TV shows (I Love Lucy)

• Movies (007/ Pirates of the Caribbean)

• Sports teams … and more

More than 275 million monopoly games have been sold in 111 countries, and 43 languages.

The longest MONOPOLY game in history lasted for 70 straight days.

And if you would like the version that features a 23-carat gold board and diamond-studded dice, it is a bargain at $2 million.

You know how monopoly works. We race around the board trying to get to “GO” to collect our $200, only to discover that we have to do it all over again to get another $200. The lucky ones land on the railroads and park place, everyone else knows where the power is. The winner is declared depending on who has the most stuff, and who can be the first to drive their neighbor to bankruptcy. It’s all about me: my property, my rent, my money, my victory. Me, me, me.

Unfortunately, that sounds kind of familiar doesn’t it? Actually, it sounds like the real world, in which we live. We see it in the relationships between nations, politicians, neighbors, and even (if we are honest) in ourselves.

•           Is my paycheck bigger than yours?

•           I deserve more than him because I work harder, longer, etc.

•           Is my job more important? He gets paid more but he couldn't do my job.

•           Is my house bigger and grander than my neighbors?

•           Is my car/my boat/my motorcycle – more powerful/more classy/more expensive?

•           Are my kids better looking, better athletes, better students than yours?...And on and on and on

 Why do folks do that? Because in the culture’s game of “lifeopoly” winning is measured by having the most stuff, the most power, the most fun, the most fame, and the most fortune. That is how we know we are winning. That is how we know whether or not our lives have had meaning. That is how we measure whether we've done anything worthwhile or if we have wasted our lives.

Unfortunately, the church is part of the world and it has been influenced by the monopoly mentality. That is exactly the picture that James paints in the first part of our reading.

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of Go.”

Is that the way life is supposed to be? NO. Is that the way the church is supposed to be? ABSOLUTELY NOT. That is not the life God envisioned for his people. God created life not to be measured by property, money, power, prestige, or influence.

 "Faithopoly" has a whole different way of winning. Wealth is measured by love and faithfulness. One wins

•           Not by having power we have, but by living faithfully.

•           Not by having influence we have, but by loving extravagantly.

•           Not by having stuff we have, but by having a heart overflowing with generosity.

•           Not how near our opponents are to bankruptcy, but nearly our lives look like Jesus life.

 God envisioned a world where faith works when faith sets our life priorities.

Our priorities should not be set by money, or power, or fame, or friends, or stuff.

Our life’s priorities should be measured by how faithful we are to God, how intimate our prayers are, how honest we can be with God, how trusting we are for God’s future. That is how we know whether we are a success, or whether we have done anything worthwhile. Faith only works when faith sets our life priorities.

 Then James goes on to tell us how to let faith set our priorities: Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

 So Monopoly has chance cards, RIGHT? I thought faithopoly should have GRACE CARDS. I thought I would see what we could learn from the stack of FAITH CARDS in the book of James. I think he has come pretty concrete ideas for letting our faith set our life priorities.

 SUBMIT YOURSELVES TO GOD.

We don’t like the word “submit.” It has some negative connotations. But the Greek word is actually made of two root words. One means under. The other means arrange.  James is saying  arrange your life under God. Not under the worlds rules, not under you own desires, not under the expectations of others… but under God. Arrange your life under God.

The truth is, it might surprise you that pastors struggle with this more than anything else. After all, we are mostly people pleasers. If the people aren’t happy, being a pastor can be miserable. But placing our lives under our people is absolutely the wrong place for us to be.

Faith only works when faith sets our life priorities. Therefore, it is up to each and every one of us, pastors and lay people, to not place our lives under the pleasing other people, or under our own desires, which James says is why we have fights and quarrels. We are to place our lives, not under the pressure of our job, or under the pressures of our friends, or the pressures of the advertisers, of the pressures of the culture. It is the job of each and every Christian to make sure that their life’s priorities are set squarely beneath the throne of the God who created us loves us, saves, us and desires nothing more than our faithfulness.

There is no easy, one size fits all formula for submitting our lives to God. It is a life long journey of listening for God’s voice …and then obeying it. That is pleasing to God, and that’s where we fail sometimes. We hear what God wants in the Bible, or in prayer, or on Sunday morning, but we forget to do it. Remember that James says Faith without works is dead. Faith without listening to and obeying God …is dead. Faith without living to please God… is a dead faith. Sometimes we all do a better job than other times, but we have to know that Faith only works when faith sets our life priority of pleasing God in what we do.

 The second concrete instruction for letting our faith set our life priorities immediately follows upon the first. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” You can use whatever language works for you. I prefer following our baptism vows, to   “resist evil.” Actually, we vow, “to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever form they present themselves.

We have all heard, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”   That is so true in my life. I find if I do nothing to resist evil, or at most take the path of least resistance, or find the easy way out, evil is quick to pounce.

There are plenty of temptations in this life. We are all tempted by one thing or another… actually, if you are like me its more than one thing... We are all tempted. But temptation is not the problem. Temptation is not sin. Temptation is just temptation. We don’t have to resist temptation. We DO have to resist acting on temptation.

Sin is like quick sand. We might just think we’ll stick our toes in, but pretty soon, we are up to our necks in sin.

Evil is just like lays potato chips, no one can east just one… so the trick is to not eat the first one.

 An alcoholic left to their own devices will drink.

A gambler left to their own inclinations will gamble until there is nothing left.

Sin is an addiction just like any other. One day at a time. Frankly it is more like one hour at a time, or even one minute at a time. But if faith is going to set our life priorities we have to resist evil. Faith only works when faith sets our life priority of: resting evil

 Finally, in verse 8 we have the third concrete instruction for letting our faith set our life priorities “Come near to God, and God will come near to you.” I am not sure that those of us who have grown up in Christianity understand how amazing that is. What kind of God do we have who wants to come near to people? What Kind of God do we have who wants to be in relationship with us creatures? What kind of God do we have who even when people didn’t come near to him, came near to us in Jesus Christ… and not only near, but became one of us.

And what kind of God do we have who wants to fill us with God’s Holy transforming Spirit to help us live faithfully? A WONDERFUL KIND OF GOD! That’s what kind. We serve a wonderful God.

How do we come near to God? Worship is a good start, but any of these spiritual practices that I keep harping on will bring you closer to God. Worship, read the Bible, pray, fast, be in a small group, be in a class, serve, give, love… you name it there are probably a hundred ways to come close to God. Chose a couple and do them because Faith only works when faith sets our life priority of:

growing closer and closer to God.

 I set before you the same question as James sets before us at the very end of the chapter. . When you plan for tomorrow, James says, “Who gets the final say; you or God?” When as we live our lives, who gets the last word… you or God. Whoever gets the last word, has set the priority in your life.

Jesus asked this same question

 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”

On what is your life built? Stone or sand? Are you just taking a chance card from the pile… or are you relying on the rock solid grace cards that Jesus bought at the cross.

Faith only works when faith sets our life priorities.

“Faith works when faith guides our words.” James chapter 3 Reinbeck UMC 8/13/17

“Faith works when faith guides our words.”

James chapter 3

Reinbeck UMC 8/13/17

•           What is more destructive than a wildfire?

•           What is more powerful than a nuclear bomb?

•           What has caused more injuries than bathtub slips?

•           What has torn apart churches and countries?

If you guessed war, you were wrong. It is much closer than that.

 In fact, it is much, much closer than you might imagine… it is the human tongue.

•           James says our words are more destructive than a wildfire.

•           They are harder to control than huge ships.

•           The tongue is harder to tame than any wild beast.

•           The tongue is a small part but corrupts the whole body.

 In a 180-pound man, that is 8 tenthousanths of 1 % of the body weight.

How much trouble can 8 tenthousanths of one percent cause?

That 8 tenthousandths of 1% has…

•           Started more wars

•           Destroyed more families

•           Broken up more marriages and friendships

•           Split more churches

•           Caused more tears

•           Caused more pain and suffering than the remaining 99.9992% of the body.

I don’t think I am exaggerating. And neither does James.

Now let’s make this just a little bigger than the words that come out of our mouths.  In our day and age, technology gives us the ability to communicate in any number of ways.  Texting, emailing, and face-booking. Those are all words that come out of us just as surely as these words come out of my mouth right now.  The thing is, that should make some of you very uncomfortable.

Occasionally I overhear some of you gossiping, or saying judgmental things about someone else, or speaking negatively about the church. I have NEVER heard anyone speak with their tongues in the caustic, and frankly embarrassing, way some Christians speak with your fingers on face-book. That picture you shared, that cruel or judgmental post you wrote, or the angry post you “liked” speak just as clearly about what is inside of you as anything else you say and do.

Occasionally I read what some of you and other Christians post on face-book and think about all the people who think Christians are hypocrites… and I’ll tell you reading face-book proves loud and clear that some are.

I’m not talking about everyone… but you know if I am talking about you. Why would you want to be associated with that? Why would you put that out there for the world to see? What does it say about your faith in Christ that you behave that way even in an electronic community? I used to tell my youth, don’t put anything on face-book you wouldn’t want your grandma to see.  Some of you would do well to take the same advice.

So when I talk about our words I am talking about all of our words, and when I talk about our tongues, I am also talking about our fingers.

James is not, by any means, the only place in the Bible concerned with our words. Here are just 5…

•           ”It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”

•           “A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.”

•           “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” 

•           “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” 

•           “For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.” 

I collected 21 passages and put them on a handout for you, but I may have still missed some.

 I think you all know what I am talking about:

•           You know 4 letter words!

•           You know name calling!

•           You know threats!

•           You know “teasing!” that isn’t any fun.

•           You know put downs!

•           You know lies!

•           You know Gossip.

Most of us have been on the receiving end of some of that at one time or another. You know how hurtful our words can be.

Going back to James, you may have noticed that he starts this passage with a special word to teachers: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers; for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (verse 1).

Why should this be? It is simple. We all know that if a plumber does something bad they just use his name on the TV. If the perpetrator is a teacher, preacher, or government official they never fail to point that out.  That’s because we are in positions that speak loud and clear to masses of people. We know that, and most of us act accordingly. 

The truth is that it is not just teachers, preachers, and politicians who are in the public eye. Whether you teach a class or not, every Christian teaches a lesson with the way they live. The question is what lesson are your words teaching? Someone is always watching. And no matter who we are, our tongues are powerful tools for good or evil. The mastery of the tongue is a sign of spiritual maturity.

But James does not leave us stranded.  He doesn’t just say bridle that horse, put out that fire, turn that ship, or keep your lip zipped.  He actually has some very practical advice, but it is spread throughout his book. I have collected it for you and

1.         Listen twice as much as you speak James says, “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19). They say that’s why God gave us two ears and one mouth.

2.         Put your words into action “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:15-17) Don’t just talk about it... Just do it.

3.         Resist loaded words. “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” (James 4:1). You know what I am talking about … those words that you might feel strongly about,  but you just know are going to cause controversy. They are the words that we use to bait others into arguments. It might be illegal alien, homophobe, or any number of 4 letter words.

4.         Never speak evil of another.” Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge” (James 4:11). There’s a challenge for you!  It is the old, “If you can’t say anything nice… don’t say anything at all.”

5.         Never boast, “Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away” (James 1:9–10). It is OK to be proud of our accomplishments, but boasting is being overly proud… or falsely proud.

6.         Use your mouth for good Psalm 51 says, “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” 

a.         To sing praises to God. “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise” (James 5:13).

b.           Ask for prayer. “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord” (James 5:14).

c.           Pray. “Pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16).

d.         Say I’m sorry and I forgive you. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another that you may be made whole” (James 5:16).

If you go to the doctor, you know he or she is going to ask you to stick out your tongue. Have you ever wondered why?  What do they see?   I don’t know, but they seem to be able to tell a great deal about our health by looking into our mouths. That is a parable of spiritual reality. You can tell an awful lot about a person by what they say. Our words are a pretty accurate index of the health of our hearts.

What do your words say about you?

SPEECH IS A POWERFUL THING.

• Some of the most significant messages people deliver to one another often come in just 3 words. Try some of these.

1.         I'LL BE THERE

2.           I MISS YOU

3.           I RESPECT YOU

4.         MAYBE YOU'RE RIGHT

5.         PLEASE FORGIVE ME

6.         I THANK YOU

7.         COUNT ON ME

8.         LET ME HELP

9.         I UNDERSTAND YOU

10.       GO FOR IT

11.       Of course there are three words more powerful than any other…  I LOVE YOU.

 Of all the words that you could speak… Let those be the words that reveal what is in your heart. I LOVE YOU.