Our Prayer

Our Prayer

Heavenly Father, I know that I have sinned against You and that my sins separate me from You. I am truly sorry. I now want to turn away from my sinful past and turn to You for forgiveness. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that Your Son, Jesus Christ, died for my sins, that He was raised from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become my Savior and the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send Your Holy Spirit to help me obey You and to convict me when I sin. I pledge to grow in grace and knowledge of You. My greatest purpose in life is to follow Your example and do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Class Lesson June 30, 2024

Week 6 - The Book of James





As Christ followers, Jesus is Lord over every area of our lives, and this includes our words. Because we have been saved by Jesus, our words should reflect our new nature in Christ. We must understand that our words are powerful and revealing. What we say can tear down or build up, bring life or bring pain. How we speak and what we say reflects the condition of our hearts.


James 3:1-12

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.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), James 3:1-12.

 



Study Notes

In this passage, James reveals the destructive nature of a seemingly small part of our lives. This small part, however, can produce ruin and may represent the presence of a vast system of iniquity within our body. Within this body the tongue can produce three results. First, it can corrupt the whole person. It is a source of pollution and defilement for the entire personality. Second, it sets the whole course of life on fire. Course may also mean “wheel.” Life may refer to “birth,” “origin,” or “existence.” A misused tongue may affect the cycle of life from birth onward! Third, the tongue is itself set on fire by hell. This describes Satan’s influence on the tongue.

 


Your Words are Powerful

Without thinking for very long, you can probably come up with several examples of things you wish you hadn’t said. Likewise, you can probably remember other times when someone has encouraged you and given you strength. Our words have the power to bless and to curse.

James used two analogies to emphasize the tongue’s power to control. James said speech is like small bits in the mouths of large and powerful horses. A horse obeys the rider’s commands because of the bit in the horse’s mouth. With the bit attached to the bridle and the reins, the rider makes the horse obey. Controlling the mouths of horses controls their heads, which gives the rider power to guide the whole animal.

James also likened the control of speech to a small rudder that turns a large ship. Compared to the overall size of a ship, the rudder is small, yet has the power to steer the much larger vessel wherever the will of the pilot directs. Like the bit in the horse’s mouth and the rudder on a great sea-going vessel, the tongue has great power to control the rest of the body.


 

Your Words are Revealing

Words have the power to give pleasure and delight to the one listening. Someone once said, “Words are the window into the soul.” A wise old man said, “What’s in the well comes up in the bucket.” Words reveal what’s in our hearts. The point of this section is what we hear from the Lord should change and shape the way we speak. If Jesus is Lord of all, He is Lord of our words. We are called to use our words in a way that gratifies and brings honor to Him. We are to encourage and correct one another with gentleness, love, and respect. The issue is we have no ability to control our own tongue. Only when our tongue is mastered by the Holy Spirit, do our words become life-giving and delightful.

God shows us our responsibility to speak the truth in love, taking the gospel to our neighbors and the nations. When authentic faith is present, words are used to draw people to Christ.



Questions for Discussion

How have you personally felt the destructive power of words? When have you hurt someone with your words?

How have you personally felt the power of words to bless? When have you blessed or comforted someone with your words?

What type of speech do you struggle with most (gossip, judgmental, sarcastic, jealous, prideful, etc.)?

How do your words reveal sin, fear, lack of faith, or other issues in your heart?

How do you respond to the fact that you can’t tame your tongue - does that make you feel helpless or does it free you up? Explain.

How does submission to the Spirit help us control our words?

Who can speak into blind spots within your speech?

 

END


Last week, James said that our actions prove our faith and are more important, at times, than what we say. We don’t just say we have faith; we show it by our actions.

 

James was not implying that our words are unimportant. On the contrary, this week he says that our words are very important.



Click Play to Watch


What did you do to my sign?

I wrote the same, but different words.


What made her words more effective?



James 3:1-5a

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. 




James warned that although it is good to aspire to teach, the teachers’ responsibility is great because their words and example affect others’ spiritual lives.



Believers today don’t pay much attention to sins of the tongue — gossip, slander, lying, exaggeration.

 

Perhaps it’s because we so mindlessly commit these “respectable sins” that we don’t regard them as seriously as we do sins such as adultery or drunkenness.



Billy Graham says,

“The problems of the world could be solved overnight if men could get victory over their tongues. Suppose there was no anger, no profanity, no lying, no grumbling or complaining; suppose there were no dirty stories told, no unjust criticism — what a different world this would be!”







Click Play to Watch




James says that a man who can control his tongue can control his whole personality.


James 3:5b-8

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. 



Here James compares the damage the tongue can do to a raging fire – and he says that the tongue’s wickedness has its source in hell itself.

 

Satan uses the tongue to divide people and pit them against one another.


Every human being is born with a wicked heart and an evil sin nature. Lurking within each of us are varying degrees of hatred, bitterness, jealousy, and pride, and the tongue takes hold of these and other destructive tendencies and strikes out, often with a push from Satan.

We see this every day among strangers, friends, siblings, and, worst of all, among husbands and wives, the very people who, next to their love for Jesus, should have the most love for each other.



What you say and what you don’t say are both important.

 

Proper speech is not only saying the right words at the right time, but it is also controlling your desire to say what you shouldn’t.


James says no human being can tame the tongue.

How do you respond to that?

 

Does it make you feel helpless or does it free you up?




James 3:9-12

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.


James says our contradictory speech can often puzzle us.

At times, our words are right and pleasing to God, but at other times they are violent and destructive.






Maybe we are focusing on the

wrong organ!


James says,

the tongue gives us a picture of our basic human nature.


Matthew 12:34 says,

“Whatever is in your heart determines what you say.”

Our mouths just reveal what we’re really like inside.



Rick Warren once said, sometimes I hear people say something mean or unkind, and then they say, “Oh, I don’t know what got into me. That’s not like me.”












If not, Rick Warren says, you do still need surgery but it’s on another organ – he says you need a heart transplant. You need a new heart!


David says in Psalm 51:10,

“Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”




Billy Graham says, We should ask ourselves three questions before we speak:

Is it true?

Is it kind?

Does it glorify Christ?




There is only One who can control the tongue.

Only by God’s Spirit living within us can we hope to gain control over our tongues.

 

He convicts us when we sin with our lips, and that conviction drives us to repent and pray for more filling of the Spirit so we can avoid further sin. As we cling to Him and yield to Him in obedience, He controls us more and more, including our tongues.


As Christ followers,

Jesus is Lord over every area of our lives, and this includes our words. Because we have been saved by Jesus, our words should reflect our new nature in Christ.

 

We must understand that our words are powerful and revealing. What we say, what we post, and what we write can tear down or build up, bring life or bring pain.

All of this reflects the condition of our hearts.