Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Today we're going to be in James Chapter three. If you have a Bible, you can go there. We're going to put it on the screen as well in just a moment. Today we're talking about how James is going to talk to us about the power of our words. Have you ever said something stupid you really regret?
[00:00:20] Yeah, me too.
[00:00:22] So a couple years ago, several years ago, I went skiing up at Mount Bachelor with a former student who invited me to go with him. And so we went to Mount Bachelor, and. And as we're standing in line to get on one of the lifts, we notice one of the dads of one of our former students is standing there. And so we greet him and he's like, hey, can I tag along? Can I go skiing with you guys? We're like, oh, sure, come along. And for the life of me, I should. But I cannot remember his name.
[00:00:48] And so I quickly in line, I text Jackson, who's my friend that I went with. And I said, do you know his name? I cannot remember his name.
[00:00:58] And so I put my phone away and we ski for probably an hour with this guy who I cannot remember his name.
[00:01:05] We're riding up the lift again about an hour later, and I've completely forgotten that I had text my friend Jackson to ask this man's name. And so we're sitting on the lift, I'm right in the middle of him, shoulder to shoulder. We're all touching right on one of the lifts, and my phone goes off. And I reach for my phone and I see that it's Jackson. I go, jackson, did you just text me? What did you say? I open the text and I read aloud. His name is Dennis.
[00:01:32] Dennis and I never had a close relationship after that.
[00:01:36] It was really embarrassing. And there's nothing you can do because you're then riding. I mean, it's not a short time that it takes to get to the top of that lift. I could not get off that chair quick enough.
[00:01:49] Oh, poor Dennis. Dennis, if you're listening today, I'm so sorry. I know your name now and I will never forget it.
[00:01:55] But there's a power in words. And I think oftentimes we actually underestimate the power that our words have to shape our own lives and our own trajectory, but also to shape the lives that God has put us around, that we can oftentimes think that what we say, how we think and how that is expressed through our words, it really only affects us. But we know that everyone around us is affected by the words that we speak. Words have power. If you look back in the beginning of Scripture, in the very first verses of the Old Testament, the first words that are spoken are from the mouth of God, where he says, let there be light. And there was light. Words have power.
[00:02:35] In fact, in John chapter one, we're told that Jesus is actually called the Word of God.
[00:02:40] And I believe that that speaks to the kind of power that John is attributing to the person of Jesus. There's no stronger power in all of creation than the words spoken from the mouth of God. But words have power, right? Words that are spoken like the Brit are coming. That Paul Revere shouts as he rides to the place where he rode. I can't remember.
[00:03:07] I'm into theology, not history, but changes the course of the revolution.
[00:03:13] Or how about this phrase, you're going to be a dad. That's a big one, right? That changes the trajectory of your life. Or this one. Argentina has won the World cup, you know, let it be, Lord.
[00:03:26] Wow.
[00:03:28] I told you last week, I said, if you want to be part of this church, you have to root for Argentina.
[00:03:33] And here, all you sinners come back next week.
[00:03:37] Oh, we like Spain.
[00:03:40] How dare you.
[00:03:43] Words have power.
[00:03:46] In James 1, we're told that we are to be quick to listen and slow to speak. I think there's good reason for that.
[00:03:51] Oftentimes. I know, and this is absolutely my problem.
[00:03:55] I oftentimes rush to speak and then I want to listen afterwards. James would tell us, you got it backwards, that we're to listen before we speak.
[00:04:04] And this creates in us the kind of relational power that creates life and not death. In Proverbs it says that life and death are in the power of the tongue. And I think James would agree. So James 3, 1, we all stumble in many ways. Or verse 2. Excuse me. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
[00:04:28] So James is going to assign like an extremely high weight on words. Here, verse three. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example, although they are so large and driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. And likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body and sets the whole course of one's life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell.
[00:05:09] Okay, James, Whoa. Like, calm down, man. We get it. Words carry weight. But James, remember, James is the pastor of the Jerusalem Church. And so he is watching in real time as relationships that maybe have taken decades to build up are being torched by careless words.
[00:05:29] And so he doesn't mince his words as he's addressing the incredible destructive power that words have.
[00:05:37] We came back to this church in 2007. And so we've been here almost 20 years since we started attending this church from moving back from Portland. And, you know, in 20 years, that represents a lot of time and investment in this place.
[00:05:52] And I'm here today after decades of investment of my life and time and our family's life in this church. And do you know that in about 20 seconds, if I chose the words correctly, I could destroy all of that. Are you ready?
[00:06:11] I could say things that are so inflammatory and horrible and terrible, and I could speak things in 20 seconds that would undo and torch 20 years of life and ministry and career.
[00:06:25] Because that's the power of words. I mean, Ben would be here on the stage next week and say, well, this is why we have two senior pastors, everyone.
[00:06:36] And this is the way that words carry outsized weight more than anything else in our lives. And not all words are weighted equally.
[00:06:49] Not all people's words are weighted equally.
[00:06:52] How many know that a negative word that cuts you down is far more powerful than a positive one?
[00:06:58] Someone once said, it's like seven to one. You need seven positive words to overcome one negative one. I would say, actually, it's way more than that. Cause I remember at five or six years old, where you're still really, really gullible.
[00:07:11] My oldest brother would tell me on numerous occasions that when I was a baby, my dad was a garbage collector and that he found me in a trash bin, and that's how I became part of the family.
[00:07:27] Now, I'm sure he said some nice things to me, too. Maybe seven nice things. Do I remember a single one of those? No, I don't. And I'm telling this story now, right now. I hear that story. And I think today as an adult, I'm like, man, if that was true, what a beautiful story of adoption and redemption. I wish that was my story, because that is beautiful.
[00:07:46] And I've heard garbage Collection actually is a solid career. So all of that would be a positive. But when I was five years old, it felt mean.
[00:07:54] It felt mean.
[00:07:56] And we remember these things, these things that are spoken to us or over us or about us that cut us down.
[00:08:05] Or maybe it's this, that there are words that you wish you had heard from a mom or a dad or a teacher that you never heard, and that your life has been changed and the trajectory has changed because of the words you didn't hear.
[00:08:20] You didn't hear I love you, you didn't hear, I'm proud of you.
[00:08:23] Words have power.
[00:08:26] And I want to caution us against demeaning or devaluing. The weight of our words either bring life or death in those around us.
[00:08:40] Often, this is what shapes who we become.
[00:08:44] This is what shapes who we are. And I've had to realize this and learn this in my role as one of your senior pastors, that my words carry special weight here.
[00:08:57] And Ben and I were just talking about this this week when we were, you know, 19, 20, 21 years old, we'd sit in rooms at the church and our jobs, and no one would really care what we had to say. So we could be flippant or sarcastic or for a chuckle, we get a little laugh and we're like, that's great. And no one actually cared what we had to say. But in our roles now, if we're sarcastic, it can really hurt people.
[00:09:21] And so oftentimes I'll think of. And how many know that you gotta have a filter around people?
[00:09:28] I'll think of something and that would get a mild laugh, which is all I can hope for.
[00:09:35] But knowing, like, oh, no, my words actually carry weight in the places that God has placed me. And I'll tell you what, whether you're a boss or not, whether you have people that report to you or not, whether you're a parent or not, I know that you have places in your life where your words carry outsize weight.
[00:09:53] And especially parents, moms in the room, there's just nobody that carries more weight in the life of your child than your words, dads. There is nobody that carries more weight in the life and the trajectory of your children than when you say something for your life or death over your children.
[00:10:11] And so we hear James call today to understand the capacity we have either for good or evil.
[00:10:22] It's interesting that James uses the metaphor of a forest fire.
[00:10:26] For many of James readers, they would have never experienced a forest fire. So this is one of those cases where we actually have a better understanding of the original text than the original readers do. Come on. Hallelujah. We always have to Be like, now, remember, this is first century. We don't know what it was like there. We know forest fires. Thank you, James.
[00:10:47] Right now there's probably some smoke blowing into our beautiful city from a forest fire. And we understand the destructive power of a single lightning strike or a careless.
[00:10:58] In 2017, a careless firework thrown into a canyon. Do you remember this? In the Columbia river gorge? A 15 year old kid throws a firework into a canyon in the Columbia River Gorge and it scorches more than 48,000 acres. And a judge put down a verdict of $36.6 million in restitution owed from a single firework tossed carelessly into a canyon. I think oftentimes what we don't understand in that moment of a flippant word or conversation or something said in frustration over a child, it's like a firework thrown into a canyon.
[00:11:36] And like a forest fire that we know so well around here, it's not only those immediately around that spark that get affected, but like the smoke that fills entire regions and clouds the air, we can create an environment that is toxic for so many because of the words use.
[00:11:57] James goes on in 3, 7. He says people can tame all kinds of animals and birds and reptiles and fish, but no one can tame the tongue.
[00:12:06] It is a restless and evil full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God.
[00:12:16] Do you know that our words actually betray whether or not we believe that people were made in the image of God?
[00:12:24] The words that we speak or the words that we type or the words that we write oftentimes can betray a heart filled with the wrong kind of stuff, with hatred or bitterness or resentment or fear that our words betray us.
[00:12:39] He goes on, he says, and so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right.
[00:12:49] Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? Does a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs?
[00:12:57] No. And you can't draw fresh water from a salty spring.
[00:13:03] It's not enough just to try to tape our mouth shut and not say what we're actually thinking. That is not the goal of James.
[00:13:12] James is encouraging us to look deeper at the source of where our words come from, that it is the source of the deepest places of our soul, that from that place Jesus would even say it's from the excess of the heart that the mouth speaks, that what's on the inside oftentimes will come out of our mouths. And after the first service, a woman came up to me and was like, listen, I love this idea of using words to speak life. But oftentimes what I found is that if people are speaking words of, but they're actually just empty flattery, it causes more damage than if they were just saying nothing at all. I said, isn't it interesting how if the wellspring of the heart is not coming from a place of pure and wholeness and selflessness, that words that are spoken that sound like life can actually bring death if they're empty and full of flattery?
[00:14:05] And so instead, the invitation is not just to fake it till you make it or just shut up.
[00:14:12] Instead, the invitation is, holy Spirit, come and change the innermost parts of my heart and my soul, so that when I speak, I'm speaking honestly and truthfully and selflessly with the heart of Jesus.
[00:14:25] And it's from that wellspring of the heart that my mouth will speak. And what will come out of it will bring life and life to the full.
[00:14:35] And so James pleads with us, and he would encourage us today a few things that I would interpret this way. Number one, outdo one another in honor.
[00:14:44] Outdo one another in honor. Oftentimes we wanna outdo one another in being right.
[00:14:49] Isn't it interesting that Jesus came not to make a bunch of people be able to prove that they're right, but he came to make us all right with God and right with one another? Oftentimes, I wanna be right in front of you more than I wanna be right with you.
[00:15:04] And Jesus would say, that's not the point. I didn't come just to give you ammunition for your debates and your arguments. I came to be life in your midst so that you could be right, right with me.
[00:15:17] And so we have this invitation to outdo one another with honor. Paul says it this way. Romans 12:10. Love one another with mutual affection and outdo one another in showing honor.
[00:15:31] I think we should make it popular to honor one another publicly and privately.
[00:15:39] And I think I watch with concern what's happening right now with young men culturally, where there is a. I would say an insidious trend towards dishonoring of women for young men and an encouragement or applauding of that dishonor so that these young boys somehow feel better about their own masculinity.
[00:16:07] And can I tell you that Jesus would have very strong words for that. And I want to ask all of us, especially the men in the room, especially dads in the room, can you model Honoring of women when they're in the room, and especially when they're not in the room, so that young men do not grow up thinking that to be a real man, it comes at the expense of honoring women in our lives.
[00:16:31] This is maybe one of the most urgent and compelling tasks we have in seeing the next generation come to know and love and walk in. The way of Jesus is that we show honor.
[00:16:46] Is that where honor is deserved? And even in those places where people have made mistakes, that we still extend as an act of mercy the honor that Jesus has shown us with his own love and his own life.
[00:17:01] Number two. And I stole this from a poster in my daughter's room. But make kind cool.
[00:17:09] Make kind cool. I think the poster says it a little differently, but that's basically the gist, is make kind cool.
[00:17:16] If we have this idea that the most, you know, the most devoted way to be a Christian is to go out into the world and spit truth and burn things down, I think we've missed the point that oftentimes we find that Jesus, he is harsh with his truth. He is forceful. He is even aggressive at times. But you know who he's aggressive to? It's not to hurting people. It's not to those on the margins. It's to the religious elite that hide behind scripture and the name of God for their own control and power.
[00:17:52] It's to those who would manipulate what God has said in order to place themselves on a pedestal above others.
[00:17:59] To those he has really strong words. To those he doesn't, show a lot of kindness. And to the hopeless and hurting and to the outsider and to those who are far from God and to those whose lives have fallen to pieces, Jesus is the embodiment of kindness.
[00:18:17] And so it should be for his church, so it should be for us.
[00:18:22] You want to spit truth? All right, come on. Come after the religious establishment. Let's go after those who would hold up the name of God and then not live that out and display it to express mercy to the least of those. Let's go all day after those.
[00:18:38] But to the hurting and the hopeless, let's be the kindness of God embodied everywhere we go. Amen.
[00:18:46] Make kind cool.
[00:18:50] And then finally use words to create life.
[00:18:55] James does a really good job of expressing how dangerous words are.
[00:19:02] The rest of the Bible does a really good job of showing us the power when we use words to build up and to bring life. I've heard it said this way that every conversation is a construction zone. Either you're tearing down or you're building up.
[00:19:17] And one of the sides of James argument is, if words have that much destructive power, surely on the other side, words have power to bring incredible life in the world around us, in our relationships.
[00:19:31] Back in 2007, when we moved, we were newlyweds, and we moved back to Bend, and we were, you know, gonna find a church, and we had family here at Westside, and so we came back and we visited Westside, which I had attended as a high schooler.
[00:19:49] But if you know my story and I've shared it here, I won't share all of it. Burned a lot of bridges after high school and left this church and left this town with a lot of relationships burnt up.
[00:20:01] So we get back in 2007. I remember it really clearly. It was Mother's Day, 2007. I think we sat right in this section. So well done, you guys. You picked the best section.
[00:20:11] And we were sitting there, and we're taking in the service, and all the feelings came up because I saw faces that those relationships didn't end well years prior.
[00:20:23] And I felt uncomfortable, and I felt like, I don't know if we'll come back to this.
[00:20:29] And Pastor Ken Johnson, who's here this morning. Hi, Ken.
[00:20:33] You were preaching that day, and you saw me.
[00:20:36] And after the service, I don't know if we came up or you found us, but you came and you met Alyssa, and you greeted me. And a week that week, I got a handwritten note from you, Ken, that welcomed me back to Westside. I don't even know if you remember writing this, but you welcomed me back to Westside, and you said, I've heard that God has done a great work in your life.
[00:20:59] And I remember it really clearly, because when Pastor Ben and I were set in as your senior pastors, I remember that note, and I actually framed it, which is a little cheesy, but, you know, what are you going to do?
[00:21:11] And so here it is.
[00:21:14] And, Ken, I have this hanging above my desk in what was your office.
[00:21:19] Likely you wrote it in that room.
[00:21:21] And I have it. They're not, because I'm like, aren't I awesome? Look what Ken wrote me.
[00:21:26] I hung in my office because I want to remember that just like was modeled for me by Pastor Ken.
[00:21:34] My words have a lot of weight.
[00:21:37] And when we speak and when we write and when we take the time to write a simple note like this, we have no idea the power of those words to create life.
[00:21:48] And I know, Pastor Ken, you didn't write that. Being like. And maybe one day he'll have my off. No, of course not.
[00:21:57] You were just showing up in the ways that God had called you to show up. And I want to encourage all of us today, show up in relationship with words of life and not death.
[00:22:09] Show up in ways that call out the purpose and the hope that we have in Christ, not only for ourselves, but see that in other people, even ones that you think like, I don't know, they are crazy.
[00:22:22] But man, we hear the voice of God speaking over each and every one of us. And I know that for many of us, we can look back in our lives and find those moments where we've let our words create death and rifts, where we've tossed the firework of a careless word into the canyon and we've watched worlds burned down and relationships destroyed and our marriages maybe have been struggling for years because of a careless.
[00:22:51] And today I want to say that there is hope because we have a God who speaks into the void and says, let there be light.
[00:23:02] We have a God who speaks into death, like Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus and says, lazarus, come on out now.
[00:23:11] And wherever we have watched as our words have created forest fires of death. Today my prayer is that we would hear the voice of God calling us back into life and life to the full.
[00:23:22] And so I want to invite you to bow your heads and we're going to take a moment just to repent, to turn back towards God when it comes to how we use our words.
[00:23:34] What a gift he has given us to be able to use words to create life in the world that he's placed us in.
[00:23:44] But Lord, right now, as we consider and we think back on those moments where we have fallen short of this, we ask for your mercy.
[00:23:53] We repent. We humbly repent. And we ask you, Lord, would you forgive us for words that have torn down, for words that have acted like an anchor around somebody else's soul? Lord, today we repent. Would you forgive us?
[00:24:08] Would you cleanse the wellspring of our hearts so that what flows from our mouth might be words that praise the Father and the buildup, those that you've placed us in relationship with, Lord, like a really good firefighting crew, would you come and let your Holy Spirit put out the fires that we've started and begin the work of bringing life out of the ashes?
[00:24:36] Lord, we love you.
[00:24:39] Thank you for your mercy.
[00:24:41] In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.
