Overcoming a Critical Spirit

There's an old saying that you probably remember your grandma saying.

Which one is it? Oh, I'll tell you.

It's, if you can't say something good about somebody, don't say anything at

all. How many of you have heard that?

How many of you have heard that many times?

How many of you have obeyed that? Anyway. Anyway.

We've all heard that, and yet why do we find it so hard to live up to that old saying?

James had his own ideas about the cause of a critical spirit.

When he talked to a group of believers who were bickering, fighting,

and quarreling among themselves and being critical with one another,

he said that it was a philosophy of life that That is characteristic of the unregenerate mind,

and that is a major ingredient of worldliness.

Instead of a climate of peace necessary to produce righteousness.

James's readers were living in an atmosphere that was anything but peaceful.

And James boldly comes out and tells them, quit it!

Well, he didn't say those words. Basically, stop it. Quit doing that. Stop doing that.

In this chapter, James was trying to jar them loose from their selfish ways

of life that were causing them to find something wrong with everybody and everything.

Have you ever caught yourself doing that?

Let's read from James chapter 4, verses 1 through 12.

James 4:1–12

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.

Wow, I could stop right there and we could preach an entire sermon just on that little thing, right?

He goes on, 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, and he should have put the word own pleasures in there.

You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity with God?

Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

Or do you think, Scripture says without reason, that he jealously longs for

the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?

But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture said, God opposes the proud,

but shows favor to the humble.

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.

Interesting that he says, change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Actually, we would prefer to do it the other way, wouldn't we?

But here he's saying, because of your sinfulness and stuff, turn your laughter

into joy and realize what you're doing.

Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another.

Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it.

When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.

There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and destroy,

but you who are you to judge your neighbor.

It's interesting how our epistle writers in the scriptures of the New Testament,

Paul, James, and others, Peter, they like to step on toes.

Have you ever felt like your toes have been stepped on when you read some of those things?

The book of James seems to be a book that can be summarized by the statement

that we have come to understand as true, and that is this, the root of all sin is self.

It seems that the Jewish Christians were in a tizzy.

They were fighting over position in the church. They were fighting over who

was more prominent and pious.

They were fighting over who knew best how to run the business of the church.

And as often happens when selfishness rears its ugly head, they were saying

critical things about each other to tear each other down and to get their own way.

It was almost like they were in the Jewish times of Yo Mama jokes.

They were cutting each other down big time. And as often happens when selfishness

rears its head, it really impacted a lot of them.

This is what we saw last week in chapter 3. So after dealing with their tongues

as evidence of their hearts, now James has to deal with the problem of their critical spirits.

Now, I want to tell you, one of my spiritual gifts is cynicism.

Or at least that's what I tell people. That's really not a spiritual gift.

But oftentimes we find ourselves doing that, don't we?

We have this critical sinister sense to us.

I know that this probably doesn't mean anything to us today because James was

writing that for the church 2,000 years ago, and it really doesn't have what

James writes has nothing to do with us, right?

Wrong. Today's church doesn't have any problem with critical spirits, does it?

Okay. Isn't it nice to be able to read James' admonition to the Christians of

the first century and be glad to know

this is just casual reading and has nothing to do with us at all? Hmm.

So here's the problem of critical spirits. Most of the time,

we don't even see the seriousness of a critical spirit until it has taken a

toll on our spiritual lives and robbed us of peace.

It has taken its toll, robbing us of peace, but also robbing us of relationships. with others.

We begin to realize that something is completely out of whack in our life,

but we can't always put a finger on what it is.

Different things may lead to a critical spirit and may be caused by external

things around us, or it may come from internal thoughts and motives.

James' readers had fallen into the habit of criticizing each other,

and in verse 11, James says, Stop speaking against one another.

Quit it. have you ever said that to your kids

quit it and that's kind of what james was

saying to him he crushes any right that

his belief his readers may have claimed to sit in judgment over other he rules

over the harsh unkind critical spirit and continually finds fault with others

one day a pastor was invited to dinner just a thought i paused there for effect and.

During the meal, he was astonished to hear the younger daughter state that a

person must be brave, be very brave to go to church these days.

Why do you say that? asked the preacher. Because, she answered.

I heard dad tell mom last Sunday that there was a big shot in the pulpit,

the choir murdered the anthem, and the organ has drowned everybody.

Not only does James speak of the destructiveness of a critical spirit,

but in Matthew 7, verses 1 through 5, Jesus said to avoid a critical spirit.

Matthew 7:1–5

Luke 6, verse 37 says, Do not judge, and you will not be judged.

Luke 6:37

Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Verse 38 says,

With the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

And then Paul, in Galatians chapter 5, verses 14 and 15, wrote,

Galatians 5:14

Love your neighbor as yourselves. You keep on biting and devouring each other.

Watch out, for you will be destroyed by each other.

So James is not the only one saying this. Paul said it too.

The main point here is that conflicts and disputes among Christians are always

harmful and that we somehow fall into the trap so easily that we don't realize what is happening.

A husband and wife were leaving the office of a marriage counselor.

The husband turned to his wife as they walked to the car.

Well, did you hear what the counselor said about being considerate and not criticizing

me? did that finally get through your thick skull?

Obviously, the counselor's advice hadn't penetrated the husband's thick skull.

But we find that the problem with critical spirit is oftentimes it is so invasive

and controlling that it tears us up and tears our relationship with others.

And so now we want to look at how do we overcome—there it is— a critical spirit.

After stating the problem of the critical spirit in an uncontrolled tongue in

chapter 3 and the beginning of chapter 4, and after painting a picture of how

a critical spirit destroys,

James gives us a 10-point way out when we find that a critical spirit has crept into our lives.

Anyone can analyze the problem and analyze its cause, but the real test of growth

is when we come up with a solution.

You know, there are all kinds of analysts in this world today,

and the root word of analyst is...

Anal. You know, oftentimes the root word of things tells us what it is.

We begin to look at what's in ourselves.

And analysts, oftentimes, that's all they do is analyze and there's no solution that comes up.

The real trick, the real test is if we can come up with a solution.

We can always tell what the problem is.

In fact, just ask me.

I'll tell you what your problem is.

Just kidding I'm your friend my name is Tim,

James is a book that is a very practical

and he doesn't leave us without a solution he says first of all that a critical

spirit originates out of our own selfishness wanting to have our own way so

much that we will fight to get it he tells us readers this is the way the world

thinks not the way God thinks.

So again, say it with me, the root of all sin is self. That's what James is saying here.

You know, guys, forget yourself, think of others, and think of God.

We think that we have all the answers and everyone else is wrong.

We think we know the truth, and yet very rarely have we studied the textbook,

the scripture, God's word.

How many have kept up with their reading assignments this last week do you remember what it was.

Chapter of James and chapter of Proverbs every day. Have you kept up with that? Good.

I'm hoping so. If not, get caught up. I had to get caught up because I'd fallen behind.

So, and if you aren't doing it every day, start reading. How can anyone sense

what God would have them do and what he would have the church do if we aren't seeking his words?

Remember, we've agreed to read one chapter of Proverbs and one chapter of James

every week for the next month.

And that would take about 30 minutes a day. And when we finish the month,

we'll have read through the book of Proverbs one time and the book of James six times.

And if you haven't started doing

that today, the 1st of March would be a really good day to start that.

And then by the end of March, you'll have 31 days, a full month of that.

You'll have read every chapter in Proverbs. But let's get back to James's prescription

for overcoming a critical spirit.

You may want to write these down in your sermon notes. There are 10 of them.

The first point in overcoming a critical spirit is to submit to God.

Submitting to what God's will was for them was the first step toward resolving

the problem. This is written in his word, in that message.

It was the first step toward receiving the grace they needed to overcome the problem.

And through saying, okay, God, I will do it your way,

it brought about the grace of unmerited favor of God that they could go out

and they could quit insisting on their own ways and begin to see things in an

entirely different light.

Have you ever noticed when you quit thinking about yourself and start thinking

of others, you think things completely different?

I'm trying to think if it's, there's a kid's movie, Prince of Egypt.

I think it's called Prince of Egypt, and there's a song in it looking through God's eyes.

And we can do that. We can practice looking through the eyes of God.

The Message Bible says, so let God work his will in you.

By submitting to God, saying okay to what he wants for you, you will be able

to see an atmosphere of peace beginning to restore itself through grace in your life.

Proverbs 3, verse 31 says, he gives grace to the humble, the quality that helps

Proverbs 3:31

to overcome the truth that oftentimes happens.

Weigh upon our hearts when we see the truth of God. We need to understand and

know the truth of God and realize what we are in the sight of God.

We're just people who need to have God's amazing grace and submit to it.

Submission to God's will leads to obedience.

It's not obedience that leads to faith. It's faith that leads to obedience.

I think we talked about this in one of the previous message,

having the faith to do the word of God.

The second thing James prescribes to resist the devil is to resist the devil, stay away from him.

And then it says, after that, it says, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Now, we're oftentimes told to turn around, and the scripture says this,

to turn around and flee temptation.

But this one says, if we resist the devil, he will flee from you.

Think about what Jesus was like when he was tempted in the wilderness,

and he quoted back scripture to Satan.

When Satan was trying to tempt him with God's word, he quoted it back.

And after that 40 days in the wilderness and the time of temptation, what happened?

It says, Satan left him for a time.

So Satan fleed from Jesus, even.

Submission to God is what the devil tries to hinder.

He would prefer that we justify our critical actions and statements toward others

by saying, I had a right to say that, or everybody does it. You ever heard that one?

Everybody's doing this, Dad. Matthew Henry says, Resolution shuts and bolts

the door against temptation to be critical.

I resolve to resist the devil and his suggestions.

So how do we accomplish that?

Message Bible clarifies this by saying, Yell a loud no to the devil and watch him scamper.

Say a quiet yes to God, and he'll be there in no time at all.

So if we say no if we

resist the devil he will flee from us but if we call upon

the lord he will be near as the scripture says there most of us don't say no

to questionable things we say oh it really won't hurt or we say well everyone

does it or that's not so bad it's not as bad as so and so or we say yeah i know

i should do better but i'm only human.

I'll try harder next time. Spiritual unfaithfulness was the result of the devil's influence.

The people in James' day had drifted so far away from God that they didn't even

realize that they had drifted away.

I think that is what happens to us when we don't make God a priority in our life.

And then the third way that James gave us to.

Overcome a critical spirit was another invitation to draw near to God.

It was a response to what God had already done for them.

The first step in man's salvation was taken by God.

God came to us and presented himself to us to be sacrificed for us,

and he drew near to us, and now it's our obligation to draw near to God,

and in itself it's a response to God's prior call.

Setting their hearts on having their own way, James's readers had drifted away from God.

And as we remember about drifting down a lazy summer stream,

we don't even know we're drifting until we are far from where we started.

Now, I don't know if I've shared this story with you or not,

but one year while I was a student at Greenville College,

another cross-country mate of mine, a friend of mine, and I hitchhiked down

to the Florida Keys for a spring break trip from Illinois down to Florida Keys.

We had visions of camping out on an isolated beach and spending the week swimming and sunning.

We weren't aware that almost every inch of the beachfront on all of the keys

was owned by some resort or other.

But we happened to find a spot underneath a bridge that spanned the causeway

that connected two of the islands.

There was a small piece of sand that wasn't claimed. Well, at least there was no fence around it.

And after hitchhiking a day and a half to get down, yeah, I was a rebel.

After hitchhiking a day and a half to get down there, we were in great need of being washed.

Besides, the heat was a welcome reason to take a swim.

So John and I swam out about 30 yards out into the Atlantic Ocean side of the Keys.

And we had a beach ball that we had gotten and blew it up.

And we were playing around in the surf there.

And I bet you didn't know that there's a current that flows from the Gulf of

Mexico, now the Gulf of America, through the causeway between the keys out into the ocean.

We didn't either, but we soon found out.

And after only a few minutes of playing in the water, John and I looked up and

realized that we were now not 30 yards away from the shore, but we were probably

a hundred yards or more away from the shore.

I'm glad that I'm here to tell you about it, because there was a time that I

had serious doubts that I was going to make it back.

It's not a comfortable feeling when you are being sucked out to the ocean by an undercurrent.

But it's a tremendous personal illustration of how subtly a current can carry us away.

I wonder, have you ever known someone who has drifted away little by little

from their closeness with God?

Have you ever allowed other priorities of time, entertainment,

and possessions to draw you away?

Scripture says if we will come near to God, that he will come near to us.

In Luke chapter 15, verse 20, it says the prodigal son got up and went to his father.

Luke 15:20

Just the same, God is waiting on our response. The heart that was distant must

now become reacquainted with him.

These three things seem to be the approach toward God.

The submission, the resistance to the devil and drawing near to God.

Then James comes up with an assignment. He says, these require an immediate

response, but not a maybe Sunday, I'll get around to it.

The preschoolers were reciting their memory verse for the week.

Call unto me and I will answer. That was their memory verse.

Jill was trying very hard to remember the verse that she had just been taught.

She twisted and turned as she cautiously recited, call unto me.

And she paused And her mind went blank And then finally she hurriedly Refinished.

Call unto me And I will call you right back,

Call unto me, and I will answer. Too often we say, I'll get back to you,

God. I'll talk to you later.

So then we look at some other things that we need to do to overcome the critical

spirit. And two of them, James puts together.

First of all, he says, wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts.

These two are a call for repentance, a change in direction.

James calls his readers sinners because of the extent of their involvement in

worldly attitudes and actions.

They were making sin a habit rather than it being an exception to the rule.

Washing your hands symbolizes the outward actions.

He is saying, clean up your act. The Message Bible says, quit dabbling in sin.

If you are still doing these things, stop it. change directions,

clean up your act, clean up your conduct.

Along with cleaning our hands, James is saying to clean up your inner thoughts and motives as well.

Purify your heart as well. What comes out of the mouth is from internally in

what's in your stomach and in your heart.

These two things must go together as a package. Psalm 24, verse 4 says,

Psalms 24:4

He who has clean hands and a pure heart, he will receive blessing from the Lord.

There's no separation between clean hands and a pure heart.

You cannot have clean hands if you don't have a pure heart.

And you don't have a pure heart if there's evidence of filthiness in your actions.

The next four challenges and prescriptions place an emphasis on the seriousness of intent.

He says, grieve, repent in misery, be truly sorry for your sin,

mourn, which is a passionate grief that cannot be hidden.

People will know that you really mean business.

Wail, change the laughter into wail.

Gloom, change your joy into gloom. Notice that these seem to be different than

other scriptures we read.

Usually we read words of praise in scripture about God turning our sorrow into

joy and crying into dancing.

But this passage says just the opposite.

These three things indicate the stages of all out repentance,

turning away from our wicked ways.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek

my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven who will

forgive their sin and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7.14.

Message Bible clarifies this a little more by saying, hit bottom and cry your eyes out.

The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious.

Get down on your knees before the master. It's the only way you'll get back

up on your feet. You know, when we really come face to face with the holiness

of God, it reveals the filthiness of our own lives.

When we really think of how holy and clean and good and righteous God is,

we realize how far we fall short.

And we will grieve, and we will mourn, and we will wade, wail, and we will be in gloom.

There can be no other response.

The tenth one of James's instructions that brings us with it a promise of successfully

overcoming the critical spirit is this, humble yourselves before the Lord,

and he will lift you up.

This process will get you back on your feet again. It will restore peace to your life once again.

Getting over a habit of being critical is not an overnight happening.

It's usually a process that takes time and a serious change of attitude as we

continue to submit ourselves to the Lord.

So let me ask you, do you build people up?

Or do you tear people down? When you are ready to criticize someone,

do you think about God's law of love, or do you just speak before you think?

Remember grandma's motto, if you can't say something good about someone.

Don't say anything at all.

Saying something beneficial will help cure your fault-finding and increase your

ability to obey God's law of love.

Seeking to look at others through God's eyes will help to reveal our own failings

and will help us to have compassion on others.

When we criticize and condemn each other, we are criticizing and condemning

God's law in them as much as we are in us.

I think Grandma's rule is a pretty good one. And as we prepare for the Lord's

Supper, let's remember that, that God has given us the ability to overcome a critical spirit.

Would you pray with me, Heavenly Father, as we continue in this time of worship

and we now look to the supper that Jesus instituted to remind us of the body

that was broken for us and the blood that was spilled out for us.

Father, how dare we live anything except a life that is worthy of the calling of a Christian.

Father, help us to overcome a critical spirit, a wagging tongue,

a spirit that wants to accept salvation but not a change of life that comes from us.

Help us, Lord, to be changed in your sight. In Jesus' name, amen.