James 1:19-20 - Real Maturity

[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, good morning to each, and all it is wonderful to see here as always, we are hopefully already opened up or opening up to James 1119, but I will note that this Saturday is filled with fun opportunities for both fellowship and enjoyment of life.

[SPEAKER_00]: First off, being the men's breakfast at 830, which we don't, we often forget to announce, but it's always happening on the third Saturday of the month.

[SPEAKER_00]: So come at 830, come get some delicious food stuff and enjoy a study on the life of Abraham or continuing study on Abraham.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then the young ladies will be having a Putin celebration.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we get all your costumes out if you don't know about the celebration of the book of Esther, the events of the book of Esther.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a fun opportunity to have a great enriching experience that both makes a critical Old Testament story, a text, real and inexperienced and a new way, experiential and a new way.

[SPEAKER_00]: So don't be afraid to join in those wonderful times.

[SPEAKER_00]: And with that, we'll go to the Lord in a word of prayer to prepare for our study today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, our God, how we thank and praise you for the great opportunity to open your word together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please, Father, make these simple, clear lines resound in our souls.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, we're going to thank you that we don't need special degrees or magical qualifications to read and understand your word.

[SPEAKER_00]: we just need a spirit of humility, the guidance and illumination of your Holy Spirit, and the desire to know and understand what it says.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Lord, as we let down some of our guard and our anticipation of what Bible study looks like, we pray that we would let these verses come right to the heart and affect the way we live.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Christ, then we pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And to kill a mockingbird, Atticus Finch is so much one of my favorite literary characters that we named our son after him.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I've got a lot of street cred in looking up to this amazing personality and character.

[SPEAKER_00]: And throughout this book, he shows at least three kinds of courage.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first kind and all through the eyes of young scouts or this young girl.

[SPEAKER_00]: She sees him show courage in ways that are first expected and move towards the unexpected.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first time when she sees courage in an attic as her father figure, she is a father.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is a...

[SPEAKER_00]: approaching a situation that is known to be dangerous or rabid dog has come to take over and terrorize the neighborhood and again the possibility or threat of a rabid dog could be scary and endangered the lives of so many and everybody's gone to hide in their house while this dog is is moving through town down the street and Atticus who she'd never seen raise a gun before comes out.

[SPEAKER_00]: grabs a rifle and immediately takes down the animal at great personal risk while everyone else is afraid.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she didn't know that he had that ability, that skill set, because he didn't celebrate that skill set publicly until it was needed.

[SPEAKER_00]: The next place or another place where we see a courage in Atticus Finch is when the town's people come to lynch the wrongly accused Tom Robinson.

[SPEAKER_00]: He meets them there at the gate of the jail with no defense at all, without a gun, without a stick, without a posse, without help from the police.

[SPEAKER_00]: He sits at the corner.

[SPEAKER_00]: of the earth, the door of the jail, and simply rat rationally and reasonably talks to a bloodthirsty mob talking them out of their ill intentions.

[SPEAKER_00]: The final point at which we see the incredible courage of Atticus Finch is when all the racism and pressure is on him to throw Tom's case.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, to give up on the fight, the righteous

[SPEAKER_00]: When everything is going to turn against him in a small town and how much that means in terms of opportunities lost and perhaps even survival, he doesn't back down but rather with eloquence wisdom and passion continues to push through Tom Robinson's defense to the point where, while this trial is still lost that Atticus Finch

[SPEAKER_00]: has thrown and shown the embarrassment and the disgusting nature of what was going on for what it was.

[SPEAKER_00]: Atticus Vitch gives us a supreme literary example of what maturity and courage looks like.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we find that that is the power, one of the great powers of literature is giving us that example that we need to see what courage looks like, to see what wisdom looks like, to see what maturity looks like in action.

[SPEAKER_00]: And James has been giving a lot of practical information and encouragement to believers, particularly believers, in times of trial, and times of trouble.

[SPEAKER_00]: But James now gives in just a few short versus one of those clear, punchy, acceptable, understandable bits of exhortation to say, what will it look like when I've reached spiritual maturity?

[SPEAKER_00]: And to jump on this soap box once again, it's important to recognize.

[SPEAKER_00]: Spiritual maturity is not a thing that believers are to see as far off.

[SPEAKER_00]: unattainable or unachievable.

[SPEAKER_00]: We talk like that sometimes.

[SPEAKER_00]: One day, I'll be spiritually mature.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the reality is, is that the Christian life is something that God has entirely provided for, given us all the information, all the power of His Spirit, and the position that we share in His Son, and that it is expected.

[SPEAKER_00]: did.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is absolutely God's design that every Christian is meant to reach.

[SPEAKER_00]: Christian maturity.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean every Christian is going to memorize every word of the Bible or become an famous, something in Christianity, missionary or pastor or something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: far from it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But every Christian is meant to grow to that level of maturity, where you know what the Bible says, what you believe, where you understand and can share the gospel, where you can mentor, disciple, and encourage others all by the grace of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that doesn't happen unless we put forth God's examples chiefly of the person and character of Jesus Christ, of God Himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: But

[SPEAKER_00]: And the examples of our brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone ahead.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the point that we hope we maintain is that James is not giving us impossible standards of living.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's be very clear.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are impossible standards of living, apart from the work of Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're impossible apart from the working of His Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're impossible apart from the revelation of His Word.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're impossible apart from the working of the body of Christ to encourage, exhort, and edify one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: But with those things in place, they're entirely possible.

[SPEAKER_00]: Christian maturity is not a fantasy position that's always just out of reach, but something that God has designed for every believer to reach.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, within the spirit of that, we have James 119, which gives us these three simple and clear exhortations that we should be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are other wonderful overviews of Christian character and life, but this is easily one of my favorites.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can look at various people online and get all sorts of ideas of what a great Christian or what mature Christianity, probably a better way to put it, looks like.

[SPEAKER_00]: But James tells us very clearly, and it's something that our culture now needs to take the heart more than ever.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to remind you, as we open up this examination of the first point, which I want to read through, I'll read it out loud to you, verses 19 and 21 more times.

[SPEAKER_00]: So then my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear.

[SPEAKER_00]: slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now within our context we want to remember, you're still talking about trials and temptations.

[SPEAKER_00]: James has given us a new way to face trials and temptations that totally differs from anything that man would ever come up with.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, many of us are old enough to remember bookshelves or bookstores, filled with these sorts of 1,000 tips how to do almost everything, pictorial guides with pictures of how to replace the faucet in your sink or do normal house handy upgrades and that industry, while I think they still print several of these books is almost completely dead because of YouTube.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Now you can just go online and watch a couple YouTube videos and possibly get the information you need to do whatever that task is.

[SPEAKER_00]: But also, you get the huge advantage of instead of having to filter through the stereo instructions style text.

[SPEAKER_00]: to be able to watch someone else do it and have it be able to model what you're doing after them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because these sites have made it so much easier, we find it displays how critical it is for us to succeed to be able to see what else or what is expected of us and to know what is expected of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: So just like those how-to videos, this is a simple how-to video of what to

[SPEAKER_00]: And we want to remind our selves that James has been replete with these really clear steps that any believer can take when difficulty, trial, or temptation, and we want to reiterate this is the difficulties that come from without the difficulties that come from within.

[SPEAKER_00]: the things that tempt you, that thing that constantly beats you, that addiction, that drives you away from the Lord that pain, that causes you to fall back into bitterness and unforgiveness.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is sort of a catch all for the difficulties of life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're bent to start as James began, like counting, by choosing to influence our perception of the situation, or rather utilize our free will to have a correct or biblical response

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: This reality is shocking to many, but you have power over your thought process.

[SPEAKER_00]: You get to choose where the flashlight of your attention goes at any given time.

[SPEAKER_00]: You get to choose the inputs that you are going to let into your life or allow to influence you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it starts by looking at that trial and choosing to count it instead of as a pain, a difficulty or a sorrow, but to count it as all joy, and that's based upon what you can know.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can know with absolute certainty because it is clear in the word of God and it is absolutely plain to anyone who's experienced any kind of difficulty that trials bring perseverance.

[SPEAKER_00]: And perseverance brings maturity.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a simple one-two punch that as we endure trials correctly that that results in maturity and as we've mentioned several times.

[SPEAKER_00]: the great hitch in our step is that as a society and as individuals and even as the church, we don't necessarily value spiritual maturity as much as we should.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because once we value, what it is to be a grown-up, we might say in Christ, or mature in Christ, we will realize that no difficulty or pain that brought us there is worth anything in relationship to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, we are able to count art's trials joy because we know that they have the power to bring us to greater growth and maturity in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we're told to pray, to ask God for wisdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know what's going on, if you don't understand how this is going to bring about perseverance and maturity, then you are invited to ask God freely and he will give liberally to those who ask.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're reminded to ask in faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: And part of the reason for that is, as we mentioned, was that if you don't believe that God has the right the best perspective, then you will not respond properly to the perspective that he gives.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as we find that most of that is going to be a simple understanding and application of the clear word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the word of God is to you in your perception,

[SPEAKER_00]: then you will allow that to change the way that you see this life, these trials and these difficulties.

[SPEAKER_00]: And finally, in our discussion so far, we found that you could consider that trials are personal, humility and attentiveness will show how this challenge can bring growth.

[SPEAKER_00]: what is very difficult for one person might be quite easy for another and it is not for us to judge another believer's trial or struggle because that would have been easy for us or at least we perceive that would be easy for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: But rather to recognize that the ultimate reality and this is something that we get all the time, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: When we

[SPEAKER_00]: come into hard situations or difficulties or trials, we generally are often will console ourselves by looking at someone else and say, well, at least it's not as bad as their situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Other people have had to go through far worse.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that contextualization might provide us a small bit of perspective, but it can cause us to miss the point, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: If the point is just to get over it and not grow and not respond to it and say, well, you know, so and so has it worse?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it doesn't matter who has it worse.

[SPEAKER_00]: It matters what you do with that trial and that whether it causes you to look to Christ or look to self or look to the world or look to the enemy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And finally, we saw how the importance of understanding the reward ability of each of these trials is meant to provide a backstop to all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not only are we rewarded, we could say, for our faithfulness and trials, by the spiritual growth and maturity that comes, but we also find that there's internal reward of great value attached to successfully navigating and walking and faith through those trials.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we have this, that gives us the background of context, rather, to talk about being swift to hear.

[SPEAKER_00]: So how fast are your ears?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you quick to listen?

[SPEAKER_00]: It might sound like listening faster, early in my career.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I hope I've slowed down.

[SPEAKER_00]: But early in my career, I got the feedback that I was just talking to quickly that people had trouble keeping up with the kind of rapid flow of words.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've got the,

[SPEAKER_00]: gift of gab I don't I don't have like Ben Shapiro levels of speed but you know somewhere in that lower lower level thankfully as I've gotten older my brain's gotten slower and that's looking on the bright side of how dumb we get as we age.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nevertheless the reality is there's a great joy of hopefully learning that I don't need to speak so quickly but that's still not what it's talking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact you can train yourself to listen to

[SPEAKER_00]: to process information more quickly with practice, just like you can train yourself to read more quickly, but I don't know what the huge advantage of that is other than being able to listen to Ben Shapiro, I guess, with more comfort.

[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, this is talking about having a posture that is ready to listen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ready to listen in three at least three ways and we'll look at these three possibilities and see how they apply.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the first thing that we'd want to be quick to hear or swift to hear, quick to listen to is

[SPEAKER_00]: right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you open to new ideas to understanding to criticism or are you so locked in and stodgy that your perception is the absolute definition of reality?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's quite difficult when we think about it because we are to be absolutely convinced without question in the truth of the word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Get absolutely humble about the shortcomings in our perceptions of the word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is not to say at all that we cannot be confident and absolutely confident that God is noable and this word is understandable, but we also have to maintain that level of humility that enables us to be teachable or to respond meaningfully to new ideas or understandings.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, that seems like a very natural response or part of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we'd also say that this would come to, or in the context of trials, be a response to leadership.

[SPEAKER_00]: The assumption is the believer is involved in the church and they are taking instruction from leaders as we study in our church history class this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: We find that there are, we're very few literate people.

[SPEAKER_00]: That means that they would encounter the word of God largely through the public teaching and proclamation of the word.

[SPEAKER_00]: and conform their view to what they were being told and what they were being taught didn't mean rolling over and simply taking it but it meant evaluating meaningfully the fact that the people whom the Lord or the Holy Spirit is put up to teach ought to be entertained and listened to by you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is one of the great challenges of the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: ministry in general and it was displayed in a fun little kung fu movie called the forbidden kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: A kung fu obsessed youth in New York or something gets drawn away into this ancient Chinese mythological kingdom where any has to actually Jackie Chan and Jetley.

[SPEAKER_00]: to teach him, and at one point, his instructors are exasperated because he's learned so much from all the ridiculously stupid kung fu movies he watched that they can't teach him anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, your cup is full, I can't pour anything else into it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it is for many Christians.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've gotten locked into something that they heard someone say sometime.

[SPEAKER_00]: An idolatry to some Bible teacher or a personality that they loved in the past, or possibly just a wayward dream of the way it used to be when I was a certain age.

[SPEAKER_00]: We become untouchable and we become unformable and therefore we cannot grow anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: because we can't respond to any new leadership when the old one is still holding that idolatrous place in your heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: The new one ought not also be a new idol.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about changing one idol for another.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about learning to be teachable and grow.

[SPEAKER_00]: To empty your cup of that which you think you know in order to be edified a fresh from the Word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that brings us to the final ready to listen or quick to listen point that I'd like to make this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: And easily the most important, which is, are you listening to?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you ready to hear the word of God?

[SPEAKER_00]: Under pressure, either by trials or by temptation, we often avoid information that we just don't want to hear.

[SPEAKER_00]: and it's not always the welcome exhortation, though it is the best, when you're in trial or difficulty to find yourself reading the Word of God, or find yourself someone who will speak the Word of God, or the truth of the Word of God into your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we are excited about celebrating our own pain or being drowned in a sea of self-absorption,

[SPEAKER_00]: The idea of a life ring might start to sound strangely unattractive.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could like it unto the people who live on an entirely fast food diet.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not picking you out of thoughts you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it is an interesting reality that the more junk food and garbage we eat, the less real food seems appealing and attractive.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it is, when we are stuck in a world that uses self absorption and human centered, what is this doing for you?

[SPEAKER_00]: How do you feel in all this?

[SPEAKER_00]: As a center of the world, it can be painful to come to the word of God and find out it's not all about me.

[SPEAKER_00]: that it's about the glory of God, the plan, his plan of redemption, not just for me individually, but for the entirety of the body of Christ and ultimately for the redemption of planet Earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: That perspective might be unwelcome to us, or even distasteful to us at a time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, here, James exhorts a preparedness to listen, to hear the Word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I do want to stop here and warn you, you can read your Bible wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's really easy, in fact.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could either just go through the motions and empty-headedly repeat the words and finish that, like check that and I finished my chapter, my two chapters, and close it.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a tragic thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there are lots of other ways that we can effectively read the Bible wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: One, looking for confirmation bias.

[SPEAKER_00]: You go every morning just to see the things that you want.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this is a trial particular to me, but I grew up in youth outreach ministry.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as I became, came to the place where I wanted to utilize, understand and apply the word of God effectively, the only passages that I thought were worthwhile, were worth anything, were the ones that were gospel passages, or could be transmuted into gospel passages.

[SPEAKER_00]: If some way you can be leveraged that into sharing the gospel because our interest was exclusively with the unsaved and thus most of the Bible was totally useless because not everything is a gospel passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are things that reveal things about the character of God, about the plan of God, about the church, about the nature of how we're meant to operate and grow.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I went through the Bible just reading through and highlighting only things that would work in an evangelistic situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Was that bad?

[SPEAKER_00]: No.

[SPEAKER_00]: Certainly not bad to go through the Word of God looking for a specific theme, but if we're just looking for the confirmation of what we already want to see, then we are essentially muting God and what he actually wants to say to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it is, people with a pet theology will very frequently find the Bible to be mostly useless because it doesn't wrap around their specific issue, their specific currency, their specific problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: They mute the most of the word of God to reduce it to the one thing that might be applicable or important to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And going through and looking for confirmation bias, just what I already believe, means that we will not deal with the challenges to our beliefs and our theology.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, reading the Bible for others.

[SPEAKER_00]: This one's a little bit more personal.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's where you go through and read the Bible and say, oh, Susie needs to hear this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wish Billy were reading this right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bobby should get really get on this this verse.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you read the Bible, I hope you read it to be impacted yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where am I out of line?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where are my spiritual shortcomings?

[SPEAKER_00]: Holy Spirit convinced me, convict to me where I am wrong because ultimately, a self-righteous and others judgmental reading of the Bible only protects the worst parts of our immaturity, rather than facing or confronting the immature places in our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, fancy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go really big and fancy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I suggest this.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can read the Bible and read into it exactly what you wanted to say, what I want to say, we call this I suggest this.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the opposite of exegesis, leading the meaning out.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is leading the meaning into the text, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's similar to a confirmation bias, but it goes a step further into trying to find everywhere, or rather change everything in the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: to mean what I wanted to mean, what I wish it to mean, and as well been said, if God agrees with you, if the Word of God agrees with you at every point, there's a very strong likelihood that you've made God in your own image.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're no longer being transformed by the Word of God, if you're theology thinking about God and your actions and behaviors aren't being impacted, it's because you have convinced yourself that your God,

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're taking that to the Bible to try to prove it, not good, not good.

[SPEAKER_00]: We go to the Bible hopefully to lead the meaning out, not to read the meaning in that we want.

[SPEAKER_00]: And finally, possibly the most dangerous to various people in our circles and camps reading without application.

[SPEAKER_00]: We read to understand, we're smart folks, or at least we fancy ourselves as being smart.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to learn a new Greek insight, or a new shade of meaning, or maybe get a new shocking surprise that has never been said or seen before, and it just never quite makes it to the ground level.

[SPEAKER_00]: A new insight, a new idea, we'll be tantalizing, interesting, my tickle our brains.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if we don't apply it, boy, what a waste.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's really at the heart of this wonderful epistle of James.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't kick it into gear, what difference does it make?

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible is endlessly entertaining.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is unbelievably complex, and it's facets, and what it reveals about human history, about human nature, about psychology, and all the things that might draw us into intrigue.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it has been regularly proven by success, both in literature and in the box office, that if you can tell a biblical story well, then even atheists and non-believers are intrigued

[SPEAKER_00]: power, but reading without application, without allowing it, allowing the Word of God to transform the way we think what we believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: is inevitably falling short of what God wants.

[SPEAKER_00]: So then we have to ask when it comes to God's word, especially, what are the things that keep us from listening?

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this might be erking you a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: It might be tugging at you a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tugs at me too.

[SPEAKER_00]: It should.

[SPEAKER_00]: John kindly asked me, can we skip?

[SPEAKER_00]: Can we take a couple of weeks off of James?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's all too annoyingly applicable.

[SPEAKER_00]: But might we let this nag at us a little bit and hopes that it doesn't describe us?

[SPEAKER_00]: Three things that I saw is a considered and prayed about this this week that causes or keep us from listening and the first is arrogance.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are sad, tiny little people, aren't we?

[SPEAKER_00]: Even the greatest of us, the wisest, even the most powerful has such a limited view

[SPEAKER_00]: of reality, of truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: That should come with an implicit humility that I don't know it all yet, but we gain great confidence in life by assuming or enforcing the idea that we do already know it all.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to find or derive some confidence.

[SPEAKER_00]: They say, well, I don't know everything about this, but I sure do know enough about that, or I do know enough about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in our faith, it can become most difficult.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's one of the most beautiful things that I think CS Lewis portrayed in the chronicles of Narnia that there was always a limitless mysterious quality to God as expressed through Aslan, that nobody really ever got to have there

[SPEAKER_00]: arms around him, or got to have control of him, but recognize that there was more to him than we could know, though we could know what he designed us to know of him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if we don't come to God with a constant sense of awe at His greatness, at His majesty, at His ability to surprise us, not because He wants to surprise us, but because we're so happy to put on blinders and have a small scope and view of life so that we can feel okay in our arrogance, that weird feeling that comes, of confidence, that comes when you think you've got this game all figured out.

[SPEAKER_00]: that conarrogance is the opposite of humility and will keep us from hearing the word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next is assumption, assumption that I already know whatever one else knows or rather, yeah, at least what you know or you know or you know.

[SPEAKER_00]: It essentially reduces any given person

[SPEAKER_00]: a new or challenging idea.

[SPEAKER_00]: We assume we've heard all that before.

[SPEAKER_00]: We assume that we've had this all dealt with.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've done our paces on this as if we've already understood the entirety of the other person's argument.

[SPEAKER_00]: That may well be the case, but it's unlikely to be so in many cases.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we can find ourselves not listening because we assume we've already heard this one before and we've decided that it wasn't so.

[SPEAKER_00]: It takes, again, arrogance is really at the heart of all this, but it does.

[SPEAKER_00]: It implies that, or keeps that arrogance, I've heard it all, I've known it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I went to a Bible College, I went to Bible school, I had someone smart tell me, I heard on this, I read a book about it, I really, I've got this whole thing I'll figure it out, unless you don't.

[SPEAKER_00]: and humility is needed there, or you will not hear the word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll just go back to that confirmation by Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: I suggest this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And finally, as we see anger, that's specifically what seems to be putting put on the trial here, especially when we're suffering, when difficulties happen, it is easy for us to become angry, and as someone wise once said, who I don't know,

[SPEAKER_00]: their name said that it is impossible to scream or shout and think at the same time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's true.

[SPEAKER_00]: As we become overwhelmed with the heat of emotions of that experience, whatever it looks like, it becomes impossible to listen and think about what the other person is saying.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so as we are, or if we are controlled by our emotions specifically anger in the situation,

[SPEAKER_00]: of listening, and again, most importantly, and listening to the Word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully that gives us some warning signs as to when we are going to find it more difficult to be swift to hear, and we can move on to the concept of being slow to speak.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're moving in, we've got a rate or speed from speed, from quickness to slowness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Holding your tongue is a somewhat funny phrase as I've never seen anybody after I did in an argument, mostly because it's kind of gross.

[SPEAKER_00]: I remember growing up mad magazine had this regular article or yeah, article called Snappy Answers to stupid questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did anyone else ever read that?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the only one to read mad magazine.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's tragic.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, the reality is that our culture values having a quick tongue, snappy answers to stupid questions was just cartoons of people saying, funny things to someone asked a dumb or obvious question.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see this in our modern situation where the YouTube video comes up, speaker destroys question-asker, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's video after video of watching someone who agrees with you coming up with the snappy answers to the question that, or the objection that someone else has brought up.

[SPEAKER_00]: You hope we realize that while we design and desire to see the truth spoken and falsehood reproved that there is something in us that takes a delight or pleasure in that that isn't entirely a godly design.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love seeing someone who's smarter than us do our job better than us and make us feel like we're right about everything that we think or believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, while I have no criticism for those who engage in those types of debate or discussion, I would recognize that we should be attentive to what our spirit and attitude is as we watch that.

[SPEAKER_00]: As we listen, do we let that kind of speech affect or that attitude affect our normal day-to-day interactions?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's worth consideration.

[SPEAKER_00]: but the Bible recommends a entirely different attitude, rather than having the snappy answer, the perfect response, ready and undec, instead, to hold our tongue or be slow of speech, to be slow to speak.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it has that great advantage if we choose to be slow to speak, that we have the opportunity to think and respond.

[SPEAKER_00]: rather than to simply react.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible has a lot to say on our speaking life, our words.

[SPEAKER_00]: Speech is meant to be constructive.

[SPEAKER_00]: I put this in your hand up.

[SPEAKER_00]: We won't look at all these verses.

[SPEAKER_00]: But speech's design is meant to build others up to add a fight to encourage, as Proverbs 10, 11, 10, 20 through 21, 12, 6, 12, 14, et cetera.

[SPEAKER_00]: Display.

[SPEAKER_00]: Speech can, and we could add, is often foolish.

[SPEAKER_00]: This idea that our speech, especially as it is multiplied, the more we talk, the more opportunity we have to fall into foolishness, in order to find our continual source for this well-of-words that brings up within us.

[SPEAKER_00]: But obviously today's passage talks about restrained speech, our slow speech, as our primary drive.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we will look at these verses that wise speech is restrained.

[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 10, 19 says, in the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are talkers, and there are quieter people on some kind of a spectrum.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the tockers of the world are generally speaking, not to speak for all of us, but the tockers of the world get uncomfortable with silence and have to fill that with more words, whether they're good words or whether they're stupid and foolish words, we will pour them forth rather than bear the horrible possibility that we should sit in silence for any amount of time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet Scripture Proverbs gives us this important warning is that when there are many words, sin is not lacking, that which falls short of God's character and God's design will oftentimes be found most frequently when we've got a lot to say.

[SPEAKER_00]: But He restrains His lips.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is an act of will.

[SPEAKER_00]: is wise.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, of course, there is a time to speak up when it is sinful to be silent or cowardly to be silent.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this is important advice for all of us in a world that constantly values who's talking the loudest, the fastest, the most frequently that measures audience

[SPEAKER_00]: and there are whole generations of young people who are now being trained to view having a successful YouTube channel as the final metric of success in this world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Someone who talks a lot and to whom a lot of people listen and yet Scripture makes it clear that in the multitude of words sin is not lacking and we should be slow to make our career

[SPEAKER_00]: just on Babel and Jabber.

[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 11, 12 through 13, says, he was devoid of wisdom despises his neighbor, but a man of understanding holds his peace.

[SPEAKER_00]: The tailbearer reveals secrets, but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't it amazing how quickly a person can be

[SPEAKER_00]: Lulled into a confidence and desire to share their secrets, either to build credit with a certain person or simply to have something to say in the conversation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's why every slick obnoxious subhuman salesman in the world just wants to get you to sit down for dinner, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He just wants to get you to sit down and if he can just start you talking, then maybe he can manipulate you to do what he wants you to do or what she wants you to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: is where it designed tragically in our sin, not designed, but rather a result of our sin, is that we will treat our tasty secrets, those things that we ought absolutely to keep to ourselves, they can be fun to share in the setting of sinful gossip and destructive speech behind another person's back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 1223, a prudent man can seals knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims foolishness.

[SPEAKER_00]: maturity are seen by the ability to not tell everything you know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't that shocking?

[SPEAKER_00]: It is the one of the most common criticisms that we have to give all pastors young and old.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to tell them everything you know, stick with the point that the Lord wants you to give in this passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the idea of being able to conceal knowledge rather than proclaiming foolishness is of critical import as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 151, a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: How often do we indulge the sins of our tongue because we finally got to tell them off?

[SPEAKER_00]: We finally got to say it out loud, what nobody else would say.

[SPEAKER_00]: We finally got to confront or say this one thing

[SPEAKER_00]: benefit at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is your rebuke going to change or encourage them or is it just going to make you feel better about the situation?

[SPEAKER_00]: One of those is selfishness, self-absorption.

[SPEAKER_00]: The other one is oftentimes willingness or ability to maintain a certain level of discomfort for yourself in order to grow your influence or opportunity to speak a wise word, to turn away wrath so that they can hear the truth, the truth, the gospel, the truth, the Word of God, the truth of doctrine.

[SPEAKER_00]: and picking our times is an absolutely important part of resolving conflict, as well as making headway in our in the lives of our friends and being an encouragement to them that desires their growth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 1523, a man has joy by the answer of his mouth and a words spoken and do season how good it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you know her or him.

[SPEAKER_00]: that person who just always is an encouragement, and not gonna bore you with endless self-absorbed stories, they're not gonna criticize every word you say, but they just want to build up and encourage you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you have that person in your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever they call you a pickup or you wanna pick up, whenever they have an opportunity, you have an opportunity to spend time with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's those other people, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who just slowly chip away at anything good and valuable.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're just so quick to criticize, so quick to tear down and they wind up tragically alone and old by the way, we all have our edge, our place that we can grow and need to grow.

[SPEAKER_00]: And boy, I gotta tell you, once someone touches a hot stove and burns their hand, they get kind of skittish around stoves.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it is with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We build the world of our relationships by the words that we use.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you can go days without someone calling you, there's a good chance that you're not giving the encouragement and the uplifting demeanor that God designed this to.

[SPEAKER_00]: A word spoken in due season, that implies self-control, doesn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Waiting for the right time to deliver the message to say the thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 179, he who covers a transgression seeks love, but he repeats a matter separate friends.

[SPEAKER_00]: Another point about the sadness that we love to repeat a good story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you hear about so and so?

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you hear what they did?

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you hear what happened to them?

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you hear what they said back?

[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 213, whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles.

[SPEAKER_00]: I find it tough to slow down, maybe for you, it's others.

[SPEAKER_00]: And slower tongue when I'm passionate.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, owing to something that I don't fully understand, I am often passionate.

[SPEAKER_00]: I regularly get the subtle review of tell us how you really feel brand.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I know what it means.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's because I'm comfortable living in a world of such emotive kind of high spirits and you know high highs and low lows it's often too much for others to experience it encounter and I'm sorry if you've been the victim and that I'm sure you have at some point or another if not personally then corporately.

[SPEAKER_00]: But nevertheless, we find it is tough to slow down when we allow ourselves to be overly invested in our emotional passions.

[SPEAKER_00]: It could be from a bad night's sleep, it could be from, again, dietary problems, health issues, whatever it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: But just to recognize that when we are passions are at their height, when we're more likely to be emotional in response, it is more

[SPEAKER_00]: it's said of George W. Bush that his bride had and he had a secret code that when he started getting a little bit too high on the, on the horse or whatever it was, that she would just gently pat his thigh and say something the effect of calm down buddy, and he wouldn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully you have someone in your life, I do.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can say, calm down, buddy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go take this a little bit far.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's tough to slow down when you're passionate.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's tough to slow down when you're defensive.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you feel like you're under attack or that you have to defend yourself or somehow establish your character, your value, your worth in the room, it can be really easy to talk too quickly to say too much and to respond in a way that is ungodly and finally when you're afraid.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're vulnerable at least at least at those three times and possibly many others.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, that's when you need to be on guard and keep your eyes most firmly fixed on Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Though Christian life is not a promise that you're always going to feel,

[SPEAKER_00]: The way you want to feel, quite to the contrary, but it's learning to rely on Christ through those difficulties.

[SPEAKER_00]: Quick to hear, slow to speak, and finally, slow to wrath.

[SPEAKER_00]: anger is undoubtedly the most wrath in this case, the most powerful emotion when it comes to changing or dictating behavior, particularly towards negative behavior.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why your favorite news source, I don't care which one it is, is trying to get you mad all the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because mad people are stupid people, along with fear for people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Easy to lead, easy to deceive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anger makes us ultimately manipulatable.

[SPEAKER_00]: And might I say to the men in the room, this is a greater challenge oftentimes for us than it is for the fairer sex.

[SPEAKER_00]: in our fearfulness of dealing with realities and emotions, most of us are trained by society and otherwise, to find out that we can get out of the hard conversation by wielding anger as a weapon.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that can either be some form of defense or otherwise.

[SPEAKER_00]: The secularly speaking, we think of the components of anger, as having a cognitive component.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's our good and just response to something that we feel is unjust or evil, wicked, or is other than it should be.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whether it is when you hammered your thumb, anger is the response because you know you shouldn't have hammered your thumb and you may be a little embarrassed for being so bad at your hammer aim game, but nevertheless,

[SPEAKER_00]: It goes as far as seeing things occur in the world, whether it's politically or on the world stage, or in our own neighborhood or household that are fall short of the expectations of ultimate right.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's an emotional component.

[SPEAKER_00]: It comes with heat, emotional heat, agitation, and inability to rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can keep us up at night.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can keep us from being reasonable in any given situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that comes with a physiological component as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our heart rate goes up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our adrenaline may even add into the situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we can get into this weird fight or flight mode because of the simple introduction of the emotion of anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: And finally, it comes with behavior impulse.

[SPEAKER_00]: The desire to confront correct, retaliate or fight is always close at hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the classical way of thinking about anger going back to our Greek poets and such and so forth, measured or divided anger into proper anger, which was measured, justified, and proportionate to the situation, and contrasted that with excessive anger, which is rage, which brings violence and destruction, and then, let's talk about deficient anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: an apathy towards evil.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they would view and I think wisely so would view either of the second two categories as being immensely destructive.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you are plagued by excessive anger, then I promise the negative results in your life will be seen clearly.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if we are also plagued by deficient anger and apathy, then we are not going to fulfill the call that God has on our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we have to answer the question, as often comes up, is anger sinful?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we see that God expresses anger in several situations.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that, as God's character is our ultimate standard of right and wrong, we have to say that it has value there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then Ephesians 4, 26 to 27 tells us be angry and do not sin and also do not let the sun go down on your wrath.

[SPEAKER_00]: never nor give the place to the devil.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here an important point that anger is not sinfulness.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a sinful.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a natural response to situations that don't fall short of the expectation.

[SPEAKER_00]: So now let's talk about this concept of being slow to wrath.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've mentioned it several times, but you can't read James without understanding the Old Testament.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is constantly calling upon Old Testament wisdom and specifically in the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ecclesiastes, seven Nines, has done not hasten in your spirit to be angry for anger, rest in the bosom of fools.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did not hasten to be angry.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, who wants to hasten to be angry?

[SPEAKER_00]: Lots of us, anger is a safe place.

[SPEAKER_00]: And our disgusting society that we see today, anger justifies the most inane and absurd viewpoints, just saying, I'm really mad about this means that someone else is responsible to do something far to the contrary, saying you're really mad about this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Probably means you're an infant, and you need to grow up.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet we run around addressing people's disappointment frustration or emotional response to things as if that is a valid input in the larger discussion.

[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 15, 18 says, a wrathful man stirs up strife, but he was slow to anger, a lays contention.

[SPEAKER_00]: So again, the picture of being a wrathful person is going to be important as we continue to go on in this discussion.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the reality is, is that many of us have built into our sin nature, if not all of us, a love of strife, a love of conflict, and that anger within us finds its expression all over our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: And tragically, we often, when we were plagued by that anger, lied to ourselves and say, well, it was her fault.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was his fault when it's us, causing the difficulty.

[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 15, 18, a wrathful man stirs up strife, but he was slow to anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll admit, did I do that twice?

[SPEAKER_00]: I did that twice.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so glad I recognized that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I might have just rigged gone over it again.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, ah, he's having a stroke.

[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 1632 he was slow to anger is better than the mighty and he rules his spirit than he who takes a city Okay, this is this is one.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to park on for just a little bit Here Solomon is giving us a very clear statement who's better?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who is better the person who rules an entire city?

[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, better than that person is the person who rules his spirit

[SPEAKER_00]: wild reality.

[SPEAKER_00]: The peak of human experience and expression of maturity is to have self-control over your emotions over your spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know that as a fruit of the spirit, something that we would not have apart from the work of Christ and walking by means of the Holy Spirit, but it is something

[SPEAKER_00]: Having control over yourself is not being sad or dead inside or anything else.

[SPEAKER_00]: Having control of your emotions is a sign of maturity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 1911, the discretion of a man makes him slow to anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we see that it comes from that important act of discretion, which is exactly what James is talking about and is being built through trials.

[SPEAKER_00]: If that discretion, the ability to choose what we're going to allow to affect or impact our emotions and then how we're going to allow that emotion to impact our words or actions.

[SPEAKER_00]: And his glory, it says, is to overlook a transgression.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just wanted to spend a little bit more time on this final concept.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's his make no friend, friendship, Proverbs 22, 2425 with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Last you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is a line, and I don't know precisely where to state it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Between having anger, having anger issues, becoming an angry person.

[SPEAKER_00]: A person for whom anger is constantly bubbling below the surface.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know this person, if you don't, if you are not this person, you know this person.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one you're kind of tenuous to even approach, because you know in the past that you've had your head bitten off your hand slapped, you thought you were just asking a simple question and you got a very angry response with no apology or recognition of anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: becoming an angry person is so great that it is even disqualifying or disqualification towards biblical eldership to be quick tempered or violent or pugnacious is something that a pastor or a leader of a church and elder cannot be.

[SPEAKER_00]: The big deal is an important point.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's difficult for us because anger is such an efficient tool.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the get away from me tool, it's the get off my back tool, it's the how dare you tool, it's the I'm never wrong tool.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's so easy to wield, a mild threat of violence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so has so many different applications and ways in which we can yield it can come out in terms of huge explosions or passive aggressive statements or a bitter silence.

[SPEAKER_00]: exercise for months, weeks, days, whatever it takes.

[SPEAKER_00]: But an angry person falls short again of what God would have for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: So how do we manage anger?

[SPEAKER_00]: What do you do?

[SPEAKER_00]: You say, Brad, I'm ready to be honest, I'm an angry person.

[SPEAKER_00]: Me too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nice to meet you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have a club.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a great time, but I suggest you come.

[SPEAKER_00]: all the angry people together, see what happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: First, walk by means of the Spirit, walk in moment by moment reliance in the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: If anger is your sin pattern, the only answer will be found through the healing and the new life given to us through Jesus Christ and expressed through that moment by moment fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, remember, and remind yourself regularly, vengeance belongs to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are not God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore it is not for you to solve every problem or to distribute vengeance and justice and judgment in every situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Fusions four, 31 and 32 and Colossians three, eight through 12 just, admonish us to put it away.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is back to that personal responsibility that you have over the inside of your mind, your soul.

[SPEAKER_00]: You get to decide what you think about.

[SPEAKER_00]: You get to decide what you dwell upon.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can dwell upon Christ or you can sit around and let your mind bring about the next thing to be angry about.

[SPEAKER_00]: The next thing to be upset about.

[SPEAKER_00]: The next fight, the next battle, the next problem, or the last one.

[SPEAKER_00]: And just rehearse how you were right all the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: publish your faith or eyes on the Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Learn about forgiveness, Ephesians 432.

[SPEAKER_00]: Learning to admit fault, because I find for me my anger problems are far more related to the things that I know that I've done wrong, failures that I've made that I'm afraid to admit, because then I'd have to apologize or accept that I'm not the appropriate judge for every other situation that I want to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: Learning to admit fault, truly, with a sense of repentance, growth, change, is critical in dealing with and learning to dissolve that internal anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, receiving forgiveness, first and foremost from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, we've all theologically and intellectually committed to the idea, the reality, that Jesus Christ died for your sins, and by trusting by faith in Him, you too are forgiven, eternally, spiritually, permanently forever and ever, amen, no takebacks, no dissolution.

[SPEAKER_00]: But to truly recognize how we've hurt others,

[SPEAKER_00]: and receive that forgiveness from the Lord, and hopefully from that person when we are able to apologize, will always bring about God's desire.

[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, forgiving others for the hurts that they have done to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not suggesting we become door mats or victims by any stretch of the imagination.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm guessing that there's someone in your mind when I said, you need to forgive others.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord brought someone right to the forefront.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure you have every excuse us, angry people always do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, every excuse.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I shouldn't have to forgive them because they didn't ask.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I shouldn't have to forgive them because I didn't, I shouldn't have to forgive them because,

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're going to live outside of that bondage, then you have to learn that the one who forgave you forgave you fully and eternally.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is the forgiveness that he has placed and given you the ability to forgive others.

[SPEAKER_00]: or you'll live in their bondage forever or the bondage of that anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: What human anger can do?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's clear.

[SPEAKER_00]: Human anger can destroy, can separate, can alienate, can frighten, can intimidate, and can threaten.

[SPEAKER_00]: As I said, it's one of the most powerful tools we have in our human toolbox, emotionally speaking.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what human anger cannot do is, as James tells us, produce.

[SPEAKER_00]: That means to work to make or accomplish.

[SPEAKER_00]: It cannot accomplish this one thing for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it is the righteousness, it could be righteousness or justice of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now there's two options here.

[SPEAKER_00]: It could be that it cannot produce God's righteousness as a noun that is to say the quality of righteousness, but nothing we would ever do would produce that anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: Secondarily it could be in this more likely.

[SPEAKER_00]: The kind of righteousness, that God desires.

[SPEAKER_00]: And human anger, human wrath, we are told with absolute 100% assurance will never accomplish the righteous desires and plans of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there it is, this wonderful picture of maturity.

[SPEAKER_00]: It sounds impossible, perhaps, to some of us, especially for those of us who are slow to hear, quick to speak, and quick to wrath.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I assure you, with God all things are possible.

[SPEAKER_00]: as you abide in your position in Christ, as you rely upon the Holy Spirit, this is the kind of character that you can look to come forth, to grow forth to the glory of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's close with the order prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Heavenly Father, I will be praising thank you for this wonderful and clear message that James gives us in these verses.

[SPEAKER_00]: So simple.

[SPEAKER_00]: And thus, for us and our blindness and our arrogance, so easy to overlook, to push past, or to pray for each of us that you would give us wisdom, to see that kind of character grow forth in our life by the implanted word, by the working of your son Jesus Christ, by the working of your spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: that we might be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to wrath, and thus show, not in just the things we say and do, but in the manner in which we do them, the incredible supernatural power that you exercise in the life of a believer in Christ and with