Your Words Reveal Your Heart | Book of James | DJ Heyward

Amen.

Amen.

Well, um, hey Central.

How are you?

All right, awesome.

Hey, my name is DJ.

I am the Glendale Campus pastor.

And man, I love what we've been doing in the book of James.

Uh James being the book of wisdom and how we get to put our faith that we have into action.

Uh James is about a book that is, man, about a faith that works, that we get the input in our in our daily lives.

We're gonna continue that today.

Uh James uh chapter three is where we're gonna be.

So James chapter three, uh, we're gonna be uh one through twelve, and we're gonna get there in a moment here.

Uh throughout human history, uh we've seen different movements of people.

Movements of people that we've seen them be attached to a cause, that they're going after a specific mission.

When we think about these groups of people or or or or even uh cities or countries, a movement of people, they've all had one thing in common.

And what they have in common was that they all had a person or maybe a few people at the center of it.

And they were all great orators, they used their speech to move people into a specific direction.

We could think about people like Nelson Mandela, who wanted to abolish apartheid in South Africa.

He was able to use his speech to move his country to where he thought it should be.

Here in our own homeland, Martin Luther King Jr., who used his speech to be able to combat the civil rights or the lack of civil rights that black and brown people had.

We see it in his speech that I have a dream speech, or the letters from Birmingham jail.

He was able to use his speech to impact the world around him.

We can even think about Gandhi, who wanted to free India from British rule, who gave us words that uh gave us a wisdom like there's no way to peace.

Peace is the way.

And I bet all of you can think of many more people.

Many people who led movements throughout history of people uh going after a specific cause or a specific mission.

But you can also think of people who use their voices to inspire evil and destruction in their life or in their cities or in their countries.

We can think about both things.

And here's the thing that I believe that we understand that there's no such thing as just words.

Words have power, they shape the way that we see others.

Words shape the way that we interact with other people and how people see us, they invoke feelings.

There's no such thing as just words.

Have you ever been in a conversation where you left the conversation and you were drained afterwards?

Like the life was sucked out of you.

Or have you ever been in a conversation where you were maybe you were in it in a, well, maybe you're, this is more listening than a conversation, where you were in a conversation what we would call a prolonged conversationalist.

Someone that can just talk on and on and on and on, and the type of person where you can literally sit down the phone, walk away, go do some laundry.

You could come back and pick up the phone, and they never knew that you were gone.

Those types of conversations kill me.

Like I just want to rip my ears out.

You know what I mean?

I can't, I can't, I can't take it.

Or maybe you were like this, where you had a moment in your life where you said something to someone, and you can like see the words kind of float out into the ether, into that person's ears, and you're just trying to pull them back.

Like I as I'm saying, I wish I can I could just pull these words back in my mouth.

I remember when I was in about, I think I was like seventh grade or something like that, and me and a friend, we were goofing around at, I think it was gym class or I don't know what we were doing.

We were we were goofing around, and as young kids, teenagers do, you roast each other, and I was we were roasting each other back and forth, and then I I said something, I think I just pulled it out, like pulled it out the depth of my sin.

And I said something to her that I knew as soon as I said it, I crossed the line.

I saw the look on her face.

I knew I just messed up.

I messed up.

Our words and what we say matter.

When we read scripture, we see that it matters to God.

In the scripture that we're gonna read today, we see that it also mean it matters, it mattered to James.

It matters to James.

So what we're gonna do, we're gonna be in James chapter three.

I'm gonna start in verse one.

Let's read together.

Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

We all stumble in many ways.

Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

So let me stop right here in these first few verses.

James is laying out his cards right on the table.

Like if you are going to use your words, use your speech to influence others, that comes with a heavy responsibility.

Something that you have to take into account.

And if we could talk about in our own lives, like we all can influence others with our speech, but in our culture today, we have so many people that are claiming to be teachers.

Anyone, anywhere, at any time can flip on a phone, turn on a camera, turn on a microphone, and be an expert on whatever it is they claim to be an expert in.

And James is letting us all know hey, we have to be really careful about the words that are coming out of us.

We have to be really careful about that.

And here is why.

Let's go back to verse 3.

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 are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder.

Wherever the pilot wants to go.

Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.

Consider what great force is set on fire by a small spark.

The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.

It corrupts the whole body, says the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

James is making the case that if we are to be believers and followers of Jesus, we have to watch our tongue.

Or as my dad would say, you better watch your mouth.

Some of y'all know what I'm talking about.

Hey, you need to watch your mouth.

And some of y'all came with an axe, you better watch your mouth.

You know what I mean?

You gotta watch your mouth.

And sometimes you even gotta pay attention to how you say something, not just what you say.

Because what we say matters.

You can set the course and direction of your life.

Look at the images that James gives us in this passage.

Two of the three images that he gives us are modes of transportation.

One is of a horse, and all of us have probably seen a horse or seen a horse in carriage or seen it on TV, but they are directed by a small instrument that is inside of their mouth that directs the path and the direction of where the horse is going.

And you also can look at the second image, which is that of a ship.

That is a large vehicle that is directed by a small rudder.

As to say, what we say can direct the course of our life.

There's a third image that James gives us.

And it's one of a fire that is set off by a small spark that lets the whole earth, the whole earth, the whole forest, uh become on fire.

Now, when you think about wisdom, as James is trying to give us, an out-of-control fire is not what you think of.

See, the small fire that is out of control, James is telling us an uncontrolled tongue is to have an uncontrolled life.

To have an uncontrolled tongue is one to have a life of that is of chaos.

That if we aren't paying attention to what we say, we are going to live a life that is uncontrolled.

What we say matters.

If you are feeling like James is over the top, like maybe like you're like, hey, this is this is kind of serious, just about what we say.

Like, does that really, does it have to matter that much?

Like, didn't we have something in our life, you know, in our in our culture where we would say sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me?

I would imagine that there are some of you, probably all of us, that we go back into our history, we can think about words that were spoken over us that we would say, actually, give me the sticks and the stones.

Like, because what was said to me, what was said to me cut deep.

And it's not just a broken bone that can just be healed and I'm on my way.

No, it's something that gets triggered and reopened, and something that's in my heart that's hurting me deeply.

Give me the sticks and the stones.

I'll take the broken, I'll take the broken bone.

What you allow to come out of your mouth can have lasting impact.

We have to understand that.

So here's all I want us to do.

Excuse me.

Here's what I want us to do.

I want you in your seats right now.

I want you to take some inventory and grade yourself.

And this is what you're gonna do.

What you're gonna grade yourself on is if you were to take a moment and grade yourself on how healthy or toxic your speech is, what grade would you give yourself?

Let's do a one to ten.

You don't have to write it down.

Don't raise your hand either.

Keep that to yourself.

Okay.

But think about uh spouses, girlfriends, boyfriends, those are in romantic relationships.

How would you grade yourself about the words that you use to build one another up or to tear one another down?

How would you grade yourself?

Parents, guardians, aunts, uncles, grandparents, how would you grade yourself on the words that you speak over the kids in your life?

Are you tearing them down?

Or are you giving them life through the words that you say to them, that you speak over them?

What grade would you give yourself?

For those of you who are heading into work tomorrow, what about the gossip that goes on goes along, goes around in your offices, your work trucks, your teacher's lounges, wherever it is that you may be?

Where you talk about people behind their back instead of going directly to the person and addressing the issue that you have with them, that you just become a part of the gossip mill inside of your circles, or you degrade someone that God calls his beloved child because you want to make yourself feel better.

You gotta watch what you say.

What about your social media post?

Where in person you are kind, but if you were to read your social media post, what grade would you give yourself during this political kind of season that we're in?

What does it look like?

Do people see you and see a political party, or they read your post and see the person of Jesus?

What do they read?

And it's just not about interacting with others either.

What about the negative self-talk that you give yourself?

How would you grade yourself?

Like if you were to share what you say to yourself to other people, you would never say that, but you say those things to yourself.

What grade would you give yourself?

Where you just ignore the fact that you are also a beloved son or daughter of the Most High God, of Jesus who died for you.

You just forget all of that and you participate and just beating yourself down and beating yourself to where God has never had you to be.

You know, we could become so accustomed to just saying whatever.

Like in our culture today, we just kind of say whatever.

I mean, we look at our TV, our politics, our social media.

People just say whatever, whenever to whoever.

And James is writing to us, to the people who are saying you're gonna follow Jesus.

He's writing to us and saying, not so with us.

We will not be known by that.

We will be known by something different.

Because the words that we say can either destroy or build, to cause damage or to do good.

And we must choose good.

Let's continue reading together as James addresses this.

Starting in verse 9.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings who have been made in God's likeness.

Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.

My brothers and sisters, this should not be.

Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?

My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives or grapevine bear figs?

Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

He's saying, Not so with us.

Sean pointed out last week that we come to church and we sing praises to God, and some of us are crying during our worship, and then we then the crazy thing that we do as humans is that we show up to our workplaces tomorrow or schools tomorrow, and then it it looked like we were never in this space.

Because the words that are coming out of us that are flowing out of us don't represent the person of Jesus, represents what's going on inside of us.

What you say can have a massive impact on the world around you.

Because what flows out of you reveals what's inside of you.

Like all of us have, but it's really clear about who his major influences were.

And number one would be the book of Proverbs.

So we know about the book of Proverbs, it's what is called some wisdom literature in the Old Testament, is where we see all the wisdom writings of King Solomon.

And it's really clear that James is also influenced by the book of Proverbs.

I mean, even the way that he writes his book stylistically is like the book of Proverbs.

Even scholars today will refer to James as the Proverbs of the New Testament.

He was highly influenced by the wisdom writings and wanted us to not only just learn the wisdom writings, you have to do the wisdom writings.

That's what wisdom truly is.

It doesn't just live up here, it causes us to respond out there.

And his second major influence, obviously, is his big brother, Jesus.

Jesus is a huge influence on the writings of James.

If you go, if you Bible nerds out here, if you want to do an exercise, um, have uh the book of Matthew, read through the book of Matthew, and have the book of James open, and just watch how James uh addresses some of the very same issues in some of the very same ways that Jesus is attacking those issues.

And what we say is one of those issues.

Jesus cares deeply about what we say.

In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we see Jesus direct uh directly address the words that come out of our mouth.

And in the book of John, he is called the word.

Jesus cares deeply about what we say.

Because I believe the reason why James and Jesus take this so seriously is because they understand that the words that we say are a reflection and they reveal what is going on inside of us.

They're just a symptom.

Kind of like when I'm sitting with a married couple and they come to me with an issue about finances.

And you start to talk to them, and we're chatting about, hey, what's going on in their finances, and you come to realize, and I come to realize, hey, what we're talking about here is not necessarily a finance issue or a math issue.

It's a marriage problem.

Maybe it's a problem of pride, a problem of vulnerability, a problem of trust, a problem of disconnection.

Even more and more today, a problem of gambling.

Which is really destroying a lot of marriages today.

But underneath of the finance problem, that's just a symptom of the real problem.

It's a marriage issue.

And it's much of the same way what comes out of us, what flows out of our heart and through our mouths.

It's a different, deeper issue.

I want you to listen to the words of Jesus.

It'll be on the screen.

This is Luke 6.45.

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.

Listen to this.

For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

The words that you say reveal the condition of your heart.

Pay attention to that.

The words that you say reveal the condition of your heart.

What I said to my friend back in middle school, that evil thing that I said to my friend back in middle school, like that was that was a condition of my heart.

Like there was something, there was a mess going on inside of me.

When I think about Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, MRK, and so many other people who led causes because they believed deep inside of their souls that this is what they're supposed to be going after.

And then even in our own personal lives, the vengeful uh rhetoric, the way that we put down our loved ones, the way that we speak about ourselves comes from a place where we know it's a mess.

What is going on inside of our heart?

What has your heart been filled with?

What has your heart been filled with?

I can imagine that there's been times in your life, like me, where I had people speak over me wisdom and truth and stuff that is amazing, that made me feel like I can conquer the world.

Maybe it's stuff like a teacher who told you to go get that degree.

A coach saying to you, go take that shot.

A grandparent's prayer that was spoken over you, that you still remember to this day.

Maybe some of you can think of words that was spoken over you that felt like poison to your soul.

Maybe it's something like you're not good enough.

You'll never accomplish that goal.

Why can't you be more like I never loved you.

That one really caused a lot of damage in our family.

I never loved you.

My wife, Courtney, excuse me.

My wife, Courtney, is a product of teenage parents.

And her dad was only about 15 years old when he found out, you know, they they were pregnant.

So as you can imagine, for those of you who have young people in your lives, like that's not gonna get off to a good start.

They actually were never, her, her dad and and mom were actually never together.

And when Courtney got a little bit older, she was five years old, her dad moved away and uh married her um stepmom.

And she never really embraced Courtney from the very beginning.

Courtney always felt like an outsider.

She always felt like she was never good enough.

She always felt like she was the problem child.

And then when she was about, excuse me, when she was about 14 years old, I want you to listen to this, she was about 14 years old.

This is after a church service, her ex-stepmom now uh pulls her to the side in their kitchen and tells her, hey, listen, I need to confess something to you.

I need you to know that I never loved you.

And from there it perpetuated a lie inside of my wife's heart that you are unlovable.

So there were times in our mark, especially early in our marriage, where we're feeling a disconnect.

And most of the disconnects because of my stupidity, okay, most 99% of them.

But there were other times where we were feeling the disconnect and where she was believing a lie that was spoken over her 10 plus years ago.

Her heart was filled with things that were not true.

Let me show you something.

Throughout our lives, we see things like and experience and hear things like you're not good enough.

Maybe it's people's experiences of you and expectations of you.

It could be, it could be people's desires for you that don't align with you.

It could be failures that you've had, it could be, gosh, it could be uh social media that you're comparing yourself to.

It could be the the politics that are in the world that are causing fear inside of your heart.

It could be all these different things.

And then as you go through life, your heart is being filled with a bunch of mess.

Just a bunch of mess that when you look at it and you take a look at it, you realize that, oh my gosh, God never put this here.

He never intended for you to be filled with so much pain and hurt.

And before you know it, the stuff that is coming out of you, that's flowing out of you, is a result of what has been put inside of you.

But God didn't put that there.

Lies that the enemy wants you to believe.

Hurts and hangups that you maybe sometimes even allowed yourself to be a part of is not what God had for you.

But you know what the truth is.

The truth is there is only one person that can take this out of your heart.

And it's the person of Jesus.

He is the only one that can take this out of your heart.

Yes, sometimes we can we can maybe say something that's nice or or somebody can say something over us that's nice, but it gets filled back up.

The only person that can that can reveal and tell us what does not belong is the person of Jesus.

He's the only one.

And so, and so what we need to do is come to the person of Jesus.

Because here's what happens.

What we need to do is spend our time with Jesus.

You know what Jesus is called?

He's called the living water.

And so as we spend time with Jesus, something starts to change inside of us.

He starts to change things.

And maybe you go for a little bit, but then you stop.

But Jesus is saying, No, you need to come to me, all of you who are hurting and broken and weary, come to me and I will fill you up.

I will give you the rest that you deserve and that and that you need it.

And it comes through the person of Jesus.

And so what you need to do is to spend more time with him.

Sean talked about it last week.

He talked about how what we need to do is we need to go to the mirror, which is the scriptures.

And as I said earlier, Jesus is called the Word.

So as we are examining the scriptures, as we are examining the mirror, Jesus is revealing things inside of us that do not need to be there.

Another thing that Jesus is doing, as we read the Bible, He's showing us what should be there.

And so as we spend time in our Word, man, something amazing happens.

You know what's amazing about what James did in his in this book that we are going through?

Because Sean talked about last week about how we need to spend time in examining the mirror.

You know what the next verse says?

The very next verse after that scripture, and this this is what James writes those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues, deceive themselves, and the religion is worthless.

So as you spend time with Jesus, the shame and the hurt and the pain and the lies, they move away from us.

And even as even as they start to try to come back, what happens?

They just stay on the surface.

Even when you try to shove them in, you can't.

We'll be honest for a second.

Can we be honest, Church?

Illustrations like these, as we start to live them out in our life, they usually break apart at some point.

Because what really happens in real life is somebody comes over and they tip over your whole, they they tip it all over.

Or they come with a bat and they shatter it all over all to pieces.

It's just pieces everywhere, and you're just stuck with a mess and you're just trying to put it all back together.

But here's what Jesus is his promises to you is that he will be with you in all of it.

There's a beautiful picture of this in Jesus' life when he is with the woman at the well.

You can read this in John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

He is with this woman who is an outcast who has a lot of pain inside of her.

Her life has been destroyed, and and her glasses are all over the place.

Jesus sits with her and he starts to talk to her about this living water.

She's at the well trying to get water, but Jesus is trying to show her something else.

That what she's looking to be filled with is not enough based on all the trauma that she has had in her life.

This is what Jesus says to her.

Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.

But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.

Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

See this right here?

I only have one picture.

Jesus says that I have a well that never ends.

He says that I have a well that you never have to worry about again.

You have to keep coming to Jesus so that your heart will be filled with him.

All the shame that's trying to be attached to you in your life.

Jesus, like you don't have to live in that anymore.

You do not have to, but you need to come to me and let me fill you up so that we can become people that are known by building each other up, by building others up with the words that we say.

That when people leave our presence, that we are people that are filled with the Holy Spirit, and they leave our presence being filled and not drained.

Because the words that you say reveal the condition of your heart.

So what are you gonna fill your heart with?

Better yet, who are you gonna fill your heart with?

I hope you do it with him.

Last week, Sean gave a challenge to all of us.

He says, Man, you have to go back and to examine yourself through the scriptures.

You have to go look in the mirror, you have to go spend time in the scriptures, and I want to reiterate that challenge.

He said last week, man, take the first, take the five chapters of James, just do a chapter a day.

And maybe some of you missed last week, or maybe some of you forgot to do it because life got busy or whatever, but I want to say that challenge again.

Spend time in your scripture this week.

Spend time with the person of Jesus.

Don't allow yourself to get up in the morning, and the first thing that you pick up is your social media feed.

Maybe what you do this week is you take an index card and you write a verse on it and you tape it on your phone.

So the first thing that you see is the word of God.

And then you say that verse out loud.

You say that verse out loud because that's not only the first thing that you're reading, that you're internalizing, it's the first thing that you're saying in the morning.

Put it on your car.

Say it before you walk into the office.

Say it before you have that tough conversation with your spouse or your kids.

Because what I want to be, church, I want to be a church that is known by the things that come out of this church because we are filled with the person of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

What would it look like that central Christian church is going to lead a movement of people that can understand that they are beloved by the Creator?

What would it look like to be a church who loves thy neighbor?

What would it look like to be a church that accomplishes the Great Commission that starts a revival right in our midst?

Because we are part of the living water is inside each and every one of us.

The words that you say, they reveal the condition of your heart.

May the condition of our heart be filled by the living water.

That's the person of Jesus.

Can we pray together?

Lord Jesus, we thank you.

God, we thank you for who you are.

We thank you that you are a God that is not distant from us.

That throughout all the pain and the lies that we tend to put on ourselves, that you come right behind us, next to us, beside us, and inside of and say, That's not true.

You are my beloved son or daughter.

Father God, allow us to take these words that we're learning from your scripture and live them out in our lives.

That we don't just come a people where we sit and we listen and we do nothing.

We put your wisdom into action.

Lord, we love you and thank you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.