[0:00] It doesn't work that way. Your return always comes. It's nerve-wracking. It's my first time coming to a different church, even though I've been here before, I think once.
[0:12] Many of you are strangers, but it's good. In the Lord, we're all one. I thought of this bulletin. This is the day that the Lord has made in Psalms. He has made it, and He has made it beautiful.
[0:25] Since we have been living in a camping trailer for two weeks now, last week we were in Edmonton. Part of that was because of work.
[0:36] And then we came to Grand Prairie here for almost a week, camped at Saskatoon Island, and it's a beautiful campground. It's just great how God blesses you with the rain.
[0:50] It was so hot. It was so hot. A couple of days. And then yesterday it rained and kind of cooled it down. Just beautiful. My thoughts were that God, He's always in control, and He wants the best for us.
[1:04] Yes, as Saturday night, I was starting to think of, oh, what did I say yes to? And late at night, we kind of reread my devotion.
[1:20] Had to make some changes again. Because my... I find it very hard to put things down on paper. I would just like to speak it and have it.
[1:32] But then for that, I need to be more in the Word, to study the Word, and to memorize it. And that's where I plan to do and to study, to work with it, to go forward.
[1:46] And yes, as I wrote down some things here, since this summer, it's been a bountiful summer for even as I think of La Crete.
[2:00] We get hot days, and then we had three hot days, and then we had rain. And we had a couple of hot days, and we had rain. That's just the crops are... We have bumper crops, and the gardens were flourishing.
[2:12] And online, everywhere, everything's for sale or give away, because we have so much. And as I was thinking, I love quadding and all those kind of things. As we went out on our quadding trails, just the raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries, it was so much that you wouldn't starve.
[2:34] You could live there for months out in the woods this last summer. But then we've got to think about it. Our summer's coming to an end again.
[2:44] Harvest time, as someone asked for prayer for the farmers here in this community, and everywhere where we see the crops, even as we were in Edmonton, all the way to Grand Prairie, the crops are just bountiful, and God has richly blessed us again this year.
[3:01] And how we can gather them together to put them in storage bins for later on. But I will explain a little bit how I came into this position.
[3:20] I feel very unworthy to do something like this, where I have been. But God knows. He calls, and He will provide.
[3:31] And that's when I know to rely on God for this situation. So, I'll share a bit about my testimony here, and then I will go into the message.
[3:52] I married my beautiful wife, Helen, back in 92. We were blessed with three boys. We thought we had a big family already, so we stopped at three.
[4:04] But we could have had a lot more. And then they got married. Now we have three beautiful daughters, and two wonderful grandsons. And another one on this way.
[4:18] And one of our little grandsons is in the back. He does not have much patience. He's very energetic. He's a little redhead curly. Cute little boy.
[4:29] He has blessed us lots. And since we live in the creek, and they live in Grand Prairie here, so we've got to make our trips back and forth.
[4:41] Sometimes it doesn't seem that we see him often enough, but when we see him, we cherish it. But God has been preparing our session for some years.
[4:54] We were involved in youth group for six years. We enjoyed it, even though we had our ups and downs with the youth. And that's where I learned to trust in God.
[5:08] And when the tough times came, that's when we had to pray, go down on our knees, and to see how should I deal with certain situations.
[5:19] And, you know, in many of the youth, they have lots of energy to go. And some were there just to be away from the home, not sure, but they were not there to be under our control.
[5:38] So that's where God taught me to deal with these things. And I know there were a couple of young guys that I had a problem with.
[5:50] And so I went into their cabin and talked to them. First I prayed about it, and then I went and talked to them. Everything was clear. They were so honest with me. And later on, they have really appreciated me.
[6:07] And that's where I've seen how God works. You cannot always be so strict with certain people. You have to have patience, as God has patience with us. We need grace.
[6:17] So in February of 2019, I had a massive heart attack in the middle of the night. It's a miracle that I'm here, alive, alive here today.
[6:33] And I will try to explain this a little bit, because last time I explained it, my wife said I didn't. I should have put more details into it. And how God miraculously brought me through, because I should not be alive here, according to medical.
[6:49] So in January and February, I felt sick and weak many times. When I would come home from work, I would eat supper and then lay down for a nap.
[7:05] Had no energy to do anything. I loved snowmobiling. And I could take myself into trying it a few times. Me and a couple of friends were sledding in late February.
[7:20] So I decided to go, to go out there to enjoy the fresh air and the snow. And we went to Chetland, to the mountains here. So Friday we headed up. And then that Friday morning, yeah, that Friday morning we went sledding.
[7:36] It was beautiful snow. We just had a foot of snow. And we were on top of the mountain, and it felt so close to the clouds. And my thoughts were so close to God.
[7:46] But that's just human thinking. When we are Christians, we are close to God always. But they're just so close to the clouds that I was.
[7:57] Just felt good. I was very tired and weak a couple of times, but I kept going. But the next day I stayed at the hotel. Told the guys to go.
[8:09] I would rest and be ready the next day. The next day I went out there again, but it was very cold. And there again God had his hand upon us. It was minus 37.
[8:20] I seen my friends, they tried to start the snowmobiles. And I told them, I am going home. I'm done. So I packed up and went home. My wife was kind of surprised that I was home already.
[8:32] She wasn't expecting me until Sunday evening. When Saturday evening I was home. So Monday morning I went to work, feeling weak again with a runny nose.
[8:46] So that night I went to bed early. But then I woke up at 2 a.m. Since I'm a type 1 diabetic, I was low on sugar, so I had to have some sugar.
[9:00] But at 4 o'clock again I woke up again. I felt I needed to burp. My chest was tight. And I coughed and tried to sleep again there.
[9:15] And then chest pains and short of breath a couple of times. Then I thought of a heart attack was kind of there, but I thought, no, I'm too young.
[9:26] I'm energetic. Can't be. I went on my knees and cried to God. I asked Him to bring me through this. If it was His will, I would do whatever He wanted me to do.
[9:39] And this will always come back to me, because I said yes to I would do whatever He wanted me to do. So that's how I came into this position.
[9:52] But after that, I fell asleep again. So in the morning, I got up as nothing had happened. Went to work this week. Then I thought about it again that night and how I had felt.
[10:05] I was feeling good again. But that afternoon, I laid down for a nap. I slept until my wife came home from work. And she worked at school. She usually comes home around 3.20.
[10:17] And then she said, it's time to see the doctor. As the nurse took blood from me, she said to me that they were checking to see if I had a heart attack. It kind of dawned on me already.
[10:31] But I thought, so no. So when the results came back, then I saw a doctor freak out. And he hurried me into a room.
[10:42] And I believe they put blood thinners through the inner venous. I'm not sure what it was. They were putting, they had big inner venous tubes in my arms.
[10:54] And holding out my arm. And second, when he asked me, can you feel your heart cooling? I looked at him and said, no. I still didn't think it was so bad of what they were making it.
[11:05] And the third tube, and that was the last tube, and he was getting very anxious. He said, is your heart cooling? So I just decided I would say yes, because enough. But then it started, and then as I said yes, the heart started to cool off.
[11:18] So I mean, the blood was starting to flow again. So then he asked me, or he came in and asked me, how could you bear a heart attack like that?
[11:32] And I told him, I don't know. And then he said, you're a very tough man. But then he knew, oh, because I'm a diabetic. And that's the downfall of diabetics.
[11:44] If you have a terrible heart attack, you will not know it. It's just tightening. And then he asked me why I didn't come in earlier. And I said, I thought I was fighting the flu. And then he told me to call my family.
[11:57] And it still didn't dawn on me how bad it was. The doctor said he was sending me to Edmonton that evening yet. And I thought, man, I'm sitting here, and there's nothing wrong with me. There's some tubes in me.
[12:08] But I guess, yeah, I was going to Edmonton. So around 11.30 I was there. That was late. And usually they do not do these kind of things there. I had seven doctors there beside me.
[12:22] And they were calling back and forth what to do. I think they were thinking that I was supposed to be dead, and I would be dead there any minute. So one came over there and touched me. He said, oh, you're still warm.
[12:35] And he's kind of still alive. And we better get to work. So they wheeled me into an operating room. And that's where I found out how bad it was.
[12:47] They had to put three stents in. And that was around 2 o'clock at night they were done. And usually that late at night they will, something like this, if they can't wait, they will wait until the morning.
[12:58] So then I kind of thought, all right, okay, this was bad. Then I found out that the blockage was, the main big artery was 100% plugged. And the other one was 90.
[13:10] And there was another one at 80. And there's another one at 65 that they didn't touch. She said, we don't have to worry about that. And that's when I kind of thought, okay, I cried out to the Lord to help me, and I knew medical did not save me.
[13:32] There was our Heavenly Father that brought me through. And then I seen again, I always think about, I always said I wanted to, I wish God would do miracles nowadays.
[13:44] And wow, did I go through a miracle because, according to medical, I should not be alive. So I had to, so once they were done, they were still surprised with me how content and how easy I just took it because I didn't think it was so bad.
[14:10] And then I have to remind me, God was at work. He brought me through it. And it was worse than what I'm thinking. So I had to stay there for a couple of nights.
[14:26] And then we went home. We finished up our, once we were at home, we decided to stay on youth group. So we finished up our youth group term.
[14:37] Then we decided to take a break. But a year later, we were looking for a pastor couple and a deacon couple in our church. And then my heart, and I knew exactly what I had said that evening, that night.
[14:53] So, I knew already, God was working on my heart to prepare me. I had said yes, so I could not say no.
[15:05] And then my wife reminded me of a dream that I had. That was before we were even married. We were dating. And that was when I was in my partying life.
[15:17] I had a dream. I don't know why God gave me a dream, but now I see that I would become a pastor someday. And she kind of chuckled about that at that time. We were young. We were foolish.
[15:28] I don't even know why I even said those things, but I had a dream, and I told it to her. And now we can see how how our great Heavenly Father works. He has lots of time.
[15:40] He has a lot of grace. He's preparing each one. We don't know what we hold in our future, but He knows.
[15:51] And then my thoughts went back to the Old Testament, where Moses said in Exodus 4, verses 10 and 12, if you want to read, He said to the Lord, O my Lord, I am not equivalent, neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.
[16:17] So the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth, or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with you, with your mouth, and teach you what you shall say.
[16:35] And those last couple of verses, they are very comforting to me. He will teach me what to say. Because my thoughts, they run away, they run wild when I think of, yes, we have been youth group leaders, and I never really took that much time to really study the Bible, to read, and to, just to, speak out of it.
[17:01] And that has taught me many lessons. And my prayer is always for each one, you never know when you're going to be called out to do something, to, to be in the Word, to study it, to learn it.
[17:18] Even for me, as I bring the message, to see if I'm on track with God's Word. And for me, putting my thoughts onto paper, oh, it's bad.
[17:32] I, I, it's, I, I find it very hard to do this. I never liked school. I didn't like grammar in school. I would even, I would run from it, but I would miss it. Now I wish I had it, because putting periods and commas and everywhere and the places, it's hard.
[17:48] I would like to have three lines and then preach on it. And when I see some of our pastors that they have, but I have to remember, they have been in the, they have been in the Bible years and they have studied the Word, they can write three lines down and have, bring a message forward.
[18:06] My prayer is that I will be able to do this someday, to have a little bit of a line out and then bring the Word forward and to rely on God's Word. But for now, I wrote down everything to bring it forward and as you know, at our Cornerstone Church, I'm going to James and I brought part, I brought part of this message over there and I decided I would bring the whole chapter over here.
[18:37] Most of it, mostly on, will be on the tongue, what our tongue does, but I want to bring out the whole chapter but not find enough scripture or how to, just to bring the message in these 12 verses.
[18:57] So I decided to do the whole chapter and just to see where we are going to end up. But for me, I'm learning to trust God with everything and giving Him the glory and the praise to go forward.
[19:16] And this is not what man does but what God does through us. And He reminds me to remember what I've been doing here. I'm bringing forward His Word.
[19:29] And it's supposed to be a joy and a joyous thing because we have the best news what's up in the world. And I always give Him the thanks for this.
[19:41] So before we go in the message, let's ask the Lord for guidance and directions and then see where we can go with this. Heavenly Father, we come before you thrown in grace and I pray that you will give me boldness and Lord, if I've written things down, but Lord, if you speak to me and you want me to say things differently, I ask that you would just bring the words out, speak through me.
[20:11] And Lord, as we hear so many times, it's great news and we have the best news in this world to bring forward and it's supposed to be joyous and I pray that you will bring this joy through your reading now.
[20:27] and Lord, even as we as humans always seem so nervous to preach on your word, to bring it forward. So I just pray now for calmness, I pray for boldness, I pray that you will be with each one here, go through the rules and speak to each one that is sitting and listening here.
[20:49] Lord, not what I'm saying, but what you are saying and give them a joy in being under your word again as we come together on a Sunday morning just to be refueled and to go forward again through another week to fight this battle, to bring your word forward, to also for it to be a blessing among the people that we live with and even if we come in contact with new people, people that, also that our hearts would be burdened for their souls and where they are at.
[21:22] So Lord, I just pray that you will be with us here this morning and Lord, also our Cornerstone Church, just pray that there also that you would be with the people there and give them a joy and peace just to serve you and just want to thank you again for how you always provide.
[21:42] Pray all these things in your precious name. Amen. So the title of this message is The Untameable Tongue, even though it's just the first 12 chapters that basically talks about the tongue.
[21:55] But I thought I went, as I went through, there's actually more, these rest of the verses to kind of talk about the tongue. So I'm just going to reread this again.
[22:09] My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.
[22:27] Indeed, we put bits in horse's mouth that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships, although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds.
[22:41] They are turned by a very small router, wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a force, a little fire, kindles.
[22:53] And the tongue is a world of iniquity. Tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sea and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell.
[23:09] For every kind of beast and bird of reptile and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue.
[23:22] It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God.
[23:37] Out of the same mouth proceed blessings and cursing, my brethren. These things ought not to be so. Does the spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?
[23:50] Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives or a grapevine bear figs? Thus, no spring yields both salt water and fresh. Who is wise and understanding among you?
[24:03] Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy, self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.
[24:16] Though this wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensational, demonic. demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.
[24:32] But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
[24:42] Now the fruit of the righteousness is sworn in peace by those who make peace. So as I was preparing a message for this Sunday, my thoughts went back when I had it done in the message in our church on the tongue.
[24:59] Our tongue only speaks about what is in our hearts. So if we are filled with the Holy Spirit and God is in our hearts and mind, then we can control our tongue.
[25:17] As I was, James starts with saying, my brethren, and he does this in the first three chapters of the James.
[25:28] James, my brethren, meaning he's talking to believers in Christ, not to the world. He is telling us to have control over our tongue, our speech, and our mind.
[25:42] So in verse 1, let not many of you become teachers. It had me wondering, where is he going with this? What is he saying? Because we need a lot of teachers in church and even at home.
[25:58] We as parents, we are teachers. I think of Sunday school and Sunday school teachers. Sunday school is starting up pretty soon again. I believe when we teach, we need to know if it lines up with God, what God wants us to do, to teach, and not on our own thoughts or our ways that fit us.
[26:23] And sometimes if there's something in Scripture that we kind of want to turn away from, we have to be careful that we do not teach the way that would fit our way.
[26:39] Greater judgment awaits those who teach because the tongue has the power to influence many for good or for bad. We know everyone has a gift and some are very well gifted to be a teacher and we need them.
[26:57] In 1 Corinthians 12, 28 it says, And God has appointed these in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, and there's more to this verse, but here we see again that God has appointed this in the church.
[27:13] James is telling us, teaching is not a role we should take lightly. We need to search the Word for clear answers and to know what it is saying.
[27:27] For this to happen, we need to be reading the Bible daily and be on our knees in prayer to ask Him how to teach.
[27:38] And teaching is a very important part of life, especially to young children. I thought of a couple of verses in Romans.
[27:50] Romans chapter 12, verses 3 to 8. Romans 12, 3 to 8.
[28:09] verse 3 to 8. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
[28:23] For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another, having them gifts to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.
[28:41] If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith or ministry, let us use it in our ministering.
[28:52] He who teaches in teaching, and that's the verse I was looking at. He who is teaching in teaching and he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberty, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.
[29:09] So here again, just to, I thought of this verse in seven, he who teaches in teaching, but it means to know while we are teaching.
[29:29] And teaching is, and teaching is needed everywhere, in the home, at church, or even at work. At work, many times, we have some younger men working under us, we teach them how to do things, and as me, many years, I was a mechanic, so I had many under me to be taught how to do things, and the same as scripture.
[29:55] How do we teach them? We have to be taught first. We need to learn from God's word. So in James 3, verses 2 to 12, James acknowledges that all of us, in one way or another, say things we shouldn't.
[30:16] How many offenses have we committed by a slip of the tongue? How many people have we caused to stumble because of what we said in haste or in anger or in so-called humor?
[30:29] And how many people have we hurt? by gossiping about them. Our speech should change as we grow closer and closer to God, and yet, everyone still stumbles because no one is perfect.
[30:44] We are not perfect. We will stumble. What we do after that will show people around us if we have truly changed from the inside. When we slip, what should we do?
[30:57] Ask for forgiveness and repent from it. Humbling ourselves before God is the greatest thing. And I have a couple of verses here in Matthew chapter 15.
[31:08] 11 to 18. When he had called the multitude to himself, he said to them, Hear and understand.
[31:28] Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth just defiles a man. Then the disciples came and said to him, Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?
[31:43] But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind.
[31:55] And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into the ditch. Then Peter answered and said to him, Explain this parable to us. So Jesus said, You are also still without understanding.
[32:08] Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile a man.
[32:24] So here's what our heart is full of. That's what we will talk about. And yes, if we are out with friends, we will talk about farming, but what is our goal?
[32:39] What is our goal to visit with friends? And there again, what our heart is full of, that's what we will talk about. The tongue serves as a gauge of our spiritual condition, what our heart is full of.
[32:54] And here, James used two exhilarations to make his point about the power of the tongue and how it needs to be controlled.
[33:06] Illustration one of the horse's bit and the two is the illustration of the ship's rudder. Both make the point that the tongue is small but has great power.
[33:18] The bit in the mouth of the horse controls the direction of an animal, much larger than the rider. The small rudder on the ship guides a multi-ton vessel. To unruly nature, the tongue is seen in the fact that we can both bless God and curse men.
[33:35] Out of the same mouth proceed as blessing and cursing. With our tongue, we can leave big, ugly scars and bitter memories. All kinds of injustice have been caused by a lying tongue.
[33:49] So here again, people have been put into jail because of lying tongues. The tongue is untamable, capable of great destruction, but it can be controlled with the help of our mighty God.
[34:06] And here again, today, many animals have been taught, have been tamed by people, yet one of the smallest parts of the human body is untamed, unruly, without God's help.
[34:18] God, the human mouth is like that of a poisonous snake, always ready to strike. And James calls it a fire and a restless evil that is itself set on fire by hell.
[34:35] So we need, it shouldn't be that we praise God and curse people who are made in his image. God died for us on the cross.
[34:45] He wants to fellowship with us, so let's remember this the next time we are tempted to curse or say something bad about one another. And yet, as fallen people, we do this.
[35:00] James is trying to teach us how this small piece of flesh in our mouth can do so much damage. Just like a large boat is controlled by a small rudder, or how great a big forest fire is started by a small match.
[35:15] Proverbs 15.2 says, The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness. Encouraging words produce life-bearing fruit.
[35:29] In Proverbs 11.30, The fruit of the righteousness is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise. So when I had a couple of verses in Psalms about the tongue and how it can help us, so Psalms 12.1-4.
[35:47] Psalms 12.4. Psalms 12.4.
[36:09] Psalms 12.4. To the chief musician on an elegant harp, a Psalms of David, help, Lord, for the godly man ceases, for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
[36:24] They speak idly, everyone with his neighbor, with flattering lips and a double heart. They speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks proud things, who have said, with our tongue we will prevail, our lips are our own, who is Lord over us.
[36:46] And I, my main topic was on the verse 2, idly words. We speak idly about every, about our neighbor.
[36:58] There we need to be careful again. What we talk about our neighbors. I had to, just to make sure that I understood that word, I looked it up in the dictionary and that's what it said.
[37:22] I believe that it's something like backstabbing our unfaithfulness to our neighbor when we do these things.
[37:36] Or without, idly words means without much thought or effort or attention. And we need to be careful with this. And even in Psalms 52, 2 to 4, your tongue deceives destruction like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
[37:56] You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking, righteousness. Selah, you love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue.
[38:07] So here again, how often the tongue is used to shoot arrows at others with deadly results. The psalmist reminds us that we must never underestimate the damage that can be done by the tongue.
[38:21] Psalm 1, the words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. And also back in Romans 3, verses 13 and 14, their throat is an open tomb, with their tongues they have practiced deceit.
[38:44] The poison of apes is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. and there we have to be careful again how we are and whom we are together.
[39:00] And we live in a culture that often encourages crude and degrading language. In an attempt to conform and be accepted, some believers may resort to using the same kind of language.
[39:16] And here we have to be very careful again. let our fruits shine. But as a Christian, we, what we say should match who we are.
[39:29] After all, language reflects our values, beliefs, and attitudes. What does our language reveal about us? The Bible has lots to say about our tongue, good and bad.
[39:42] So I thought, let's focus on some good. good. But that can only be done when we walk close to our God. As I was listening to the radio on a Saturday morning before I did my devotion, I heard a speaker talk about laughter and marriage and honor.
[40:06] And here again, how do we make our marriage great? So how do we honor our spouses with our speech?
[40:19] One thing is never talk negative stuff about our spouses, especially when we are around our children and around our friends.
[40:33] So I will speak to us as men first, see how how we ought to speak to our wives. And my first thought was when your wife makes supper and it's the best, let her know.
[40:58] Encourage her. And do not, don't ever compare it with your mom's cooking. I think I once tried, didn't work very good.
[41:13] And then say I love you during the day or when you come in from work. Remind her, she's beautiful, on the inside and outside.
[41:27] I had written some stuff, I thought of we as men, we need to hold your hand, that has nothing to do with speech, but I believe in a way it does.
[41:48] Use kind words and pray together to see where our spouse is at. We can do many things with our speech to help with our marriage.
[42:05] There were just a few things for us men and I thought, what about the wives? And I'm a man of my vehicles, they're always spick and span clean, so I thought I write this down.
[42:23] When you come home, if your man comes home and greet him at the door, say hi to him, how was his day?
[42:36] Or give him a kiss if he looks grumpy. Sometimes that helps too. That will quiet him up. And when he comes home with his washed and shiny clean truck, compliment him on that, how shiny it is or how clean it is, let's encourage each other with kind words.
[43:02] And there's many more things we could say just to encourage each other to be joyful. And how are we joyful? When we use scripture to bring us forward.
[43:13] God's word. And sometimes we just need to sit down and listen to our spouses and see what they have to say. All these things will fall into place when we come closer to God.
[43:27] The closer we are to God, the closer we will be to our spouses. That is a given thing. And a slip of a tongue can make a big mess.
[43:40] Honour soft words. Lift up people. We need this, especially in the world we live in today. It's all about me, myself, and self-pleasing. In James 3 11, does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?
[44:04] A spring cannot produce sweet water one day and bitter water the next. here again as Christ followers we cannot praise a person and the next day we bring him down with mean words.
[44:22] So let us be careful how we interact with our, especially with our brothers in the church. Then I went back to James 3 12.
[44:33] Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives or a grapevine bear figs. Thus, no spring yields both salt, water, and fresh.
[44:47] Here again, fig trees never yield olives and grapevines cannot produce all bear according to their nature and our words are the revealing fruit of our lives.
[44:58] to the new believers in Christ. And I thought of the young believers that just got baptized or just became believers in the church.
[45:15] Make sure you know what you stand on and for what you believe in. As you choose friends to be with, that they won't drag you down, that wide, ugly road.
[45:30] Walk away when there is filthy language. God will always bless you when you stand up for the truth. And do not be ashamed to stand up for Christ. What better time to do this when you are young?
[45:44] And my thoughts are back to my younger days. The sooner we do this, the stronger and wiser we will become as we grow older. you won't have so many stumblings and downfalls.
[46:02] So then I thought I would that's and I thought some of these verses they were kind of there too. In verse 13, James 3 13 says, Who is wise and understanding among you?
[46:17] Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. So how can we recognize a wise person? That is the point of the question James poses in verse 13.
[46:32] He answered his own question by suggesting that wise can be identified by the behavior and by their humility. No one is wise whose behavior does not please God and conform to his word.
[46:49] The wise person will not only show wise behavior, but will also hold his wisdom with weakness. And meekness is not weakness, but strength under control.
[47:01] The meek person shows that strength by controlling his tongue and his conduct. So James 3.13 says, Who is wise and understanding among you?
[47:12] Let him show good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. How can we recognize a wise person? That is the point of the question James poses in verse 13.
[47:26] And he answers his own question by suggesting that the wise can be identified by their behavior and by their humility. no one is wise whose behavior does not please God and conform to his word.
[47:41] The wise person will not only show wise behavior, but will also hold his wisdom with meekness. And meekness is not weakness, but strength under control.
[47:54] The meek person shows that strength by controlling his tongue is his conduct. And in Matthew 11 verse 29, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
[48:13] We as believers should be able to give a reason for our inward hope and meekness. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 15, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defender who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
[48:39] So let's not forget we are who we are by the grace of God. So all the credit and praise belongs to God. Let's serve with meekness and humble and meekness and as we heard this morning, to be around humble people is easier to speak the gospel and that is the Lord's will.
[49:05] In Colossians chapter 1 verses 9 and 10 it says, For this reason we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing him being fruitful in every good work and increasing in knowledge of God.
[49:33] Here again as James asked, Who is wise and understanding among you? The passage you just read gives us some understanding. Godly wisdom is gained by studying his word.
[49:45] So we can't see any man who boasts in his own wisdom has denied that God is the source of wisdom. So let us never forget where wisdom comes from.
[49:59] And then back to James chapter 3 verses 14 and 16. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.
[50:11] The wisdom does not descend demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.
[50:24] And these three verses to me describes a worldly man living for his own pleasure and serving Satan. This is counterfeit wisdom, earthly because its source is not heavenly.
[50:38] Counterfeit wisdom reveals man in his natural state, his sinful, fallen condition. human wisdom are self-evident.
[50:52] There is confusion and evil work. And my thoughts went again. Let's look around the world today. Lots of confusion and evil stuff growing out in the world today.
[51:07] My thought was even as Russia is at war with Ukraine, in Canada our rights are slowly being taken away. Under our own eyes they are slowly being taken away.
[51:21] But let's not be downcast. We know who's in control and where our peace comes from. We as his followers never need to fear the world leaders.
[51:33] Let us turn our attention to God when these things happen. We do not need to fear. let's be joyful.
[51:43] Let's bring joy to the world. And also in James 17 and 18, here James describes divine wisdom it is from above.
[51:57] It's pure, it's peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits. The purity of God's wisdom is evident because God himself is pure.
[52:09] Wisdom from above is peaceable and gentle. God's wisdom deals gently with others and is always reasonable to us. And here again we need to certain things we need to deal gently with people.
[52:25] God's wisdom never inspires partiality. It does not try to make a good impression at the expense of honesty. Intolerance full exposure to the pure light of truth.
[52:37] it hides nothing. The power of the Holy Spirit is the only means by which a believer can have the wisdom of God and follow in his footsteps.
[52:50] We need his wisdom in today's situations to bring peace to the people who live in fear. Let's be bold with our faith then our good fruits will show.
[53:04] and even as we were in this last week in Edmonton my thoughts went back to this. There's many people walking in fear out there.
[53:18] You can just see the fear. We need to be bold and we need to be joyful and just to bring peace to the people. And if we do this what brings peace to us?
[53:36] And verse 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is shown in peace by those who make peace. Are we living in peace? If we are then we have the fruits of righteousness.
[53:50] Here again how we speak to people will show what our heart is full of. As verse 18 says make peace in this hostile world we can live in this hostile world we live we can be great peacemakers by sharing our testimonies and sharing God's love for the world.
[54:15] And even as many times even in churches here we try to bring people try to make people bring their testimonies forward just to share what's on their minds and that's another great thing to do to let us with us believers let us share our testimonies to help each other up.
[54:39] We know we all have temptations and we will fall. That is known but we need to share our inner things to uplift each other.
[54:53] God's wisdom is both divine and practical perhaps we need to reevaluate for use of time talents money and service to the church and our community.
[55:07] Also we may need to reflect upon our relationship with others around us or at work. What does our speech tell us tell others about us or our lifestyles and our attitude.
[55:23] With God's help we can live a life with purpose with meekness and love. Let's be a light in this dark world. Let's bring peace and joy to the people we meet.
[55:37] God wants us to enjoy our time here on earth and even though it's short really it's a short time on earth here to prepare us for eternity and even as I was talking to a truck driver a couple weeks ago he had broken down I work for Knausen so that I had to I am looking after the automotive side.
[56:08] He brought a truck to our shop from Peace River to we worked on I gave him a pickup and of course it broke down. so he had to wait there but an hour before I got there.
[56:21] I thought to man I wonder what kind of swearing man this will be. I know he wasn't a believer but just the words that he said he did not swear at me nothing.
[56:34] He was so content that I thought so wow. And then the last couple words that he said our life on earth is short. and somehow we got to do whatever we can.
[56:50] Man and I thought should I throw scripture in here and I waited one second too long and then as I was about to say this he said no I got to go now since he had been waiting there and he talked to me about 20 minutes.
[57:05] So then sometimes I think are we ready to share what God has done for us? We need to be open we need to be ready we're willing and ready just to go forward and say yes Lord and to bring joy to these people and yeah that man I still see him sometimes and I wish I would have opened my mouth and now I'm waiting for another chance just to see where he stands.
[57:34] He was very open it seemed like he was very open and that's where we need to be. We need to know scripture to memorize it and to bring it forward when we have opportunity.
[57:50] I was thinking of this summer a lot of us we love camping I know we are we love camping and we haven't done that much but this last week we did and so beautiful the how beautiful God makes the world and there again we need to be ready people around us to share the gospel and that could be our mission field right there at the campsite and let's be ready to share what God has done for us and I know for me I'm a miracle that I'm still alive and walking around and I still have to remind myself that yes miracle did not save me it was Christ that saved me I'm very thankful for this so as I brought this
[58:51] James chapter three through I hope you got what you needed out of this passage and now I've been studying it many times re-read it as I have been going through some classes how to repair messages they say read it read it and read it read it over and I did I have read it over many times and every time you read it over again you learn something more so I just hope and pray that you will do the thing same thing just read it over and see if it all matches to the scripture here and I know as Pastor Wayne sits here he's been a teacher I know he knows where we come from and I'm always blessed to be under his word so hope and pray that your heart's been filled this morning so in closing let's bow our heads heavenly father we come before you throne of grace and lord
[60:04] I want to thank you again for how you always provide and lord for the many words that I said today I just pray that they will go into each mind and each heart to go forward and lord to be uplifted and lord just with everything that we have and lord to be ready and willing to share what you have laid upon our hearts just to go forward and lord as you say that we have the best news to spread and we need reminders of this and I pray that this will be a morning will have been a reminder to just to go forward to spread the gospel to everyone that we come in contact with and to share with but lord to do it with joyful and with peace and lord we know that we will we fall many times and lord let not just hinder us to go forward we know this is not what satan likes for us to bring your word forward he would much likely like to make us run from it and we praise you and thank you again for you are much stronger than the one that is in this world so lord i just pray that you would be with each on here as we close and help us just to go forward with peace and joy and to think of what you have said to us this morning pray all these things in your precious name amen amen