WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.240 So we're in James chapter 3 tonight and we are talking about the tongue. So we're 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:13.120 gonna read, I'll read the passage for us and then I'm gonna tonight just kind of 00:00:13.120 --> 00:00:17.600 do an expositional bit of a verse by verse teaching through these 12 verses 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:24.800 that deal with the tongue. So if you have your Bibles turn to James chapter 3 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:32.480 starting in verse 1. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you 00:00:32.480 --> 00:00:37.320 know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness, for we all 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:41.920 stumble in many ways and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:48.079 perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:53.799 of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the 00:00:53.799 --> 00:00:58.839 ships also, though they are so large driven by strong winds, they are guided 00:00:58.839 --> 00:01:04.239 by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:10.799 is a small member yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:17.519 by such a small fire and the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The 00:01:17.519 --> 00:01:22.359 tongue is set among our members staining the whole body, setting on fire the 00:01:22.359 --> 00:01:29.599 entire course of life and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird of 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:35.319 reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no 00:01:35.319 --> 00:01:43.000 human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:48.799 it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:54.920 likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing, my brothers, 00:01:54.920 --> 00:02:01.399 these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening 00:02:01.399 --> 00:02:07.599 both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives or a grapevine 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:18.280 produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. This is God's word. 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:25.319 Now let me make sure I can share my screen real quick. I have some slides for 00:02:25.319 --> 00:02:35.800 you and pulling at Thomas Davis tonight. There we are. Can you all see that? Yes, 00:02:35.800 --> 00:02:40.759 okay good. Very good. Alright, so we're going to begin by looking at just kind of 00:02:40.759 --> 00:02:44.240 chunk by chunk. We're gonna look at the first two verses. Not many of you should 00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:49.120 become teachers, for teachers will be judged with greater strictness. Now I 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:53.200 just want to notice a couple things here. I will spend less time in this section 00:02:53.200 --> 00:02:59.200 and then the later sections. Teachers, teachers of the Bible particularly in a 00:02:59.200 --> 00:03:04.800 church context are judged according to their words. They're judged with a 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:12.120 greater strictness. And we all probably know that. I mean teachers primarily talk. 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:16.759 It's what we do. So of course the words that we say are really 00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:22.080 important. But I just want to draw this out. This is really important that 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:28.439 teaching in a church is more about responsibility than it is a privilege of 00:03:28.439 --> 00:03:37.439 status. And so I just want to say quickly that your ministers need your prayers 00:03:37.439 --> 00:03:44.039 more than they need your admiration. Now I think you already know that. But it's a 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:50.079 good reminder. I think the Lord wants us tonight to remember our teachers in prayer. 00:03:50.079 --> 00:03:55.840 I think that's very important. And not just of course our preachers, although 00:03:55.840 --> 00:04:00.400 I cover your prayers too. But you know if you're plugged into St. Columbus you're 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:04.159 in a city group most likely. Your city group has one, two, maybe three teachers 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:09.280 who teach occasionally. If you're joining the Abide Studies you're gonna have 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:14.319 you know four, five, or even six different teachers next month in the next two 00:04:14.319 --> 00:04:20.560 months. They all need your prayer. You know the women who teach it at women of 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:24.959 the word in all these different contexts we need to be lifting up our teachers 00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:30.279 with prayer because it's a serious business. It's a very serious business. 00:04:30.279 --> 00:04:35.159 But notice also that James doesn't restrict this passage to teachers. He's 00:04:35.159 --> 00:04:39.119 not just talking about teachers, the Bible. You know those of us who don't 00:04:39.119 --> 00:04:43.239 teach don't have permission to check out at this point. He actually follows that 00:04:43.239 --> 00:04:48.599 up by saying you know we all stumble with what we say. We all stumble with 00:04:48.599 --> 00:04:54.039 the tongue. So it is important for teachers but it's important for all of 00:04:54.039 --> 00:04:58.919 us as well. So James goes right into introducing the topic at hand. He's 00:04:58.920 --> 00:05:03.640 talking about the tongue. He's talking about the words that we say and he 00:05:03.640 --> 00:05:11.319 teaches us that if you can master the tongue you can master your whole self. 00:05:11.319 --> 00:05:16.840 Now he says that the one who can control the tongue is a perfect man. And 00:05:16.840 --> 00:05:20.360 remember from our conversation about James chapter one I think it was our 00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:25.680 first engine room on James. When James talks about perfection he's not talking 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:31.879 about sinlessness. He's talking about maturity. He's talking about growing into 00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:40.360 the sort of person God intends for you to be. And James one shows us that you 00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:43.720 know he talks about perfection or maturity there and actually the whole 00:05:43.720 --> 00:05:48.280 letter of James is deeply concerned all throughout the whole thing with wisdom 00:05:48.279 --> 00:05:56.159 and maturity. It's a letter about Christian maturity. So that's kind of 00:05:56.159 --> 00:05:59.839 the first gleaning we get from that section is that mastery of the tongue 00:05:59.839 --> 00:06:09.479 is a mark of Christian maturity. Now let's look at the next section versus three 00:06:09.479 --> 00:06:15.599 through five A the first half of verse five. If we put bits into the mouths of 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:19.280 horses so that they obey us we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the 00:06:19.280 --> 00:06:23.040 ships also they're so large and are driven by strong winds but they are 00:06:23.040 --> 00:06:27.200 guided by very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the 00:06:27.200 --> 00:06:35.680 tongue is a small member yet it boasts of great things. So James is using here two 00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:42.600 images to illustrate how something so small can have such a great impact. The 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:47.080 tongue is small but it has great potential. The bridle just a bit that 00:06:47.080 --> 00:06:50.840 goes in a horse's mouth is a small little piece only about that long but you 00:06:50.840 --> 00:06:55.040 can steer this huge horse with it. You know a ship's rudder is tiny in 00:06:55.040 --> 00:07:02.080 comparison to the size of the ship. You get the idea. But there's a danger with 00:07:02.080 --> 00:07:08.600 these illustrations. An uncareful maybe a hasty reading could set us often in a 00:07:08.600 --> 00:07:14.879 bit of the wrong direction. You know James as I think we talk about this a lot 00:07:14.879 --> 00:07:21.080 James is wisdom literature which means it's literature meant for careful 00:07:21.080 --> 00:07:26.240 study and long reflection. You know you read James and then you brew a cup of 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:29.920 tea and you have a you have a sit and think where you go for a walk and you 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:37.520 just chew on it. You think it over. So let's reflect on this together. It's easy 00:07:37.519 --> 00:07:41.759 to think that James is saying that the whole horse is controlled by means of 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:47.719 the bit or that the ship is controlled by means of the rudder. Now of course in 00:07:47.719 --> 00:07:52.199 actuality that's true but that's not the image he's drawing out because if it 00:07:52.199 --> 00:07:57.439 were the inference would be that the whole Christian is controlled by means 00:07:57.439 --> 00:08:03.919 of harnessing their tongue. But that's clearly not the case. If you can get a 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:10.040 hold of your tongue and control your tongue that is not the sum total of 00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:15.120 Christian maturity. Right? If you can master your tongue that doesn't mean 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:21.480 that therefore your work is done. James chapter one makes this clear when he 00:08:21.480 --> 00:08:26.439 says that maturity or perfection is is achieved by letting steadfastness have 00:08:26.439 --> 00:08:31.560 its full effect when we're in trials. So of course they can't be mutually 00:08:31.560 --> 00:08:38.279 exclusive. Okay so so he's not saying that the whole Christian is controlled by 00:08:38.279 --> 00:08:44.200 means of controlling the tongue. What is he saying? Well we need to read this in 00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:49.080 light of verse two. So on the screen you can see verse two there he says well 00:08:49.080 --> 00:08:54.799 there's a very careful word there that is able. It's a very important word. He 00:08:54.799 --> 00:09:01.240 says if anyone does not stumble in what he says he's a perfect man able also to 00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:05.720 bridle his whole body. He doesn't say he's a perfect man by bridling his whole 00:09:05.720 --> 00:09:13.639 body. So I think we can kind of rephrase this and how and understand these 00:09:13.639 --> 00:09:19.799 two images of the horse and the ship in this way. If the rider can control the 00:09:19.799 --> 00:09:27.840 horse's mouth she can surely control the whole horse. If the pilot can control the 00:09:27.840 --> 00:09:34.240 rudder he can surely control the whole ship. If the Christian can control that 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:43.360 unruly tongue they can surely control the whole self. So there's really two 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:47.600 gleamings from this section then. If you can master your tongue you can master 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:53.040 the whole self. If you can do that what can't you do? It's that hard and the 00:09:53.039 --> 00:10:01.879 small tongue has great potential. Now let's move to the next section. How great 00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:08.079 a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. The tongue is a fire, a world of 00:10:08.079 --> 00:10:12.279 unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members staining the whole body 00:10:12.279 --> 00:10:20.000 setting on fire the entire course of life and set on fire by hell. Let's stop 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:25.279 there for a moment. So with those two illustrations of the horse and the ship 00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:30.639 James taught us that though the tongue is small it has great potential but now 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:37.480 now he's talking about fire and hell. Now we learn that the kind of great 00:10:37.480 --> 00:10:41.039 potential that the small tongue has is this kind of great potential that a 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:52.759 spark has in a dry forest. With merely a word just a rumor a murmur we can 00:10:52.759 --> 00:10:58.879 destroy life. We can watch someone else's world come crashing down because of 00:10:58.879 --> 00:11:03.519 careless words. Our own world can come crashing down around us because of 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:12.480 things that come out of our mouths. It's a world of unrighteousness set on fire 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:19.600 by hell. Now when I was a kid growing up in Washington State I had a little 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:23.960 pellet gun. It was actually kind of a high-powered one like a handgun and 00:11:23.960 --> 00:11:28.559 just you know and one day I was out shooting trees and branches and stuff in 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:34.359 the yard and I saw this little robin. North American robins are about twice as 00:11:34.359 --> 00:11:38.039 big as the robins that are out here in Scotland but they're beautiful with the 00:11:38.039 --> 00:11:43.479 orange breast. It's just a lovely bird and on a whim I took aim and I shot kind of 00:11:43.479 --> 00:11:49.599 carelessly actually and I hit that robin in the neck and it fell over and 00:11:49.599 --> 00:11:56.399 started flopping around on the ground and it took a long time to die and I 00:11:56.399 --> 00:12:02.879 really can't... I'm a bit of a softy I suppose. I'm still kind of haunted by 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:08.039 the guilt and the shame that I felt in that moment. It's vivid for me still you 00:12:08.039 --> 00:12:16.720 know 20-25 years later. There was no going back from that moment. That bird was 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:20.639 dead or dying and there was nothing I could do to undo what I had done and I 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:29.639 felt awful about it. And like a bird in its last throws of life or like a forest 00:12:29.639 --> 00:12:35.639 fire raging out of control our tongues can cause damage that is not easily 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:46.600 mitigated. Sometimes there's just no going back from our words. The Westminster 00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:52.600 larger catechism question 135. Does anyone have that memorized? Thomas? No? Okay. 00:12:52.600 --> 00:12:58.600 Question 135 asks what are the duties involved in the sixth commandment? Now 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:04.240 the sixth commandment out of the ten is thou shalt not kill. What are the duties 00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:06.840 involved? Well the answer is long and I'm not going to read it all for you but one 00:13:06.840 --> 00:13:12.360 of the surprising duties involved in obeying the command to not kill is that 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:20.960 we have mild and courteous speech. Isn't that interesting? The Westminster 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:27.120 Divines understood that the great potential that the tongue has to destroy. 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:31.159 They understood that to obey the commandment thou shalt not kill. We 00:13:31.159 --> 00:13:37.759 didn't just have to avoid killing. We had to actively seek to give life with our 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:43.480 whole bodies including our tongues. That we use our tongue to give life not death. 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:47.759 We use our tongue to build up and encourage not to destroy and tear down. 00:13:47.759 --> 00:13:52.679 We use our tongue to be mild and courteous not to be brash and to trample 00:13:52.679 --> 00:14:01.439 people and make them feel small. Now look at verses seven and eight. This is the 00:14:01.439 --> 00:14:07.360 bad news. You thought that was bad. This is the bad news. For every kind of beast 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:11.919 and bird of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind 00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:22.560 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of poison. 00:14:22.560 --> 00:14:29.960 Deadly poison. Excuse me. That small tongue has great potential. We just learned 00:14:29.960 --> 00:14:33.800 that from the last section. Now he's telling us the small tongue has great 00:14:33.799 --> 00:14:41.839 potential for evil. The potential inside the tongue is for destruction and 00:14:41.839 --> 00:14:51.479 there's nothing you can do about that. No human being can tame it. Well where do 00:14:51.479 --> 00:14:58.399 we go from there? So those are our two gleaning that small tongue is great 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:06.079 potential for evil and you can't tame tongue. Now our final section verses 9 00:15:06.079 --> 00:15:11.679 to 12. With our tongue we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:17.319 who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and 00:15:17.319 --> 00:15:21.799 cursing. My brothers these things ought not to be so. And by the way James didn't 00:15:21.799 --> 00:15:25.039 need to say that part about these things ought not to be so. We should all 00:15:25.039 --> 00:15:28.599 have the clarity of sense to to see that. It's almost like he couldn't help 00:15:28.599 --> 00:15:37.399 himself. He's like this is awful. We shouldn't be you know berating our 00:15:37.399 --> 00:15:41.799 children or our spouses on the morning on the way to church and then lifting up 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:47.679 that same voice and praise of God. There's something awful and evil about 00:15:47.679 --> 00:15:54.319 that. Something double-minded to use the language of James 1. My brothers these 00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:59.440 things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both 00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:04.160 fresh and salt water? Of course the answer is no. It's kind of fig tree. My 00:16:04.160 --> 00:16:09.080 brothers bear olives or a grapevine produce figs. Again no. Neither can a 00:16:09.080 --> 00:16:16.320 salt pond yield fresh water. Okay so earlier we saw two illustrations 00:16:16.320 --> 00:16:20.720 followed by a teaching. The horse and the ship followed by his teaching on the 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:27.440 tongue. Now we see the teaching followed by three illustrations. Okay so the first 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:31.340 illustration is or the teaching is that from the same mouth come blessing and 00:16:31.340 --> 00:16:36.259 cursing. He's just telling us what we're like. This falls under the category of we 00:16:36.259 --> 00:16:40.759 all stumble with what we say. We all do this. So no one's getting out here 00:16:40.759 --> 00:16:45.600 including me. That's the teaching from the same mouth come blessing and 00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:49.240 cursing. Now the three illustrations. One does a spring give forth fresh and salt 00:16:49.240 --> 00:16:56.519 water. Fig tree produce olives. Salt pond give fresh water. In other words James 00:16:56.519 --> 00:17:01.399 wants us to be thinking about and reflecting on not just the tongue but 00:17:01.399 --> 00:17:10.359 the source. The tongue's source. In all his illustrations this is the case. The 00:17:10.359 --> 00:17:19.120 horse has a rider. The ship has a pilot. Water has a spring. A fig has a tree. 00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:24.239 And the tongue has a heart. 00:17:25.479 --> 00:17:32.159 James wants us to understand that the tongue gives expression to what's in the 00:17:32.159 --> 00:17:40.119 heart. Let's flip that around and think about it from the other perspective. If 00:17:40.119 --> 00:17:43.439 the tongue gives expression to what's in the heart then you can know a man or a 00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:52.519 woman's heart by how they use their tongue. Isn't that a bit terrifying? So I 00:17:52.519 --> 00:17:59.519 have here a bottle of hand sanitizer. St. Columbas brand so it's extra holy. 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:04.680 You know it's very purifying cleansing. Now this is liable to get a little messy. 00:18:04.680 --> 00:18:11.720 This is you. You are this bottle. Okay. Life comes along. This is life. This big 00:18:11.720 --> 00:18:18.279 grabby hand. And life sometimes just squeezes you. Right? Just squeezes you 00:18:18.279 --> 00:18:25.079 with stress and frustration and anxiety. What comes out? What comes out of the 00:18:25.079 --> 00:18:34.200 bottle is what's inside the bottle. My hands are very clean now by the way. My 00:18:34.200 --> 00:18:40.079 apologies to Hamish who's gonna have to clean that mess up later. I'm kidding. When 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:49.799 life squeezes us what comes out of our mouths is what's in the heart. That's a 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:54.480 good diagnostic for you to ask yourself in all honesty in your times with your 00:18:54.480 --> 00:19:01.119 in your times of prayer with the Lord and talking to your spouse, your friends. 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:05.759 It's good to reflect on what comes out of your mouth and ask is that is that the 00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:14.680 state of my heart? Because a spring cannot pour forth fresh and saltwater. 00:19:16.839 --> 00:19:24.079 Alright I'm gonna stop sharing my screen. Here we are. So the real question is now 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:28.640 how do we use our tongues to not destroy? How do we not light the forest fires? How 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:34.839 do we not tear down the people around us? You know we're decades into these 00:19:34.839 --> 00:19:42.000 bad habits. All of us are. How do we undo it? Well James doesn't just come out and 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:46.319 give you the answer I'm afraid to say but if we read this passage in context of 00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:48.879 the whole letter because remember it's just a letter it's meant to be read kind 00:19:48.879 --> 00:19:54.399 of at once and understood as a whole then I think the answer will become 00:19:54.399 --> 00:20:00.359 fairly clear. James is guiding us toward thinking about the source of the tongue 00:20:00.359 --> 00:20:04.359 the thing that controls the tongue which is the heart and when he talks about the 00:20:04.359 --> 00:20:13.799 heart he always talks about wisdom. For instance the next two verses so verse 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:30.919 Invition in your hearts do not boast and be false to the truth. See wisdom and 00:20:30.920 --> 00:20:37.880 the heart go hand in hand for James. So throughout the whole letter of James as 00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:42.320 I said that one of the threads that runs through it all is wisdom and this is 00:20:42.320 --> 00:20:47.880 really important for James. Wisdom does not spring out naturally from us. We 00:20:47.880 --> 00:20:52.400 aren't just born with this natural wisdom you might have some common sense to 00:20:52.400 --> 00:21:01.960 you but you don't have godly wisdom innately. Wisdom comes down to us from 00:21:01.960 --> 00:21:12.920 God. For example James 1.5 if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God who gives 00:21:12.920 --> 00:21:19.120 generously to all without reproach. James 1.17 every good and every perfect gift 00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:25.759 comes is from above coming down from the father of lights. James 3.17 but the 00:21:25.759 --> 00:21:31.599 wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle open to reason full of 00:21:31.599 --> 00:21:38.559 mercy and good fruits etc. If there is any hope for us to grow in maturity as 00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:45.559 Christians and to sow seeds of life and peace with our tongues rather than using 00:21:45.559 --> 00:21:51.240 our words to light the fires of hell then we must have hearts full of the 00:21:51.240 --> 00:22:01.919 wisdom that comes down from God. So let me start to wrap this up with a few 00:22:01.919 --> 00:22:06.319 points of application something hopefully a little bit less theoretical and 00:22:06.319 --> 00:22:12.399 more practical. So just four short things that we can remember for application 00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:20.840 here ask receive do and think. I didn't try to put that in a clever 00:22:20.840 --> 00:22:24.480 monomic device if you tried to pronounce it it would be art so that 00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:30.519 doesn't work but ask receive do and think okay. So number one ask James 1.5 00:22:30.519 --> 00:22:34.880 that I just read is just a marvelous invitation we never get beyond this in 00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:41.960 the Christian life if anyone lacks wisdom that's me if anyone lacks wisdom 00:22:41.960 --> 00:22:49.000 let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be 00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:55.720 given him excuse me when he says that God gives generously without reproach he 00:22:55.720 --> 00:23:01.799 means that God's not going to belittle you for asking. So if you come and say 00:23:01.799 --> 00:23:06.559 Lord I can't get my tongue under control I need help and I need your wisdom he's 00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:11.200 not gonna say yeah you do it's about time you ask for help you've really messed 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:15.519 this up haven't you that is not the heart of God the heart of God is deeply 00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:23.799 generous his impulse is generosity and warmth and kindness he loves it when we 00:23:23.799 --> 00:23:28.400 ask him for wisdom and if that doesn't seem true to you go read the story of 00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:37.720 Solomon he's deeply generous so we ask we just ask number two we receive we just 00:23:37.720 --> 00:23:42.720 receive the wisdom from above what I mean is with kind of the empty hands of 00:23:42.720 --> 00:23:49.799 faith saying I don't have the wisdom Lord but you do we just we receive this 00:23:49.799 --> 00:23:58.960 wisdom by hearing the word hearing the word of God the Spirit makes it come 00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:06.920 alive we can receive that wisdom number three do so ask receive do our theme for 00:24:06.920 --> 00:24:11.519 this year is be doers of the word and not hearers only that's our whole theme as a 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:18.720 church if we if we ask for the wisdom and we hear it in God's word we see the 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:28.160 wisdom there and we do nothing what use is it we must then put in practice what 00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:33.200 we see in the word of God we must receive and hear and go do it we need to 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:41.160 live out the wisdom that we see even when it's hard ask receive do number four 00:24:41.160 --> 00:24:50.440 thank if you follow this if you ask the Lord for wisdom and you receive it and 00:24:50.440 --> 00:24:56.279 you begin to put it into practice it's all by his grace Philippians says to 00:24:56.279 --> 00:24:59.840 work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in 00:24:59.839 --> 00:25:04.359 you both you're willing and you're working in other words every mark of 00:25:04.359 --> 00:25:08.759 progress we make in the Christian life we can look back on where we just came 00:25:08.759 --> 00:25:14.959 from and say I'm not there anymore praise God he did something in me he's so 00:25:14.959 --> 00:25:20.759 faithful and generous I can't take credit for that you can't take credit for 00:25:20.759 --> 00:25:26.359 your own spiritual growth that's God's work in you that's marvelous so that's 00:25:26.359 --> 00:25:32.000 that's how we end that application we ask receive we do and we thank him for 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:35.919 what he's doing in our lives 00:25:37.039 --> 00:25:41.759 you know when we first moved to Scotland which was almost two years ago now 00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:49.839 every day we thought so often about the difference in accent and dialect we all 00:25:49.839 --> 00:25:55.159 had such different ways of saying things and such different words for all sorts of 00:25:55.160 --> 00:26:00.480 normal things now of course obviously I still don't sound like you I probably 00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:05.160 never will but when I talk on the phone to my friends in Nashville I don't sound 00:26:05.160 --> 00:26:10.960 like them either as we spent time with you all our speech began to change our 00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:16.640 imperceptibly we began accidentally adopting phrases that we never would 00:26:16.640 --> 00:26:21.759 have said in the States so a trash can became a rubbish bin you know instead of 00:26:21.759 --> 00:26:27.079 saying hello we say hiya instead of saying come on in we say in you come 00:26:27.079 --> 00:26:33.240 instead of saying thanks you say cheers these are all entirely foreign to the 00:26:33.240 --> 00:26:37.119 Nashville dialect but that's what happens when we spend time with people we 00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:42.039 love you start to talk like them 00:26:42.920 --> 00:26:50.119 friends if we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly you will pick up the 00:26:50.119 --> 00:26:53.879 accent and dialect at the kingdom of heaven 00:26:55.679 --> 00:27:05.719 without Christ our tongues are set on hell by fire with Christ our tongues are 00:27:05.719 --> 00:27:10.519 doused with the waters of baptism as we're united to Christ by His Spirit and 00:27:10.519 --> 00:27:19.799 they can be a spring of life not just for us but for those around us too 00:27:19.799 --> 00:27:39.680 Amen