WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:12.000 ! Our passion is to experience and express grace. Join us. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:18.000 Good morning. All right, that was good. Let's try it again. Good morning. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:24.000 All right, that's more like it. Now, before I get started, look at my skin. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:29.000 It's brown, okay? I am a product of the African-American church tradition. 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:37.000 And that means that if you speak back to me while I'm preaching, I might cut the sermon a little short. 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:44.000 Because in the African-American tradition, the sermon is a dialogue, not a monologue. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:52.000 So if y'all talk back to me, if I say something God-glorifying, Jesus-exalting, and your spirit agrees with it, 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:55.000 don't hesitate to say amen, okay? All right. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:01:00.000 All right. Again, that might cut the sermon just a little bit shorter. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.000 Now, I've got my phone up here. I promise you I am not texting. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:07.000 I am going to start a timer. That's for you, okay? 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:10.000 So that I don't have y'all in here all day. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:20.000 Now, just before I get into the body of the sermon, you can go ahead and open up your Bible now, though, to James chapter 4. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.000 And we're going to look at verses 11 and 12. 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:33.000 But I want to give you a little bit of an update about Hope City Church and also share a brief testimony of sorts. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:44.000 Now, you all have been praying for me and giving toward the work of mission that we're doing in the urban inner city context. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:45.000 Pull it back. 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:46.000 Okay. 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:49.000 Is it my beard is scruffing it? 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:50.000 Okay. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:51.000 Is that good? 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.000 Okay, great. 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:54.000 Thank you. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:55.000 All right. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:56.000 All right. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:05.000 You all have been praying for the work of ministry that we're doing in the inner city urban context here in the city of Huntsville. 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:10.000 But many of you may not even really know who Amos Williams is. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:19.000 And so I'll take a brief moment to introduce myself to you all and then kind of share an update about Hope City Church. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:27.000 And I promise you we'll get into the text because that's actually what I'm prepared to do. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:28.000 All right. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:36.000 So I was born in Decatur, Alabama to Amos Williams, senior and Christine Williams. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:41.000 Now, my story, I always tell people, I call myself a JAG. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:44.000 And what that stands for is an acronym. 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:46.000 That means just a guy. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:47.000 I'm just a guy. 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:52.000 But I'm connected to probably some of the most interesting people in the world. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:54.000 And I mean that sincerely. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:02.000 My dad came of age during the civil rights movement, during the black power movement of the 1960s and 1970s. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:05.000 My dad was a member of the Black Panthers. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.000 And he was also a member of the Nation of Islam. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:12.000 Down in Montgomery, Alabama, you can read about it. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.000 It's in the Montgomery records. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:24.000 My dad was involved in a shootout with the police down in Montgomery, Alabama, because he was a revolutionary. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:31.000 He was trying to empower people of color in the urban inner city context. 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:36.000 But he just didn't have a good vision. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:44.000 But he was trying his best to serve the people in his community and eventually went down the wrong path. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:47.000 Was involved in a shootout with the police. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:48.000 Absconded from justice. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:51.000 Was on the run from the police. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:04:03.000 And the FBI became one of the ten most wanted men in the United States by the FBI during the 1960s and 1970s. 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:04.000 All right. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:05.000 Finally, they caught him. 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:06.000 He went to jail. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:09.000 He was in prison for 15 years. 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:10.000 In prison. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:14.000 Was radically converted from Islam to the Christian faith. 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:16.000 My dad has been walking with the Lord ever since. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:18.000 That's about 40 something years. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:19.000 I'm 37. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:22.000 I never knew that side of my dad. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:24.000 I only knew the disciple maker, Amos. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:26.000 That's all I've ever known. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:33.000 He married my mom, who grew up in government housing. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:34.000 Very poor. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:36.000 Had a ninth grade education. 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:41.000 And when I was little, my mom trafficked drugs out of our house. 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:45.000 She done other illegal things. 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:47.000 Do y'all know the word bootlegging? 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:48.000 Is that a familiar? 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:49.000 Okay. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:50.000 We're in the south. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:55.000 That's probably, you know, moonshine, all that stuff. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:58.000 But my mom was a bootlegger and a drug trafficker. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:04:59.000 She did that. 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:03.000 We were involved in a car crash when I was five years old. 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:07.000 The car flipped on Highway 20. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:10.000 We were headed west on Highway 20. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:23.000 The car flipped about five or six times into the eastbound lanes on Highway 20 in my dad's 1986 Cutlass. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:25.000 It was a very nice car. 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:28.000 Drug dealer car, just being honest. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:30.000 It just is what it is. 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:39.000 And after that event, my mom had a radical conversion to the faith. 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:44.000 And from that moment on, she never smoked another cigarette. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:50.000 She never smoked another reefer joint. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:52.000 She never trafficked drugs again. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:56.000 I grew up in a household where I only knew Jesus. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.000 We were very poor. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:03.000 Being that my dad was a felon, it was hard for him to find work. 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:06.000 And so I grew up very poor. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:10.000 But my dad had a vision to help people in the inner city. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:15.000 My dad had a heart to help the urban poor. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:18.000 And that stuck with me growing up. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:29.000 And so when I became an adult and the Lord gave me my own call to ministry, I always wanted to do something to help people like me. 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:38.000 People like that little kid, Amos, who grew up in government housing on Section 8 with food stamps and EBT cards. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:40.000 Well, we didn't have the card back then. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:41.000 We had the paper money. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:43.000 Y'all don't know what I'm talking about. 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:50.000 The paper EBT. 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:57.000 And I came to myself at the Village Church. 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:01.000 And I said, you know, I want to do ministry there. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:08.000 Not just, I want to say it right. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:11.000 I don't want to just do mercy ministry. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:14.000 I don't want to just give people child support. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:16.000 I want to be present. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:19.000 I want to be a presence in the community. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:39.000 And so the Lord Jesus, through various means, through you all's giving, through the Village Church, through other members of our presbytery, have sent us out to plant a church in the urban inner city context where we won't just be doing mercy ministry. 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:44.000 We will be doing actual discipleship. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:47.000 Because it's easy to pay child support. 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:50.000 But who's going to walk alongside these people? 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:51.000 People like me. 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:56.000 People who are poor and struggling. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:00.000 Who's going to walk alongside them? 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:07.000 A couple stats and then I'll get into the sermon. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:12.000 Over 230,000 people in the city of Huntsville. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:16.000 That's an old number, so there's probably more now. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:23.000 Over 30,000 people live below the poverty line in Huntsville, Alabama. 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:33.000 Nearly 50% of all babies born in Alabama, as a whole, are born to unmarried women. 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:37.000 23% of families with children are headed by single mothers. 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:42.000 And that rate is actually higher in the inner city context. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:50.000 In Huntsville alone, there are 100 new homeless people every month. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:57.000 In 2023 alone, there were 500 plus overdoses. 00:08:57.000 --> 00:09:02.000 And there were reported over 60 overdose deaths. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:05.000 And that was in 2023. 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:07.000 I don't know if it's gotten better or worse. 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:13.000 But who's going to walk alongside those people and dignify them? 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:18.000 Not just give them handouts, but to go and walk alongside them. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:21.000 Because the handouts are not really for them. 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:23.000 It's for you to make you feel better about yourself. 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:26.000 But who's going to walk alongside those people? 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:30.000 And that's what we feel called and led to do at Hope City Church. 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:34.000 So if you think about Amos and if you think about Hope City Church, 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:41.000 pray to the Lord Jesus that he will continue to be with us as we endeavor on this mission. 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:42.000 This mission. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:45.000 Thank you. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:10:01.000 James 4, verses 11 and 12. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:02.000 This is God's word. 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:03.000 This is God's word. 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:05.000 So please listen carefully. 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:10.000 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:21.000 The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:29.000 But if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge. 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:33.000 There is only one lawgiver and judge. 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:38.000 He was able to save and to destroy. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:44.000 But who are you to judge your neighbor? 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:48.000 Father, glorify yourself in this moment. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:51.000 Hide me behind your cross. 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:52.000 Speak, Lord. 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:57.000 Speak, Lord, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:59.000 Speak, O Lord. 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:00.000 Amen. 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:05.000 My brothers and sisters, if you listen to this sermon on today, 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:12.000 and you think about someone else's sin and not your own, you need to repent. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:19.000 You need to repent and ask the Spirit to reveal the sin in your own heart. 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:23.000 Because oftentimes we listen to sermons and we think about other people. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:28.000 Ooh, I wish he or she was here to hear what the pastor just said. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:29.000 Right? 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:35.000 But you need to ask the Spirit to continue to conform you to the image of Christ. 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:38.000 Because I'm going to say some hard things to all of us today. 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:45.000 Honestly, some of you may not like me very much after today. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:46.000 That's okay. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:48.000 I love you. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:57.000 But I feel led to speak prophetically into, and I don't mean like foretelling. 00:11:57.000 --> 00:11:58.000 I don't get down like that. 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:06.000 But I want to speak truth to power to us on today. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:09.000 And so may these words challenge us all. 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:19.000 And may these words also, though convicting, may they drive you to the arms of our loving and gracious triune God. 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:20.000 Amen? 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:21.000 Amen. 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:25.000 My brothers and sisters, words have power. 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:29.000 Words have immense and immeasurable power. 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:36.000 And although they are invisible and intangible, they have power. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:41.000 It is with words that God created the cosmos, ex nihilo. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:48.000 And with words, God cut a covenant, an everlasting covenant with his beloved people. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:55.000 Proverbs 18, 21 tells us that death and life are in the power of the tongue. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:03.000 A few examples, my brothers and sisters, of words that have impacted generations of men and women. 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:11.000 I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:14.000 We hold these truths to be self-evident. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:18.000 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:21.000 We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:25.000 The rock was landed on us. 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:31.000 El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, also known as Malcolm X. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:36.000 And still, I rise. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:38.000 Maya Angelou. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:45.000 That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:48.000 Neil Armstrong. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:54.000 Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:57.000 Ronald Reagan. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:04.000 A brief excerpt for our covenant children in the house today. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:06.000 6'7". 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:13.000 Words like these have had lasting impact. 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:16.000 Maybe not the last one. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:21.000 Words like these have had lasting impact on the world. 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:26.000 And their sound continues to reverberate throughout generations. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:36.000 And in our passage, this is the second time in this letter that James has called our attention to the power of words. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:41.000 In chapter 3, James speaks of the deadliness of the tongue. 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:47.000 He compares the tongue to a blazing fire and a deadly poison. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:59.000 In chapter 3, verse 9, he describes how people can use their words on one hand to praise God, but then turn around and then use them to curse their brother or sister. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:06.000 One who is made in the image of the God that they claim to worship. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:17.000 Now, my brothers and my sisters, one of my pet peeves is being asked or being told the same thing twice as if I didn't hear it the first time. 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:22.000 It's just something about hearing something a second time. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:24.000 It just kind of ticks me off a little bit. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:32.000 But James in this letter shows us that we are stubborn people. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:37.000 So we need to be reminded again and again, lest we forget. 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:51.000 And our two verses here, verses 11 and 12 in chapter 4, get to the heart of what James has been discussing over the last chapter and a half regarding speech and Christian character. 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:59.000 And this is a reminder that we all need to hear, my brothers and sisters, especially given the state of the world. 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:06.000 The United States is as polarized as it's ever been. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:12.000 Relations among people of different ethnicities are as divided as they've ever been. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:21.000 And tragically, people who call themselves Christians, who are brothers and sisters in Christ, are divided as well. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:33.000 This text is yet another reminder that Christians need to consider who they are and whose they are before we speak. 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:47.000 In some of the preceding verses of chapter 4, James uses a stern tone with some of his readers, calling them sinners and double-minded. 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:52.000 In verse 11, he addresses them as brothers and sisters. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:59.000 Now, calling them brothers and sisters signifies that he has a relationship with them ethnically. 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:12.000 I will call your attention to the beginning of James' letter where we discover that the recipients of this letter are persecuted diaspora Jews. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:21.000 So James, who is also the half-brother of the Lord Jesus, who is a Jewish man, is connected to his readers ethnically. 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:31.000 But he also shares a unique relationship with them as ethnic Jews who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:36.000 Now, James loves the imperative. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:45.000 This is a very short letter, but if my exegesis serves me right, I think he uses the imperative almost 50 times. 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:47.000 An imperative is a command. 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:49.000 I'm sure you all know that. 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:56.000 In verse 11, James commands his brothers and sisters not to speak against one another. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:01.000 Speaking evil against one another can be understood as slander or slandering. 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:09.000 And this is not simply holding someone accountable with firm speech because accountability is necessary. 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:15.000 And in all actuality, it's what James has been doing throughout the entire letter. 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:29.000 So again, accountability is necessary, but what James is forbidding, he is forbidding degrading speech that is dehumanizing. 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:39.000 This is the type of speech that denies and rejects the very image of God that makes us human. 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:43.000 It's what people refer to as defamation, right? 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:50.000 Slander affects not only individuals, but it impacts the community around them. 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:56.000 Hence, James commands for his brothers and sisters not to slander one another. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:01.000 Because he understands the devastation that words can have. 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:10.000 Now, a while back, my wife and I, we watched a movie about a man named Brian Banks. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:17.000 Now, Brian Banks was a football player who aspired to play in the National Football League. 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:19.000 He was a college football player. 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:22.000 And Brian was what you call a shoe-in, right? 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:26.000 He was a sure thing to make the NFL. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:31.000 He was incredibly talented and some would even say gifted to play football. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:37.000 But Brian's life was derailed because he became the victim of slander. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:42.000 He was falsely accused of a sexual crime and was imprisoned. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:49.000 An innocent man locked behind bars because of slander. 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:54.000 An innocent man taken away from his family because of slander. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:57.000 His dreams were crushed because of slander. 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:01.000 And the pain from being slandered didn't stop with him. 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:07.000 Because Brian was slandered and subsequently convicted of a crime that he did not commit, 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:10.000 it was difficult for him to find work. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:15.000 It was difficult for him to create meaningful relationships. 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.000 And he lived for a time at the margins of society. 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:29.000 Because the slander he experienced, not only did it impact him, but it also impacted the people in the community around him. 00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:36.000 And my brothers and sisters, the world is as polarized as it's ever been right now. 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:39.000 This nation is polarized. 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:44.000 Even the church is polarized because many of us are at each other's throats, 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:49.000 accusing our brothers and sisters of things that are simply not true. 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:52.000 He's a cultural Marxist. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:54.000 She's too woke for me. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:58.000 He's one of those far right Trump crazies. 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:11.000 And the worst thing that I have observed about many of the comments like these that are thrown around is that they are mischaracterizations that are simply not true of one another. 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:17.000 And many of these comments come from the mouths of Christians. 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:24.000 But my brothers and my sisters, now is not the time for us to slander our brothers and sisters in Christ, 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:30.000 especially if you do not know a person and you do not know what they stand for. 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.000 Because it creates discord among the people of God. 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:40.000 And the danger of our speech has been amplified by mass communication. 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:45.000 Our Twitter fingers or aches fingers. 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:50.000 Our Facebook posts. 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:59.000 We have the audacity to make comments and pretend as if our words are not filled with vitriol when they are. 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:07.000 We have mastered the art of masquerading our condescension as polite critique or genuine concern. 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:10.000 Oh, I'll pray for you. 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:26.000 We've mastered the art of slandering people with Christian ease by dressing up our vitriol with a few out of context Bible verses that make us comfortable with our pride, with our biases, with our racism and our idolatry. 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:33.000 But James is telling us that this type of behavior is unbecoming of Christian character. 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:36.000 And it is dangerous. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:41.000 It is cosmically dangerous. 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:55.000 In verse 11b, we see that the reason that slandering a brother or sister is dangerous is because when we do so, we slander and judge the law of God. 00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:02.000 In Leviticus 19, verse 16, slandering your neighbor is prohibited because it is unloving. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:05.000 It is characteristically unloving. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:14.000 And slander is directly contrary to the love commandment, which is also found in Leviticus 19, 18. 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:22.000 And earlier in James's letter, James calls love for one's neighbor the fulfillment of the royal law. 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:25.000 He says that in chapter 2, verse number 8. 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:38.000 And the law that James is speaking of here is the Mosaic law as it is obeyed by Christians through Christ's death and his resurrection within our new covenant context. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:49.000 So, by slandering your brother or sister in Christ, you are being unloving and you also defame God's law and you set yourself above it. 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:54.000 This is the holy law of God. 00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:01.000 And by slandering your brother or sister in Christ, you say, in essence, that God's law is inadequate. 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:03.000 It is insufficient. 00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:07.000 You arrogantly say to yourself, I know what's best. 00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:09.000 I know what's right. 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:12.000 I know what's good without God. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:22.000 In your mind, in your mind, you take God from the throne and you say, God, you're just not getting the job done. 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:33.000 You arrogantly say to yourself, I know what's best for me and I know what's best for other people. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:43.000 But when you do this, my brothers and my sisters, you swap places with the living God. 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:48.000 You put yourself in the place of God Almighty. 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:51.000 You try to reverse roles with God. 00:24:51.000 --> 00:25:02.000 You no longer are a humble doer of the just and holy law of God, but you have pridefully made yourself into an idol. 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:09.000 And we all know what God loves to do with our idols. 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:12.000 He crushes them. 00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:15.000 He destroys them. 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:26.000 So in verse 12, James is quick to remind us that there is only one lawgiver and judge. 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:30.000 He who was able to save and to destroy. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:39.000 And the language of saving and destroying reminds us of Jesus's words in Matthew 10, 28, where he says, 00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:44.000 And do not fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:50.000 Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:53.000 My brothers and my sisters, God is not Congress. 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:55.000 He is not parliament. 00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.000 He does not sit on the Supreme Court of the United States. 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:09.000 But back in the old days in the black church, they would say, he is the one who rules and super rules the entire cosmos, the entire universe. 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:11.000 He is the king of kings. 00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:13.000 He is the Lord of lords. 00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:16.000 He is God almighty, the alpha and omega. 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:22.000 He is the one and only lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:29.000 Psalm 2 says he sits in heaven and laughs at the schemes of his enemies. 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:37.000 This is the God who humbles kings and rulers just like he humbled King Nebuchadnezzar. 00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:51.000 He made the Egyptian Pharaoh bend the knee and he questioned Job and asked Job, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? 00:26:51.000 --> 00:27:03.000 So in verse 12, after James makes it clear that there was only one lawgiver who was also judge, the one who was able to save and to destroy, there was only one question that remains. 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:10.000 So he asks, who are you to judge your neighbor? 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:16.000 In other words, who do you think you are? 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:31.000 So my brothers and my sisters, the next time that we feel the urge to say something bad about our brother or sister in Christ, I recommend that you remember that question, who do you think you are? 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:35.000 Because that person is made in the image of God. 00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.000 That person is beautifully, fearfully and wonderfully made. 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:45.000 That person is your brother or sister in Christ, bought by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:56.000 So how dare I approach God's beloved and precious child with such disrespect and dishonor? 00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:01.000 Ask yourself, who do I think I am? 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:08.000 Because my brothers and my sisters, there is one who took slander on our behalf. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:11.000 He was ridiculed. 00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:14.000 He was slandered. 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:32.000 And if Jesus already took this burden of being falsely accused and slandered, defamed, degraded, and dehumanized, if he's already taken that from your brother or sister, don't put that burden back on them. 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:44.000 Jesus, whom the book of Revelation reveals to us as the lawgiver and judge, is the only one who could look down on people in a condescending manner. 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:47.000 But he doesn't. 00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:49.000 He never does. 00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:52.000 He chooses to love us instead. 00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:57.000 And then he commands us to love one another. 00:28:57.000 --> 00:29:16.000 So if what may proceed from your lips could be described as unloving, if what you are preparing to post on Facebook could be considered unloving, I plead with you, my brothers and my sisters, reconsider. 00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:23.000 And I encourage us all to repent for even allowing the thought to enter our minds. 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:30.000 Again, I do want to emphasize that I am not saying don't hold people accountable. 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:39.000 And if you think that that's what I've been talking about the entire time, my brother or sister, you have missed the point. 00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:44.000 We need accountability these days. 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:48.000 But that is an altogether different conversation. 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:59.000 So again, if the words that are about to proceed from your mouth do not glorify God, please reconsider whether to speak them. 00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:11.000 Now here are three metrics that you can use before your Twitter fingers get to going and before your Facebook fingers get to going. 00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:18.000 Don't assume the worst about your brother or sister in Christ. 00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:24.000 Where you see malice, there may actually be ignorance. 00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:28.000 Ignorance does not excuse error. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:35.000 But if there is ignorance rather than malice, there may be an opportunity for education and discipleship. 00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:46.000 And through prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit, perhaps even an opportunity for genuine conversion and heart change. 00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:58.000 Number two, get the log out of your own eye before you try to get the speck out of your neighbor's eye. 00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:01.000 Now, what does that mean? 00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:04.000 How can a log fit in your eye? 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:06.000 It can't. 00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:09.000 It's about perspective and proximity. 00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:16.000 The speck in your eye should appear as large as a log. 00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:24.000 So get the log out of your own eye before you try to get the speck out of your neighbor's eye. 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:36.000 Number three, ask yourself a series of God-honoring, God-glorifying questions before you say or do anything that could harm your neighbor. 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:39.000 Does this need to be said? 00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:41.000 Does this need to be said? 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:43.000 Does this need to be said by me? 00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:50.000 Does this need to be said by me right now? 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:57.000 Does this need to be said by me through this particular medium? 00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:03.000 And most importantly, does this glorify God? 00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:13.000 So my brothers and my sisters, let your speech and your attitude be seasoned with salt. 00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:16.000 And let everything that we do glorify God. 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:18.000 Let's pray. 00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:37.000 Father, we thank you that you do not slander us, even though our adversary and enemy brings accusations against us all the time. 00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:42.000 Father, most and many of them being true. 00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:47.000 But you have laid down your life for your beloved. 00:32:47.000 --> 00:33:00.000 And so when our enemy reminds us of our past, Lord, help us to remember our future. 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:03.000 Our future in you that is beautiful. 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:13.000 Our future in you that glorifies and honors you. 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:20.000 Lord, help us to be people who would glorify you in all that we say and all that we do. 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.000 It is in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that I pray. 00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:25.000 Amen. 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:30.000 For more information, visit us online at southwood.org. 00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:31.000 Thanks for joining us online at southwood.org. 00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:31.000