Summer Reading: James Week 3
Sharable notes for the June 16, 2024 message. You can post these notes on your social platform!
Scriptures used: James 3; Jeremiah 32:35; Luke 6:43-45; Matthew 12:36; Proverbs 10:19; 15:23; 16:24; Psalm 51:12-15
Passages Referenced: 2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6; 2 Kings 16:3; 21:6; 2 Corinthians 5:1-10; Exodus 15:22-27
Words are powerful. With our words we draw people in and push people away. The tongue is powerful. With it we can wound or with it we can heal.
A horse bit and a rudder are small but both have incredible ability to control large powerful objects. The tongue is just like them. It can slow down a situation or accelerate it, turn it on a dime, and loose lips can sink ships.
If you are a follower of Christ, then your words and what you say should be transformed just as much as your actions.
Your words are the clearest indicator of what’s in your heart.
The words we speak should cause us to have introspection about the heart that we have.
How do I control my words, or how do I tame my tongue, is the wrong question for us to be asking. The question we should be asking is how do we change the depravity in our hearts?
What Jesus did on the cross turns the bitter waters of our hearts into sweet healing waters.
Jesus’ action on the cross, and his words of acceptance, can transform you from an insecure, suspicious, selfishly ambitious, bitter person into a secure, joyful, satisfied, compassionate one. When your heart changes, your words change.
In order to sow peace, or be able to speak peace, you have to be at peace. The reason some of us sin with our lips is because our hearts are at war.
Even when we speak the truth, we can do it with a heart of selfish ambition, bitterness and jealousy. Our motives should be out of love.
Does the way we speak sound like we’ve been with Jesus?
The more we saturate ourselves with the word, the more the word will work in us, be spoken through us and lived out by us.
When we embrace the power of our new birth in Christ it will create new affections, new actions and new expressions that reflect the good news.
Reflect or meet with someone to discuss:
How have you gotten yourself in trouble with the things you've said?
How have you been hurt by words, or hurt others by your words before?
Where do you think the line is between speaking the truth in love and speaking truth motivated by selfish ambition, bitterness and jealousy?
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