Freedom of Speech isn’t Freedom of the Tongue - Pastor Naeem Fazal

[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is Naim, and you've reached the Mosaic Church Podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you. Get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content. If this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity, and I'd love for you to pay it forward. [00:00:39] Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you. Enjoy. [00:00:56] Hello. Hello. [00:00:59] Good morning. All right, who's whistling? Who's whistling? [00:01:03] All right. That's awesome, man. You guys are pumped. [00:01:10] This guy is pumped. Don't you just love him? Can you give him a hand? He does such a great job, doesn't he? [00:01:15] Does such a great job. Such a great job. So we are in a series called. Well, it's actually just the book of the Bible. It's called James, and that's it. We tried to come up with some creative way to say, you know, what the title would be. And we're like, no, we're just gonna stick with James. That's it. That's pretty much it. And so we're going actually chapter by chapter, and this. [00:01:34] Friends, I'll tell you what. I don't know. I don't know what it is, but this. Every week, it seems like James is talking to us about our culture and the stuff that we're going through. And this week, I'm gonna be talking about chapter three, and friends, it is. Line Like, I didn't. I'm not making this. It's lining up because it's talking about James, Chapter three. If you don't know it, it's talking about what happens and what happens when our mouth gets us into trouble. Anybody have a testimony about that? Ever said anything got you into trouble? This morning? Anybody this morning? [00:02:07] Okay. Okay. Yeah. Got you in trouble. So it's so funny, isn't it? Because, I mean, people are saying some things, and people are. Man, you can. People can. You know, words can hurt. They can heal, and they can also get you suspended and canceled. They can get you all kinds of things. Right. I'll tell you what, though. I don't know about you, but are you careful with your words? Are you. Are you guys killed? No. Yes. Maybe. So. I don't know. Okay, I'll tell you what, though. I should be, right? I'm a pastor. I should be. And I'm learning. I'm learning and I think I'm pretty good. But, man, I'll tell you what though. The other couple of years ago, I was talking to someone is a guy and he's talking about his relationships, okay? And I talk to people off and on and people ask me for advice and all that. And anyways, so he's talking to me about his. This girl that he really loves and all that. Not loves, that's. No, he does not love her. He really, really likes her. Okay? He really likes her. And he's like, okay, I just wanna. I wanna ask her out. I wanna do this. But this is. This guy was like, you know, he was just kind of a little hard on himself, you know what I'm saying? You know, just like, he was just. He needed some self confidence, okay? He just needed. He needed a boost. He like, bro, he needed BJ in his life, you know what I'm saying? A hype man in his life. So I did it, bro. I did. Here's what I did. I was like, bro, okay? He was like, man, I think I'm gonna ask her out. And I'm not quite sure if she's gonna say yes. I said, hey. I said, bro, you can do this. You got this, man. [00:03:25] I know ladies, girl, you know, they can be intimidating, okay? Women can be intimidating, but you got this, man. You know what? And he was like, you know, maybe. I don't know, maybe she won't. She won't say yes. I'm not going to like, dude, don't take no for an answer. You got this, bro. [00:03:43] See? [00:03:43] Exactly. [00:03:45] Exactly. I was be. I'm talking to you. [00:03:48] I'm hyping the bro. I know. I'm hyping my bro up. I'm like, you got this. You can do this. Don't take no for an answer. [00:04:04] The next day, the next day, this lady, woman, amazing woman, comes up to me. She's like, hey, did you just talk to so and so? And I was like, take no for an answer. [00:04:29] He told her everything. [00:04:31] He told her everything. [00:04:33] So he. Then now she's like, you're telling. You just told him to take no for an answer. And I'm like, no, this is not. No, no, no, me no speak English very good. Like, I'm like, That's what I do. That's what I do. When I get into trouble with my English words, I'm like, ah, I just switched. And I wish, friends, I wish there was only just one of these stories. But my mouth has gotten me into trouble. [00:05:06] Cause I just say stuff out of belief and faith and potential and people just take it and tell everybody else about it and it just messes me up. So here's my life verse, Proverbs 21:23. Here's what it says, 21:23. It says, Watch your tongue and keep your mouth what shut and you will what? [00:05:32] Stay out of trouble. Just take a picture of this guys on the screen and just post it. Yeah, this is it. This is my life here. You know what's interesting though is that, yeah, we end up shaping our lives sometimes by the words that are either spoken to us or the words we speak. Like words are so powerful. And that's why I think the Book of James spends so much time on it. And we're gonna do that, we're gonna do that because we do live in a world that you are pressured to say something. I mean, I am pressured to sometimes say something. As a spiritual leader, as a pastor, I'm pressured to say something about what's happening. In fact, I mean, just looking around these days, I'm noticing that even other pastors are telling other church members to leave their church. Like everybody is talking about everything. Have you noticed that everybody is talking like, it seems like the world we live in right now is everybody's got a way to share their thoughts. Okay, thank you, social media, everybody's got to. And then everybody feels that they have to say something. If you feel the pressure, you have to say, you have to have an opinion. And you know what, God forbid, maybe, just maybe you could say, I don't have an opinion. People go, what's wrong with you? If you don't have an opinion, what's wrong with you? It seems like everybody wants us to talk. Everybody wants you to say words. And then you're like, I'm not quite sure, I'm not quite sure. You know, have you noticed like when you were growing up, like maybe you experienced this because you were so self aware that you realized that you couldn't say a whole lot of things because you didn't know a lot of words. And all of a sudden you hit an age and you know a lot of words. If you've dealt with kids, you know, you know that age, they get to a point and they're like, oh, they discovered words and then they discovered talking all the time. And now they're just talking, talking, talking, talking, talking. It's all that. I feel like as humanity, we have kind of. We are like these teenagers on social media. We feel like we have to keep on talking. [00:07:21] There's so much noise. There's so much noise. And here's the issue. The issue is this, is that when there is spiritual conversations, there's spiritual talking going on. You don't know who to believe. You don't know, like, should I say yes to this? Like, is this true? Is it not true? Is it fake news? That term? Wow, God invented. People use it all the time now. Is it something. Do we need to like, what people are saying? Am I gonna be deceived by people? Like, what words are true and what's not true? And the truth. The truth is that, like, as we move forward as a humanity, as we move forward as a civilization, the idea of what is real is going to be the biggest commodity. [00:08:01] With the rise of AI, you don't know what was actually true. You don't know what's actually real anymore. [00:08:09] So we're going to move into, I believe we're gonna move into spiritually, culturally, socially, that we are always wondering if we're being deceived. [00:08:18] We're always wondering. And so as I was thinking about, like, am I as a spiritual leader? Are you. [00:08:25] What does a real Christian look like? What does a Christian say? What is a follower of Jesus? What are the values they should have? Should we stand up for this? Should we do this? Should we do that? What do they look like? They seem like super extreme. They seem like super liberal. They seem like super progressive. They to seem. They seem like super traditional. What are we supposed to do? What are we supposed to act like, what are we supposed to say here? And I was reminded that in the Book of James, chapter one, it talked about this, and basically it says this is that because. Because. Because you are a doer of the Word, you will not be easily deceived. [00:09:01] But if you are not a doer of the Word, you will be easily deceived. [00:09:07] And so one really great way to go. Okay, I know you're saying stuff and I know you're talking about things and you have thoughts and all that, and the world's talking and there's so many words out there. But I'll tell you what the words of Jesus are. The words of Jesus are backed up by doing so. If you're the doer of God's Word, you won't be deceived. [00:09:26] But for some of us, we just feel like we're just sitting there, just listening and we find ourselves really being deceived. We, words are so important. [00:09:35] So important. In fact, there's another proverb that says this. It says the tongue can bring death or life. And those who love to talk will what, Reap the consequences. They'll reap the consequences. So let's just jump in, let's jump in and let's talk about James, chapter three. Okay, it starts off, and here's what we're gonna do. We've been doing this for the last couple of weeks and we're just gonna go not, not verse by verse, but we're gonna cover the whole chapter. And in here you're gonna find why it's so important for you to be careful, not careless with your words. It starts off, it says here, dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church. Ha ha, Naim. Not many of you. Not many of you should. Okay? For we who teach will be judged more strictly for. I know, I know. [00:10:29] Indeed, we all make mistakes. Hello, we all make mistakes. For we, if we could control our tongues, we would be what? We would be what? We would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. James is saying, if you control your tongue, if you have that kind of self control, you have arrived, you got it, you're done, you can control it. You control it yourself. So the first thing I think of is, it seems like James is saying, hey, what you need to understand is that the quality of your life can be determined with the words that come out of your mouth. That in fact, you can in fact end up a certain place in life with your words. So if there was a point here, the big point would be that our words take us places. [00:11:20] They also hinder us from opportunities, but they take us places. I mean, you know, if you're in sales, you know, it can take you places, right? If you're really good with your words, it can take you places. But also if you're not good with your words, it can just like not get you a date. [00:11:36] And apparently you should take no for an answer. [00:11:41] So our words take us places here. James keeps on going, he says, hey, let me just tell you, let me just tell you, this is how important your tongue is. He says, Verse 2. He says, we can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn whenever the pilot chooses to go. [00:12:07] Even Though the winds are strong, he says, so the small rudder has the ability to navigate your life. Your tongue and words have the ability to navigate your life in the midst of what you're going through right now. Maybe it's grief, maybe it's pain, maybe it's betrayal, maybe it's unforgiveness. The things that come out of your mouth, not only the people around you hear them, but your own soul hears them. And he says in the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches, but a tiny spark can get a. Can set a great. What? [00:12:46] Forest on fire. And we know this, we know this. [00:12:53] We know that we can say something. And going back to the world we live in right now, we do a lot of communicating through text. We do a lot of communicating through our devices. We do a lot of communicating through social media apps. We do a lot of communicating through that. And sometimes we. Anybody have. Have you ever written a text? Couple of times. Couple of times. [00:13:17] And then sent it and then deleted it. [00:13:20] You're like, oh, that's not what I wanted. Have you ever, like, AI, help me. Help me respond to my mom? Like, how? Like, what do I say to this person? [00:13:30] How do I do it? How do I do that? And here James is moving us into, like, number one reality of, like, hey, where do you wanna end up in life? [00:13:41] Where do you wanna end up? Like, do you know where you wanna go in life? See, for some of us, we know where we wanna go, but our words don't match up with it. We have these grand ideas, but we don't align our lives towards them. [00:13:56] We say things that somehow we move us in a different direction. You know, it's amazing to me, like, even Christians, followers of Jesus, even devout ones, maybe even ones that are convinced that they have a strong relationship with Jesus, they end up just being so careless with their words. You know, as a speaker, as a pastor, I get people responding to me all the time after my messages, and I've heard the strangest things. The strangest things, okay, after my message, okay. They're not always, oh, my. Great job. No, I've heard all kinds of things. Like, starts off conversations like, I don't like you. [00:14:32] Why are you saying this out loud? Why are you doing this? When one woman told me flat out, she's like, I just have struggled for months. I just believe that you're a sleeper terrorist. [00:14:44] Why would you say that to me? Like, why would you do that? Like, just weird, weird stuff. [00:14:51] Just weird stuff. People just say the strangest things. I remember one event that I was doing. This lady came up to me and she was like, hey, you know, I actually started following you last year on. [00:15:05] I don't know what it was, social media, maybe it was Instagram. And I was like, oh, okay, that's awesome. And she was like, and then you made that post. And I was like, oh, what post? And I made a post about. This was years ago about just. [00:15:20] I don't even know. It wasn't a big deal. And something about loving people. That's pretty much what it was. Okay? And she was like, and then I unfollowed you. [00:15:30] Why are you telling me this? [00:15:33] And then she was like, how did you get invited to this event? [00:15:40] What are you trying to do? And then she's like, so do they know who you are? [00:15:46] Who am I? Like, I'm like, who do you think I am? [00:15:51] I got so paranoid. Have you ever had some people say something to you and you are having a good day and all of a sudden you're like, anxious. Anybody? [00:16:00] Words, just words. [00:16:02] Words have the ability to put courage in people or to dis, like, encourage them. You just take out and you have people in your life. And some of us are guilty of. We don't put things in people, we put burdens on them. We say things that are just like, what are you doing? And sometimes we have set fires to our relationships just because of our words. [00:16:34] Just because. What if your mouth is truly hindering your life? [00:16:39] It's hindering your goals, it's hindering your dreams. [00:16:42] I mean, Jesus has your heart, but the devil's got your tongue. You know what I'm saying? It's like, ah, so James is moving us, and here's why he's doing this. See, the context of James is that James is talking. If you remember week one, if you don't, basically, James is not talking to a particular church. You know, the other letters in the scriptures, like Paul will write to a particular church, and he said, hey, church. And. And he would address them. And some of the things he would say that we've taken out of context. He's not talking about all the other churches, he's talking about that church. He's saying, you guys should not do this. You guys are fine, but you guys should not do this. And we've kind of messed that up. But James is not talking to one particular church. He's talking to all the believers who've been scattered, all the churches. So this letter went out everywhere. And the problem was that the people who were living in that time reading this, were surrounded by people who are oppressing them, surrounded by people who are calling them names, surrounded by Romans or surrounded by other national, other empires who are just called them second class. And so when you live in that world, when you're always being name called, you have a different kind of life. [00:17:54] If you've been a minority group in a majority culture, you know that there are certain things that can trigger you because you've been called that. And the problem is sometimes that culture will make you believe that those you are that. [00:18:11] And that, friends, is what? Like, you just gotta. I mean, that's when Jesus comes in. That's when you gotta go, I'm not gonna believe those words spoken over me. And for some of you, they have set. Like he said, a forest fire is in your life and in your marriage. [00:18:30] And like that first passage, like first proverbs, just sometimes just better to shut your mouth because you don't have to always have an opinion. You don't have to always say something. [00:18:41] Then James moves us. He moves us. He says, first of all, they'll take you places. And then he basically says, your words will reveal something. So what that means is. And I put down here our words. Our words. My words. They'll reveal our what? Our. [00:18:55] Our hypocrisy. And what does that mean? They'll reveal our lack of integrity. A lack of integrity is not like you're not a good person. No, lack of integrity just means that you don't line up. [00:19:09] You just don't line up. Like, if I have integrity, it's not like I'm amazing. No, it's just like what I say and do the same. So people ask me all the time, man, you know what's amazing about you, Pastor, is that you're the same here. You know, when I'm hanging out with you at your home and. [00:19:24] And at church, and I'm like, isn't that supposed to be the deal? [00:19:29] Like, I'm shocked. They're like, oh, you're the same. I'm like, what kind of world have you been living in? What kind of church or spirituality have you been getting used to? See, James says, hey, if you're a follower of Jesus, let me just tell you, your hypocrisy will be revealed to the world, to the world because of your words. See, that's why when people say, hey, the church, I don't like the church because the church is full of hypocrites. And the reason why they're saying this is because our words as followers of Jesus, reveal our hypocrisy. [00:20:04] God so loved the world. I don't like you, though. God, you know, God's grace covers. But not that. Like, it's just. [00:20:15] It's messed up. So James is talking to believers, the spread out and says, hey, friends, it matters because where you are right now, it matters what you do. And then he jumps right in, he gets in there, he says, with the tongue. [00:20:35] With the tongue. We praise our Lord and Father. [00:20:39] We praise him. Hallelujah. And with it, we what? Curse human beings who have been made in God's likeness out of the same mouth. [00:20:52] Come praise and what cursing my brothers and sisters. He says, this should not be. [00:21:03] Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? It's like, that's the problem. [00:21:10] The reason why people don't believe you're a follower of Jesus is because your words and your actions don't match up. [00:21:18] They just don't match up. And at some point your kids are gonna realize that, oh, yeah, mom and dad say this, but they don't really. Oh, so. And so does this, but they don't really. [00:21:28] They don't really. And so your word is not worth much because you just. Whatever. And sometimes what we think is, is that as followers of Jesus, we're not supposed to. When it says cursing here, we're not supposed to use bad language, foul language. Oh, don't say hell or damn. [00:21:47] Well, here's the problem. [00:21:48] Saying hell or damn is not the issue. [00:21:51] I'll tell you what using the Lord's name in vain is like when it was talking about, please do not use the Lord's name in vain. The writer there was talking about, don't say you are a follower of Jesus. [00:22:06] Assuming and letting people think you are doing this in God's name. And what you're doing is evil. [00:22:13] What you're doing is awful. What you're doing is oppressive. He says, do not use the Lord's name in vain. Don't put a sticker on. And don't do this, don't do that, don't do that. And see, and this is no judgment. This is us going, okay, we can be better. [00:22:32] We can do this. Why? Because it's easier to just keep our mouth. What? Shut and stay out of trouble. Better not to say or make grand idea promises of faith than just go, you know what? I'm, I'm just. I'm gonna. I'm. I'm. But I'm not gonna curse my neighbor cats. It's okay. [00:22:56] Write that down. Someone write that down. Okay, Ashley, write that down. [00:23:00] Okay. But people, you can't do it. Why? Because human beings are made in God's likeness, not cats. [00:23:13] Okay? So let's. Can we move on? Okay, let's move on. I feel like we need to move on. Here's what's interesting. So Hazy keeps on going. [00:23:20] James makes this case. Now, I'm not reading all the parts, but he makes this case about, okay, okay. So now your words, they reveal your hypocrisy, and you need to be so careful with them. [00:23:32] And the issue is sometimes we just get sidetracked because we go, well, I just feel like I need to have the right to speak my mind. [00:23:44] And in the Western world, especially in the US this country, okay. Which I'm a citizen of, as an American, we know, we talk about freedom of speech. We do. And we need to have laws. We need to have politicians. We need to have our country and the government protect the freedom of speech. We need to do that. Freedom of speech. But let me just tell you, as a church, if you're church, that is not our job. [00:24:17] Our job is the quality of speech. [00:24:20] It's not the freedom. [00:24:22] It's not the freedom because Jesus says, you've got freedom. [00:24:26] You've been set free. [00:24:28] It's for freedom. You've been set free. So why do you use oppressive language to other people? [00:24:35] Why do you do that? Because at some point we just go, no, I just want my rights. [00:24:39] I said, yeah, I just want my rights because my rights allow me to do this. Yeah, but what does love require of you? [00:24:46] You know? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, like, that's what Jesus is talking about. That's what James is focused on. He's like, hey, I know you live in a world, because guess what, guys? They lived. The people he was talking to, they lived in a world that they did not have freedom of speech. [00:25:03] They did not. They could not do anything. That's why even Jesus, when he talks about, you know, like, turn the other cheek. And if one person calls you to walk a mile, walk another mile. Walk. The reason why he's using those examples are that by law, the Romans were allowed to make them walk a mile. [00:25:23] They were allowed to beat Jewish people and slap them. [00:25:29] That was allowed to treat people like that. Now, I lived in a country where, I mean, I'll tell you what, I mean, I know that we deal with racism here, but, man, I'll tell you, it's in Kuwait, Pakistan, India, some of the places you won't even believe the kind of racism that exists. And I'm talking about just physical abuse of people. [00:25:50] It's nuts. And in Kuwait, it was understood if you beat up a person who is not Arab, beat up an Indian or Pakistani, especially Indians who were brought in as labor, they were being mistreated. And it was all. It was okay. It was okay. Now, I give you that example because I want you to know that those Indians represent the followers of Jesus in this culture. James is saying, I know you wanna curse out your master. I know you want to do this, this, and this. I just want you to know. But you cannot do that in the midst of that. You have to have a quality of speech. Jesus even talked about it. Like, he went extreme on this. Like, Jesus, remember, like he said at one point, he said in Matthew, he says, you know, you've been told, don't murder, right? Remember that? Don't mur. [00:26:36] It's in the big ten, right? Don't murder. Don't murder. Everybody's like, yeah, don't murder. Yeah, don't murder. And then he goes, I'll tell you what. If you even call someone araka. Now, a raka was an Aramaic term, like, Jesus spoke not in Hebrew, all his sermons, or most of them, if not all of them, were in Aramaic. It's a different language. And raka actually means worthless. If you call someone an idiot or worthless, you're in danger of the consequences, as if you had murdered someone. [00:27:09] Jesus is so. [00:27:12] So he takes a next level to this. Why? Because, again, words matter. [00:27:19] That's why Jesus on the cross, one of the last things he said was like, father, what? [00:27:27] Forgive them. [00:27:28] Cause they don't know what they're doing. [00:27:30] Because I'm sure there were soldiers there who were carrying out orders. And if you're in military, you know, sometimes you have done things, and I've talked to friends, you've done things. And you're like, I don't want to do this, but I have an order. [00:27:45] I've been given orders, and here is Jesus, and I want you. I forgive you. You don't know what you're doing. [00:27:52] Why? Because his words mattered. [00:27:56] So James keeps on going. He keeps on going. And then he says this. He says, your words also, they create the future that you're gonna inhabit. [00:28:05] They're gonna create the future that you're gonna inhabit. Like, you and I are creating culture in our homes, in our families, in our workspace, by the words that we say and the words that we don't say. We're creating that. And he goes on, he says, hey, Let me just tell you. He says, if you are wise and understand God's ways, then he says, prove it. Prove it by living a what? A what? A what? [00:28:31] Honorable life. [00:28:32] Doing good works with humility. That comes from wisdom. He said, hey, you gotta prove this. You gotta prove this. [00:28:43] Your words have to be worth something. [00:28:46] There's so many expressions. When I came to the US I heard for the first time, okay, Especially in the English language. And sometimes people, like, would say something like, oh, you're worth your weight in gold, right? But then I heard something like, you're worth your weight in salt. Anybody heard that in salt? I'm like, I've heard it before. I'm like, what is. What's this idea of, like, worth your weight in salt? And I looked up and I realized, ah, that's interesting. Because the word salary comes from the word salt. [00:29:15] Because in Roman times, the way they would pay Roman soldiers their salary was in salt. Cause it was so expensive. [00:29:24] It was gold. And then it was salt. Like, it was like, if you're worth your time, I'm gonna pay you in salt. And the word salary comes from the word salt. And so if anybody gets a salary, anybody, one or two people. Okay, yeah. All right. Yeah. It comes from your worth, your real worth in salt. And here Jesus is talking about this. James is talking about this idea of, like, we, hey, we have to be. We have to prove our worth. Like, are we, in a sense, not to God, but prove to the world by good works and good deeds and good words that, hey, we're actually followers of Jesus? [00:30:08] And then he says this. He says, let me just tell you, but if you don't, you're gonna inhabit a world that you've created by your own self. He goes on. He says this. He says, but if you harbor. He goes on, but if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. [00:30:29] Such, quote, unquote wisdom does not come from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual, and what demonic? [00:30:42] For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every, what evil practice. And we find this. [00:30:55] We find when stuff in our houses, in our offices, in our government, when people are like, just, there's this selfish ambition, man, that is the one thing that will just rob everything. And there's all kinds of disorder that takes place when everybody's doing that because they say all kinds of things. And if you and I harbor certain things in our life, you just end up. You end up just. [00:31:22] I don't know, but just communicating that subconsciously because your subconscious can be trained. And in fact, there's studies been shown that you can train your subconscious a certain way. It's so funny because, like, during COVID you know, Covid was interesting anyways, but during COVID because we had a little bit of free time, I started painting again. Okay? I started painting again and I'd paint and all that. [00:31:46] And one time, like, and I would post them and all that. And one of my pastor friends, he texted me and he said, are you okay? [00:31:55] I was like, yeah. [00:31:58] He says, you're painting a lot. [00:32:00] I was like, yeah, yeah. [00:32:03] And then I went back and just looked at the paintings. They're like dark. [00:32:08] You know what I'm saying? They're dark. I was like, but I like them. They're cool. I want them to. I want you to feel something. Okay? You know, and my sister, like, a couple weeks later or something, she came by and she was like. [00:32:21] And her husband was there as well. And my brother in law and I are good friends. And so he was like, hey, man, I want you to paint something for me. And she was standing right there. And Obia, my sister. And if you're watching, I'm gonna tell I'm ratting on you, okay? She goes, one of his paintings. [00:32:38] I was like, obia, I'm right here. She's like, yeah, I don't want your stuff in my house. [00:32:44] Are you kidding me? And then Paul's like, I. I like his stuff. I'm like, yeah, the world likes my stuff, Obia. [00:32:51] And she's like, no, no, not his faces. He does scary faces. He said, I'm not doing that. Not doing that. I was like, I'll draw a better face for you. That's fine, Whatever. And I said, I thought about it. I. I do remember. I do remember, like, realizing that I was just drawing my emotions. [00:33:09] And I wonder if our words, you know, are like, paint. And our lives are like a canvas. [00:33:16] And we just painted all kinds of things, you know, some of us, honestly, when you were born and you grew up, you were like a fresh canvas, you know? And sadly, you just lived in a world and lived in a household. And all they knew was darkness and ugliness and harshness and. And cruelty. And they just use that kind of paint to paint all over you. [00:33:44] And I get it. And you live that. You've lived that. So at some point we gotta acknowledge that. [00:33:52] And if you've been the one doing that, we've gotta repent. And repent is a good Word, which means you're gonna change direction. You're gonna change. Repent is not a word that means you gotta feel bad. [00:34:05] No, that's shame and guilt. Repentance is you turn around, you reconcile. You, in fact, redeem something. And so for some of us, we just gotta go. I'm just gonna stop saying this to my over my kids. I'm gonna stop saying this over my wife or my dating relationship. I'm gonna stop saying this over myself. I'm gonna just stop saying these things. Because you're. You're creating the world, and you're gonna. You're gonna live in it. Whatever you harbor, it'll show up. It'll show up. And so when James ends with. In this thought, he ends with hope. And he says, here's what I want you to do. Here's what I want you to do. He says, but the wisdom. He said wisdom from above. [00:34:47] Okay, the words from above, okay, Is first of all, what? [00:34:54] Pure. They're pure. What does that mean? That means you choose your words. [00:35:00] You choose pure words. What does that mean? That means you choose words that are real. [00:35:08] They are not manipulative. [00:35:11] They're not gossip. [00:35:13] Your words are not trying to control anything. They're not harmful. [00:35:20] No, they're just. [00:35:22] It's not like you don't curse. It's not that. [00:35:25] It's like they just come from a pure heart. [00:35:29] You use words like, I don't say anything. If you don't truly mean it, then he says, it is also peace loving. [00:35:37] Peace loving. What does he say there? He says, hey, when it comes to your words, think about what your words are going to do in this. In a moment, like you're in a conversation, you have a choice. You can either heighten things up, right? You just go crazy. You know, you can bring about an anxiousness and attention, or you could calm it down. [00:36:03] Like, what are your words doing? Are they promoting peace? Are you able to do that in conversations at work? Are you really trying to win this argument and make your point? And it doesn't matter how you make it because you are right and you all should do this? Is that the point? He says, hey, winning the argument, making your point, making sure that everybody knows that was great. Your idea is not promoting peace. It just promotes conflict. And he says, hey, don't do that. Then he says this. He says, besides peace loving, okay, they have to be gentle at what, all times? [00:36:43] Gentle, man, gentle words. [00:36:47] Here's interesting. Gentle words create. [00:36:52] Or I would say gentle words carry weight. That does not crush people. [00:36:58] Does that make sense? Like, pure peace, Loving words carry so much weight that. Oh, my gosh. Like, as in not a burden. No, no, a weight. They have so much in them. They're so potent. Gentle words, just gentle words without crushing people. So you can be so loving, so gentle and communicate such a deep, oh, my gosh, truth to someone and say. [00:37:29] And they actually will accept it. [00:37:34] Like I've had to say to someone gently, you're an addict. [00:37:44] You've been addicted for a long time, and we gotta get. We gotta do something. [00:37:51] You can. You can get. You can break this. [00:37:54] Those gentle words. Not like, you're an addict. You're a loser. No, no, no. Hey, hey, You. [00:38:04] You've abused people. [00:38:08] Hear me out. You've abused people. [00:38:11] And let me explain to you how. See, you can have gentle words that carry a lot of weight. [00:38:21] You can speak the truth, but the problem is, truth requires that you and I be doers of the word. [00:38:32] Like, we have to do it. That's why Jesus, truth just hit all the time. [00:38:39] Why? Because they're like, shoot. He actually does this. [00:38:45] He is the person that he's wanting us to be. [00:38:49] That's the issue. [00:38:51] So he says, gentle all times, and then he keeps on going. And then he says, and willing to what? [00:38:56] Yield to others. What kind of nonsense is that? [00:39:01] No, I don't want to yield to anyone. [00:39:04] No, no, I want to have the last word. [00:39:09] That's not how it works. That's not how it works. Can your words yield, man? Naim, I don't even yield in traffic. [00:39:18] I just cruise on through and I wonder if we do that with people. [00:39:24] It's called bulldozing. [00:39:27] We just kind of whatever, whatever, whatever. You don't yield, you don't yield. Why? Because you're always in control. You always know you're the smartest one. Okay, all right. [00:39:39] Yield, yield. And then it says here, it says, full of mercy, and it shows. Full of mercy. And the fruit. The fruit of good deeds, it shows no favoritism. It's always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant. Check this out. Plants seeds of peace and reap a harvest of what? [00:40:03] Righteousness. He's saying, you're going to create the world. You're going to grow the world that you're going to live in. [00:40:11] And he says, I want you to plant seeds of peace and then reap the harvest of righteousness. So are we, you and I, willing to do that? He says, let your words bear fruit, man. Let your words, like what you deposit in little ones when you Deposit in people. Let it bear fruit that grows into something beautiful. Like, let your words bring out their potential and not make them carry your weight. [00:40:45] Don't push things in them. Bring them out. See, sometimes I feel like there are people in my life who all they want me to do is keep. Carry their stuff. [00:40:54] That's it. [00:40:55] That's it. But then there's some people in my life, they're like, oh, they make my stuff lighter. I don't even know how they do it, but it's by their words. And he's saying, hey, deposit those kinds of seeds. Would you do that? [00:41:12] So, friends, here's the question. Where are we? Who are we? Tough conversation, but what are we going to do? And for us, it is social media. It's what we type or text, it is what we say. It is all those things. [00:41:28] And if we're gonna be followers of Jesus and we are not gonna be deceived and we're not gonna deceive other people, if we're not gonna be hypocrites, then we have to be doers of God's word. We have to keep our mouth shut. And we have got to say, God, you. Here's the thing. This is what I'm gonna. I'm gonna promise this is what I'm gonna commit to. And maybe some of you guys are ready for that. Some of you guys are like, I'm not quite sure about Jesus, and I'm here to figure this stuff out. I get that. Okay. Thanks for being here. [00:41:58] For those of you like, you know what, I'm good. I believe. Okay, here's what I want you to do. I want you to imagine if your words were worship. [00:42:07] Your words were worship. [00:42:10] If you wanna say anything, if you're grateful to God about anything, if you're thankful for anything, don't sing him a song. Don't say I'm thankful, say, I'm consecrating my words to you as worship. [00:42:26] Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing to you, oh, Lord. That's it. [00:42:34] What if we just did that, man? We would change our climate, we would change our homes. We might just change this country, this world. [00:42:46] So let me pray that over us. Is that cool? Let's pray. Lord God, thank you. Thank you for this conversation. [00:42:56] Thank you for James writing this, reminding us again, God, that that's what we're supposed to do. So today we do this. [00:43:05] God, we know you're holy and you're pure, but let God, today we want to say that the words of our hearts, the thoughts of our hearts and the words of our mouth be pleasing to you, God and Father, I just pray against all the words that have been spoken on us. [00:43:26] God, I pray we hear your word speaking over us today. [00:43:31] Your truth, your kindness, your grace, your mercy over us. [00:43:37] And may we be the loudest voice of hope in this world. [00:43:49] God, we love you and we just thank you. [00:43:55] Let's worship trip together. [00:43:57] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina. [00:44:03] For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.