This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Hi, this is Pastor Tom Holliday and I want to welcome you to our study of the book of James, chapter three this week, day one of our look at this chapter. This week as we look at James chapter three, we're going to be talking about talking and how we talk. We're also going to be talking about wisdom, what we think, but not only what we think, wisdom we're going to see in James is what we do, how we treat others. He talks about a kind of relational wisdom. But James chapter three, verse one begins with this verse, a verse that many people, when they first read it, wonder, why is it there? James 3. 1 says this, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that those who teach will be judged more strictly. " Now, how does this verse fit? You might remember we ended last week talking about faith without works is dead. And following this, James is going to talk about the power of the tongue for everybody. So why this about teachers all of a sudden? How does it follow from what we just talked about? Well, here's why it's so important. It was false teachers in the churches that James was writing to who were saying that you could have faith without it impacting the way that you live. So here, James gives a clear warning to teachers, just as after he's talked about, be careful of those who teach this way, of this kind of teaching. He says, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, because we will be judged more strictly. " Why? Because what we teach impacts not only our lives, but also the lives of everybody that we teach. James gives us warning to teachers here because he just confronted a false teaching. And then beginning in verse two, which we're going to look at tomorrow, he expands that warning to teachers to talk about the struggle that we all have with what we say, with our words. And that's going to be our focus tomorrow. But today I want to finish this teaching about teachers and then take a look at where we are in this book of James, just to remind ourselves of what we've been learning. In the New Testament, the gift of teaching is very important. It's the way that the truth of the word, the Bible, gets communicated to believers. Now, I know today we can all read the word, but there is a gift of teaching that God has put into the church that helps me to see how that word can make its way into my heart and into my life. That's what the importance of that gift is. Now, I know in one sense we're all teachers. We're all witnesses for Christ. We all have opportunities to teach. But here in James chapter three, verse one, he's talking about the role of teacher, the spiritual gift of teaching in the body of Christ. When you think about this gift, when you think about teachers, teachers are just human beings. Some of them are good. Some of them are selfish. And what James is reminding us here of is this. And this is true throughout the New Testament. The church is to respect this gift deeply, recognizing that teachers will be judged more strictly by God because of the importance of what they're doing. So if I, as a teacher, for instance, when I teach drive time devotions, I'm teaching you as a teacher. And if I, as a teacher, am teaching you for selfish motives, just to get something that I want or that I need somehow, God's going to judge me for that. You can be confident in that. God promises I'm going to judge more strictly those who teach. Maybe you want to be a teacher. Until I said that a moment ago, at least. You'd love to share God's truth with other people. When it comes to being a teacher, if God's giving you that gift, if he has given you that gift, you can't deny it. You need to share the truth with other people. But recognize that while not denying it, you also need to take it very seriously. Because what I teach, what you teach, when we teach, impacts other people's lives. Judged more strictly by God. Judged for teaching the truth, but also judged for living the truth that is taught. That's how teachers are judged. I have to teach the truth. I can't teach what I think, my opinion. I need to go to God's word and teach God's word. And by the way, if you ever hear anything in drive time devotions taught that you feel that doesn't sound like God's word to me, then you go check God's word and you follow God's word and not what I'm saying. Because God's word is the truth. And it's my goal to always teach God's word. Just to bring some light to what God says because God's word is where the power is. So I teach God's word, but I also need to live God's word as a teacher. Not just to say do as I say, not as I do, but to teach it in a way that you and I can live it out. James is a teacher. He's teaching us all throughout this book. And as he teaches us, he teaches us how to move from what he's called last week a dead faith, a faith that was never really alive, a faith that's faith in word only to a true faith. A faith that's based on trust and that makes a difference in my life. And at the beginning of chapter three, as we're about halfway, not quite halfway through this study of the book of James, this is a good moment to sort of review where we've been and where we're going. If we're going to learn these truths, I don't want to just talk about them last week and then skip by them and forget about them. So what have we talked about already and where are we headed? Let's put it in these terms that we just talked about, a dead faith and a true faith. Gene Getz talks about it in those terms and I've always liked that. A dead faith, we learned in chapter one, turns its back on the needy. But a true faith helps the needy. A dead faith, we learned in chapter one, listens to Satan's temptations and blames God for them. A true faith owns up to the fact that those temptations are coming from my desires and I can make a different choice to trust God. A dead faith, we learned in chapter two, shows favoritism towards others, prejudice to get my benefit. But a true faith accepts others as equals in Christ. So how are you doing with faith? Is faith coming alive in your life? A dead faith, we're going to learn later this week, uses words to curse others. True faith uses words to praise God and bless others. A dead faith reflects worldly wisdom. True faith reflects heavenly wisdom. We're going to talk about the difference between worldly wisdom and heavenly wisdom at the end of this week. You turn to James chapter four and you find out a dead faith causes fights and quarrels among us, while true faith causes acceptance and unity. A faith in word only, you find out in chapter four, results in being like the world in our character. But a true faith results in holy lifestyle. A dead faith follows Satan's will. True faith submits to God's will. A faith that's never come to life leads to boasting and bragging. True faith leads to humility before God and others. As we head towards the end of the book of James, here's where we're headed in weeks to come, we're going to find out that a dead faith reflects materialism, while a true faith reflects spiritual life. A dead faith wavers and falls away in the midst of suffering. A true faith shows patience and growth in suffering. James ends with this truth that he started with. How am I going to handle trials? And in trials, I see the reality of my faith. And then James ends the book by talking about the fact that a dead faith focuses on self-effort while true faith focuses on prayer. It's all about faith. It's all about trust. So as we take just a moment to pause before we go ahead in James chapter 3, let's talk to God about trust. As we pray today, just say, "God, help me to trust you. " As I read through this list, as any of us read through this list, we see places where we need to grow. Just say, "God, I need to grow. I want to use my words in a different way. I need a different kind of wisdom. I'm tired of following my temptations. I'm tired of letting things run my life. God, I've been so impatient lately. God, I need to grow in faith. I need to grow in trusting you. I need your word to help me grow. I need your spirit to help me grow. And so I trust you right now to do things in my life that I could never do on my own. I trust you to change me, Jesus Christ, by your power and through your word. I trust you in your name. Amen. Well, make sure to join us tomorrow. You may not want to join us tomorrow, but it'll be worthwhile because we're going to talk about faith and your words.