Live Free with Josh Howerton - Be a Peacemakers for Christ | Ep. 338 | Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Episode Date: May 22, 2024

As we have seen by looking at James, our words reveal what is going on in our hearts. Pride and jealousy come out in our words and actions. But God does not want that to define His people. He wants us to respond with gentleness and humility to each other. May we be peacemakers for Christ in our lives this week. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, what is up? Great to have you with us on the daily drive. You might actually be driving. Many of you tell us that you listen on the way to work or on the way to school, or you might be taking a walk, you might be working out. You might be hugging a mug of coffee like I am right now. Wherever you are, thanks for hanging with us for a few minutes today.

My name is Bro, and we've been diving into the book of James together for a few weeks now. You can find it toward the back of the New Testament section of the Bible. It's a really, really cool letter written by James, who was the brother. or more accurately half-brother of Jesus, he grew up not believing in his older brother, actually poked fun at him, thought he was kind of out there. But after the resurrection comes, he comes to fully embrace Jesus as the Son of God

and goes on to become one of the leaders in the early church. And he writes this letter to encourage all these brand-new followers of Jesus and us to hang in there through the tough times that they were going through. And to let those hard things refine our character and develop an authentic faith inside. of us. Now, we're still in chapter 3, where he talks a bunch about controlling our tongue instead of it controlling us, and we talked yesterday out, Jesus told us that the mouth speaks

what the heart is full of, so it's not actually a tongue problem after all. It's a heart problem. The heart of the matter is the heart. So let me go back to a few verses we saw yesterday, and we'll use them as kind of a, like an on-ramp to get to where we're going today. Verse 9, sometimes our tongue praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely my brothers and sisters, this is not right. That's not practicing an authentic faith.

It just reveals what's in your heart. Then he goes on to illustrate verse 11. Does a spring of water bubble out with both freshwater and bitter water? Does a fig tree produce olives? Or a grapevine produce figs? Nope. And you can't draw fresh water from a salty spring. They produce from the core of who they are. They are consistent with the fruit or the water they produce. They don't play in both worlds. They are authentically a fig tree or a grape mine. And then he ties in the authenticity of our lives by saying, if you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. Let what you believe and how you live. live match up and do it all with humility. Hey, I never forget a time where we were living in a small town and we had the grand

opening of a new department store. Whenever a new store opened in our town, it was a big deal. I mean, people flock to it and they had, you know, food trucks and they had like, you know, balloons everywhere. They had a band playing in the parking lot. It was a big deal. So we went inside and they had hired real college students from the local university to act as mannequins.

So they strike these frozen poses with their designer clothes on in the front of the store. Well, my boys walk in, they're probably seven and four at the time. And Drew, the little guy, the four-year-old, he looks at them and says, Derek, those things are real. And Derek goes, they are not. They're mannequins, man. He goes, no, they're real. He goes, no, they're not. They're dummies, dummy.

And Drew goes, no, I'm telling you, they're real. I saw one breathe. And Derek goes, they are not real. And about that time, one of the students turns and goes, how's going, guys? And Derek and Drew about freak out, man, they go falling backwards. They couldn't believe it. So the next time we went in that store, Derek walks up to the mannequin and just gently pokes it, just to see, are these things real or not? I'll never forget it.

And this world is poking around looking for something real, something authentic, And so James says, let that be you. Be humble and do good. Let your talk and your walk match up. Then he goes right back to that the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. He says in verse 14, but if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don't cover up the truth with boasting and lie. In other words, be honest about what's in your heart.

Honestly, deal with the bitterness. Deal with the jealousy. Deal with the selfish ambition. You might think you're covering it up by pretending. and exaggerating the truth, but instead it's just revealing what's really going on in you. So just be honest with it. Verse 15, for jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, even demonic.

He said, you didn't get that jealousy from God. And selfishness, that's the antithesis of God's nature. That stuff comes from a very dark place, and that stuff is super destructive to you and to other people. Verse 16, for wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, you will find disorder and evil of every kind. And that's been your experience? If you've ever been in a crazy environment, you know, a cut-throat kind of culture, a dysfunctional family or a team or a church, you don't have to look far for the source of

all that. It comes from self. It comes from pride, that jealousy that results from a heart that is full of selfish ambition. And James is telling us, that kind of calls. culture, that kind of heart, does not describe the kingdom of God. Verse 17, but the wisdom from above is, first of all, pure. And the word used here means authentic or real without a trace of phoniness. It's also peace-loving.

It's not always stirring stuff up. It's gentle at all times. And just a quick word to all you guys, we tend to think when we see the word gentle as weak. It's just the opposite. It's strength under control. You know, I've told you before how I use the fruit of the spirit, in Galatians chapter 5 as kind of a replay monitor, so to speak, to review my previous plays.

And on that list is the word gentleness. And that has been the one that God has drawn my attention to so many times as something that I needed to go to work on with him. A tough guy named Paul wrote, Let your gentleness be evident to all. Another tough guy named Peter wrote, In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone to ask you for a reason for the hope that is in you yet do it with gentleness and respect.

And James here is saying, God's ways, God's wisdom, it's peace-loving, and it's gentle at all times. Those two traits would be a great description of all of us. Then he goes on to say, it's willing to yield to others. I think that whenever you pull up to an intersection, it's got like a four-way stop, you can basically see all the personality types.

get the guy who barely taps the brakes and just goes right on through because he is much more important than everybody else. And then you got the person who's listening to music or they're texting on their phone. They're totally clueless that it's their turn to go and they just kind of sit there. And then they get the rulekeeper who's saying the person on the right is supposed to go first. And then it goes counterclockwise with the person who's next. And then you got the guy who just sit there wave at everybody else on and he just smile and going, you go, you go, no, you go. You know what? I want to be that guy. Not necessarily at a stop side. You might somebody hurt. But just in life

in general, where my attitude is, you go. No, you go. You go first. How can I serve you? How can I build you up? How can I carry a burden for you? Because God's ways, according to James here, is for us to yield to each other. And then he wraps it up by saying, God's wisdom is full of mercy

and the fruit of good deeds. Just like Jesus said, blessed are the merciful, and those who have been forgiven much, love much? Because when you know you've been shown mercy, you start dispensing mercy. It shows no favorite James says, it's inclusive, levels the playing field, there's not a hint of superiority in it, and it's always sincere, it's always authentic. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and then reap a harvest of righteousness. So let's honestly check our hearts, and let's get

rid of the jealousy and selfish ambition that doesn't match up with an authentic faith. And what do you say we'd be peacemakers today, who plant seeds of peace, and just see what kind of harvest God might bring. And have a great day walking in wisdom, gentleness, and mercy. Peace. See you back to more. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.com. Church slash daily drive.