Rare Breed- Integrity
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Rare Breed- Integrity
INTRODUCTION
ILL- My aunt’s pet bear.- she turned her back on it.
It is not uncommon for exotic pets to turn on their owners.
Trainer for Siegfried and Roy- attacked by their pet tiger- almost died.
In 2009 Sandra needed help getting her 200 lb Chimpanzee in it’s cage. She called her friend Charla. The Chimp turned on her and she required having a face transplant.
Controlling the wild is exciting- but dangerous.
James is again talking about the power of the tongue.
12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back,
20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
The positive side to not being able to tame the tongue- here is the proper way to use the tongue.
8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
3 Ways Integrity is Proved by the Tongue
3 Ways Integrity is Proved by the Tongue
1. Honesty (12)
1. Honesty (12)
12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’
34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,
35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.
37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
How do you get people to believe you? Oaths.
You use someone else’s name- yours can’t be trusted.
God restricted swearing- so Jews used things they could not control.
Played lying game
Swearing by less than God makes it ok to lie.
ILL- Crossing fingers behind your back.
They increased oaths- but it did not increase truth.
ILL- Peter during Jesus’ trial- oath then swearing.
Solution- Use oaths correctly.
Not all oaths are bad.
Abraham, Isaac, David
“Yes”, be “yes”, “no” be “no”
Fix heart and you fix the oath problem.
2. Reaction (13-18)
2. Reaction (13-18)
What should we do with our tongue? = Pray
ILL- Talking white Macaw at zoo- the look on kids face when they realized the bird said “hello”. Birds can mimic sounds- but there is no real communication or relationship. (except for Jafar and Iago in Aladdin.)
5 Reasons to Pray
5 Reasons to Pray
A. Suffering (13a)
A. Suffering (13a)
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
Those in the church knew suffering.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
Pray, don’t complain or get bitter.
Prayer helps us to “consider it all joy”
B. Celebrating (13b)
B. Celebrating (13b)
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
Praise to God is opposite of boasting.
It acknowledges the source.
It gives God the glory for the great things going on in your life.
Usually we are in one of these types of phases in our life. We are either suffering or celebrating.
Count your blessings and praise God.
C. Healing (14-15)
C. Healing (14-15)
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Call on Elders
= Overseers= Pastors
28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
Spiritual leaders of the church.
Anoint with Oil
= only mentioned twice in NT and does not tell us why.
Olive Oil- may have had medicinal purpose but nowhere in scripture do Elders have responsibility of being medical doctors.
Spiritual reason= represents God’s favor through anointing of Holy Spirit. Symbolic purposes. It is symbolic of the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes we just need something physical to reinforce the spiritual which cannot be seen.
ILL- Tara’s gallbladder surgery about 15 years ago.
D. Confession (16)
D. Confession (16)
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
In Context- Sin that caused the sickness. (Not all sickness)
Still in context of calling elders to pray for sick.
Holding on to unconfessed sin affects your prayer life.
It does not hold eternal consequences.
But it does hold earthly consequences.
Confess to those who can pray with you so you may be healed.
God does not always heal the earthly consequences, but he can.
E. Miracles (17-18)
E. Miracles (17-18)
17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
Elijah- example of righteous person.
Not righteous because he was perfect- he was like us.
Not righteous because of title- there were many prophets that spoke untruth.
Righteous because he obeyed God in faith.
Some natural disasters are punishment for sin.
13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people,
14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
America is not Israel- but this truth is found in relation to many nations.
EXP- Jonah at Nineveh
God blesses nations that bring honor to him and he punishes nations that dishonor him.
COVID- our nation ran to science and not God.- Not sure if it was a punishment, however…
The church didn’t return to God.
We have not seen brokenness because of our sin.
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
3. Directions (19-20)
3. Directions (19-20)
19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back,
20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Directing the wanderer (Christian) back toward God,
Turn=
=help other believers to repent.
180^ surrender of will.
“save soul from death”
-- Question is “whose soul”-
Look at unclear through lens of the clear.
21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us,
22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Clear- we must help those who are wandering to return to Christ.
Love cares about people’s eternal destiny.
Tolerance says I don’t care if you are wrong- live that way anyway.
Let us preach Christ to all who need to hear.
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
We must get past spending our time convincing people of politics and use tongue to point people to Jesus.
CONCLUSION
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Does your use of your tongue prove your integrity?
